Should we go back as secret Christians to reach our family?
“We received a phone call from our Jehovah’s Witness daughter begging my husband and me to come back to the organization. She told us how much she and the kids miss us and how they have felt like ‘orphans’ ever since we left ‘the truth.’ We have yet to be allowed to see our own grandchildren, yet they are being raised in this counterfeit religion and the shunning is tarring us apart. This weekend, my daughter is getting baptized and she wrote to invite us to attend with this heart-wrenching message:
‘You are missing out on your children’s lives, and their children, and a family that loves you. Do you honestly believe that we are all a bunch of idiots that just blindly follow what we are told? This is the last time I will beg you to put your pride aside. Come back to Jehovah, come back to your kids, choose life, and choose me.I love you, and I know you’re sad. But how sad do you think I feel without my mom and dad?’
We just don’t know how to respond. It takes us back to such a miserable feeling of guilt that we try to push aside. We just don’t know what to do. How can we go back when we know this organization is not of Jehovah? How can we deny the truth we have found and pretend that we believe the lies in the organization when we don’t? Yet, the pain of being separated from our daughter, our sons and grandchildren is almost unbearable. Is there anyway we can go back as secret Christians in hopes of getting them out?”
TAMMIE’S RESPONSE:
Dear Friend,
My heart literally breaks for you. I have received letters and phone calls from my mother with exactly the same tone and pleading for me to “put my pride aside and come back to Jehovah.” It hurts so bad that I sometimes contemplate doing it, but then the emotion passes and I start to consider exactly what that would mean. I would have to lie and deny my Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Once that thought comes into my mind the battle is over. I could never do that to my best Friend, to the Lover of my Soul. You feel the same way, I’m sure.
It is so tempting to go back for the sake of rescuing someone else, but we must have faith that God can rescue our loved ones without us compromising our faith. Keep praying for her. She has been ensnared by the enemy and taken prisoner to do his will. You will not help her by going back into the same bondage with her. That’s not how God works. His way is to break down the prison walls, to shine his love and truth on her heart and draw her to Jesus in a way that is very personal to her, just as he did with each of us.
I wish I could tell you the magic words that would break the spell she’s under, but there are none. Just don’t give up on her no matter how it looks to your eyes. Walk by faith, not by sight. Trust the Lord is going to work in her heart according to your prayers and deliver her when the time is right. The Watchtower Bible and Tract Society is losing membership at a rate of nearly 30% per year. The love affair ends quickly after they get baptized and realize all the demands laid upon them are too much to bear.
Half the people whom I taught and who reached the point of baptism did not stay beyond a year. They soon found out how shallow and superficial the people are, how they manipulate others and gossip and how there is a privileged group that never seems to be accountable to anyone.
God can show her so much right there inside the Kingdom Hall. I sat there in the back of the Hall and just read my Bible and God opened those verses up to me in ways I never expected. His Spirit finally forced me to leave, for I was determined to get reinstated even though I knew it was not the truth. I had wanted the fellowship with my family so I was persistent in getting back in their good graces. However, the Spirit of God was more determined to save me than I was to be saved!
Love her. That’s all God is asking you to do now. Just love her with the love of Jesus. To the best of your ability, demonstrate your very real relationship with Him in front of your daughter and let Him do the rest.
My parents will have nothing at all to do with me, but it does not prevent me from writing to them and sending them little gifts to remind them how much I love them. I try not to get into Scriptural discussions in my letters because I know it only offends them. However, as you know, it is impossible to hide a real relationship with Jesus from the world. To try and cover up my relationship with Him to my family would be like trying to hide the fact that I got married and moved to a new location. So things in your spiritual life just can’t be hidden or covered up. You are who you are and never try to hide that from your daughter, just as you would never put that stipulation on her to edit herself or pretend she was someone whom she is not just for your benefit. Just be honest and God will take care of everything else.
I know this is hard for you, but now is the time to go to Him in prayer and thank Him for saving you. Thank him for what He’s going to do in your daughter’s life. Thank him for the good that will come from all of this. It may sound funny, but I know already that God has brought good things out of my estrangement from my parents. I cannot speak for them, but for myself. I have learned to lean 100% on God for everything and not to rely upon or require my parent’s approval. God grew me up as part of this hurtful and sad separation. He will accomplish something good for you and your daughter as well. Be patient and keep your hope and the faith that God has not forgotten your daughter or her family. He may end up using her to free other Jehovah’s Witnesses someday. Who knows?
Currently, the Watchtower Society is selling off their buildings in Brooklyn and moving out to the farm in upstate New York. I’m sure they are not telling the flock the true reason for all of this, but why else would they do it except for the lack of support (i.e., loosing membership)?
Here where I live, they are condensing Kingdom Halls and closing others because the congregations have dwindled down to nothing. Not only this, but there seems to be an underground current of true believers hiding out in the congregations for one reason or another, not able to physically leave. This is indicated by the fact that the number of “partakers” at the Memorial is growing—expected to be well over 10,000 this year (2009)!
I personally know of an elder’s wife who held a home Bible study with a Christian lady and ended up getting saved through this study. She wants to leave but her husband is an elder. What can she do? She confessed to him about coming to Christ and how the Scriptures have opened up to her and she no longer can believe the way the Jehovah’s Witnesses believe, but he is determined to expose her and have her disfellowshipped if she breathes a word of it to anyone.
Recently, she threw out some questions to a Jehovah’s Witness relative and found out this relative feels exactly as she does but was afraid to say anything to anyone. God is leading her to like-minded Christians right there in the organization! There must be thousands of them stuck inside there, and Jehovah can bring one of those true Christians to your daughter. So, never give up! We serve a mighty big God!
Kind regards, Tammie
FOR MORE INFORMATION SEE:
HOW DO I GET OVER THE LOSS OF MY JEHOVAH’S WITNESS FAMILY?
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