SHORT CHRISTIAN READINGS SELECTED FOR FORMER JEHOVAH'S WITNESSES




Watchtower Disfellowshipping: 
A Biblical Perspective
By Rafael Martinez
(edited)



Consider these real-world situations: 1.) A middle-aged female Jehovah's Witness Pioneer with 23 years of loyal membership decided to relocate to live near her disfellowshipped son, so that she could help him straighten up his life, and hopefully assist him to be reinstated. Her elders counseled otherwise. She was eventually disfellowshipped, herself. 2.) After 20 years of faithful service, a JW began to have doubts about Jesus being Michael the Archangel, and tried to dialogue with her elders about it. She was disfellowshipped. 3.) A lifelong Jehovah's Witness couple were confronted with the prospect of the death of their infant daughter unless she received a blood transfusion Their Jehovah's Witness friends and elders insisted that the child be kidnapped from the hospital to prevent any transfusions, which would mean certain death for the child. When the couple could bring themselves to do it, they found themselves summarily disfellowshipped.

What is disfellowshipping? It is the deliberate expulsion of a Jehovah's Witness from their local congregation, and hence, from membership in the international Watchtower Society. Disfellowshipping supposedly is based upon Biblical principles of church discipline mandated in the New Testament. 

Jehovah's Witnesses who become candidates for such drastic action are those who are alleged to have committed some immoral act or rebellion against Biblical teachings -- as the Watchtower interprets and dictates such. The process of disfellowshipping is initiated to keep the local congregation spiritually and morally pure, and is usually done after the congregation's Body of Elders has convened a Judicial Committee to decide whether or not to expel an errant member. The Watchtower reports that "each year, about 40,000 individuals are disfellowshipped from Jehovah's organization" (1).

Disfellowshipping is perhaps one of the greatest fears that a Jehovah's Witness must grapple with. It is an unsettling and terrifying prospect to be found guilty of an offense that could lead to their disfellowshipping from the Watchtower's organization, or "Mother", as many Jehovah's Witnesses like to say. This is for several reasons:

The Watchtower Society relentlessly teaches that eternal salvation is found only through being associated with their organization, and that to be permanently expelled from it is to be lost forever, and cut off from eternal life and reunion with family in the resurrectioon.

On their being disfellowshipped, a Jehovah's Witness' opportunity to prove their worthiness of entrance into the new Paradise Earth will be effectively suspended, with the threat of an iminent Armageddon hung perpetually over their lives.

The WatchTower Society teaches that the disfellowshipped face the grim prospect of being consigned to a bleak existence outside of the organization -- in a world that the WatchTower cult has taught is filled with demons, evil, and destruction.

All their Jehovah's Witness friends and family will be required to virtually shun them -- having as little to do with them as possible; not even saying "hello" to them if they were to meet them in public; and to treat them as evildoers, regardless of the former close ties they once had. 

To lose one's entire social system, on top of the threat of eternal destruction, is a fearful prospect with which no rational individual can easily cope. The threat of disfellowshipping is a punitive sanction that the WatchTower Society has used quite successfully in keeping its Jehovah's Witness constituency in line with the dictates of the organization. Other cults routinely use such measures to similarly control and manipulate their own constituencies.

The actual disciplinary process, from the perspective of the accused Jehovah's Witness, is extremely arduous and stressful. An elder or group of elders from their local congregation will notify them that they are to meet with them in regards to "conduct unbecoming a Christian," as they often like to phrase it. Judicial committees composed three elders from the congregation of the accused may meet several times over a period of time in closed session, to formally present to the accused charges of misconduct, and to submit the accused to the most thorough examination of their personal life possible, in an attempt to "get the facts." The most minute details of the accused's life, including their failings and shortcomings, are often examined. The fact that several sessions may be needed to obtain this information prolongs the emotional and psychological trauma that the accused suffers simply from going through this process.

Imagine being a young teenage girl being forced by a group of old men to confess in excruciating detail her illicit sexual activity with a boy, or even another girl, and you will get the idea of what actually has and does transpire in a Jehovah's Witness judicial committee meeting.

The accused's excited anticipation of how drastically overturned their world will become should they be disfellowshipped, is hard to understate. The accused is aware that, in effect, every Jehovah's Witness is required to treat their disfellowshipped brethren as if they already were dead, or spurn them as evil. 

Many Jehovah's Witnesses are so thoroughly indoctrinated by the Watchtower Cult as to what to believe and how to live their life, that they find the threat of being expelled from the organization's control and guidance -- however morally bankrupt -- as ruinous as a death sentence. A lifetime of successes, relationships, and sincere effort is swept away in an instant as the announcement that a local Jehovah's Witness has been disfellowshipped is made in one of the public meetings of Jehovah's Witnesses. From henceforth, an invisible mark -- as burning as Hawthorne's "Scarlet Letter" -- is placed upon the disfellowshipped Jehovah's Witness, that will forever isolate them from their former friends and relatives within the Watchtower fold. It is quite literally one of the most soul-shattering experiences that a Jehovah's Witness can ever face -- to be publicly declared worthy of eternal destruction by a group of mere men, after only one or two meetings of judicial examination.

The Human Cost of Disfellowshipping

If you are a Jehovah's Witness, you know that these vivid descriptions are not idle forms of anti-Witness rhetoric, but are true. The teachings of the WatchTower Society on disfellowshipping, as stated above, can be found in Watchtower publications, but the practical and personal impact of these teachings can only be seen within the closely veiled inner culture of the Jehovah's Witness community. The testimonies of Jehovah's Witnesses we have known personally, who were expelled from the organization, bear witness as well as to just how devastating is disfellowshipping. 

Perhaps no greater pain is inflicted, however, than by the most tragic and heartbreaking way that whole families are affected. Children are cut off from parents, grandparents from grandchildren, husbands from wives, brothers from sisters. This helps set the stage for domestic violence in many affected households, where the tensions and unresolved frustrations become unbearable, and are released in bursts of rage, abusive language, and physical abuse. One JW lady we know who was disfellowshipped was forced to leave her dining room as her Jehovah's Witness family prayed over their meals. Imagine the home life of a man who has just been disfellowshipped from the WatchTower Society, and whose wife is now compelled to have as absolutely little to do with him as possible. Think about the indescribable pain a disfellowshipped grandmother bears when she realizes that she has several grandchildren (of her loyal Jehovah's Witness children) who she has never seen.

Personal friendships between Jehovah's Witnesses are ended when disfellowshipping is enforced, and the social life within the organization that the Witness has been endlessly taught to seek and develop in an effort to keep separate from the contamination of the non-Witness world, is suddenly ripped out from under them. The cultural shaking of the Jehovah's Witness who is compelled to leave the Watchtower Society is hard to underestimate as these brief testimonials show:

"I find myself often muddled and confused, and always struggling. ... I will never be able to rid myself of all the gut fears and confusion that I now feel whenever I think about religion. I try to ignore the whole issue. I was never allowed to mingle socially or date. I am now unable to function socially in groups of more than four people. ... My life was oppressed from two forces which combined to narrow my options to just about nothing. The religion forbade all but necessary contact with the outside world." (2) 

It is no wonder that the trauma that disfellowshipping brings to a Jehovah's Witness has been so severe that some plunge into depression or nervous collapse. Many often become suicidal, bitter, angry and atheistic in their thinking. Their pain plunges them deeper into the sinful behavior that they may have committed in an attempt to ease their troubled mind with the consequential emergence of addictive behaviors such as drug abuse, alcoholism and sexual promiscuity. Numerous are the testimonies of Jehovah's Witnesses who have suffered complete mental breakdowns, and even institutionalization, over impending disfellowshipping proceedings. Tragically, not a few have followed through and committed suicide to escape their plight.

It is inconceivable that spiritual leaders in the Watchtower Cult could deliberately commit errant brethren of their community to such an ordeal, but one can only stop and wonder at the mental state of those who emotionally, and in many cases, physically abandon their own flesh and blood in loyal obedience to a religious organization. What goes through the heart and mind of a parent who must walk, in public and private, unresponsively past their own child who has been found worthy of disfellowshipping? How can a Jehovah's Witness on one day intimately share with a friend, and then, the next day, literally have nothing to do with them?

It suggests one very tragic thing: the human cost of disfellowshipping is a two-edged sword that cuts both ways. Any Jehovah's Witness reading this knows this to be true. Anyone who has felt the weight of disfellowshipping settle upon their shoulders likely has experienced the unique pain of believing that they are truly are a wicked individual, on whom "Mother" has turned her back. 

And their friends and family, who are "being loyal" to God by deliberately disowning their loved ones, must daily reindoctrinate themselves with the notion that their disfellowshipped loved one is truly unworthy of the attention and love of Jehovah God. They must now engage on a lifelong course of self-deception, and must believe that their loved one is someone who really is as cursed as Watchtower authority say. 

We know of one woman who nearly suffered a nervous breakdown as the day of her baptism approached, the day in which she would formally join the Jehovah's Witnesses. Why? Her daughter, who related this testimony to us, believed it was because of the pressure and anguish that she was suffering knowing that, upon her baptism, she was going to have to completely cut off all contact with her disfellowshipped Jehovah's Witness son and his family. The inner conflict between her desire to please "Jehovah" by obeying his "visible organization", and her deep felt maternal love and desire to continue her relationship with her son, simply drove her almost over the edge. She is now a baptized Jehovah's Witness, but she secretly sees a therapist and takes prescription tranquilizers to dull her unique burden of sorrow. She does this enough so that she may continue to aggressively canvas door to door to preach "the Good News of the Kingdom." 

The Watchtower View Of Disfellowshipping Vs. The Biblical View of Discipline

The Watchtower Society takes the position that those who are disfellowshipped are individuals who "allow love of the world to entice them into serious wrongdoing" (3). It is asserted by the WatchTower Society that disfellowshipped persons abandoned the Watchtower Society's teachings for "loose living" or to follow "apostate doctrine" (4). These are two of the primary reasons that elders in local Witness congregations are compelled to "take appopriate action so as not to allow a demoralizing of the congregation" (5). A set of objectives for disfellowshipping as given in this book note that keeping the organization pure is the primary concern, and impress upon the wrongdoer the need for repentance so as to be reinstated. The organizational concern seems more aimed at keeping the corporate body politic "clean" (and hence a pristine public image), with the actual spiritual restoration of the fallen Jehovah's Witness almost appearing an afterthought.

As we have noted, tens of thousands of Witnesses each year are confronted with this painful reality, and that it is handled by the local Body of Elders who directly represent the Watchtower Society's interests and position. Even "prominent elders" have been included among this number, in keeping with the central concern that "Jehovah's Witnesses realize that maintaining a morally clean organization is vital in order to continue to have Jehovah's approval" (6). 

The Scriptures the Society use to justify disfellowshipping are taken from Matthew 18:15-17, 1 Corinthians 5:1-13, 1 Timothy 5:20, and 2 Thessalonians 3:14. The December 15, 1984 Watchtower adds that "counsel such as 2 John 9-11 .. 2 Timothy 3:5" instructs Witnesses to allow for "no room for associating with those who turn away from the truth. Nor do we purchase or read their writings." Such teaching as proscribed by the Watchtower Society well illustrates the harsh and authoritarian nature of disfellowshipping among Jehovah's Witnesses, revealing them to be practices that go far beyond mere correction of moral lapses, but actually tend towards outright abusive manipulation of individual Witnesses who know no better than the tender mercies of the "Mother" organization.

Moral lapses are not the only reasons disfellowshipping is initiated. Individual Jehovah's Witnesses who have been found observing holiday celebrations like Christmas and birthdays (evil aspects of a sinful world, according to the Watchtower, that must be shunned), as well as those who simply object to some of the WatchTower Society's more cavalier mandates for lifestyle choices have found themselves expelled from the organization without regard or mercy. 

This level of punitive pressure can be seen for what it is, a heavy handed attempt at establishing authoritarian legalism that has no bearing upon essentially Christian moral principles whatsoever. The WatchTower Society-sanctioned definition of what constitutes immorality is effectively reinforced by the threat of disfellowshipping, when it is extended to encompass these matters which should be instead left to the personal judgment of one's own conscience. 

In a recent Internet e-mailing received by the author came word of a Vietnamese Witness who was a new convert and who was forced to watch his young wife slip into a coma and die as a result of hemorrhaging in childbirth. He had been compelled by Watchtower teaching to withhold a life-saving blood transfusion from her, and in the midst of his grief and anguish after her tragic death, he remarked to the media that he wasn't sure if the Jehovah's Witness religion was the truth or not, and that it possibly was a fantasy. A few days later, over the phone, the young Vietnamese widower was accused by the elders at his local congregation of being an "apostate", and was disfellowshipped without any further process whatsoever. Doubting Watchtower teaching, this unfortunate man discovered, is as evil a sin as adultery, and the congregation must not be "demoralized." Sadly, he is only one of the thousands who will be disfellowshipped this year (1996) through a draconian display of hard-line authority over matters of conscience. Despite recent Watchtower efforts to soften their hard line, the process by and large is still as traumatic as ever.

The Biblical Pattern Of Christian Discipline In Community

In sharp contrast to the Watchtower Society's position on disfellowshipping, the Biblical view of church discipline is intended to compassionately, and yet firmly correct errant Christians. It is not unreasonable nor "unchristian" to expect and demand from the Christian Church the same sort of accountability that would firmly discipline its own. The Scriptures cited above do indeed mandate the Christian congregations to move decisively to confront those who have fallen into openly sinful lifestyles. But the Biblical mandate for restoration of the fallen Christian through sound church discipline is vastly more even-handed, civil, and humane than that suffered by Jehovah's Witnesses. 

For example, entire Jehovah's Witness congregations, at the direction of the elders, will obediently turn their backs on their struggling brethren. They justify this social isolation by claiming to be following the instruction of 2 Timothy 3:5 -- "Having a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof, from such, turn away" (KJV) and 2 Thessalonians 3:14: "if anyone is not obedient to our word through this letter, keep this one marked, stop associating with him that he may become ashamed" (NWT).

And yet, in keeping with their well-established practice, the Watchtower Society fails to take 2 Thessalonians 3 in it's proper context. It does not take to heart the fifteenth verse, where it reads: "and yet, do not be considering him as an enemy, but continue admonishing him as a brother" (NWT). This verse clearly shows that the Watchtower Society's teaching that the faithful should completely cut themselves off from the disfellowshipped is not only a shocking example of Biblical misinterpretation, but constitutes organizationally sanctioned spiritual abuse having no biblical basis whatsoever. 

It assumes that all candidates for disfellowshipping are totally depraved reprobates who either blaspheme and/or wallow in sinful practice. Such a position makes it easy for the WatchTower Society to demonize it's "troublemakers", and to place a powerful form of manipulative pressure upon them -- the shock and trauma of shattered, if not destroyed relationships.

As we have already seen in our study of 2 Thessalonians 3:14 -15, occasional (if not frequent) interpersonal contact by Christians to admonish the errant believer is a Biblical mandate that is used to bring them to their senses, and ultimately, to repent of their sins and to turn again to holy living. This is how compassionate, responsible, and legitimate care for the spiritual and moral being of a fellow believer is to be exercised. 

The passage introduces us to a sound principle of church discipline: all rebuke and correction must be executed and adminstered within the context of godly familial relationships. In the same chapter that the WatchTower Society draws it's truncated view of open rebuke of sinful believers, 1 Timothy 5, Paul commands church leaders to "intreat" elder men and women as fathers and mothers, and younger ones as brothers and sisters "with all purity" (v. 2, KJV). 

Rather than viewing them as vile blasphemers - as the Watchtower Society implies in it's usage of 2 John 9-11 (7), erring Christians, as members of the family of God, are to be treated as brothers and sisters who must be admonished lovingly, yet firmly. This principle must be firmly held to throughout the entire process of discipline, especially when the mandate of Matthew 18 is used. 

The example of the father of the prodigal son as related in Jesus' parable of Luke 15:11-32 is a perfect illustration of the quality of deeply passionate and heartfelt compassion that a family member would have for another who fell on bad times. Christians who would see the sinful members of any fellowship properly admonished, disciplined and restored would do well to remember this passage. It is ironic that the example of the elder son of the prodigal's family more clearly mirrors the mean-spirited sentiments of those elders and congregations of Witnesses who choose to harden their hearts against their struggling brethren.

Another principle of church discipline being demonstrated here is that genuine love for the truth and purity of the faith will also temper the punitive sanctions that may be resorted to in defense of those ideals. Open rebuke and admonition of sinful Christians among the body of Christ is tragically almost an alien practice among the church. Initiating the practice as stated in 1 Timothy 5:20 seems, to carnal Christian attitudes of the modern age almost barbaric (and certainly grounds for lawsuits initiated by litigious Christians). 

While there is indeed dire need for communities of Christian faith to exercise discipline among themselves, and while errant believers must be admonished or rebuked from time to time, it is clear from Scripture that all discipline will be done out of loving concern for the Christian individually: the good image and "morale" of the congregation are actually secondary issues. The sinful brother of 1 Corinthians 5 is seen again in 2 Corinthians 2:6-8, apparently sorrowful over the disciplinary process that Paul had exhorted the church to pursue with him. The context suggests, but does not conclusively demonstrate, that this individual had repented of his wrongdoing. Apparently all we know of this individual is that he was all but overcome by a deep sorrow (v. 7) brought upon him through the punitive process that Paul proscribed in 1 Corinthians 5. He could have been struggling with either godly sorrow, which leads to true repentance, or "worldly" sorrow (2 Corinthians 7:9-11) 

The point is that Paul's counsel was for the church to forgive and to comfort him. He intreated the Corinthian congregation to reach out to him and to demonstrate their care for this man, who may have not repented for his sin, but who desperately needed a visitation of Godly love and care for him through the church - after a season of enforced excommunication.

Having established close relationships in a fellowship of believers and to have them drastically curtailed in Christian chastisment is not meant to be pleasant, but it gets the job done by a necessary social emphasis that a breach in fellowship with God also affects human relationships. 

This excommunication, however, is never employed to disrupt and mute family relationships to the point of non-existence, or worst of all, pseudo-existence. Not one single verse in the Scriptures anywhere implies that Christian discipline demands that families be divided, grandparents isolated from grandchildren, and husbands from wives. And yet this is what the practice of disfellowshipping demands of all loyal Witnesses who may be unfortunate enough to have loved ones subjected to it. 

Countless testimonies of families whose relationship circles have been literally destroyed exist and are on file. The examples cited in the beginning of this article are only a few of the well-documented many. Surely the very notion of parents being compelled by religious teaching to completely ignore their own children, at face value, will strike any objective observer as inconceivably cruel. We heartily agree, but the Watchtower Society, believing itself to be the only true religion on the earth today, continues to demand just such a price from hundreds of thousands of people around the world.

To The Disfellowshipped Or Their Loved Ones

Many former Jehovah's Witnesses, after months, even years of disfellowshipped life outside the WatchTower Society, are never the same after somehow finding relative personal stability from the blow they've suffered from it. Although the WatchTower Society may have physically cast them out, they never quite spiritually leave the WatchTower Society altogether. The trauma of having to reconstruct an entirely new worldview is that devastating. Most of these retreat into lives of bitterness and emptiness, with an eventual progression into unresolved anger, grief, and depression which often lead into destructive choices in lifestyle. Some manage to put their lives back together through meaningful vocations or careers. Not a few become atheistic or agnostic, either out of bitter scorn or an exercise of unbelief motivated by the cruelty they have beheld. Many others do eventually come to terms with matters of faith and adopt a form of spirituality they find non-threatening and comfortable, if not entirely fulfilling - some even turn to Christianity or some other world religion.

It is striking to realize that many of these individuals, many find themselves vigorous boosters for the Watchtower Society when they find it under attack. Startling as it may seem, at each annual observance called the "Memorial" which is held world wide in Kingdom Halls, many disfellowshipped Jehovah's Witnesses will be found dutifully attending them. As former Witness Randy Watters relates, it often comes as "a surprise for many who encounter a person who defends the Jehovah's Witnesses both in belief and practice, only to find out that they were disfellowshipped and no longer associate with the Witnesses" (8). He goes on to describe three of the many factors that many disfellowshipped Witnesses labor under which keep them bound to a blind loyalty to the very organization that brought upon them such woe. These factors are guilt, fear, and "the love affair."

Disfellowshipped Jehovah's Witnesses live in a state of guilt, since redemption from their wrongdoings can only be received from the Watchtower Society - thus self-condemnation is a never-ending scourge in their lives. Fear of further wrongdoing, of impending judgment by Jehovah, and being found in further rebellions against the WatchTower Society (like speaking out against it's injustices inflicted upon them, or reading material critical of the Watchtower Cult) amplifies their guilt, as well as drives them into frenzied defense of the WatchTower Society when it is criticized by others. The disfellowshipped Jehovah's Witness often has a strong yearning for the comradeship and brotherhood aspects of life in the organization, along with the sense of security by abiding in a well-ordered world where how to think and live is dictated to them by "Jehovah's Clean Organization." Not unlike a codependent woman mentally and emotionally shackled to an abusive boyfriend, disfellowshipped Jehovah's Witnesses suffers from a traumatic bondage to the spiritually abusive example of the Watchtower Society that is hard to overstate.

We'd like to interject a word or two for those who have felt the iron fist of Watchtower Cult authority and have been disfellowshipped. Despite what elders, congregational servants, or anyone else around you may say or think about you, and even despite what you may have done, we'd think you'd like to know that Jehovah is a God of love as well as that of justice. You have been led down a path of understanding that didn't reveal the true God that the ancient peoples of God knew. The picture of Him as depicted by the WatchTower Society is a warped, distorted and empty shell that cannot compare to the actual greatness of His undeserved kindness, His grace, and the desire that he would extend to you today. The Scriptures reveal Him as always seeking to demonstrate His desire to care for you, to bring healing and new life to you (1 John 1:9)! That is what grace is really supposed to do.

Sadly, what many zealous and sincere people who approach groups like the Watchtower Cult quickly discover is a religious system that metes out it's "divine love" (often cited among themselves as "proof" of their divine favor) based upon conformity to a code of conduct. Such legalistic worldviews that demand performance inevitably compel an individual to rely upon their good works for approval from God, an approval easily provided by men who claim to speak for God and uphold "the truth." (Colossians 2:8, 20-22,). The deep frustration, anger, resentment and fear that many come away with from their involvement with the organization is then quite understandable. Who could not feel tempted to yield to despair, bitterness, rage and even hatred after having been prodded onto an organizational treadmill demanding your absolute loyalty, trust, and obedience. Who can find themselves willing to continue to follow the dictates of an organization led by a driving taskmaster diety demanding one's performance of lifestyle perfection? No wonder they have little reason to trust in such a god!

Could we share a word of encouragement to you, along with something to think about? If you have your Bible, turn to Isaiah 49:15 and consider the truth made clear here:

"Can a wife forget her suckling so that she should not pity the son of her belly?" (NWT)

As hard as it is to believe, mothers can and do forget their children, even to the extent of hardening their hearts against them. The sad examples of abusive mothers are always around us. But the wonderful promise of the Scriptures here tell us of the love of God for those who have been rejected and left defenseless and helpless in a strange and unfriendly world.

"Even these women can forget, yet I myself shall not forget you." (NWT)

Over and over in the Scriptures of the Old Testament, we find fallen Israel, a nation filled with the deepest depravity, being continually offered the divine love and forgiveness that Jehovah God always held out to them. No matter how "beyond hope" they seemed to be, He made it clear that His greater depths of gracious mercy and lovingkindness were extended to them. Just as the evil of the nation's very priests and kings turned them away from the care and guidance of their people, so would there be women who would ignore their infant children who relied upon them for life. In the midst of such a calamity, Jehovah arises to serve notice upon Israel through this moving word of prophetic illumination that He will not allow them to be cast away, forgotten, in sin to never again receive of His care.

God even commanded the godly aged prophet Hosea to marry a wild-living prostitute to serve as an open witness of His unfailing love for Israel as it turned from true worship and godly leadership into depraved idolatry and political intrigue. Hosea's faithful love and provision for his adulterous and immoral wife was meant to serve as a powerful and living witness to the nation that "O Israel, thou has destroyed thyself; but in me is thine help" (Hosea 13:9) (KJV).

He could say to Israel in Jeremiah 29:11:

"I myself well know the thoughts that I am thinking towards you .. thoughts of peace, and not of calamity, to give you a future and a hope." (NWT)

Again, God is speaking to a nation of people who had suffered as a result of their wilful rejection of him, and he again takes the initiative to reach out to the vile and the sinful. Many more examples from Scripture can be cited, but the point is clear: God loves, and He loves thoroughly. John 3:16 points out that he "so loved the world" enough to send His Son to die redemptively for you and all men. The same world that would hate the Christ and destroy his disciples in the years to come was loved thoroughly by His Father. Isn't that something to consider when you begin to brood over how worthless you are? He knew what we would all individually fall to, what depths of ungodly evil all of us are capable of doing, and still He loved the world!

Jesus Christ, the Son of God told his disciples "I am the way, the truth and the life: no man can come to the Father, but by me. If ye had known me, ye should have known my Father also: and from henceforth, ye know him, and have seen him. ... He that hath seen me hath seen the Father" (John 14:6-7, 9b, KJV). 
After establishing his central role as the only One who provides salvation and mediatory access to the Father for all mankind, Jesus explained to their troubled minds that to know him meant that one could know his Father as well. To know the love of God, one must know the love of Jesus. To know the Father intimately would be to know the Son intimately as well. 

Instead of hoping to some day fit back into the "good graces" of the Watchtower Society's capricious and callous machinery, wouldn't it be much easier to turn to Jesus for the way back to the Father, to the one in whom we have beheld the "express image" and glory of God's graceful love for mankind (Hebrews 1:1-3, John 1:14) - including the disfellowshipped Jehovah's Witness or two? We must recall, in closing our report, the invitation this wonderful Savior, the Truth, extends to all who have been rejected by religious organizations as reprobates - words scarcely believable, but which thousands of disfellowshipped people have found to indeed to be true:

Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light." -- Matthew 11:28-30


ENDNOTES

(1) The Watchtower, April 1, 1994, p.16
(2) Barbara Grizzutti Harrison, Visions Of Glory, p. 153
(3 - 6) Jehovah's Witnesses - Proclaimers Of God's Kingdom, pp. 186-7
(7) Aid To Bible Understanding, p. 31
(8) Free Minds Journal, Jan/Feb 1990, p. 12