Hello Everyone,
I decided to start a new thread regarding a Woman who exited the Watchtower Organization(Jehovah's Witnesses), since I have much experience in this area due to my twenty years as one of them and spending alot of time researching their History and examining their beliefs prior to my arrival to Bible-Truths, I thought this might be interesting, the E-mail was interesting to me. Looking forward to your comments, opinions, feedback and questions, if you have any. Maybe this Thread should be at Off Topic Discussions, I'm certain the Moderators will move this if I erred.
This E-mail from a Woman named Trudy highlights that although the JW's welcome Questions from their members, they don't welcome being QUESTIONED. When they first begin studying the Bible with you using one of their publications, they expect you to critique and examine your previous or current Religion, helping you to expose the errors, but after you get Baptized as a JW, they don't like and allow you to examine any errors or inconsistencies you find with them. This Woman(Trudy) seemed to experience some of this in her meeting with the Elders.
Well, here is the E-mail being considered:
Out of religion
« on: Yesterday at 08:48:16 AM »
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Dear Ray,
I know first hand how it is to be accused of apostasy by religious leaders.
Born and raised in the Watchtower doctrines, I finally came to Christ in the year
2000.
2 Corinthians 3:14-16
"But their minds were made dull, for to this day the same veil remains when the
old covenant is read. It has not been removed, because only in Christ is it taken
away. But whenever anyone turns to the Lord, the veil is taken away. Now t he
Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom."
While trying to help my dear friend see the importance of obedience to Christs' command
in regard to partaking of the emblems (bread and blood) of the Lord's supper observance,
( John 6:53)( 6:35) And the importance of coming to Christ; listening only to him.
I made the mistake of showing her a strange letter 'S 'on the skirt of a
character found in one of the Watchtowers' publications. Obvious, she wasn't ready to
see error in her belief system.
This obviously offended her and so she called one of the JW elders to report all the things
I'd said to her.
It wasn't long before I was contacted by one of the JW elders about a house visit.
(these meeting arrangements are to be carried out three times, the last at the
Kingdom Hall) While during the second meeting, the presiding elder told me,"T h e
Bible was not written for you, it was only written for the 144,000 and you are not one
of them." He assured me the heavenly door was closed in the year 1935 ( I believe that
was the date he gave to me) and said,"you belong to the 'other sheep class' not the
heavenly class."
(Christ is the door, how does anyone have the authority to shut him from God's people?
(John 10:2-9)
I was so appalled at his words that I searched out an old WT article with the title: "WHY
READ THE BIBLE.?" and and then covered all four margins with scriptures proving the
Bible was written for ANYONE who seeks God. At the next meeting, at the Kingdom
Hall where I knew they were going to give me the AXE, I handed the magazine to the
presiding elder. Also, I told him that I felt like a hypocrite for telling others at the door to
door minister to 'examine their religion; while all the while I had not examined mine,
and when I did examine it, let me tell you wh at I found!
And so I then proceeded to tell him about the past false predictions and too, how the WT touted the pyramid Geza; calling it God's Stone Witness while measuring it's hidden passages ways to confirm their 1914 date and other dates.
One of the elders sat up and objected and said, "I don't believe that!".
The presiding elder spoke up saying,"Yes, brother they did." I reminded them about
one of the WT' latest releases having admitting this error and showed a picture of it in
one of it's pages. ( Jehovah's Witnesses in the twentieth Century)
Just after the elders began to change their countenance, straighting themselves, to announce their decision to dis-fellowship me, I handed over my disassociation letter.
(hoping some one would be curious enough to read it) They requested I sign it, so I did.
It was over. I haven't stepped foot into their Kingdom Hall since.
I called one of the elders and left a message on their message machine. Th e message
I left him said,"Who are Christ's brothers"? Matthew 12:50 Jesus said,"Anyone who
does the will of my father in heaven is the same my brother, sister and my mother."
You see, the WT teaches all the (so called) other sheep class are doing God's will, yet
at the same time, they are not Christ's brothers.' ( strange contradiction)
I haven't
Sorry everyone(Samson), apparently I didn't copy and paste this properly, I need to take Kat's course on computer literacy, I've improved, but missed part of this E-mail. This E-mail is one of Ray's new ones from this past weekend, I guess you guys can get the rest of it, if you haven't read it already.
Looking forward to your comments and opinions, Samson.