Posts by truth_b

16

Can a righteous God be one-sided?

by RULES & REGULATIONS in

a mother and her four young daughters — the oldest of whom was 6 — died in a residential fire wednesday morning in des plaines, il.

officials said.. four young children and one adult were killed in a house fire in the 700 block of west oakton street in des plaines, jan. 27, 2021.. .

after 45 years as a jehovah's witness, this tragic story really has me really questioning if there really is a god?

truth_b_known

Rules & Regulations:

What you are struggling with this the cognitive dissonance created by Western culture (which is heavily influenced by Judeo-Christian belief systems) and reality. In Judeo-Christian teachings the god of the Bible is "good" and "love". The god of the bible only created things that are good. Anything not good is disobedient mankind's fault.

As a rational human being it does not compute that a benevolent, all powerful, higher consciousness that is only capable of good would allow innocent people to be hurt or killed. The cognitive dissonance shown by mainstream Protestant sects of Christianity tries to explain all that is "bad" in the world and ends up as a pile of rubbish. There is a good reason for that - the answers don't lie in Judeo-Christian belief structures.

That is not to say that it is all useless. I can't argue with ideas such as -

Feed the poor
Care for the sick
Love your enemies

I was born and raised as one of Jehovah's Witnesses. I got out through a slow fade. Then I came to the realization it was all nonsense. I became a nihilistic anti-theist for years. That took a huge toll on me.

I started studying Eastern religions and philosophies. The idea found in Hinduism, but especially Taoism and Buddhism struck a chord with me. Especially since they are rational structures that fit in with science.

Is there a god? The only honest and accurate answer I can give is - I don't know. I am open to the idea. I don't need to know to be happy.

I believe throughout mankind's history there are individuals who somehow gained some sort of enlightenment. They tried to share that enlightenment using the ideas that already existed in their culture. Then people took that knowledge and distorted it into rigid systems called "religion".

9

A 'typical JW' story

by joey jojo in

i am friends with an elderly 'worldly' woman, who was unaware i am an ex-jw.

she employs a jw husband and wife pioneer couple for odd jobs around her house- mowing, cleaning etc.

the couple has been working for her and her recently deceased husband for years.. just before the 2019 international convention, despite the fact that the husband was fighting his last battle with illness, the couple kept asking him to attend the convention with them.

truth_b_known

Many years ago I recall offering the Watchtower & Awake! magazines to a person at his doorstep. He stated he would take and read my magazines if I took and read his Catholic magazine. I refused thinking I did the right thing. It has the same underlying principle - Witnesses have 2 street signs in their world: One Way and No Turn. Pretty hypocritical.

The funny part was shortly after that we had a Circuit Overseer visit and the CO brought up this scenario. The CO stated that it was alright to take and even read the magazine if it meant getting Watchtower literature in the householder's hands.

26

Changed From "Disfellowshipped" to "No Longer One of Jehovah's Witnesses!

by Atlantis in

jw
friends

a friend is trying to figure out the approximate date or letter, which indicated a change from the wording of public announcements.. they changed from saying the person has been disfellowshipped to saying that a person was no longer one of jehovah's witnesses.. i thought it was around the time of the bulgaria scandal.. could you help us out to remember when this change took place?

if we could remember the approximate year, we could look up all the boe's for that year and might find the letter.. many thanks!.

atlantis!.

truth_b_known

Oh, yeah! There are multiple outcomes from a committee meeting. The scope goes from disfellowshipped to northing. Publicly and privately "reproved" are in the middle. Even the extent of the proof may have varying degree of "privileges" being restricted.

I think the terms/phrases you will hear announced at a meeting are so-in-so has been/is -

Disfellowshipped

No longer one of Jehovah's Witnesses

Reproved

26

Changed From "Disfellowshipped" to "No Longer One of Jehovah's Witnesses!

by Atlantis in

jw
friends

a friend is trying to figure out the approximate date or letter, which indicated a change from the wording of public announcements.. they changed from saying the person has been disfellowshipped to saying that a person was no longer one of jehovah's witnesses.. i thought it was around the time of the bulgaria scandal.. could you help us out to remember when this change took place?

if we could remember the approximate year, we could look up all the boe's for that year and might find the letter.. many thanks!.

atlantis!.

truth_b_known

Waton:

I have no answer for you. I was only trying to answer the OP question.

26

Changed From "Disfellowshipped" to "No Longer One of Jehovah's Witnesses!

by Atlantis in

jw
friends

a friend is trying to figure out the approximate date or letter, which indicated a change from the wording of public announcements.. they changed from saying the person has been disfellowshipped to saying that a person was no longer one of jehovah's witnesses.. i thought it was around the time of the bulgaria scandal.. could you help us out to remember when this change took place?

if we could remember the approximate year, we could look up all the boe's for that year and might find the letter.. many thanks!.

atlantis!.

truth_b_known

If memory serves, I believe the newer phrase "No longer one of Jehovah's Witnesses" was the replacement terminology for "disassociated". A disfellowshipped person may still want to be one of Jehovah's Witnesses, but may not have convinced the 3 elders that they are truly sorry for what they have done.

20

Where is the school for the 144,000?

by RULES & REGULATIONS in

the watchtower has many schools to teach their members on how to become more effective in various assignments in jehovah's organization.

they are trained to strengthen and help the congregations and branches around the world.

here is a list of some of the schools the society run:.

truth_b_known

The reason there is no school for the 144,000 is because the "Governing Body" successfully conducted a power grab much like Rutherford did of the Watchtower after the death of Russell.

If memory serves, the Watchtower taught for years that the "Faithful and Discreet Slave Class" was all the remaining member of Christ's heavenly kingdom government still on earth. This caused heart burn for the powers that wanted to be at Watchtower HQ. A campaign to silence those who professed to be of the Annointed was secretly carried out. My belief in this is because my father was one of many victims brought to my attention.

The newer doctrine taught by the Watchtower of the Governing Body solely being the Faithful and Discreet Slave turned a figuratively bloody coup into a figuratively bloodless coup. The Watchtower successfully cast doubt on all who profess to be of the Annointed and as a result the whole remnant of the 144,000 still on earth was reduced to a bunch of loons distanced from the rank & file. Mission accomplished Governing Body. 8 Banana Republic Generals smoking Cuban cigars with their high dollar scotch.

17

Why does God need to be worshipped?

by RULES & REGULATIONS in

the bible exhorts us to “worship the one who made the heaven and the earth and sea and fountains of waters.”—deuteronomy 4:24; revelation 14:7.. insight on the scriptures, volume 2 pp 1200-1202. worshipone of the hebrew words conveying the idea of worship (ʽa·vadhʹ) basically means “serve.” (ge 14:4; 15:13; 29:15) serving or worshiping jehovah required obedience to all of his commands, doing his will as a person exclusively devoted to him.

(ex 19:5; de 30:15-20; jos 24:14, 15) therefore, for an individual to engage in any ritual or act of devotion toward any other gods signified his abandoning true worship.—de 11:13-17; jg 3:6, 7.another hebrew term that can denote worship is hish·ta·chawahʹ, which primarily means “bow down” (ge 18:2), or do obeisance.

(see obeisance.

truth_b_known

To play Devil's advocate (which sounds highly ironic in this context), the god of the Bible ("YHWY," "The Lord," whatever...) doesn't "need" anything. We often confuse the words "need" and "want" (aka desire, crave). So I think a better way to present the question is "Why does God want our worship?" or simply "Why?" as in to question the whole point of everything.

It really is this elephant in the room. An all-powerful, all-knowing disembodied consciousness decides to create other consciousnesses, some astral plane referred to as "heaven", and the universe. Why? It doesn't need anything. That question is never answered.

9

Who Is To Blame For the World's Insanity? Not The Leaders But Their Followers

by The Bethelite in

jw
friends

there are 1000's of wacked out ideas on the planet.. a crazy little man with a mustache in a beer hall in munich germany in 1923 had some crazy ideas for sure....he starting with a dozen people who thought his insanity was a good idea.

in just 22 years his insanity effected the entire world with millions dead.

he duped 95 million germans alone...who thought his insanity was a good idea.. another crazy little man with a beard, started in the basement of a church in pennsylvania in the1870's.

truth_b_known

When people are afraid and desperate they tend to believe anything that just might be the answer to their problems. Adding to that, we saw how news media was converted into Political Entertainment using the same model as WWE made wrestling Sports Entertainment. It's a good story and like all stories the ending is predetermined by the author.

3

Here's another JW / JW adjacent in the national news

by La Capra in

jw
friends

i saw this story on a national news broadcast and said to myself, "hey, that's the same ian rogers that was in my congregation.".

i tracked down a local article to confirm it was the same person, even though i recognized him immediately and he looks just like his dad did 35 years ago (except for the hair color).. https://napavalleyregister.com/news/local/mother-of-napa-garage-owner-ian-rogers-describes-gun-collecting-right-wing-views-in-years/article_9c823a90-6cd2-5c54-9f76-26203b17fe31.html.

things the congregation leadership did to his mom during those mid-80s years were elemental to my disassociation in 1987--i wrote them down on paper as i was sorting out my decision..

truth_b_known

La Capra:

That took place in my old stomping grounds. Small world.

16

Cain and Abel...Who recorded this tragic event?

by RULES & REGULATIONS in

3 the day came when cain brought a gift of the fruit of the ground to the lord.

4 but abel brought a gift of the first-born of his flocks and of the fat parts.

the lord showed favor to abel and his gift.

truth_b_known

Modern day religious leaders of the Jewish faith will tell you that much of the Old Testament is just made up stories that teach a lesson. The Catholic Church even accepts that much of the Bible is allegorical in nature and not historical fact. It is because of Martin Luther and his Reformation that we get the ideology that everything in the Bible is to be taken literal.

Because of Luther's Sola Scriptura teaching we have 40,000+ denominations of Christianity that try to make true history fit Bible history.

truth_b_known

Posts by truth_b_known