Any ex-jehovah's witnesses

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If you are an X-JW, what was it that got you to question the claim of the Watchtower that the Governing Body is Gods channel of communication here on earth. I’ve gotten to understand the mentality of JW over time and it seems that many already know about the false prophecies and flip flop on doctrines. They even seem to defend the Governing Body and the Watchtower as a whole for admitting these things, yet they continue to follow everything they are told without questioning. Do you think that what they say to detractors is very different from what they really think? I know that as an X-JW, you may have some insight into the physchological struggles that they may be dealing with. Any (name removed by moderator)ut would be helpful. Thanks.
 
Ravyn,

Thanks for sharing your story. There are indeed exJWs here. Read the board and you’ll discover who they are. I’m not a former JW, but my ex-wife was a JW for 2 of the 11 years we were married. I was able to get her and two of her three children out…even after the divorce they have not gone back.
 
Former JW here. Raised in it. Short story is I never believed and when I was 18 I left it behind as I left my parents home.
 
Ravyn_Guiliani said:
my deconversion story for those who have not heard it:

disc.yourwebapps.com/discussion.cgi?disc=46743;article=2853;title=Searching%20for%20Long%20Lost%20JWs%20and%20Ex-JWs
Click to expand...
Dear Ravyn,

Your story is realy touching. May I copy that and give it to my brother in law, who will marry a JW soon? I was a JW, but only for a year. Perhaps my period was just a honeymoon, so that I did not have your kind of experience with the Watch Tower. My time with them were full of gatherings, with full of questions and answers sessions.
 
Well, and I speak from experience,
many members of the Jehovah’s Witnesses have experienced
a genuine touch from God. It happened to me, and the JW religion was the only religion I knew, so I associated my powerful experience with the JW faith itself.

So, for a long time I was afraid to question “The Society” even when I noticed the flip-flops, false predictions, etc., because not knowing anything else in depth, I believed that God was using 'The Society" (meaning in practice the Governing Body in Brooklyn, NY) as his Channel of Communication to mankind.
It really takes a lot of time and prayer and study for a JW (or Mormon or SDA or whatever) to be delivered from the erroneous doctrines of the given organization. I can tell you that despite factual errors of doctrine, MANY Jehovah’s Witnesses have genuinely experienced a God-based conversion to God in spite of the errors they believe. Especially those were raised in it and know nothing else outside of Watchtowerism.
There is very much in JWism that is true: their moral code is generally excellent and 99% in harmony with scripture. Their reverence for scripture as the word of God is genuine.
The problem is that several of their foundational doctrines are errors.
It’s a struggle to let go of those errors for fear that you might be displeasing God by doing so.
The best way, I think, for a JW (or Mormon or whatever) to come to Catholicism is to show them the writings of the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd Century early Christian writers. These writings reveal that the JW belief in a very early JW church in the Roman Empire is an erroneous belief and that the early Christians, doctrinally speaking, were never JWs. This is a big, big, big help.
And we should pray fervently for these folks to be delivered from error, because on the whole they are good people.
Love,
Jaypeeto4
+JMJ+
 
The best way, I think, for a JW (or Mormon or whatever) to come to Catholicism is to show them the writings of the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd Century early Christian writers.

I happen agree with you 100%. My wife has been studying with JW off and on for years against my objections and was recently baptized. I was born and raised Catholic but I must admit I was not firmly indoctrinated so I wasn’t able answer some of their objections to Catholicism. I knew I didn’t agree with the basics of the Governing Body’s teaching but I was unprepared to quote chapter and verse in scripture to defend my faith. This caused me to do my own research on the history of the Church as well as the Protestant/Catholic debate. That is no longer the case. In fact, I’ve grown closer to Christ because of my research and because of the writings of the early Church Fathers, I have much more appreciation for the Authority of the Church that he established…
 
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