Back at home father was questioning me closely. He was concerned about my ‘spirituality.’ I gave him the answers he needed to hear and he relaxed a little. I had been thinking about death a lot recently and there was one thing on my mind at the time that bothered me. As father was an Elder, I felt I could confide in him and clarify the situation. He was sitting with mother when I broached the subject.
‘I am having difficulty with something you may be able to help me with. According to the Society our body is our soul. We don’t have a soul that can be separated from our body at death. Therefore, when we die nothing of us is left. If we die under persecution, we will be dead until we are resurrected into the new world. But if there is nothing of us left to resurrect, how can we be resurrected from the dead?’
‘Jehovah keeps a memory of us, and he can recreate us just as we were but as perfect humans,’ he explained.
‘But if nothing original remains, that would not be us. We would just be a replica of who we were. That is not really what resurrection means.’
Father went off and found a suitable Watchtower publication and read out a passage that confirmed what he had said. I took a Bible and read passages that claimed souls do survive death; that resurrection involves raising up souls that have been asleep in death. Father read more passages from the publication.
‘I know that is what the Society books say but don’t you see the problem? It contradicts what the Bible says!’
Now father was getting peeved. ‘This is how the Society has explained it and this is what we believe. I don’t want to hear any more of your strange ideas.’
‘These strange ideas are not mine. All I have done is read to you from the Bible, something you have made me spend my whole life doing. Now you are saying that what is written in the Watchtower Society’s books is more important than what the Bible plainly states,’ I said defensively.
Father’s eyes were now watering and I realised we were not going to resolve the matter. So, I decided to try to calm things down.
‘Look, I am not trying to be awkward or argue with you. I just need to be clear in my mind what will happen to us if we die before we get into the new world. You believe that when the ‘anointed class’ with a heavenly hope die; they will immediately be changed into spirit beings’
‘The Bible makes it clear that they will be,’ he confirmed.
‘If their body is their soul, what is it of them that is changed into a spirit?’
Father looked angry. ‘You ask too many questions, you always have. Why don’t you just accept what the Society says? We have ‘the truth’ and we can leave the details to them.’
‘You have told me that you joined our religion all those years ago because you were impressed by the way the brothers that called on you took the time to sit down and answer all your questions from the Bible. Now when I ask you to be as reasonable with me as they were with you, you tell me not to ask questions. It is by questioning that we get to ‘the truth.’ I can’t believe something until I am clear in my mind what it is I actually believe.’
Father had heard enough. He stood up. ‘You can believe whatever you like, but if you want to stay in ‘the truth’, you had better stop asking so many questions.’ He disappeared into his bedroom.
I turned to mother. ‘What do you make of all this?’ I asked.
I just believe whatever the latest publications say,’ she answered.
‘Even if it contradicts the Bible?’ I asked.
‘There are things we are not meant to fully understand yet.’
‘But doesn’t it trouble you to not know what would happen to you if you were to die?
‘I can’t discuss this with you,’ she said firmly.
Taken from: There's Something Wrong With THAT BOY! By Trevor Willis