by Check_Your_Premises 30 Replies latest jw experiences
I hated having kids who were Witnesses. Monday he'd shun me. Tuesday he'd ask to borrow my tractor to mow the lot for the new hall. Wednesday he'd hand me his doctor bills. Thursday he'd shun me.
Boy ain't that the truth! No matter how big of a sonofabitch everybody thinks you are, nobody will ever complain about you paying the bills!!!
Once you got your wife out, did the kids leave?
In this situation, I always use the inverse Pascal's Wager.
Say "Suppose we've chosen the wrong god or method to worship god. Every time we go to meeting, we're making him more upset."
That might bring up a huge debate.
Typical strategy in dealing with an 'unbelieving husband' . The wife feels that she cannot give him too hard a time, but encourages the children to speak up, in the hope that daddy will recognize words from the mouths of "babes and sucklings "
My mom had us do this many times. I recently apologized to my dad. He said it wasn't my fault - it was the JWs fault for taking advantage of our family situation and locking us into it.
My dad is as manly as the Marlboro man, but wept like a baby when I finally told him I was leaving the JWs.
-ithinkisee
That's funny Ithink. I was just now wondering how your dad was doing.
He has to be so happy with all that is going on for you right now.
As a parent it terrifies me that my children are getting their own mind robbed from them. What is more personal and precious than our own thoughts and identity. I couldn't give them up for anybody.
Please tell him how sorry I am for all he had to experience.
CYP
Once you got your wife out, did the kids leave?
Nope! The son who wouldn't eat my food WITH me, now 13 years later, suffers from Paranoid Schizophrenia. He's totally disabled and still a Witness. Witnessism is a BAD group to be in for a Schizophrenic. They suffer enough without all the Witness delusional reinforcement of stories of mean ghosts and mad gods watching us.
His illness is just something else I've had to accept. Maybe the Witnesses are giving him a structure and purpose he needs. He may not be very welcome in other groups. Maybe associating with people who are not rational or realistic makes for okay company for him. He would have nothing in common with sane, rational, happy people.
I think he might have a better life materially if he allowed his family to help him. I might be wrong.
Okay, but does the Bible say that it has to be 5 farging meetings per week?
I'd probably go to every meeting if only it'd be 1 meeting weekly. Why need more than that?
DY
garybuss --
It's possible to be regular AND infrequent. Once a year is "regular". Once a decade is "regular" if you do it every decade.
I hated having kids who were Witnesses. Monday he'd shun me. Tuesday he'd ask to borrow my tractor to mow the lot for the new hall. Wednesday he'd hand me his doctor bills. Thursday he'd shun me.
Inq --
LOL! That's terrible! I am laughing in hysteria! Farout you are a funny man gary! Where have you been bro!
PS: I swear I saw you on the INternet Pickerting (protesting with those signs!) Is that what it's called? ...
When talking to relatives about the meetings, and asking why 5 meetings 3 times a week. They say that Paul told us to gather together all the more so as the day draws near, so even if the 1C Christians met once a week we have to meet more often or all the more so. There is just no reasoning with unreasonable people.
Vomit alert, a KM article on why JWs meet all the more so...
*** km 4/98 p. 1 Attend Meetings "All The More So" *** Attend Meetings "All The More So"1 Meeting together has always been vital for Jehovah’s people. The Israelites had the temple and their synagogues as centers for true worship, divine education, and joyful association. Similarly, the early Christians did not forsake gathering together. As pressures and trials increase in these critical last days, we too need the spiritual strengthening that our congregation meetings provide—and we need it "all the more so." (Heb. 10:25) Note three reasons why we attend meetings.
2 For the Association: The Scriptures admonish us to "keep comforting one another and building one another up." (1 Thess. 5:11) Godly association fills our minds with good thoughts and motivates us to do good works. But if we isolate ourselves, we are apt to entertain foolish, selfish, or even immoral ideas.—Prov. 18:1.
3 For the Instruction: Christian meetings provide a continual program of Bible instruction designed to keep the love of God alive in our hearts. They give practical direction in applying "all the counsel of God." (Acts 20:27) Meetings train us in the art of preaching and teaching the good news, skills that are needed all the more so now to experience the unspeakable joy of finding and assisting those who will accept Bible truth.
4 For the Protection: In this wicked world, the congregation is a real spiritual refuge—a haven of peace and love. When we are in attendance at congregation meetings, God’s holy spirit has a powerful influence on us, producing the fruitage of "love, joy, peace, long-suffering, kindness, goodness, faith, mildness, self-control." (Gal. 5:22, 23) Meetings fortify us to stand firm and solid in the faith. They equip us to be prepared for the trials ahead.
5 By regular meeting attendance, we experience what the psalmist described, as recorded at Psalm 133:1, 3: "Look! How good and how pleasant it is for brothers to dwell together in unity!" Wherever God’s people serve and meet together today, "there Jehovah commanded the blessing to be, even life to time indefinite."
When we are in attendance at congregation meetings, God’s holy spirit has a powerful influence on us,
So the Holy Spirit only directs us when we are with other Christians?
This is my wife's jugular methinks. I suspect, and she has stated as much, that all the meetings keep her mind on spiritual matters and away from a mindset that might allow sin.
I think that to rely on such human constructs is actually a lack of faith. It shows that a person does not believe or trust in the Holy Spirit to perfect us. Instead we want to rely on outside social pressures to keep us in line.
From Randy's site
The difference is, God has given us the new birth and a new nature (1 Peter 1:23). A "seed" of righteousness is planted in us when we are born from above. God comes to live IN us (through the Holy Spirit), enabling us to partake of his holiness (Romans 8:9-11). Jesus made this possible through his death and resurrection (Heb. 9:11-15). We are redeemed and declared righteous. Jesus then takes that "seed" in us and forms it into a mature Christian, thereby sanctifying us. He trusts us to walk in that new nature that we now possess. We die to the old, corrupted nature of the fallen flesh (2 Peter 1:3,4). Were it not for this new birth and its accompanying grace, our condemnation would be greater than under the Law of Moses, for Jesus' standards are more exacting and comprehensive than the Mosaic Law. Jesus said we are to be perfect (Matt. 5:48).
and...
Because we lack the faith that God controls this process of perfecting his saints, we suggest to our brother that if he would only correct the symptom, his heart will change for the better. We believe that if "Mark would only stop smoking, he would not feel so guilty and could approach the Lord easier." "If Joan would quit watching soap operas, she would love the Lord more and her marriage would improve." "If Johnny would quit watching Music Television (MTV), he could read the Bible more." Seldom do we stop and think that we are approaching the whole thing backwards. Why not get them interested in the things of God, and let God do the work? If you can't get them interested in spiritual things, stripping them of their fun certainly won't work! Besides, we may be reading the symptoms wrong in the first place.
If "we should not forsake the gathering of ourselves together" means we must attend all meetings, and meetings are more important as the end draws closer, why not have 7 meetings a week, or five meetings EVERY DAY?
Why attend only one congregation if association is so important - shouldn't we associate with ALL our Brothers and Sisters? Isn't that the point of conventions? Why don't we have conventions ALL the time?
from wikipedia:
Reductio ad absurdum (Latin for "reduction to the absurd", traceable back to the Greek "reduction to the impossible", often used by Aristotle) is a type of logical argument where we assume a claim for the sake of argument, arrive at an absurd result, and then conclude the original assumption must have been wrong, since it gave us this absurd result. This is also known as proof by contradiction. It makes use of the law of non-contradiction — a statement cannot be both true and false. In some cases it may also make use of the law of excluded middle — a statement which cannot be false, must then be true.
A trickier, but even stronger reduction from the philosophical point of view, because it does not rely on A's accepting that D's opinion is wrong, would be the following.
In each case, B has used a reduction to the absurd to argue his or her point.
Among some people, there is a misconception that reductio ad absurdum just means "a silly argument".
