Worth Another Look

 

In 1990 I dedicated myself to Jesus Christ and committed myself to follow his teachings as the will of Jehovah. I learned to follow the teachings of Jesus in association with Jehovah’s Witnesses, an organized, international group of Christians unique among other Christian groups with respect to many of their teachings and religious practices. I went from a person involved in many worldly pursuits and desires, to one desirous of only one thing: following Jesus’ example and defending the truth about a God I came to know by the name of “Jehovah.”

 

I came to know also that many disagreed with, even despised the teachings and activities of Jehovah’s Witnesses. I did not look away from these disagreements. I looked directly at them, and the more I looked at them the more I found them to be disagreements that were themselves subject to criticism. So I criticized the critics, and defended Jehovah’s Witnesses.

 

Eventually, the more you look at anything, your- or myself included, you will find a cause for complaint. In some cases, the complaint may be of minor import, something that can and should be overlooked for the sake of the greater good. In other cases, the cause for complaint is too loud not to be heard, too great to avoid, and too dangerous to allow to remain or to remain near it. So it was that I found some criticisms against Jehovah’s Witnesses justified; so it was that I found them too dangerous to stay near.

 

I decided to follow the same path that led me to defend Jehovah’s Witnesses against unfounded criticisms. I was compelled to acknowledge credible reasons against some of their more significant beliefs and organizational practices. This led to my presenting in writing reasons for and against accepting certain key beliefs of Jehovah’s Witnesses. Had I chose not to do so, I would have been left with only one other option: continue defending what I had come to believe and deny or keep silent about the things I could not defend against legitimate criticism. The option I chose not to exercise (keeping silent) was a valueless one, for it would only, eventually, have undermined the basis for my belief in everything else, since the basis for my beliefs for and against certain teachings and practices of Jehovah’s Witnesses was the same: the Bible.

 

It has been three and half years since I released Three Dissertations on the Teachings Jehovah’s Witnesses, and it has been two and half years since my last meaningful public defense of their teachings, when I debated Dr. James White in December, 2003. I think it is time for another look at the organization bearing God’s name. It is time for another look at the organization that in many ways uniquely reflects the fruits of Christianity. It is time for another look at the organization that has fallen into the same injurious path that one travels when ‘man dominates man to his injury’ (Ecclesiastes 8:9). It is time for another look at Jehovah’s Witnesses.

 

By “another look” I do not mean another reading of their literature, to find out what they think and believe now as opposed to a few years ago. By “another look” I mean it is time, at least for me, to return to the congregations on a limited basis to see the things I used to love seeing, to see the things I know are still there, and to find out if the things I could no longer look upon or hear about are there, too.

 

Jehovah’s Witnesses today are no more safe from what happened to Jerusalem of old:

 

*** Jeremiah 24:1-10 (NWT) ***

 

24 And Jehovah showed me, and, look! two baskets of figs set before the temple of Jehovah, after Neb·u·chad·rez´zar the king of Babylon had carried into exile Jec·o·ni´ah the son of Je·hoi´a·kim, the king of Judah, and the princes of Judah and the craftsmen and the builders of bulwarks, from Jerusalem that he might bring them to Babylon. ² As for the one basket, the figs were very good, like early figs; and as for the other basket, the figs were very bad, so that they could not be eaten for badness. ³ And Jehovah proceeded to say to me: “What are you seeing, Jeremiah?” So I said: “Figs, the good figs being very good, and the bad ones being very bad, so that they cannot be eaten for badness.” ⁴ Then the word of Jehovah occurred to me, saying: ⁵ “This is what Jehovah the God of Israel has said, ‘Like these good figs, so I shall regard the exiles of Judah, whom I will send away from this place to the land of the Chal·de´ans, in a good way. ⁶ And I will set my eye upon them in a good way, and I shall certainly cause them to return to this land. And I will build them up, and I shall not tear down; and I will plant them, and I shall not uproot. ⁷ And I will give them a heart to know me, that I am Jehovah; and they must become my people, and I myself shall become their God, for they will return to me with all their heart. ⁸ “‘And like the bad figs that cannot be eaten for badness, this in fact is what Jehovah has said: “So I shall give Zed·e·ki´ah the king of Judah and his princes and the remnant of Jerusalem who are remaining over in this land and those who are dwelling in the land of Egypt— ⁹ I will also give them over for quaking, for calamity, in all the kingdoms of the earth, for reproach and for a proverbial saying, for a taunt and for a malediction, in all the places to which I shall disperse them. ¹⁰ And I will send against them the sword, the famine and the pestilence, until they come to their finish off the ground that I gave to them and to their forefathers.”’”

 

Nor are they to be kept from Jesus’ prophecy of what he would find in his earthly kingdom:

 

*** Matthew 13:40-43 (NWT) ***

 

⁴⁰ Therefore, just as the weeds are collected and burned with fire, so it will be in the conclusion of the system of things. ⁴¹ The Son of man will send forth his angels, and they will collect out from his kingdom all things that cause stumbling and persons who are doing lawlessness, ⁴² and they will pitch them into the fiery furnace. There is where [their] weeping and the gnashing of [their] teeth will be. ⁴³ At that time the righteous ones will shine as brightly as the sun in the kingdom of their Father.

 

I believe there is good and bad in the organization, just as both were among Jehovah’s people of old, and in Jesus’ illustration of the harvest. I left the organization before because of the “bad”; I am returning now for the sake of the “good.” I do not expect that either will be missing, but I want to see them both again that “at the mouth of two or three witnesses every matter may be established” (Matthew 18:16 ).

 

By returning on a “limited basis” I mean I have met with the local elders and I have made known to them my intentions of setting aside, for a time, my disagreements for the sake of our agreements. I will attend, with my family, meetings on a limited basis as I complete my third edition of Jehovah’s Witnesses Defended: An Answer to Scholars and Critics (see “The Third Edition of Jehovah’s Witnesses Defended,” in the August 1, 2006 , article for IN MEDIO for details on the content and release of this publication). I have said all I need or want to say about the things that disturb me in the organization, but I have not said nearly all I want to say about the things that bring me joy and that draw me to them. Thus, Three Dissertations will remain available so that I can speak freely and remain true to myself about what I believe, though I have no desire to add anything further to what I have said, there. Jehovah’s Witnesses Defended will return with more reasons than ever for why I believe what I do about Jehovah, Jehovah’s Witnesses, and those who oppose him and their work.

 

I will trust in Jehovah that he will take this act of faith on my part as a sign to either correct me and show me where I can find peace in the organization and keep me from despair as I proclaim the truths unique to it, or by answering the deep concerns that I came know in that same place. I will trust in Jehovah that he will correct whomever needs correction and that he will adjust whomever needs adjusting, not for my sake, or for the sake of the organization, but for the sake of his holy and glorious name:

 

*** Exodus 9:16 (NWT) ***

 

But, in fact, for this cause I have kept you in existence, for the sake of showing you my power and in order to have my name declared in all the earth.

 

Greg Stafford

July 1, 2006