The definition of dogmatism according to dictionary.com is: unfounded positiveness in matters of opinion; arrogant assertion of opinions as truths.
Many of us have been victims of dogmatism and in turn practiced dogmatism when we were asleep JWs. We all recognize the dogmatism that characterizes Watchtower statements. Occasionally the Society says there is no need to be dogmatic about certain matters, but the fact is the organization is narrow-minded and dictatorial on almost all issues regarding what a “Christian” is expected to believe.
For instance, for years the Watchtower Society has insisted that Jesus died on an upright torture stake and not a cross. But can they or anyone be sure of the shape of the instrument that Jesus died on? For that matter is it that important that the stake did not have a cross beam? Even when I was an asleep JW I often wondered why the Society had to be dogmatic on certain unclear issues.
My goal with the site these days is for it to be a beacon and an aid to all that have been associated with the Watchtower Organization in one way or another. Some are disgruntled and are struggling to contain their anger, while some are doubting “the truth” and not sure what to do.
“Should I continue to attend the Kingdom Hall or fade out and stop?” wonder others.
Some have been out for many years and are disfellowshipped. One young lady that wrote me (who had never been a Witness herself) was simply dating one and trying to learn more about his religion and how she should proceed with the relationship. And then others want to move beyond this site, and put the J.W. mindset behind them. If it is positive and healthy for them to do so, then by all means they should! [1]
Tags: appreciation, clarity, JW.org, Love
Long before my “awakening” from the psychological grip of the Watch Tower Society I was confused and confounded by certain elements of the Genesis account – particularly the events described in the first three chapters. Elements of the narrative simply baffle me, and the publications have never offered any meaningful answers to my specific questions. Now that I am mentally and emotionally free from the Society, it seems like a good time to share these questions in the hopes that someone out there may have the answers, or else, share in my bewilderment!In Chapters 1 and 2, Adam is created. The reader is left in no doubt that Adam was created in God’s “image”.
“Let us make man in our image, according to our likeness… and God proceeded to create the man in his image, in God’s image he created him; male and female he created them.” – Gen 1:26,27
The traditional assumption as to the meaning of God’s having created Adam “in his image” is that he imbued man with his own qualities or characteristics – the predominant quality being love. Love is essentially an emotional attribute, and I have long wondered what would have been the end result if God had chosen NOT to create man in his image for whatever reason. Would the resulting humans have been devoid of emotion? Or naturally heartless, cruel, and animalistic? But I digress…
Tags: adam and eve, forbidden fruit, garden of eden, genesis, tree of life
There are a variety of ministries
It has been said that if you rest, you rust. For us as Christians this truly does apply. Do we really “seek first the Kingdom of God and his Righteousness?” (Matthew 6:33) How, and in what ways can we do so? Must it always entail a formalized, door to door preaching effort?
A mature brother has given me some helpful counsel on this, reminding me that “cold calling” does not really work very effectively, and the facts bear this out in the statistics of Jehovah’s Witnesses in their yearly report. Yes, billions of hours are recorded. But the conversion rate between hours-spent to new-converts-acquired comes out in the thousands of hours. What does this mean? It means that to bring one new person “into the truth” and baptize them as one of Jehovah’s Witnesses, it takes each publisher over 40 years of preaching on average [1]. Does this strike anyone as an efficient way to “fully accomplish [their] ministry”? (2 Timothy 4:5) And sadly, the vast majority of these hours are spent not in actual speaking and teaching to non-religious people, but driving around in a loaded mini-van visiting with each other, then occasionally getting out and knocking on an empty house. Interspersed with this is the running of errands, and the taking of a variety of breaks for the bathroom, the post office, donuts, coffee, etc. The unscriptural practice of reporting field service time to an elder whose job is to monitor the formalized ministry of each publisher in his congregation creates a number of problems. Instead of performing “holy acts of conduct and deeds of godly devotion” (2 Peter 3:11) out of a heartfelt desire to do so, it has become a clock-punching exercise. The announcement of names during the weekly service meeting and the emphasis on reaching certain numeric goals such as 10, 30, 50, or 70 hours per month has turned the very personal act of “letting our light shine” (Matt 5:14-16) into a mere form of Godly devotion. (2 Timothy 3:5) Hitting these numeric goals adorns the Witness with the status of “exemplary publisher”, “auxiliary pioneer”, “regular auxiliary pioneer”, and the highest of all, “regular pioneer”. We realize though that running the Christian race has only one requirement, and that is that we finish. (Matthew 24:13)
If I could speak all the languages of earth and of angels, but didn’t love others, I would only be a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. (clashing cymbal NWT) If I had the gift of prophecy, and if I understood all of God’s secret plans and possessed all knowledge, and if I had such faith that I could move mountains, but didn’t love others, I would be nothing. If I gave everything I have to the poor and even sacrificed my body, I could boast about it; but if I didn’t love others, I would have gained nothing.
Love is patient and kind. Love is not jealous or boastful or proud or rude. It does not demand its own way. It is not irritable, and it keeps no record of being wronged. It does not rejoice about injustice but rejoices whenever the truth wins out. Love never gives up, never loses faith, is always hopeful, and endures through every circumstance.
Prophecy and speaking in unknown languages and special knowledge will become useless. But love will last forever! Now our knowledge is partial and incomplete, and even the gift of prophecy reveals only part of the whole picture! But when the time of perfection comes, these partial things will become useless.
We’ve all heard comments about Jehovah’s Witnesses being “brainwashed”. That always seemed like a ridiculous claim to make whenever I heard it. And of course there are good comebacks to such an accusation, such as one a circuit overseer used to use: “The world is such a filthy place- maybe our brains needed washing out when we came into the truth!”
The idea of brainwashing goes back many years actually. Here is a comment about its possible origins:
“During the Korean War, Korean and Chinese captors reportedly brainwashed American POWs held in prison camps. Several prisoners ultimately confessed to waging germ warfare — which they hadn’t — and pledged allegiance to communism by the end of their captivity. At least 21 soldiers refused to come back to the United States when they were set free.” (Excerpted from http://people.howstuffworks.com/brainwashing.htm)
Tags: brainwashing, JW.org, knowledge
You may remember the exchange I posted a while back with a spiritual brother and friend, a Jehovah’s Witness publisher named “Ben”. Well we began to exchange some emails recently, and it turned into a long running dialogue about the problems within the organization. To his credit, he defends what he has been taught with an open mind, trying his best to reason with me. I do the same, with the goal of helping him to awaken to the flaws of the organization.
First I will give you a brief summary of the (quite lengthy) exchange, as well as my impressions of what went right and what went wrong and some background on the brother. I spent many hours composing these emails and their attachments, but ultimately it may have been too much too fast. We may never know…or I may hear from him tomorrow, it’s impossible to say.
Summary: Ben asks how I am. I explain that I have had some problems, and stepped down. (We only talk a few times a year as he lives quite far away) I explain that my conscience was troubling me due to the worship of the GB by many of the friends. He acknowledges this, and says that he had a close friend that was an elder and left, saying almost that exact thing. I point out many scriptural problems and flaws that indicate that Jehovah’s spirit couldn’t be leading these men. He feels that there are flaws but this is the “one Club” that God has been using and we have to follow the rules of the club. I counter this reasoning, citing many scriptures and articles. It gets a little less civil, and he worries I am becoming like all the other smug born-again Christians he knows. I respond firmly (too firmly?) that the WT and the GB are misleading many and building an empire worth many billions of dollars. It is also pointed out that in all his emails, he has never cited one article or Bible verse. He does not respond back after this.
Tags: Ben, email, witnessing
These men are responsible for the spiritual welfare of Jehovah's Witnesses around the world, and copies of our 2011 survey have been sent for their attention
As some of you may be aware, last year I began taking an annual online survey of Jehovah’s Witnesses. The results of this 2011 survey have now been published, and are available to download in PDF format with full analysis and an explanation of the survey’s development. If you would like to see a brief overview of the results, then by all means click here.
Seven copies of the survey results have been sent for the attention of the Governing Body by recorded delivery, and I await their response. The survey results include my personal message to the Governing Body, which is reproduced below for those of you who are interested.
If you have not yet voted on our new 2012 survey, then I would encourage you to do so. The survey is designed so that it can be taken anonymously, and you can enter as much or as little information as you like. At the end of this year, a similar results document will be compiled, which will also be received by the Governing Body.
Tags: 2011 results, disfellowshipping, FDS, GB, governing body, internet, Jehovah's Witnesses, jw survey, letter to the governing body, reform, watchtower
The organization that we were a part of has a definite structure of rules. Many of these rules go “beyond the things written” (1 Corinthians 4:6). It must be admitted that this structure helped some spiritually immature ones avoid some harmful things. However, the same structure stunted the growth of our conscience.
Many of the rules that the Society has were conscience issues at one time. Then in the mistaken belief that devising a rule would help the brothers keep from sinning, rules were instituted. Later over the course of time more was added on these rules and some of them even became disfellowshipping offenses. In many cases the leaders of the org. have tried to enforce their own conscience on to others.
The result of the enforcement of a large body of rules is that the conscience of many JWs never gets a chance to develop. When a question arises over how they should act in a given circumstance they check the publications to see what has been said about it. If the matter has not been dealt with in the publications then many JWs think there is no harm in it. To give an example of this one brother told me that he wouldn’t watch boxing because the Society has spoken against it, but he was a fan of UFC fights that are much more violent than boxing because at the time the publications said nothing about UFC fights. Would you say that this brother had a stunted conscience?
Tags: conscience, maturity
Many come to this web site confused looking for answers and how to make sense of all they were taught as Jehovah Witnesses. Many are searching and some have come up with new understandings and desire to share there thoughts and new beliefs. Some get very upset when others share something that does not go along with how they personally understand the scriptures. As we all know, there are many religious groups that follow the Bible yet few agree on all doctrinal points. Most of us here who were Jehovah Witness’s understand what it is like to be forced to believe a doctrine that we cannot except.
It is not our goal for this web site to be a free for all when it comes to attacking others faith or doctrine. We do agree that the Bible is Gods written word and we uphold the principles found there in. However, what is written in it is understood differently by many of us. Of course we ask for Holy Spirit to guide us in our understanding but the truth remains, we do not all understand it the same. Maybe we think we have the Holy Spirit and our brother does not. Is it possible that God/Jehovah/YHWH is more concerned with our heart condition than our particular doctrine? (1 Corinthians 13:1-12)
We all believe that Holy Spirit has preserved Gods word for us down to this day do we not? There are over 2000 translations of the Bible in the world. The Watchtower has translated the New World Translation into 106 different languages yet they have published their doctrinal publications in 436 different languages. That tells me they are way more focused on preaching their doctrine than they are sharing Gods written word. Numbers don’t lie. Could we be the same when we share our faith? I know I am guilty of adding my opinion in a forceful tone way more than I should after I share the scriptures. Should not the scriptures be able to speak for themselves?
Tags: Judging, Love, mercy, Our Doctrinal View
Do you have questions about the truth? Has the truth seemed to change over the last few decades? Do you feel guilty for questioning the things that you have been taught? Or for doing research online by visiting websites that are not approved by the Society? Do you lie awake at night trying to sort it all out? Does it seem to you despite inconsistencies in doctrine and policies within the teachings of the Watchtower Society that there is “no where else to go”?
If so you are not alone. My online name is SIAM and I have been in that position. I served as an Elder for 7 years until early last year, when I resigned because of my conscience. I came to the point where I could not teach the congregation in good conscience things that I was unsure about. Like many of you, I was raised as a Witness, and much like Timothy I was taught “from infancy” things from the Bible and the Watchtower Society. I spent 5 years pioneering and sharing “Kingdom truths” with my neighbors. I was used as an Elder on Assembly parts and gave many Public Talks in the Circuit. I might have even given a talk in your hall.
It all changed for me two years ago. Suddenly cracks began to appear in my faith, cracks that were never there before. I began to study God’s word ever deeper in an effort to bolster my faith and drive away the doubt that was creeping in. I felt guilty for questioning the Society and afraid that I was abandoning the love that I had for God.
Tags: 1 John 4:1, friendship, loneliness
We are going to be launching a simple email newsletter. It is planned to be an occasional update with some links, some experiences, random (but helpful!) thoughts, etc.
If any would like to receive this, please add your email below. Be assured that we will never give out your email to anyone, and we can’t identify you or your location based on an email. If you receive one of these in error, please allow me to apologize as I am still learning how this works. I plan to only send these out a few times per month at the max, so you will not get inundated. And you can easily opt out at any time. The service is through mailchimp.com and they are a reputable company.
Please click here:
Tags: email, newsletter
JARGON [jahr-guh
n, -gon]
And this brings us to the “theocratic language”, a term employed by Jehovah’s Witnesses. The scripture in Zephaniah 3:9 is used as the origin of the term. It contains the expression “pure language” and reads this way in the New World Translation:
“Then I shall give to peoples the change to a pure language, in order for them all to call upon the name of Jehovah, in order to serve him shoulder to shoulder.” (Zeph. 3:9)
A comment on this verse in the 2008 Watchtower says the following:
Tags: jargon, mind control, pure language
Brother Ed has put together something quite thought provoking and I wanted to share it with you. Here it is:
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I’d like to ask the members here, current and/or past Jehovah’s Witnesses, whether they believe that the name God gave his Chosen people was “Christians” as opposed to any other name, including Jehovah’s Witnesses? Acts 11:26 states:
Tags: Christian, christians, Jehovah's Witnesses, name
Ecclesiastes 3:1 “For everything there is a season, and a time for every matter under heaven”
Many of us who have woken up to the true nature of the organization have a spouse who is still a true believer in the organization’s claim of being God’s one true channel. We may have tried almost everything to try to wake up our spouse to the truth. We’ve tried showing how many false prophecies the org. has made, how it was impossible that in 1918 the organization was chosen by God, how many procedures and teachings of the org. are unbiblical, all to no avail. Personally I’ve tried these things and tried to convince my wife to do an investigation so she would be able to make an informed decision. But my spouse and perhaps your spouse as well continues to put full confidence in the organization. What do we do?
No doubt we are disappointed. We must realize that there is “a time for everything”. If we have had no success it may be time to simply be quiet, at least for the time being. Please watch this video about an ex-mormon husband and wife to see what we can learn.
Tags: marriage
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