Welcome indeed!
Former MS and Temp Bethelite here. It was in Bethel that my doubts started. But I battled on for 13 more years and started to fade this year. Lots of highs and lows ahead but everyone here will support you as much as they can.
i have recently joined the site.
i was just appointed an elder this summer.
i started discovering the ttatt (the truth about the truth) last year after putting a few things together myself concerning the leadership and then doing some research online.. i really enjoyed jwfacts.com, jwsurvey, and others.
Welcome indeed!
Former MS and Temp Bethelite here. It was in Bethel that my doubts started. But I battled on for 13 more years and started to fade this year. Lots of highs and lows ahead but everyone here will support you as much as they can.
hi all,.
quick question - is it pssible to change your profile name?.
.
Hi all,
Quick question - is it pssible to change your profile name?
it's been over 3 months since i first posted after years of lurking:.
http://www.jehovahs-witness.net/jw/friends/253883/1/my-story-a-kinda-newbie-from-the-uk#.ukhopt-yza8.
and what a 3 months it's been.
Thanks all for your kind words.
Having read so many heart breaking accounts on here, I know I'm very fortunate indeed to have my wife onboard. We can see trouble ahead but we know we can deal with it together.
This board is such a great place.
A very big thanks to Simon as always.
it's been over 3 months since i first posted after years of lurking:.
http://www.jehovahs-witness.net/jw/friends/253883/1/my-story-a-kinda-newbie-from-the-uk#.ukhopt-yza8.
and what a 3 months it's been.
Hi all,
It's been over 3 months since I first posted after years of lurking:
http://www.jehovahs-witness.net/jw/friends/253883/1/My-Story-a-kinda-newbie-from-the-UK#.UkHoPT-yzA8
And what a 3 months it's been.
I think I mentioned about my wifes poor health. It's been a constant issue for us, exacerbated by our wonderful but hyper active kids. So meetings were more than just a slight problem. Although I once admitted doubts, my wife became tearful as the 'new world' was a big hope to her.
Anyway, around late June she caught me on here. And became worried again. So I said I'd try not to go on here again. She asked me to speak to an elder which I did. He came over and we chatted. I explained my doubts over new light. He likened our time to the Noahs time. And I pointed out that the witnessing work JWs do is not the same and that if Noah did preach it was a message of condemnation. Not hope. I pointed out that there was no scope for any survivors outside the animals, Noah and his family in Gods offer to Noah. No space, and no food in the ark. He went dead quiet as he thought it through. Then making his excuses he left me with James 1:6:
But let him keep on asking in faith, not doubting at all, for he who doubts is like a wave of the sea driven by the wind and blown about. In fact, let not that man suppose that he will receive anything from Jehovah; he is an indecisive man, unsteady in all his ways.
Nice!
At the DC in July my wife asked me to pay particular attention to the apostate talk, taking the kids off so I could listen without distraction. What a nasty talk that was.
After the DC we went to a meeting. I'd had a dust down with a over zealous MS some weeks before about ordering my wife out of the hall the moment my youngest made a sound (so loving) and I'd been asked to take them to the second school in the future. So at this meeting I did, and the CoBE charged in and ordered me out. So I left and waited in the car. Just couldn't be bothered anymore. That my friends turned out to a be a very fortuitous event!
When we went home I told my wife and she broke down. I found out she'd been harboring doubts. Not doctrinal stuff like me (well not so much) but more on the lack of love in the congregations she's been in whilst in the Truth.
We talked. And talked. And kept talking. She is reading CoC right now as I type, she now agrees this is not the Truth and we're fading together! We're planning Xmas and birthdays and all the such.
We know they'll be problems ahead. Her family are already asking questions. But I'm no longer facing this on my own!
I'm so happy, a bit worried about what is going to happen but we'll face it together.
Yay!
so these last few wts have definitely eroded my wife's faith in the org.
she is definitely seeing the bs, and i even overheard her talking openly about it to a family member.
good for her!.
I think many here have answered the first point about those who don't fight.
On the second point, the kingdom preaching work, this was for me the hardest part to grasp. I did, but it took me time.
What does the preaching the good news of the kingdom mean to JW's?
It means preaching that Jesus Christ began ruling as King in 1914 when the Gentile Times ended and that the period of time time we are living in since then are the Last Days that Jesus spoke off. This time leads up to Armageddon whereafter a 'Great Crowd' of survivors will live forever on a paradise earth.
Problems:
1) Jesus spoke in Luke 21:23-24 that "Woe to the pregnant women and the ones suckling a baby in those days! For there will be great necessity upon the land and wrath on this people; and they will fall by the edge of the sword and be led captive into all the nations; and Jerusalem will be trampled on by the nations, until the appointed times of the nations are fulfilled."
Everything Jesus says above is clearly in the future sense (emphasis mine). So in 33CE he was talking about 70CE when the Romans come back. So the Gentile Times star in 70CE? No - even though everything Jesus says is future state, JW's (and others) apply the start of the Gentile Times to other dates. In JW's case it's 607BCE.
2) 607BCE.
What do I write? It's utter nonsense. Do your own research into it. For me what did it was the HUGE amount of evidence for 586/587 and absolutely nothing that supports the WT's chronology. Nothing. Whatsoever. By that I particularly mean the extra years the WT addds.
3) Where the Great Crowd goes.
They are in heaven. No - really they are. Check out the Greek word for before (enopion) and the where they are Naos. Combine those two and you get to the realisation that they are in heaven.
So...where does that leave us.
The JW's are preaching that Gods kindom was established in 1914 (not true).
That therefore the Last Days started in 1914 (therefore also not true).
And that the Great Crowd are on earth (also not true).
The three points above mean that Almighty God Jehovah, who hates a liar, is behind the group who are indeed going door to door...but with a false message! And they're doing this when Armageddon is totally and absolutely imminent.
So...are they really fullfilling the kingdom preaching work?
how loving of our dear brothers in poland to spot a gap in the market and fill it with this fine piece of crap, i mean christian entertainment:.
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/new-ver-pl-house2house-bible-board-game-for-jehovahs-witnesses-/380566554257?pt=uk_magazines&hash=item589b88c691.
such a wholesome way of enjoying upbuilding association.. etc..
Grief alive - just spotted the english website for this:
Could not make it up...
how loving of our dear brothers in poland to spot a gap in the market and fill it with this fine piece of crap, i mean christian entertainment:.
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/new-ver-pl-house2house-bible-board-game-for-jehovahs-witnesses-/380566554257?pt=uk_magazines&hash=item589b88c691.
such a wholesome way of enjoying upbuilding association.. etc..
How loving of our dear brothers in Poland to spot a gap in the market and fill it with this fine piece of crap, I mean christian entertainment:
Such a wholesome way of enjoying upbuilding association.
Etc.
jws are in need of more kingdom halls in many major u.s. cities.
at this years agm where it is expected that most of the faithful will be able to listen to the meeting (being tied in by video), dont be surprised if the wts 8 gb members take part in a symposium delivering some long winded appeal, petition, plea, proposal, proposition, solicitation or otherwise hit-on the masses for $$$ in order to lighten the burden and overuse that many kingdom halls are experiencing.
an acquaintance from the west coast mentioned to me that in late august thru early september of this year that a number of pow-wows involving close to 5,000 elders from numerous areas (riverside, los angeles, ventura and orange counties) took place to drum up financial support from the 800+ (not sure) congregations in those areas.
I'm sure many of us can make a good guess at what is going on here.
They do not need to build 70 halls...but they do need money for expensive pay outs for peadophile cases. Thus the big cash call.
Utterly disgraceful.
how many here are (a) ex-jw, (b) non-jw with jw relatives or spouses, (c) inactive jw, or (d) active jw who stay in for your own reasons?.
Inactive JW.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1380486/the-age-america-ends-2016-imf-predicts-year-chinas-economy-surpass-us.html.
it may happen in 3 years.
the us will no longer be #1 in the world.
The front page of the UK 'newspaper' The Sun last Saturday made me laugh:
If the 'special relationship' AKA the anglo american world power went, then that's a huge chunk of JW prophecy gone.