Posts by OnTheWayOut

28

Great tribulation

by dothemath in

you've likely heard all this before, but i had to laugh (silently) at the public talk today.. he focused on how close we are to the end.

we're not only in the last days, but we're in "the final part" of the last days.. also, we are nearing "the end of the final part of the last days".

he didn't read any scriptures backing up how the last days are broken up like this.. i went today since relatives es were visiting, but it was more entertaining than usual.. as well, the gb isn't warning us about armageddon, rather they're mainly warning about the great tribulation, which is "very, very, close!

OnTheWayOut

Ha, Blondie. I used to give the public talk about the image in the book of Daniel and I said we were in the time of the toes. But that was more than 20 years ago, so we would be on the toenails now.

We are a cat's whisker away from the end as we find ourselves at the very end of the short period known as the final days of the end of the very last part of the dwindling last days which will imminently bring a start to the Millennium.

Hey, I heard that some are saying that Jehovah's Witnesses teach that we are already in the Millennium, and that it started in October, 1914.

73

1975—Were You Affected By What 1975 Was Supposed to Bring?

by minimus in

jw
friends

for years , we were told to wait until 1975!.

the end was coming and we better be ready—or else!.

were you around during this “momentous “ time??

OnTheWayOut

I was a kid. My aunt joined the JW's because the end of the world was coming in 1975, and she eventually got my mother into it. My mother studied with me and my siblings and my father hated it. My parents divorced, some of it because of the JW's. They almost got back together, but in a drunken state, my father called my mother after midnight when January 1st, 1976 arrived and said "I am still here!" That was all she could take of that.

YADDA YADDA YADDA, I was a kid but became a JW later because of 1975.

18

Can someone help me figure out something, dealing with paganism?

by Tameria2001 in

the watchtower and quite a few other religious groups don't do certain things because of pagan origins.

they go on about the different holidays, certain traditions, and say they don't do those things because of pagan origins.

yet they turn right around and do other stuff, which does have pagan origins.

OnTheWayOut

As Sir82 says, "Clearly, breathing is of pagan origin." It would seem that most everything is of pagan origin.

Watchtower picks things to be against, mostly based on how it will make members uncomfortable around worldly people, particularly family, coworkers, and schoolmates.

Weddings bring JW's together and offer opportunities to show worldly family that they are almost normal, but birthday cakes cause coworkers, schoolmates, and worldly family to show their friendly good side, so Watchtower poisons it. Similar with holiday celebrations. But wedding rings are a protection (or at least used to be) from outsider advances.

13

Is the Sell-off of Kingdom Halls Just a Cyclical Process

by RubaDub in

with more and more kh's being sold off, will it only be a matter of time that there will be a push to build new ones?

greater emphasis on donating to build new kh's since some brothers have to drive long distances to attend meetings?

and that smaller communities should have a local kh that is visible to all in the area?.

OnTheWayOut

OTWO - I think you're right on the money but I think they've skimmed money for so long they can keep the game going - I hope not.

I believe that they are planning on making it last a long time, but it still will continue to shrink. I imagine it will last our lifetime, but will get less and less significant. And there's always the possibility that between lawsuits and various other problems, they could be gone faster.

13

Is the Sell-off of Kingdom Halls Just a Cyclical Process

by RubaDub in

with more and more kh's being sold off, will it only be a matter of time that there will be a push to build new ones?

greater emphasis on donating to build new kh's since some brothers have to drive long distances to attend meetings?

and that smaller communities should have a local kh that is visible to all in the area?.

OnTheWayOut

I am sure THEY hope it's cyclical.

But I think Watchtower's trying to reinvent itself will not work and they will slowly die off.

Even if they don't slowly die off with no need for new Kingdom Halls, they are switching to less and less literature.
They are going to have to find new revenue sources before they ever seriously start rebuilding.

I imagine they won't. They will need less and less Kingdom Halls for less and less members.

15

Today is a BIG anniversary for me...but--of what?

by TerryWalstrom in

today is a big anniversary day for me!.

october 23, 1967, was a monday.

i stood in front of district judge leo brewster as he sentenced me to six years in federal prison.. .

OnTheWayOut

Happy (or at least "Indifferent" ) anniversary.

I guess for similar reasons of remorse over poor directions in my life, I don't really have good retention of anniversary dates related to coming into or getting out of the JW cult. I do remember my baptism date, but that's about it. But that one is rather tied in with so many other things.

39

Do You Know Of Anyone Who Left JWs And Then Decided To Return?

by minimus in

jw
friends

quite a few years ago there was a poster here that left the religion because he knew it was simply not true.

however, he returned to jws because he wanted to be with his family.

i don’t know how he is doing but gumby was his name.

OnTheWayOut

My sister-in-law got pregnant and disfellowshipped. In the time she was "out," she didn't do any research on JW's. Eventually, her parents got divorced and each separately became baptized JW's. Both had only been lifelong meeting attenders prior to that and got 2 of the 3 kids (including my wife) baptized.

My SIL had made one early attempt to go back, but didn't want to go through the shunning and answering questions from elders, so she was there and gone again.

When her reason for being disfellowshipped was more than halfway through high school, my SIL decided that her son needed "the truth" and that she needed to go back. She went through all that stuff.

This is a pretty common story- people go back because they did not actually make "the truth" their own. They did no research and many assumed the fault was theirs and they felt guilty about leaving Watchtower (or Jehovah).

12

My Dad's Funeral

by Disassociated Lady 2 in

i had not seen my dad for 15 years because i had left the borg.

(i had been out 26 years but there was a few years when the jws permitted contact with outsiders and then changed their minds again).

they made contact with me again just before he was diagnosed with cancer.

OnTheWayOut

Thanks for sharing. I hope it helps to vent. Some JW's can be just barely decent enough then pull the rug out from under your feet.

25

What is the biggest problem with the JWS religion or the Watchtower Corporation from a sociological and theological perspective ?

by Finkelstein in

many have spent years associated with jws religion and having eventually left it for numerous reasons but if you were to directly pinpoint a source of the problem with this religious organization what would it be ?.

in my personal viewpoint it would have be the core operation of literature proliferation and other products associated with the wts.

corporation.. once you think about it everything is focused around the operation of the wts publishing house, its distribution and circulation of its published goods.

OnTheWayOut

If [I] were to directly pinpoint a source of the problem with this religious organization what would it be?

It would be the BITE method they use to be a dangerous mind control cult.

Behavior Control
Information Control
Thought Control
Emotional Control

They tell members what to think act and how to feel about it, and cause members' own mental growth to stagnate or stop. They withhold vital information that would allow members to see the real truth of things.

32

How Effective Are Anti-JW Internet Sites?

by minimus in

jw
friends

i think that once you get on the internet and you see evidence that shows jehovah’s witnesses do not have the real truth, it can jolt you.

but i don’t think simply going on an internet site typically changes a person’s direction—even if the information is very damning toward the witnesses.

i think it takes time to eventually get out.

OnTheWayOut

I felt something was wrong about "the truth" and figured that I was spiritually strong enough to literally Google "Jehovah's Witnesses." I went to any and all sites in the links.

Randy Watters had a great site that included a thing called TALK SOUP which linked discussions on jehovahs-witnessDOTcom. Between that and jwfacts, I was fascinated by the things I learned. I had known nothing about Ray Franz or the Governing Body making decisions by a majority vote. The scam over a parking fee at conventions hit me hard because, although it never became a big issue, the exact same thing happened in South Carolina, and I always wondered why collecting money was so hush-hush.

You just never know what a JW needs to discover, but I agree that they are already generally ready to find fault with Watchtower.