the Spirit Watch

What Jehovah's Witnesses Won't Tell You At The Door

by Gary and Lisa Ferguson (former Jehovah's Witnesses)

Before you make the decision to become one of Jehovah's Witnesses, please take a moment to consider what your decision will mean for you and your family. Your decision to become one of Jehovah's Witnesses will have a tremendous impact on the rest of your life. All of your beliefs about God and his kingdom will be dictated to you by an organization known as the Watchtower Bible and Tract Society. If you choose to believe differently than the Society teaches, you will be guilty of "independent thinking," and will face devastating consequences.

The Real Gospel

Most importantly, you will not be taught the gospel of the bible. Your new gospel, or good news, will be that Jesus Christ returned to power in 1914 and established his heavenly kingdom. Your new gospel will involve telling people about current world problems and conditions, and how these conditions will eventually culminate with the coming of Armageddon. And finally, your new gospel will consist of telling people that the Watchtower Society is God's only mouthpiece, and that they must obey everything the Society teaches in order to survive Armageddon. However, please know that you will be guilty of spreading the type of gospel the apostle Paul warns about in Galatians 1:8. True Christians teach the gospel found at 1 Corinthians 15:1-8, which clearly teaches the saving gospel that early Christians were proclaiming: that Christ died for our sins, that He was buried, and that He was raised on the third day.

Saying Good-bye

Say good-bye to your current friends who are not Jehovah's Witnesses. As soon as you make the decision to become a Witness, you must give up all or your relationships with those friends, and even family members, who are not Witnesses. They are considered "of the world," and unless you can persuade them to become a Jehovah's Witness, you will eventually be asked to end your association with them. Furthermore, you will be taught that everyone who does not become a Jehovah's Witness will be destroyed at Armageddon.

You and your children will never again have the joy of celebrating a birthday. But birthdays are only one of the many celebrations that you will be unable to enjoy. You will be taught that all holidays are pagan, and therefore, must be avoided. To be a Jehovah's Witness will mean that you must give up all of those celebrations that allow you to get with your family and other loved ones. You will no longer be able to give your mother a hug and say, "Happy Mother's Day." Instead, you must tell her that all honor should go only to God, even though we are told by God to honor our mother and father (Exodus 20:12). You can no longer share in celebrating out Savior's birth, or the excitement of Christmas morning. According to the Society, celebrating Christ's birth is another pagan event and it is not to be acknowledged, despite the fact that even the angels rejoiced at Christ's birth (Luke 2:13,14). The only celebration you will recognize is "The Memorial," of Christ's death. During this memorial, which occurs only once a year, you will not be allowed to partake of the bread and wine unless you are of an elite class of 144,000 Jehovah's Witnesses called the "anointed."

According to the Watchtower Society, Jesus is really Michael the Archangel, and he is not your mediator unless you are one of the 144,000. You will never see Jesus, or go to be with. You will be taught that heaven is reserved only for 144,000 Jehovah's Witnesses who were born before 1935, when the Watchtower Society proclaimed that the doors of heaven had been shut. (See what Jesus says in Matthew 23:13 about those who would close heaven.)

To support their doctrines, the Society will even give you their own version of the Bible, called the New World Translation. You will be told that it is the most accurate bible in the world, but please realize that many scriptures in their bible have been altered to fit their doctrine. For example, compare these verses in their bible with any other bible: John 1:1; John 17:3; Philippians 1:23; Colossians 1: 16; Hebrews 1:8, and many more. Instead of making their doctrines fit the bible, they simply altered the scriptures.

Should an emergency arise and you find yourself or someone in your family in need of a blood transfusion, you must refuse the transfusion and give up your life, if necessary. If your children  need a transfusion, you must let them die without it. Countless Witnesses have perished over the past decades in anonymous deaths unseen by the media due to this practice, derived from the Society's erroneous teaching that the Bible supposedly forbids blood transfusions. You will be compelled to defend this doctrine with your life - and that of your Witness family - and view transfusions as defiling as rape, even though the New Testament Scripture used to support their claim it (Acts 15:29) makes no reference to blood transfusions at all.

School won't be a pleasant event for your child. They won't be able to salute the flag, attend school parties, or get involved in any school clubs. You will be taught that all other non-Witness children should be considered as part of the world; and therefore, you must teach your child not to associate with them since they are part of "Babylon" - and fear, rather than love, will become a major factor of their conditioning. Furthermore, you and your children will be discouraged from pursuing a college education is unnecessary since Armageddon is just around the comer. In fact, you will be discouraged from getting any type of extended education, unless it involves learning more Watchtower Society doctrine.

You will lose respect for this country. You will not salute the flag, sing the national anthem or help in time of war. Instead, you will choose to go to prison. You will also be forbidden to vote or hold political office.

Things You Will Never Be Told

There are several things, however, that you indeed will never be told. For example, you will never know that the Watchtower Society has made many false predictions concerning when Armageddon would happen. The Society has clearly taught several dates for Armageddon - 1914, 1918, 1925, 1941, and 1975. All of these "prophecies" proved to be false. The most recent prophetic failure occurred in 1995 when the Watchtower Society was forced to back away from their prophetic teaching that "the generation that saw the events of 1914" would survive to see Armageddon (aged Witnesses from that generation have all largely died off).  But how can God's mouthpiece - the Watchtower Society - make mistakes? God doesn't make mistakes. (Please read Deuteronomy 18:21-22.) You will never be told that the Society built a house in San Diego, called Beth Sarim, which was to be given to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob when they returned to the earth in 1925 - as the Society taught.

And finally, you will never be told that your decision to become a Jehovah's Witness may have devastating consequences on your family, friendships, and mental well-being. As mentioned previously, being a Witness will mean that you are only allowed to closely associate with other Witness friends and family. Should you disagree with the Society, or leave the organization, you will be "disfellowshipped." As a result, you will be cut off from all of your close relationships. Those who you once thought were your friends will suddenly turn their backs on you and will sever their fellowship with you. You will be isolated and alone unless you "come to your senses" and come back to the organization. In other words, their is no honorable way to leave the organization once you have made the decision to become a Jehovah's Witness. You can remain a Witness and be forced to believe things you really don't believe, or you can leave the organization and lose many of your closest relationships and loved ones.

Make The Right Decision

Please carefully consider whether you really want to become a Jehovah's Witness. If you think that following the teachings of the Watchtower Society will improve your relationship with God, please consider what the apostle Peter said to Jesus in John 6:68, "Lord, to whom shall we go? You have words of eternal life." Peter did not say that the Watchtower Society had the words of life. He said only Jesus has the words of life.

T'he apostle Paul said "that if you confess with your mouth Jesus is Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved" (Romans 10:9). Jehovah's Witnesses will tell you that your salvation depends upon taking in knowledge. But the Bible says your salvation depends upon your willingness to come to Jesus (John 5:39, 40; John 6:45; Acts 4:12; and I John 5:1 1, 12).

Please make the right decision, come to Jesus for your salvation, not to the Watchtower Society.