Posted by Cygnus [Cygnus] on March 27, 1999 at 15:13:51 {L4bdfUTIaIrgM0GwtdIEMWUh1hzMDt7og}:
In Reply to: a letter I was asked to look @ posted by jackrandom on March 27, 1999 at 13:32:39:
The letter said:
: So I ask, nay beg, please if possible help me to restore my former belief and faith that this organization really is the Truth I have always believed it to be as seen from Gods word.
Nearly impossible. The seeds of doubt are sown and it will be quite the task to wash out his mind.
The man is questioning what AF calls the Fundamental Doctrine of Jehovah's Witnesses (with an added "Chieftain" twist these days). There is practically no mercy for such behavior, and furthermore, if he indeed is explicitly seeking biblical direction to reidentify Jehovah's Witnesses as the true church, he'll be sorely disappointed, because the Bible never mentions Jehovah's Witnesses or the Watchtower Society.
If I were in the situation of being this man's friend and JW-in-good-standing associate, I would console him by disclosing the fact that there exist these days very many Jehovah's Witnesses who have similar thoughts, but accept 90-95% of the organization's teachings, and therefore all of the other stuff is superfluous and bearing very little on the overall picture. I personally do believe JWdom will reform in the next 10 years and will be much more inclusive of freer thinking and less restrictive regarding many issues (don't see a radical change in blood transfusions any time soon, though). My advice would be to stick it out if the issue of anointed leadership is his only distraction.
Now, if
he pursues this to a further extent and discovers just how human and fallible the organization is, well, then he's got serious decisions to make. That's up to him whether he goes that far.