Chapter Twelve

The first feeling that we experienced after severing
our ties with the Watchtower organization was a
great sense of relief and freedom. Linnie and I both
felt as though a great millstone had been removed
from around our necks. God had graciously shown
us the truth about the Watchtower organization, and
the truth had set us free. Free from attending
numerous boring meetings, parroting repetitious
questions and answers, in an effort to "brainwash"
ourselves with false Watchtower doctrines. Free from
guilt feelings for failing to spend sufficient time in
service, propagating the Society's erroneous
teachings from door to door like some itinerant
peddlers. Free from the monotonous required
reading of all the many books, magazines and other
publications of the Society. Free to read any
translation of the Bible on our own, without the
faulty interpretation of the Watchtower. And we were
free to socialize and associate with whomever we
chose. But most of all, we were now free to pursue
our worship of Almighty God in Spirit and truth, and
that's what we were determined to do.

It wasn't long after leaving the organization that
Linnie and I began to experience feelings of remorse
concerning people that we may have favorably
influenced or deceived on behalf of the Watchtower
Society and its flawed teachings. We decided that
family members, neighbors and persons we had
studied the Bible with should be informed of our
decision to disassociate ourselves from the Witness
organization and our reasons for doing so. Linnie
and I were very fortunate that neither our grown
children nor any other family members had accepted
the Society's teachings. We knew that we would be
disfellowshipped by the organization any day now,
and if we had family members in the Watchtower,
they would be required to shun us as well.

It was just a short time after we had mailed our
letters of disassociation that it became apparent that
we had been disfellowshipped. Linnie and I were
shopping one day at a local grocery store, when we
met an acquaintance from the Kingdom Hall. Since I
had been disfellowshipped for smoking some years
before, I knew what to expect and was prepared for
what happened next. However, my wife Linnie had
never experienced the humiliation and the feelings of
rejection at being shunned.

As we passed the former sister in one of the
grocery aisles, my wife threw up her hand in a
friendly gesture and said, "Hello." The former sister
didn't so much as "bat an eye," and she hurriedly
pushed her shopping cart on past us, while looking
right through Linnie as though she wasn't even
there. The former sister didn't smile, gesture or utter
a word. This experience was very upsetting for
Linnie, and after this had happened to her on several
occasions, she just couldn't contain her feelings of
hurt and repudiation by these people she had known
and associated with in brotherly love for many years.

After one incident in particular, when Linnie was
snubbed by a woman that she had considered a close
friend for twenty years, she came home, went in and
closed the bedroom door and cried for a very long
time. I tried to comfort my wife and we discussed
how we should feel pity for these poor misguided,
uninformed souls, rather than anger. The Watch-
tower's disfellowshipping of us for apostasy was just
their very clever way of keeping us from informing
our former brothers and sisters of all the detrimental
information we had uncovered about the Society.

It was then that we decided we would write a letter
to everyone in the congregation, setting forth the
reasons for our leaving the Watchtower organization.
We knew that they had been instructed not to read
anything from us "apostates." However, if we left the
return address off the envelope, they would probably
open it before they realized who it was from. Hope-
fully, human nature and curiosity would prevail, and
even though they were forbidden to read the letter,
perhaps some of them would. It was worth a try, in
any event, and we wanted our former friends and
associates to know that we hadn't done anything evil
or wicked, and we felt a Christian obligation to warn
them about the Watchtower's deceptive and false
teachings.

Our letter was four pages long, and we managed to
obtain the addresses of seventy out of approximately
one hundred members of the Madisonville Congrega-
tion. Unfortunately, we never received any responses
to the letters we sent, and we continue to include the
Witnesses in our daily prayers. We are hopeful that
God will someday open their eyes and set them free
from their enslavement to the Watchtower, just as He
did us.

Linnie and I continued our study of various trans-
lations of the Bible, as well as other books that we
had found about Jehovah's Witnesses, trying to
figure out what we should do now concerning our
spiritual life and our worship of God. It would have
been plausible at this point to simply put our
unsavory experience with religion and the Watch-
tower Society behind us and, as one well-meaning
relative advised, "Just get on with your lives." If we
turned our backs on our Creator now, we would be
playing right into the hands of the Watchtower
organization and Satan the Devil himself. That's
what they wanted us to do, and we were determined
that they weren't going to destroy our faith in God.
Another problem we were experiencing at this
point was that no one really understood what we had
been through. The few friends we had outside the
organization, and our families, really couldn't
empathize with us, never having been members of a
religious cult and never having been deceived and
mistreated the way we had been. Linnie and I kept
lamenting to one another that "they just don't
understand."

Inasmuch as all of Linnie's friends had been Wit-
nesses, she was becoming very lonely and wondered
if there were any other former Jehovah's Witnesses
living in our area that we could talk with. Linnie and
I had just finished reading a book entitled Why We
Left A Religious Cult by Latayne C. Scott. The book
contained the experiences of six different former cult
members. The one that interested Linnie the most
was written by a lady named Joan Cetnar. Joan and
her husband Bill had been reared as Jehovah's
Witnesses, and they too had left the Society after
observing the hypocrisy, mind control techniques
and deceptive teachings of the organization.

According to the book, Joan Cetnar was presently
residing in Kunkletown, Pennsylvania, and I encour-
aged Linnie to call her on the telephone. Joan was
very kind and understanding, and it helped my wife a
great deal, just talking to someone who was sym-
pathetic and really understood our situation. Joan
also informed my wife that there was a former Jeho-
vah's Witness living in our area, by the name of Paul
Blizzard. Joan further informed Linnie that Paul and
his wife Pat were former third generation Jehovah's
Witnesses, and that Paul was now a Baptist minister
pastoring the Reidland Baptist Church just outside
Paducah, Kentucky. A week or so later, Linnie and I
decided to pay an unannounced visit to Paul
Blizzard, to see if he could counsel us or give us any
advice on what we should do. Inasmuch as Paul
Blizzard was now a Baptist minister, it occurred to
me, perhaps that was the true Christian faith we
should be following.

It was Saturday morning, and it was only about
seventy-five miles from Madisonville to Paducah. We
arrived around noon and, after eating lunch at a
restaurant on the Parkway, we obtained Paul
Blizzard's telephone number from information, and
my wife called him from a pay phone. Linnie intro-
duced herself and explained to Paul that we were
former Jehovah's Witnesses who had just left the
Watchtower organization and that Joan Cetnar had
recommended that we get in touch with him. Paul
very graciously invited us to meet him at his church
and gave us directions on how to get there. Our
meeting with Paul was very warm and friendly and
lasted for approximately four hours. It helped Linnie
and me to meet and talk with someone who really
understood what we had experienced and were now
feeling. The only problem we had with our visit was
that Linnie still had a real fear of being inside a
church and, upon entering the building, broke out in
a cold sweat, and she later confided in me that she
felt uncomfortable almost the entire time we were
there.

Paul had no "earth shaking" revelations of truth to
relate to us concerning our worship of God, now that
we were free from the Watchtower Society. However,
Paul did help us a great deal, simply by sharing his
experience with us concerning Jehovah's Witnesses
and by confirming the unsavory information that we
had already uncovered about the organization. Also,
Paul didn't attempt to portray the Baptist denomina-
tion as being "the only way," as I suspected that he
might. Instead, his advice to us was to keep
studying God's Word the Bible and praying. Paul
assured us that, if we allowed ourselves to be led by
God's Spirit, He would guide us to where He wanted
us to worship and let us know what He wanted us to
do.

In addition to the sound advice, Paul put us in
touch with a fellow Christian by the name of Joe
Kreisle, who resides in Hawsville, Kentucky, not far
from Madisonville. At the time of our meeting, Joe
was in the process of starting a support group for
former Jehovah's Witnesses and for persons who
have family members trapped in the Witness organi-
zation. Attending the support group meetings was
very helpful, and it was interesting comparing
experiences and sharing information with other
former Witnesses like ourselves. However, we were
shocked at some of the stories of misconduct and
immorality on the part of some of our former
brothers and sisters of the Watchtower. For an
organization that claims to be and portrays itself to
the world as "morally clean," "God's organization,"
"God's people," etc., there seemed to be quite a bit of
evidence to the contrary.

In support group meetings as well as other gather-
ings for former Witnesses we attended, Linnie and I
heard numerous heart wrenching stories. One was
related by a woman whose husband was an elder in
the congregation who had abandoned her and their
small children for another woman. A divorce followed
with the elder subsequently refusing to contribute
anything to his ex-wife or their children's financial
support. All during this flagrant immoral behavior
on the part of the elder, he remained a member in
good standing with the Watchtower organization.

Another incident involved a young man who
became enamored with a married woman in their
congregation. After a brief affair the young man
became conscience stricken because of his indecent
actions and after breaking off his illicit relationship,
he approached one of the elders, seeking advice and
solace. Upon confessing his sin, the young man was
harshly rebuked by the elder and informed that he
would probably be disfellowshipped. The distraught
young man committed suicide that night.

Another woman, who had been married to an elder
in her congregation, reported tales of drunken physi-
cal and verbal abuse from her husband, who was
also a "closet cigarette smoker." Upon reporting the
violent actions of her husband to the other elders in
the congregation, in an effort to obtain assistance,
the woman was informed that she was causing the
problems in their marriage and that she should be
obedient to her husband. The abused woman was
now divorced and had been disfellowshipped by the
organization.

After being a police officer for almost twenty years
and dealing with other people's problems daily, I
realized that there are always at least two sides to
every story. In all fairness, we had heard only one
side. However, these sordid accounts, as well as
others, caused me to conclude that the moral
character and integrity of Jehovah's Witnesses as a
group was certainly no different than any other. You
always find both good people and bad people in every
group or segment of society, and apparently that was
also true of the Witnesses.

All during this time, Linnie and I were attending a
different Christian denomination or church every
Sunday, and we purchased a book entitled Hand-
book of Denominations in the United States by Frank
S. Mead. Linnie and I attended the services at the
church selected and then went home and read what
that particular denomination professed to believe.
We attended eighteen different churches in all and
found the experience to be educational and spiritual-
ly uplifting in most cases. One of the important
things we learned from attending so many different
churches was that the people of "Christendom," as
they are referred to by the Watchtower, are very kind
and there is so much more unconditional love and
acceptance in the churches than in the Watchtower
organization. Everywhere we went, we were wel-
comed and treated with genuine warmth and affec-
tion. This was a welcome change after the authori-
tarian and unloving treatment accorded us by the
Watchtower Society. The Witnesses had always
inculcated in our minds the notion that if we ever left
the organization there was nowhere to go. We
discovered first hand that this was just another
deception promoted by the Watchtower in an effort to
vilify the churches of Christianity and keep Jeho-
vah's Witnesses enslaved.

Linnie and I found that studying the Bible without
the Watchtower's influence gave us an entirely dif-
ferent scenario. We were both particularly amazed at
how the Bible supports the churches' teaching that
Jesus was in fact God Himself in the flesh. The
Witnesses denied the deity of Jesus Christ and had
taught us that Jesus was not Almighty God, but
rather Michael the Archangel sent to earth to redeem
mankind. After making this discovery, it became
obvious to us that, in the true sense, Jehovah's Wit-
nesses are not even "Christians." They are not
followers and worshippers of the Lord Jesus Christ.
It also became apparent that the Watchtower
organization is guilty of teaching "another gospel,"
which was soundly denounced by the Apostle Paul in
his letter to the Galatians. Chapter One, verses six
through ten, states: "I am astonished that you are so
quickly deserting the one who called you by the grace
of Christ and are turning to a different gospel which
is really no gospel at all. Evidently some people are
throwing you into confusion and are trying to pervert
the gospel of Christ. But even if we or an angel from
heaven should preach a gospel other than the one we
preached to you, let him be eternally condemned."

The Watchtower magazine of May 1, 1981 flagrantly,
almost boastfully admits to preaching another gospel
and states in part: "Let the honest-hearted person
compare the kind of preaching of the gospel of the
Kingdom done by the religious systems of Christen-
dom during all the centuries with that done by Jeho-
vah's Witnesses since the end of World War I in
1918. They are not one and the same kind. That of
Jehovah's Witnesses is really 'gospel' or 'good news,'
as of God's heavenly Kingdom that was established
by the enthronement of Jesus Christ at the end of
the Gentile Times in 1914." This gospel of the
Watchtower certainly is different from the simple
message of the death, burial and resurrection of
Jesus Christ taught by Christianity as the gospel,
since its inception. This information, in turn,
brought us to the further conclusion that the Watch-
tower Society is an "apostate" organization, in that
Jehovah's Witnesses have fallen away from the
original true teachings of Jesus Christ and His
Apostles. Also, just as the Pharisees of Jesus' day,
the Watchtower falsely teaches its followers that
taking in knowledge is required for everlasting life.

However, Jesus informed these teachers of the Law
in the Book of John, Chapter Five, verses thirty-nine
and forty, that "You diligently study the Scriptures,
because you think that by them you possess eternal
life. These are the Scriptures that testify about me.
Yet you refuse to come to me to have life."

We were further amazed to learn that it isn't the
name of Jehovah we should be calling on, as the
Watchtower has erroneously taught us all these
years. In the Book of Philippians, Chapter Two,
verses nine through eleven, it teaches very clearly:
"Therefore God exalted him to the highest place and
gave him the name that is above every name, that at
the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven
and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue
confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God
the Father."

It was the proper understanding of the aforemen-
tioned scriptures, as well as many others, and
information provided by former Jehovah's Witnesses,
that brought Linnie and me to the realization that
the only way to true salvation and eternal life was,
not through any organization or any good works or
service we might perform, or how much Bible know-
ledge we acquired. It is simply a free gift out of
unconditional love, just for the asking from our
heavenly Father.

Not long after separating ourselves from the
apostate Watchtower organization in April of 1993,
Linnie and I sat together in the privacy of our home,
held hands, and prayed for Jesus Christ to come into
our hearts and become the Lord of our lives. Words
cannot express the overwhelming sense of freedom
and love we experienced in coming to Christ. We
know now that we are completely free from the
pseudo-Christian cult of Jehovah's Witnesses
forever, and we are happier now than we have ever
been in our lives. Linnie and I are both very grateful
to our Lord Jesus Christ for intervening in our behalf
and permitting us to escape the religious cult of
Jehovah's Witnesses.

One of the many important things we learned from
our experience of being liberated from the Watch-
tower organization was that God provided me with
evidence divulging the truth about Jehovah's
Witnesses, only after I had turned the matter entirely
over to Him. It was when I finally realized and
admitted that I was totally and completely dependent
on God and that I should be relying on Him to
resolve my questions and misgivings concerning the
Watchtower Society, that He so lovingly provided me
with the information I needed. The same was true of
when I was trying so desperately to convince my wife
concerning the faulty Watchtower teachings. It was
only after I turned the problem over to the Lord in
prayer that Linnie finally saw the light. Because of
these two prayers that God so decisively answered for
me, as well as many others since that time, Linnie
and I have come to realize just how beneficial it is to
approach God daily in prayer, relying on and
consulting Him concerning everything in our lives.

Our positive experience with prayer also proved to us
that our heavenly Father takes great delight in
answering our questions and helping us with all our
problems, much as our human fathers might and as
the scripture so aptly states in the book of Hebrews,
"God is the rewarder of those earnestly seeking him".
Our newfound Christian faith has ultimately led
Linnie and me to a close personal relationship with
the Lord that we never experienced before as Jeho
vah's Witnesses, and it is a very warm and secure
feeling.

However, even with our newfound freedom and
happiness, Linnie and I are sometimes troubled and
sad when we reflect on the number of Jehovah's
Witnesses we have spoken with clandestinely since
leaving the organization. These individuals informed
us that they know the truth about the Watchtower
Society, but are afraid to speak out or leave the
organization because they know they would be
disfellowshipped and suffer the loss of association
with their entire family. Because of these former
brothers and sisters being held against their will, as
well as all the other Jehovah's Witnesses who have
been deceived and are in bondage to the Watchtower
organization, Linnie and I have concluded that it is
the Lord's will that our Christian ministry be
dedicated to continue speaking out and helping other
Jehovah's Witnesses to come to Christ for salvation.

We also feel an obligation to educate and warn others
about Jehovah's Witnesses in an effort to spare them
from becoming helplessly ensnared by the organiza-
tion just as we were so many years ago.

In connection with our ministry, I have made a
thirty-minute audio cassette tape of our Christian
testimony, detailing how Linnie and I escaped from
the Watchtower and were led to Jesus Christ. We
have distributed approximately fifty copies to area
churches and other newfound Christian friends and
acquaintances. Linnie and I have given our testi-
mony in person at six area churches thus far, and we
periodically mail information to Jehovah's Witnesses
in our area, revealing the deception and error of
Watchtower teachings. Also, we are attending
services regularly at Grace Fellowship Evangelical
Free Church here in Madisonville, where Pastor Mike
Huckins and the congregation are very supportive of
our ministry.

It is unfortunate that there are still many people
who are laboring under the misconception that
Jehovah's Witnesses are merely another denomina-
tion of Christianity, harmlessly going from door to
door, evangelizing and peddling their Watchtower
and Awake! magazines, books and tracts. People
have little or no idea of just how diabolically clever
and deceptively enslaving the Watchtower's false
religious teachings can be. It is therefore our sincere
desire that everyone who reads this book will have
found the experience of our escape from the religious
cult of Jehovah's Witnesses both informative and
spiritually uplifting but will also regard it as a warn-
ing, so please take heed. Even though you may feel
that you are not in any danger of being misled per-
sonally by the cults, there are many unsuspecting
persons all around you who are. They may be friends
or family members, or they may be inexperienced
young persons -- such as Linnie and I were almost
three decades ago -- who have little or no knowledge
of the true teachings of Jesus Christ and the Bible.

There are also persons of all age groups who attend
church services regularly but don't take the time to
study their Bibles and are therefore not well ground-
ed or knowledgeable of the teachings of true Christi-
anity, rendering them vulnerable as well. This is
evidenced by the fact that Jehovah's Witnesses boast
of gaining 65% of their converts from the churches.

In any event, the next time you encounter one of
Jehovah's Witnesses at your door or any other place,
please don't be impolite or unkind to them. It would
only reinforce what they have been taught by the
Watchtower organization: that you are under Satan's
control, doing his bidding, and that they are God's
people who are being persecuted. In reality, the
Witnesses are just poor unfortunate souls that have
lost their way. They are being manipulated and used
by an unscrupulous religious cult, to promote its
lies, deceptions and false prophecies. Pray for them,
and help them find the truth if you can.

John 6:35 & 37

Then Jesus declared, "I am the bread of life. He who comes to me will never go hungry, and he who believes in me will never be thirsty." "All that the Father gives to me will come to me and whoever comes to me I will never drive away."




Resources



Recommended reading and source material for
persons interested in learning the truth concerning
Jehovah's Witnesses and other religious cults:

BOOKS

Thirty Years A Watchtower Slave by William Schnell

How to Rescue Your Loved One from the Watchtower
by David A. Reed [out of print, but available on CD]

What You Need To Know About Jehovah's Witnesses by Lorri
MacGregor

Index of Watchtower Errors by David A. Reed

Why We Left A Cult by Latayne C. Scott

Jehovah of the Watchtower by Walter Martin & Norman Klann

Heart To Heart Talks With Jehovah's Witnesses by Homer Duncan

Jehovah's Witnesses Answered Verse by Verse by David A. Reed

Understanding Jehovah's Witnesses by Robert M. Bowman, Jr.

Reasoning From The Scriptures with Jehovah's Witnesses by
Ron Rhodes

Jehovah's Witness Literature: A Critical Guide to Watchtower
Publications
by David A. Reed [out of print, but available on CD]

The Sign of the Last Days -- When? by Carl Olof Jonsson &
Wolfgang Herbst

Crisis of Conscience by Raymond Franz

In Search of Christian Freedom by Raymond Franz

PERIODICALS

Comments from the Friends -- P.O. Box 819, Assonet, Massa-
chusetts 02702 -- David A. Reed

Quarterly Journal -- Personal Freedom Outreach -- P.O. Box
26062, St. Louis, Missouri 63136 -- Keith A. Morse

Mount Carmel Outreach to Jehovah's Witnesses
-- P.O. Box 756, Rock Falls, Illinois 61071

Free Minds Journal -- P.O. Box 3818, Manhattan Beach,
California 90266 -- Randall Watters

MacGregor Ministries -- News & Views in the World of the Cults --
P.O. Box 294, Nelson, B.C. V1L 5P9 Canada

VIDEO TAPES

Witnesses of Jehovah -- Jeremiah Films

Witness at Your Door -- Jeremiah Films