Topics Started by Awakened07

9
"A thousand years as one day"
by Awakened07 in
1. watchtower
2. beliefs
the scripture saying: "...one day is with the lord as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day.

" (2. peter 3:8) is often used both by jehovah's witnesses and others, to show that a day can literally mean a thousand years in the eyes of god.

this is then used especially for the creation story, and for the fall of adam and eve.
15
-Are "apostates" more strict on WBTS doctrine than active Witnesses?
by Awakened07 in
1. jw
2. friends
or: "common responses to criticism, by active jehovah's witnesses", which i could also have called this topic.. .

-a video i just saw on youtube made by an active witness took me down memory lane a bit, and reminded me of how i used to think and respond to some common criticisms of the jws.

as i started writing this post, i had planned to put this person's thoughts point-by-point, but it turned out he was pretty much only covering one common critisism.
7
~ I escaped it, a life wasted - I'm never going back again ~
by Awakened07 in
1. jw
2. friends
lyrics and melody by pearl jam.. the music may not be for everyone, but i recognized myself in the lyrics.. .

you're always saying that there's something wrong.

i'm starting to believe it's your plan all along.
18
-Let's say you had never heard of the Bible:
by Awakened07 in
1. jw
2. friends
let's say you've grown up in a country that - somehow - has shielded you completely from any knowledge of the bible and its god and history.

all your life you've believed in the four legged, three headed, four winged borlifingus (of course, the arms, legs etc.

are just representations of it's spiritual properties).
15
Natural disasters in past and future paradise.
by Awakened07 in
1. watchtower
2. beliefs
the future earthly paradise is supposed to be a calm, peaceful place where people can live forever in harmony with each other and nature, a place where nothing bad will happen, and suffering, death and destruction does not exist.. there is a problem here (well, there are several, but here's another).

what about natural disasters?

easy-peasy to answer; jehovah will make it so those never happen, right?.
14
No sacred trees in Eden - what would have happened?
by Awakened07 in
1. watchtower
2. bible
-this is a hypothetical "for the sake of argument"-topic, where we take for granted that the biblical story of adam and eve (as it is presented in the bible we have available today) is literally true.

i think it can be an interesting exercise.. now - let's for this discussion say god did not plant any 'special' tree in the garden of eden.

no tree of knowledge, and no tree of life.
9
Belief in an afterlife, and the difference in JW and 'apostate' thinking.
by Awakened07 in
1. watchtower
2. bible
-how powerful the thought of an afterlife is, if you can make people believe in it!

what power would religions have over people if it weren't for the teachings of an afterlife?

while reading crisis of conscience way back, it dawned on me that most of the things that separate 'apostate' thinking from jw thinking, and makes us appalled at some of the teachings, is simply that active jws truly believe that following the organization's guidance will lead to an ever lasting afterlife.
17
"New light"...
by Awakened07 in
1. watchtower
2. beliefs
this won't be a long-winded post; just a "quickie", and mostly meant for those still active:.

i find it odd that jehovah's witnesses don't find anything odd about how 'new light' is distributed.

i mean - if this new light comes from jehovah god himself, the creator of the universe and everything in it, wouldn't it be fair to say that it would happen more like in this story:.
14
Facebook surprise: looks like most of my childhood friends got out!
by Awakened07 in
1. jw
2. friends
i only recently joined facebook (yes, a little late to the party).

and today i found one person there that i still consider somewhat of a friend, that i know is disfellowshipped.

this person turns out to be a 'hub', in that this person has a lot of facebook 'friends'.
2
The Governing Body: very busy?
by Awakened07 in
1. jw
2. friends
i have a couple of gb related questions.. in crisis of conscience, ray mentions several times the way decisions are (were?

) made by a voting system.

having been brought up in another country (not us), i was rather surprised at the kinds of things they would decide; ray has a few copies in his book of letters from various congregations, letters that sometimes take up quite personal matters concerning a couple of people in one single congregation, for instance.