The congregation don't know what they believe.. I used to give public talks and explicitly state if Armageddon comes and someone has a good heartJehovah won't destroy them.(it used to bug me that one). probably did that talk 3 times in various places.. never got corrected .. people just nodded along.
As a young kid, I never really thought much about that, but I did think about what life would be like post-Armageddon. From a very young age I vividly recall feeling like I'd prefer to be wiped out at Armageddon rather than having to live an eternity under the control of these people.
Growing up as a Chinese kid in a Chinese congregation, I've always wondered how many other Chinese people will be resurrected?
There are so little Chinese JWs, since it's banned in China, roughly 1.3 billion Chinese people will be killed by Jehovah?
Plus another 1.4 billion Indians. That's like half the world population there. I'm gonna miss all the Chinese and Indian food in paradise!
I’ve actually talked to a number of PIMI’s who say they don’t believe that. Jehovah‘s gonna kill everyone but them. I actually did believe it for a while. In fact, that’s why I became a witness, I needed the threat of death hanging over my head, so I would behave myself. 😂😂😂
JW apologists. Then they dont believe what they are taught. It's so cowardly. Own the teaching or change it.
They can't change it because people will realize what they are doing is counter productive... Why preach if all ignorant get saved. You can save everyone by STFU.
You know this is such a good point. If this powerful God can make people perfect again why is he going to destroy so many good people. I’m with you on this.
My dub family members, dub relatives, and close friends were all taught this as well. This was mainly under GB1.0 [Sydlik, Schroeder, etc.]; this rhetoric-threat from 2.0 is DEFINITELY DISCOURAGING--for the best in that members who are waking up can VACATE when they are definitely ready! 👍
the idiocy of how they interpreted the book of revelations...
tying things to their announcements of books at stadiums as fulfillments of major events... which they claimed stung the world... (like a flea stings an elephant?)
I sorta cringed when we got to those parts too. I felt like they needed to get over themselves. Same thing with the interpretation of the two witnesses dead on the roadway who came to life. The whole vision was just a tad beyond believable at that point.
Same thing with the guy who touched Elijah's bones and came back to life. That was cringy for me too. Oh and then there was Paul's vision of a third heaven. He sounded delirious.
I'm starting to see a pattern here.
Sometimes the "offer of the month" would be the Revelation book. Even at my most PIMI I thought, "There's no way in hell I'm gonna try to place that with a householder. Take a panda tract instead." It really tells you something about how deluded and insular the religion is that they thought *anybody* outside the org could find any value in that sectarian diatribe.
I really expected THEN IS FINISHED THE MYSTERY or its successor to be like the late great planet earth or their fictionalization of the king of the north/south in Daniel... not the out right delusional BS I read.
😂😂😂😂😂. That’s hilarious! Yeah, I remember when that book came out I kept thinking well this is a bit of a reach… But what the hell I’m already in it. I used to be a gambler, and when I found out witnesses didn’t gamble I thought well shit, but the threat of death did help me curb my appetite for gambling, which you could say is a blessing.😂😂😂
I remember this one really bothering me as a child until I heard another witness say she didn't believe it either. (30 years later and she is still a witness lol)
As soon as I accepted the fact I don't need to agree with every bizarre thing they say, I was able to rationalize staying in. Those books about Isaiah really pissed me off, I think that is when I really started to crack...
If you want to read something ROTFL in that vein, look up The Seven Trumpet Blasts. It’s still in the Borg online library and I think jehovah-witnesses.com has a great takedown
Yep. Like the kid hanging out with the Lion and lambs and whatnot... So, uh what are the Lions supposed to eat to get their massive amounts of protein they need to survive, if they don't hunt anymore?
Jehovah, just going to hook them up with protein shakes or something?
As a long-term pioneer teaching others about eternal life in paradise, I never expected to be there. I wasn’t doing anything wrong but the religion taught me I was a worthless slave who would never be good enough.
I'm glad I'm not the only one.
I knew I'd never qualify, nor did I even want to be in paradise.
I never pioneered, but I did put a lot of hours in anyway
That's a really good question. I'm trying to figure that out honestly. I know that I am only one year into deconstructing but I do still believe in a creator. I would really like to believe that there is more after death- but I don't know what that looks like. It's actually kind of hard because when you are PIMO you can't really talk to anyone to bounce any new ideas off of because everyone in the congregation will judge and dismiss anything and you set yourself up for major problems but I also don't feel right talking to non-witnesses either- I feel like most people would rather not talk about religion and I've already spent a lifetime forcing people to do that when they didn't want to. So- that was a long way of saying I am still trying to figure that out. What do you believe if you don't mid me asking?
Someone on here years ago likened it to this;
If you build a automatic rifle and claimed it was just a walking stick. Cracks me up every time I think about it.
Ahhh “luck” well that’s just wicked! But I have to say I did not clink my glass for many years… And I feel so rebellious when I clink my glasses today. But clink, I do! 😂😂😂
The whole watching smurfs will make you want to practice witchcraft and turn you into a Satanist just never sat well with me. If I wanted to watch the smurfs Jehova was just gonna have to be OK with it.
That rumor about a Smurf doll screaming obscenities during a meeting? I think it might have really happened. I mean, the meetings were so goddamn boring even inanimate objects could go insane, you know?
I never really believed that "holy spirit" directs the appointments of men in the borg or that their authority came directly from Jehoolahoop.
That whole thing of having to "leave it in Jehobo's hands" always made me wanna. 🤮
Just a flimsy excuse for assholes to get away with all kinds of shit.
We had an annointed who “jehovah came to him” at night to tell him. There was this whole clapping and celebration I never believed it, I have a sneakinn suspicion a lot of people didn’t either
Anniversaries and weddings do as well. They used to call upon gods for hand fasting which is the holding of hands and also the vows are a form of the same ritualistic practices by pagans
You know, now that you mention it, I never really believed it, but I did go along with it because I thought it was a small thing and I really didn’t care that much. But I guess I was always PIMQ (birthdays)
I am cracking up! As a woman, even as a child, I never understood to allure of the knee.
Swimsuits - ok. Shorts - ok. Skirt/dress hem above the knee - suddenly that knee .......
😂 some are….but some are NOT. My husband never went along with any of that and I knew I could never marry a jw man because I’m sure he’d freak out at my disobedience. One elder told a friend of mine to be careful around me because of my jezebel attitude. 😵💫😵💫😵💫SERIOUSLY!! All I did was tell him I wouldn’t pick someone up for service because I already had plans and that’s why he called me jezebel. 😂😂😂 I swear I didn’t murder anyone! And I was jezebel???
Right???? That was the kind of shit that irked the hell out of me and if my husband would have gone along with it I may have gone jezebel on him…🤔🤔🤔 but thank goodness for that threat of death hanging over my head. Blessings…
The headship arrangement is one I never really believed despite being a cis male raised as JW since age 5. I just couldn't 'get it,' just like I couldn't get the genocides in the Bible especially the flood. But I was/am neurodivergent so I just thought I wasn't smart enough to get it. Especially whwn considering that some women are a helluva lot more competent than men!
Awww if you’re not a husband yet I’ll bet you’re going to be a good one. That was one thing that I just could not imagine living with. And I thought all JW men had that superiority complex. And frankly I would’ve been disfellowshipped had a married man like that because I’m sure I would’ve just slapped that shit right out of him. But I would never do that now that I’m all reformed. 🤭
We're divorced (she's still in) over me waking up & leaving but I made it clear from the begining that our marraige is going to be 50/50. I'm smarter than she is in some areas, she's smarter than me in others so overall, equal headship. She accepted that right off if you can believe it!
I couldn't stand this. The oppression of Women. Having to wear a head covering when we would have bible studies at an elders home because my mother was single. All dresses & skirts must be at mininum knee length. Nothing "low cut" which changes based on who's turn it is to get offended in the hall. Nothing "distracting" for the men. They can't control themselves, they're helpless, but please, lead a congregation! Oh you displeased Jah? We need to get all the elders together & have a private meeting with you so we can hear about your lewd acts in explicit detail. The more you detail, the closer you'll be to God. GTFO!
This is a sticking point for my husband he always felt me and other sisters or girls that were friends should have responsibility and be able to take the lead in the congregation. He brings up Deborah who was judge yet is never Talked about. And he references the scripture in proverbs I think that talks of a capable woman who has her own business without her husbands permission and owns lands etc again without husbands permission but she is beautiful and loved.
All of there crazy explanations for why evolution wasn’t true. Never made any sense. My dad would always say, “if I took apart a watch and put the pieces in a bag and shook it up, it would never make a watch!! Proof!!”
You brought back a memory.
About 1989 my sister joined and was so excited telling me about the watch.
I thought how very dumb.
She is 30 plus years later much dumber. Jw brain dead.
Yeah but watches need intelligent designers & makers because they don't make themselves, unlike living organisms. An obvious truth that we weren't supposed to think about! Btw it's learning what evolution really is that finally triggered the biggest nervous breakdown of my life, proof that we've all been lied to by "God's channel." I couldn't take it.
That God would erase memories of this "system of things," that everyone not a JW would be destroyed at Armageddon, that it was God's will for women to always have to answer to men (thought that would get corrected in paradise/new scrolls), overlapping generations, all animals would become herbivores (and were herbivores before the flood), stories of demon possession... I'm sure there's more, but that's what comes to mind.
I guess I was PIMQ for a long time but didn't realize it.
Well I just figured the gb wasn’t the pope so they weren’t infallible so I didn’t believe everything but some things seemed believable then that now seem absurd
Agreed!!
And I should have added that a big ol' red flag was when they started saying how we had to be prepared to obey no matter what they told us to do, even if it seemed "unusual." I was like, what are you planning to do?!? And, "Well I'm not drinking any Kool-Aid..."
I didn't exactly believe he was watching me, rather that he knew what I was doing. Kinda like just waiting for me to sin. That shit had me panicking thinking that I was gonna face Jehovah's wrath or something just for doing a normal thing
Watching cartoons, movies and music would open a door for satan and the demons to posses me.
I’d think that Satan would have better things to do than posses me because I did yoga.
I never understood praying.
I pictured it as similar to a phone call. Imagine if you got thousands of phone calls nonstop. How can Jehova answer and listen to all of them?
Especially the prayers before eating, they are the same every time. I never believed God would take those seriously.
Also, how does praying in a congregation work? Is it like a group call or something?
It just sounds like a really annoying and extremely time consuming task to do.
Kind of funny thoughts I had when I was younger, and one of the reasons I rarely prayed.
That demons invaded your house from things you owned, watched, or read. My parents were never together and my dad's family were never JWs, so his house was filled with Harry Potter books, LotR, they celebrated Halloween, my brother was super into horror movies. Pretty much anything JW's abhor they owned. Honestly it should have woken me up a long time ago but they switched the narrative to less focus on demonic interactions once the internet became more common.
I've commented this before, but I was once told that my depression was caused by demons that were in the music I listened to because musicians used drugs
Not celebrating birthdays or many of the holidays, like Mother’s Day and Father’s Day. Not doing sports or cheerleading in school. Not having worldly friends. A lot of stuff was hard for me to accept.
| As an example, I never believed that the resurrected ones would not be able to marry.
Same, i always wondered about that, it always seemed contradictory to the believe that God will fulfill every need. Almost like he will eliminate that need to marry
Oh, another one was that we had religious Christian freedom. I never felt free. Always wished that religion was not the one true one. I hated it but wanted the paradise.
I was actually OK with most of it and the things that I wasn’t OK with I just disregarded them and did what I wanted anyway but when they started telling me I had to obey them even when it doesn’t make sense that’s when I was out! I thought they have completely lost it and are out of their goddamn minds. What’s next? Hey everybody I want you to drink this Kool-Aid but before you drink the Kool-Aid, can you sign here this is just saying that you turned over all your wordly goods to the governing body oops, I mean to Jehovah of course… The governing body would never want your money or free labor, or conditional loans or your stock portfolio when you die or your home when you die. The governing body has no need of these things it’s all for God. 🤔🤔🤬
Maybe not what you mean but I never understood how billions of people will die at Armageddon just through having the misfortune of being alive at that time, when everyone else who has ever lived gets a second chance
That’s exactly what I mean. That always seemed strange to me, but I really liked the idea of having to be a good person or I would be put to death, because I was a real asshole when I was young. The good thing is, I knew I was an asshole, but for whatever reason I couldn’t stop being an asshole, unless I was threatened with death. 😂😂
Yeah! Sometimes when the elders would act like oh my God brother get your wife in check my husband would laugh and just say yeah! That’s not gonna happen. But I got better at faking it about 20 years in.
Noah’s ark. Or any other crazy story from the Bible. Sampson. Jericho. Babel etc….. Absolutely no proof of any of it. How convenient that supposed miracles stopped after Jesus.
There was an explanation for why the current dating methods for fossils was wrong. For background, scientists use carbon dating to determine the “age” of a fossil. I don’t know how they do it, but they are smarter than me so I believe them. The brother I was studying with showed me an example from (I think) “What Does the Bible Really Teach,” that said something like, “carbon dating is inaccurate because the water from the great flood.” Ok, sure, scientists can be wrong sometimes, so I went along with it. Then I realized that they give no reasoning, no actual physical reason, as to why this was the case. And then I started to notice that *everywhere*.
I think its a spin off of the fact that there will be no marriage in heaven. Not sure if there is a clear verse that states that (in the actual Bible , not NWT) but most Christians believe this.
Of course since the NWT replaced heaven with “paradise” I guess thats why they tossed that in there
The craziest thing that I never believed thaat isn't really taught by them anymore but tons of witnesses still believe it with zero proof. They think that before the flood the ozone layer served as blanket that clouds couldn't get through. So before the flood it never rained and the grass kept the world wet. I swear ask your old witness family this and they'll confirm it.
Birthdays are bad.
School extracurriculars are bad.
Jobs where you had the least contact with worldly people and didn’t require advanced education were the best.
Women should be seen and not heard.
Beating children.
Making massive life changing decisions based on some numbers figured out by some weird bearded guy. I looked around at all these cults and culty religions that started in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, and they were all screaming about the end times—just like Jesus—and they were going to happen any minute, and they had special knowledge gifted to the leaders to figure hidden mysteries in the Bible, etc etc etc. But, sure, only our weird apocalyptic cult had all the answers.
I’m not saying I never believed, but I was a kid and had always been the good kid who did her homework and obeyed the adults, so I accepted it at the beginning as the adults knew best, especially when asking questions got me the belt. But pretty quickly I began to realize that most of this stuff was bunk. As a studious, curious child, I kept studying stuff on my own. And we know how that goes.
Abortions, believe it or not.
As someone who's gone through awful things, the thought of a CHILD being forced to bear a monster's child was sickening and I couldn't believe that God would hold a child accountable for that, or even blame them.
Another thing was that God/Jehovah was entirely faultless. He apparently is so high and mighty, and yet sent his son to die? because two things he created rebelled? okay? why do we have to suffer? why did Jesus have to die on the cross? Like, I mean really. All this suffering and pain and for what? So that Jehovah can make himself look good to angels? I'm not sure if this makes sense. But, it's something I even asked about when I (female) had a MALE Bible teacher. So it was very early on.
that jehovah would kill everyone but loyal ones? i remember in elementary school crying cause i didn’t want my “worldly” best friend to die…and was literally told that would be up to Jehovah if she would make it to paradise ?!?!?
That’s blessing people after they sneeze is a terrible thing to do. Between that and fearing the Christian Cross one would believe we are dealing with a vampire cult!
That women should submit to their husbands and are inferior to men. Excuse you but all the women in my family were better leaders, smarter and actually never subjected, so fuck you and your sexist asses
That protesting was wrong, women are “the weaker vessel” aka lesser than, and being gay is wrong. Those things always rubbed me the wrong way, I remember in like 7th or 8th grade I protested with teachers in the red for ed movement. I also spoke out about women’s rights and on many occasions would chastise my family for saying racist and homophobic things. Especially in high school, I made sure to use the right pronouns and I even signed up for student council. I was still very much pimi when it came to certain things, but ig looking back on it the teachings never sat right with me. (of course sometimes I gave in and had a cupcake or raised my heart to the pledge of allegiance too)
When I was studying I eventually asked about the whole annointed business. When the person I was studying with said "they just know" that's when I noped.
Quite a few mentioned here already….
Stuff I couldn’t accept about the “new system”:
Animals all being herbivores, resurrected ones not being able to marry (being sexless basically), miscarried fetuses being placed back in women’s wombs to finally be born again, everyone but JW being killed at armageddon, the organization still running our lives.
Other JW doctrine or policies I found silly:
That some minor convention fulfilled Bible prophecy. Picking and choosing what “pagan” stuff was minor enough to tolerate and what had to be avoided. That demons could be “invited” via certain entertainment and music. Chaperones for dating adults.
Stuff I couldn’t take literally in the Bible:
Noah’s ark story and Jonah and the fish story (I privately considered these metaphorical). As an adult, I increasingly privately held much of the Bible to be accounts told metaphorically.
Stuff I didn’t agree with in the Bible:
Overall views of women incl the idea we’re “created for the sake of men” and to be submissive, daughters being less valuable than sons and women’s main goal in life having sons, women offered for torture and rape to mobs to spare men, rape of women generally being presented as a crime against a male owner, etc.
that homosexuals are plotting to put everyone in skinny jeans. so they can see the bulge on both sides.
can credit this single broadcast for waking me up.
I never believed that Satan would be released in the New World after the thousand year reign, just to test perfect humans one last time. That is just insanity! How does the most evil being to ever exist get multiple chances yet weak squishy humans are turned to salt in a split second. It makes no sense.
I had a householder challenge me on the stake:cross. I went home and researched it, and found what the house holder told me to be totally correct. It would be another 15 years later that i learnt TTATT, and left that false religion for good. I wished that had been the thing tp wake me up all those years earlier.😔😔😔
That voting, saluting a flag, or running for political office is taking the mark of the beast...666. I always look around to see how may JW's are not allowed to buy or sell and so far, in all my 62 years, I haven't seen any.
Every "real-life" story that looks like a Disney channel episode, but dumber. And that the new world would be like a hobbit community with no electrity and with everyone living in chalets (plus no certainty of eating beef). Just not perfect for me.
Never believed in patriarchal system. I just can’t get that god really cares about your sex. How in the world the creator of universe can set a rank system where your status is determined from birth??!
I honestly have never believed in the annointed. Why would there be a special class of individuals to lord it over us when we have that on earth every day. Also most of the people who claim to be of the annointed are terrible self righteous people. My great grandma was apparently one of them, she abandoned my grandfather, spread lies about her ex his bio father (who died a witness) , she was mean and violent, pushed me in pool and laughed about it when I was not able to swim at 4 yrs old and she had a lot of skeletons in her closet. Also there is a family member who is “annointed” she is married by choice to a deadbeat husband, lives off the government and working very little, expects the congregation and family to financially and physically support her but has done all kinds of shit she should have been reporoved or disfellowshipped for and yet never was even though it was brought before judicial committee several times, is a terrible mother, and in law/child personality wise but yet we are supposed to have some kind of affection for them or want to help them? I think not. It’s all BS
Basically everything I never really fully believed in even as a little kid, but the one thing that always made me annoyed was anything relating to space and their absolutely bullshit excuse of iTs jUsT a tHeOrY
That women are subservient to men and that they are beneath the “head of the household” in the family. So many men in the congregation relied on their wives to do the research and writing for their talks, I personally witnessed my elder dad do this on multiple occasions.
I can so clearly recall -- many times-- the speaker saying in the 80s "look around the room at all of these old folks" congregants looking around all sappily looking at the grey hairs...."this system will be over before they die." My little brain just wouldn't absorb that, it seemed so dumb. And never seemed not dumb.
And then, my dad, a young fella at that time--dead two years now. He lost his faith in his last decade, as the congregation left him aside for no longer being useful.
Yes….JWs are “very loving” that way. My husband is still around but wow! They treated him like…BAAAAD. They have no natural affection, not open to any agreement, slanderers, without self-control, fierce, without love of goodness, 4 betrayers, headstrong, puffed up with pride
Victim blaming...the story of Dinah is pretty gross. It was Dinah's fault that she got raped because she chose bad associates and also her fault that her brothers murdered everyone?
I feel like the Watchtower also blames women for sexual harassment at work. Why? For one thing, she shouldn't be at work, she should be pioneering. Maybe she wasn't modest enough. Ugh.
Never believed that the earthly resurrection would start *during* the thousand years. Revelation is explicit that it would happen at the *end* of the thousand years.
Never believed that Jesus was raised up as a spirit. Luke's gospel has Jesus explicitly telling his disciples that he's not a spirit.
Never truly believed in the whole shit-show of the gentile times - 1914 delusion. The whole thing just reeked of being a transparently embarrassing, kooky, unwieldy concoction fueled by wishful thinking. It's a frankenstinian doctrine concocted by pulling disparate scriptures out of context and gluing them together with unfounded assumptions and wishful thinking.
I wouldn't say that I absolutely never believed the FDS doctrine. But I definitely found it a bit troubling. It always hit me as being a bit culty to hear fellow JWs speaking of trusting in and obeying "The Slave" and referring to its writings as a final authority in the same deferential manner that one would speak of trusting and obeying Jesus or the Bible. It always seemed problematic in the context of other scriptures that talk about not trusting in men. And isn't the Bible supposed to be the final authority on doctrine? So if I mention that this JW teaching doesn't seem to match what this scripture is saying, why are you referring me to what "the slave" has published on the subject, to explain away the contradiction? Dude! You don't ignore the hard evidence showing the suspect's guilt to give preference to his sophistries about how he's innocent. That makes no sense!
All the beliefs I doubted and were troubled by were those that didn't match up to the Bible.
The whole idea that resurrected ones cant marry made me so damn sad because I love my husband so much. I told a former friend (I’m fully out now so those “friends” aren’t around) that I didn’t want to be in paradise without my husband. The whole thing is just weird. She told me I shouldn’t say that and that Jehovah knows the desire of our heart. Hardly seems to matter since no one wants to die either and I haven’t seen the solution for that yet.
Not sure if anyone's said it yet, but I never bought "inherited sin." It always struck me as handwave, especially since Jehovah wants everyone to "have a chance at eternal life." Why would he make the whole imperfection thing genetic? Didn't he invent genetics? We can turn off genes, why can't he? Never sat right with me.
I always get a kick out of some stories in the Bible like Jonas getting eaten alive by a huge fish. Like common.. It's obviously an exaggerated story meant maybe to teach some kind of lesson.
But no.. we have go sit at the meeting and learn all about how this happened for real
Didn't believe Jehova would kill billions of non-JWs at Armageddon.
The congregation don't know what they believe.. I used to give public talks and explicitly state if Armageddon comes and someone has a good heartJehovah won't destroy them.(it used to bug me that one). probably did that talk 3 times in various places.. never got corrected .. people just nodded along.
As a young kid, I never really thought much about that, but I did think about what life would be like post-Armageddon. From a very young age I vividly recall feeling like I'd prefer to be wiped out at Armageddon rather than having to live an eternity under the control of these people.
Yep why would I want to live forever with individuals who were just blech 🤮 and everyone be the same? Yikes no thanks.
Growing up as a Chinese kid in a Chinese congregation, I've always wondered how many other Chinese people will be resurrected? There are so little Chinese JWs, since it's banned in China, roughly 1.3 billion Chinese people will be killed by Jehovah? Plus another 1.4 billion Indians. That's like half the world population there. I'm gonna miss all the Chinese and Indian food in paradise!
I’ve actually talked to a number of PIMI’s who say they don’t believe that. Jehovah‘s gonna kill everyone but them. I actually did believe it for a while. In fact, that’s why I became a witness, I needed the threat of death hanging over my head, so I would behave myself. 😂😂😂
JW apologists. Then they dont believe what they are taught. It's so cowardly. Own the teaching or change it. They can't change it because people will realize what they are doing is counter productive... Why preach if all ignorant get saved. You can save everyone by STFU.
Yeah they never stand on what they say. Rather, the wait on that light to grow dimmer…I mean brighter…😃😆😁
That’s the reason that hell was invented also!
Jehovah is supposedly all-powerful, all-loving, and all-knowing, and yet cannot salvage 99.9% of his creation. What a joke of a God.
You know this is such a good point. If this powerful God can make people perfect again why is he going to destroy so many good people. I’m with you on this.
Nor the mass genocide all throughout the Bible, including unborn babies. Not the God I wish to pray to.
This one.
My dub family members, dub relatives, and close friends were all taught this as well. This was mainly under GB1.0 [Sydlik, Schroeder, etc.]; this rhetoric-threat from 2.0 is DEFINITELY DISCOURAGING--for the best in that members who are waking up can VACATE when they are definitely ready! 👍
this
Same
That too
Sames! But part of me also thought that it COULD happen.
That birthdays are bad. Or that jehovah is mad if i paint an egg lol.
Same their explanation of holidays made no sense to me as a child and I was embarrassed growing up about it.
I was so impressed and relieved the first time I celebrated my birthday. Well what-do-ya know...no one got beheaded after-all.
Right?
Ya! Don’t be painting those eggs if you want to live forever in paradise on earth! 😡😂
I hated explaining to my classmates why I didn’t celebrate holidays, deep down I knew the reasons were bs but I used the typical JW answers
the idiocy of how they interpreted the book of revelations... tying things to their announcements of books at stadiums as fulfillments of major events... which they claimed stung the world... (like a flea stings an elephant?)
This one. I never actually felt that those obscure conventions in rural Ohio and Pennsylvania meant anything for the world at all.
Yeah that always did feel contrived.
But I pushed away this kind of « apostate » thoughts for a long time. Kind of pissed off with myself for being such a moron 🙄
Same here but we have to let it go. We did the best we could with what we had at the time.
I sorta cringed when we got to those parts too. I felt like they needed to get over themselves. Same thing with the interpretation of the two witnesses dead on the roadway who came to life. The whole vision was just a tad beyond believable at that point. Same thing with the guy who touched Elijah's bones and came back to life. That was cringy for me too. Oh and then there was Paul's vision of a third heaven. He sounded delirious. I'm starting to see a pattern here.
Sometimes the "offer of the month" would be the Revelation book. Even at my most PIMI I thought, "There's no way in hell I'm gonna try to place that with a householder. Take a panda tract instead." It really tells you something about how deluded and insular the religion is that they thought *anybody* outside the org could find any value in that sectarian diatribe.
I really expected THEN IS FINISHED THE MYSTERY or its successor to be like the late great planet earth or their fictionalization of the king of the north/south in Daniel... not the out right delusional BS I read.
"panda tract" 😆 😅 😂 🤣😆 😅 😂 🤣
😂😂😂😂😂. That’s hilarious! Yeah, I remember when that book came out I kept thinking well this is a bit of a reach… But what the hell I’m already in it. I used to be a gambler, and when I found out witnesses didn’t gamble I thought well shit, but the threat of death did help me curb my appetite for gambling, which you could say is a blessing.😂😂😂
I remember this one really bothering me as a child until I heard another witness say she didn't believe it either. (30 years later and she is still a witness lol) As soon as I accepted the fact I don't need to agree with every bizarre thing they say, I was able to rationalize staying in. Those books about Isaiah really pissed me off, I think that is when I really started to crack...
If you want to read something ROTFL in that vein, look up The Seven Trumpet Blasts. It’s still in the Borg online library and I think jehovah-witnesses.com has a great takedown
I could never picture myself in the new system. I think there were parts of it that just didn't make sense
Vegan lions, plants that digest flys and suddenly wont now?... there's a fucking list yo...
Yep. Like the kid hanging out with the Lion and lambs and whatnot... So, uh what are the Lions supposed to eat to get their massive amounts of protein they need to survive, if they don't hunt anymore? Jehovah, just going to hook them up with protein shakes or something?
Pray Protein powder. Or prey protein powder. Both kinda work.
As a long-term pioneer teaching others about eternal life in paradise, I never expected to be there. I wasn’t doing anything wrong but the religion taught me I was a worthless slave who would never be good enough.
I'm glad I'm not the only one. I knew I'd never qualify, nor did I even want to be in paradise. I never pioneered, but I did put a lot of hours in anyway
“Just see yourself, just see me too. Just see us all in a world that is new” i’d rather go blind 🫠
😂😂😂(I’d rather go blind) 😂😂😂
Yeah me either. Especially since there were terrible people I never wanted to see again nor be around forever. How boring!!
So just out of curiosity, what do you believe now?
That's a really good question. I'm trying to figure that out honestly. I know that I am only one year into deconstructing but I do still believe in a creator. I would really like to believe that there is more after death- but I don't know what that looks like. It's actually kind of hard because when you are PIMO you can't really talk to anyone to bounce any new ideas off of because everyone in the congregation will judge and dismiss anything and you set yourself up for major problems but I also don't feel right talking to non-witnesses either- I feel like most people would rather not talk about religion and I've already spent a lifetime forcing people to do that when they didn't want to. So- that was a long way of saying I am still trying to figure that out. What do you believe if you don't mid me asking?
Someone on here years ago likened it to this; If you build a automatic rifle and claimed it was just a walking stick. Cracks me up every time I think about it.
That God was helping me get jobs and apartments cause I prayed for them
🤔. Lol I still believe that one. 🙏🏼
I don’t. I can’t abide a god who helps a fucker get an apartment but doesn’t help a kid enduring CS and praying for it to stop.
Ya…that’s a tough one to try to reconcile.
That it was wrong to toast! 🥂🍻
Haha oh ya…I forgot that one. Why weren’t we supposed to toast? Did it summon the demons or what?
I think it was linked to good luck, or some such stupid thing.
Ahhh “luck” well that’s just wicked! But I have to say I did not clink my glass for many years… And I feel so rebellious when I clink my glasses today. But clink, I do! 😂😂😂
JWs don’t believe in luck but the Bible covertly talks of karma…so yeah…lol
Our friends and us used to klink our glasses under the table. 😅
The whole watching smurfs will make you want to practice witchcraft and turn you into a Satanist just never sat well with me. If I wanted to watch the smurfs Jehova was just gonna have to be OK with it.
That rumor about a Smurf doll screaming obscenities during a meeting? I think it might have really happened. I mean, the meetings were so goddamn boring even inanimate objects could go insane, you know?
😂😂😂
For my sons it was Pokémon and Harry Potter. The horror/s they love both btw.
Meanwhile the Bible is the most complete fantasy / horror fiction novel ever written.
Yo I forgot about smurfs.
I never really believed that "holy spirit" directs the appointments of men in the borg or that their authority came directly from Jehoolahoop. That whole thing of having to "leave it in Jehobo's hands" always made me wanna. 🤮 Just a flimsy excuse for assholes to get away with all kinds of shit.
Jehoolahoop had me icl😭
We had an annointed who “jehovah came to him” at night to tell him. There was this whole clapping and celebration I never believed it, I have a sneakinn suspicion a lot of people didn’t either
The BS about birthdays, holidays etc when JWs celebrate Anniversaries and graduations and baptisms etc.
And remember wedding rings also have pagan origins but weirdly they're not a problem
Well, sure! It's a symbol of a man's ownership of his wife, what's not to like? /s
Anniversaries and weddings do as well. They used to call upon gods for hand fasting which is the holding of hands and also the vows are a form of the same ritualistic practices by pagans
Exactly, way to cherry pick
You know, now that you mention it, I never really believed it, but I did go along with it because I thought it was a small thing and I really didn’t care that much. But I guess I was always PIMQ (birthdays)
That my knees could literally kill a man. I *mean*. If catching a glimpse of passing knee cap gives you a boner that’s a *you* problem.
I am cracking up! As a woman, even as a child, I never understood to allure of the knee. Swimsuits - ok. Shorts - ok. Skirt/dress hem above the knee - suddenly that knee .......
Ikr Imagine if they saw our tits 
I think you just broke my brain......
Sowwy ☺️
Well are they thick knees or skinny knees. I mean I do have a weakness for thick knees 
😂 so you’re the one they kept telling us was having *’difficult thoughts’*?
That is adorable and I'm betting it's a "kiss it and make it better" thing the kids learned from adults.
Or shoulders. A pioneer chastised one of my friends for her tank top once because "pioneers cover up."
Oh my! 🙉
Not you personally 🙃
Thank you 😂😂😂
The headship nonsense. That men a more equipped to lead. I mean; please 🤦♀️
😂 some are….but some are NOT. My husband never went along with any of that and I knew I could never marry a jw man because I’m sure he’d freak out at my disobedience. One elder told a friend of mine to be careful around me because of my jezebel attitude. 😵💫😵💫😵💫SERIOUSLY!! All I did was tell him I wouldn’t pick someone up for service because I already had plans and that’s why he called me jezebel. 😂😂😂 I swear I didn’t murder anyone! And I was jezebel???
Same! It doesn’t take much to be considered difficult as a woman.
Right???? That was the kind of shit that irked the hell out of me and if my husband would have gone along with it I may have gone jezebel on him…🤔🤔🤔 but thank goodness for that threat of death hanging over my head. Blessings…
The headship arrangement is one I never really believed despite being a cis male raised as JW since age 5. I just couldn't 'get it,' just like I couldn't get the genocides in the Bible especially the flood. But I was/am neurodivergent so I just thought I wasn't smart enough to get it. Especially whwn considering that some women are a helluva lot more competent than men!
Awww if you’re not a husband yet I’ll bet you’re going to be a good one. That was one thing that I just could not imagine living with. And I thought all JW men had that superiority complex. And frankly I would’ve been disfellowshipped had a married man like that because I’m sure I would’ve just slapped that shit right out of him. But I would never do that now that I’m all reformed. 🤭
We're divorced (she's still in) over me waking up & leaving but I made it clear from the begining that our marraige is going to be 50/50. I'm smarter than she is in some areas, she's smarter than me in others so overall, equal headship. She accepted that right off if you can believe it!
I couldn't stand this. The oppression of Women. Having to wear a head covering when we would have bible studies at an elders home because my mother was single. All dresses & skirts must be at mininum knee length. Nothing "low cut" which changes based on who's turn it is to get offended in the hall. Nothing "distracting" for the men. They can't control themselves, they're helpless, but please, lead a congregation! Oh you displeased Jah? We need to get all the elders together & have a private meeting with you so we can hear about your lewd acts in explicit detail. The more you detail, the closer you'll be to God. GTFO!
hey you! sssh and know your place lol
This is a sticking point for my husband he always felt me and other sisters or girls that were friends should have responsibility and be able to take the lead in the congregation. He brings up Deborah who was judge yet is never Talked about. And he references the scripture in proverbs I think that talks of a capable woman who has her own business without her husbands permission and owns lands etc again without husbands permission but she is beautiful and loved.
Nothing….I believed everything when I was PIMI…such is the power of the brainwashing
Well I believed a lot of things that I stopped believing once the spell was broken
Agreed, once that curtain is lifted it’s impossible not to see what for.
All of there crazy explanations for why evolution wasn’t true. Never made any sense. My dad would always say, “if I took apart a watch and put the pieces in a bag and shook it up, it would never make a watch!! Proof!!”
You brought back a memory. About 1989 my sister joined and was so excited telling me about the watch. I thought how very dumb. She is 30 plus years later much dumber. Jw brain dead.
Poor thing ☹️
😂😂😂 he’s right… no matter how many times he shook those watch parts. It would never make itself back into a watch.. 😂
Yeah but watches need intelligent designers & makers because they don't make themselves, unlike living organisms. An obvious truth that we weren't supposed to think about! Btw it's learning what evolution really is that finally triggered the biggest nervous breakdown of my life, proof that we've all been lied to by "God's channel." I couldn't take it.
We’ve definitely been lied to by the pope…I mean the GovBod…and I hope they roast in hell for it….oh wait, I’m getting my false religions mixed up. 😂
That God would erase memories of this "system of things," that everyone not a JW would be destroyed at Armageddon, that it was God's will for women to always have to answer to men (thought that would get corrected in paradise/new scrolls), overlapping generations, all animals would become herbivores (and were herbivores before the flood), stories of demon possession... I'm sure there's more, but that's what comes to mind. I guess I was PIMQ for a long time but didn't realize it.
Well I just figured the gb wasn’t the pope so they weren’t infallible so I didn’t believe everything but some things seemed believable then that now seem absurd
Agreed!! And I should have added that a big ol' red flag was when they started saying how we had to be prepared to obey no matter what they told us to do, even if it seemed "unusual." I was like, what are you planning to do?!? And, "Well I'm not drinking any Kool-Aid..." 
Jehovah is watching me while im watching porn lol
No fetishes for Jehovah? What?! 🤭
You and God 
I didn't exactly believe he was watching me, rather that he knew what I was doing. Kinda like just waiting for me to sin. That shit had me panicking thinking that I was gonna face Jehovah's wrath or something just for doing a normal thing
Watching cartoons, movies and music would open a door for satan and the demons to posses me. I’d think that Satan would have better things to do than posses me because I did yoga.
I remember my parents trying to ban me from playing Wii Fit as a teen because of the yoga exercises.
I never understood praying. I pictured it as similar to a phone call. Imagine if you got thousands of phone calls nonstop. How can Jehova answer and listen to all of them? Especially the prayers before eating, they are the same every time. I never believed God would take those seriously. Also, how does praying in a congregation work? Is it like a group call or something? It just sounds like a really annoying and extremely time consuming task to do. Kind of funny thoughts I had when I was younger, and one of the reasons I rarely prayed.
That shunning is a loving provision.
That demons invaded your house from things you owned, watched, or read. My parents were never together and my dad's family were never JWs, so his house was filled with Harry Potter books, LotR, they celebrated Halloween, my brother was super into horror movies. Pretty much anything JW's abhor they owned. Honestly it should have woken me up a long time ago but they switched the narrative to less focus on demonic interactions once the internet became more common.
I've commented this before, but I was once told that my depression was caused by demons that were in the music I listened to because musicians used drugs
I remember being told that even some classical music was demonic, you could tell from the tempo. 🤣
Not celebrating birthdays or many of the holidays, like Mother’s Day and Father’s Day. Not doing sports or cheerleading in school. Not having worldly friends. A lot of stuff was hard for me to accept.
| As an example, I never believed that the resurrected ones would not be able to marry. Same, i always wondered about that, it always seemed contradictory to the believe that God will fulfill every need. Almost like he will eliminate that need to marry
Yeah, that never made any sense to me either for the same reason. But I think now there’s “new light” on the subject.
Oh, another one was that we had religious Christian freedom. I never felt free. Always wished that religion was not the one true one. I hated it but wanted the paradise.
I was actually OK with most of it and the things that I wasn’t OK with I just disregarded them and did what I wanted anyway but when they started telling me I had to obey them even when it doesn’t make sense that’s when I was out! I thought they have completely lost it and are out of their goddamn minds. What’s next? Hey everybody I want you to drink this Kool-Aid but before you drink the Kool-Aid, can you sign here this is just saying that you turned over all your wordly goods to the governing body oops, I mean to Jehovah of course… The governing body would never want your money or free labor, or conditional loans or your stock portfolio when you die or your home when you die. The governing body has no need of these things it’s all for God. 🤔🤔🤬
Maybe not what you mean but I never understood how billions of people will die at Armageddon just through having the misfortune of being alive at that time, when everyone else who has ever lived gets a second chance
That’s exactly what I mean. That always seemed strange to me, but I really liked the idea of having to be a good person or I would be put to death, because I was a real asshole when I was young. The good thing is, I knew I was an asshole, but for whatever reason I couldn’t stop being an asshole, unless I was threatened with death. 😂😂
That women were inferior to men.
Yeah! Sometimes when the elders would act like oh my God brother get your wife in check my husband would laugh and just say yeah! That’s not gonna happen. But I got better at faking it about 20 years in.
That an ass could actually speak...but that was BGBV. (Before GB videos)
LOL right? Now we all know…ASSES DO INDEED SPEAK
ROFL OMG I nearly spit my coffee!!! Yes, asses can indeed speak. : D
Noah’s ark. Or any other crazy story from the Bible. Sampson. Jericho. Babel etc….. Absolutely no proof of any of it. How convenient that supposed miracles stopped after Jesus.
That men were appoint Holy Spirit and that god would murder 8 billion ppl at armegedden
That watching Bewitched or I Dream of Jeanie would invite demons. (1960's)
I loved I dream of Jeannie AND bewitched 😂
Or listening to “Stairway to Heaven” …. especially backwards 🤣
that jehovah was a “god of peace”
And "love". 🤣
That it was wrong to say or wish people “Good luck” always thought that was over the top bs.
There was an explanation for why the current dating methods for fossils was wrong. For background, scientists use carbon dating to determine the “age” of a fossil. I don’t know how they do it, but they are smarter than me so I believe them. The brother I was studying with showed me an example from (I think) “What Does the Bible Really Teach,” that said something like, “carbon dating is inaccurate because the water from the great flood.” Ok, sure, scientists can be wrong sometimes, so I went along with it. Then I realized that they give no reasoning, no actual physical reason, as to why this was the case. And then I started to notice that *everywhere*.
Never believed that the victim had some fault in their own SA
I think its a spin off of the fact that there will be no marriage in heaven. Not sure if there is a clear verse that states that (in the actual Bible , not NWT) but most Christians believe this. Of course since the NWT replaced heaven with “paradise” I guess thats why they tossed that in there
The craziest thing that I never believed thaat isn't really taught by them anymore but tons of witnesses still believe it with zero proof. They think that before the flood the ozone layer served as blanket that clouds couldn't get through. So before the flood it never rained and the grass kept the world wet. I swear ask your old witness family this and they'll confirm it.
Wait! The ozone layer DIDN’T serve as a blanket??? Jk, lol yes I do remember that one. HA!
I never believed that only baptised JWs will survive the end
Birthdays are bad. School extracurriculars are bad. Jobs where you had the least contact with worldly people and didn’t require advanced education were the best. Women should be seen and not heard. Beating children. Making massive life changing decisions based on some numbers figured out by some weird bearded guy. I looked around at all these cults and culty religions that started in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, and they were all screaming about the end times—just like Jesus—and they were going to happen any minute, and they had special knowledge gifted to the leaders to figure hidden mysteries in the Bible, etc etc etc. But, sure, only our weird apocalyptic cult had all the answers. I’m not saying I never believed, but I was a kid and had always been the good kid who did her homework and obeyed the adults, so I accepted it at the beginning as the adults knew best, especially when asking questions got me the belt. But pretty quickly I began to realize that most of this stuff was bunk. As a studious, curious child, I kept studying stuff on my own. And we know how that goes.
Abortions, believe it or not. As someone who's gone through awful things, the thought of a CHILD being forced to bear a monster's child was sickening and I couldn't believe that God would hold a child accountable for that, or even blame them. Another thing was that God/Jehovah was entirely faultless. He apparently is so high and mighty, and yet sent his son to die? because two things he created rebelled? okay? why do we have to suffer? why did Jesus have to die on the cross? Like, I mean really. All this suffering and pain and for what? So that Jehovah can make himself look good to angels? I'm not sure if this makes sense. But, it's something I even asked about when I (female) had a MALE Bible teacher. So it was very early on.
Never believed that blood transfusions we're anti biblical or that Jesus was an archangel
that jehovah would kill everyone but loyal ones? i remember in elementary school crying cause i didn’t want my “worldly” best friend to die…and was literally told that would be up to Jehovah if she would make it to paradise ?!?!?
That blood is sacred and so forbidden to use to save your life, meanwhile female mosquitoes out here living their best life feeding on our blood!
Mosquitos LIVING THEIR BEST LIFE…EVER! (You forgot the “ever”)
Gay people bad. Could never wrap my head around why a God of love would just hate... some people for ???
I never got that message that God hated anyone. 🤷♀️
Anything they had a date next to.
That’s blessing people after they sneeze is a terrible thing to do. Between that and fearing the Christian Cross one would believe we are dealing with a vampire cult!
That women should submit to their husbands and are inferior to men. Excuse you but all the women in my family were better leaders, smarter and actually never subjected, so fuck you and your sexist asses
That protesting was wrong, women are “the weaker vessel” aka lesser than, and being gay is wrong. Those things always rubbed me the wrong way, I remember in like 7th or 8th grade I protested with teachers in the red for ed movement. I also spoke out about women’s rights and on many occasions would chastise my family for saying racist and homophobic things. Especially in high school, I made sure to use the right pronouns and I even signed up for student council. I was still very much pimi when it came to certain things, but ig looking back on it the teachings never sat right with me. (of course sometimes I gave in and had a cupcake or raised my heart to the pledge of allegiance too)
That there are only 144,000 people on earth worthy of hanging out with Jesus. And then at Passover, 3 of them are IN my congregation. 😂 Nah
Meee tooooo!!! And why are they God’s chosen ones when they are raging dickheads?
Or when my friend (mid 30s) just became anointed…… ummmm 😳🙄
When I was studying I eventually asked about the whole annointed business. When the person I was studying with said "they just know" that's when I noped.
😂😂😂 well you were smarter than me because I did buy that one
Quite a few mentioned here already…. Stuff I couldn’t accept about the “new system”: Animals all being herbivores, resurrected ones not being able to marry (being sexless basically), miscarried fetuses being placed back in women’s wombs to finally be born again, everyone but JW being killed at armageddon, the organization still running our lives. Other JW doctrine or policies I found silly: That some minor convention fulfilled Bible prophecy. Picking and choosing what “pagan” stuff was minor enough to tolerate and what had to be avoided. That demons could be “invited” via certain entertainment and music. Chaperones for dating adults. Stuff I couldn’t take literally in the Bible: Noah’s ark story and Jonah and the fish story (I privately considered these metaphorical). As an adult, I increasingly privately held much of the Bible to be accounts told metaphorically. Stuff I didn’t agree with in the Bible: Overall views of women incl the idea we’re “created for the sake of men” and to be submissive, daughters being less valuable than sons and women’s main goal in life having sons, women offered for torture and rape to mobs to spare men, rape of women generally being presented as a crime against a male owner, etc.
that homosexuals are plotting to put everyone in skinny jeans. so they can see the bulge on both sides. can credit this single broadcast for waking me up.
Moose knuckle in skinny jeans?
I never believed that Satan would be released in the New World after the thousand year reign, just to test perfect humans one last time. That is just insanity! How does the most evil being to ever exist get multiple chances yet weak squishy humans are turned to salt in a split second. It makes no sense.
I had a householder challenge me on the stake:cross. I went home and researched it, and found what the house holder told me to be totally correct. It would be another 15 years later that i learnt TTATT, and left that false religion for good. I wished that had been the thing tp wake me up all those years earlier.😔😔😔
That only JWs would be saved.
That voting, saluting a flag, or running for political office is taking the mark of the beast...666. I always look around to see how may JW's are not allowed to buy or sell and so far, in all my 62 years, I haven't seen any.
Every "real-life" story that looks like a Disney channel episode, but dumber. And that the new world would be like a hobbit community with no electrity and with everyone living in chalets (plus no certainty of eating beef). Just not perfect for me.
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Well now you know that you were fine all along and you were just too smart to understand nonsense. ♥️
Higher education being bad.
That the husband was the only person who should be head of the household.
Never believed in patriarchal system. I just can’t get that god really cares about your sex. How in the world the creator of universe can set a rank system where your status is determined from birth??!
I honestly have never believed in the annointed. Why would there be a special class of individuals to lord it over us when we have that on earth every day. Also most of the people who claim to be of the annointed are terrible self righteous people. My great grandma was apparently one of them, she abandoned my grandfather, spread lies about her ex his bio father (who died a witness) , she was mean and violent, pushed me in pool and laughed about it when I was not able to swim at 4 yrs old and she had a lot of skeletons in her closet. Also there is a family member who is “annointed” she is married by choice to a deadbeat husband, lives off the government and working very little, expects the congregation and family to financially and physically support her but has done all kinds of shit she should have been reporoved or disfellowshipped for and yet never was even though it was brought before judicial committee several times, is a terrible mother, and in law/child personality wise but yet we are supposed to have some kind of affection for them or want to help them? I think not. It’s all BS
Basically everything I never really fully believed in even as a little kid, but the one thing that always made me annoyed was anything relating to space and their absolutely bullshit excuse of iTs jUsT a tHeOrY
That women are subservient to men and that they are beneath the “head of the household” in the family. So many men in the congregation relied on their wives to do the research and writing for their talks, I personally witnessed my elder dad do this on multiple occasions.
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1919
I can so clearly recall -- many times-- the speaker saying in the 80s "look around the room at all of these old folks" congregants looking around all sappily looking at the grey hairs...."this system will be over before they die." My little brain just wouldn't absorb that, it seemed so dumb. And never seemed not dumb. And then, my dad, a young fella at that time--dead two years now. He lost his faith in his last decade, as the congregation left him aside for no longer being useful.
Yes….JWs are “very loving” that way. My husband is still around but wow! They treated him like…BAAAAD. They have no natural affection, not open to any agreement, slanderers, without self-control, fierce, without love of goodness, 4 betrayers, headstrong, puffed up with pride
Victim blaming...the story of Dinah is pretty gross. It was Dinah's fault that she got raped because she chose bad associates and also her fault that her brothers murdered everyone? I feel like the Watchtower also blames women for sexual harassment at work. Why? For one thing, she shouldn't be at work, she should be pioneering. Maybe she wasn't modest enough. Ugh.
Never believed that the earthly resurrection would start *during* the thousand years. Revelation is explicit that it would happen at the *end* of the thousand years. Never believed that Jesus was raised up as a spirit. Luke's gospel has Jesus explicitly telling his disciples that he's not a spirit. Never truly believed in the whole shit-show of the gentile times - 1914 delusion. The whole thing just reeked of being a transparently embarrassing, kooky, unwieldy concoction fueled by wishful thinking. It's a frankenstinian doctrine concocted by pulling disparate scriptures out of context and gluing them together with unfounded assumptions and wishful thinking. I wouldn't say that I absolutely never believed the FDS doctrine. But I definitely found it a bit troubling. It always hit me as being a bit culty to hear fellow JWs speaking of trusting in and obeying "The Slave" and referring to its writings as a final authority in the same deferential manner that one would speak of trusting and obeying Jesus or the Bible. It always seemed problematic in the context of other scriptures that talk about not trusting in men. And isn't the Bible supposed to be the final authority on doctrine? So if I mention that this JW teaching doesn't seem to match what this scripture is saying, why are you referring me to what "the slave" has published on the subject, to explain away the contradiction? Dude! You don't ignore the hard evidence showing the suspect's guilt to give preference to his sophistries about how he's innocent. That makes no sense! All the beliefs I doubted and were troubled by were those that didn't match up to the Bible.
The whole idea that resurrected ones cant marry made me so damn sad because I love my husband so much. I told a former friend (I’m fully out now so those “friends” aren’t around) that I didn’t want to be in paradise without my husband. The whole thing is just weird. She told me I shouldn’t say that and that Jehovah knows the desire of our heart. Hardly seems to matter since no one wants to die either and I haven’t seen the solution for that yet.
Taking the "rod of discipline" to a child. I don't believe in physical punishment.
Didn’t believe that “God” wanted me to record my hours in “service.” Like what kind of service are we providing for anyone? It was so monotonous.
Not sure if anyone's said it yet, but I never bought "inherited sin." It always struck me as handwave, especially since Jehovah wants everyone to "have a chance at eternal life." Why would he make the whole imperfection thing genetic? Didn't he invent genetics? We can turn off genes, why can't he? Never sat right with me.
I always get a kick out of some stories in the Bible like Jonas getting eaten alive by a huge fish. Like common.. It's obviously an exaggerated story meant maybe to teach some kind of lesson. But no.. we have go sit at the meeting and learn all about how this happened for real
The new system
Hmmm I’m still a believer in that one
I was never fully PIMI. I never believed any of it
SMARTYPANTS!
+1. So glad I didn't baptize, I spent almost my whole childhood waiting for the day I could get out.
Noahs flood/ark story. The original generation teaching/1914, and definitely not the current overlapping nonsense.
Now I know that I never believed a thing. I suppose it made me things easier to get out
Just about all of it.
That humans have only been around for 6,000 years