(This is from a site that supports struggling Jehovah’s Witnesses, and those JWs who have left)
Dear JW Friend,
You have certainly opened up the “can of worms” in Pandora’s Box!!
You have NOTHING to apologize to your JW “prophet” sister for!! She does not hold your life in her hands!! And neither does any “man”!! Let’s think about this one for a minute.
For one thing, remember that the Watchtower uses three main “tools” to enslave: fear, guilt, and shame. And boy, do they use them to their full advantage!! Don’t let these be used on you!!
As for the Biblical view on holidays, look up Romans chapter 14. It speaks about how each person, individually, decides for themselves what day is “Holy” or not “Holy.” It also says that no one has the right to judge another about what holidays one chooses to “celebrate.” Further, it says that “each of us will render an account” before God; in other words, no one has the right to make our decisions for us because we have to make our own choices.
And look above chapter 14, to the last verse in Romans chapter 13; it says that we are to “put on the Lord Jesus Christ…” How many JWs know THAT?? And to “put on Christ” involves putting on the FREEDOM that He died for us to have!!As far as your concern about raising your kids in “the truth”…what is truth? Didn’t Jesus say that “God’s WORD is TRUTH”??? In fact, this same scripture, and at verse nineteen it states that we would be made “holy” (or “sanctified”) by means of truth! (John 17:17, 19)
If these two scriptures are to be believed, then how can we ever expect to be made “holy” when the Watchtower’s “truth” keeps changing?? Does God’s Word “change”? Would we ever refer to God’s Word as “old light,” because some “man’s interpretation” of it has changed?? Does it make sense that Jehovah God or Jesus would support this practice?
Can’t we just believe God’s Word as it is written?? Did God really need some “organization of man” to come along 1,800 years later to “explain” what His Word “really means”?? Does this really make sense?? To me it sounds like a clever deception…
For any man-made, man-run-religion, or organization…an organization that demands absolute obediance and loyalty…to refer to THEMSELVES as “The” truth, (as if there is no other!) is BLASPHEMY to me!!
Did not Jesus say quite clearly at John 14:6 that HE was the truth??? And that HE sets us FREE?? FREE!!! Jesus says that HE SETS US FREE!!
Look at John 8: 12,31,32, 36 in the New World Translation…
“…I am the light of the world. He that follows me will by no means walk in darkness, but will possess the light of life.
“If you remain in my word, you are really my discipiles, and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free. Therefore if the Son sets you free, you will be actually free.”
So if Jesus says He set us free, how is it that the Watchtower says that we have to go through THEM to get life? And why are those who leave the Watchtower and become Christians “tarred and feathered” as the most evil and wicked of persons? as “enemies of Jehovah God? the very God who pointed man to His Son, through whom God’s Plan of Salvation comes??
Why does the Watchtower, and other cult-like religions, seek to demote Christ, deny His deity, and take the focus off of Christ and point to themselves as “the way” to be “right with God,” demanding absoulute loyalty of their members?? And why do they not appear to support “following Jesus’ Word” but rather admonishe their followers to “follow the Watchtower Word”?? Does this expectation sound like “God’s will” to you??
If joining the WATCHTOWER ORGANIZATION was a REQUIREMENT FOR LIFE, JESUS WOULD HAVE MENTIONED IT!!!
Jesus does, however, tell us to come to Him, and he does so without threats of horrible ways to die if we don’t. “Come to me, all you who are toiling and loaded down, and I will refresh you…” Did you ever feel “loaded down” in the Watchtower?? (Matthew 11:28-30)
Your standing in front of God never had anything to do with your standing in front of any man, or religion, or organization. Please read Galatians! Galatians 5:1 says, again, that “Christ set us free”!!
The Watchtower is all about ENSLAVEMENT…and that is all against God’s plan, which is for us to be FREE.
If you have a Concordance, you might want to look up “Free,” and “Holidays.” You will find many scriptures to show that you are not wrong in the decision you have made in leaving the organization…no longer putting “your trust in nobles, nor in the son of earthling man, to whom NO SALVATION BELONGS”! (Psalms 146:3)
I know it is hard to stand up to a JW when they pull the “guilt trip” on you, or when they try to get you to “come to your senses”; yes, those three “tools” of fear, shame and guilt do seem to work well…
The reason why most Jehovah’s Witnesses have such a hard time understanding how you can miss meetings when they can’t without feeling “wrong,” is because they are “addicted” to the regimen of indoctrination; like a drug addict, they feel “off,” if they don’t get their “fix” on schedule…and you know how they like to keep on schedule!!
Well, I hardly ever preach on the Bible, but I felt it was appropriate in this case, since faithful members of the Watchtower generally feel like the Bible is somehow THEIR exclusive property…as if the only scriptures applicable to “outsiders” are the “bad” ones!! So these scriptures may help you have a “level playing field,” so to speak!
I am sorry for “yelling,” but it just burns my hide the arrogance shown by some JWs toward those like you who are having a hard enough time already, struggling to figure out this “normal life” thing, and trying to help your kids and yourself recover, and all.
Try not to worry about your JW sister…because YOU ARE IN THE RIGHT!!!
(Okay, guys, please don’t start yelling at me about “preaching” and about being “religious”! I just had to shoot my mouth off on this one!! I just HAD to!!)
Hang in there, girl!!
