I grew up in a Christian household; my mother made sure I got to Sunday school every week at an age earlier than I can remember. I was active in Cub Scouts, and Boy Scouts sang in the church choir and played on the church basketball team. I participated in several church plays and attended church summer camp. I joined the church youth group and gave my life to our Lord at 14. I was very active in the church — but I never took the time to read the Bible in-depth or develop a personal relationship with the Lord.
After high school, I attended Ohio State University and began associating with a small Christian group. As I listened to them talk about their faith and quote Scripture from memory, I realized how little I knew about the Bible. Shortly after being made aware of my limited Bible knowledge, I came in contact with Jehovah’s Witnesses, and they offered me a free home Bible study. Studying the Bible seemed to be just what I needed, so I accepted, and in 1961, I began studying with Jehovah’s Witnesses. We met together once a week for what they called a Bible study, but we never really studied the Bible. We studied one of their publications with questions printed at the end of every paragraph designed to get their teachings across. Every three or four paragraphs, we would go to the Bible and read a Scripture to prove the point they were trying to make. Before long, it seemed like they had all the answers. Of course, it was easy for them to have all the answers when they were asking all the questions prepared by the Watchtower Bible and Tract Society and printed in the book. At first, we studied subjects most Christians would agree on, but gradually, they got into their doctrine. By the time they got to their belief, they had made reading two or three paragraphs about their teachings in their publication and lifting scriptures out of context to prove their point seem like the accepted way of Bible study. We were using the New World Translation Jehovah’s Witnesses’ translation of the Bible, translated completely at Watchtower headquarters without the aid of a single Greek scholar. They claimed this was the most accurate translation available, but they had altered many Scriptures to fit their teachings.
A word of warning here: Any time someone presents an idea and then goes to the Bible with Scripture from one place and then another, BE VERY AWARE. The Lord preserved the Bible for us to read, meditate on, and allow the Holy Spirit to reveal its beautiful truths to us. Anyone who uses the Bible to prove a preconceived idea by playing Bible hopscotch is misusing God’s Word.
Soon, I completed the two required Watchtower publications. I cleaned up my act as required by leaving college, resigning my membership in the Methodist Church, and leaving the Masonic Lodge, and I was only then allowed to become a Jehovah’s Witness. I married a beautiful young Witness in 1963, and we had four beautiful children and 53 glorious years together before she went to be with the Lord in 2016.
In time, I became a Ministerial Servant, the equivalent of a Deacon in some churches, then an Elder Jehovah’s Witnesses equivalent of a Pastor. I served as a book study conductor (small group leader) and the Theocratic Ministry School Overseer, leader of one of the five weekly meetings. In their teachings at congregation meetings and conventions, the Watchtower pushed the idea that the end was coming in October 1975. They dangled that carrot constantly. In early 1975, I quit my full-time job, took my retirement savings, found part-time work, and became a full-time pioneer (a Jehovah’s Witness who devotes 100 hours a month to door-to-door work). I was a full-time pioneer for two years before returning to full-time and part-time door-to-door work. Quitting one’s full-time job with a wife and children might seem to be an irresponsible act. My wife and children were, however, the reason for my decision. I was so convinced that the end was coming in October 1975 that I wanted to do everything possible to see that we could survive in the new system as a family when the end came.
After 1975 came and went uneventfully, the Watchtower Bible and Tract Society said that the members were guilty of making too much of something the Watchtower Bible and Tract Society only referred to occasionally as a possibility. I am sure those who became Jehovah’s Witnesses after 1975 and those now studying with Jehovah’s Witnesses believe that to be true. I was there. At nearly every meeting, five times a week, we were told that the end would be here by October 1975. It was always presented as a certainty, never as a probability. Every Jehovah’s Witness I knew believed that the New World would be here by October 1975. Those who doubted were considered apostates. A close friend of mine was disfellowshipped (excommunicated) for publicly saying he disagreed that the end was coming in 1975. I remember the saying among Jehovah’s Witnesses at that time was, “Stay alive till 75”. The Watchtower was, of course, very careful about what they put in print.
I served as a Congregation Elder for over 20 of my 35 years as a Jehovah’s Witness. Jehovah’s Witnesses do not have any clergy, and the Elders serve as the teachers in the congregation. For over 17 years, I taught one of the five meetings of Jehovah’s Witnesses, the Theocratic Ministry School, and served as a book study conductor. I loved giving the Sunday public lectures. Once a month, I traveled to another Jehovah’s Witness congregation in the central Ohio area to deliver a one-hour public talk as a guest speaker. I also served on the hospital visitation committee (two elders who visit hospitalized congregation members to be sure they do not have any problems refusing a blood transfusion). I sat on countless judicial committees (3 Elders who decide the guilt or innocence of a Jehovah’s Witness who has broken a Watchtower Bible and Tract Society rule).
For 35 years, our family life revolved entirely around what we called “The Truth.” We thought we were among God’s chosen people.
In 1990, my 95-year-old grandmother came to live with us after an extended hospital stay. She needed around-the-clock care. My wife Jean and I began alternating meetings to care for her. Being the Theocratic Ministry School Overseer (one of our two Thursday night meetings) and a book study conductor (our Tuesday night meeting), I attended our meetings on Tuesday and Thursday, and my wife attended the Sunday meetings. We also alternated our field service time on weekends. Before long, the other elders pressured me to attend all the meetings. Of course, this was impossible, short of hiring someone to stay with my grandmother three times a week. When their attempts to pressure me into getting to all the meetings failed, they pressured me to give up my assignment as the school overseer, an appointment I had for the past 17 years. My pleas for help with my assignments fell on deaf ears. Soon, I resigned as a book study conductor, later as the school overseer, and eventually, I left my appointment as an elder.
Without the responsibilities of a congregation elder, I stayed home to care for Grandma more and more and let my wife go to all of the meetings. She was my grandmother and my responsibility. I found great joy in the freedom of staying at home evenings and weekends as it gave me a great deal of time for personal Bible reading. The more Bible reading I did (without Watchtower publications to steer my thinking), the more errors I began to see in the teachings of the Watchtower. Soon, I began to doubt that they were the one true religion as they claimed. I occasionally attended a meeting, but I told God I would not go back out in the door-to-door work unless He showed me clearly that that was what I was to do. He never did, and I never again went door to door as a Jehovah’s Witness. In 1994, my grandmother passed. I did not return to the meetings because of the many errors I found.
When I began studying with Jehovah’s Witnesses, they claimed that the generation that saw the events of 1914 would be alive when God ushered in the New World. They would use Psalms to show that a generation was 70 or 80 years. Add 80 to 1914, and you get 1994, so in 1994, the Watchtower Bible and Tract Society had yet another failed prophecy to add to their already rather long list. In 1995, the Watchtower Bible and Tract Society changed its view of generation. They now claim that they misunderstood the term generation used by Jesus when He said, “This generation will not pass away until the end comes.” They say he meant generation as used when one says “the generation of Noah’s day,” a general term used to describe a period that could include many generations. The Watchtower claims that the end will come 120 years after 1914 or 2034 because Noah had 120 years to build the ark.
It had become evident that the Watchtower Bible and Tract Society was not God’s communication channel. In 1999, I wrote a letter to my local congregation and officially terminated my affiliation with the Jehovah’s Witnesses. Shortly after, I renewed my dedication to our Savior Jesus Christ, which I made when I was 14. I am happy to tell you that my wife and all four of our children also left the Witnesses and have accepted Christ as their Savior.
The teachings of the Watchtower Bible and Tract Society are very works-oriented; it is a “work harder, work faster” organization. Followers are controlled by being consistently told they must work harder because the end is so close. Looking back over those 35 years, I do not see how I could have done more as a Jehovah’s Witness and still have provided for my family, and yet there was not one day that I felt sure of my Salvation. I regularly prayed to God not to let the end come too soon because I was sure I was not doing enough to survive.
Since leaving that organization, I now understand that I am a sinner saved not by my works but by the grace of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.