The Reaction of Family

There's something about family ties.  Family should love you unconditionally.  Yeah I understand if you are worried about your child, but is it worth it to make them feel worthless, that they are a screwup and that they would be better off dead?  Is this real, unconditional love? 

I know that the circuit overseer was visiting my congregation last week.  I know from things my mom and stepdad said.  If you are unfamiliar with what a circuit overseer is, they are charged with looking over a selected group of congregations all combined to form a circuit.  Several circuits together are called a district.  Likewise, there is a district overseer.

The circuit overseer's (CO) job is to keep things in order.  They are supposed to shepherd over the congregation.  It's funny how these people are treated like celebrities in the congregation.  Everyone jumps at the chance to kiss the CO's butt.  Many of them are high and mighty, lacking humility.  It's the opposite of what a shepherd should be but that's a subject for another day.

So the CO was in town last week and the elders in my congregation decided they would have him try to visit with me.  I don't know what they want with me.  I've told them my position is unflinching.  I guess they want to bring in the big guns hoping maybe I'll see the "light".  The last thing I want to do on my Saturday morning off of work is deal with my ideals being berated.  I'm happy enough to live and let live.  You feel free to believe what you want, I'll believe what I want.  I don't want to go after them in a vindictive fashion.  I don't want to change them.  I just want to live my life, in peace without dealing with the lack of love that comes with the choices I've made.  Is that really a lot to ask?

So our head elder (they were called the presiding overseer, but are now known as the coordinator of the body of elders.  Why they needed to change that, I don't know.)  called me up.  His call had woken me up early Saturday morning so I was not really in the mood to answer the phone.  About an hour goes by and I hear the door bell ring.  I know who it was.  My family wasn't home to answer the door, thank goodness.  Then they knock really loud for the next 5 minutes.  They know I'm home but I am not coming to the door.  I was just not in the mood to deal with that.

So when my mom goes to the meeting the next day and comes back, she had found out that I didn't answer the door.  She lays into me about how these people are trying to help me and that I should accept their help and not ignore them or push them away.  She was pretty upset with me.  I tried telling her how I was feeling at the time but she didn't care.  Why should my feelings matter on this issue anyway? 

A couple days go by and I decide to share an article with her.  I knew that if I share the article and my opinion on it and she talks to the elders about it, they will use this as showing that I am a dangerous apostate influence, trying to sway her faith.  That wasn't what I was trying to do.  I was just trying to get her to look at it from my point of view, unhindered by the JW goggles.  When you are involved in a cult, it's almost an impossible thing to do.  You would do anything to ignore even the obvious truths about your group.  Here's what the article says:

"Although the Bible makes a clear distinction between true and false teachings, God allows each person the freedom to choose how he or she will respond.  No one should be forced to worship in a way that he finds unacceptable or be made to choose between his beliefs and his family." (Awake, July 2009, page 29 "Is It Wrong to Change Your Religion?")

I thought maybe this would touch her in a way that would make her see from a logical standpoint, that the shunning is not something that should be done.  In all reality, I'm being punished for a choice I made at the tender age of 12 years old.  How can you expect someone to comprehend that kind of a life-altering decision at that age?  You can't.  It's unreasonable.

Her response was less than kind.  To quote her, "Nobody is forcing you to make that decision. Nobody but you."  She doesn't seem to understand that by having my choice be to lose a good relationship with her, to believing what I believe is right, is tantamount to being forced to choose between my family and beliefs.  I just don't understand how she can't see it. 

I have discovered that there is a possibility I may not be disfellowshipped.  It's a small possibility but I realize the mistake I made in telling this to her.  If she tells the elders about this conversation, it's almost guaranteed I will be.  This has certainly been an wild and painful chapter of my life.  I don't wish this on anybody.

Purposefully Misleading Others (Part 2)

So lately I've been dealing a lot with the JW's stopping by, trying to change my mind.  I've pretty much informed them i'm not going to change my viewpoint.  Originally they had asked to compile a list of my issues and did start doing that.  Eventually I stopped because I didn't see the point.  I wasn't going to change my opinion.  However, I realized I can help others with this information.  If I can help one person, then it's worth it.  I already had a part 1 to this post.  Here's six more things I have an issue with:

1) "Only Jehovah's Witnesses, those of the anointed remnant and the great crowd, as a united organization under the protection of the Supreme Organizer, have any Scriptural hope of surviving the impending end of this doomed system dominated by Satan the Devil." Watchtower 1989 September 1 p.19

Is it really fair that if you aren't a Jehovah's Witness you will be destroyed at Armageddon? Imagine that Jehovah's Witnesses are not the true religion, do you think it would be fair for God to destroy you because circumstances led you to being involved with the wrong religion?

2)"The brothers preparing these publications are not infallible. Their writings are not inspired as are those of Paul and the other Bible writers." Awake! 1993 Mar. 22 p.4

If that is the case, then where does new light come from? If their writings are not inspired from God, then why should we listen to them?

3) 587 the fall of Jerusalem. Using a simple time-line from Watchtower publications.

Babylon fell – 539 B.C.: “Babylon fell in 539 B.C.” - Babylon the Great Has Fallen – God's Kingdom Rules p.184

Nabonidus – started ruling in 556 B.C.: “On the basis of cuneiform texts he is believed to have ruled some seventeen years (556-539 BC).” Aid to Bible Understanding – Nabonidus p.1195

Labashi-Marduk – started ruling in 557 B.C.: “Labashi-Marduk... was a vicious boy, and within nine months he had his throat cut by an asssassin.” - Babylon the Great Has Fallen – God's Kingdom Rules p.184

Neriglissar – started ruling in 561 B.C.: “Neriglissar... reigned four years.” - Babylon the Great Has Fallen – God's Kingdom Rules p.184

Evil-Merodach – started ruling in 563 B.C.: “After reigning but two years, King Evil-Merodach was murdered” - Babylon the Great Has Fallen – God's Kingdom Rules p.184

Nebuchadnezzar – started ruling in 606 B.C.: “Nebuchadnezzar ruled as king for 43 years.” - Insight on the Scriptures, Volume 2 p.480

Date for destruction would be 19 years later in 587 B.C.: “And in the nineteenth year of King Nebuchadnezzar the servant of the king of Babylon, came to Jerusalem. And he proceeded to burn the house of Jehovah.” - 2 Kings 25:8-9

4) "If we were following a man undoubtedly it would be different with us; undoubtedly one human idea would contradict another and that which was light one or two or six years ago would be regarded as darkness now; But with God there is no variableness, neither shadow of turning, and so it is with truth; any knowledge or light coming from God must be like its author. A new view of truth never can contradict a former truth. … "New Light" never extinguishes older "light" but adds to it…" Zion's Watch Tower 1881 February pp.3, 188

So what Russell was saying that new light doesn't change doctrine but only refines it. It was correct but incomplete. You might say that the Governing Body is allowed doctrinal mistakes as Bible leaders in the past have made mistakes. The issue isn't whether individuals are imperfect, but whether or not their teachings are accurate. How many mistakes did God allow into the Bible?

Sure, maybe some of the early apostles made mistakes as well as ones such as Moses and David. This is a different issue all together. This isn't a question of if the Governing Body hold a perfect understanding of doctrine. The issue is whether the Governing Body is directed by the Holy Spirit as a group through prayer. Is Jehovah directing what is written in the Watchtower?

In the same line, what percentage of what the apostles wrote in the Bible wrong? The answer is zero because Jehovah directed it. What percentage of what the Governing Body has written in the Watchtower has been deemed wrong by their own admission?

5) Quotes about 1914:

"But bear in mind that the end of 1914 is not the date for the beginning, but for the end of the time of trouble. Zion's Watch Tower 1894 July 15 p.226

"...the battle of the great day of God Almighty. The date of the close of that "battle" is definitely marked in Scripture as October 1914. It is already in progress, its beginning dating from October, 1874." Zion's Watch Tower 1892 January 15 p.23

"Now, in view of recent labor troubles and threatened anarchy, our readers are writing to know if there may not be a mistake in the 1914 date. They do not see how present conditions can hold out so long under the strain. We see no reason for changing the figures - nor could we change them if we would. They are, we believe, God's dates, not ours. But bear in mind that the end of 1914 is not the date for the beginning, but for the end of the time of trouble." Zions Watch Tower 1894 July 15 p.226

6) Quotes about 1925:

"The date 1925 is even more distinctly indicated by the Scriptures because it is fixed by the law God gave to Israel. Viewing the present situation in Europe, one wonders how it will be possible to hold back the explosion much longer; and that even before 1925 the great crisis will be reached and probably passed." Watch Tower 1922 Sep. 1 p.262

"Our thought is, that 1925 is definitely settled by the Scriptures. As to Noah, the Christian now has much more upon which to base his faith then Noah had upon which to base his faith in a coming deluge." Watch Tower 1923 Apr. 1 p.106

"We cannot be blamed for presenting from the Scriptures such evidence as they afford which leads us to believe that a certain event will take place at a given time. Some times the Lord has let His people looking for the right thing at the wrong time, and more frequently they have looked for the wrong things at the right time. But all the enemies of the cause of present truth in the earth are fervently hoping that the Bible students will not be so successful in 1925 in looking for the right thing at the right time as they were in 1914. if they are, however, it will be the other fellow that will have to do the explaining, and not we." Golden Age 1924 Feb 13 p.314