This being my first proper post I wanted to raise a question that I asked of an elder. The only response I received was that I was questioning God. When I pressed further I was accused of being an apostate. This seemingly unanswerable question was one of the reasons why I, after a quarter of a century, and my family left 'the truth'. The problem I was facing was this, with the scales of justice being supposedly balanced and all people being treated equally by Jehovah, how can it be said that people in todays world have an equal chance, or even a fair chance, of gaining life as those who are resurrected?
Those who are resurrected would be taught in a perfect world, one religion, one educational system, one society united under God. They would have every opportunity to learn 'the truth'. Surely this is a huge advantage over those in todays system. How can it be fair to them that their salvation rests on being taught something seemingly far fetched when what they see around them is all they know. Are they not therefore victims of circumstance? Born before Armageddon rather than after it. Their chance of accepting the truth is not the same. Jehovah is not giving them an equal or fair chance. The people who are carrying out this teaching work are themselves reluctant, in my experience most did this out of duty rather than desire.
Can I prove that people are victims of circumstance? Well, consider this point I raised with this elder, which just served to increase his anger and annoyance further, peoples under different social/religious systems i.e Bangladesh or India, are far less responsive to 'the truth', if you compare the ratios of witnesses (publishers) to populations. The ratios of non Christianity countries are far higher than Christian ones (Christian countries typically say 1-100 witnesses to population, non-Christianity countries 1-10,000 even 1-100,000). This seems to be due to the fact that it is far harder and is a far greater step to change to a Christian religion from a non-Christian one than it is to change from one denomination to another i.e Methodist to JW.
So if Armageddon arrived now these ones from non Christianity countries would die or would BE DESTROYED in far greater numbers than those from Christian countries. But surely they are victims of circumstance. Just because it is harder for them to accept the truth because of the religious system they live under and were born into, why should they die for this? If their sin was to be born into a society where it is harder to accept God they become victims of circumstance.
The elder could not answer this without resorting to apostate accusations. But this bothered my conscience. How could I serve a belief that would destroy those people, children and all, because of where they were born. I concluded that if Jehovah was behind the organisation he would have been able to find a way to reach these people and to give them an equal chance as those from Christian countries. The ratios of witnesses to population in these non-Christianity countries proves, in my opinion, that either he is failing these ones or that the JWs are not the true religion. Surely he would have found a way to balance the scales of justice fairly with all peoples from all nations in todays world and also equal to those resurrected into this supposedly new system.
For my first proper post here this may seem long and rambling but I feel that this point is of paramount importance if you believe the system is soon to end and if you have empathy with peoples around the world. This is just one of the many reasons why I left.
Are the scales correctly balanced?