Dear Brothers:
How we rejoice to inform you of our spiritual progress! We look forward to the time when you will continue submitting to our humble direction forever! Warmest greetings from all of us here.
The birth of a son can be a joyous experience. No doubt you or someone you know may have experienced a similar blessing from Jehovah. However, in a religiously divided household, such joy may quickly turn to conflict if Bible principles are not carefully applied. One wife, sadly, discovered that her husband was secretly reading apostate literature and communicating online with apostates. How heartbreaking that must have been for her! "I wanted my husband to get the spiritual help he needed," she wrote, "so I went to the body of elders for help." Despite their efforts at Bible-based counsel, her husband unrepentantly defied their God-given authority and had to be disfellowshipped from the Christian congregation.
Soon, his true wicked nature revealed itself, as he ceased attending Christian meetings and increased his persecution against his wife, routinely blaspheming Jehovah's organization. Thankfully, despite this divisive situation, she persevered in prayer and in showing loving-kindness towards her husband. From time to time, he accompanied her to Christian meetings. She still remains hopeful that he will return to Jehovah. To her surprise, he accepted an invitation to attend the 2012 District Convention of Jehovah's Witnesses. "I can only hope that Jehovah will reward my endurance and help soften my husband's heart to repent," his wife concludes.
However, with a child born two months ago, how does she cope? Though her husband has refused to accompany her to Christian meetings, he continues to lovingly provide for her material needs and transportation to and from the Kingdom Hall. He has also assisted in child care, grocery shopping, caring for the home, and loyally turning on Kingdom Melodies to help their little ones rest at night.
Still, we cannot help but wonder: Will her husband, a wicked apostate devoid of spiritual light, perhaps seek to unduly influence his son to follow him in a course of disloyalty to Jehovah's organization? Only time will tell, but no doubt their son, named after a righteous king of Judah, will receive a proper spiritual upbringing. His mother and both grandmothers, like Lois and Eunice of old, will no doubt teach him God's way of thinking, bringing him up in the "discipline and mental-regulating of Jehovah."
Do we not rejoice to see the possibility that this child will grow to love and serve Jehovah, perhaps even seeking greater privileges within his organization? Perhaps he will become a regular pioneer, a missionary serving where the need is greater, a circuit or district overseer, or a respected congregation elder. Any of these would be fine ways for him to show his devotion to Jehovah God. No doubt the congregation elders will seek to fill the void left by his apostate father, serving as surrogate "fathers" in his life and directing him towards a pursuit of spiritual goals. They will likely help him to avoid the snares of the flesh, the dangers of bad association, and to choose goals that will help him to put God's Kingdom interests first. No doubt he will receive pressure from schoolmates or his apostate father to pursue higher education, thus "seeking great things" for himself. But it is hoped that love for Jehovah will prevail over the "temporary enjoyment of sin" or the "desire of the eyes" so prevalent in this wicked system of things. Do you not share this hope?
As this wicked system draws ever closer to its end, we look forward to serving shoulder-to-shoulder with you in our united apostasy. May you continue to prove yourselves "mentally diseased", demonic, smuggling, disloyal, presumptuous, self-serving, immoral, deceptive antichrists until "the day draws near" for Jehovah God to utterly destroy both you and all those who, like a cancer upon God's creation, continue to defy his sovereignty and his Son's righteous way of ruling through the "faithful and discreet slave" and its Governing Body.
Your Brother,
sd-7