My response to my friend (letter)

Matt_fs

Hey folks, I had a few topics showing you a letter my friend had sent me basically ending our friendship cause of some questions. So I wanted to share the letter I sent back. I hope this is the right spot. I want to thank you all who shared some comments cause I did use some of the points in my letter.

Hey ******

Well, I really dont know where to start, so ill just start talking. A friendship that lasted 15 years gone because of some questions regarding the history of your religion blows my mind. If you can just give up a friend that easy cause of some honest questions, was I even a friend in the first place? or was I just someone you could say to others "hey, look who I brought in".

You see, to you it may seem that im looking for something wrong, but i remember the question I asked you when we were talking. I asked you how someone could determine who has the truth if many groups came to your door claiming they had the truth, you said, and i quote "you can research the history of the religion". That is all I have done ******. So I dont understand why you think I am just looking for error.

Doing history on the JW's has brought up some questions. Am I not allowed to ask the history of your religion? is that a wrong thing to do? Am I looking for fault in something when the facts are the truth, and I have a question about it? Are you only willing to study with me if I have no questions and only accept anything you say without me doing research? Wasnt it Paul who said in 2 Corinthians 13:5 "Keep testing whether YOU are in the faith, keep proving what YOU yourselves are." It also mentions this in a Watchtower magazine:

Watchtower May 1 1958 p.261 Is Your Religion the Right One?

“It is important, then, that you "keep testing whether you are in the faith," as Paul declared. Keep checking to see whether the things you believe are in keeping with God's Word. But the question is, Are you willing to put your religion through such a test? There is nothing to fear, because if you have the right religion you can only be reassured by the examination. And if what you believe is not in keeping with the Bible, then you should welcome the truth, because it leads to light and life.”

Was it not the Beroean's in Acts 17 who were commended for examining the scriptures to see if what Paul was teaching was true? Do you expect less from me, or should I ignore what the bible says and follow whoever comes to me saying they have the truth?

I did not at any time tell you I have found the right path - I am still searching for it and along with that search comes many questions. It is my eternity that is at stake is it not? For the bible says in Ephesians 4:13-15 “Do not be led astray to and fro and carried about the wind of doctrine by the sleight of men”. So if I find something about a doctrine change, its my right to research it to make sure it follows what the bible says.

****** I never once came to you claiming the trinity is correct or that it may be correct, I came to you with other questions, and to be truthful, the trinity isn’t a concern of mine at the moment. My main concern was the questions I had about the history of JW’s, and what the bible says. After all, it is the bible that has supreme authority over all other literature does it not?

I hope you can see the reasons for me wanting to research anything I am taught before accepting it as truth. I would rather have questions not answered, then answers I cant question.

Matt (end of letter)

I thought I used some good points, and i hope some of the questions make him think!

Cheers

Matt

Zico

You did raise some good points. Jehovah's Witnesses show their hypocrisy by going door-to-door asking others to examine their own faiths, but then disfellowshipping anyone in their religion who does the same.

I hope you get a reply.

fullofdoubtnow

Matt,

That is an excellent letter, very well thought out and not even mildly critical of his beliefs. I hope you get a good response from your friend.

Linda

Peaches-n-Cream

Matt--A very good letter!

You made some great points that I hope will make your friend think!

Double Edge

Great letter - back in his face .... he has no claim 'biblically' to stand on the way he treated you. In fact, his actions, bibically speaking, make the impression that they do NOT have the truth in that he renounces your scriptural 'right' to question. Let us know his response (if any....don't hold your breath). Wouldn't you like to be a fly on the wall when he opens the letter....

D.E.

undercover

That is a good letter.

It might not seem to help right now...he might not even reply and you'll think maybe he's just shunning you. But maybe it can plant a small seed of doubt in his brain. In time, when something in a magazine or talk doesn't seem quite right, it could jog his memory and he'll remember his association with you and the letter that he last received from you. If he gives that doubt some thought, it could open up a big crack that allows cognitive thought to take place.

With JWs who are firm in their beliefs, I feel it does no good to argue doctrine or policy. Just stating that independant research has led me to another path is usually enough to get them to lecture about not looking at anything not from the WTS. Then I can use some of the same points you used to show them that I have done nothing against scripture, but actually applied it. It usually confounds them enough to leave me alone, but it plants that seed that may grow later.

willyloman

In my opinion, this is the perfect letter for these circumstances. It lets you occupy the moral high ground. Your "friend" has no place to stand.

jwfacts

Excellent letter. Controlling your right to question is what shows the Watchtower is manipulating its followers, and that is the best point you could have made to your friend.

nsrn

I think it's a great letter--not arguing doctrine, and citing his own comments to you. I hope he thinks hard about it.

peacefulpete

JWs encourage potential converts to research and if you decide they are not God's messengers, you were not being called by God. Its rhetoric. They don't really want you to do serious research into their past and present, they want you to open an encyclopedia and find a few choice factoids, like Christmas having nonChristian precedents, and become intellectually placated.

My response to my friend (letter)

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