*This passage you will read more about the history of freak shows, Phocomelia, and the sad story about her.
*As always, this passage will combine English, Chinese and Japanese.
( Ő౪Ő)ッ starto ＊＊＊＊＊＊＊＊＊＊＊＊
1.A brief history of the development of deformity shows
In the mid-16th century, freak shows became popular pastimes in England. Deformities began to be treated as objects of interest and entertainment, and the crowds flocked to see them exhibited. A famous early modern example was the exhibition at the court of Charles I of Lazarus and Joannes Baptista Colloredo, two conjoined brothers born in Genoa, Italy. While Lazarus appeared to be otherwise ordinary, the underdeveloped body of his brother dangled from his chest. When Lazarus was not exhibiting himself, he covered his brother with his cloak to avoid unnecessary attention.
As well as exhibitions, freak shows were popular in the taverns and fairgrounds where the freaks were often combined with talent displays. For example, in the 18th century, Matthias Buchinger, born without arms or lower legs, entertained crowds with astonishing displays of magic and musical ability, both in England and later, Ireland.
A freak show in Rutland, Vermont in 1941
It was in the 19th century, both in England and the United States, where freak shows finally reached maturity as successful commercially run enterprises.
During the late 19th century and the early 20th-century freak shows were at their height of popularity; the period 1840s through to the 1940s saw the organized for-profit exhibition of people with physical, mental or behavioral rarities. Although not all abnormalities were real, some being alleged, the exploitation for profit was seen as an accepted part of American culture. The attractiveness of freak shows led to the spread of the shows that were commonly seen at amusement parks, circuses, dime museums and vaudeville. The amusement park industry flourished in the United States by the expanding middle class who benefited from short work weeks and a larger income. There was also a shift in American culture which influenced people to see leisure activities as a necessary and beneficial equivalent to working, thus leading to the popularity of the freak show.
The showmen and promoters exhibited all types of freaks. People who appeared non-white or who had a disability were often exhibited as unknown races and cultures. These “unknown” races and disabled whites were advertised as being undiscovered humans to attract viewers.[6] For example, those with microcephaly, a condition linked to intellectual disabilities and characterized by a very small, pointed head and small overall structure, were considered or characterized as “missing links” or as atavistic specimens of an extinct race. Hypopituitary dwarfism who tend to be well proportioned were advertised as lofty. Achondroplastic dwarfs, whose head and limbs tend to be out of proportion to their trunks, were characterized as exotic mode. Those who were armless, legless, or limbless were also characterized in the exotic mode as animal-people, such as “The Snake-Man”, and “The Seal man”.
There were four ways freak shows were produced and marketed. The first was the oral spiel or lecture. This featured a showman or professor who managed the presentation of the people or “freaks”. The second was a printed advertisement usually using long pamphlets and broadside or newspaper advertisement of the freak show. The third step included costuming, choreography, performance, and space used to display the show, designed to emphasize the things that were considered abnormal about each performer. The final stage was a collectable drawing or photograph that portrayed the group of freaks on stage for viewers to take home. The collectable printed souvenirs were accompanied by recordings of the showmen's pitch, the lecturer's yarn, and the professor's exaggerated accounts of what was witnessed at the show. Exhibits were authenticated by doctors who used medical terms that many could not comprehend but which added an air of authenticity to the proceedings. Freak show culture normalized a specific way of thinking about gender, race, sexual aberrance, ethnicity, and disability.
Scholars believe that freak shows contributed significantly to the way American culture views nonconforming bodies. Freak shows were a space for the general public to scrutinize bodies different from their own, from dark-skinned people to victims of war and diseases, to ambiguously sexed bodies. People felt that paying to view these “freaks” gave them permission to compare themselves favorably to the freaks.
During the first decade of the twentieth century, the popularity of the freak show was starting to dwindle. In their prime, freak shows had been the main attraction of the midway, but by 1940 they were starting to lose their audience, with credible people turning their backs on the show. In the nineteenth century, science-supported and legitimized the growth of freak shows, but by the twentieth century, the medicalization of human abnormalities contributed to the end of the exhibits' mystery and appeal.

What is phocomelia?

Phocomelia is a disease of deformed limbs.
Although many factors can cause dolphin disease, its prominent roots come from the use of drug response (thalidomide) and biological inheritance. The disease causes hypoplasia of the face, limbs, ears, nose, blood vessels and many other organs. Although surgery can improve some abnormalities, many surgeries may not be performed at all due to the lack of nerves and other related structures.
Violetta's condition should be innate because the reaction stopped being synthesized in 1953 ... Phocomelia is a hypoplasia of limbs and loss of pelvis, but various abnormalities may occur in limbs and bones: usually upper limb Without full formation, the hands and arms may be missing, often with short arm bones, finger fusions, and missing thumbs. Legs and feet are similarly affected. Patients often lack thigh bones and may have abnormally small hands or feet.
Violetta's four meatballs mentioned in the deduction should refer to atrophied limbs. In general, phocomelia still leave some fingers or something, and Violetta may be on the fingers and toes to weave and jump and manipulate the current huge mechanical prosthesis.
Deduction
1.Value: One man's meat is another man's poison.
Photo: A basket with a baby in it has been left under a seat at the performance.
1.价值：甲之蜜糖，乙之砒霜。
照片：装着婴儿的手提篮被丢在演出座椅下面。
1.価値: Aにとっての糖蜜が、Bにとってはヒ素となる。
写真：赤ん坊の入ったバスケットがパフォーマンス席の下に残されていた。
Violetta was abandoned for her phocomelia as soon as she was born, and was discovered by Max, who may have been a member of the circus or even the head of the circus at the time when she was cleared after the show. At this time, the abnormal show was booming. He smelled the business opportunity and decided to cultivate Violetta.
Here's an interesting detail: Violetta was discovered under the performance seat. A possible interpretation here is that her parents already knew that her daughter was going to survive, and she could only survive as a freak show actor. But after all, she couldn't bear to do such a thing, so she chose to leave Violetta in a circus that might adopt her.
In addition, there is also a possibility (just look at this): Since deformity is often a familial inherited disease, Violetta's parents may also be abnormal performers in the circus. She was born in this capacity, inherited this deformity, and was eventually abandoned by her parents.
Dictionary
One man's meat is another man's poison.
甲之蜜糖，乙之砒霜
Aにとっての糖蜜が、Bにとってはヒ素となる。
things liked or enjoyed by one person may be distasteful to another. (all lag the same meaning.)
2.Treasure: They are wrong. This is a priceless treasure!
People will pay a hefty price for tickets, even if all they get to see is her crawling awkwardly on the ground with her meatball like limbs.
2.珍宝：他们错了，这是无价之宝！
人们会花大价钱买票，就算只是看她用四个肉球一样的手臂在地上磨蹭。
2.秘宝:彼らは間違ってる。
これは値段のつけられない宝だ！
人々は大金をはたいてチケットを買う。
ただ彼女の4つの肉球のような手足が地上を這うのを見るためだけに。
However, raising such a child is very laborious and time-consuming. Others in the circus opposed it, but Max thought it was unsightly. He believes that people's interest in freaks is far more than others imagine (and this is also true), so Violetta will be an important source of revenue for the circus. For the purpose of money, he did his best to raise Violetta and made plans to make money when she was a child.
3.Family: You can deny it all you want, but you are still my "father".
Photo: A girl missing her limbs is affectionately snuggled up in the arms of a man wearing a top hat.
3.家人：无论否认多少次，你仍然是我的“父亲”。
照片：没有四肢的女孩亲昵地依偎在戴着礼帽的男人怀中。
3.家族:何度否定したとしても、あなたはやっぱり私の「父親」よ。
写真：四肢のない女の子が人なつっこく、シルクハットをかぶった男性の胸に寄り添っている。
Violetta, who grew up in the circus, has no other loved ones and longs for the affection that other children have. So she thought Max could be her "father", but she was repeatedly denied. She thinks that as long as she is obedient and pleases the other party, Max will always treat herself as a family.
And Max may also realize at this time that playing the tender card makes it easier for Violetta to obey his orders in the future, so he has no objection, and even responded to Violetta's coquettish move. It is just that he refuses to let the other party call himself "father": his position may have been shaken from beginning to end, but it has never changed.
4.Amazing Cabin: Max said this is my home.
Poster: Only 5 and ¾ pennies to enter and admire this mysterious creature — a cross between a penguin and a man! Only at Max's Amazing Cabin!
4.惊奇小屋：麦克斯说，这里是我的家
海报：只需5又3/4便士即可入场，欣赏这神奇的生物，企鹅与人的混合体！只在麦克斯的惊奇小屋！
4.見世物小屋:マックスは言った、ここは私の家だと。
ポスター：たったの5+3/4ペンスで入場し、不思議な生き物を鑑賞できます。
ペンギンと人間のキメラ！
マックスの見世物小屋でしか見れません！
The "home" here echoes the above. Max told Violetta that the Amazing cabin was her home and she was attending an exhibition here. However, in fact, her home is where he makes money, and his family and children’s’ longing for him are converted into money by his equivalent. Moreover, in terms of introduction, Max may never have looked at Violetta as a person ... You can imagine that Violetta may not be young at this time, Max Call her out to work and earn money when a child still needs her father, and teach her in words-this is what she should do.
In fact, you can roughly determine when this happened. A quarter of a penny (also known as AFP) was released between 1860 and 1956. Violetta's story should have taken place at least after 1860, probably at the turn of the twentieth century (because there were still abnormal shows The decline).
5.Celebrity: What's that thing? It looks… repulsive.
Photo: A long winding queue can be seen outside the Amazing Cabin. A man in a top hat excitedly counts money.
5.人气明星：那是什么东西？看起来有点……恶心。
照片：人们在惊奇小屋外排起了长队，戴着礼帽的男人兴奋地数着钱。
5.人気のスター:あれは何だ?何だかちょっと……気味が悪いな。
写真：人々は見世物小屋の外に長い列を作っている。
シルクハットをかぶった男は興奮して金を数えている。
As Max thought at the beginning, the visitors came endlessly and commented on Violetta, willing to pay a lot of money for visiting the deformity. Max made a lot of income, and Violetta who was visited and commented would not feel good-but for Max, who cares if he has money?
6.His Love: Max said that money can't buy sincerity, but sincerity cannot be exchanged for money.
But money can make you happy, can't it?
6.他的最爱：麦克斯说，钱是买不来真心，可真心也换不了钱。
可钱能让你开心，对吗？
6.彼の最愛:マックスは言った。
金で本当の心は買えないが、本当の心は金に換えられないと。
でもお金はあなたを楽しませることができる、そうでしょう？
Violetta grew up in such a life, and she also gradually realized the reality and realized that Max could only be happy because of money, and affection and love were non-existent things for this man. But at the same time, she was more or less fantasizing. Violetta began to feel that as long as she could always make money for the other party, Max would always be happy for her.
In this way Violetta will not be abandoned, although strange, but this way she can be considered a real home.
7.Common Practice: The audience is fickle.
Can she do anything apart from jumping around and mending rags? How dull.
7.习以为常：观众是薄情的。
除了跳来跳去和缝补破布之外，她还会别的吗？真无聊。
7.慣れれば当たり前になる:観客は薄情だ。
跳ね回ることとぼろ布を縫うこと以外に、彼女ができることはないのか？
本当に退屈だ。
However, with the passage of time and the advancement of medicine, people's interest in deformity shows has also been exhausted. They think Violetta's performances are all old-fashioned, boring, and don't want to watch them anymore. The business of the Amazing Cabin was bleak, and Violetta tried to keep it, but there was still no way to stop it.
And the habit of the title, in addition to referring to the audience's accustomed to Violetta's performance, I think there is also the meaning of Max's accustomed to the actor's anger. Judging from the content of Deduction Ten, he always treats Violetta like a tool, and he has become accustomed to changing tools.

Beyond Grasp: It used to be her advantage, but now it is her disadvantage.

Photo: A girl missing her limbs is falling down once again from a red rubber ball; her body is covered in bruises.
8.力所不及：这曾是她的优势，也是现在最大的劣势。
照片：没有四肢的女孩又一次从红色皮球上摔下来，身上瘀痕累累。
8.力及ばず:これはかつて彼女の強みだったが、今は最大の弱みでもある。
写真：四肢のない少女は、また赤いボールから落ちた。
身体は傷だらけになっている。
After the business was bleak, Max should have Violetta stop her previous performances, let her train for new performances, and threaten to fire or sell her. Violetta worked hard to do so, but this disability is inherently unchangeable. Max may have wanted Violetta to be a clown, but her body wouldn't allow her to do these shows. Once the advantage became the disadvantage, but the physical disability should not be judged by the words disadvantage and advantage from the beginning, which is linked to money.

Give It Everything: This is all I have, a funny yet tragic performance.

Photo: A girl missing her limbs is falling down once again from a red rubber ball; her body is covered in bruises.
9.倾其所有：这是我唯一拥有的，可笑而悲惨的表演。
只要再给我一点时间练习，麦克斯，我会再次成为你的明星。
9.すべてを賭ける:これが唯一私の持つもの、おかしくて悲惨なパフォーマンス。
私にもう少しだけ練習の時間をちょうだい。
マックス、私はもう一度あなたのスターになるわ。
After repeated attempts, Violetta still failed. Max did not take the past into consideration and decided to drive Violetta out of his circus. Violetta still remembers his childhood wishes and hopes that Max can become his family. I believe that he has been with him for so long.
What Violetta said here is very heartbreaking ... She thinks her physical disability is the only ridiculous and tragic performance ... The fact is that most of the abnormal show actors at the time could only rely on this to make a living ... They have no other choice but to make a living by being visited and made fun of by others.
10, Expired: You do know all products have an expiration date, don't you?
Photo: Outside, a cage with a human inside is being transported on a carriage. A man wearing a top hat is counting money without looking up.
10、过期:你知道商品都有使用期限，对吧？
照片：门外一个装着人的笼子被运上马车，戴礼帽的男人数着钱没有抬头。
10.期限切れ:どの商品にも使用期限がある、分かるだろう？
写真：門の外で、人を入れた籠が馬車に運ばれている。
シルクハットをかぶった男は下を向いて金を数えている。
Max eventually sent Violetta away and sent her away by selling her like a commodity. In fact, although it was a bit weird to say this, at the time, the abnormal show actors were not viewed as people, and they were often viewed as objects. At the time when slavery had been abolished, human trafficking was still happening in the circus, and many freak people were even tortured by other circus members and artificially deformed.
Violetta is a microcosm of their misfortune. She did not find her father, nor did she receive the care and love she deserves. What exactly happened after she was sent away made her what she is today, which we do not know. I can only hope that this change is not too painful, because she should not be a good girl who has suffered so much.
Deduction part end…
☼+:;;;;:+☼+:;;;;:+☼+:;;;;:+☼+:;;;;:+☼+:;;;;:+☼
Character prototype
About Violetta's prototype:
Violetta's prototype is most likely an American deformity show actor Aloisia Wagner (Aloisia Wagner 1906/1907-unknown date of death)
Aloisia, who is also born without limbs, is more widely known than her real name. Her stage name is "Violetta".
But there is not much similarity between the two in experience:
Violetta was born in Germany in history and went to New York with her step brother and agent in 1924. She is still a very popular actor and has a long acting career. The famous Coney Island Fantasyland Circus and Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus have voluntarily invited her to perform.
The exposure of the old photos is a bit problematic and not very clear, but various interviews have recorded that her real person is actually blonde, very beautiful, and has a perfect figure, and some people described her like this: " The absence of her limbs seemed nothing serious to her, and apart from that she had no imperfections, almost like a living armless Venus statue. "
She is talented in singing, so she mainly works as a singer in addition to acting strangers. She is a strong, optimistic and talkative person in her life. She believes that “because you never lose it means you never lose it.” She is said to be able to realize all kinds of self-care with little help from her assistant. She can jump around freely and comb herself. , Bathing, dressing, dressing, drawing, even meticulous operations such as rowing a match to light a cigarette, and sewing with needles and leads (and some descriptions in Violetta's deduction can be aligned).
Of course, she is much happier than Violetta. At least the family was always helping her, and she eventually got married, although it was not recorded who her husband was.
She is also really popular. When the assistant held her down and interacted with the audience, some audiences even wanted to kiss her (including some female audience members). . . It is not "false glory".
Violetta's encounter seemed to be the opposite of her.
For more details about this actor, you can read this article if you are interested :
https://www.overground.be/londonLife/1940/19400127c.html
I'm adding another possible prototype, "Minion Penguin Girl."
Ruth Davis was born with phocomelia. She retired in the 1960s as a freak show for "Minion Penguin Girl." The performer may have some reference in the prototype because he brought the name "Penguin" to the phocomelia.
But this one you guys can just skip it (oẅo)
Max's character prototype
Phineas Taylor Barnum (/ˈbɑːrnəm/; July 5, 1810 – April 7, 1891) was an American showman, politician, and businessman remembered for promoting celebrated hoaxes and for founding the Barnum & Bailey Circus (1871–2017). He was also an author, publisher, and philanthropist, though he said of himself: "I am a showman by profession ... and all the gilding shall make nothing else of me". According to his critics, his personal aim was "to put money in his own coffers." He is widely credited with coining the adage "There's a sucker born every minute", although no proof can be found of his saying this.
Barnum was born in Bethel, Connecticut, the son of innkeeper, tailor, and store-keeper Philo Barnum (1778–1826) and his second wife Irene Taylor. His maternal grandfather Phineas Taylor was a Whig, legislator, landowner, justice of the peace, and lottery schemer who had a great influence on him.
Barnum had several businesses over the years, including a general store, a book auctioning trade, real estate speculation, and a statewide lottery network. He started a weekly newspaper in 1829 called The Herald of Freedom in Danbury, Connecticut. His editorials against the elders of local churches led to libel suits and a prosecution which resulted in imprisonment for two months, but he became a champion of the liberal movement upon his release.[citation needed] He sold his store in 1834.
He began his career as a showman in 1835 when he was 25 with the purchase and exhibition of a blind and almost completely paralyzed slave woman named Joice Heth, whom an acquaintance was trumpeting around Philadelphia as George Washington's former nurse and 161 years old. Slavery was already outlawed in New York, but he exploited a loophole which allowed him to lease her for a year for $1,000, borrowing $500 to complete the sale. Heth died in February 1836, at no more than 80 years old. Barnum had worked her for 10 to 12 hours a day, and he hosted a live autopsy of her body in a New York saloon where spectators paid 50 cents to see the dead woman cut up, as he revealed that she was likely half her purported age.
Barnum became a small business owner in his early twenties and founded a weekly newspaper before moving to New York City in 1834. He embarked on an entertainment career, first with a variety troupe called "Barnum's Grand Scientific and Musical Theater", and soon after by purchasing Scudder's American Museum which he renamed after himself. He used the museum as a platform to promote hoaxes and human curiosities such as the Fiji mermaid and General Tom Thumb. In 1850, he promoted the American tour of Swedish opera singer Jenny Lind, paying her an unprecedented $1,000 a night for 150 nights. He suffered economic reversals in the 1850s due to bad investments, as well as years of litigation and public humiliation, but he used a lecture tour as a temperance speaker to emerge from debt. His museum added America's first aquarium and expanded the wax-figure department.
Barnum served two terms in the Connecticut legislature in 1865 as a Republican for Fairfield, Connecticut. He spoke before the legislature concerning the ratification of the Thirteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution which abolished slavery and involuntary servitude: "A human soul, 'that God has created and Christ died for,' is not to be trifled with. It may tenant the body of a Chinaman, a Turk, an Arab, or a Hottentot—it is still an immortal spirit". He was elected in 1875 as mayor of Bridgeport, Connecticut where he worked to improve the water supply, bring gas lighting to streets, and enforce liquor and prostitution laws. He was also instrumental in starting Bridgeport Hospital in 1878 and was its first president. Nevertheless, the circus business was the source of much of his enduring fame. He established "P. T. Barnum's Grand Traveling Museum, Menagerie, Caravan & Hippodrome", a travelling circus, menagerie, and museum of "freaks" which adopted many names over the years.
Barnum was married to Charity Hallett from 1829 until her death in 1873, and they had four children. In 1874, a few months after his wife's death, he married Nancy Fish, his friend's daughter who was 40 years his junior. They were married until 1891 when Barnum died of a stroke at his home. He was buried in Mountain Grove Cemetery, Bridgeport, which he designed himself.
Barnum died from a stroke at home in 1891. He is buried in Mountain Grove Cemetery, Bridgeport, Connecticut, a cemetery that he designed.
Prototype analysis’ end.
₍ᐢ •⌄• ᐢ₎ ┅┅┅┅┅┅┅┅┅┅┅┅┅┅┅┅┅┅┅☆
Ok here have something to say, actually her deduction is easy to understand,but she need more history and science to understand the whole things
And also more interesting is, in her birthday info it saying her career is Comedian, not clown...
And more, In Jp Twitter when someone ask about her, she say that there a child help her.
So I wish that in her letter will have more details about after she send away.. After all we don't know what happened between circus (send away) and before she go manor.
Welp, see you tomorrow with Patricia's Deduction.
⁽˙⁸˙⁾ʹ˜˜ cya tomorrow
By Berry
Yes time to wait n after that go sleep!
One hour left...

/r/AskReddit - "For those of you that escaped cults... what was your, “I need to get the fuck out” story?"

I am a bot! Please send NotListeningItsABook a private message with any comments or feedback on how I work.
EDIT: As of Fri Jun 26 20:53:26 UTC 2020, the post is at [118pts|37c]

About Post:

---	---	Notes
Submission	For those of you that escaped cults... what was your, “I need to get the fuck out” story?
Comments	For those of you that escaped cults... what was your, “I need to get the fuck out” story?
Author	Hattmyler1227
Subreddit	/AskReddit
Posted On	Wed Jun 24 20:52:53 UTC 2020
Score	118	as of Fri Jun 26 20:53:26 UTC 2020
Total Comments	86

Post Body:

[blank]

Related Comments (37):

---	---	Notes
Author	WildRose1224
Posted On	Thu Jun 25 01:34:08 UTC 2020
Score	556	as of Fri Jun 26 20:52:38 UTC 2020
Conversation Size	14
Body	link

I am a Former Jehovahs Witness. It was a a lot of things, but a big one was that I never felt like I could do enough, it was constant, never ending guilt. I used to think there was a problem with me, but I finally realized that no matter how much I did I would still feel like I wasn’t doing enough and that this wasn’t an accident, they wanted you to feel guilty and inadequate. I reached a breaking point and knew I had to get out for my own well being. Now I know more about cults and realize that this is a cornerstone of cult manipulation.

---	---	Notes
Author	M7MD55
Posted On	Thu Jun 25 06:15:19 UTC 2020
Score	36	as of Fri Jun 26 20:52:38 UTC 2020
Conversation Size	0
Body	link

Arabian muslim uncle got a place in the us while he was a navigator, he couldnt go anywhere so he decided to kick back for a few months in an apartment, there wasnt a day that a JW didnt knock on the door, finally he decided to let the bugger in and have a talk, uncle was a scholar like my father, it ended up causing the dude (in his late teens i think) to just stand up and slam the door behind him, never dared stand on his curb again (this was all in the late 90's, so people were more accepting of muslims before 9/11)

---	---	Notes
Author	moondust63
Posted On	Wed Jun 24 23:20:48 UTC 2020
Score	1363	as of Fri Jun 26 20:52:41 UTC 2020
Conversation Size	46
Body	link

Two instances stick out to me, although I was just a child. My family was very involved and we didn’t get out until I was a teenager. My mom is still a member.
1: My first time sitting in a crowded room while the elders or leaders of the group publicly announced someone being “disfellowshipped” or ex-communicated. Meaning they did something wrong and nobody was allowed to speak to them until they were reinstated. I just remember feeling so sick for them. They were publicly shamed and humiliated, and their family was also treated poorly usually. Everyone knew about their perceived wrong doings. Even as a little kid it just seemed so wrong to me. Shouldn’t we have been extra supportive and loving to people when they were struggling with bad choices? Shouldn’t we be encouraging? It felt so gross and cruel. I knew then something was wrong but I was only about 5 years old and if you questioned anything it meant satan was putting lies into your head so I always just kept my mouth shut. If you tried to get out you’d be shunned too and lose everyone you loved.
2: When I was 8 years old, struggling with my parents divorce and my dads subsequent exit from the “congregation”, and an older family member sat me down and told me that if I wanted to have a dad I needed to convince him to start going back to “meetings” and being a good member of the congregation otherwise he would die at Armageddon and I’d never see him again. What a fucked up thing to tell a child.
These are just the two biggest instances that come to mind, but I have a whole lifetime of trauma from my years in the cult.

---	---	Notes
Author	rhett342
Posted On	Thu Jun 25 01:07:04 UTC 2020
Score	2266	as of Fri Jun 26 20:53:02 UTC 2020
Conversation Size	167
Body	link

My cousin and I talking on the phone when we were 16 and he had just gotten diagnosed with cancer. We were Jehovah's Witnesses and they don't allow blood transfusions. To live, Trent was going to need blood transfusions. I can still hear him saying "I don't want to piss off Jehovah but I don't want to die. I'm just a kid!"
And all at once I went from being a good little JW kid to only doing what I absolutely had to because I still lived with my parents.

---	---	Notes
Author	rhett342
Posted On	Thu Jun 25 01:17:44 UTC 2020
Score	226	as of Fri Jun 26 20:53:07 UTC 2020
Conversation Size	29
Body	link

Not ex-comunicated. They call it disfellowshipped. You really want to mess with them tell them you're an apostate (someone who was once a JW but left). That's like 10x worse.

---	---	Notes
Author	EveUnraveled
Posted On	Thu Jun 25 00:36:42 UTC 2020
Score	74	as of Fri Jun 26 20:53:07 UTC 2020
Conversation Size	1
Body	link

I've borrowed the "shelf" analogy from you exmos to describe waking up from the Jehovah's Witness organization. It's so true, it's usually a compilation of many things that eventually cause everything to break. If one were to read my post history they could get an idea of what that means. The experience of waking up from indoctrination is very similar for exmos and exjws. It can take years to fully wake up and depending on circumstance, even longer to actually be able to leave.

---	---	Notes
Author	buttsex_itis
Posted On	Thu Jun 25 03:40:32 UTC 2020
Score	48	as of Fri Jun 26 20:53:07 UTC 2020
Conversation Size	1
Body	link

I'm glad you got out they certainly don't make it easy. I was born and raised a jw and leaving was the best decision I've made in my life.

---	---	Notes
Author	Cherrynotastripper
Posted On	Wed Jun 24 22:21:49 UTC 2020
Score	688	as of Fri Jun 26 20:53:14 UTC 2020
Conversation Size	103
Body	link

Former Jehovah Witness, the way they treat people who aren't in the religion and also how they treat people who do get ex communicated.

---	---	Notes
Author	Enakistehen
Posted On	Thu Jun 25 06:19:04 UTC 2020
Score	87	as of Fri Jun 26 20:53:14 UTC 2020
Conversation Size	4
Body	link

I'm wondering if you can do anything for them. Maybe once take some time out of your run and actually talk to them about how they feel about the whole suffering thing? Teenagers are prone to influencing, maybe there is a way to show them how they can make their own life better (probably by leaving the JWs, but also) by taking responsibility for themselves and actively making their environment a better place.
I know it's not my duty to tell you what to do during your runs, but I'd like to think that there is hope for these kids.

---	---	Notes
Author	rhett342
Posted On	Thu Jun 25 04:07:57 UTC 2020
Score	135	as of Fri Jun 26 20:53:14 UTC 2020
Conversation Size	6
Body	link

Yeah,I am very much an apostate. According to JWs I am way worse than Hitler and I'm not stretching anything when I say that. I am just barely one step above Judas. I'm a boring 41 year old white guy who is happily married and has been for years with two kids and a dog. I work as a Registered Nurse for a living. Sometimes I use bad words and drink a bit much but that's about it as far as my evilness goes to normal people. My friends and family members I grew up with, however, are literally terrified to talk to me in public if they run into me at Target. This is my life.

---	---	Notes
Author	RidingtheRoad
Posted On	Thu Jun 25 07:20:02 UTC 2020
Score	99	as of Fri Jun 26 20:53:14 UTC 2020
Conversation Size	0
Body	link

When I found out that all Jehovah's Witnesses elders are basically liars.
Combine that with that JWs insist that sexual crime victims must have 2 witnesses to the sex crime before the elders will listen to them. This also includes child rape victims.
Combine that with the victim is shunned by family and life long friends if they speak out.

---	---	Notes
Author	ashlicamp
Posted On	Thu Jun 25 01:55:45 UTC 2020
Score	27	as of Fri Jun 26 20:53:14 UTC 2020
Conversation Size	0
Body	link

So true. I feel like I hadn’t even totally woken up when I left the JW’s...I was just so miserable I had to get out. Then I started really doing my research (aka reading “apostate” material) and realized how fucked it really is

---	---	Notes
Author	magentabean_angel
Posted On	Thu Jun 25 14:15:24 UTC 2020
Score	23	as of Fri Jun 26 20:53:14 UTC 2020
Conversation Size	0
Body	link

Not me, but my aunt is a Jehovah Witness. I was 12 years old and was interested in gothic/emo culture. After watching “The Nightmare Before Christmas,” she pulled me aside and told me if I didn’t stop messing with the occult, I’d be raped and attacked by demons.
Yeah. I’m an atheist now.

---	---	Notes
Author	succ_a_cactus
Posted On	Thu Jun 25 07:05:09 UTC 2020
Score	38	as of Fri Jun 26 20:53:14 UTC 2020
Conversation Size	0
Body	link

Cult may be a dramatic word for me, but I was part of an aggressive church/youth group, meaning they wanted to be the biggest and best in the area. My city had a ton of churches but my ex church could only hear its own voice, so then would plant a church in an area with a lot of other churches and run the smaller churches out of money. Even made a smaller church change it’s name because it was too similar.
I made excuses for years for my church and the way people acted so shallow and abuse of funds- I was 17 and wasn’t willing to believe that maybe these aren’t the good people I think they are.
Anyway, I didn’t need the “I need to get out moment”. I volunteered with them for a year and helped run camps and then not one leader tried to keep in touch with me, and I even shortly later got a divorce at 20. I had so many leaders and people I looked up to, and no one ever reached out. Instead a few kicked me out of their bible study and removed me on social media because of some of my marital issues. I realized what it felt like to be on the other side of the white door.
It broke my heart. That marriage broke my spirit. I’ve been putting myself back together and like myself a lot more now.

---	---	Notes
Author	11Lost_Shepherd05
Posted On	Thu Jun 25 14:20:27 UTC 2020
Score	22	as of Fri Jun 26 20:53:14 UTC 2020
Conversation Size	4
Body	link

All these are good, but the biggest one is "The Truth".
They use this term ad nauseam to describe their organization and belief system. It obviously gets ingrained in adherents' heads so that they just automatically assume everything they're taught and believe is irrefutable. It's insidious the way they're brainwashed.
Ex-JW here. I unfortunately know from experience

---	---	Notes
Author	PM__ME_YOUR_PUPPIES
Posted On	Thu Jun 25 02:54:33 UTC 2020
Score	145	as of Fri Jun 26 20:53:14 UTC 2020
Conversation Size	2
Body	link

to be fair dismembered and disfellowshipped should mean the same thing.

---	---	Notes
Author	miithwork
Posted On	Thu Jun 25 04:15:50 UTC 2020
Score	155	as of Fri Jun 26 20:53:14 UTC 2020
Conversation Size	2
Body	link

Ahh ... ... the memories of being a child in a JW house (mother only).
Thank god (pun intended) that I got to choose which parent (Dad :) ) to to live with when they divorced :)

---	---	Notes
Author	AccioMotherfucker
Posted On	Thu Jun 25 06:45:14 UTC 2020
Score	172	as of Fri Jun 26 20:53:14 UTC 2020
Conversation Size	29
Body	link

It's been years since I was in.but I remember a couple.
Bethel - Some kind of central JW org.
Pioneer - Someone who dedicated 70+ hours a month to "field service." There's other names for other amounts of time.
Field service - knocking on doors, leaving flyers at businesses, visiting or studying with potential members.
Annointed One or the annointed- One of the 144,000 people going to heaven. The only straight answer I got for this was "they just know they're annointed." These people can take the bread and wine during Passover.
The World, worldly ways, worldly pursuits or people - Just what it sounds like. College is worldly. Your friend down the block who isn't a JW is worldly. Work friends are worldly. Working for a work promotion is worldly. Doing more worldly things makes you more worldly as a person. You're less desirable to spend time with.
If you're trying to be a good jw and put in your field service time, have a few bible studies, and be looked up to, you won't do worldly stuff.
They have "no blood cards" that they carry around in case there is an accident. My grandma, who was the main person in the cult, proudly carried hers around everywhere. I would have died without a massive blood transfusion in 2018 due to a motorcycle accident. If I was still a believer they would rather I leave my wife and kids then take blood and keep living.
I haven't even been to a meeting in probably 10 years. My grandma gave them everything. All her time and money. They abandoned her when she got too sick. You would think she would be on some sort of list with the church supporting her til she died, but nope, a few months after she stopped going, they just stopped talking to her or caring about her. All those years she put in and all the work for nothing, not even a memory.
All of her friends were old like her and all of the ones who knew me are all gone or dead. My grandma and our family used to be such a central part of the "church" and now it's like she never existed, and it's been maybe 5 years since she stopped going. I started going when she brought me in a car seat baby carrier and stopped around 16 years old.
They all thought I was being a rebellious teen. They didn't know.i just saw through their bullshit.

---	---	Notes
Author	BinnsyTheSkeptic
Posted On	Thu Jun 25 02:43:36 UTC 2020
Score	549	as of Fri Jun 26 20:53:14 UTC 2020
Conversation Size	75
Body	link

There is a scripture that states that the blood of an animal is not to be eaten. JWs interpret this as stating that any blood based products are forbidden, including blood transfusions. It's not very solid reasoning, and it has resulted in numerous deaths.
JWs have many practices like this that are there for the sole purpose of seperating them from society, such as not celebrating anything, not participating in politics or enrolling in higher education. These practices enforce their belief that they're "no part of this world". This is a hallmark of many cults, as these small differences in behaviour from normal people constantly remind those in the cult that they are different or better than the rest of the world.

---	---	Notes
Author	moondust63
Posted On	Thu Jun 25 03:48:55 UTC 2020
Score	121	as of Fri Jun 26 20:53:14 UTC 2020
Conversation Size	7
Body	link

Not just someone who left, but someone who left and then spoke out in a negative way about the organization. It’s basically the most unforgivable thing you can do. Apostates were described like the most evil villains on the planet and we were taught even as little kids to be very afraid of them. Almost like they were poisonous.

---	---	Notes
Author	JDub_Scrub
Posted On	Thu Jun 25 10:00:14 UTC 2020
Score	41	as of Fri Jun 26 20:53:14 UTC 2020
Conversation Size	0
Body	link

When I divorced my abusive ex and realized that I wasn't free to have ANY more relationships after that if I waned maintain my relationships my family and entire social system - friends, acquaintances, everyone I knew. All because that cult masquerading as a religion controlled practically every part of my life. You're not allowed to remarry, date or even flirt. Completely humiliating.
It's the Jehovah's Witnesses, in case you can't tell. The second wake-up came shorty thereafter when Australia revealed that they had a massive pedophile problem that they refuse to address. To this day, they are the only religion in Australia who refuses to apologize, reform or work with the authorities on how they can change anything, when they clearly are the worst of the bunch when it comes to systemic child abuse.
It is a horrible, repressive and even deadly cult. Never join them or even study with them unless you do your google homework first.

---	---	Notes
Author	NEClamChowderAVPD
Posted On	Thu Jun 25 06:21:19 UTC 2020
Score	42	as of Fri Jun 26 20:53:14 UTC 2020
Conversation Size	10
Body	link

Interesting, thanks for the info. I mean, to each their own but imo, the more I learn about JWs, the crazier it seems to me. Although I'm not exactly a religious person so what do I know.

---	---	Notes
Author	moondust63
Posted On	Thu Jun 25 04:37:23 UTC 2020
Score	43	as of Fri Jun 26 20:53:14 UTC 2020
Conversation Size	2
Body	link

Same. Although I was never baptized, so never officially disfellowshipped. But if any of my current JW family members knew I posted anything about the organization here, I would be a pariah. It’s one thing to not be a member, but an entirely different beast to post negative things. I honestly sometimes still get scared about speaking up about some of the horrible things that went on when I was a kid.

---	---	Notes
Author	Kfppoh
Posted On	Thu Jun 25 04:36:28 UTC 2020
Score	41	as of Fri Jun 26 20:53:14 UTC 2020
Conversation Size	3
Body	link

I guess that means reading your comment counts as ‘Apostate Literature’ 😎

---	---	Notes
Author	quackl11
Posted On	Thu Jun 25 04:05:47 UTC 2020
Score	44	as of Fri Jun 26 20:53:14 UTC 2020
Conversation Size	4
Body	link

Jehova witness?

---	---	Notes
Author	Littlebitch0029
Posted On	Thu Jun 25 06:41:09 UTC 2020
Score	204	as of Fri Jun 26 20:53:17 UTC 2020
Conversation Size	7
Body	link

It's more like "Oh no my Christian club is kidnapping homosexuals and beating and torturing them to try and purge them of sin" or "Oh no my once quiet bible study is now actively spreading hate out on the streets"

---	---	Notes
Author	not_the_main_one
Posted On	Thu Jun 25 13:40:27 UTC 2020
Score	14	as of Fri Jun 26 20:53:17 UTC 2020
Conversation Size	3
Body	link

Also grew up a JW and was in for 25 years. Once a year JWs have a 3 day convention. Basically you have to sit through various bible lectures for 8 hours a day. JWs believe themselves you be the only true religion and everything else is “false religion”. So you grow up very critical of other forms of worship. For me personally I was critical of mega churches as they seemed more like a concert and hangout than actually learning anything from the Bible. While the once a year conventions consisted of thousands of JWs in place for the weekend it was almost business like. Everyone sat in their seats quietly during the lectures. We had a one hour break for lunch and everyone would walk around and talk and that was it. Well in 2019 the JWs has an international convention where they had 40,000 in attendance. People who visited from other parts of the world were told were their “traditional garb”. JWs came in with poster signs. They started singing and dancing during the program and cheering during any video clips played. I found myself in a 3 day megachurch. The very thing I grew up criticizing.

---	---	Notes
Author	BloodyTotallySirius
Posted On	Thu Jun 25 02:32:21 UTC 2020
Score	215	as of Fri Jun 26 20:53:24 UTC 2020
Conversation Size	36
Body	link

I used to get in arguments with my young womens teachers all the time. Why cant I hold the priesthood? Why do the boys get to pass sacrament and why can my only contribution be to make the bread?
I never got any good answers and eventually stopped going. It was just a year or so ago I contacted a lawyer to get my records removed from the church. They wouldn't leave me alone it was insane. I would call the bishop and he would say they would leave me alone. But it was single ward so the bishop and relief society president changed every few months and it would start again.
My parents and siblings still practice, but fuck that noise. I'm doing much better on my own.
And as someone raised in the church I would say if it's not a cult, its damn near cult like. All money earned is tithed at 10% from the moment you start getting money. Like birthday money when I was in the single digits was all tithed. Men were the holders of power and women were expected to be good little housewives. Clothing had to be modest: dresses and shorts had to go to your knees, tummies couldnt show, and your shoulders had to be covered. The church was your life. So many hours on Sunday you had church, then Monday nights was bible study, then Wednesday was youth activities with the church. Once you got to high school every morning before school was seminary. Your life was the church not just Sundays but everyday. All my friends and family were mormon and I didnt make friends outside of the church until high school because it was such a right knit group. It's just bizarre the things I grew up thinking were totally normal.

---	---	Notes
Author	theshakinjamaican
Posted On	Thu Jun 25 03:50:04 UTC 2020
Score	109	as of Fri Jun 26 20:53:25 UTC 2020
Conversation Size	1
Body	link

Former JW myself, though even as a child I was never really sold on it, always felt wrong. My mother is still hardcore into it and a few family members on her side. They are actually a bit more liberal than most as my sister is gay and they are still very warm and welcoming to her. The passing of my father, who was not a JW, softened up my mother a bit. I didn’t have the same experience and felt like I was being forcibly brainwashed and I remember a few encounters with ‘elders’ over my attitude and behaviour. Fuck those guys. I broke away because I wanted to be a musician and I rather die in their Armageddon than give up my creative outlet. That went over really well as you can imagine. I’m in my 40’s now and have had a moderately successful music career to date, I never looked back.
I feel bad for my mom, a few years ago I caved and went to meeting with her to humour her. This is after maybe 20 years after giving the brothers the finger and I hadn’t seen my mother in years. It was 2 hours of hateful, ignorant bullshit. Fuck those guys. It’s been a while since they knocked on my door, I must be on a no knock list from the last time they were in the neighborhood. I’m quite sure I made an impression.
As far as a single instance that happened that made me feel I needed to get the fuck out? It was when I was blindsided with a meeting with the ‘elders’ that my mother set up and she just sat there for over an hour watching these grown men verbally abuse me and try to tear me apart mentally because I didn’t get it. I checked out right then and there and bided my time. I ended up leaving the country at age 20.
Fuck those guys.

---	---	Notes
Author	moondust63
Posted On	Thu Jun 25 04:05:24 UTC 2020
Score	43	as of Fri Jun 26 20:53:25 UTC 2020
Conversation Size	0
Body	link

I got lucky. My dad left and I went to live with him as a teen. And I was never baptized so was never able to be disfellowshipped and my mom/other extended family are still allowed to talk to me even though I don’t have super close relationships with them. I’m glad you got out too, and I hope you’ve been able to heal from it all.

---	---	Notes
Author	yyz_guy
Posted On	Wed Jun 24 23:09:20 UTC 2020
Score	61	as of Fri Jun 26 20:53:25 UTC 2020
Conversation Size	3
Body	link

I have distant family that are Jehovah’s Witnesses - can confirm. It divides families badly.

---	---	Notes
Author	Spinach_4ater
Posted On	Thu Jun 25 00:47:32 UTC 2020
Score	479	as of Fri Jun 26 20:53:25 UTC 2020
Conversation Size	46
Body	link

Reminds me of a life hack: if a Jehovah's Witness comes to your door say you've been ex-communicated and see how fast they gtfo of there

---	---	Notes
Author	_hannn
Posted On	Thu Jun 25 07:35:55 UTC 2020
Score	139	as of Fri Jun 26 20:53:26 UTC 2020
Conversation Size	5
Body	link

This is actually something I was just thinking about the other day. I was raised a Jehovah’s Witness, and I think it was less one big “aha!” moment and more a bunch of little “what the fuck”s. For those unfamiliar with the group, witnesses believe that Armageddon is coming any day now, and the only way to survive is be a baptized JW. They also refuse to accept blood transfusions, celebrate holidays, toast, date without supervision, and practice yoga, just to name a few things. A big one for me was watching a leader from the very top of the group describe unbelievers as “vessels fit for destruction” (wtf?) and pull out a malformed piece of glassware to illustrate, he then smashed it on the floor to illustrate what will happen to us. Another prominent leader of the group was recorded warning that tight pants are designed by perverted homosexuals. On a more personal level, the last year I was a witness I left a large religious gathering and was met with protestors. I realized something questionable is likely happening if people are taking time to protest. The picket signs weren’t even aggressive, they said things like “there is support! You can leave!” The reason this even needs to be said is because witnesses shun people who leave the religion. I hadn’t seen either of my 2 older siblings in about 10 years. I hung out with school friends outside of school for the first time when I was in grade 12 and my mom cried because she was afraid she was a bad parent. I got out at 17 and haven’t looked back. Sorry if this was a small novel!

---	---	Notes
Author	sdwoodchuck
Posted On	Thu Jun 25 03:05:36 UTC 2020
Score	228	as of Fri Jun 26 20:53:26 UTC 2020
Conversation Size	6
Body	link

My morning runs take me through a local park, and at one of the entrances to the park, teenage Jehovas witnesses often sit with a big sign handing out brochures. The sign, literally, says “Will this suffering ever end?” Seeing the two miserable kids sitting next to it, I gotta hope so.

---	---	Notes
Author	Mizzscarlett2pt0
Posted On	Thu Jun 25 01:41:09 UTC 2020
Score	430	as of Fri Jun 26 20:53:26 UTC 2020
Conversation Size	5
Body	link

I am an excommunicated JW. That means I was never baptized so they were allowed to talk / preach to me still and my parents would send them to my door constantly. I told my husband at the time that if they came to the door to tell them we were disfellowshipped and they would go away. So the next time they stopped by I sent him to the door. But in his confusion and misunderstanding he told them we were dismembered and can’t talk right now. I had hoped by the look on their faces that that would keep them away but they are persistent buggers. Its a funny memory tho.

---	---	Notes
Author	ABCSheep
Posted On	Thu Jun 25 08:32:17 UTC 2020
Score	173	as of Fri Jun 26 20:53:26 UTC 2020
Conversation Size	22
Body	link

OR nurse here. To be clear I dont want to justify JWs or anything just a cool fact: We do hip replacements on JWs too, in situations like that a thing we call 'Cell Saver" comes to action that catches your blood, cleans it and is able to be reused on yourself (to explain it the easiest way) , thing SWs are apparently ok with. Came in handy a few times. But in my country we have healthcare for all and this might be too expensive of a procedure for every country that has not, sadly.

---	---	Notes
Author	NEClamChowderAVPD
Posted On	Thu Jun 25 05:58:19 UTC 2020
Score	59	as of Fri Jun 26 20:53:26 UTC 2020
Conversation Size	17
Body	link

Do all JWs not vote then? I knew about not celebrating as well as the blood transfusion thing but not about the politics thing. Do JWs also refrain from even discussing politics, too?

the vein clairvoyant has been created

By Arthur Penrhyn Stanley, D. D. THE PERSIAN DOMINION. ——•—— CYRUS, B.C. 560. Fall of Babylon, B.C. 538. The Return, B.C. 536. CAMBYSES, B.C. 529. DARIUS I., B.C. 522. Completion of the Temple, B.C. 516. XERXES, B.C. 485. Story of Esther, B.C. 480-490? ARTAXERXES, B.C. 465. Coming of Ezra, B.C. 459. Coming of Nehemiah, B.C. 415. Secession of Manasseh, B.C. 419. Malachi, B.C. 400? LECTURE XLIII. THE RETURN. ——•—— SPECIAL AUTHORITIES. (1) Isaiah xl.-lxvi. (2) Ezra i.-vi. (3) Psalms cvii.-cl. (4) Haggai. (5) Zechariah i.-viii. TRADITIONS. 1 Esdras ii.-vii. Josephus Ant. xi. 1-4. Seder Olam, pp. 107, 108 (with comments of Derembourg, Histoire de la Palestine, pp. 19, 20, 21). THE PERSIAN DOMINION. ——•—— LECTURE XLIII. THE RETURN. THE RETURN from the Captivity opens the final era of the history of the Jewish Church and Nation. That any nation should have survived such a dislocation and dissolution of all local and social bonds is almost with- out example. But as in the case of the Greek race centuries of foreign dominion have been unable to eradicate the memory of their distant glory, so in the case of the Israelites, their transplantation to another country was unable to efface the religious aspiration which was the bond of their national coherence. The other Semitic tribes, Moab, Ammon, Edom, felt that with the loss of their home they would lose all. Israel alone survived. The Restoration was an event which, unlikely and remote as it might have seemed, was deemed almost a certainty in the expectations of the exiles. The con- fidence of Jeremiah and Ezekiel never flagged that within two generations from the beginning of the Cap- tivity their countrymen would return. The patriotic sentiment, which had existed as it were unconsciously before, found its first definite expression at this period. The keen sense as of personal anguish at the overthrow of Jerusalem poured forth in the Lamentations—the touching cry, "If I forget thee, O Jerusalem, may "my right hand forget herself"—the clinging to the remembrance of the very dust and stones of Jerusalem,— the earnest supplication for the Holy Nation and the Holy City, kept alive the flame which from this time never died till it was extinguished under the ruins of their country in the final overthrow by Titus. And when the day at last arrived which was to see their expectations fulfilled, the burst of joy was such as has no parallel in the sacred volume; it is in- deed the Revival, the Second Birth, the Second Exodus of the nation. There was now "a new song," of which the burden was that the Eternal again reigned over the earth, and that the gigantic idolatries which sur- rounded them had received a deadly shock; that the waters of oppression had rolled back in which they had been struggling like drowning men; that the snare was broken in which they had been entangled like a caged bird. It was like a dream, too good to be true. The gayety, the laughter of their poetry, resounded far and wide. The surrounding nations could not but confess what great things had been done for them. It was like the sudden rush of the waters into the dry torrent-beds of the south of Palestine, or of the yet extremer south, of which they may have heard, in far Ethiopia. It was like the reaper bearing on his shoulder the golden sheaves in summer which he had sown amongst the tears of winter. So full were their hearts, that all nature was called to join in their thankfulness. The vast rivers of their new Mesopotamian home, and the waves of the Indian Ocean, are to take part in the chorus, and clap their foaming crests like living hands. The mountains of their own native lad are invited to express their joy; each tree in the forests that clothed the hills, or that cast their shade over the field, is to have a tongue for the occasion. In accordance with these strains of the Psalmists there was the Prophetic announcement of the beginning of the new epoch in words which, whilst they vibrate with a force beyond their own time, derive their original strength from the circumstances of their first utterance, and which gave to their unknown author, who thus "comforted them that "mourned in Sion," the name of the Prophet of glad tidings. "Comfort ye, my people, saith your God. "Speak unto Jerusalem that her warfare is accom- "plished, the her iniquity is pardoned, for she hath "received at God's hand the double for all her woe." "A voice cries, Through the wilderness prepare the "way of the Eternal, make smooth in the desert a "highway for our God. Every valley shall be exalted, "every mountain and hill shall be made low, and the "crooked shall be made straight, and the rough places "plain, and the glory of the Eternal shall be revealed, "and all flesh shall see it together, for the mouth of "the Eternal hath spoken it." That opening strain of the Prophet, so full of the great Evangelical truth,—Evangelical in its literal sense and true to the depths of human nature,—that nations and individuals alike can leave their past be- hind them, and start afresh in the race of duty; so im- pressive from its peculiar historical significance as the key-note of the new period of Asiatic and European history; so striking in the imagery with which it figures that Divine progress—demanding for its ap- proach and preparation the reduction of pride, the ex- altation of humility, the simplification of the tortuous, the softening of the angular and harsh—was heard in part once again when long afterwards in the wild thickets of the Jordan a voice was raised inaugurating another new epoch, and preparing the way for another vaster revolution in nations and in churches. But nevertheless the whole expression of the exhortation breathes the atmosphere of the moment when it was first delivered—the sense of the expected deliverance at last come—the heart of an oppressed people again breathing freely—the long prospect of the journey yet before them, through the trackless desert—all irra- diated with the hope that no wilderness would be too arid, no hill too high, no ravine too deep for the Di- vine Providence to surmount. Another utterance of the same Prophet is still more directly fitted to the emergency of his own time, though still more sacredly associated with the mighty future. "The Spirit of the Lord God rests upon me, "because the Eternal hath anointed me to preach good "tidings unto the suffering, He hath sent me to bind "up the broken-hearted, to proclaim liberty to the "captives, and the opening of the prison to them that "are bound; to proclaim the acceptable year of the "Eternal." It was five centuries onwards that in the synagogue of a hitherto unknown Jewish village the scroll which contained the writings which by that time were all comprised under the one name of the Prophet Isaiah was handed to a young Teacher, who unfolded the roll and found the place where it was thus written. He closed the book at the point where the special appli- cation to the Israelite exiles began. He fixed the at- tention of His audience only on these larger words which enabled Him to say to all those whose eyes were fastened on His gracious countenance, "This day is this "Scripture fulfilled in your ears." But the original fulfilment of the consolation was that contemplated by Prophet who saw before him the exiles depart in their holiday attire for their homeward journey; des- tined to strike root again like the sturdy ilex of their native country, and carry on the righteous work for which alone home and freedom are worth possessing. His mission was to comfort all that mourn, to appoint "unto them that mourn in Zion, to give them beauty "for ashes, the oil of joy for mourning, the garment of "praise for the spirit of heaviness, that they might be "called the terebinths of righteousness, the planting "of the Eternal, that He might be glorified." Such is the ideal of the Return; nor is it unworthy of the mighty issues which ultimately hung on that event. Although the actual event seems small and homely, yet that very home- liness indicates one of the main characteristics of the epoch on which we have entered. Unlike the first Ex- odus, this second Exodus was effected not by any sudden effort of the nation itself, nor by any interposition of signs and wonders, but by the complex order of Provi- dence, in which the Prophet thus bids his peo- ple see an intervention no less Divine than that which had released them from Egypt. "Wheel within "wheel" was the intricate machinery which Ezekiel had seen in his visions on the Chebar; but not the less was a spirit as of a living creature within the wheels. The document that inaugurates the new era is not the word of Jewish lawgiver or prophet or priest, but the decree of a heathen king. "Now in "the first year of Cyrus king of Persia, that the word "of Jehovah by Jeremiah might be fulfilled, Jehovah "stirred up the spirit of Cyrus king of Persia, that he "made a proclamation throughout all his kingdom and "put it in writing." It is difficult not to suppose that the language of the decree is colored by the Hebrew medium through which it passes, but in tone and spirit it resembles those which have been fond inscribed on the Persian monu- ments; and if Ormuzd be substituted for Jehovah, and "the Creator of the earth, the heavens, and man- "kinfd," for the single form of "the Creator of earth," there is nothing impossible in the thought that we have the very words of the decree itself. But at any rate it stands as the guiding cause of the liberation, and stamps itself as the turning-point of the whole sub- sequent history. Before this time the people of Israel had been an independent nation; from this moment it is merged in the fortunes of the great Gentile Empires. There are three successive periods through which it has to pass, and each will derive its outward form and press- ure from an external power. Of these the first is the Persian. Cyrus, Darius, Xerxes, and Artaxerxes were henceforth for two hundred years to exercise the in- fluence which in earlier times had been exercised by the Princes and Kings of Israel. The year hencefor- ward is dated from the accession of the Persian Kings as afterwards of the Rulers of Antioch and of Rome. We shall hereafter trace some direct effects of this connection on the religious condition of the people. It is enough for the present to remark that the community which returned under these circumstances was no longer a nation in the full sense of that word, and thenceforth had to eke out that inestimable element by its connec- tion with the powerful monarchies with which it was brought into contact. But this very change was trans- figured in the language of the great contemporary Prophet into the vision which has never since died out of the hopes of mankind, that the wide course of human history, the mighty powers of the earth, instead of standing, as hitherto, apart from the course of religion and progress, would combine with that hitherto isolated movement. "Arise, shine, for thy light is come, and "the glory of the Eternal is risen upon thee. The "nations shall come to thy light, and kings to the "brightness of thy rising. Thou shalt suck the milk of "the nations, and shalt suck the breast of kings." "Kings shall be thy nursing fathers and queens thy "nursing mothers." "The nation shall see thy right- "eousness and all kings thy glory." Doubtless the real fell far short of the ideal, as in the actual Return, so in the actual Cyrus. But the fact which enkindled those hopes, and those hopes them- selves, have lent a framework to the noblest aspirations of humanity: they are the same as Plato expressed in the well-known saying, that the world would not be happy till either philosophers became kings, or kings became philosophers—the same as the last seer of the Jewish race expressed in the cry, "The kingdoms of "this world are become the kingdoms of the Lord and "of his Anointed." It is evident that the return was not that of the whole of the exiles. Those who had been trans- planted from the north of Palestine in the As- syrian captivity never returned at all, or only in small numbers. Those who had been trans- ported to Babylon and became settlers, as we have seen, in those rich plains and in that splendid city, were many of them contented to remain—some holding high places in the Persian court, though still keeping up communication with their brethren in Palestine, some permanently becoming the members of that great Babylonian colony of Jews which caused Mesopotamia to become as it were a second Holy Land, and round which were planted the tombs, real or supposed, of the three great Jewish saints of this epoch—Ezekiel, Dan- iel, and one who is yet to come, Ezra. Still, there were some both of the highest and the lowest of the settlement who listened to the call alike of their inspiring Prophet and of their beneficent ruler; and we can discern the chief elements which constituted the seed of the rising community. The whole caravan consisted of 42,000; besides this were 7,337 slaves, 200 of whom were minstrels, male and female. We recognize at once some conspicuous and familiar names. Twelve chiefs, as if in reminis- cence of the twelve tribes, were marked out as the lead- ers. Amongst these was the acknowledged head of the community, the grandson, real or adopted, of the be- loved and lamented Jehoiachin, last direct heir of the House of David and Josiah—the son of Shaltiel or Salathiel, who bore the trace of his Babylonian birth- place in his two Chaldæan names, Zerubbabel "the "Babel-born," or Sheshbazzar, or Sarabazzar, and who, by his official titles, was marked out as the representa- tive amongst them of the Persian king, "the Tirsha- "tha," or "the Pasha," that old Assyrian word which has never since died out amongst the governments of the East. Next to him was Jeshua or Joshua, the son of Josedek, the High Priest who had been carried into exile with Zedekiah, and shared his imprisonment. Next to them in rank and elder in years was Seraiah the priest, son of Hilkiah. But of the ancient four- and-twenty sacerdotal courses, four only joined in the procession; it may be from the havoc of the priestly caste in the desperate struggle at the time of the capture of the Temple; it may be from the attachment of the others of their Babylonian homes. Still the number of priests (4,000) was large in proportion to the people, yet larger in proportion to the Levites, who numbered only 74 beside the 128 singers of the family of Asaph, and the 139 descendants of those stalwart gatekeepers the sacerdotal soldiery or police, that had guarded the whole circuit of the temple walls, and were believed to have rendered the state such important service on the day that Jahoiada planned the overthrow of Athaliah. Along with them were the 392 representatives of the ancient Canaanite bondmen, whose ancestral names in- dicated their foreign origin, the Nethinim, or "conse- "crated giftsmen" bound over to the honored work of the Temple service—or "the children of Solomon's "slaves"—that is, doubtless, of those Phœnician art- ists whom the great king had employed in the con- struction of his splendid works. So the names stood in a register which a century afterward was found by an inquiring antiquary in the Archives of Jerusalem, and its accuracy was tested by the additional record that there was a rigid scrutiny on the departure from Babylon to ex- clude from this favored community those who could not prove their descent. Such was a body of unknown applicants from the villages in the jungles or salt marshes near the Persian Gulf. Such was another band, claiming to be of priestly origin, and justifying their pretensions, but in vain, by appealing to an an- cestor who had married a daughter and taken the name of the renowned old Gileadite chief Barzillai. In the front or centre of this caravan, borne prob- ably by the Nethinim—in place of the ark that had formed the rallying point of the earlier wanderings— were the carefully collected vessels of the Temple, the Palladium to which the hopes of the nation had been attached, which had been the badges of contention be- tween Jeremiah and his opponents before the Cap- tivity; which had been carried off in triumph by Ne- buchadnezzar and lodged in the most magnificent of all receptacles, the Temple of Bel; which had adorned the banquet of Belshazzar; and which now, by special permission of Cyrus, were taken out of the Baby- lonian treasury, according, as one tradition said, to a special vow made by the King in his earlier days. There they were borne aloft, each article of plate was carefully named in lists three times recorded, the thousand cups of original gold, the thousand cups of silver, which marked the double sage of the Cap- tivity, with all the lesser vessels, even the nine and twenty knives, amounting in all, as was carefully noted, to 5,499. It was like the procession of the Vestal Virgins, with the sacred fire in their hands, in their retreat from Rome; like Æneas with his household gods from troy. Homely as they were, grates, knives, spoons, basins, recalling alike the glory of the time of Solomon, in their original gold, the decline of the last days of Jerusalem in the silver substitutes of Zedekiah, they were the links which seemed to weave a continuous chain across the gulf which parted the old and the new era of Israelite history. Forth from the gates of Babylon they rode on camels, mules, asses, and (now for the first time in their history) on horses, to the sound of joyous music—a band of horsemen playing on flutes and tabrets, accompanied by their own two hun- dred minstrel slaves, and one hundred and twenty-eight singers of the temple, responding to the Prophet's voice, as they quitted the shade of the gigantic walls and found themselves in the open desert beyond. "Go ye out of Babylon. Flee from the Chaldæans, "with a voice of singing declare ye, tell this, utter it "even to the end of the earth; say ye, The Eternal "hath redeemed his servant Jacob." The prospect of crossing that vast desert, which in- tervene between Chaldæa and Palestine, was one which had filled the minds of the exiles with all man- ner of terrors. It seemed like a second wandering in the desert of Sinai. It was a journey of nearly four months at the slow rate at which such caravans then travelled. Unlike the wilderness of Sinai, it was di- versified by no towering mountains, no delicious palm groves, no gushing springs. A hard, gravel plain from the moment they left the banks of the Euphrates till they reached the northern extremity of Syria; with no solace except the occasional wells and walled stations; or, if their passage was in the spring, the natural herbage and flowers which clothed the arid soil. ferocious hordes of Bedouin robbers then, as now, swept the whole tract. This dreary prospect preoccupied with overwhelm- ing prominence the Evangelical Prophet. But he would not hear of fear. It was in his vision not a perilous enterprise but a march of triumph: "There- "fore the redeemed of the Eternal shall return, and "come with singing to Zion, and everlasting joy "shall be upon their heads; they shall obtain gladness "and joy, and sorrow and mourning shall flee away." As before some royal potentate, there would go be- fore them an invisible Protector, who should remove the hard stones from the bare feet of those that ran beside the camels, and cast them up in piles on either side to mark the broad track seen for long miles across the desert. It should be as if Moses were again at their head, and the wonders of the Red Sea and Sinai re-enacted. The heat of the scorching sun shall be softened; they shall be led to every spring and pool of water: if water is not there, their invisible Guide shall, as of old, bring it out of the cloven rock. Even the wild animals of the desert, the ostrich and the jackal, shall be startled at its unexpected rush. Even the isles of palms which cheered the ancient Israelites in Arabia shall not be sufficient. Cedar as well as acacia, olive and myrtle, pine and cypress, all that is most unlike to the vegetation of the desert shall spring up along these fountains. It is a curious instance of the prosaic temper which has led many modern com- mentators to expect a literal fulfilment of the poetic expressions of the Hebrew Prophets, that the Jewish rabbis of later times supposed all these wonders to have actually occurred, and were surprised to find no mention of them in the narrative of the contemporary chronicler. But the spirit of these high-wrought strains is the same as that expressed in the simpler language yet similar faith of the songs of the "ascents," some of which we can hardly doubt to have been chanted by the minstrels of the caravan during their long ascend- in journey up the weary slope which reached from the level plains of Babylon to their own rocky fortress of Judæa. They lifted up their eyes to the distant mountains of Syria, and when they thought of the long interval yet to traverse they asked whence was to come their help? Their answer was, that they looked to the eternal, unsleeping watchfulness of the Guardian of Israel, who by night and day should guard them, stand as their shade on the southern side against the noon- day sun, and at last guard their entrance into Palestine, as He had guarded their Exodus from Babylon. The high, snowclad ridge of Hermon would be the first object that at a distance of four or five days journey would rise on the uniform horizon of the exiles. We knew not whether they would enter Syria at the nearer point of Damascus or at the farther point )but as it would appear, the usual route at that time) of Hamath or Riblah. Even then there would still be a long journey of hill and vale to traverse before they reached their home. But, already (so we gather from the shouts of joy with which the Prophet anticipated this happy moment), the dead city would be roused up from her slumber of sev- enty years. The sleeping potion of the Divine wrath has been drunk to the dregs—she is to shake off the dust of the ruins amongst which he has lain—she is to break the chain which fastened her neck down to the ground. She is to listen for the joy- ful signal of the messengers stationed on the eastern hills, who will descry the exiles from afar and hand on the good tidings from hill to hill, like beacon flames, till at last it reaches the height of Olivet, or of Ramah; where Zion herself stands on tiptoe to catch the news, and, like the maidens of old who welcomed the return- ing heroes, proclaim to the cities of Judah, each on their crested hills around her, that the Divine Presence is at hand; that the little flock has been guided through the wilderness safely; even the weary laggards are cared for; even the lambs are folded in the shepherd's bo- som; even the failing ewes are gently helped onwards. It is not difficult to figure to ourselves the general aspect of Palestine on the return. Monarchy, priesthood, art, and commerce had departed, but a large population had been left, partly of the aboriginal tribes, partly of the humbler classes of Is- rael, to till the ground. There was the Persian govern- or, perhaps more than one, who controlled the whole. The central portion was occupied, as we have seen, by mixed settlers from the East, who combined with the original habitants to compose the people, alter- nately called, from their twofold origin, Cutheans or Samaritans. The Scythians still remained in posses- sion of the Canaanite stronghold of Bethshan—the centre, at that time, of the borderland between Israel and the heathen nations, already forming itself under the Monarchy, but now becoming more and more defined, and gradually taking itself the name, which was at last in fame to eclipse that of any other division of Palestine—Galilee of the Gentiles, or Galilee; "the Heathen-march," or the March. In the Transjordanic territory, although the country of Moab and Ammon had been frightfully devasted by the Chaldæan invasion, the inhabitants had been allowed to remain in their homes, and their chiefs occupied independent and powerful positions. The western coast was occupied by the old enemies of Israel, the Philistines, now re-asserting their in- dependence, and their chief city, Ashdod, still speak- ing their own language—still worshipping their an- cient sea-god Dagon. The south was overrun by the vindictive and un- generous race of Edom, which even claimed the whole country as its own, with the capital of Akrabbim. There only remained therefore, for the new comers the small, central strip of the country round Jerusalem occupied by the tribes of Judah and Benjamin. From these two tribes the larger part of the exiles were descendants, and to this, their ancient home, they re- turned. Henceforth the name of Judah took the predominant place in the national titles. As the primitive name of "Hebrew" had given way to the historical name of Israel, so that of Israel now gave way to the name of Judæan, or Jew, so full of praise and pride, of reproach and scorn. "It "was born," as their later historian truly ob- serves, "on the day when they came out from Baby- "lon," and their history thence forth is the history not of Israel but of Judaism. We trace the settlers of these rocky fastnesses back, each like a bird to its nest. Each hill-fort, so well- known in the wars of Saul and David, in the ap- proaches of Sennacherib, once more leaps into vie; Gibeon, and Ramah, and Geba, and the pass of Michmash, and the slope of Anothoth, and the long descent of Bethel and Ai, and the waving palms of Jericho, and the crested height of Bethlehem, and the ancient stronghold of Kirjathjearim, all re- ceived back their "men," their "children," after their long separation. Some gradually crept farther south through the now Idumæan territory to the villages round Hebron, to which the old Canaanite possessors once more gave its ancient name of "Kijath-arba." Some stole along the plains of the south coast down to the half-Bedouin settlements of Beersheba and Moladda on the frontier of the desert. The bands of singers established themselves in the neighborhood of Jerusalem, at Geba, or at Gilgal, in the Jordan valley. But these all, as it were, clustered round Jerusalem, which now for the first time in history assumes the name never since lost, and which in the East still remains its only title, "The Holy City," and if the country at large also takes for the first time in the mouths of he returning exiles the name which has clung to it with hardly less tenacity, "The Holy "Land," it is as the seat and throne of the consecrated capital, which, if fallen from its antique splendor, reigned supreme, as never before, over the affections and the reverence of the people. When Herodotus in the next century passed by it he knew it only by this name, "The Holy Place," Kadesh, Grecised into Kadytis. When, three centuries later, Strabo saw it again, though the name of Jerusalem had been as- certained, it was transformed into Hierosolyma, the Holy Place of Salem, or Solomon, and he felt that it properly expressed the awe and veneration with which he regarded it, as though it had been one of his own ancestral seats of oracular sanctity. All the other shrines an capitals of Israel, with the single exception of that on Mount Gerizim, had been swept away. The sanctity of Bethel and Shiloh, the regal dignity of Samaria and Jezreel, had now disap- peared for ever. Jerusalem remained the undisputed queen of the whole country in an unprecedented sense. Even those very tribes which before had been her ri- vals, acknowledged in her misfortunes the supremacy which they had denied to her in her prosperity. Pil- grims from Shechem, Shiloh and Samaria, immediately after the Babylonian Captivity began, came, with every outward sign of mourning, to wail and weep (like the Jews of our own day) over the still smoking ruins. It was natural, therefore, that the exiles had con- stantly nourished the hope of the rebuilding of Jerusa- lem, which they had never forgotten in their brightest or their darkest days on the banks of the Euphrates; that the highest reward to which any of them could look forward would be that they should build the old waste places, raised up the foundations of many gener- ations, be called the repairer of the ruins, the restorer of paths to dwell in. It was natural that along the broken walls of the city of David there should have been, as the Return drew nearer, devout Israelites seen standing like sentinels, repeating their constant watch- words, which consisted of an incessant cry day and night, giving the Divine Protector no rest until He es- tablish and make Jerusalem a praise upon the earth. It was natural that the names which had begun to at- tach to her during her desertion, as though she were the impersonation of Solitude and Desolation, should give place to the joyful names of the Bride and the Favorite returning to her married home with all the gayety and hopefulness of an Eastern wedding. It was natural that Ezekiel by the banks of the Chebar should so concentrate his thoughts on the City and Temple of Jerusalem that their dimensions grew in his vision to such a colossal size as to absorb the whole of Palestine by their physical structure, no less than they did actually by their moral significance. Accordingly, the one object which filled the thoughts of the returning exiles, the one object, as it was believed by them, for which the Return had been permitted by the Persian king, was "the "building of an house of the Lord God of Israel at Je- "rusalem which is in Judah." There was a moment, it might have been supposed, when the idea of a more spiritual worship, like that of the Persians, would dispense altogether with outward buildings. "The heaven is my throne, the earth is my "footstool: where is the house that ye build unto me? "and where is my place of rest?" But this doc- trine of the Evangelical Prophet was not yet capable of being put into practice; perhaps in its literal sense never will be. Ezekiel's idea was, as we have seen, rather the restoration of the Temple on a gigantic scale. It was the chief, the one mission of Zerubbabel, and in a few weeks or months after his arrival the first step was taken toward the erection of the second Temple of Jerusalem, the Temple which as destined to meet the requirements of the national worship, till it gave way to the third Temple of the half-heathen Herod. That first step was precisely on the traces of the older Temple. As the altar which David erected long pre- ceded the completion of the splendid structure of Sol- omon, so before any attempt was made to erect the walls, or even to lay the foundations of the Temple of the coming era, there was erected on the platform for- merly occupied by the threshing-floor of Araunah, then for five centuries by the stately altar of David and his son Solomon, the central hearth of the future Temple; but, as if to vindicate for itself an intrinsic majesty de- spite of its mean surroundings, it was in its dimensions double the size even of its vast predecessor. The day fixed for the occasion of its consecration was well suited to do it honor. It was the opening to the great au- tumnal Feast of the Jewish year—the Feast of Tabernacles—the same festival as that chosen by Solomon for the dedication of his Temple, and by Jeroboam for the dedication of the rival sanctuary at Bethel. It was the first day of the seventh month, which, according to the Babylonian, now adopted as the Jewish, calendar, henceforth took the Chaldæan name of Tisri, "the opening" month, the "January," and thus became the first of the year. The settlers from all parts of the country, as well as the aboriginal inhabitants, gathered for the occasion and witnessed the solemnity from the open space in front of the eastern gate of the Temple.

from The History of the Jewish Church, Vol. II: From The Captivity To The Christian Era, by Arthur Penrhyn Stanley, D. D., Dean of Westminster Charles Scribner's Sons, 1879; pp. 83 - 105.

lyon étudiants has been created

By Arthur Penrhyn Stanley, D. D. LECTURE XXIX. (continued) THE HOUSE OF JEROBOAM. —— AHIJAH AND IDDO. The Disruption of the kingdom was not the work of a day, but the growth of centuries. To the house of Joseph——that is, to Ephraim, with its adjacent tribes of Benjamin and Manasseh——had be- longed, down to the time of David, all the chief rulers of Israel; Joshua, the conqueror; Deborah the one Pro- phetic, Gideon the one Regal, spirit, of the Judges; Abimelech and Saul, the first kings; Samuel, the restorer of the state after the fall of Shiloh. It was natural that, with such an inheritance of glory, Ephraim always chafed under any rival supremacy. Even against the impartial sway of its own Joshua, or of its kindred heroes, Gideon or Jephthah, its proud spirit was always in revolt: how much more whe the blessing of Joseph seemed to be altogether merged in the blessing of the rival and obscure Judah; when the Lord "refused "the tabernacle of Joseph, and chose not the tribe of "Ephraim, but chose the tribe of Judah, Mount Zion "which He had loved." All these embers of disaf- fection, which had welnigh burst into a general confla- gration in the revolt of Sheba, were still glowing: it needed but a breath to blow them into a flame. It was a year after the death of Solomon, that his son Rehoboam arrived at Shechem for his inauguration. It would seem that the ancient capital had not lost its hold altogether on the country, even after the foundation of Jerusalem. The high spirit of the tribe of Ephraim had been bent, but not broken. Their representatives approached the new King with a firm but respectful statement of their grievances,——enormous exactions of the late king, and the expenditure of the revenues of the kingdom on the royal establishments. The pause before a great catastrophe is always solemn. The sacred historian looks back upon the three days dur- ing which Rehoboam hesitated, with a grief which no partiality to the house of David has been able to suppress. The demands of the nation were just. The accumulated wisdom of the great Solomonian era recommended concession. The old counsellors gave just such advice as might have been found in the Book of Proverbs. Only the insolence of the younger courtiers imagined the possibility of coercing a great people, and hoped that the little finger of the new Prince wuld be stronger than the loins of his mighty father. It was a doomed Revolution. "The King hearkened not unto "the people: for the cause was of God." The cry of insurrection was the same that had been raised in the time of David; but with the tremendous difference that now the fatal day was at last come. The sacred names of David and Jesse had lost their spell. "See to "thine own house David." It was with one exception a bloodless revolt. The oldest, as he must have been, of that elder generation which had counselled modera- tion, but the most obnoxious from the office which he held, Adoram, the tax collector, was sent by the King to quell the insurrection. They regarded him as a common enemy, and he fell under the savage form of execution which was usual for treason and blasphemy. He was stoned to death, and the King fled from Shechem, never to return. The tribe of Ephraim was once more independent. Who was to fill the vacant throne? There was one man, who, by his office and his character, had long ago been indicated as the natural successor of Joshua. At the time when Solomon was constructing the fortifica- tions of Millo underneath the citadel of Zion, his saga- cious eye discovered the strength and activity of a young Ephraimite who was employed on the works, and he raised him to the rank of officer over taxes and labors exacted from the tribe of Ephraim. This was Jeroboam. His father had died in his youth, but his mother, who had been a person of loose character, lived in her widowhood, trusting apparently to her son for support. Jeroboam made the most of his position. He completed the fortifications, and was long afterwards know as the man who had "enclosed the "city of David." I his native place, Zereda and Sarira, he lived in a kind of royal state. Like Absalom before him, in like circumstances, though now on a grander scale, in proportion to the enlargement of the royal establishment itself, he kept three hundred chariots and horses, and was at last perceived to be aiming at the monarchy. These ambitious designs were probably fostered by the sight of the growing disaffection of the great tribe over which he presided, as well as by the alienation of the Prophetic order from the house of Solomon. He was banished by Solomon to Egypt. But his exile only increased his importance. The reigning king was Shishak, and with him Jeroboam, like his ancestor Joseph, acquired so much influence, that when, on Solo- mon's death, he demanded Shishak's permission to re- turn, the Egyptian king, in his reluctance, seems to have offered any gift which could induce Jeroboam to remain, and the consequence was the marriage with Ano, the elder sister of the Egyptian queen, Tahpenes, and of another princess, who had married the Edomite chief, Hadad. A year elapsed, and a son, Abijah (or Abijam), was born. Then Jeroboam again requested permission to depart, which was granted; and he returned with his wife and child to his native place, Sarira, or Zereda. It is described as a commanding situation, such as Solomon would naturally have chosen as a fortress to curb the haughty tribe. Now that the great king was gone, this very fortress, strengthened by Jeroboam after his re- turn, became the centre of the disaffected population. Still, there was no open act of insurrection, and it was in this period of suspense, that a pathetic inci- dent darkened the house of Jeroboam. His infant son fell sick. The anxious father sent his wife to inquire of God concerning him. Jerusalem would have been the obvious place to visit for this purpose. But no doubt political reasons forbade. The ancient sanc- tuary of Shiloh was nearer at hand; and it so happened that a prophet was now residing there, of the highest repute. It was Ahijah——the same who, according to the common version of the story, had already been in communication with Jeroboam, but who, according to the authority we are now following, appears for the first time on this occasion. He was sixty years of age, but was prematurely old, and his eyesight had already failed him. He was living, as it would seem, in poverty, with a boy who waited on him, and with his own little children. For him and them, the Egyptian princess brought such gifts as were thought likely to be accepta- ble,——ten loaves, and two rolls for the children, a bunch of grapes, and a jar of honey. She had disguised her- self, to avoid recognition; and perhaps these humble gifts were part of the plan. But the blind Prophet, at her first approach, knew who was coming; and bade his boy go out to meet her, and invite her to his house without delay. There he warned her of the uselessness of her gifts. There was a doom on the house of Jero- boam, not to be averted. The child alone would die before the calamities of the house arrived: "He shall "mourn for the child."——"Woe, O Lord, for in him "there is found a good word regarding the Lord,"——or, according to the other version, ——"All Israel shall mourn "for him, and bury him; for he only of Jeroboam shall "come to the grave." The mother returned. As she reëntered the town of Sarira, the child died. The loud wail of her attendant damsels greeted her on the thresh- old. The child was buried, as Ahijah had foretold, with all the state of the child of a royal house. "All "Israel mourned for him." This incident, if it really occurred at this time, seems to have been the turning- point in Jeroboam's career. It drove him from his ancestral home, and it gathered the sympathies of the tribe of Ephraim around him. He left Sarira and came to Shechem. He was thus at the head of the northern tribes on Rehoboam's appearance. Two Prophets presided over the formation of the new kingdom. One was Ahijah of Shiloh, the other was Shemaiah "the Enlamite." The Prophet ——whichever it was, or at whatever juncture——ap- peared in a long royal garment, so new that it had never been washed. He stripped it off, tore it into twelve shreds, and gave ten of them to Jeroboam, in token of the ten tribes that were to fall to his sway. Im- mediately after the stormy conference with Rehoboam, Jeroboam, in accordance with this omen, was elevated to the throne, and then once more the Prophet Shemaiah threw his powerful protection over the new kingdom, and warned off the invading army from the south. Jeroboam lost no time in consolidating his power. His early architectural skill was brought into play. He was known as the great castle-builder of his time. Not Millo only, and Sarira, but the fortifications of Shechem, and of Penuel beyond the Jordan, were traced back to him. Down to this point, the religious unity of the nation had remained unimpaired. This unity appeared to the new King inconsistent with the separate frontier of his kingdom. The Priestly caste were closely linked with the founder of their glory in the house of David; they were, by the nature of their office, specially attached to the Temple at Jerusalem. Following, doubtless, te precedent of the deposition of Abiathar by Solomon, he removed from their places the whole of the sacer- dotal order as it was constituted in the north, and al- lowed the establishment of a new Priesthood, con- secrated by peculiar rites of their own. He determined also on creating two new seats of the national worship, which should rival the newly established Temple of the rival dynasty. It was precisely the policy of Abder- rahman, caliph of Spain, when he arrested the move- ment of his subjects to Mecca, by the erection of the hoy place of the Zeca at Cordova, ad of Abd-el-Malik when he built the Dome of the Rock at Jerusalem because of his quarrel with the authorities of Mecca. He was not satisfied with another deviation from the Mosaic unity of the nation. His long stay in Egypt had familiarized him with the outward forms under which the Divinity was represented. A golden figure of the sacred calf of Heliopolis was set up at each sanctuary, with the address,——"Behold thy God which "brought thee up out of the land of Egypt." The sanctuary at Dan, as the most remote from Jerusalem, was consecrated first. It was long afterwards held as a tradition in the north of Palestine, that one family, in the ancient sanctuary of Kadesh Naphtali, that of Tobit, had refused to share in this strange worship of "the heifer." But the more famous shrine was at the southern frontier of the kingdom, in the consecrated patriarchal sanctuary of Bethel; there the grand inauguration was to take place, and a Festival, which though a month later in the year, was evidently intended to correspond to the Feast of Tabernacles. The fifteenth day of the eighth month arrived. Jeroboam was there doubtless in his royal state, as Solomon at Jerusalem, to offer in- cense on the altar, which, we may suppose, was raised within the temple that rose on the hill of Bethel, "the House of God," oldest of all the sanctuaries of Israel and of the world. It was in this pause, that the first Prophetic protest was made against the new worship. It was as though the Sacred History wished to emphasize the precise moment at which the Prophetic order recovered its equilibrium, and at which the first beginnings of a long superstition were pointed out. Suddenly there rose before the King a Prophet to whom the Sacred Book gives no name. He had come for this one special purpose. He was not to receive hospitality on coming or going. He was not even to address his message to the King, but to the dumb monument of division, the groundwork of future evil, which stood in the temple. "O altar, altar, thus saith the Lord." The rent i the altar, the withering of the King's hand, the urgency of the elder Prophet to induce the younger to break his vow, the untimely death of the younger Prophet in consequence——are so many additional touches of solemnity in the record of the disastrous in- auguration of the Temple of Bethel. Like all that relates to Jeroboam's career, this story is obscured by conflicting versions. Who was the mysterious Prophet? He has been called by many names,——Joam, according to Epiphanius; Abd-adonai, according to Clement; Jadon, according to Josephus. We can hardly mistake in the last of these names, the Grecised form of Iddo the seer. He was the author of the work of genealogies, as well as of histories of the reigns of Solomon, of Abijam, and of Jeroboam; and it adds to the impressiveness of the warning, if we may suppose that it came from the Chief Prophet of the time. The motives of the prophet of Bethel are so obscurely given in the Sacred Narrativem and so differ- ently related in the tradition of Josephus, as almost to defy our scrutiny. He seems to be one of those mixed characters, true to history and human nature, which perpetually appear amongst the sacred persons of the Old Testament; moved by a partial wavering inspira- tion; aimed after good, yet failing to attain it; full of genuine tender admiration for the Prophet, of whose death he had been the unwilling cause, the mouthpiece of truths which he himself but faintly understood. The recollection of this scene lingered long on the spot. The sanctuary of Bethel outlived even the monarchy of Samaria. The "calf" was counted as the God of Israel. It was regarded as specially the Royal Temple. A succession of Priests ministered within it, and were buried in the long array of rock-hewn tombs in the valey beneath. Musical servces resounded within its courts. But the altar was considered, at least by the Southern Prophets, as an accursed spot. The doom which Iddo had pronounced upon it was ful- filled, if not before, at least when in one of the earth- quake shocks in the time of Amos it was shaken to its foundations. And when at last the place was devastated on the fall of the kingdom with which it was connected, Josiah pulled down the whole structure, and had its very stones ground to dust, and mingled with the ashes of the bones which he found in the adjacent caves. One only monument was left standing. The story of Iddo was still remembered in the kingdom. The oak, probably the consecrated Oak of Deborah, under which he had sat,——the spot, as it would seem, where, on the rocky road, the body had been found with the lion and the ass standing by, were still known; and over his grave had been raised a memorial which even the ardor of Josiah's reformation did not destroy. The details of Jeroboam's end are lost to us. It is overclouded by unsuccessful wars with Judah, by wasting illness, and by the violent convulsion in which his remains and those of his children were torn from their sepuchres. To observe clearly wherein his sin consisted, is to observe the moral of the whole of this part of the history. It was not that he had revolted against the house of Judah. For this, accordnig to the narrative, had been put upon him by the direct Provi- dence and sanction of God. Nor had he fallen into idolatry. This was the sin of Solomon and Rehoboam, against which his whle life was a perpetual protest. It was that to secure those good ends he adopted doubtful and dangerous mans. The antcipations of the Proph- ets concerning him had been frustrated. Like the apostolic Las Casas in the sad history of South America, they saw with the bitter grief the failure of the institution which they had fostered, and from which they had hoped so much. It is this reflection which gives a keen- ness of regret to the epithet so many times repeated, "The sin of Jeroboam, the son of Nebat, who made Is- "rael to sin." To keep the first commandment, he broke the second; to preserve the belief in the unity of God, he broke the unity and tampered with the spiritual conception of the national worship. The ancient sanc- tity of Dan and bethel, the time-honored Egyptian Sanction of the Sacred Calf, were mighty precedents; the Golden Image was doubtless intended as a likeness of the One True God. But the mere fact of setting up such a likeness broke down the sacred awe which had hitherto marked the Divine Presence, and accustomed the minds of the Israelites to the very sin against which the new form was intended as a safeguard. From worshipping God under a false and unauthorized form, they gradually learnt to worship other gods altogether; and the venerable sanctuaries at Dan and Bethel pre- pared the way for the Temples of Ashtaroth and Baal at Samaria and Jezreel; and the religion of the King- dom of Israel at last sank lower even than that of the Kingdom of Judah, against which it had revolted. "The sin of Jeroboam, the son of Nebat," is the sin again and again repeated in the policy, half-worldly, half religious, which has prevailed through large tracts of ecclesiastical history. Many of the forms of worship in the Christian Church, which, with high pretensions, have been nothing else but "so many various and "opposite ways of breaking the second commandment." Many a time has the end been held to justify the means; and the Divine character been degraded by the pretence or even the sincere intention of upholding His cause: for the sake of secular aggrandizement; for the sake of binding together good systems, which, it was feared, would otherwise fall to pieces; for the sake of supporting the faith of the multitude from the fear lest they should fall away to rival sects, or lest the enemy should come and take away their place and nation, false arguments have been used in support of religious truth, false miracles promulgated or tolerated, false readings in the sacred text defended. And so the faith of man- kind has been undermined by the very means intended to preserve it. The whole subsequent history is a record of the mode by which, with the best intentions, a church and nation may be corrupted.

from The History of the Jewish Church, Vol. II: From Samuel to the Captivity, by Arthur Penrhyn Stanley, D. D., Dean of Westminster Charles Scribner's Sons, 1879; pp. 301 - 312

"Jehovah's organization doesn't suffer from the the plague of pedophilia like the churches of Christendom... IT SIMPLY DOES NOT HAPPEN!"

These were the words that woke me up, and this is my story.
I was recently encouraged by a few people here to share my experience because they felt it could be encouraging. I guess I've benefited from so many stories while I started working my way through this, that it would only be fair to try to return the gifts that were given to me when I needed it most. So, this is the story of what woke me up, and what I've been through as a result of leaving the Jehovah's Witness organization, and taking a stand. I'll try to keep it short (it won't be), but I'll put a TL;DR at the bottom for those of you that don't have the time.
I am a born in and raised JW, and have been a member for over 40 years. I grew up with a mom and step dad that could never decide how strict a JW they wanted to be. They were both very abusive to my sister and I. Especially the step dad, he was a monster. I am now thankful that they raised me though, cause I may never have left the "TRUTH" if I had gone to live with my forever Elder father like my sister did not long after being molested by our step dad... she is now drowning in the kool-aid with no hope for an awakening. I say I'm glad they raised me cause I often heard them talk about things they did not agree with in the organization. Just hearing that as a child made it possible for me to think that it was ok to disagree with what was being taught.
So, I'm a hip cool free thinking 5 year old being taught about Noah's arc and the tower of Babel and the 10 commandments and all the fun stories, and back then I knew some of those didn't make sense. I couldn't put it into words or formulate why, but my mind was trying to tell me that it wasn't right. I know I asked about it but I cannot remember the responses. I know that I eventually accepted that they were true, and that we could not understand everything and to not think about it too much. Basically do what all the JW's do. I never liked this, and it's always bothered me. I only mention this part of my childhood for two reasons. One, cause it plays later in my story, and two, because I think I've always been an apostate! ;-)
So we jump forward about 33 years and I'm with my family (wife and two kids - mid and late teens), at the district convention about three to four years ago. This is when the brother from Bethel, made the statement:
"Jehovah's organization doesn't suffer from the the plague of pedophilia like the churches of Christendom... IT SIMPLY DOES NOT HAPPEN!"
Immediately, my face did one of these :-/ because it was maybe two days earlier I happened to read an article about a Jehovah Witness girl (Candace Conti), that was suing for a record amount due to being molested. I then immediately thought of my sister and how she was molested by our step dad. I always just chalked that up to being an issue only we dealt with and him being an asshole, but all of a sudden I had two instances that I was aware of and I felt very uneasy. I then also recalled a girl I grew up with that had told me once that she had been sexually abused by multiple elders growing up. I now had three separate instances of pedophilia that I knew of, two of them I knew intimate details about and knew them to be true. I didn't know it at the time but both my kids took note of the statement made in the talk as well and it bothered them too.
So, what did I do with this "uneasy" feeling? Nothing, I did what every good JW does and pushed it down deep with my other doubts and issues about the org. Another year passes and I continue on at meetings, in service, and the school like a good boy. I'm often times approached about progressing on to become a ministerial servant, and told what a great Elder I would be because of my harsh past and empathetic nature. But I could never do it because of the overwhelming feelings of guilt about my doubts. I prayed and prayed, sobbing on the floor begging for forgiveness and the ability to not feel the way I did, but it never went away, so I never progressed. I guess I felt that if I couldn't wholeheartedly accept it like we are taught, than I shouldn't be in a position to instruct others to do it themselves.
By the end of that year I run across an article about the Candace Conti case again in the news. She is being awarded an historic sum, and with it that Bethel brothers words come rushing back to my mind along with that same uneasy feeling... fuck, this sucks.
A few days pass, and I stumble across an article about Noah. An archeologist found a parchment that tells almost the exact same story as the biblical Noah, but it predates it by about 4000 years. It even predates the story of Utanapishtim in the story of Gilgamesh which was also a couple thousand years earlier than the Noah story... wait, what? Who the fuck is UTANAPISHTIM & GILGAMESH? All of a sudden I have all sorts of bells going off and I'm actually feeling really nervous.
To this point I haven't been on any apostate web sites, this was all just stumbled on through news on Yahoo and MSN. Now, I'm suddenly feeling like the whole JW thing is a fake. If one story about Noah is taught as FACT but clearly isn't a factual account, than what else could there be that is taught as FACT but really isn't. I'm becoming confused, and I have one question going through my mind... How can I be right and so many people be wrong? If I'm right, and the whole JW thing is fake, then that means all the people I know and love are wrong. I'm nobody! I'm a smart guy I guess, but more street smart and quick thinking than book smart and well read with a great education. Just how in the hell could I be right about this.
I decided to search the word Jehovah on Reddit and see what might come up. I was ridiculously nervous and felt sick to my stomach. I remember staying home from meeting that night as I found this sub and asked the question "How can I be right and so many be wrong?" I laid in bed feeling cold and shivering as my brain sent intense emotion through my body while I waited for someone to answer. I prayed that I would find someone that could give me an answer that would convince me that what I was thinking was way off base, and that I would quickly be out of this sub and back to knowing I was a Jehovah's Witness. Not the brightest move I guess, but for some reason I didn't feel comfortable asking any brother or elder this question. I needed an answer from someone who may have felt like I did, and needed to know why they left.
It wasn't long before I got responses from quite a few of you. They were surprisingly well reasoned, respectful of my fragile and failing belief system, and incredibly loving. I cried. Then I sobbed. I finally had some relief from these feelings of guilt I'd lived with my entire life. Nothing made sense and I was more confused now then ever before, but I had no guilt. This, I thought, is how I should have felt after I got baptized!
I take a few days to process what I'm feeling and it's really a mixed bag of fucked up emotion. What the hell do I do now?? I started researching everything about the organization. I looked at every site, read about all the false predictions, Beth Sarim and Beth Shan, flip flopping of their understandings of prophecy, quote mining, why there is evidence of different languages prior to the the whole tower of Babel story, why the Israelites story didn't match up, all of it and more! Anything and everything I could think of, I looked for and began to find answers. It was amazing, I read and read, and read for days. I hardly spoke to my family while I was voraciously consuming information.
In the end, I became very depressed. I was alone. Alone in my knowledge, alone in the congregation, even alone in my own family, alone at home. I didn't know what to do or how to approach them. Would my kids think I'm crazy and eventually shun me for my thinking? Was my wife going to leave me? Would she convince the kids to leave me? I was terrified, and seriously considered suicide. Maybe that would be easier for everyone if I left them alone to be who they were, happy being without me being there to fuck it all up... I decided to sleep on it.
The next day I run across a meme on Reddit that says:
"Morality is doing what's right regardless of what you're told.
Obedience is doing what you're told regardless of if it's right."
I then realized that the organization didn't want right hearted "MORAL" people, they want obedient ones. I realized there is a clear difference and if being a good JW taught me anything, you have to make a choice. I decided that suicide really wasn't one of the choices and I cried some more for a while that day.
After I got the emotional sickness out of my system, I decided that I wasn't going to fade in the typical sense. I was just going to stop going, and I did... cold turkey. My wife and kids went here and there, but without me their meeting attendance lagged and we found ourselves calling in (wife's decision) more and more, and we usually talked through it and found it fun to make fun of the crazier ones that always bugged us. Quitting like that was a more difficult thing to do though because I worked for a JW owned company, and a prominent elder in my congregating was my boss. But like I said, I HAD to make a decision, had to take a stand. Every meeting night was very awkward at the end of the day when he'd say "See you at the meeting!", and I'd respond with a "YEP, see ya there!". We both knew I wasn't going to go.
I did this for about six months, and then one day I'm told I'm being laid off due to a lack of available work for me. I was in the middle of two very large projects that they specifically hired me to do, but I knew this day was coming and didn't fight them on it. Honestly, it was torture listening to them all talk about this meeting or that, inspiring articles, or their uplifting day out in service. I would feign interest, and it sucked. I wanted to scream at them and shake them all awake, but I know it wouldn't have worked. I left, feeling angry and bitter over their lack of love for someone they're supposed to be caring for, but was also pretty relieved.
By now, no one in my family is going to meetings. I want to talk to my kids so badly but am still afraid of what they might think of me. My son had been showing signs of "WORLDLY-NESS", listening to rap music he hadn't before and playing video games and Magic the Gathering card games with friends... Basically doing things that we would have considered very questionable or wrong before. I decide to probe him with a few questions and ask what he thought of those things and how it related to being a witness. I told him that if the elders knew he was doing those things he would be talked to, and I asked him what he would do. He said he guessed he'd stop playing. I asked him why he was doing it if he knew they thought it was wrong and would tell him not to play and listen to those things. He didn't know. But he then opened up to telling me that he didn't find fulfillment in being a JW and didn't care to be one, and only got baptized because all his friends were doing it and thought he should too. He said he didn't really believe the creation story and kind of believed in Natural Selection more than anything else. I wanted to cry.
This part is hard to believe but I promise it happened this way. The very next day, without having discussed anything with her brother, my daughter asked to speak to my wife and I. She tells us she didn't want to be a JW anymore. She was disgusted by the hypocrisy of it all, and the fakers and lying kids she knew in the hall. This time, I did cry... I guess I'm an emotional guy. God, I'm a baby sometimes, but I love my kids and I couldn't live without them. I later found out from both the kids that they heard the same statement made at the convention about pedophilia and knew it was a lie and it bothered them too.
My wife has been a different story, she doesn't go to meetings, but still believes. She isn't willing to read what the rest of us have, but she's fine with the fact that we aren't going anymore. She told me that many people have happy marriages even though they have different religious views. She is slowly letting go of certain ideals here and there, but it's a slow process. I love her though and we are going to be ok, and I believe one day completely free of this cult.
Continued in comments...
TL;DR: I heard a statement in a talk from a Bethel brother that I knew was a lie and took the necessary steps in my life to remove myself from the witnesses. I was lucky enough to remove my grown children as well, and my wife is coming along slowly. We've lost everyone else in our lives and are moving to San Francisco next week to start a new adventure together... Hopefully leaving the WTBTS behind for good. I owe this site for saving my sanity and giving me the courage to take a stand. Thank you!

should churches play bethel music video

Sermon and Videos: Why Our Church No Longer Plays Bethel or Hillsong Music (or Elevation or Jesus Culture), and Neither Should Yours February 11, 2020 July 23, 2020 Michelle Lesley Want to see what it looks like to have a pastor who loves God, God’s Word, and his sheep more than the applause of men? So, if you haven't noticed naturally, Bethel's music is a very popular choice among churches. If Bethel Church was a solid and biblical church this would be great news! Unfortunately, there are many reasons why Bethel is not a church that biblical churches should endorse or support in any way. I am 90% certain that no one gets any money when we play that song in our churches. And while I agree that the financial aspect of it is very important, I do think it is even more important that we avoid the possibility of causing someone to stumble. Sadly I know far too many people in my own circle who believe that Bethel must be okay because their music is so wonderful, who end up listening ASK BOB: “Should we sing Hillsong or Bethel music if there are doctrinal differences with those churches?” Written on March 1, 2020 by admin in Uncategorized. Occasionally people ask my opinion on various personal or church issues. I recently received the following question which I have reprinted below, followed by my response. QUESTION Bob, Recently I watched some youtube videos stating So when you defend Bethel Music, maybe you should add a disclaimer so that people will not imbibe the heresy disseminated by the church they are from. When you accept the sheep’s clothing, be sure to warn people about the wolf. When you knowingly sit under the ministry of a pedophile pastor, please consider warning everyone to do as he says, and not as he does. By the way, if you will send Bethel Music, Jesus Culture, and Hillsong United are nothing more than a Trojan Horse that opens the door into the heresy that these churches teach. Thanks for this article. The church I was going to for several years sang Bethel and Hillsong Choruses and I lovingly approached the Pastors about the truth of what lay behind these songs and the errors and they didn’t want to hear it. They told Hillsong, through its attractive music, that has a form of godliness but denies His power (2 Tim 3:5), creeps it’s way into solid churches, deceptively turning people on to their ideology, drawing people to their “vision”–Brian Houston’s “vision.” A wide-ranging variety of music, some that may seem very solid theologically on the surface (even Satan masquerades as an angel of By way of background, Bethel Music, a popular record label, is known for producing high quality music, and their songs are sung in churches across America on Sunday mornings–not just in NAR churches, but even in many mainstream evangelical and non-denominational churches. And the truth is that many of the people in these churches sing along, having no idea that these songs come from a Costi Hinn recently shared a Facebook post pointing us back to an article he wrote back in October 2108, on whether our churches should sing songs produced by Jesus Culture and Bethel. Costi's post was in response to another article written by Todd Wagner, contributor to The Gospel Coalition blog. "Thankful for The Gospel Coalition posting… The cost-benefit of the truths should be weighed in your ultimate decision. Examine Everything. Our team examines the content and implications of every song we sing—whether they come from our own artists at Watermark, Bethel Music, Hillsong, Passion, or any other collective community or individual artist. We’ve often chosen not to sing

should churches play bethel music top

Best Bethel Music Gospel Famous Songs 2020 - Powerful ...

Should Christians listen to and support music published by Bethel, Hillsong and elevation church? Many people have asked me this question and I'm finally goi... Bethel Music is a community of worshipers pursuing the presence of God. We exist to gather, inspire, and encourage the global church toward deeper intimacy with the Father. Together, we express ... #bethelmusic #bethelchurchTo Donate to Our Ministry: https://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=_s-xclick&hosted_button_id=PT52LFW3GKQNW&source=urlTo Become A... Is it wrong to sing songs from Bethel if they are theologically correct? In this episode of #RedeemingTruth, Pastors Costi Hinn, Dale Thackrah, and Kyle Swan... Leanne, @faithfuldefender on Instagram, explains what she and her husband did when their church began playing Bethel music and why we should all avoid Bethel... Best Bethel Music Gospel Famous Songs 2020 - Powerful Playlist Of Bethel Music Nonstop Follow 'Top Gospel Music' Subscribe for More: https://bit.ly/38xDSW8... About Press Copyright Contact us Creators Advertise Developers Terms Privacy Policy & Safety How YouTube works Test new features Press Copyright Contact us Creators ...

Should your church sing Jesus Culture & Bethel Music?

should churches play bethel music

should churches play bethel music - win

Being a musician, it’s really hard for me to get into mainstream Christian music.

A little rant on contemporary worship music

I want to exit the world of leading worship.

Advice Needed

After all this, how do I deal with their music?

Violetta's (Soul Weaver) deduction analysis