Theredeemer

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Posts by Theredeemer

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  194

  Bethel Rules

  by brotherdan in

  1. jw
  2. experiences

  this was brought up just in passing on another thread.

  but i wanted to see if there are any bethelites or ex bethelites that remember some of the crazy rules we had to follow when we were there..

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  Theredeemer

  BUmp!
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  21

  Gosh, what do you do with people like this?

  by Julia Orwell in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  ok i'm chatting on facebook with a guy who's studying with jws, who isn't yet an unbaptised publisher because he can't kick the cancer sticks.

  now i don't believe in the bible anymore, but i say i do to get a bit of common ground with this guy.

  it's a common attitude among jws.

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  Theredeemer

  I sometimes sense there is no way to go, at least for congregational fellowship,

  After all defenses have been made, after all arguments have been exhausted it always comes down to this, "where else do we go?".

  This is the only thing keeping people in. Although this is one link in the chain, this link is virtually unbreakable. All the others can be broken except this one. Fear of isolation is much stronger than the desire for freedom and the Organization preys on it. The interesting thing is in order to become indoctrinated they must first isolate you. They isolate one from classmates, workmates, family, many of your hobbies, many of your former dreams and hopes for the future and in many cases your spouse and children. They also deem your past relationship with god as fruitless and actually make one think the whole time they were part of satan's org. So, in a way, they isolate one from god. After they destroy those relationships, they then demonize them, thus severing any left over ties.

  Whats left is a huge enormous gaping hole, and who is there to fill it: Jehovah(aka Governing Body). "Here is your new family; they will love you better than your real one!! Here are your new friends, they will love you agape style!!" "Your job is not important, as long as you have a roof, it doesnt interfere with us and you donate to us, Jehovah will bless you!! Your dreams are not the right dreams, here are new and better ones!! The future is now filled with pet pandas and lions!!"

  They paint it all as an upgrade. They trick you into believing your life sucked and the only way to get a better one is to join them. This is why they "study" with people instead of just getting baptised on the spot. It takes a while to convince people that everything about thier life was wrong and ungodly. This is thier "vomiting" period. 3 months- 1 one year of spitting out everything you once believed and everyone you once cared about and loved.

  Once your in, to leave means to return to vomit. When one is studying you have an entire congregation at your side. When you leave, not so much. This is Isolation. At this point, freedom is very very expensive!
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  25

  What have the 'myriads of angels' ever done for humanity?

  by yadda yadda 2 in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  think about it, myriads upon myriads of do-nothing, never lift a finger angels floating around, ignoring all the untold pain and suffering on this planet for thousands of years.

  what have all these millions of angels ever done for anyone?

  occasional random materialisations in ancient israelite times?.

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  Theredeemer

  What are they getting ready to do and when? ready as in 5 minutes or as in you dont know but it is soon? Usually when I use the word "ready" it means in the next five minutes or in the present like"Im ready to leave" or " Im ready to go to lunch". So if this "ready" is way in the future it is usually accompanied by a specific amount of time like "ill be ready in an hour", therefore; would you like to clarify your "ready" SFPW?
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  52

  What was your "Aha!" moment?

  by Hortenzie in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  for me it was when i learned that gb makes their decisions by 2/3 majority vote, not by direction of holy spirit..

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  Theredeemer

  My aha moment was when I had a talk about the trinity. Since much of the info came from the trinity brochure I studied it intensively. That brochure quotes alot of "scholars" about the paganism of the trinity belief. For some reason I decided to look up some of these quotes directly from the source. Thats when I realized how the Society uses the deceptive quoting technique. Almost all the quotes were distorted or twisted into the society's favor. I was floored! I then looked up some quotes from a recent Watchtower and found the same thing. I then googled "watchtower deceptive quoting" and whala! My path towards freedom began.
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  45

  A mistake in fading 4 months ago is coming back to haunt me... HELP!!

  by ILoveTTATT in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  so today, two elders from a congregation i was in two years ago came by the house.

  they said they wanted to talk to me about things that they have heard, and that they want to talk to me very quickly, as soon as possible.

  perhaps before this week ends.. i don't know what to do!!

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  Theredeemer

  Stall. Lie to them. Pretend that they dont exist. Here is a little secret: unless the elders dont like you, have a personal vendetta or you were very prominent; they actually hate having to meet, form a JC and DF someone. All this requires time, work and headaches. Most of these guys have full time jobs, bitchy wives and are probably already annoyed with the needy ones in the hall. If the big boss is in town then they have to get their butts in gear for the week before and during the visit. So, if your ride these two weeks out you will probably be in the clear. If you stay out of sight you will eventually be out of mind.
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  17

  What's your reading of Matthew 19:28 ?

  by EdenOne in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  matthew 19:28: "and jesus said to them, "truly i say to you, that you who have followed me, in the regeneration when the son of man will sit on his glorious throne, you also shall sit upon twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of israel.

  " (nasb).

  the context shows that jesus was talking to his twelve apostles.

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  Theredeemer

  First of all, why would he call himself the Son of Man? Why not just Son of God? Thats like if I said Son of Pete, but then also claimed to be Son of John. Sounds like he had a major identity crisis.

  Secondly, I think Peter was always a question away from waking up and realizing they were getting duped. Jesus probably knew this and thats why kept him close and promised him future leadership.

  Third,...its all fiction.
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  54

  Wife and kids are officially OUT!!

  by Oneoutallout in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  my wife has told her jw best friend and jw sister that she is givng up the religion!!

  and there was i worrying about losing her when i left the cult.

  and, to top it all, my 15 and 13 year old children are using their critical thinking skills and can see it all for what it is.

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  Theredeemer

  Awesome news!! Congrats to you and your family!!!
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  14

  Changing tides

  by d in

  1. watchtower
  2. bible

  i think we are witnessing major events in our time period.look at the snoweden situation and the continuing arab spring and the issue of income inequality.we are seeing that people are questioning the old values and briging up new ones.i belieive we are also approaching a much more secular world as well.. people today are a lot more skeptical of those in power than before and this all part of a change in our values.look at as well the advancement of science and technology.we are able to treat illness once thought uncurable.the future does not look bleak despite what the jw's say.yes we have been thorugh wars ad famines and illness but we are treating those things fast.according to the u.n they plan to cut world poverty in half.. this is good..

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  Theredeemer

  Movies?? If you want bloody violence no better place to go than the bible!

  You can not compare the conditions we live in today to even just 70 years ago!! Try living in Europe in the 1930-40's. Talk about a "great tribulation".

  It is a great time to be alive!! Yeah 10000 poeple may have lost thier lives in the Philippines, but like no other time in history, humans from all over the world can and will come together to assist and help. Some by finance others by volunteering. Much better than a magazine that asks "Is God the Cause of Natural Disasters?" IMO.
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  40

  Thinking of going back

  by Laika in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  someone talk some sense into me ffs..

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  Theredeemer

  Been there, went back, wasnt same, left again, got married, went back, was even worse, both left , never been happier.

  My friend is now going through the same thing. He wants to go back due to occasional feelings of lonliness. This is the analogy i gave him.

  Its like prison. If you are in prison for decades there is a big chance you have become institutionalised. Prison is all you have, all you know. Even though your inner self desires life outside those walls and freedom, living in confinement has provided you with a false sense of security. To leave means, who is going to feed you, where are going to live, where are you going to work, who is going to be your friend and so on? That freedom that a convict once would risk his life for, has now become too obscure and powerful to be able to comprehend or wish for.

  Leaving a religion like the JW is same. You and many of us were institutionalised. The JW life is all we knew, all we had. We were held prisoner through sheer manipulation. I believe it to be worse than actual prison however because, unlike a prison, we could have left at any time. If you spent your whole life in this prison to leave means to give up all you have and leave with nothing.

  This is a lie, a lie the JWs want you to believe. Would you go back to prison because you were lonely? Sadly, many do. They commit any crime to go back.
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  141

  Knowledge by Proxy

  by braincleaned in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  whatever our convictions are, we all have one thing in common; we have learned them from other sources.. we have knowledge by proxy... we didn't find things out all by ourselves.

  we let trusted sources talk for us.. belief is not something that you choose.

  but if there is no elephant, i do not "choose" to believe it isn't there either.

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  Theredeemer

  I still want to know, why does it have to be christ? Why limit yourself to believing in only him? If you are going to believe in jack and the beanstalk, why not believe in mother goose, the three little pigs and every other fairy tale.

  With all the options out there, why is it the elephant? You may ask an atheist, "how can you be so sure that there is no God?" Fair enough

  But let me then ask you this, how can you be so sure that its your God?

  Can you prove, right here, right now that Jesus is Lord without using the bible or personal experiences, relying solely on scientific or proven historical facts?

  The problem is: lets say you can "argue" that there is a chance that there is a god, but now you have to prove thats its YOUR god.

  Prove that god is not Allah or Shiva. Thats much harder. Remember, using the bible is cheating.

  So many gods out there...all cant be true but all can be false.