Month: January 2021

So many ex-JWs still believe Christ is not God after they leave Watchtower. The larger websites run by ex-JWs teaching that, which I know about are:

1. Beroean Pickets YouTube with over 13,000 subscribers, most of those appearing to buy into Eric Wilson’s teachings. Eric denies Christ is God. And beroeans.net is also run by Eric and other ex-JWs who deny Christ is God.
2. JWSurvey, run by ex-JWs who not only deny Christ’s deity but are also atheists; and of course Lloyd Evans YouTube channel, John Cedars YouTube. Lloyd is the ex-JW who started JWSurvey. Some of his followers on YouTube still believe in God. However, I believe many do not since Lloyd teaches believing in God is a form of ignorance mankind engages in because he is afraid of death. Lloyd’s YouTube channel has over 79,000 subscribers. I suspect many of his subscribers are atheists like Lloyd.
3. I wrote in to Ex JW Critical Thinker, on YouTube, and asked if any of the administrators there were anointed or contacted by God. I received no response. They have 29,000 followers.
4. Then there is Kim and Mikey with over 30,000 subscribers. I only see them knock Watchtower. I never saw them teach about God, that is unless it was for the purpose of knocking Watchtower.
5. And what about JW Facts? Is that guy an atheist? Who knows. But if he remained Christian, don’t you think some people down here on earth would know that, considering the popularity of his site and how long it’s been around?
6. Telltale Ex JW on YouTube is an ex-Jehovah’s Witness who is now an atheist. He has 238,000 subscribers. What does he do? Knock Watchtower and other Bible teachers. Most sites created by ex-Jws exist to disparage Watchtower, and not to preach Christ or any other gospel.

Another factor which probably contributes to the existence of these sites is money, and fame by gathering a following. All those sites are monetized, which means the owners get paid by having you view their content; and some of the sites also have links where you can donate your money to them. While YouTube sites are free; sites like this one cost almost nothing; and it also costs very little to produce videos.

However, their pretense to exist is to help the poor JW people who have been misled by Watchtower or people who, these sites claim, have been severely mentally damaged by WT’s policies. And they also claim to exist to warn others about Watchtower. Almost none of them claim to exist to help other people know God. And the fact they don’t exist to help others know God is proven by their content.

Eric’s Beroean Pickets YouTube and beroeans.net being exceptions to these other websites’ professed purpose for existence. Eric is in it to teach Bible scriptures. Yet Eric is also in it for the money. He asks for donations and monetizes his sites.

Though teaching scripture Eric still doesn’t know who Christ is, nor does he believe any humans go to heaven. And he has some other strange beliefs that appear only he made up, like God will not judge anyone of eternal damnation until he brings every sinner to a perfect state like Adam and Eve were in without sin. Eric teaches that idea as he claims there has to be a level playing field before God makes such judgments. Yet that idea is clearly contradicted by Christ’s own words, which Eric knows-see Matthew 25:31-46.

So how do we find the TRUTH about God? A brief answer is God has to give you his truth. So you don’t find God’s truth, it finds you. It doesn’t come from some other person teaching it to you, or YOU looking up what someone else thinks about it. That is one of the fallacies about Eric’s way of teaching, for it misleads those thousands who follow him. He bases most of his teachings on research, such as researching the correct definition of an ancient Greek or Hebrew word that is used in a particular scripture. That’s not how Christ teaches his truth to his church members today. And that’s not how Christ taught his church when he was on earth.

But how dangerous is religious propaganda or atheism? And exactly how does Christ reach us so that we don’t follow men, but only him? Religious propaganda surely has contributed to atheism, as surely as clouds contribute to rain. That fact is clearly seen by what I’ve shared above. Watchtower engages in religious propaganda. Its teachings are full of it. And most of the owners of the sites above held positions of authority within the Watchtower organization. They were included among its teachers. They were what other denominations would call pastors. And some of these worked at Watchtower’s worldwide headquarters. Yet almost all of them became atheists after their experience inside the Jehovah’s Witnesses organization. I believe the only ones named above that didn’t become atheists were Eric Wilson and his bunch.

Yet these site owners are few compared to the hundreds of thousands of people who follow them. How many of their followers are atheists? I suspect a great many. And I suspect most of their followers used to be Jehovah’s Witnesses. For more info see: http://debatescripture.org/index.php/2020/10/24/you-cannot-teach-ignorant-people-to-accept-another-point-of-view/

Yet despite all this going on we can have confidence that everything is happening according to God’s plan. Humanity is being sifted. Recently I did find an ex-JW YouTube site that is run by two ex-JWs who teach scriptures and understand the simplest truth that I believe all heavenly bound Christians know, which is Christ is God. The site is Jude 3 & Laura 2 – YouTube

Update 5/1/2021:

It appears Eric Wilson, of Beroean Pickets YouTube, has come to the realization that some humans will be judged worthy of eternal damnation because of what they did or failed to do in this world, a 180 degree turnabout from his previous teaching about the necessity of a level playing field (e.g. the necessity of perfection for all humans before that judgment is made by Christ). Good for Eric. See his recent video here: https://youtu.be/D6t04qhfEPA

Is Christ God over Angels and Men or an Archangel?

Born again does not mean being acceptable to Christ as a Christian. The term Christian was first used to mean any person who follows Christ. Certainly those in the New World, on earth, will follow Christ. When Christ spoke about born again he used a metaphor, the wind. And Christ said that people don’t know where the wind comes from or where it goes. He said that because the wind is invisible. He used that metaphor because he was implying that born again people will have another type of body that can go where humans cannot, into the invisible dimensions he called heaven. And people on earth would not see where they went.

Paul said baptism in Holy Spirit was only a token (sign), like a partial payment, of what was to come-see 2 Corinthians 1: 21,22 and Ephesians 4:30. Being born again with a body that can travel to the dimensions of heaven is what Paul meant by what was to come, in “the day of redemption.” Being baptized in Holy Spirit means a person is chosen by God. But being born again means those people actually receive those special bodies-per Christ’s words to Nicodemus.

Another thing I think JWs get wrong is saying (what they call) spiritual bodies are not material in nature. How would they know that? Scriptures don’t claim it. Scriptures state those bodies have substance. Those bodies might be made of elements mankind is not aware of. There is no way to tell what they are made of this side of heaven.

Christ’s Words

John chapter 3 :

3Jesus replied, “Truly, truly, I tell you, no one can see the kingdom of God unless he is born again.a”

4“How can a man be born when he is old?” Nicodemus asked. “Can he enter his mother’s womb a second time to be born?”

5Jesus answered, “Truly, truly, I tell you, no one can enter the kingdom of God unless he is born of water and the Spirit. 6Flesh is born of flesh, but spirit is born of the Spirit. 7Do not be amazed that I said, ‘Youb must be born again.’ 8The wind blows where it wishes. You hear its sound, but you do not know where it comes from or where it is going. So it is with everyone born of the Spirit.”

9“How can this be?” Nicodemus asked.

10“You are Israel’s teacher,” said Jesus, “and you do not understand these things? 11Truly, truly, I tell you, we speak of what we know, and we testify to what we have seen, and yet you people do not accept our testimony.

12If I have told you about earthly things and you do not believe, how will you believe if I tell you about heavenly things?

For More Information See

Is the Kingdom of God in Heaven or on Earth?

One Hope or Two?

My Comment on John Cedars’ YouTube Video Posted 1/16/2021

Having previously been a regular commenter on Lloyd Evans'(aka John Cedars) site JW Survey for a number of years; a JW for about 40 years; and as a current Christian ex-JW, I can answer the caller’s question directly, without interpretations through a third party. When Lloyd started his answer he came closest to what the real answer is. When he said ex-JWs who are still Christian believe in God because they don’t associate God with Watchtower. But here is where he went wrong. Most real Christians who know anything about what Christ really taught know Christians don’t follow religion. Real Christians only follow Christ. We know Christ told us to do that. And Christ said, weeds and wheat (Christians) will grow together, and apostles wrote quite a bit about Christian apostasy. Lloyd was also correct about people having a mind that wants to know God. But that applies to all people, not just Christians. And it’s a provable fact. Because what you call religion has dominated the world since the beginning. Wait until you’re dying, and you’ll recognize that, if you don’t already.

Along with the human mind existing with its desire to know God the main reason why Christians accept what you call religion, which is not what I call it, I call it God, is because of the evidence. Which is exactly what atheists claim to have. While actually atheists have zero evidence to support their positions. However, testimonials provided by Christians today and in historical records include eyewitness evidence to the existence of godly miracles, including personal contacts by God. Through such testimonials evidence that God exists is present today.

While atheists can provide nothing but conjecture to support their belief. They attempt to point to science. Yet science cannot explain their position, as science teaches energy cannot be created or destroyed. (See www.thoughtco.com/energy-definition-and-examples-2698976 ). Therefore, science has no answer, zip, zero, none for how all this energy got here in the first place.

The part about cognitive dissonance that Lloyd brought up I see as a bunch of poppycock. Most, and maybe all, JWs that left Watchtower and remained Christian did not go through some sort of weak protection mechanism called cognitive dissonance. While some ex-JWs on sites like this (John Cedars YouTube channel) cry about that, I doubt most of those ever experienced cognitive dissonance because of Watchtower either. I know I never have, and Lloyd does not come across as he ever has; although I cannot attest to any mental condition he’s experienced. As for myself, it was just a belief I held for a number of years that WT was telling the truth about many things, that changed when I discovered it wasn’t. There was no cognitive dissonance attached to either side of that belief, where I attempted to hold onto or justify my previous belief in WT’s teachings. I look at it no differently than I access other ideas told me by other people that prove to be untrue. I suspect most ex-JWs do also.

For those wishing to know more about many Bible doctrines Watchtower got wrong you are welcome to visit my site debatescripture.org . So the shortest answer to the caller’s question is we ex-JW Christians follow God because we follow evidence. Not just biblical evidence, God still contacts people today, and their testimonials are part of that evidence. The fact that you don’t believe us is something God allows for now. Non-belief is prophetic (2Peter chapter 3). But your non-belief has absolutely nothing to do with the fact that evidence exists. Here is a question I think you should consider. Why would God prove his existence to people who don’t want to follow him?

Some of the elders are opinionated and go beyond WT guideline. When I was a new Witness a young elder started commending me on my fine service and zeal, but then he said, “but your wife doesn’t comment at the Watchtower.” Then I answered, “I know, and I spoke to her about it.” His reply was, “cut her allowance.” The very next Watchtower study he stopped calling on me. He was the WT conductor. And whenever the service overseer had a part on the stage he would never call on me either. These two did that as long as I stayed in that congregation, about a year longer. I was even appointed MS there, but that didn’t stop the practice from these two elders.

A sister told me this story, but I believe her. I used to work with her, and we were in the same congregation. She said that on a shepherding call that she and her husband received because her husband was physically violent towards her, then the presiding overseer, COBE, asked her, “but did you deserve it?” This was a different congregation than the one I was writing about in that first paragraph. This COBE was also the WT study conductor. And after he had called on me freely, during the WT study for several years, he abruptly stopped. I think because I was in a university. I reported him and several other elders in to the WT Society. I had seen that behavior in three congregations, in three separate counties. Also others reported to me it had happened to them, including an elder and his son in law in the same area. So I reported everyone I knew had engaged in the practice, from the three congregations, and gave the names of a couple elders who told me they were aware of it.

But every elder I confronted, that was guilty, lied about it. However, one elder that I questioned to see what he knew, that I didn’t accuse of participating, said these exact words, “That’s what we used to do, but we don’t do it anymore.” Well he was lying there also, because I know he was aware it was going on then. In that congregation his brother in law was one of the guilty parties. And while I was a victim of the practice I gave a talk on the school. This guy who claimed he didn’t know anything about the practice going on, at that time, came and sat right up front, in the middle of the stage, right in front of me. And he came up there just for my talk. Leaving his family seated half way back in the hall, walking back to his seat after my talk. While up front he started making these facial expressions like he’s a tough guy, like I’ll drag you off the stage if you say anything about this now. You see I had already informed 4 new elders sent into the congregation from a neighboring one. And I had spoken to the guilty elders to see if they wanted to admit their behavior and apologize , and we could get that behind us.

So these innocent elders who had been sent over knew about it, his brother in law and other guilty elders there knew about it, but he didn’t? That was a lie. And he didn’t want me going to the circuit overseer. Which he verbalized. Thing is, I didn’t care what he wanted. The circuit overseer was told, and the CO believed me. So did 4 other elders sent into that congregation.

But another point I’d like to reiterate is every guilty elder I confronted lied about it. And I saw the practice going on in three separate CA counties, LA, Orange, San Bernardino. The congregations were between 60-100 miles apart. Now in each incident I saw this behavior taking place the elders were even too chicken sh** to talk to the persons they were zeroing in on about any type of misconduct. And why would that be? Because their reasons were so petty. As stated above the first time it happened to me is because my wife didn’t comment at the WT, even though she was active and commented at the book study regularly.