Personal Thoughts After The Watchtower by Richard Schwartz
		Originally Written In 1996 And Later Amended

When reading some of the Ex-Watchtower Society publications of former prominent brothers who served in high places in the organization, one can get some insight as to what goes on and how decisions are reached in the religion.

The Mind of A Jehovah's Witness

Any of the "friends" who I have spoke to, have never read and refuse to read any bible. Yet after reading one chapter, linked to this home web page, about blood, written by a former Governing Body member for 9 years and full time servant for over 40 years, I had to think very deeply. Meditate on it. Was it all information from a disgruntled man? Was it all lies? Was there any truth to the information? If so, how much? One of my close friends asked me why I am considering leaving the organization. I told him that I found some very valid points, but did not attempt to explain any, otherwise as I previously stated, a mental switch would go off or refusal to listen or reason on the information.

No matter how much evidence may be supplied, no matter how much scriptural testimony may be presented, no matter how much logic may be brought to bear on the points discussed, these may all be rejected and discarded by those who place a particular human religious authority as their guide, as the determiner of truth. In fact, with the vast majority of Jehovah's Witnesses all such evidence and Scriptural testimony will be rejected before it is even heard-because the authority of the "slave class" has decreed for them that they should reject it. Those under the Watchtower authority are thus robbed of the freedom to decide for themselves whether the information is factual or false, beneficial or detrimental. (1)

I called up one elder, to say I am sorry for my decision. A good man he is, yet I would not even attempt to explain anything for my actual decision. He just stated "whatever it is, it is wrong". I understand where it comes from. His father was in the so called "truth" most of his life. He, a

The Road To Freedom Is Free From A Slave Class, Pressing On To Maturity

man over 70 years old, has been in the supposed "truth" most of his life. He went to jail in World War II for this religion. How could he possibly ever admit to himself that this organization is not the "truth", no matter what new or valid information was shown to him? Just like the Pharisees of the first century, many were good people, but how could they ever possibly admit to themselves that this Jesus character made some valid points. Around two years later I spoke to him on the phone and told him my scriptural views. He of course did not listen or agree and I understand. He and his wife happen to be wonderful persons and I can't help but love them. If you knew them, you would too.

I think something has to be understood here, this is much more than a religion. It engulfs one's family and friends. A former brother, who I had spoken to, told me that he spoke to an active brother who was an "elder". This man's family, totaling over 27 persons, are all in the so called "truth". He is having some serious doubts and wishes to leave the religion. His wife told him, that if he leaves the "truth", it will just kill her. I personally think it might just kill her, just as she has stated. You see, there are controlling factors that you find in cults. One is not allowed to associate, eat with, even say "hello" to anyone who has left the organization, even one's own children, parents, anybody. Can you see the implications of this? This I believe has kept and is continuing to keep many people in the so called "truth". Fear of man's rules and loosing all their loved ones, all being hostages to a man made religious organization (1 John 4:18) Can you imagine what it is like to loose all your close friends and relatives, having them mad at you and refusing to acknowledge you ? That is why this and many other web pages, books and information is needed for the public.

I have always been annoyed when someone accused the organization of Jehovah's Witnesses of being a "cult". Many just throw that word around in complete ignorance. Yet, now that I am not agreeing with all the teachings, I am seeing the controlling factors that truly make it such. My ex-wife had once told me that if I am disassociated, I could not say a family prayer together with my two young boys, at that time, 2 years old and 5 years old. I got angry and asked why. The answer was with no explanation but, "You know the rules!". I questioned "whose rules are they?" I know them to be strictly manmade rules which I believe make the "word of God invalid." Certainly if "death, nor life, nor angels , nor governments, nor things now here, nor height nor depth, nor any other creation can separate us from God's love that is in Christ Jesus our Lord", then neither can any religious group, organization or "slave class" separate us either. We have every right to pray with our family and children, regardless of some manmade organizational rejection, for our relationship is with God and Christ, not some self-appointed "slave class" of men. (Romans 8:38-38; Matt 15:6-8; Matt 24:45)

The organization to me contains both valid teaching along with manmade poisonous teachings. The two just don't mix and the poison corrupts it all. I can agree with the theology that Jesus blood was paid as the ransom sacrifice, but to interpret that he been invisibly present since the year 1914, appointing a "slave class" at that time and resurrecting the anointed in 1918, is clearly to me, a blind manmade teaching that leads people to walk completely out of line. And to put legalism and the sacrifice of religion ahead of mercy are against everything I believe in.

Why Do So Many People Speak Out ?

Many ask, why do people who leave the organization have to speak out against it and have a web page such as this? It is because the organization attempts to destroy your life for disagreeing with it and leaving it. Marriages are broken up, Parents loose their children, children loose their parents, families are split apart and close friendships are ruined and much more. This shunning policy that is enforced by the Watchtower Society is from a misapplication of 1 Corinthians chapter 5, 2 John and Matthew 18 If this were not the case, then most likely the majority of those speaking out against the Watchtower Society would cease.

The Watchtower's Policy For Leaving

Marriages break up, Parents loose their children, children loose parents, families split apart and close friendships are ruined

Part of the shunning policy includes the announcing of one's name as wicked on the platform to the entire congregation, which I really believe to be slander and defamation of character, a sin in their own book, that clearly goes against Christ and God. The fine reputation that one has taken years to build up, along with all the love, justice, mercy and kindness they have shown, is completely wiped out in a matter of a few minutes. This is nothing short of Un-Christ like and unloving and is damaging to each individuals relationship with God and Christ. Many persons who have left are able to completely recover the emotional blackmail of loosing all their loved ones, friends and fine reputation that they worked so many years for, and regain spiritual growth and peace of mind. While others are shaken enough to loose faith in God and realize that the bible is merely a book that is written by men and not God and not divine of any sort. While others are guilt ridden and distraught for many years to come, believing they are unworthy of God and Christ, because God's so called organization, his slave class, rejected them. For some this guilt is too much to handle. This is what a controlling organization, a cult, does.

How could one possibly leave quietly after that? Like a steam roller that just ran over your life and took your family away from you, would you speak out to anyone else about that destructive religion, preventing it from happening to others, or would you just quietly never mention it to anyone? A man's religious organization, having control similar to the Catholic Church, centuries ago, has removed your friends from even speaking to you, believing you are wicked, slandering your name as such, has turned your family against you and then hurls the accusation, that it is you who have left God and Christ. The organization takes absolutely no responsibility for their constant changing of doctrines and the effect it has on persons lives and their unkind treatment of many thousands of persons. Instead the Governing Body comes up with some "new light" or new information and expects all to follow and believe or be considered a rebel apostate and disfellowshipped. This type of "truth" does not "set one free", but enslaves persons to the teachings of men, which "make the word of God invalid” and strip individuals of their identity.

All of the organizations good things that they do are voided out from from other actions that hurt and destroy families. The organization is not some abstract entity, but composed of men. And it is the men who take the lead, primarily the Governing Body, who will have to ultimately take the responsibility for the organization's actions against thousands of individuals who they label as apostates and evil slaves, thus ruining many lives. As Jesus stated "Woe to the man through whom the stumbling block comes ..... see to it that you men do not despise one of these little ones; for I tell you that their angels in heaven always behold the face of my Father who is in heaven.....Likewise it is not a desirable thing with my Father who is the heaven for one of these little ones to perish." "It is unavoidable that causes for stumbling should come. Nevertheless, woe to the one through whom they come! It would be of more advantage to him if a millstone were suspended from his neck and he were thrown into the sea than for him to stumble one of these little ones." (Matthew 18:7-14; Luke 17:1-2)

According to Paul

"For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms." - Ephesians 6:12

Many people and organizations such as the Watchtower appear to be the "bad guys" here by shunning and breaking up families, however according to Paul, it's not really the people who are doing it, but the spiritual forces that are blinding them that are the real forces in play. These forces are the man behind the scenes, the one holding the strings to the puppets seen on stage. The whole idea of speaking out is to both help people from falling into the same line of faulty reasonings that take our freedom away and for those that put others in slavery:

"That they will come to their senses and escape from the trap of the devil, who has taken them captive to do his will" - 2 Timothy 2:26

While the Watchtower and other man made hierarchical institutions will use these scriptures to put people into religious bondage and slavery, claiming that freedom is only with their organization, this same "freeness of speech and boldness," is being used here to find the real freedom, "where the spirit of the LORD is."

"Now the Lord is the Spirit. Where the Spirit of the Lord is, people are set free." 2 Corinthians 3:17

'For those who have ministered well, let them obtain for themselves a good degree of boldness [freedom of speech to be bold] in faith which [is] in Christ Jesus." 1 timothy 3:13

"In nothing I shall be ashamed, but in all boldness [freeness of speech], as always, Christ shall be magnified in my body whether by life or by death. For for me to live [is] Christ, and to die gain." Phillipians 1:20-21


On the other hand, where the spirit is NOT of the LORD, there is religious slavery and bondage, there is legalism and works of sacrifice to achieve order, a man's earned order to do the works of God. The writer of Hebrews says otherwise:

"For anyone who enters God's rest also rests from his own work, just as God did from his." Hebrews 4:10

While "Faith without works (of love) is dead," love is not: sacrifices with works to achieve God's purpose, for God has that taken care of. What love is: mercy and forgiveness of others, the very reflection and fruitage of the Spirit, the Spirit of freedom. Only with faith, can a person obtain the spirit of freedom to be released from the religious bondage of works of sacrifice and enter into "God's rest." (James 2:26)

The weapons we use to fight such slavery are only what Paul tells us:

For though we live in the world, we do not wage war as the world does. The weapons we fight with are not the weapons of the world. On the contrary, they have divine power to demolish strongholds. We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ." 2 Corinthians 10:3-5

So for this reason, this web page exists, to make attempt, however small it may be, to "take captive every thought and make it obedient to Christ" and not to men, "slave classes" and religious, visible organizations.

Thoughts After The Watchtower

Interesting, I was back in my old town and saw a few of the car groups out in field service. They of course looked the other way and so did I. It amazes me how controlling the organization is. I have known most of these people for many years and was close friends to some of them, and yet loyalty to a man's organization, not God, comes first. This is not loyalty to God and Christ, no, it is loyal to men, who self appoint themselves as "God's sole channel of communication to mankind." They look at me and others and think "they left Jehovah," we have just started to find Him, merely freeing ourselves from a man made religious organization that has nothing to do with the God Jehovah or any other true God.

Certainly it can be understood why these persons are so blindly obedient to a man's organization. The legalistic approach to the bible is imbedded in the minds of most in this religion. The study of doctrinal knowledge and obedience to external rules cause to people to loose proper perspective and become unbalanced. But as for the

"Jehovah's People Are Loyal"

Loyalty To A Man's Organization Comes First

fortunate others, especially those who wish to be taught from God Himself and His Spirit, the "truth has set them free" from this. But it's not easy figuratively living "outside the camp" of religious security and living by oneself in the desert in a "tent " where there is no material and physical security, but rather there is the sole dependence on living under the law of agape love, with faith in Christ and using only our own perceptive powers to distinguish what is right and wrong. And living in the truth is much more than having a belief in Christ or having scriptural knowledge, instead it's living a life that treats all people with agape love, something that is impossible to fully accomplish but can be continually attempted to do. And at the same time this is where a follower of Christ must "suffer the reproach" of being shunned and labeled an "evil slave" and "apostate" for doing so. So along with the loss of so called friends, the freedom of true Christianity is a hard task to follow. Living a life, relying on agape love of all humanity is a hard task to follow. Having an individual relationship to God through Jesus Christ alone, rather then a relationship with a "slave class" organization to get to God, gives persons freedom. But with that freedom comes responsibility, which is much more meaningful, yet allot more painful.

After loosing all of your so called friends and in many cases your immediate family, it is can be very difficult to get back on track in your life. It's an emotional roller coaster for quite some time, depending on the person, the involvement and the amount of family and social friends that were involved. Yet, as time goes by and the fogs dissipates, not only does it get easier, but thoughts get much clearer and suddenly you are asking yourself how you ever got so indoctrinated in the first place. The "heavy yoke" and guilt of the Watchtower eventually leaves, as with all cults, and an inner peace of contentment comes about. But this can take many years for some. Although the scars and damage of the indoctrination will never completely go away, such as the breakup of families and marriages and the separation of children, the truth sets persons free from the doctrines, intellectualism, legalism and enslavement of men and man made slave classes and controlling religions. Despite the hardships that I have had and will continue to go through, I know I am still a very fortunate person to have been able to see the light and escape the man made teachings, legalism and blinding Intellectualism.. (John 8:32; Math 15:7-9; Math 23:4)

Apparently there are many support groups, I have only been to one of them quite a few times. The persons are

Name: Michael I. Cooper Home Page: http://6 Memorial Park Sent: 16.06 - 4/4 "I was studying the truth until today, I have been reading as many web sites as can on JWs and cannot believe that I was going to actually follow the "faithful and discreet slave". What a bloody fool Ive been!

One Email Like This And This Website Has Done It's Job!

wonderful people, yet I find most are not ex-witnesses and this limits their experience. And sadly, they, in most cases, are just as blindly indoctrinated in their man made religious teachings as well. Many are firm believers in the Trinity, Hellfire and others. Although I do not support all of these doctrines, I have absolutely no problem with persons who believe these, except when they put these teachings above the true meaning of the Christ: faith, trust and love of God and love of our fellowman, missing the entire point of his teachings. This agape love with forgiveness of our fellow man is the only real identifying mark of true Christians and the only obligation of man. It it the external result of having an intimate internal and conversational life with God. (Col 3:14; John 13:34,35) The reason I left the Jehovah's Witnesses was combination of legalistic fundamentalism, causing an unbalanced way of life, the putting of sacrifices, man made rulings and laws ahead of mercy and compassion and of course the harsh, unkind, intolerant and un-Christ like shunning practices, which breakup many innocent families, who had members that dared to disagree with the Watchtower Society's interpretations of the scriptures and authority structure. Sure, there are definitely many, many doctrinal errors, but the fact that they are enforced on its members with the alternative of disfellowshipment, cutting them off from friends and family, makes the worship become an enslavement of men and puts people into a totally blinding fundamentalist way of life, a cult. On top of this, the organization "sits in the seat of God," taking on a divine role of mediatorship as the "faithful and discreet slave class," fulfilling the role as one of the many who fall under the "man of lawlessness," as many other controlling religious organizations do.

The best support I have personally found is on the Internet. It amazes me at how many different type of individual people there are. In my indoctrinated mind I always thought that these so called "apostates" were argumentative attacking persons and “evil slaves.” This of course was due to the indoctrination, propaganda and control of the Watchtower. What I have found is totally the opposite. There appears to be a real melting pot here. There are persons who argue, but few and far between. The majority of people are decent persons who represent all ages and walks of life. There is no "one size fits all" here. Many are kind, good and spiritual persons that have left the organization to escape the rigid legal control and destruction of families, including those who have died for following the Watchtower's medical advise on blood, not because they are wicked persons. This results in true support, knowing and speaking to others who have gone or are going through the same type of experience.

After disassociating myself from the Kingdom Hall of Jehovah's Witness and the Watchtower Bible and Tract

The Indoctrinated Mind:

No Concept

Almost always, when a Jehovah's Witness goes against the Watchtower Society's rules and talks to a person that has left, their only way of helping is to ask them "Won't you come back to Jehovah?"

They have no idea, that they never left him, associating the Watchtower Society the same as Jehovah, as his sole channel of communication on earth, his "visible organization" and "faithful and discreet slave class".

Society because of the blinding intellectualism, legalism and shunning practices, I personally find it very difficult to join or be involved in any church because I can now see much more clearly where their teachings and practices are coming from. You can find it very easy to find faulty teachings in any church, there is not absolute perfection. If one is looking for perfection in a religious organization, he better not go anywhere because nobody is perfect and therefore he would not belong. But the fact of the matter remains; churches were organized to be close knit families with support, not doctrinal education centers with black and white interpretations. I'll have to agree with the interpreation of Hebrews chapter 13 telling Christians to "go outside the camp," suggesting that true Christian maturity is not gained by belonging to some large religious camp, or some "mother organization," which takes away individual freedom of conscience, rather each individual is to "be a full grown man" "digesting solid food," using his own perceptive powers to distinguish right and wrong." (Heb 5:11-14 (1 Cor 14:20) Of course it is so much easier to have some large religious organization or "slave class" decide matters for us, relieving us the stress and pressure from guilt and responsibility, and it is much harder and difficult to make our own decisions on many of the "gray areas." Yet accepting the responsibility, digesting the solid food and going through our only mediator Jesus Christ is what truly makes us "full grown men" mature Christians.

One of the major problems with belonging to one of the many denominations of Christendom, Jehovah's Witnesses and ALL others, is that there is a loss of personal freedom and moral integrity. Each individual is forced to conform to the doctrinal creeds, interpretations and teachings of the group or denomination that he or she is part of, giving up a certain degree of their Christian "freedom." People cannot become "full grown" and mature this way. True intimacy with God is found outside the church in the "inner chambers, " in the secrecy of one's bedroom, in solitude and meditation. Christian theology teaches that each one of us needs to have a personal relationship with God and Jesus, not a group denomination relationship, however showing agape love to your fellow man goes much further than that. We loose out on having an intimate relationship with God and true maturity this way. However, this is not true of all churches, for I know of many where personal freedom of interpretation of scripture is allowed.

With further personal study, apart from a slave class, definitely brings balance and spiritual growth. My observation has shown me that when a person first studies with the witnesses and others, there is spiritual growth in learning the knowledge of the scriptures. It can an exciting time of growth and learning and getting to know more about the theology of God. But at the same time the true is mixed with lies, people are slowly being put under the religious bondage of a "slave class" or church leadership control. As some time goes by, and one reaches a certain point, a plateau, the growth just stops. Instead of "pressing on to maturity," I found myself and all other JWs simply mimicking or parroting whatever the Governing Body says in the pages of their publications, after all, they are considered to be the "slave class" and sole communicator of God's word on earth. It becomes no different from many other denominations. It's only after a individual personal study of the scriptures that is not based on preconceived interpretations of the Watchtower Society or any other group that a person can come to realize the real meaning of the Christ: faith in Christ and an agape love of their fellow man. It is having God speak to us using the bible, inner convictions and circumstances in our lives. It also can include other people, books we read and even supernatural experiences. After leaving the Watchtower a spiritual growth, maturity and a life of balance in reading and understanding the scriptures and a "pressing on to maturity" occurs. I highly recommend it to everyone.

The major step, and apparently the only step to really find God, is to discover God's Spirit. With this, a revealing of truth occurs, faith is strengthened and agape love can be shown to others. The "Spirit bears witness with ours," confirms our faith as one of "God's children." It is a strange encounter, one that brings us to truth, power and the meaning of life. It is an intimate connection and a supplied "comfort," "a power what is beyond normal" and truly supernatural. Obtaining God's Spirit is only way a person can walk in it. All other ways to walk are those of the flesh, limiting our walk to two ways, the flesh and the Spirit. Solitude, prayer and meditation are key ways, not to earn salvation, but to make room in yourself to allow this Spirit to enter. This must be supplied with a degree of faith. Faith acts as a doorway to the Spiritual realm, which allows God's Spirit to enter and work on our hearts. It will always be a fight from walking in the flesh and walking in the Spirit, until the day we die. But in the meantime, with faith and our daily connection with God, we can be strengthened right here, right now and prepare our way for a "kingdom that can't be shaken." There is simply no room for a "slave class" to dictate what we do. We must rely solely on God and His Spirit, through the name and sacrifice of Jesus. (Romans 8: Galatians 4:5-7; Luke 4:14; 2 Corinthians 4:6-8; 1 Timothy 6:12; Hebrews 12:28)

(1) In Search of Christian Freedom - pg. 16

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