Recently I was going through some of my old storage boxes and came across my 1988 copy of the Watchtower issued book "Revelation. Its Grand Climax At Hand!"
As I flipped through its pages I was reminded how blinded I was in regards to rational thinking. When I read this material now I have to laugh at the absurdity of it and still struggle with the fact that I actually believed some of it at one point in my life.
I mean some of it is just so damn stupid!!! For example the blowing of the 7 trumpets in Revelation chapter 8 corresponded to some "proclamations" of the Watchtowers second president Joseph "Judge" Rutherford. I must have been heavily sedated to believe that these verses were in reference to some blubbering statement uttered by this 20th century drunk cult leader!
Also, you have to laugh at how "Caucasian oriented" the Watchtower Society is. The crowd of angels standing before the throne of God on page 86 are all blond and blue eyed. Not one person of African, Latino or Asian decent is to be seen in this vast throng of angels. I guess Jesus was European after all.
I now laugh when I look at the the many colored highlighters I used and the scripture citations from several bible translations and other comments I scribbled along the edges of the pages.
However there was one thing in this publication that I really had an issue with and was one of the earliest statements that began my road to doubtsville. It was on page 105 in the box at the top of the page.
Next to a picture of Charles Russel looking down at a bible was this comment. "Providentially, those Bible Students had not realized that there is no zero year between 'B.C.' and 'A.D.' Later, when research made it necessary to to adjust B.C. 606 to 607 B.C.E., the zero year was also eliminated , so that the prediction held good at 'A.D. 1914."
That did not set well with me at all. That was way to much coincidence for my brain. You mean to tell me that when they realized that their date for the beginning of the "seven times" needed to be moved back a year, which would have made the gentile times ending in 1913, they also discovered that there was no year zero so 1914 was still valid?
Please!! This smacked so much of spiritual bullshit that I was never able to let it go. I remember bringing this to the attention of my then wife who told me to forget it about it and to leave the matter in Jehovah's hands.
But that never happened and it gnawed on me for the next several years and by the end of 1991 I knew that my days as one of Jehovah's Witnesses were numbered.
It was the 1988 summer District Convention "Divine Justice" where this Revelation book was released that began my serious doubts. It was the concluding symposium talk on Saturday titled "The Appointed Time Is Near" that gave me the heebie jeebies.
It was a piped in talk by a Governing Body Member John Barr. At one point in the talk he commented how those who follow "Christendom" (non-JW Christian religions) deserved execution at the hands of Jehovah and asked the audience for a shout of "aye" in agreement. To hear several thousand folks yell "aye" in unison regarding the murder of billions sent shivers down my spine. For the first time at a J.W. function, I felt that something was very wrong in the organization.
As time went on I began to question many other beliefs I had regarding the Witnesses and in due time I came to the decision that it was not the "truth" it claimed to be, but I felt so isolated because I could not share of discuss my feelings with my fellow congregational members for fear of being "turned in" to the Watchtower authorities.
Eventually my then-wife and I went our separate ways and in September 1992 I sent a letter of disassociation to elders in my congregation. In the course of one day I went from having several hundred friends and acquaintances to having only my non-J.W. mom and dad to talk to. It was a period of much solitude and loneliness that I had to endure for quite some time until I had again built up a circle of "worldly" folks.
This was just another example of me not thinking things through. Even when I had doubts about some of the statements made by the "faithful and discreet slave", I would just shelve them and hope the clarification would eventually be realized.
Of course that never happened because it was all pure unadulterated bovine excrement. Once I did unshackle my reasoning faculties the "truth" shone through and the "Grand Climax" was the Watchtower Society was shown to be the wolf in sheep's clothing that it really is.
I have been thinking logically again for almost 22 years and I do not have any regrets. I have since become part of the humanist society and have found great sites like Dogma Debate Radio with David Smalley and The Thinking Atheist with Seth Andrews and The Atheist Experience with Matt Dillahunty, Jeff Dee, Russell Glasser, and many others. I also have found great books by such authors as David Fitzgerald, Darrel Ray and Terry Edwin Walstrom.
So those of you who are still in the Jehovah's Witness organization, keep questioning and the truth will set you free!!!
Ray Reed aka the Annointed Atheist. So full of the spirit of the FSM that I have to "n's" in anointed.