Recently I received some emails from Ron.
Ron had been "studying" with the Witnesses for about a year, and seemed
convinced that he had found "the truth". Still, he asked to hear my side of things.
I had him take our "deprogramming course", and his response to it is shown in the letter below.
Hi Steve yes I did go on your sight and was bale to get past the first part of the question, and made it to the end, to be honest it was a lot for me to take in,not saying i did`nt,well you were write that me talking to an ex witness on the internet would leave satan room to foul me well thats what i got when i talked with the person im studing with said,plus you are an apostate for leaving the JW.Steve this guy and his family can not do enough in my familys life to meet are needs ,its unbeleiveable the support they go threw to study and be a friend,this is what i say true Christion should do for one another.You had said to me before that if i became or should i say that when a person become a JW they are gone fore good,well that is scary to say,but being a true christion you should be sold out to jesus and the father,well i think to have your support in all this which i do realy apreciate,would have to be to know the spirital deception they you to draw people in and real how they can be so strong within their own group,lets face it this is so large i cant even amagen anyone going to another religion after their teaching because of the knowledge they fill your mind with the bible truth its so unbelievable,personaly i havent had any one teach me what they have in the short time i have studied.why is that steve are they that good,even like they are the only ones that dont go to war because of killing a nother brother well thats so true or why did only eight people get save in the days of noah,what happen to all the religios people.Thing like this are so confencing,but i`m not saying this to argue with you im looking for the inside scoop so i can watch out for these traps,if there is such a thing.Thanks vermuch for your kind support steve,your brother in christ jesus
I began preparing a suitable reply to this when suddenly Ron's email account disappeared. I realize there are many reasons why a person might cancel or change their email account, but the fact that Ron ceased contacting me leads me to suspect that the Witnesses asked him to change his email address in order to "protect" him from hearing anymore of what I had to say. So much for competing fairly in the open marketplace of ideas!
The Watchtower encourages non-Witnesses to question the authority of their religious leaders and to thoroughly examine their religion. But they have a double standard when it comes to the "Watchtower religion": they don't want any of their own members to question their authority!
I went ahead and finished my letter to Ron anyway. I am publishing it here in case he ever visits this website again. I hope that it may also be helpful to others who find themselves in a similar situation, or who are running up against the same rationalizations.
Hi Ron,
One of the common tactics of mind-controlling cults is to berate those outside of the cult as evil. And it is much easier to dismiss former members out of hand as "satanic" rather than to answer their objections. Of course, if the objections are unanswerable then such a subterfuge may be their only recourse.
The Watchtower has divided the world in two, something like this:
| God |
Satan |
| Truth |
Lies |
| True Prophets |
False Prophets |
| Love |
Hate |
If you are going to accept their division, then it is up to you to figure out who is on which side. Now, of course, the false prophets don't go around wearing a sandwich board that reads "False Prophet". No, they masquerade as true prophets. They try their best to convince people that they are on the side of God and truth and love. If all you listen to is their propaganda, you will come to believe them.
False prophets and liars don't want people to hear the truth because it exposes them as liars. In contrast, people who really do have the truth don't fear a fair hearing of both sides.
Witnesses are not allowed to go on the Internet for fear of finding sites (such as mine) which pose questions they cannot answer. Likewise, they are not allowed to read literature with a point of view different than their own. And, of course, they're not allowed to speak to people who have left the Watchtower religion
Which side does this put them on?
In the "Self Deprogramming Course" it was proven that the Watchtower has lied and has published false prophecies. The Governing Body themselves had no defense to this when I personally presented them with these facts.
What side does this put them on?
If they have told you that they are the only ones who refuse to go to war, that is another lie. Jehovah's Witnesses are not the only religion with conscientious objectors in it. There are also Christians with no religious affiliation who refuse to go to war. Even agnostics and atheists have refused to go to war.
When the U.S. recently embarked on its illegal war against Iraq, many people all over the world raised their voices in protest. Do you suppose those voices were all Jehovah's Witnesses? No, Witnesses are not allowed to protest because that is considered being "part of the world". Not one of those protestors was a Jehovah's Witness, and not one of them will ever willingly go to war.
This is just one example of how the Watchtower lies and how those lies are parroted by their robotic followers and packaged up as part of the "truth message"! This is then used to lure in trusting souls such as yourself.
Of course they are going out of their way to be nice to you! They are recruiting you. It's their job.
They remind me of the "lobbyists" we have in the U.S. Their job is to go to Washington D.C. and persuade congressmen to vote for their cause. Their lobbying efforts don't just focus on explaining the rightness of their cause. They also consist of "wining and dining" the congressmen, being their friend and basically doing anything for the congressmen until they agree to vote for the bill. This isn't real friendship, and it certainly isn't love.
If Mormons had knocked on your door instead of Jehovah's Witnesses you'd be saying the same things about them: wonderful people who teach the "truth" to you and go out of their way to help you.
Even atheists have been known to go out of their way to help people. The difference is that they do so without the motive of making converts: their altruism is genuine.
The friendships you are forming now aren't real if those friends will shun you if you should ever decide not to devote your life to spreading Watchtower publications. Their "friendship" is very conditional on your continuing to "toe the line".
When Jehovah's Witnesses believed that organ transplants were against God's law, the rest of the world did not. Who was on the side of truth then? The Witnesses or the rest of the world?
When Jehovah's Witnesses believed that vaccinations were against God's law, the rest of the world did not. Who was on the side of truth then? The Witnesses or the rest of the world?
When the Watchtower prophesied that Abraham would be resurrected in 1925, which side of the line were they on? True prophets and truth-tellers, or false prophets and liars?
The answers to these questions is painfully obvious. These are the types of questions the Witnesses cannot answer, and so they don't want to hear them asked. That's why they've asked you not to listen to me.
You asked why only eight people got saved "in the days of Noah". That's a very good question. Let's think about it. Did Noah go out and recruit the other seven people? Were they saved because they made a conscious decision to change their lifestyle and get on the ark? Was there some test people could take (like answering 80 questions) in order to get on the ark?
According to the Bible, the answer to all of these questions is a resounding 'No'.
Getting on the ark wasn't what saved Noah and his family. Not being wicked is what saved them. The ark was just the physical means that was used to carry out the salvation.
The 8 people were members of Noah's family, and God had judged everyone else on earth to be wicked. That is why they were destroyed: because they were wicked, not because they didn't get on the ark.
So, how is any of this like joining the Watchtower religion? It's not. If there is to be any real parallel here, then we would have to say that everyone who is not a Jehovah's Witness (i.e. everyone not on the "ark of salvation") is wicked.
But this is simply untrue. There are literally millions of people who are not wicked and who are not Jehovah's Witnesses. God's destroying these people would only be like Noah's story if back then God had said, "There are righteous people in the world, but they're not on the ark, so I'm going to destroy them." According to the Bible, that's not how it was. So, the Watchtower is making a false analogy: they are misusing the Bible for their own ends: to recruit people on false pretenses.
There are many ways to look at the Bible, and the way the Watchtower interprets it is not a loving way. Their false interpretations (e.g. vaccinations, organ transplants, and blood transfusions) have led to the deaths of their trusting followers and their children.
Their belief that a "loving God" is about to kill all non-Jehovah's Witnesses is not a loving teaching. The average Witness does not "love his neighbor". He despises him and calls him a "goat". If he spends time trying to convert him it isn't out of love: it is because he is required to do so in order to stay on the "ark" himself!
Of course Witnesses will not usually admit the above truth to anyone (seldom even to themselves), but I have been privy to such confessions. I have heard Bethelites pray for Jehovah to "exterminate every two-legged germ off the face of the earth." Does that sound like a loving sentiment to you?
Yes, the Witnesses make a big hoopla over how they "show love" by helping each other in times of need, etc. But they don't extend that beyond the confines of their own group. In fact, the Watchtower orders them to "hate" those who have come to disagree with them ("apostates"). They are ordered to shun such people: they may not talk to them or even acknowledge their existence on the street should their paths happen to cross. Is this the type of love Jesus told us to look for in his followers?
Mt:5:46: For if ye love them which love you, what reward have ye? do not even the publicans the same?
Mt:5:47: And if ye salute your brethren only, what do ye more than others? do not even the publicans so?
If you think you need to "surrender your life to Jesus," what does that have to do with joining a lying organization of false prophets? How does swearing allegiance to such an organization (as they have you do at baptism) fit in with such a plan? According to the Bible, Jesus said:
Jn:14:6: Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me.
Notice the conspicuous absence of the Watchtower Bible and Tract Society from that verse, and from the following verse:
1Tm:2:5: For there is one God, and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus;
The Watchtower has tried to impose their organization in between God and men, but according to the above, this is the role Jesus plays alone!
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