Posts by lostnotfound

51

I have been informed that if u are df and you appeal the decision and you loose appeal

by poopie in

jw
friends

the elders will keep you out longer as payback for you appealing their decision how dare you peon appeal the secret weapons design you stupid publisher.

lostnotfound

I had a super vindictive hateful judicial committee where I was Dfed. I appealed. The second committee met with me and the first committee. They mentioned several times that they didn't care if I was repentant now, but we're there to decide if I was repentant at the time I was DFed.

I lost the second appeal. I appealed one more time. That appeal went straight to bethel. They never asked me a thing, but sent a cookie cutter letter back a month later telling me that the DFing stood.

The elders were pretty hateful to begin with. I attended meetings everyweek for a year and a half. I even sat in the auditorium when they announced it. They made me request reinstatement three times.

On the other side of the coin the sister I was involved with was reproved when I was DFed. Reproved again... And then DFed. She was gone a couple years, got knocked up and then was back in within a year of her getting married to the ex witness that knocked her up.

I eventually faded a few years later and still lost my entire family except my wife who realized this was all a sham. So thanks for the small blessings...

44

Decrease of numbers in Jehovah's Witnesses via Deaths, DFings, or Turning Inactive

by flipper in

jw
friends

so i'm sure a good number of us saw the chart that i believe the poster splash put on another thread of figures since 1990 regarding how many baptized and % of increase each year .

i started analyzing it ( and i know some referred to it briefly on the other thread ) and guessing of reasons the % of increase didn't match the number of newly baptized.

and of course common sense tells us that either jw's leave the cult each year through death, fading into inactivity, or getting dfed.

lostnotfound

Its too early to call this anything more than a temporary spike. With the heavy emphasis on 2014 you notice that year only 40,000 left that year. Im sure a lot of those were fence sitters waiting to see if the end panned out. The massive 250,000 that left the next year include some of those.

I expect we will see a down turn at least for a few years just like after 1975. The next ten years will show what the future holds. Still I think the society has peaked. Plus the majority of witnesses are aging. The number of qualified elders is dropping. The information age is here. With out it I would still be stuck in. Kids are using computers and the internet from their preteens. The society cant hide its past.

However I dont see a collapse. Religions rarely go out of business. People keep saying the pedophile cases will add up and bankrupt them. Its not going to happen. It will hurt their pocketbook for sure, but only so many people have been abused and only so many of them will come forward and risk losing their friends and family.

11

All these new changes and the 20/30 year olds

by All for show in

jw
friends

i see all these changes we are all shocked by.

if they are all true, and wtbts is hoping to distract the r&f with the ongoing claim 'the end is so near we need to preach'.

how long do you give the excitement to die down among the 20-30's crowd?

lostnotfound

As a fourth generation witness in my late 20s who has faded for the past three years I cant really give much incite of the changes recently. It looks like a completely different religion then when I started fading. Cut backs have happened before, but nothing like this. I had my doubts that maybe this was temporary due to the Warwick construction, but pulling the rug out from under special pioneers is shocking to me. You can down play laying off Bethalites as sending them out into the field, but defunding those that are out there full time while also ramping down construction that was so hyped just a few months ago is a glaring reversal even for those in.

Growing up half my friends got DFed and never came back. A quarter of the ones left were DFed and came back. Family and friends is a huge motivator not to leave. It was for me. My fade was unsuccessful and I lost my entire family. Ive done thousands of hours of research into the failed propehcies, etc about the watchtower and even I have doubts. How could I not after having it pounded into my brain for 25 years from those I trust the most that this is the "truth".

Its a hard, cold thing to realize that everyone you love and trust is living a lie. Many would rather live that lie then the alternative.

26

Letter from Brazilian Branch: Buildings

by TheTruthBR in

jw
friends

this letter will be read in all the congregations of brazil on the service meeting this week.

(google translation - original available)originala todas as congregacoesprezados irmaos:nao ha duvida de que jeova tem abencoado ricamente seu povo no mundo inteiro.

isso fica evidenteno aumento do numero de publicadores e no notavel progresso espiritual de nossa organizacao.

lostnotfound

Do you have the original letter? Is this only in Brazil or will this come from the US branch? I just noticed the wording does sound very official (using "I" for example). Im just assuming thats a bad translation however...

143

Prank call to Governing Body member Anthony Morris III gets through

by Watchtower-Free in

alert..............alert.....breaking news .......... john cedars of jwsurvey has pranked called governing body member anthony morris iii at bethel .

over 2 minutes of pranking .

as i type he is editing the recording into a video .

lostnotfound

Wow. What a golden, once in a life time opportunity you squandered. You had the chance to talk to a governing body member who thought you were a bethalite and could have asked him literally ANYTHING and secretly record his response and you throw it all away by pranking him? So stupid. So stupid.

36

Fading, Stopping Meetings, DA or DF'ing, Thoughts on Getting the Hell Out Of There

by OnTheWayOut in

so i read some threads about why someone remains a ministerial servant or elder, or why they are still active jw's.

others are telling stories about how they cut back slowly, and some of them got removed as ms/elder/pioneer or whatever.

yet others tell of how they just up and stopped going one day.

lostnotfound

For me, I tried the fade thing. Im part of a very, visible family. Fading away in the same hall as your family, even if its a different congregation doesnt work. If you are highly visible and want to keep your family, you need to look as strong as possible. You then need to move. If you can move houses thats even better, but you need to move so people lose track of you before you fade. If I could do it over, that would be my move.

28

Governing Body Will Get to Kill Worldly People at Armageddon! Gods Kingdom Rules Quote

by lostnotfound in

so scanning through the gods kingdom rules i found this gem on page 228.. .

"in heaven, the 144,000 corulers with christ will recieve authority to share with jesus in weilding an "iron rod" of destruction against all enemies of gods kingdom.

( rev 2 26,27) then, together with powerful angels, the resurrected anointed ones will follow christ, the warrior king, as he sets out to confront the "vast army" of enemies that is closing in on its prey - jehovahs people.".

lostnotfound

So scanning through the Gods Kingdom Rules I found this gem on page 228.

"In heaven, the 144,000 corulers with Christ will recieve authority to share with Jesus in weilding an "iron rod" of destruction against all enemies of Gods Kingdom.( Rev 2 26,27) Then, together with powerful angels, the resurrected anointed ones will follow Christ, the warrior king, as he sets out to confront the "vast army" of enemies that is closing in on its prey - Jehovahs people."

How much more dellusional can these people get? They had to think this up, that becoming angels they wll get to follow jesus and join in the slaghter of billions of people.

36

Quotes to discourage JWs from researching WT history?

by JWOP in

are there any direct quotes from the watchtower's literature that discourages investigation into their past doctrines and practices?.

lostnotfound

So you think that was just a typo? The magazine that gets passed out to everyone vs the book that JWs get. Any JW knows the real title of that talk, no outsider does. Only time will tell if they try it again. You failed to answer why they printed it that way...

Ummmm, you know what? I was so quick to prove you wrong about the dates of this talk being referenced in the literature that I missed your original point. I don't know what to say about that. Have to be honest with you Joe, I don't know.

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I believe the talks were originally titled "Millions now living MAY never die". Rutheford felt more and more confidant that armageddon would come in 1925 that he changed the talks to "Millions now living WILL never die".

The WTBS uses laziness to their advantage in this situation. They dont care if you research their pat, becasue how would your average witness do that? They would pull out the heavily sanatized Proclaimers book and Faith in Action DVDs as suggested by STPW. Or they will take a look at the Watchtower Library, which goes back to 2000 or 1950 in the CDs.

What a witness is NOT going to do, is hop online to websites like this or JW facts, or read PDFs of the Watchtowers predicting Armageddon in 1914, 1918, 1925, 1975.

Think of how often the new Watchtowers talk about how Bible Students knew years in advance Jesus would arrive in 1914. How many times has someone in your hall raised their hand and corrected that Bible Students thought Jesus has arrived in 1874 and would bring armageddon in 1914? Thats no small thing to know about your own religion, but how many Witnesses know that? Maybe less than one percent.

How many times has the Watchtower admitted to having wrong "expectations". How many of your average witnesses know what those expectations were?

The WTBS has a ace up their sleeve. Its called laziness. Thats what makes the internet so dangerous to them. Because all it takes is 10 seconds to type "Jehovahs witnesses" in google and the jig is up.

36

Has a wrong disfellowshipping ever been reversed?

by lostnotfound in

im not talking about simply being reinstated.

i remember hearing a story about a brother that was disfellowshipped because of the testimony of two false witnesses.

years passed before they admitted to lying about the brother and was reinstated.. what is policy in this sort of situation?

lostnotfound

Thats interesting, at least they didnt just reinstate them, but I still noticed any type of apology is absent.

Its funny, the society admits it is imperfect and makes mistakes, yet in the 120 years or so it has existed, how many outright apologies have there been for anything?

36

Has a wrong disfellowshipping ever been reversed?

by lostnotfound in

im not talking about simply being reinstated.

i remember hearing a story about a brother that was disfellowshipped because of the testimony of two false witnesses.

years passed before they admitted to lying about the brother and was reinstated.. what is policy in this sort of situation?

lostnotfound

Im not talking about simply being reinstated. I remember hearing a story about a brother that was disfellowshipped because of the testimony of two false witnesses. Years passed before they admitted to lying about the brother and was reinstated.

What is policy in this sort of situation? Is there any type of statement that goes past just a simple "So and so has been reisntated as one of Jehovahs witnesses" and actually clears their name of any wrong doing?

Has anyone personally seen this happen before?