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Jehovah's Witnesses, A Name I Was Barely Acquainted With

from the Testimony column of the Christian Research Newsletter, Volume 1, Number 3, 1988. The story of Bob and Debbie Rush and their exodus from the Jehovah's Witnesses.

The Editor of the Christian Research Newsletter is Ron Rhodes.

When Bob and I were first married, we decided to find a church in which to worship. I myself had always felt a drawing towards Jesus Christ, but never knew anything about being "born again." Bob and I attended a movie sponsored by Billy Graham, and we both went forward afterwards. We met a nice couple and they invited us to their church. We were very disappointed after attending for there was no mention of Jesus Christ, nor was the Bible even used. We later attended another church, but did not feel welcome since most of the people seemed in a higher class than us. As more time went by we still had not found a local church to attend.

My in-laws had been visited by two women who were Jehovah's Witnesses, a name I was barely acquainted with. We asked Bob's parents to tell them we wanted to talk with them. They seemed to be sincere people, and offered to have a free Bible study with us. We thought, "There must be a catch to this."

We began to study their books along with the Bible and we studied with them for several months. It seemed as if we were always digressing from the actual book study, since we were so full of questions. As we looked ahead in their book _The Truth That Leads To Eternal Life_ we saw that they did not celebrate Christmas or accept blood transfusions. These were ideas on the Bible that we had never heard before, but everything was explained in a way that seemed logical.

We soon were baptized as JWs, and I can remember wondering if I would be one of the 144,000 in the "Heavenly Class." My friends asked me if I felt any different as I read the Bible, and I said "no." They told me that I was not one of the 144,000 and that I would stay here on the Paradise earth. I was disappointed, but I understood the idea and went on to be the best JW I could be.

Our family began to attend meetings around five times a week. We became very dedicated to the Society and were able to go to district and national conferences three to four times a year. We regularly went out in the service of going door to door witnessing. It was very important to us to be active and continue in good standing. After a few years Bob was appointed a Ministerial Servant, and I also joined the Ministerial School.

Bob received a job offer in California. We wrote to the Society to get their approval to move there, since they taught that we should go to where the "need is greater." They said we were needed more where we were in Indiana, but we had always wanted to live in California so we decided to move. After arriving in California, the job that Bob had lined up fell through. It wasn't long before our savings were depleted and we had to go home.

After going back to our old Kingdom Hall, things seemed different. It was implied that things didn't work out because we had gone against the organization's will. Bob was relieved of his Ministerial Servant position, and from then on it was all downhill. We gradually started going to meetings less frequently, until finally we didn't go all year, except for the annual Memorial Service. We still believed that the JWs had the truth, but thought the problem was with our Kingdom Hall. Only a few people took the time to find out why our family stopped attending. One of those visits was by a sister insisting that I go out in service preaching door to door. She didn't show a concern for me or the difficulties we were having.

Later that year, Bob decided to run for a local public office. He thought this would be all right since another brother in good standing took a position with the city requiring political affiliation and was not disfellowshiped. Needless to say, Bob was disfellowshiped immediately. As time went by, we continued to follow the rules of the Watchtower Society, but we seldom prayed or thought of God.

It was then that our youngest son became seriously ill and had to be hospitalized. An elderly lady in the hospital said she would pray for him and even crocheted him a small cross. I appreciated this, but I felt she was one of the lost that would be destroyed at Armageddon. Through this difficulty I realized that I needed God for strength. I began praying for God to give me guidance, and even asked Him to show me if the JWs did not really have the truth.

While at home one evening, my husband accidentally ran across a television program called _The John Ankerberg Show,_ which had some ex-JWs on it. We were shocked to hear about the false prophecies that the JWs have made, including predictions of the world's end in 1914, 1918, 1925, and 1975, and how they had used Johannes Greber (a spirit medium) to back up their teachings. We also were shown what the Bible teaches about false prophets in Deuteronomy 18.

We began reading our Bible and discovered in John 14:6 that Jesus was the way, the truth, and the life. Jesus was the truth that we had previously been seeking in an organization.

*With much help from ex-JWs and Dr. Walter Martin's books, we have both come to find the real truth in Jesus Christ. We are now in our own ministry of helping JWs and those who have left the Society who do not know where to turn.* We want to help alert others to their false doctrines, and encourage Christians to study the cults, so that they can lead others to the true Jesus Christ for salvation.

End of document, CRN0001A.TXT (original CRI file name),
"Jehovah's Witnesses, a name I was barely acquainted with"
release A, March 9, 1993
R. Poll, CRI

A special note of thanks to Bob and Pat Hunter for their help in the preparation of this ASCII file for BBS circulation.

Copyright 1993 by the Christian Research Institute.

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