Apostate
As many of you that visit this site know, the Jehovah’s Witness religion does not allow people to have freedom of thought and belief. If a person changes their viewpoint and questions the JW hierarchy and leadership then they will be sanctioned. If a member adopts an “unacceptable” opinion or conviction and dares to speak of it, then the local religious leaders (called Elders) will come after them, using an iron fist in a velvet glove to bring them back in line. If that fails, then they will cut the person off and ostracize them before everyone, announcing them from a public pulpit as a satanic person, not fit for anyone in their club to associate with ever again.
Continue reading about Apostasy Trial – Undercover spycam part 1
OVER 1,000 DAYS have passed since I started JWStruggle. It was not for publicity or accolades. It was not even for the noble intent of blowing the whistle on Watchtower Corp and letting sincere Jehovah’s Witnesses worship God free from the crushing rules of the governing body pharisees. These men have wielded the elders like a dull axe in the local congregations, bludgeoning so many “little sheep” with WT policy and rules.
No, it was for therapeutic reasons of my own that I began to write a blog. I had almost no one to talk to.
Apostates are a figment of the JW imagination. Not necessarily the dictionary definition of the word apostate, which simply means a person who leaves their religion–for by that definition everyone who leaves any religion to become a JW is an apostate–but the JW conception of the APOSTATE, both as an individual and as a ‘group’ is imaginary. For starters, the Watchtower goes beyond the definition of merely leaving the religion. According to the September 1, 1980 letter to all circuit and district overseers, if a person “persist in believing other doctrine” than what the Organization currently teaches, they are “apostatizing”. The Watchtower meaning of Apostasy therefore includes heresy, dissension of any kind, and is designed in such a way to prevent schism and grassroots reformation.
Taking a page straight from the book 1984, they hold that any dissenting thought is a “thoughtcrime” and paired with the informing system where deviant thoughts are reported to the elders, it makes millions of JWs “thought police”.
I would like to discuss briefly in this post just what the JWStruggle.com website that you are reading right now is all about. But first a short recap: In my previous article entitled “Apostate Trial Part 1” I wrote about the news that the local Elders are after me, despite the fact that I have not attended meetings in over a year and have no leavening influence on their local flock, as the friends that attend in my area already snub or shun me when they see me around town. The elders will be “spiritually stoning” me in a few days at their judicial tribunal (1 Corinthians 4:3-6, HCSB) and I am preparing for it now, even as I write this article.
The elders sent me a letter summoning me to a judicial committee, accusing me of “spreading apostate teachings that go against Bible truth as taught by Jehovah’s Witnesses.” For those of you that are in the know, this means that they have already determined that I am guilty of the above mentioned “crime”. The letter was sent certified mail, and when I received it I signed and printed “Martin Luther” on the return receipt. I wrote back and asked for a date one week later as I could not make the 8/30 day they had ordained for my spiritual stoning.
A continuance was granted and I was given a tentative date of 9/12/2012 so we will see what happens. I am not afraid of this meeting, however it is not something that I relish either. I personally feel it must be done as my conscience will not allow me otherwise. The early Christians were fed to the lions and Yeshua said that if we confessed him as Christ we would be persecuted and delivered up before the synagogue and expelled. (John 16:1-4)
“Lord, whom shall we go away to? You have sayings of everlasting life; and we have believed and come to know that you are the Holy One of God.” –John 6:68-69 So answered Peter when asked by Jesus whether he wanted to abandon him along with others who had found his teachings untenable. Time and […]
The Watchtower of 2006, 2/15 “Questions From Readers” article asks this: What three dangers was Jesus warning against at Matthew 5:22?
In his Sermon on the Mount, Jesus Christ warned his followers: “I say to you that everyone who continues wrathful with his brother will be accountable to the court of justice; but whoever addresses his brother with an unspeakable word of contempt will be accountable to the Supreme Court; whereas whoever says, ‘You despicable fool!’ will be liable to the fiery Gehenna.”—Matthew 5:22.
Jesus used things familiar to the Jews—the court of justice, the Supreme Court, and the fiery Gehenna—to convey to them the increasing severity of the punishments for sins of increasing seriousness.
“Blinded By New Light” – A Response to the “Anti-Apostate” WT article of 9/11/2011, found in the July 15, 2011 study copy of the Watchtower. The following song represents a response to the inflammatory rhetoric and Ad Hominem attacks found in the Watchtower. It saddens us that the friends have been misled and revved up […]
A friend of mine forwarded this reference to me recently via email, and I think that it bears looking over and discussing. The 1978 Awake article is entitled Do Others Do Your Thinking? and it makes some very good points. The deep irony is there for many of us of the “Conscious Class” to see.
The story of Martin Luther, famous theological reformer and perhaps the first so-called apostate of the Catholic Church is fascinating.
There are two basic ways that this could happen, and no matter how dim things appear to be, or how bleak the outlook is, we have options and choices. Let’s breakdown the possibilities and see what is the best path for each of us. This possible meeting can only happen in one of two ways, these being:
1. We request to speak with them voluntarily
2. A friend or family member tells either an elder or someone else who in turn tells the elders that you are weak in faith, have doubts about the truth, or are even “going apostate”
There are many JW websites that are positive and
pro-Witness out there. These exist for most of the same reasons
other sites exist- to encourage their site members and provide a
safe forum to chat and gather. Understandably, many sincere
brothers and sisters are concerned about what they deem as apostate
influence and infiltration among anonymous internet users, so they
setup a registration process wherein they can restrict who is able
to participate and become a member of their website. Registration
on these sites are limited to only those that can look up something
from a current Kingdom Ministry or songbook…
It is sad to say but many people who ask that very question, “Do you have an open mind” are very closed minded people themselves. As a Jehovah’s Witness I was taught to turn down other religious literature and avoid “apostates”. However when we talked to people at the door we expected them to have an open mind to our religion.
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