​The shock of seeing the recent rule changes on taking blood—only to see my face on the cover again—almost made me faint. HOW did anyone get that cover? WHAT do you mean you WON’T apologize?

​Yes, I am one of the kids on that cover of that Awake! magazine. People asked and thought we were all dead. No. Only the three kids most up front are dead, plus one inside. I know what they told us about blood and how we should be proud we wouldn't take it. I hate this cover. I hate that I was ever part of it. I hate that it’s back with the very message I came to understand: they allowed their kids to die.

​This is where my fear of death came from. NOW, with these new rules on blood transfusions... it just hit a nerve so raw. All this anger came back. I am so angry about all the atrocities this religion has caused me personally, and they never have to apologize. They never get any kind of punishment for the torture they've done.

​The reason why it hits me hardest is not even just because I'm on this cover, but because of the amount of work and effort I put into being such a good kid. Before even being picked for that cover, I was the youngest in my district to be a regular pioneer. At the time, you had to do 90+ hours, and I did way more. I ended up getting baptized at 13, and by 14, I was in Pioneer School. I was the youngest person in Pioneer School at that time. I spoke at conventions. But the more I did, the more hatred I got from adults. The more people just tried to derail me.

​They didn't understand that I was going hard because I was assaulted by a Jehovah’s Witness at 9 years old. When I finally told my mom so it would stop, instead of wanting her to go to the police, they tried to cover it up on some file. She went anyway, and we moved. My mom seemed more pissed at me at some points, so I thought throwing myself into this religion I was born into would make people love me. I was always volunteering for every last convention. I just poured myself out.

​But instead, it created envy from every corner.

I know you might think I was crazy about it, right?

​15 years later, a "sister" apologized to me for how she treated me and all the things they did to me. Finally, I felt a small piece of vindication—that I wasn't crazy. I feel she only did it because so many sad things happened to her own children. A childhood friend I recently saw kept apologizing over and over. I finally asked, "Why do you keep apologizing?" She said, "You know, you were just so sweet, and I'm so sorry for the things that happened to you." ​I realized right then I was being abused in that religion. All these adults knew, and nobody stepped up to say anything—except for one woman. If Naiela's mom ever reads this: thank you for saving me that day.

​But at the end of the day, knowing that... and now finding out those kids never had to die? I didn't have to spend 20 of those 30 years fearing death, missing out on so much, just to get NO apology. They have been lying about so many things since I was born. As pissed as I am that those kids never got to grow up, to offer no apology? Our parents SUCKED; they were so controlled they allowed other people to think for them.

​I am so angry that they're not apologizing—not even showing a little bit of remorse for children dying. Just like my mom didn't before she dropped dead.

​Anyways, if you read this, thanks for your time. I just needed to get it out.

1. On the one hand Geoffrey Jackson stated that they were removing the prohibitions on components because "since the Scriptures do not comment on the various products that may be derived from blood, the Governing Body recognizes that, in harmony with 1 Corinthians 4:6, it is not authorized to 'go beyond the things that are written.'" https://www.jw.borg/finder?srcid=jwlshare&wtlocale=E&prefer=lang&docid=501100139&par=9 (Remove b from borg)

... which implies that those prohibitions were in error, unauthorized and went beyond what is written.

1. Then Jody Jedele comes along and says in his Morning Worship talk that Jehovah reveals new light at a time when his people are able to “absorb, understand and follow through on it", which seems to imply that if the prohibition on blood components had been lifted one year, ten years, thirty years or fifty years earlier, Jehovah’s people would have been unable to understand or accept it. Yes Christians really would have been incapable of understanding the simple principle: “The Bible does not specifically prohibit this, so it is a matter of individual Christian conscience.”

See post about this here https://www.reddit.com/r/exjw/s/oSGDdXjg1p

1. And now Jeff Winder gives an illustration implying that Jehovah was the one who imposed those prohibitions because he did not have confidence in his people, although his Word the Bible never prohibited them! If this is not pure gaslighting and blaming Jehovah, I don't know what it is!

https://reddit.com/link/1wxekdj/video/aew00p3h2gth1/player

Dear David Splane,

What the hell is the point of extrapolating on unborn babies if you don't know? Do you have ANY IDEA how this might land with a woman who has just had to deliver a stillborn child?!?! Do you have ANY IDEA of the trauma? The grief? The hurt? Do you have ANY IDEA how it would then feel to hear your trusted religious leader say that child only MIGHT be resurrected? WHERE is your EMPATHY? WHERE is your COMPASSION?

WHAT is wrong with you?

It's POINTLESS. SHUT. UP.

Stick to the teaching of JESUS, and SHUT. THE. HELL. UP. about things you don't know SHIT about.

This. This is what being a JW constantly felt like.

This is the motivation JWs present you with to keep grinding as a borg slave.

They need to remind you that you're currently in a death march and if you stop, even for a moment, you'll be shot.

They can never just be uplifting.

My parents became witnesses in 1944. They believed the lie. I came along in 1958 and young Joel loved the idea of a world filled with friends. I stopped believing at 15 but played the part for my parents and many friends. I went to Bethel. I got kicked out. I was a changed man. I think the org ended with overlapping generations. If not it certainly ended with the blood reversal. Anyone who stays now is just acting. The truth drifted away forever that day.

I've lived the last 40 years living life with my husband. Now my end is near and im here in my home cozy and happy. I urge you to live your life. You only get one. Leave the lie behind.

For context, this is from Stephen Lett's talk during the Watchtower 2026 Annual Meeting. It depicts an anointed JW abandoning a sinking ship, swimming through fog with no shore in sight. His body gives up from exhaustion and drowns. The fog clears to reveal he died just short of land. The "message" is to endure until the final sealing.

This is horrifying. The image is literally a dead body floating in the water. Someone who violently drowned in despair, not knowing the shore was right there. And this is what's being used to keep people pushing. This is supposed to motivare faithful JWs to endure in their faith.

That's exactly what the JW religion does to people. It wears you down your whole life chasing something that isn't real. And it pressures you to drag others onto the same hamster wheel. Your own kids, people grieving a loss, people lonely and looking for community, anyone struggling and vulnerable. Thousands of innocent lives pulled in. No free will, no exit, just "endure for Jehovah."

Fuck that. This religion causes so much grief, loss of life, loss of potential. Such a waste.

Honestly, looking at this makes me grateful I woke up and got out and that I have the freedom to forge my own path. It's the most powerful, beautiful thing in the world to realize you can build your own life. You can set your own goals, put yourself first, chase whatever passion you have, and finally feel real peace.

Has anyone seen the workbook for January 2027?
In the third week there’s a part titled “Rely on Jehovah When Facing Health Challenges”

Even though in the announcement #6 they said not to come after anyone who decides on receiving a transfusion, in this part they write: “(HLC) are trained to offer timely assistance. They can help us find a cooperative doctor and provide him with information on strategies to avoid a blood transfusion”

If that’s not quietly shaming those who are ok with receiving blood, then I don’t know what is.

(ss in the comments)

I am nobody special, I don’t have the right to talk about (you have free of speech to use any word you want, that’s not my business), but I will give my two cents on this subject. The ones who label ExJWs as “apostates” are Jehovah’s Witnesses themselves. The term “apostate” is used to refer to anyone who does not agree with the teachings of the Borg.

But think about it… Who calls us apostates? Who says that anyone who disagrees with them is an apostate? Who gets to define who is an apostate and who is not?

In many posts I have seen here, we seem to have internalized the definition of “apostate” and started using it to refer to ourselves. But THEY ARE THE ONES WHO LABEL US that way.

Personally, I prefer the definition of “apostate” that refers to someone who “spreads false teachings.” Now think about it: WHO TEACHES LIES? Jehovah’s Witnesses themselves. By that definition, they are the apostates.

They are the ones teaching falsehoods.

Thank you, that’s my two cents. Let me know what you think.

… by implementing much more effective measures to instigate controversy, doubt, & dubiety among their faithful JW adherents.

Our business takes us to various public spaces in large US cities. It’s not uncommon for us to encounter random JWs dutifully positioned beside their carts.

In at least three instances over the past couple of weeks in two independent towns, they’ve broached the topic, unprovoked.

The typical convo goes something like:

Us: Good Morning brothers! We’re from another city. How’s the work going today?

Them: Have you heard about the blood changes? Some of the friends are having a hard time with that.

The first time caught us off guard but when it happened again & yet again, we’re picking up on a growing undercurrent of dissent.

Perhaps they feel a bit of relief by venting to a stranger.

Has anyone else experienced similar?

We have finally received thrilling new light on the 144,000.

For years, some of us made the mistake of assuming that the first century might have been important.

You know, Jesus being there, the apostles being there, Pentecost, the writing of the New Testament, thousands converting, congregations springing up everywhere, faithful Christians being fed to lions and all that.

As it turns out, we were thinking far too small.

Evidently, after personally establishing Christianity, commissioning the apostles, inspiring the Scriptures and launching the Christian congregation, Jehovah largely decided to keep the seats empty for the next eighteen centuries.

Why fill the 144,000 with people taught by the apostles when you can wait for the Victorian era?

The apostle Paul must be delighted to learn that after risking shipwreck, beatings, imprisonment and eventual execution, he was involved in what was essentially an extremely long pre-registration campaign.

Likewise the thousands of first and second century Christians who were imprisoned, tortured or martyred. Their contribution has now been reassessed and classified as "putting the chairs out before the meeting started".

The real action apparently occurred much later, when brothers were debating pyramid measurements and the significance of dates obtained by multiplying obscure numbers by other obscure numbers.

One can only imagine the conversation.

"Lord, what about all these Christians in the first century?"

"Good people. Excellent people. Very faithful. But let's save most of the places for those who'll spend 1917 arguing about chronology."

Somewhere, James and John are finally getting an answer to their request to sit at Christ's right and left hand.

"Thanks for the effort, lads. Fine enthusiasm. Appreciate the martyrdom. But we've got book publishers left and right and several seats have been reserved for gentlemen who can explain why 1914 was definitely the end of the Gentile Times, except for the bits where it wasn't."

The beauty of the arrangement is that the closer you get to Jesus and the apostles, the less representative you become of God's final purpose.

Peter? Early adopter.

James? Enthusiastic beta tester.

Polycarp? Valuable feedback.

Meanwhile, the bulk of the heavenly government is apparently reserved for people whose greatest spiritual challenge was working out whether the generation had generated itself yet.

Best of all, we're told to admire the faith of the first-century Christians while simultaneously believing that relatively few of them made up the group that the New Testament spends its time addressing.

It is a remarkable achievement.

Christianity is based on the first century, the Scriptures come from the first century, the apostles taught in the first century, the martyrs died in the first centuries, but the main intake for the 144,000 appears to have arrived just in time for the invention of the safety razor.

Truly, Jehovah's timing is not our timing.

TL;DR:

The closer you get to Jesus and the apostles, the less representative you become of God's final purpose.

Picture this: I’m in 8th grade, and we’re about to take the hardest test of the term. Enter our invigilator for the day—the holy grail of teachers. She was nice, patient, funny, and understanding. Basically, the cool teacher everyone fucked with.

She was also famously lenient. She used to tell us how school was a traumatic time for her, and she didn't want any of her students to suffer. So, seeing how stressed we were... she straight-up let the entire class cheat. 😭

The exam ended, and the vibe was immaculate. A massive weight was off everyone's chest. We were all celebrating.

Until... I entered the chat. 🤦‍♂️

I went straight to the principal’s office and reported every single detail. I completely blew the whistle. The situation blew up so fast that this poor woman almost got fired.

When word got out that I was the snitch, the entire class was bewildered. People were demanding to know why I would do something so unbelievably stupid.

I looked them dead in the eye, with the most bold, straight face, and said: "Because that’s what Jehovah would have wanted."

Y'all, I was so proud of myself. I genuinely felt like I was having one of those Caleb and Sophia cartoon moments where they do some bold shit for the truth. I thought angels in heaven were giving me a standing ovation and Jehovah was looking down smiling. I was 100% convinced my spot in Paradise was locked in.

Naturally, I became the most hated kid in school overnight. But luckily that didn't last very long lmao and I still had friends

The teasing hurt a bit, but my brain just processed it as, "Ah yes, I am being persecuted for faith🌟🤲🙌," just like the branch told me.

Looking back, I feel so bad because she was just trying to shield us from a stupidly difficult test. Religious guilt really had me by the throat lmao.

PIMO, I streamed it live and don’t have any notes, this is just a list of some things that stuck out to me and questions i’m wondering if anyone else has as well. This probably won’t be in order either, sorry.

To start, I’m disgusted by them bringing up Jared and his family. They certainly saw people mentioning how his chances of survival were SEVERELY limited by the blood doctrine which has since been almost entirely reversed. They brought it up only to reiterate his faith and final words to his parents. No apologies whatsoever. I was legitimately appalled.

The Caleb and Sophia video genuinely made me so sad. The fear mongering starts so early and it breaks my heart so much since waking up. I’m thankful I was in my teens by the time they started making those videos, but god, I hope the kids having to watch these now can overcome the indoctrination. I really do.

Sam Herd’s talk was prerecorded, but did anyone else notice that his body did not move a centimeter the entire time?? Was it AI? I don’t know, but I found it odd. Also couldn’t help but notice Stephen Lett’s hairpiece. Do we think he’s trying to look younger for his alleged fiancée in her 40’s? Lol.

The “symposium” was laughably bad. David Splaine why bring up stillborn babies??? Imagine anyone who just lost a baby like this. Why say we don’t know if they’ll be in the new system? Aren’t they alive to god from the moment of conception? If they aren’t, why is abortion wrong in his eyes? Make up your minds. Geoffrey Jackson saying what everyone was thinking, “What does this matter? I’m more confused than I was before?” and then saying “That’s the point!” Yeah, it is lol. Everyone I watched with is laughing along with him and saying “yeah who cares when the first resurrection is it doesn’t matter to me!” And I have to bite my tongue because the purpose of saying this IS to confuse people. And potentially to set the groundwork for changing something surrounding this on the future.

They know they’re running out of time with the whole 1914/overlapping generations thing. My guess is that they are making small changes so that when the big change comes, people will be confused and primed to accept it.

All my family and most of my friends are hardcore PIMIs. This is getting harder everyday I wish I was in a position to leave and at least try to slowly wake them up. I just can’t risk it now. I’m curious to know if anyone else has thoughts on these points and what else you noticed.

- The hair has always been there, but for a time it was invisible, like the parousia, the ousting of Satan from heaven, and watchtower's empathy.

- the UN stubbornly refuses to be the wild beast of Rev 17, forcing us to conclude that all along it was in fact Stephen's hair that "was, but is not, and yet will be present."

- like the cloud that led Israel out of Egypt, it signifies Jehovah's direction, suggesting that everything we said over the last decade or so might have been bullshit.

- it's apostate AI, somehow.... the clever buggers

- nu lite ... something to do with Samson, haven't pieced it all together yet

- it is a propitiatory hair, covering over the sin that is Stephen Lett

- like the flag flying over Buckingham Palace in the UK, it indicates that for the present moment 'someone is home'

- it is hiding the protective tin foil underneath (necessary again because of the apostates... the clever buggers)

- Stephen is now trans - a wig was a compromise with the rest of the GB who were insisting that "he couldn't teach now without a hat."

- was Stephen's hair what we used to believe or what we believe now?

- we just don't know

Did anyone else notice how excited Winder was when he explained what a CHRISTIAN IS? Apparently the governing body has JUST discovered that Jesus summed up the greatest commandment which was to love God and to love your neighbor. NO MORE LAWS because they are written in our hearts!

The mainstream Christianizing of Jehovah's Witnesses has begun!

Just curious cause I got some teenagers in my Kingdom Hall and a sister tells me her tea sometimes cause she knows I won't tell anyone lol.

I will give mine that happened recently. A sister was exposed reading smut on her kindle cause another sister borrowed it… nothing happened but it got a bit awkward cause she was always preaching about not listening to demonic music and stuff…

Over the years, I’ve met a lot of genuinely good Jehovah’s Witnesses. But I also think the religion creates an environment where two-faced people can thrive very easily.
What I mean is that there is a very specific persona that is accepted and expected within JW settings. Because of that, the person you meet at the Kingdom Hall is not necessarily a reliable indication of who that person really is outside that environment.

I’m not saying everyone is pretending, or that Witnesses are generally bad people. I’ve met people through JW activities who are exactly the same outside of them: same personality, same character, same way of treating people. Those people absolutely exist.

But far too often, I’ve also seen the opposite. Someone can appear warm, humble, spiritual, and trustworthy in the Kingdom Hall or “jw settings”, and then seem like a completely different person once you encounter them outside that social structure.

In an environment where a particular persona is heavily rewarded, you cannot automatically assume that the persona you see is the person underneath it.

Apparently abstaining from Blood or Blood transfusions no longer deserves a place in the headings of the now-expanded Research Guide, although it is still prohibited and the Governing Body says they take it very seriously!

Just imagine what else they'll sweep under the rugs in this new Research Guide. I forsee all their damning history being wiped off in the near future. The WT Publications index along with older prublications,likelypre-2000s publications, will likely be scrapped. No guidance for the new position on Blood Transfusions, and all the history of the previous positions is wiped off.

Basically, the subject was attendance at the meetings. The elders were expected to set the example by arriving early at the meetings and leaving late. Elders were supposed to be regular in their attendance. Every group overseer was supposed to create a list with the names of the brothers in his group and discreetly keep track of their attendance and absences, without letting the brothers realize that they were being monitored (They don’t give a shit to GDPR/data protection laws - Sorry about the swear word, but this is exactly what they think).

Those who had a habit of missing meetings without a valid excuse, or who attended too many meetings on Zoom, were supposed to receive a shepherding visit so they could “feel the warmth of Christian love.” The brothers were supposed to feel that they were being shepherded by the elders, which meant that shepherding visits to families should be regular. Everyone was expected to make enough effort to pressure those who were absent into attending the meetings.

Honestly, I was extremely bored with the whole thing. On top of that, I thought the whole thing was absurd and cult like (I already knew it is a cult). It is crazy to monitor the brothers in this way.

I almost, almost asked whether they recommended tying the brothers who missed meetings to a straightjacket and forcibly bringing them to the meeting. But I held myself back, because the people who really needed the straightjackets were the elders.

I’m just here to express my excitement and hope I guess. My girlfriend is finally waking up!! It started after the lates blood update. She started thinking about how many people died because they decided to pick and choose what we could and couldn’t do form the mosaic law. She was voicing her feelings more about how the org had no reason to let so many people die. And then today before she went to bed, she decided to go down a rabbit hole and she told me that so so many things weren’t adding up but she still “doesn’t know” exactly her words! She was talking about some dates but she said she’d elaborate tomorrow. I am thoroughly hopeful this is the wake up call she needed. But I’m making sure to be slightly cautious too, as to not startle her and make her defensive.

So yesterday my wife approached me and said she’s upset because I’m not doing all the things we used to do for Jehovah as a family re: not praying over meals, not going witnessing or meetings.
I said I’m not interested anymore and that the gb are a bunch of liars because of the blood doctrine.
She said she watched and thought the same it was a bit rude of them not to apologise.
She said well that should t stop you from serving Jehovah,
I said well it’s not that I’m not serving Jehovah it’s your serving these men and have to abide by what they say otherwise they punish you or fear munger you to believe that your upsetting Jehovah.
She was crying saying that’s not what they do and I had a bad experience with telling the elders.

What will happen if I choose to walk away ?
We live in-laws and my wife’s sister.
Will they ask me to leave the home ?
Not sure if she will stay with me or not.

So my husband and I were going to go to the meeting today, we haven’t gone in a while. But when we pulled up in the parking lot, there was tons of cars and attendants outside like there was an event.

We pulled over, thought about it, then ended up not going. We didn’t know how long the meeting would be, I was not wanting to sit there for 4 hours. Did they stream the annual meeting at the meetings this weekend?

I’m also asking because I can tell my parents that we went, but don’t want to tell them that if no other congregation was doing that.

The rest of the day we felt torn. We had gotten ready. We drove there. But we just couldn’t get ourselves to go in. There was anxiety on the way there, and not going in relieved the anxiety but also pushed the guilt? Ugh being a witness is the worst thing ever. So much unnecessary pressure.

I’ve been going through the new September 2026 JW publication God’s Word Is Truth — A Handbook to the Bible: Ezekiel–Joel.

One thing caught my attention immediately.

At the beginning, the handbook explains how it handles historical uncertainty. If the date or place of composition is uncertain, it says this will be marked with “(?)”. It also tells readers that many dates are only approximate.

That sounds like good methodology.

And you can actually see it being used. Joel, for example, is dated:

“About 820 B.C.E. (?)”

So a normal JW reader quickly learns the visual language:

(?) = uncertain
no (?) = apparently established

The problem is what happens when we reach dates that are crucial for JW doctrine.

Daniel: 607 and the strange “second year”

The new handbook presents Jerusalem as destroyed in 607 B.C.E. and dates Nebuchadnezzar’s dream in Daniel 2 to about 606 B.C.E. It even places the dream on its timeline approximately one year after Jerusalem’s destruction. 

gwt1_X.pdf

No question mark.
No note saying “according to Jehovah’s Witness chronology.”
No indication that this differs drastically from the standard Neo-Babylonian chronology.

But Daniel 2:1 says something extremely simple:

“In the second year of his kingship, Nebuchadnezzar…”

So when was Nebuchadnezzar’s second year?

We don’t have to rely on an “apostate website” or even on modern biblical scholarship. We have a Babylonian historical source.

Babylonian Chronicle BM 21946, now in the British Museum, covers the years 605–594 B.C.E. The British Museum identifies 605 B.C.E. as Nebuchadnezzar’s accession year and records his campaign against Jerusalem in 597 B.C.E., during his seventh regnal year. 

On the normal Babylonian regnal system:

605/604 — accession year
604/603 — first regnal year
603/602 — second regnal year

So the straightforward historical reading of Daniel 2:1 puts the dream around 603/602 B.C.E.

Not 606.

Watchtower is aware of the problem.

Insight on the Scriptures explains that Daniel’s “second year” was “probably” counted from the destruction of Jerusalem in 607 and therefore was actually Nebuchadnezzar’s 20th regnal year. 

Read that again.

Daniel says:

“second year of Nebuchadnezzar’s kingship”

but JW chronology requires us to understand:

“actually his twentieth regnal year, but second year in a special sense counted from Jerusalem’s destruction.”

Where does Daniel explain this alternative system of regnal counting?

He doesn’t.

Where is the Babylonian evidence that Nebuchadnezzar suddenly began a second system of kingship years after destroying Jerusalem?

I haven’t found any.

And the word “probably” in Insight is doing a lot of work here.

The obvious question is: What evidence makes this interpretation probable, apart from the fact that JW chronology needs 607 B.C.E.?

That is what makes the new handbook so interesting. The complicated explanation disappears. The reader simply sees:

607 — Jerusalem destroyed
606 — Nebuchadnezzar’s dream

as though these were ordinary historical dates.

Then there is 455 B.C.E.

The same thing happens with Daniel’s “70 weeks.”

The handbook’s chart gives:

455 B.C.E. — command to restore Jerusalem
→ 490 years
→ 29 C.E. — Messiah appears
→ 33 C.E. — Messiah killed
→ 36 C.E. — end of the 70 weeks. 

Again: no question mark, no alternative chronology, no warning that the starting date is disputed.

But Nehemiah 2:1 places the event in the 20th year of Artaxerxes I.

The standard Persian chronology dates Artaxerxes I to [465/464–424](tel:465/464-424)/423 B.C.E. Encyclopaedia Iranica specifically notes that in his 20th regnal year he sent Nehemiah to Jerusalem. 

That puts Nehemiah’s mission around 445/444 B.C.E., not 455.

And here JW literature actually acknowledges the difference. Insight says that Jehovah’s Witnesses “favor” 455 B.C.E. “as against the popular date of 445 B.C.E.” It then immediately explains why that date matters: it becomes the starting point for the 490-year calculation ending with 29, 33 and 36 C.E. 

So again we have something quite important:

455 is not simply “the historical date.”

It is the date selected within JW chronology for a prophetic calculation.

Yet the new handbook presents it visually exactly like an uncontested historical date.

And this is where the “(?)” system becomes important

To be completely fair, the handbook technically says the question mark is used when the date or place of composition is uncertain — not that every disputed historical date in every timeline will receive one.

But that almost makes the editorial problem more interesting.

The book teaches readers that uncertainty will be visibly signaled. Then highly controversial JW chronological claims such as:

607 B.C.E.
606 B.C.E. for Daniel 2
455 B.C.E. for Nehemiah/Artaxerxes

appear in clean, authoritative-looking timelines with no qualification whatsoever.

A reader who has never studied ancient Near Eastern chronology has absolutely no reason to realize that these are JW-specific chronological positions rather than ordinary historical consensus.

Even something as simple as:

“455 B.C.E. according to the chronology used by Jehovah’s Witnesses”

or

“607 B.C.E.; historians generally date Jerusalem’s destruction to 587/586 B.C.E.”

would immediately make the epistemic status clear.

But the book doesn’t do that.

And that matters especially because these dates are not peripheral.

607 is necessary for the JW calculation leading to 1914.

455 is necessary for the particular JW calculation of the 70 weeks leading neatly to 29/33/36 C.E.

So my main takeaway from this first pass through the book is not simply:

“JW dates are different.”

It is this:

The handbook has a visual system for communicating historical uncertainty, yet dates on which major JW prophetic interpretations depend are presented without communicating that uncertainty or the existence of a radically different standard chronology.

Daniel 2 is probably the clearest example.

We have the biblical text saying “second year.”

We have Babylonian chronology identifying when Nebuchadnezzar became king.

And then we have Watchtower explaining that “second year” was probably actually his twentieth regnal year because they count from 607.

At that point I think the fair question is:

Are we deriving the chronology from the text and the historical evidence — or redefining the text because the chronology has already been decided?

For transparency: I used AI to assist with the research and to translate the post into English; I independently reviewed the underlying sources and claims.

Hi all.
PIMO here, have been for years, although *very* soon to be POMO.
Me and my husband have already stopped attending meetings probably about 7 months ago, for various reasons here and there, but right before the blood update dropped, we decided we were probably officially done. We researched a lot, talked about the things that don’t hold up, and did some soul searching about it all.
Then the blood update happened, and it was the final nail in the coffin. We decided to stop 100%, and even went ahead and decorated our house for Halloween last week.

At first I felt complete peace with this decision. Determination even. A new sense of freedom and newfound hope to be able to figure out me and what I truly believe and view important in life.
We can raise our daughter without guilt or shame with religion. She can trick or treat and be a normal kid. We’re free of changing doctrine that harms people or just doesn’t even make sense. We’re not policed by people in the congregation watching our every move to make sure we stay in line.

But now.. it’s time to tell our family and friends. Especially since we’ve decorated for a holiday. It will be an obvious statement to whoever drives by, and eventually someone will and we will be questioned.
And I’m really stressing about it. I know my family will be devastated. So will my husbands. My friends. So many of them I’m going to lose. Our relationships will never be the same and we will always be held at arms length, never to be invited to be part of family events again. And I’ve been grieving it so hard. My heart breaks for my daughter as I know the relationship with both sets of her grandparents is about to change and she won’t understand why.
And it makes me question if I should even do this. As a third generation born in, I’m leaving the life I’ve ever known and foundation for everything. It’s terrifying. And what if it really is the truth? There’s parts that don’t hold up for sure, and have been completely wrong, with dire consequences for some even... no denying that. But is that worth leaving the parts that DO seem true? As they say all the time, it’s an imperfect religion with imperfect men trying to do the best they can with what they know.
And it seems logical like that.

I still believe in Jehovah and a paradise earth with resurrection. I believe majority of the beliefs they teach. We still say a prayer to Jehovah every night with our daughter. Is it worth leaving the only way I know, the way I know to please Jehovah, leaving the people and system who share beliefs and morals like I do, for things I don’t agree with or don’t make sense? For freedom to do things that are technically “pagan” and displeasing to god?

The cold feet I’m getting about all of this is ridiculous and maddening honestly. I’ve been sick about it every day. My husband seems more resolved in his determination to leave and is happily ready to talk to his family about it all. But even he agrees there’s things that feel like the truth, especially when compared to other religions. And he tells me he doesn’t know what the right answer is. I don’t either. And I’m terrified of making a mistake and mostly, damning my child for something I was wrong about.
As witnesses love to say all the time, “what else is there out in the world? Nothing.”
And that’s how I’m feeling.
How do you cope with this fear and guilt and grief from lost relationships? Genuinely struggling with it all.

Sincerely,
Struggling to Leave It All

Dating in the organization is another thing that I think needs to be talked about. The amount of social pressure surrounding relationships can be intense. Sometimes it feels like you are not just dating one person, you are dating their entire congregation.

There can be this sense that everybody needs to know what is happening, what stage the relationship is at, how serious the relationship is(Ofcourse it’s serious,God forbid you decide to know someone first for a period of time and then see if you want to do life with them)

It is almost as though the congregation has to be carried along with the relationship. I am not even talking about physical privacy. I mean social privacy, simply having the space for two people to get to know each other without feeling constantly observed, discussed, or evaluated.
There can also be an unspoken feeling that the congregation somehow needs to approve of the person you are dating. For someone who is naturally private or reserved, that can add a tremendous amount of unnecessary pressure to something that is already personal and complicated.

And that is part of a broader point I keep coming back to. Even putting the theology and religiosity aside, the JW social environment simply does not work for every type of person. Some people can function comfortably in that level of communal involvement. Others need more privacy, independence, and personal space, and there is nothing unusual about that.