Since most of the replies to your question are written from the standpoint of having rejected both the doctrines of the JWs and the Bible itself, I thought I would just inject that there are still many of us who do believe the Bible to be God's Word, and the JWs' teachings do not hold up even from that standpoint. If you just read the Bible, without looking up explanations in the Watchtower publications, you'll quickly come to realize that the Watchtower's doctrines simply do not hold water, even from a strictly Biblical standpoint.
The Society has even admitted as much! Back in the 1981 Watchtower, in railing against the "apostates," they said:
*** w81 8/15 28-9 Serving Jehovah "Shoulder to Shoulder" ***In other words, if you just read the Bible, you'll end up believing what the churches of Christendom teach!
They say that it is sufficient to read the Bible exclusively, either alone or in small groups at home. But, strangely, through such 'Bible reading,' they have reverted right back to the apostate doctrines that commentaries by Christendom's clergy were teaching 100 years ago
but if you believe the bible is real, isn't someone right? Whether it's the Mormons, JW or whoever.This sounds like the oft-repeated mantra of the JWs, 'but where would we go if we left Jehovah's organization?' Which of course means, 'what other organization has the truth?' The Bible does not advocate that we look for an organization that has the truth; it tells us that Jesus Christ is "the way, the truth, and the life." And of course, when Peter asked the question that the JWs have so often misquoted,
John 6:68 Simon Peter answered him, "Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life. 69 We believe and know that you are the Holy One of God."he was referring to Jesus himself, not some organization, as having "words of eternal life".
Tom
"The truth was obscure, too profound and too pure; to live it you had to explode." ---Bob Dylan