sadly, jehovah's witnesses depend on their religion to save them, and the bible does not point to religion as a saving point for salvation.. the video message below shows from the bible that for salvation, jesus paid it all for you.. are you saved?.
The problem as I see is, that people have been conned into believing that the Bible is true as the starting point. The starting point should be to ask if the Bible is even credible, not just because of our feelings, but facts.
The starting point is the resurrection of Jesus. No resurrection = no christian faith.
i mean, the jws have many faults, as each of us have.. do you know any other group that does?.
Great advice, there's so much research on biblical topics now available that you'll never be able to absorb it all.
Clearly, I've reasoned my way to where I now stand, so maybe some may like some suggestions.
Hi, the-MadJW
This is mainly an atheist forum even if there are some ex-JW still Christians (I am).
As cofty and others said, it's good to do research, but don't forget to study both sides ! I did and I still believe in Jesus, as did many others.
Reasonfirst gave you good tips, and as a Christian I recommend you some very good websites for you to read (they have also Youtube channels).
https://www.reasonablefaith.org/
https://capturingchristianity.com/
Cheers !
we keep seeing posters bringing col. 1.16 and john 1.3 up as proof that christ is excluded from the creative acts.
the proof they submit is that the words "all things [gk., pánta]" appear in these texts.
however, they are missing this important element from the discussion: the word "all" is rarely used in greek, and even in our everyday language to mean literally "everyone" or "everything" under the sky.
Thank you but I think John is pretty absolute when he writes :
"Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made." (Jn 1:3)
I think this verse clearly excludes Jesus from any form of creation, don't you ?
fader here - last meeting was in autumn 2005. lurker on this site and others.
not one to get all controversial.. typical situation, pretty much a born in and left the church at age 38 and never looked back.. i'm 53 now, parents getting older - late 70s but very active, dad is still an elder.. parents, in laws, brother and brother-in-law still uber active jws.. my family (wife and 2 adult children) out since 2005.. we have stayed close to our parents - we have treaded religion lightly and have had a pretty good relationship and have kept our personal lives and beliefs/opinions separated from them.
this was intentional - as we love them and do not want anything to cause shunning since they are getting older and want to be there for them and we respect their beliefs.. got this letter today.
I would like to point out though that you don't have to agree to not respond. That's their rule, not yours, and basically condemning you and then asking you not to respond as if somehow they were the victim is cowardly. I would absolutely respond in any way I wanted. Knowing full well, of course, that they won't listen so I wouldn't try to save them, but I'd be kind while firmly showing them how cruel and messed up what they're doing is and how monstrous shunning is. I would put the blame firmly back on them.
I don't think silence is good. That's exactly what they want. Jehovah's Witnesses want you to feel shame and slink away. Why? So they don't have to face reality. I'd make them see what they're doing. In fact, that's something that woke me up. And since I've been shunned I have walked right up to family I've seen while out and said hi. It makes them shun me to my face, something that is difficult for them, and I want them to feel that. Why should they be awful and have it easy? Easy is often synonymous with enabling and I won't give tacit approval to that behavior.
That's exactly what I did and it worked perfectly.
When I DA'd my parents sent me an email looking like the OP. I chose not to accept their shunning and I wrote a letter back to them explaining it and telling them, among other things, that I still loved them and that my decision had nothing to do with them. I joined the Awake magazine, in which I highlited the famous phrase "no one should have to choose between religion and family".
I let a few weeks pass, then I started to text them again, phone them and visit them from time to time. There was no reply at the beginning and the welcome was very cold the first few months but they never rejected me when I visited them. I persevered and now, 5 years later, we have a good relationship. I even invited them before Christmas, with the illumited Christmas tree in my house, and everything was fine !
PS. Excuse my English but I'm French :)
seen in the 03/2018 watchtower study :.
"during the 2017 service year, more than 284,000 “rightly disposed” individuals symbolized their dedication to jehovah by water baptism.".
https://www.jw.org/en/publications/magazines/watchtower-study-march-2018/baptism-requirement-for-christians/.
Seen in The 03/2018 Watchtower study :
"During the 2017 service year, more than 284,000 “rightly disposed” individuals symbolized their dedication to Jehovah by water baptism."
It's 20.000 more than last year
https://www.jw.org/en/publications/books/2017-yearbook/jehovahs-witnesses-service-report-2016/
So still no slowing down yet :-(
had lunch with some friends during today's waste of time convention.
they spoke of the rumor floating around that the jws will move away from these big regional conventions and have them at assembly halls and tie them in to kingdom halls.. they seemed to believe it was a pretty reliable source.. i think it would be too good to be true but who knows?.
anyone else heard this rumor?.
@stuckinarut2
I confirm, same thing in France, Regional Conventions are now split and take place in assembly halls.
the governing body and its watchtower society claims that in 1919 it was appointed by jehovah god and jesus christ to represent all of their earthly kingdom interests, to be their unique voice and sole representative towards all people on earth.
the watchtower’s authority lives or dies with that claim..
the society’s critical date of 1919 is calculated from the dates of events in the 6th century bce.
Thank you Doug,
This document seems well written. Would you agree if i translate it in french and post it on my website ?
Thanks
Regards
Thomas
circuit overseer guidelines (tg-e) october 2015. http://bit.ly/1utgizt.
this is a question for ex jw's who have joined another christian faith group.
the purpose of my question iis to find out which christian faith group you chose after leaving watchtower and what convinced you to travel this new spiritual path you are on.
i am interested to know because i personally would like to find a genuine faith group where i can feel true christian liberty as i initially thought i had with the witnesses.
Hello Truthexplorer,
Since I left JW.org I joined an evangelical Baptist church in France. After reading all the New Testament in a few days I decided to go visit the churches around my home. This one was the first I visited and I immediately felt that I was in the right place. They don't judge you, they are not dogmatic and being protestant they actually love exegesis. Moreover I find them really open-minded and very close to what I imagine of the first christians doctrines and practices.
They don't say they are the only people of God or they are "true christians" but they simply see themselves like christians before any other denomination.
Good luck to you !
i did some reverse domain lookups to see what web domains were linked to watchtower.
i did reverse lookups on the hostmaster address, building address, and phone number.
i've sorted and deduplicated the results.. bethelres.org.
hehe they won't have jw-verite.org ("verite" = "truth" in french)
My website is on first page of Google France when searching "jw.org". Very effective !
