I recall during the early years of my walk with Christ I attended an Independent Fundamental Baptist (IFB) church where the preacher would preach that their particular denomination was the closest thing to the truth about the Gospel. In other words, they were a lot like the WT in their assertion of being the only true religion. For a while I bought into it because it seems like a lot of their teachings can be proven from the Bible. However eventually, it became harder and harder for me to meet the standards that was being preached from the pulpit and eventually I found out (sometimes the hard way) that a lot of what was being preached was merely urban legends. Things like the B.E.A.S.T. in Belgium, Proctor and Gamble being run by Satanists, etc.. Their sermons became highly legalistic, rigid, structured, thou shalt not like environment.
I got out. I drifted for many years afterward.
Only because I found a group of great Christian friends in college do I remain one to this day.
By the time I met my wife, I still had the faith and was liberal in what church I attended.
I attended a Church of God simply because my old IFB preacher once pointed it out during our soul winning session (IFB equivalent of Field Service) and said that they preached false doctrine. Their doctrine seemed pretty sound to me but their liberal use of tongues was certainly different.
I eventually began to believe that no Christian church had the whole truth concerning the gospel but at least they all believed in Christ.
Today, I find myself regressing to that previously held belief that I had before I met my wife.
The WTS almost had me convinced that they held the truth, but when I researched them I discovered their comedy of errors. I don't mind different interpretations of the Bible being presented because it gives me something to think about, something to consider. What I do mind is the assertion that a group's interpretation of the Bible is the truth to the exclusion of all other interpretations. How can anyone know this for certain? If such a group gets even one thing wrong, how can the rest of what they teach be trusted?
New light? Well, other religions have this too.
If the WTS was at least honest in owning up to their mistakes, at least they would be a little more respectable.
At least the IFB figured out that they windbag preachers needed to be reigned in. The last time I set foot in one of their churches years after I decided I wanted nothing to do with them, the new pastor there seemed a lot more mellow and understood the perils of legalism.
When will the WTS learn that in order to grow, they need to stop trying too hard to control everyone and accept the fact that they may not always be right?