Chapter Ten

After my stepmother's unexpected death my wife
and I set about taking care of various business
matters that required attention. My stepmother's
house in Port Charlotte had been willed to my sister
and me jointly, and it was decided that we would
attempt to sell it. Subsequently, it was determined
that Linnie and I would move into the house
temporarily and dispose of it ourselves, rather than
placing it in the hands of a Realtor. This idea
appealed to me for several reasons. We could save
money on the Realtor's sales commission, and it
would give us a long break from the Watchtower
organization. Also, during this time, I could study
my new Bible without the Society's influence, and I
could even get away with not attending the meetings.
However, after several weeks of absenting ourselves,
Linnie's conscience began to bother her, so we
located the closest Kingdom Hall and, for her benefit,
started attending the Sunday morning public talks.
After being in Port Charlotte for some weeks, I was
still laboring over the Watchtower Bible and Tract
Society's claim of being God's organization. If the
Society wasn't God's sole channel of communication,
as they claimed, and they weren't teaching us the
truth concerning Jehovah and His Word the Bible as
I suspected, who was? The Watchtower had
convinced us that if you left the organization there
was nowhere to go. They had taught us that all of
the other religions of the world were evil and
satanically controlled. All of these nagging questions
and pondering over the matter was causing me a
great deal of stress and anxiety.

It was then that a very simple solution to the
problem occurred to me. I would just ask God to
resolve the issue for me. After all, I reasoned, why
should I try to figure this all out on my own? I was
sure that God wanted me to know the truth about
Him, and furthermore, I was certain that the
Supreme Sovereign of all the universe, who created
man and the rest of heaven and earth, would have no
problem in providing me with the answer to a simple
question.

Also at this time I had a vague recollection of a
book that I had heard about once, many years ago,
that the Watchtower Society had sternly warned us
not to read. They said the book had been written by
an evil apostate who was attempting to draw a
following to himself. The organization informed us
that the reading of this corrupt book would be
comparable to reading pornography in Jehovah's
eyes. I remembered that the book had been written
sometime back in the 1950's and was entitled
something about being a slave to the Watchtower.
That was all I could recall concerning this elusive
book, and I thought that since the Society forbade us
to read it, there might be some information in it that
could be useful to me in my quest for the truth.
However, I concluded that the book had been written
so long ago that I doubted I would be able to locate a
copy of it. The publication in question was probably
out of print by now, having been written thirty or
forty years earlier, and I was amazed that I even
remembered the Society's warning about the book.
In any event, I decided at my first opportunity I
would check the Port Charlotte Library and any old
book stores that I could find, in an effort to locate a
copy.

I began to pray every day that God would somehow
place a copy of the forbidden apostate text in my
hands and inform me in some manner if the
Watchtower Bible and Tract Society was or wasn't
His organization. I diligently appealed to God to
reveal to me the truth. I also resolved to stop
agonizing over my questions concerning the
Watchtower Society of Jehovah's Witnesses and
simply placed the matter entirely in God's hands.
Sometime laterÑit could have been days or it
could have been a week or soÑmy wife and I were on
our way to the shopping mall. As we drove north on
U.S. 41A, the main thoroughfare in Port Charlotte, I
spotted a large flea market set up on a vacant
parking lot. I asked my wife if she wanted to stop to
see what they had for sale. Linnie informed me that
she wasn't interested and suggested that we just
continue on to the mall. I advised Linnie that I was
looking for some used tools that I needed at our
temporary residence, and that it would only take a
few minutes to check at the flea market to see if they
had anything that I needed. I turned onto the
parking lot and pulled our automobile directly in
front of several tables laden with large stacks of
books and magazines. As I exited the car I stepped
up to the table in front of me and absent-mindedly
picked up a red colored book from the top of one of
the stacks. As I casually glanced down at the gold
lettered title of the book, I was totally dumbfounded
at what I read. The book was entitled Thirty Years a
Watchtower Slave by W. J. Schnell. As soon as I
was able to speak, I gasped for air and then shouted
to my wife, who had wandered on across the parking
lot, to "Come quick!"

After Linnie hurried to my side, I very excitedly
showed her the publication I had found and informed
her, "This is the book that I have been praying for."
As I frantically waved the book in Linnie's face, I
further excitedly announced, "It's here in my hand."
I was in shock. There was no doubt in my mind that
God had intervened and this was definitely the
answer to my prayers.

However, Linnie didn't share my gleeful feelings,
and she quickly informed me that I shouldn't
purchase the book. In a disgusted sounding tone of
voice, my wife informed me that the book was
"apostate literature" and she didn't want anything to
do with it. Linnie later confided in me that she was
actually very frightened at the thought of my
purchasing the book and bringing it into our house.
This was due to the Watchtower teaching that
possession of apostate writings could lead to
problems with demons. However, nothing short of
Armageddon could have dissuaded me from
purchasing this book that I knew God had provided
me with.

After finally regaining my composure, I asked the
young woman selling the books how much money
she wanted for the one I was holding in my hand. I
didn't want to let go of the book and held it
protectively to my chest. The girl's reply was,
"Twenty-five cents." I chuckled maniacally to myself,
as I groped in my pants pocket for change. I was
sure by this time, due to my eccentric behavior, the
young lady probably thought I was deranged.
However, what the woman didn't know was that I
would have paid a hundred dollars or even more to
own that very special book.

After finally arriving back home, I read the book
from cover to cover. It took me all that evening and
almost all of the following day. What eye-opening
information the book contained! The author William
Schnell divulged a great many facts concerning the
many "seedy" inter-workings and dishonest practices
used in the establishing of the Watchtower Bible and
Tract Society in its early years. Schnell's book
thoroughly convinced me that the Watchtower
organization was shrouded in lies and deceit and
that it was more of a moneymaking scheme for those
in control than a religious organization dedicated to
teaching people about God and the Bible. It was
little wonder that the Watchtower Society forbade its
followers to examine this publication and the finding
and reading of this book gave me the courage I
needed to investigate further.

After Linnie and I had concluded our business in
Port Charlotte, Florida, and returned home to
Kentucky, I began to search the Bible bookstores. I
found and read several more books concerning the
Watchtower, authored by a former Jehovah's Witness
elder by the name of David Reed. After studying
these publications as well as several others by
different authors, I arrived at the conclusion that the
Society was nothing more than one of the false
prophets that Jesus Christ had warned his followers
against. I further determined that the members of
the Governing Body of the Watchtower were wolves in
sheep's clothing and the organization was just one of
thousands of religious cults in the world. Now came
the difficult part. I had to convince my wife.

I knew that it would be extremely difficult to
convince my wife Linnie to consider any of the
derogatory facts that I had uncovered about the
Watchtower. At first, I attempted to get Linnie to
read the books I had found. This was to no avail, as
the Witnesses teach their disciples that it is a
disloyal act to read anything critical of God's
organization. Inasmuch as Linnie couldn't or
wouldn't read the books for herself, I began to read
them out loud in her presence. At the onset, Linnie
pretended that she wasn't paying any attention.
However, as time went on, I knew Linnie was
listening, because occasionally she would refute
something I read by quoting a Watchtower
publication or their Bible. This reading and
bantering back and forth went on for several days,
until I finally reached the point of just giving up. I
felt as though I just wasn't getting through to Linnie
and I was simply wasting my time and energy. Then
it hit me! In view of what had taken place in Florida
concerning my finding the book by Schnell, the
solution to my problem was obvious. I began to pray
every day that God would open my wife's eyes and let
her see the truth about the deceitful Watchtower
organization.

Three or four days later Linnie and I were in the
kitchen of our home, and she was preparing our
evening meal. I decided that I would make one final
attempt at convincing my wife that the Watchtower
Society was not God's organization but was in fact a
false prophet and a religious cult. I don't remember
which book I was reading to Linnie from, or even
what the subject matter was. However, I do
remember very vividly the surprised and dismayed
expression on her face. At the time, my wife was
standing in front of the microwave oven, waiting for
the timer bell to signal that the food she was cooking
was finished.

Shortly after I began to read to her, Linnie very
suddenly turned toward me wide eyed and aghast,
and in a very excited tone of voice stated, "You're
right, they lied to us. I can't believe itÑthey actually
lied to us." My wife acted as though someone had
just flipped a switch on in her head and she
suddenly understood that the Watchtower had been
deceiving her all these years. Linnie began pacing
around the kitchen in somewhat of a daze,
mumbling, "Oh my God, what do we do now?" and "I
can't believe the Watchtower would ever lie to us.
This is terrible." Obviously, my wife was disoriented
and in a mild state of shock, and so was I after
observing her reaction.

Once again, God had intervened in our lives,
having very decisively revealed the truth to my wife,
and I was witnessing my second unmistakable
answer to a prayer.

From that point on, my wife seemed to lose her
fear of the Watchtower and began to read the books I
had found, for herself. The more Linnie studied, the
more she became convinced that the religious beliefs
that she had held to be "the Truth" all of her adult
life were false. The so-called "Truth" of the
Watchtower organization was nothing more than
Bible verses taken out of context, half truths and
damnable lies.