Saturday, February 11, 2006

We are living dangerously, and we may not know it.

Hello,

I’ve been reading so much about how people used to go to the meetings only to be dismayed at the words and actions of others around them. Particularly the elders and the ministerial servants who spoke from the podium, or participated in a judicial committee, etc. If these people would realize that the first influences of Russell and Rutherford, (good old R&R) were from occultism, they would understand that all of their followers have been deceived from day one, and everybody is a puppet for these vestiges of Russellism. Russell’s family was into Masonry and Rosicrucianism, and Rutherford started out as his lawyer, taking over the whole thing when Russell dies in 1916.

The org went downhill from there. Rutherford got some craziness about blood from a Rosicrucian paper, and originated the prohibition on Vaccinations. Then he purchased property in San Diego, telling people that Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob were living there since 1925, when they came to earth. The place is called Beth Sarim, and in 1935, it was valued at $60,000. Then Rutherford died at this place in 1942, and it 1945, they started the thing about refusing blood transfusions. In 1952, they started allowing vaccinations, but hung onto the blood thing. Many have died unnecessarily due to their acceptance of the org’s medical crazinesses.

When I think of how my life was nowhere and I thought becoming a Jehovah’s Witness would get me somewhere, I am convinced that the deceptive practices of Russell in his writings and his life was the beginning of a very downhill trend which has lasted a long time. Too many people are still falling for their stuff.

I remember the last meeting I attended in 1996 just before I walked away as of November 3. There were two little “brothers” sitting at a table during one of their famous demonstrations. A fairly smooth talking “bro” (elder) got up there and started singing the praises of going to Bethel upon graduating from high school. He said that you can get training for opening a business in which you can make money for the rest of your life. I thought of the things I had experienced in the past year. My best friend’s oldest son had been turned down because they said they didn’t need anybody at Bethel at the present time. Another young man had gone for two weeks and had been made such a fool of; they had completely washed his brain and made him as pliable as any other male Jehovah’s Witness I knew, so they could start him as a ministerial servant. It had really made me sick.

I never attended another meeting. I went through all the internal doctrinal battles that one goes through about the Trinity, the Holy Ghost, etc.; taking Communion seemed strange at first, and I was not sure if Jesus was God. All I had to do was some inner searching and investigating and discussing it with my kids, and they straightened me out on everything. My oldest son gave me my first NIV bible, and it had a lot of helpful study notes in it, and I was all set.

I’ve been reading, researching, and studying a lot, and I’ve made some real discoveries. Like how does it become so easy for a Jehovah’s Witness to go from the org to a group which is just as dangerous? Another question is: What common ground do a lot of these groups have which makes the transition so easy from one to the other? A third question to ask is what practice keeps these groups financially solvent? I’ve only scratched the surface of the answers to these questions.

My goal is to train people to help others out of the org and into the love of Jesus Christ.

Peace,

John 1:1, 14

John 3:16