(The following is my response to this person’s cry for help and support in her decision)
Hello, dear friend!!
I understand what you are going through!!
The hardest thing that any of us had to do was to just let go…no matter how terribly scary that is, you just have to let it all go.
It is as if you have been washed up on the shore of a foreign land, having jumped ship…a slave ship…and you are so scared. You want to go back to the ship because the life aboard that ship is what is familiar, and what is familiar is always a comfort, no matter how terrible the familiar is, it is easier to bear; easier to bear than having to face the fear of the unknown alone.
The land that you are afraid of learning to live on is called, “Freedom.”
Jesus said at John 8: 31-32; 36 that we really are HIS disciples if we remain in HIS teaching, and THEN we will know the truth, and that the truth would set us FREE. Further, Jesus says in verse 36 that if HE sets you free, then YOU ARE FREE, INDEED!!
Don’t be scared!! Jehovah is truly a loving God, and He wants you to be free! He did not make the salvation arrangement through His Son only to have us become, again, enslaved to a man-made religion; under “man’s” rule. Jehovah wants you to know TRUTH, and He knows and understands everything that you have gone through, and everything that you are now going through…the fear, the uncertainty, the guilt, and the worry that you might be wrong to leave the all-powerful WATCHTOWER ORGANIZATION!!!
Put yourself completely in Jehovah’s hands!! If you feel afraid of praying to Jehovah, or of relying upon Him, then pray to Jesus…yes, you really can pray to Jesus, and if you doubt this because of “Watchtower training,” I can provide scriptures to help you see that this is perfectly correct and proper.
As to the question of what you should do, I can only advise you. Again, I strongly suggest to you that you TRUST IN JEHOVAH!! Remember to not “put your trust in nobles, nor in the son of earthling man to whom no salvation belongs”! (Psalms 146: 3) Do you see by this scripture that no “man” has any salvation to give to anyone?
If joining the Watchtower Organization was a true requirement of Jehovah God, Jesus would surely have told us; or at least ONE of the apostles would have mentioned it; it would surely be somewhere in the scriptures! But this “requirement” not to be found! However, Jesus DID say many times that we should come to HIM…something the Watchtower Organization has denied us. Instead of the Watchtower pointing anyone toward Christ, they, instead, use God’s Word to point everyone to follow them… (See John 14:6)
As to whether or not you should “disassociate yourself,” again, if you put yourself in Jehovah’s hands, you’re in HIS care!! Your standing in front of Jehovah has nothing to do with your standing in front of any man, or “organization.” And it never did!!
Jesus did not feely offer up His perfect body, and spill His innocent blood to give us religion!! No, but His death set us “free from the Law”!! His death was not to bring us under the yoke of slavery to some man’s religion, but to give us a relationship with Him and Jehovah!! (Please read Galatians!!)
I do not feel that you have to do anything!. Let “whoever” come to you, and if you care to talk with them, then do so, though I am confident that you would feel better if you didn’t. Why? Because JWs, and the JW elders, are trained to infuse guilt, shame, fear, and confusion into anyone who has the audacity to entertain the thought that the Almighty Watchtower Organization is not the virtual “voice of God,” or that their authority is not straight from Almighty God, and they are out to “demonize” as “evil” anyone who would dare to “think for themselves,” or to disagree, on this matter.
The number one requirement in the Watchtower, remember, is not absolute loyalty to JEHOVAH!! No; but it is loyalty…unquestioning and obedient loyalty…to THE ORGANIZATION!!!
The scriptures tell us that the only “unforgivable sin” is blasphemy against the Holy Spirit, but in the Watchtower Organization, the only truly “unforgivable sin” is DISLOYALTY to the ORGANIZATION!!
Leave the slave ship behind. It will be the hardest thing you have ever had to do, but if you truly desire freedom…which Jesus died for you to have…then you will refuse to live your life any longer under the fear of man, fearing what they can do to you.
I have lost children, brothers, nephews, a niece, grandchildren, and I was the only one not invited to my own son’s wedding, nor did I even receive a birth announcement for either of my grandchildren when they were born. I have twelve members of my family that actually believe that I am “deluded,” “evil” and “rebellious,” and worse, that I am “serving Satan,” and as such, I am therefore doomed to be “destroyed” by Jehovah God, but I can only love them and pray for God to help them to one day want to know the truth about “The Truth.”
Now I will tell you that though there is pain in my life, I am truly a happy and a free person!! Though I lost nearly my entire family when I left the Watchtower, and every one of my “friends,” I can truly say that I do not have any regrets, because I am no longer living a lie, believing lies as truth, nor do I live with the constant nagging fear of being destroyed because I know I am not “good enough.”
Now, through my faith in Christ, I know that I HAVE salvation, and that this is assured, and is not something that some group of elders can take away from me as “punishment.”
Jehovah got me through all of it!! Through all of the pain and the fear and the humiliation and through the deepest depths of sadness and sorrow, He brought me through it!!
I have REAL FREINDS now, friends who love me for me; friends who would never “shun” me as “wicked” because I might believe differently from them! I live every day surprised anew at my blessings, and at the smile on my happy face, and I thank our loving Heavenly Father for His goodness and mercy!!
Life is a gift from our loving Heavenly Father. And life is for living. Allowing yourself to be enslaved by any man, or religion, or organization, was NEVER Jehovah’s will, and, in my humble opinion, to do so is an INSULT to Him!! An insult to our dear Lord Jesus who so willingly suffered and died a painful and shameful death in order to pay for not only our sins, but for our very lives; to free us from wages of sin.
Dear sister, I don’t know your name, or where you live, but I just saw your post and I was powerfully moved to write to you. And, as I have learned, I follow what God prompts me to do. HE is running things…no one else.
So now you have read what I have been moved to tell you. I hope that you will find comfort in the fact that there are literally HUNDREDS OF THOUSANDS of ex Watchtower members out there that have been in your shoes and who can completely relate to where you are at at this difficult time in your life, and to the painful struggle you feel in your heart.
Don’t worry about your grandmother. You can’t convince her of why you know you need to leave; she will not “get it.” She is too heavily indoctrinated from all the years of “feeding” off of the Watchtower table…there’s nothing you can do about that. Just tell her that you love her, and that you know in your heart that you have to follow your heart. Let it go. Let go, and let God. Leave it in God’s hands…because you never know what blessings He has in store for you and your family!!
I promise you that I will be here for you!! You can write to me at any time, and I promise you that I will do my absolute best to offer you love and support! You are not alone!!
Welcome to the rest of your new, free, life!!
Warm hugs,
