Would you go to a JW Bible study?

[quizzywizz]

I have wanted to do a Bible study for a while but there aren't many around here and the times at the church ones just don't fit in with everything else that I do.

I work with a Jehovah's Witness and she said that they do Bible studies in people's homes or in the home of the JW and they work right through the Bible and the key features. She said that a lot of non-JWs go the the studies and that even some non-believers do too. They are usually 1 on 1 or 2 JWs and 1 student.

Would you go to a JW Bible study? Do you think there would be anything to worry about?

To me, the definition of a Christian is someone who follows Jesus Christ (hence CHRIST-ian) . It sounds like JWs don't believe Jesus was "the Christ" so how can they be Christian?

Having convinced yourself that 1. you disagree with them and 2. they want to convince you of something you disagree with, do you plan to keep going? I think it's good that you've tried it and can recognise their strategies. But I'm not sure what you'd get out of continuing to go, now you've given it a try. Either you'll continue to disagree with them, in which case you will be having to reach your own conclusions in some other way, or you'll find yourself starting to think they have a valid point.

If I get one thing right today, please let it be putting my 2-pence' worth into dissuading you from continuing with the JW Bible study group.

DP was raised a JW and although he has had no adult involvement with this group, it continues to cast a long and unpleasant shadow over our lives together, impacting in so many ways.

I've learnt to just live with the complete wierdness which permeates all aspects of dealing with his family (which we do as little as possible), and it really is a wonder that he isn't in more of a mess than he is, nearly 4 decades and a lifetime of therapy on.

My MiL and her friends in the congregation seem nice as pie and the close-knit feel of the group can appear quite attractive but scratch the surface and you find people who are so hard, judgemental and completely devoid of any real compassion. I will never forget listening to MiL and her JW friends talking about the kids DP grew up with, "in the Truth", whom have since left the congregation, and coldly dismissing the many personal tragedies which seemed to have befallen those now grown up kids as justified punishments by Jehovah for disassociating themselves with the faith, and hard but necessary lessons for their parents. What makes it so chilling is that they were talking about sufferers of mental illness, victims of domestic violence, cancer, depression, eating disorders and, shockingly, the very recent suicide of one of the sons of the women present in this way, all in absolute and terrifying agreement. No hint of empathy or sadness, only self-satisfied righteousness.

DP grew up under the constant threat of violence in the name of Jehovah; severe beatings for the smallest things were deemed the norm in their congregation. The indoctrination is second to none and runs so deeply that he is still able to "quote scripture" and skewed JW rhetoric with sickening accuracy and aplomb if asked.

Oh dear, I keep writing and re-writing this, because I find myself overwhelmed with the strength of my feelings about it. Please listen to Stressed and others who speak from experience and hindsight, and make your exit now. I am sure your colleague is lovely, but really, you owe her nothing. The very best of luck to you.

oh, Peaceful, your poor DH. Sadly his story is not uncommon.

Under the surface of any Jw is a hard, judgemental person. Congregations are full of judgement for those who leave, those who stay but aren't "strong enough in the truth", and other congregations. it all comes from never knowing if you've done enough to survive Armageddon and from the fear of having to measure even the minutiae of your life against impossible standards.

it's really hard to escape, partly because of the fear of Armageddon and of condemning your children to certain, awful death, and partly because the indoctrination goes so deep that life outside is really hard. Satan is everywhere don't you know, in the books you read, the songs you listen to, the cards you send, the jewelry you wear, the people you know, the places you go. It takes a long, long time to adjust and even years later, the thinking is still there somewhere.

as to their view of Jesus, they will not stop, OP, trying to convince you. They will do everything they can to bring you in. They are compelled to do so. I used to have a friend that devoted 125 hours a month minimum to preaching just so that she could avoid the blood guilt of not doing enough.

Please get out while you can.

There're many ways or religions with their own look or interpretation on the bible.

If you'd like to have a study with the JW's, why not?
If you feel ok with it there's nothing wrong with it.

There're a lot of good, but also wrong people to be found among the JW's, same as with any other religious group or any group of people.

They're good, except they 'kick' JW's out of the group if they don't follow the rules. Then none of the other witnesses are allowed to have a chat or any form of contact with that other person. Even if it's someone of your own family or someone you've known for all your life.

Have a study with them, but I'd advice never to get baptized.

They also have some odd rules like don't celebrate birthdays. Yet the bible doesn't say it's not allowed to do that.

And they don't take or give blood. They don't celebrate Christmas, because it's coming from pagan celebration/rituals. But if you look into history almost everything has got his origin or is being influenced by pagan beliefs.

These rules change. There's a big difference between their rules now and when this religion started.

Some of mine friends are JW's and I've been doing a bible study with them and went to their meetings. I've met other witnesses there. Some are nice and some others just give me an uncomfortable feeling.

Please don't even consider doing a Bible Study with the FUCKING JEHOVAH WITNESSES THEY ARE PURE EVIL THROUGH AND THROUGH. I did a Bible Study with one particular Jehovah woman and she let me down completely. She encouraged me to do the Bible Studies, introduced me to "brothers/sisters" of their 'cult' and took me to their meetings. Then she told me to tell my family or she wouldn't be able to continue to do the Bible Studies with me plus she said she would support me when I did. Well she didn't and left me to sort it out myself. Me and my husband almost split up because of the Jehovah Witnesses. She tried to convert me into her religion and let me down. I thought she was a friend but then she told me she wasn't a friend and she just wanted me to convert to her religion.

Okay dokay so I decided that the last session would be the last one as I wanted to finish the chapter. (I am odd like that!) It just seems an odd religion all around to me - having to commit all those hours and recording time spent on conversations about God etc. with non-believers towards some monthly target. Seems a bit like a sales team to me.

Before I could mention it she said she had a really big surprise for me and that an "overseer" was coming to the area and she had arranged for her to come to my next study. She seemed really excited so I guess it gets her brownie points somewhere.

So the plan now is that Monday will be the last study. I will just let her know after the session as I don't really want to embarrass her in front of this overseer person. I wonder if I am being checked out by some higher up people as I tend to ask a lot of questions.

The fake friend thing is a little odd to me - do they just do that to draw you in the dump you if you do join or are they genuinely interested in the people doing studies?

If you don't join then they dump you because JWs aren't really allowed outside friends. If you do join, many witnesses remain close friends with the person who brought them into "the Truth", but like everywhere else, there is a lot of bitchiness and back biting in JW congregations especially over things like the number of hours they spend in the preaching work.

The overseer will be a man. Women aren't allowed positions of authority within JWs. He will be doing his twice yearly visit to the local congregation and will be coming along to you because your friend thinks that you are a likely study. All the questions might be seen as you trying to find out more about the Truth more quickly, iyswim. He'll also be seeing how she handles a study. A circuit overseer is kind of like a manager, he looks after about 20 or so congregations and spends his time travelling between them.

The whole logging of hours thing is so that the society can keep track of what each witness is doing. if you do less than a couple of hours a week you are considered "inactive" and therefore on the fringes of the congregation. You will be asked to bring up your hours. if you are a man, you won't be allowed any extra responsibilities unless you keep regular publishing hours. As I said before, it is a religion of very little grace. JWs belief that the preaching work is key to surviving Armageddon, so the more hours that you do, the better your chances of surviving, as long as everything else in your life tallies with what Jehovah commands. it's very much a works not grace faith.

It is sad to think that they present themselves as this perfect community where everyone loves each other and yet they still judge one another.

Ooooooh for some reason I assumed the overseer would be a woman!! I do ask a lot of questions but I don't know if I like being classed as a likely study. Guess they will have a surprise when I extract myself from future sessions!

The idea that you have to put in hours and hours door knocking and doing studies to get into heaven is unsettling. It would seem .... nicer? perhaps if they believed in grace based salvation and yet still believed enough to share their faith. Not that they are trying to ensure their own salvation.

Id not go. I know what I believe (believe m I've worked it through) and I know I'd just get cross.

My dh might. He's much quicker off the mark with theology tan e.

quizzywizz I didn't post on this thread before but was lurking . I was wondering how you got on when you said you didn't want to continue. How are things with your colleague?

I'm not a JW but can say that they do believe in Jesus Christ . The difference is they believe He is Jehovah (God)'s son but not that He is God.

quizzywizz, you haven't posted in some months...If you continued your study because you are learning/enjoying it, it would be great to let people on here know. If you chose not to, I think people are interested in how your "exit" went as well.

To clarify a few things very simply, and offer some helpful advice to anyone looking to study the Bible, especially with a JW or two(you can choose, all you have to do is ask...some find it fun to meet someone new at various times, and no student has ever been discouraged from bringing as many others to the study as they wish-100 to 1 would be acceptable, Jesus spoke before upwards of 5000 at a time, why should any Christian be afraid to do the same if He is really "with us"?):

Why "study" the Bible in addition to just "reading" the Bible? One definition of "reading" or "to read" is "to receive or take in the sense of (as letters or symbols) especially by sight or touch" --> While a definition of "studying" or "study" is "application of the mental faculties to the acquisition of knowledge"...so, what's the difference? If you were to read a repair manual for your car, would you then be able to do everything in the manual? How about if you were to read, then meditate on it, try it and practice it, possibly reading it and thinking about it more times? Which of those practices would result in your better knowing how to repair your car? In the same way, most Christians believe that the Bible is our manual for life. God Himself said at Isaiah 48:17 that he is trying to 'teach people to benefit themselves'.

Does this wisdom from Solomon sound like "just reading" is involved?: Proverbs 2:4-5, 20 (International Standard Xlation) - "if you seek it like silver and search for it like hidden treasure, then you will understand the fear of the LORD and learn to know God......20 This is how you will walk in the way of good men and will keep to the paths of the righteous.

"Mainstream Christian" = Did Jesus teach that "mainstream" would likely be the correct "Way"? According to Jesus, is "believing" enough to enjoy the "grace" of God?

Matthew 7:13-14 (American Standard Xlation) - ""Enter through the narrow gate; for the gate is wide and the way is broad that leads to destruction, and there are many who enter through it. "For the gate is small and the way is narrow that leads to life, and there are few who find it.

Only 7 verses later, Jesus makes clear he is not talking about "Christians" vs "non-Christians", but instead of 'true' Christians vs 'those who claim to be' Christian. People don't say "Lord" unless they "believe", but James points out that even the demons "believe", but it isn't going to save them.

Matthew 7:21-23 (AMX again) - "Not everyone who says to Me, 'Lord, Lord,' will enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father who is in heaven will enter. "Many will say to Me on that day, 'Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in Your name, and in Your name cast out demons, and in Your name perform many miracles?' "And then I will declare to them, 'I never knew you; DEPART FROM ME, YOU WHO PRACTICE LAWLESSNESS.'"

Hmmm...I just re-read what I posted and noticed one thing at the end that could sound a way other than I meant it...in the last paragraph in the first sentence I said "while some people think Jesus is taking too long to return (yes we do believe that)..." I was making the statement that 'we do believe that he is returning', but it could sound like I was saying 'we believe He is taking too long'...from the completion of the paragraph one can tell easily that is not the case, but I thought I would clarify...oops! :-)

As someone else suggested it is good to use your own translation of the bible and that way you can be confident that everything you read is accurate.

You can see a demonstration of how a bible study is conducted at www.jw.org/en/video-bible-study/

quizzywizz how you doing?

I will share my experience with Jehovah's Witnesses now. And leave you to make up your own mind.

I was 17. My first time living away from my family in a nasty little bedsit in South London.

I invited some JWs into my house because I was really, desperately lonely. They were nice and came round twice a week. Two friendly women to drink coffee with - what's not to like?
One day, I completely innocently asked why two of them came round. They said it was so one could scream in case the other one was raped. Those words exactly.
The thing is, if they were raped they would also be shunned by everyone in their community.
Even as a lost 17 year old boy, I still saw they weren't a group to spend more time with.

She has probably made up her mind, as she was asking two years old ago.

OP: if you're still here, did you go on a course? Which one?

I think she was assimilated

Can't believe I just read a sodding zombie thread

Yeah it really sounds that way, eh. That they finally got her.

Oh zombie thread...damn it, I've got a load of books from a uni module I was going to try and give away, lol.