Below is a letter of resignation from a Jehovah’s Witness missionary. He says below “I am sharing my resignation letter with anyone who cares to read it.” so I am putting it up for all my readers. It is on the net at several other sites.
I also left the Jo Ho’s after 50 years and one of the many (way to numerous to list here) reasons was the 607BCE/1914 conundrum he mentions below.
Just to forewarn, any Jo Ho reading this will label it “apostate”, which is in effect to a Jo Ho, equal to the aids virus. Note also that he divorced his wife and left her “scripturally free to remarry” meaning he committed adultery, as to Jo Ho’s that is the only grounds for a divorce. Jo Ho’s will seize on this point, ignore the points he makes about the dates and in their own mind fell that he is a liar and a “tool of Satan” because he is a fornicator.
When one is excommunicated from the Jo Ho’s, or “disfellowshipped” which is Jo Ho speak, (it isn’t a real word), the leaders have to give the impression that you did something wrong. Announcing that one has been “disfellowshipped “ for “Disagreeing with the Watchtower” would raise far too many questions that the Elders can’t answer. In fact, the friends of the guy who wrote the letter below all think he left the Jo Ho’s because he was an adulterer.
As in my case I left the Jo Ho’s because I no longer bought their crap. It was only after, that I became a fornicator and a zealous one at that.
Here is my standard greeting to all Jo Ho’s: Fuck you, you deluded moronic asswipes.
Here is the letter:
I am sharing my resignation letter with anyone who cares to read it. I know some people had to read it, and I hope it did some good. Maybe it will do good for some readers here too. I don’t call my leaving “disassociation”, because that’s a JW term of convenience. I resigned my membership from this group, nothing more. They did the rest. Here is why I left, not even one year after graduating from Gilead…(Gilead is the Witness missionary training school)
To whom it may concern:
In early September, I came across a man in the ministry who was curious as to how Jehovah’s Witnesses got the date 1914. As I explained to him in basic terms, it started with the count of the gentile times, (2,520 years) from 607 BCE. He was intrigued by our calculations, but was puzzled as to why we say Jerusalem was destroyed in 607 BCE, when “everyone else” has it as 586/587 BCE. Confident that I would be able to prove the date of 607 BCE, I went about to research further this date and to use whatever secular sources existed to prove it. He wanted to see proof beyond what Jehovah’s Witnesses have published, so I therefore researched this thoroughly.
Imagine my surprise to find that while Jehovah’s Witnesses use certain ancient secular sources from Babylon and Persia to arrive at 539 BCE as the fall of Babylon , while at the same time dismiss these very same sources for EVERYTHING else related to the fall of Jerusalem . I couldn’t understand this, but resolved that the “faithful and discreet slave” would no doubt have gone to great lengths to make sure that such an important date as 607 BCE could be verified. I also continued my research.
I will not detail my findings, as I have since come to learn that the Governing Body has refused to look at such evidence or even acknowledge it. The Governing Body above all others knows the controversy of this date and of their own efforts at first to prove 1914 through historical references only to fail in that, then to squelch anyone who even suggested otherwise. At some point, it will be in the Governing Body’s best interests to address this. Suffice to say that I have seen abundant and real proof that both 607 BCE and the related date of 1914 is a date propped up by questionable use of bible scriptures, questionable theology, and white washed history relating to the “modern day history” of Jehovah’s Witnesses.
The use of the word “bible chronology” in the Watchtower and Insight on the Scriptures always was impressive to me. I now see that it is a misleading “bait and switch” phrase that is designed to stop a person from looking at real historical evidence. The use of one date as a pivotal date by Jehovah’s Witnesses, 539 BCE as the fall of Babylon is stretched and distorted. We discard the very same sources used to arrive at 539 BCE as the date of the destruction of Babylon and say they are inaccurate when it comes to the date of the destruction of Jerusalem!!!. Why? Because it doesn’t fit with a preconceived idea, that of 1914 as being significant. At best, 1914 will go down as a great coincidence between World War I starting, and what a few people who followed C T Russell were looking for. This is disingenuous, misleading, and unfair.
I am not disillusioned at all! I feel relief for the first time. My only strong feeling is that of disgust; that a few men who are themselves married to 1914 yet at the same time unsure of it, will use that “prophetic” teaching as a source of authority to appoint themselves as some kind of “faithful and discreet slave”, and then try to use this authority control the thinking and actions of so many in the name of god!!
Having gone to the Watchtower School of Gilead, I could never get over the fact that almost everything in the bible according to Jehovah’s Witnesses, “prophetically points” to the “faithful slave” and its governing body. You even go so far as to compare the administrations of Rutherford to the prophet Elijah and Knorr to Elisha!! How arrogant!! What an unbelievable stretch to say that the bible “prophesied” the existence of Rutherford and Knorr!! I use this as one of many examples used by the governing body to keep their power base “scriptural” in the eyes of those that follow and support this organization! I am only disappointed in myself that I didn’t scream out loud at the time this was being “taught”. This is how one must study the bible to get close to God and Christ??? Absolutely not!! Yet you clearly go beyond what is written in the bible itself, saying that to be disobedient to the governing body is the same as being disobedient to Jehovah himself, though the governing body neither admits to being inspired or perfect. What a double standard!
It wasn’t a year ago that I almost died in service to “Jehovah” while in Cameroon as a missionary. Now, I see that my service was to nothing more than a group of misguided men. I was even considering taking up a difficult and economically questionable move to help out a congregation our circuit overseer said was in need! I have done all that I have done for Jehovah’s Witnesses with real zeal, belief, and sincerity of heart. I willingly and happily sacrificed much. But now, I have learned that this is just another crazy group using the bible to fit their own agenda.
I therefore find it necessary as of the date of this letter, to officially resign as one of Jehovah’s Witnesses. Because of personal issues, I am also divorcing my wife, ——-. For her benefit, I will provide her with the evidence allowing her to remarry as a Jehovah’s Witness if that is her wish, when in fact, I have such evidence honestly to give.
My only regret is knowing that I will be leaving behind hundreds of friends that I have come to love very much. I realize how I will hence be treated. While I must accept this for the time being, it is my hope that all whom I have ever loved in this organization are or will be happy one day, although I have come to learn that such happiness will likely not result from their association with Jehovah’s Witnesses.
Posted by isnrblog 