Thank you all for the kind words. There were two young elders and one old one. The chairman, one of the young elders, opened proceedings with a very interesting scripture, immediately shooting himself in the foot. He read 1 John 5:20 (must come from the new "Shepherd"-book): " But we know that the Son of God has come, and he has given us intellectual capacity that we may gain the knowledge of the true one. And we are in union with the true one, by means of his Son Jesus Christ. This is the true God and life everlasting." I think he wanted to stress the unity part, but then I pounced on the "intellectual capacity"-part. First of all, before the unity comes, one must be able to exercise one's intellectual capacity to distinguish right from wrong (cf. Hebr. 5:12-14). Must say, I enjoyed that.
In conclusion, the old elder ask me: "Where do I go from here?" as though my life has now ended by being kicked out of the congregation. I assured him I will continue my studies and research, as I have always done (I told them they should try it). The one young elder wanted to jump in and say the Internet (they know I get a lot of my information from the Internet). The older elder motioned him to be quiet to his credit. He did ask me and wanted me to answer. So I corrected him by saying that I have computer programs containing libraries of thousands of books, commentaries, translations, dictionaries, etc. So much so that I will not be able to work through them in my lifetime.
Marvin, I did end by saying I am honored to follow in the footsteps of Jesus. He was also maligned, persecuted and labelled as an apostate by his brothers.
Problemaddict, yes, I look after my mother, who is a Witness, but she knows where I stand. She also feels strongly about the paedophile issue because we had a paedophile in our family. The rest of my family members in the truth do not associate with me in any case.
Thanks to you for all the badges. I should ask the elders for my Apostate-diploma so that I can frame it.
Sabastious, I agree. The whole thing smacked of the Roman Inquisition during the Dark Ages. I wanted to tell them, no I don't want to associate with you either. What you have might be contagious, and I don't want any of that.
Billy, the irony is, even if I offered them a bowl of golden apples, they would have rejected it (cf. Prov. 25:11). And what you said of 1914, 1925, 1975, etc. Those are the reasons that I do not want to associate with them. I might get infected by such reasoning, even though it is explicitly stated: "Concerning that day and hour, nobody knows..." (nor the month or year for that matter). Is that blatant disobedience, or what?
Thanks, Satanus, I deserve that badge. Sometimes I can be one of those.
LostGeneration, don't know whether you felt the same, but it is as though a huge weight has been lifted off my shoulders. I feel "fooltloose and fancy-free..." Today is the first day of the rest of my life.
