I find it sad that the Watchtower has resorted to ruining peoples lives by telling them to NOT go to college and get a good education, but to rather spend their time in the pioneer work for the 'days are shortened', or 'the time is reduced.' It seems to me that their concept of God's Justice is JUST-US, and not JUSTICE, which is the foundation of God's throne. My wife and I have been studying with the JWs for the past eight months, but I just could not deny that Jesus was worshipped in the New Testament, and that He is in fact, God become man to die for our sins, yours and mine. Yes, after considering Matthew 14:33 and Hebrews 1:6, I could not deny the fact that Jesus was worshipped, and He didn't forbid those who 'clasped His feet' from so worshipping Him. The JW NWT may have changed the word to 'obesience' to obscure the meaning of these passages, but their own 1971 edition of the NWT in Hebrews 1:6 has the word 'worship' in it and I recently showed this to an elder, and he was surprised to see this with his own eyes at the Kingdom Hall. Yes, true are the words of Mosiah when he stated, that "
And moreover, I say unto you, that there shall be no other name given nor any other way nor means whereby salvation can come unto the children of men, only in and through the name of Christ, the Lord Omnipotent ."
- Acts 4:12 agrees with this inspired scripture showing that Christ is the ONLY WAY, the ONLY NAME whereby we 'must get saved', so if Jesus Christ is the ONLY NAME we need to 'get saved', why use the name Jehovah? Jesus is our Ransomer, He is the One who will save us, and not we ourselves.
Yes, true to the words of Mosiah, a Book of Mormon prophet, are the following words of this sacred volume of the New World:
For behold, the time cometh, and is not far distant, that with power, the Lord Omnipotent who reigneth, who was, and is from all eternity to all eternity, shall come down from heaven among the children of men, and shall dwell in a tabernacle of clay, and shall go forth amongst men, working mighty miracles, such as healing the sick, raising the dead, causing the lame to walk, the blind to receive their sight, and the deaf to hear, and curing all manner of diseases.
Yes, Jesus fulfilled this prophecy, and He did indeed 'come down from heaven' and dwelt in a 'tabernacle of clay' or a human body. I am so grateful for the Atoning power of Jesus Christ, and His shed blood that paved the way for me to return back to my Heavenly Father someday. I'm so grateful for the Restored Gospel of Jesus Christ, and for the prophet Joseph Smith and the Book of Mormon that the Lord used him to bring forth unto the nations, yes, I'm so grateful that our Church, the one we almost left for the false WT religion, promotes higher education, and encourages us to read books other than those published by our own Church authorities, and to gather knowledge from all corners of the world. Yes, I'm sure many of you here may deride or mock the Mormons, for we are a people far different than the JWs of the WT, but we affirm with the rest of Christianity that Jesus is indeed the Lord Omnipotent and God Himself, a member of the Godhead.
A marked difference between the JW faith and the LDS faith is the encouragment we receive to get a higher education, we're encouraged to do this by our living prophet and apostles and by the words of modern-day scripture, such as those that follow:
And set in order the churches, and study and learn, and become acquainted with all good books , and with languages, tongues, and people.
And as all have not faith, seek ye diligently and teach one another words of wisdom; yea, seek ye out of the best books words of wisdom; seek learning, even by study and also by faith.
And do thou grant, Holy Father, that all those who shall worship in this house may be taught words of wisdom out of the best books , and that they may seek learning even by study, and also by faith, as thou hast said;
By kindness, and pure knowledge , which shall greatly enlarge the soul without hypocrisy, and without guile—
- Doctrine and Covenants 130:18, 19
18 Whatever principle of intelligence we attain unto in this life, it will rise with us in the resurrection.
19 And if a person gains more knowledge and intelligence in this life through his diligence and obedience than another, he will have so much the advantage in the world to come.
Yes, my friends on this board, thank you for all the vital information you've shared with me and my family these past eight months, we've been faithful attenders at all the meetings of the JWs here in Japan, but we must make our departure here. We cannot deny the God Who bought us with His own Blood, the Savior of the World, the Redeemer of mankind, the Light of the World, the Great I Am, the Son of God, the Great Jehovah Himself for a religion that teaches that education is NOT important, and for one that has relagated Jesus to the position of a mere mortal. We invite each of you, as you make your way out of the Watch Tower religion, to investigate our faith, the Mormon faith, we're a friendly people, we are in this world, but we are no part of it: We know who we are, where we came from and where we're going, and we don't use scare tactics like the JWs use Armageddon to beat you into submission, or the churches who use 'hellfire' to scare the sinner to the alter, we preach the Love of Christ and we invite all men to 'come unto Him' and be perfected IN Him. Yes, we believe the canon of Scripture to be OPEN, that the Heavens are OPEN again, God is speaking to men again through living prophets and apostles, and we invite all to request a free copy of the Book of Mormon, and the Bible if they wish, and a copy of the Holy Bible, and we'll gladly have our missionaries deliver a copy of it to your home for free. Visit us online at http://www.mormon.org
Your friendly neighbors,
The Mormons
