i was born in my step-mother's home and lived there for more than 40 years before walking out mid-2009 never to return.. because i have rejected her and her mother, they now falsely accuses me of also being a prostitute.. i have made great strides in improving my mental health after living with these seriously twisted and demented women for so long.. this is some of what they have written:.
*** w80 5/15 p. 22 par.
2 the calamity facing all religionists of the world ***.
On JWN
"Mother" = WBTS
In scripture
Harlot/prostitute = apostate ruling religious clergy class (spiritually unfaithful: defy God by creating hierarchies, and by appointing themselves as mediators)
Wine (of fornication) = sectarian religion (including legalism, moralism and ethnocentrism)
Mother of the harlots of which WBTS is one = Babylon
i was born in my step-mother's home and lived there for more than 40 years before walking out mid-2009 never to return.. because i have rejected her and her mother, they now falsely accuses me of also being a prostitute.. i have made great strides in improving my mental health after living with these seriously twisted and demented women for so long.. this is some of what they have written:.
*** w80 5/15 p. 22 par.
2 the calamity facing all religionists of the world ***.
Just repeating the title which is a bit long and does not display well in Firefox.
i was born in my step-mother's home and lived there for more than 40 years before walking out mid-2009 never to return.. because i have rejected her and her mother, they now falsely accuses me of also being a prostitute.. i have made great strides in improving my mental health after living with these seriously twisted and demented women for so long.. this is some of what they have written:.
*** w80 5/15 p. 22 par.
2 the calamity facing all religionists of the world ***.
Thanks zeb and Tammy.
for some reason, jwstruggle is redirecting to some strange site on my computer.
is this happening to anyone else?
(forgive me if this has been discussed recently, i looked but didn't see anything about it).
Maybe just another manifestation of Armageddon - the struggle between good and evil.
i was born in my step-mother's home and lived there for more than 40 years before walking out mid-2009 never to return.. because i have rejected her and her mother, they now falsely accuses me of also being a prostitute.. i have made great strides in improving my mental health after living with these seriously twisted and demented women for so long.. this is some of what they have written:.
*** w80 5/15 p. 22 par.
2 the calamity facing all religionists of the world ***.
I was born in my step-MOTHER's home and lived there for more than 40 years before walking out mid-2009 never to return.
Because I have rejected her and her mother, they now falsely accuses me of also being a prostitute.
I have made great strides in improving my mental health after living with these seriously twisted and demented women for so long.
This is some of what they have written:
*** w80 5/15 p. 22 par. 2 The Calamity Facing All Religionists of the World ***
Religious Babylon the Great has played the harlot with all seven world powers. She has tried to ride them all as their mistress. They have drunk the religious mixture contained in her golden cup. Tiring of her, they will finally hate her and dump her off their backs.
*** it-2 p. 49 Jerusalem ***
Unfaithful Jerusalem... could only represent apostates, those following a ‘prostitute’ course of infidelity to the God whose name they claim to bear.
*** it-1 p. 849 Forehead ***
Another figurative use of the word “forehead” is found at Isaiah 48:4, where Jehovah stated that Israel’s forehead was copper, evidently because her stubbornness and rebelliousness were so great. At Jeremiah 3:3, the brazen and shameless apostasy of unfaithful Jerusalem is metaphorically described as “the forehead of a wife committing prostitution.”
*** it-1 p. 240 Babylon the Great ***
Both Israel and Judah apostatized from the true worship of Jehovah God and were condemned by him as having engaged in harlotry, prostituting themselves
you can go to cleverbot at www.cleverbot.com to ask your own questions and post anything good here.
it's an ai program that is constantly learning based on it's conversations with people.
here are a few questions i asked him....... .
Not quite as entertaining, but I tried querying the "answer engine" Wolfram Alpha":
What percentage of those born into the Jehovah's Witness religion leave?
photo snaffled directly from stephen lett's desk.
the society has received a lot of letters complaining about c t russell having been demoted from being a member of the faithful and discreet slave.
in response to that, the society will be announcing at the forthcoming agm that the new modern style contribution boxes will be installed worldwide from 1 january 2014 especially to mark the 100th anniversary of jesus' invisible kingdom rule from 1914 and to give due recognition and honour to brother russell for his invaluable contribution in revealing this identifying feature of the true religion, which all truth-loving jw's continue to cherish and boldly preach.
Lettie's pet project will have to be stopped immediately.
Resurrecting our beloved bearded Pastor/FDS, and his awesome contribution to the science of pyramidology, might bring back the millions who left but never died.
i have a friend who is a sociologist.
this person does research on being gay and mormon, and will shortly come out with a book.
we had a lengthy discussion about cults (in general, and jws in particular), and basically the sociologist believes that all religions are cults.
It may be a challenge to see where the sociologist is coming from, but potentially still worth the effort.
As an exJW once said to me: "there is arsenic in the honey".
I imagine it is quite likely that a sociologist (who talks about all religions being cults) would know of Steven Hassan, and if not would appreciate knowing of/about him and his books/website. Maybe a gift from Bookdepository.co.uk (what about the chapter on "Dual Identities" in "Releasing the bonds")?
The cultic or abusive elements of power, control, authoritarianism, peer-pressure, group think, interposing hierarchy and surreptitious clergy class between God and man (as pseudo-mediators) are present in every religion, albeit to varying degrees.
Captives are blinded to the aberrance of their particular group, which has some sort of monopoly on truth which is generally understood to be doctrinal (and not related to Jesus/Messiah/Isa and the gospel of grace).
Some like the WBTS will claim they have no clergy class, and yet there will be a small group of humans prescribing to the sheeple what to think, say and do, on pain of some form of punishment or loss.
It doesn't matter how you chop and dice it religion is always deleterious of the gospel/bissar/injeel/injil - by design and not by accident.
Just ask any Christian/Jew/Muslim to explain what the gospel/bissar/injeel/injil is in one word.
What would you think of a car salesman that had no idea a Ford is a motorcar?
It is religion that prevents people from being what they claim to be - Christian/Jew/Muslim.
It is religion that instead turns people into Churchianists/Zionists/Islamists.
It is religion that deceives its followers into believing that the term faithS is scriptural. The term does not appear in the Judeo-Christian-Muslim scriptures - not even once.
Religion steals our faith and spirituality and substitutes it with religion falsely labelled as faith & spirituality. That is why whilst under the influence of religion we confuse faith with religious belief.
Since when is religion a fruit of the Holy Spirit?
i have been waiting for this moment, and it has finally come!
i was actually in the middle of typing in the other thread, about householders who caused you doubts, when a jw rang my doorbell.
my barking german shepherd didnt scare him away, but did knock all his books out of his hand and onto a wet porch, which i really felt bad about.
A warm welcome Faithful Witness.
What a wonderful calling and so too your embracing it.
I like Vanderhoven7's suggestion of getting them to use scripture to validate their assumptions.
Many have observed that simple questions work best.
The simpler the better.
The fewer the better.
This helps them focus - something the WBTS tries to avoid at all costs.
Asking them to explain "law vs grace" from their heart, might for example be broken down into stages over time.
They first need time to reflect on why they have no idea what "grace" is.
So one might ask them to explain "grace" from their heart.
They wouldn't be able to.
You might gently and patiently introduce them to their own "Watchtower Library Online" and how to use its search facility.
You might get them to search for these key words: grace boast gift
WOL (library) search link for "grace": http://wol.jw.org/en/wol/s/r1/lp-e?q=grace+boast+gift&p=doc
You might even go much simpler.
For example inviting them to "help" you figure out if it is true that more than half their Bible's references to "Good News" are by Paul.
If your JW "friends" are at least able to read, and count up to 152, this could be a real confidence and morale booster for them as they get to "help" you answer your "difficult" question.
Of course this begs the question why the "Good News" according to Paul is not in their hearts or on their lips.
WOL (library) search link for "Good News" in the NWT alone: http://wol.jw.org/en/wol/s/r1/lp-e?q=%22good+news%22&fc[]=bi
May your patient efforts be rewarded, and encourage others to demonstrate the same care, concern and compassion for our dear lost ones.
Greetings and blessings
Fernando
South East QLD, Australia
(Left the WBTS for Jesus and the "gospel of grace" mid-2009. Now identify as SBNR.)
this thread was inspired because of 3rdgn, and her asking, on behalf of her destitute elderly widowed mom,.
for the return of her mother's "conditional loan" to the society of $20,000.00.. (this was stated today, under my thread of, "what was the effect on you of knowing hypocritical jw's?").
the society more or less yes, no, it is now our money, and you can't have it back.
Yes, big time. At 40 we lost everything we had worked for.
And we were blocked from pursuing corroboration of fraud by the elders.
At least it got us started on the journey of realising the Watchtower is not who they claim.
