Wow... It's pretty rare someone brings up the issue that eventually led me out of the Watchtower organization. When I wrote my story about a year ago, a large segment dealt specifically with the subject of confession as it relates to the WTS. (Thus my screen name!) It was being trouble by this subject that led to my finally giving the organization an objective investigation. If you'd like to read the entire story go here...
http://www.jehovahs-witness.com/7/96377/1.ashx
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It’s the mid 1990s and I’m serving as an elder in my congregation, enjoying the friends, giving talks often more than once a month at congregations throughout my state. I’ve been asked to chair the Judicial Committee of my closest friend and fellow elder who has been accused of pedophilia. Since this brother is considered such a pillar, the Circuit Overseer assigns two extra brothers from other congregations to sit on our committee.
He won’t confess, and I just can’t believe it. This is one of the best men I know. Why can’t he just admit it? What a lesson this is to me. “Do not put your trust in men.” The Bible says it; the Society says it. But not THIS man! Not my friend. There are two accusers who’ve never met before and have never spoken, telling almost exactly the same story about what he did to them some years before. We cannot find any holes in their testimony. Why won’t he just confess!?
While deliberating I ask the four other members of the committee to come up with every reason we can think of as to why he won’t confess—other than what appears to be the obvious one: that he may be lying so as to avoid the consequences. One of the brothers suggests that the man did it, but then forgot about it. Dubious as it seems, we had to be willing to look at every possibility.
Since no one else can come up with another one, I share mine. What if he has confessed his sins to Jehovah, and thinks there is no need to confess to men?
The rest of the committee all look at me a bit uncomfortably. They clearly don’t think there is any point going down this road. We have been instructed that individuals in the congregation must confess serious sins to the elders, and that’s all there is to it. I understand their position, but decide privately to conduct the research on this subject so that, if this is the case, I can perhaps restore my brother.
I start by going to the usual places Jehovah’s Witnesses go when researching something: Reasoning from the Scriptures, that nifty little handbook so many of us actually have bound right together with our copy of the New World Translation of the Holy Scriptures. As I flip through the pages, it occurs to me that the Society has always criticized the Roman Catholic church for its practice of confession. No man had the right to absolve another’s sins. That was Jehovah’s job, we recognized. And yet it seems to me that the Watchtower’s position is, in effect, no different from the Catholics’. I find under the subject of “Confession” this text…
“When a person sins against God
Matt. 6:6-12: “When you pray, go into your private room and, after shutting your door, pray to your Father who is in secret . . . ‘Our Father in the heavens, let your name be sanctified . . . and forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors.’”
Ps. 32:5: “My sin I finally confessed to you [God], and my error I did not cover. I said: ‘I shall make confession over my transgressions to Jehovah.’ And you yourself pardoned the error of my sins.”
Wait a minute. This seems to be saying that Confession as practiced by the Catholic church is wrong because we are supposed to be confessing “to Jehovah.” The italics are theirs! The scriptures they use confirm that it is to Him that we are to confess—and that He is the one who pardons our sins. If so, why does the Watchtower Society say we must confess to elders? I know of only one scripture that we’ve used to refer to this subject. It’s James 5:14 & 15, which reads…
“Is there anyone sick among you? Let him call the older men of the congregation to him, and let them pray over him, greasing him with oil in the name of Jehovah. And the prayer of faith will make the indisposed one well, and Jehovah will raise him up. Also, if he has committed sins, it will be forgiven him.”
As I ponder these words, it strikes me that while they do recommend the loving guidance of the elders, they do not seem to require a person to go to them. It seems more like just asking for help—not confession. And it says, “Let him…,” not “He must…” Furthermore, the only place the Reasoning book addressed this scripture was under the following heading…
“When someone becomes involved in serious wrongdoing and wants spiritual help”
Hold on. So going to the elders is only something you do when you “want” help? This is not at all the actual position the Society takes on this matter. As an elder I knew this. We were officially instructed to use lack of confession—or sometimes lack of a speedy confession—as a reason to disfellowship people. For a sinning one to say they didn’t “want” any help would have no relevance at all to a Judicial Committee.
Heart pounding, I looked further, finding more information on confession in Insight on the Scriptures…
Confessing sins to one another. The disciple James counsels: “Openly confess your sins to one another and pray for one another, that you may get healed.” (Jas 5:16) Such confession is not because any human serves as “helper [“advocate,” RS]” for man with God, since Christ alone fills that role by virtue of his propitiatory sacrifice. (1Jo 2:1, 2) Humans, of themselves, cannot actually right the wrong toward God, on their own behalf or on behalf of others, being unable to provide the needed atonement. (Ps 49:7, 8) However, Christians can help one another, and their prayers on behalf of their brothers, while not having an effect on God’s application of justice (since Christ’s ransom alone serves to bring remission of sins), do count with God in petitioning his giving needed help and strength to the one who has sinned and is seeking aid.
And here’s something from a 1997 Watchtower…
*** w97 12/1 p. 14 Jehovah, a God “Ready to Forgive” ***
Despite what mistakes you may have made, if you have truly repented, taken steps to right the wrong, and earnestly prayed for Jehovah’s forgiveness on the basis of Jesus’ shed blood, you can have full confidence that the words of 1 John 1:9 apply to you: “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and righteous so as to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.”
As it turns out, this information did not play a role in the Judicial Committee I was then chairing, but I couldn’t get it out of my mind over the next few years. I recall mentioning it confidentially to an elder friend of mine. He recognized what I was saying, even reminding me of another Society policy that seems inconsistent. They taught elders that if a person had sinned seriously—but at least three years had passed before they decided to come forward—they would not even have to form a Judicial Committee. Their reasoning was that enough time had passed and that Jehovah had obviously, in this time, forgiven the individual.
That’s right! Here was proof that the Society recognized a person could sin and be forgiven by Jehovah—without his ever having confessed to elders! And if Jehovah Himself doesn’t require it, how on earth can they?
“Tom! Wake up! They’re not who they say they are! Use your head!”
Having finally heard his words, I pull my ear off of the glass and turn my head to face him. As I squint into the shadowy studio, I see his face. He looks awfully familiar.
It’s the Spring of 2004. I have not served as an elder for more than five years, having stepped aside shortly after the Judicial Committee referenced above. I am sitting before three elders, the subject of a Judicial Committee myself this time. I had approached them to confess my own wrongdoing. After being estranged from my wife for four years, I had committed adultery. Although I had uncovered much information about confession to men not being a Christian requirement, I still feel compelled to—primarily because I feel my estranged wife has the right to know.
Having come to them myself, having shown all due repentance, I am confident that I’ll be publicly reproved instead of disfellowshipped. Interestingly, during my last meeting with the elders, when I mentioned how I felt my wife had a right to know these things, one of the brothers on the committee held up his hand.
“Wait a minute! Even if you hadn’t confessed this to your wife, you still had an obligation to confess it to the elders in the congregation.”
Now what? My pet organizational issue has arisen. What do I say. I could say…
“Yes, I know, brothers, and that’s exactly what I did.”
But instead, in the interest of full disclosure, I say…
“Well maybe you can help me then, brothers, because I haven’t been clear that I do have that obligation.”
Well that was that. A couple of the brothers seemed almost outraged that I would even say such a thing, suggesting that I was trying to “minimize” my wrongdoing. I asked how not knowing that confession to elders was a Christian requirement would in any way be “minimizing” my sin. Clearly they must have observed enough to know that I was not minimizing anything I’d done. And despite my comment, I did in fact confess anyway, didn’t I?
I explained that I was aware I may be wrong about this position—but that I’d arrived at it after reading the Bible and many articles from the Watchtower Society itself. I opened up the Reasoning book and read them what it said about confession being something we do to Jehovah. I also referenced other articles and publications. They sat silently and would not respond. In spite of the fact that I had actually confessed, they had decided that my comment about not being sure it was an obligation was just too much to take. Within one hour they informed me that I was to be disfellowshipped.
(End of segment) If you'd like to read the entire story, go here... http://www.jehovahs-witness.com/7/96377/1.ashx