I am facing something of a dilemma. It saddens me to say that a witness I am studying with, and whom I like a lot, is not living up to the teachings and morals of the Bible. My conscience troubles me about whether I should take action myself, or report him to other elders. Unless he can convince me of his truthfulness and obedience to God, I may have no option but to consider him for disfellowshiping.
I realIy like this person but he has been very evasive with my questions, and has not always told the truth. When I try to get him to talk truthfully about something, he changes the subject, says we will go back to it, but we never do. I am so disappointed as this person is in such a position of trust, he is an Elder of the congregation. I have to bite my tongue as I feel like telling him his behaviour is unacceptable and not worthy of a true Christian.
There is growing evidence that he has been hugely influenced by an apostate. An apostate who pretty much renounced all that he and the Watchtower religion taught. I am referring to Joseph Rutherford, the man who got so many predictions wrong and then terminated Christianity in the Spring of 1935, and from that date forward preached a different and new gospel to the everlasting good news described in the Bible. This is one of the most serious cases of apostasy, and the elder I study with has followed it. I will give him as much time as he needs to repent, but I cannot allow myself to face a tissue of lies indefinately. My main concern is for the countless people he could lead astray from Christianity. I do not really believe in disfellowshiping, and am not convinced it is scriptural, but this person is such a stranger to truth, that my own spiritual well being could be adversely affected if I continue to fellowship with him.
I am patient, but I believe it is just a matter of time, and prayer, before I have to take decisive action against this JW Elder and banish him from my house unless he promises to start telling the truth. There is some hope as he made a major admission recently, that witnesses don't really get any information from God. Unless he continues to confess, at some point I will have to admonisish him, and I hope he will apologise to God and show some remorse, but so far he displays haughtiness, and may have persecuted Christians and disfellowshiped some good people. Sooner or later I think I will have to end our fellowship, in other words I will disfellowship him, with firmness yet compassion, athough neither of us actually has any authority over the other.
However, my door will always remain open, and unconditional love will always be afforded this man should he put truth ahead of position in a worldly organisation.