I've been doing a lot of research lately and decided I'm not going to allow the losers in cheap suits to order me around like their dog. They are not masters of my faith and have no authority to 'lord it over' me.
All the same, many even of the rulers actually put faith in him, but because of the Pharisees they would not confess [him], in order not to be expelled from the synagogue; for they loved the glory of men more than even the glory of God. - John 12:42-43
These men don't have the authority or the power of the 1st-century Pharisees, so I see no reason to hide my faith or fear them. They have no court and no power to punish, no prisons, no support from the government, no "torture stakes". The only thing they can do is cut me off from the brainwashed drones who will only seek to 'deliver me up' as the Great Tribulation spirals toward the end.
These losers in cheap suits are not chosen by Holy Spirit, despite their claims. They like to use the Bible as evidence, but it's talking about a different group of people altogether. Matthias was made an apostle by human choosing, for crying out loud. When Paul was chosen by Holy Spirit, it testified to other apostles as evidence and they verified him to the congregation. Also, Mat 18:19-20 makes it clear that "If two of YOU on earth agree concerning anything of importance that they should request, it will take place for them due to my Father in heaven." Since the C/O alone makes the decision on appointments, Holy Spirit isn't even invited to become involved.
One thing that's been weighing on my mind lately is the demand for complete submission and total suspension of thought demanded by the Society. Their claim to be God's spokesman is specious - to say the least - and appears to be blasphemous. Jesus made it clear that blaspheming the Holy Spirit is an unforgivable sin. The Pharisees claiming Jesus' good works were from the Devil is not far removed from the Society's claims that their ever-changing doctrine and outright lies (Eph 4:14-15, 2Thes 1:11-12) are from the Holy Spirit. Nobody is permitted to acknowledge the Society's doctrinal pretenses until there is "new light" on the subject and nobody is allowed to hold the Bible above the WT publications or be labeled "apostate" (Pro 30:5-6).
It's happened many times before and it seems to be happening again when we'll have to make a choice to follow our God or our group:
“I have spoken these things to YOU that YOU may not be stumbled. Men will expel YOU from the synagogue. In fact, the hour is coming when everyone that kills YOU will imagine he has rendered a sacred service to God. But they will do these things because they have not come to know either the Father or me. Nevertheless, I have spoken these things to YOU that, when the hour for them arrives, YOU may remember I told them to YOU. - John 16:1-4
“Look! I am sending YOU forth as sheep amidst wolves; therefore prove yourselves cautious as serpents and yet innocent as doves. Be on YOUR guard against men; for they will deliver YOU up to local courts, and they will scourge YOU in their synagogues. - John 10:16-17
"For this reason, here I am sending forth to YOU prophets and wise men and public instructors. Some of them YOU will kill and impale, and some of them YOU will scourge in YOUR synagogues and persecute from city to city; that there may come upon YOU all the righteous blood spilled on earth, from the blood of righteous Abel to the blood of Zechariah son of Barachiah, whom YOU murdered between the sanctuary and the altar. Truly I say to YOU, All these things will come upon this generation. - Mat 23:34-36
Notice, this is not in "false religion", but "in the synagogues". This is nothing new, as God's people have a long history of attacking bearers of truth (Mat 21:33-37), even to the point of killing God's only-begotten son. The prophets all the way down to Jesus weren't generally rejected, ridiculed, accused, imprisoned, beaten, tortured, and killed by outsiders. It was almost always their own 'brothers' (Isa 66:5).
This is a problem I have been wrestling with lately: God started a religion that became corrupted to the point Jesus told the leadership they were on the path to Gehenna. Jesus started a religion that later produced the Inquisition, the Crusades, Hellfire, Trinity, Transubstantiation, and many other ridiculous and hideous things that alienate people from God. Jehovah and Jesus founded their religions on the absolute, unadulterated truth. Jehovah provided prophets and Jesus provided apostles to keep the teachings in tact. Now, a religion started by Charles Russel that involved pyramidology, numerology, "Miracle Wheat", many failed dates, many erroneous doctrines, etc. is supposed to stand faithful and true until the very end, with no chance for becoming tainted? The Society and the elders are presumptuously insisting this religion can accomplish what the religions God and Jesus started didn't. I resisted and argued for them for a long time: "The vast majority of the doctrine is correct", I thought (James 2:19) But no more. They are drawing distinct lines in the sand that require my conscience to decide which side to be on. - 2Pet 2:18-21
I'm not really worried about facing being thrown out, because I've gotten to where I can't stand being around these blasphemous idolaters anymore. The worship of the Society in the latest WTs is sickening and the glazed-eyed hypnosis of the brain-dead followers regurgitating the same vomit is disturbing. They've already tried chasing me out and have thoroughly "excluded" me. They've definitely "marked" me (to use 'Flock' Book terminology), but they are frustrated and angry because I have done nothing wrong and I thus have no fear of the elders (1Pet 2:19-20). They are not my leaders/heads/mediators, they do not hold the keys to Paradise, and we are obligated to obey God rather than men. I believe I have persevered, as I have not left. I have stuck it out, prayed, and researched to make sure I worship God with spirit and truth. Men pitting our faith against our fear of them was foretold and suffering in the name of Jesus should make us happy.
“Happy are YOU whenever men hate YOU, and whenever they exclude YOU and reproach YOU and cast out YOUR name as wicked for the sake of the Son of man. Rejoice in that day and leap, for, look! YOUR reward is great in heaven, for those are the same things their forefathers used to do to the prophets. - Luke 6:22-23
“Happy are YOU when people reproach YOU and persecute YOU and lyingly say every sort of wicked thing against YOU for my sake. Rejoice and leap for joy, since YOUR reward is great in the heavens; for in that way they persecuted the prophets prior to YOU. Mat 5:11-12