I finally met up with my old friend the other week, and we spent a good couple of hours discussing old times and the state of things today. I won’t bore you with the details but when it came to the subject of unscriptural teachings I kept it to four points – the overlapping generation, the baptising of children, the new baptism question and the GBs demand for total obedience (although many other subjects came up as well).
His position is somewhat unusual, and certainly not one that would have GB approval, for he doesn’t fully agree with any of the above, and as the ‘new light’ about the FDS includes the idea that Christ will not appoint the FDS over all his belongings until he comes for judgement at the Great Tribulation, it is possible that he won’t appoint the GB because they may not ultimately be found faithful and discreet.
He believes that many Witnesses fall away because they do not confront the difficult questions now, so if they get hit by them, they are taken off-guard, unprepared, and hence easily stumbled. Great, I thought, I have quite a lot of difficult questions lined up, which I will carefully prepare for future meetings.
The root of his continued presence as a Witness is the question that if this isn’t the Truth, then who has it? Where else is there to go? I believe a great part of it is also a lifetime of friends and all his family are Witnesses. It will be interesting to see how he defends the FDS against the ‘false prophet’ charge, which I plan to address with him next time.