Do Not Stop at Asking the Question [Opposers Dismythed]

Just before he finally passed away, Jesus asked a potent question: "Eʹli, Eʹli, laʹma sa·bach·thaʹni?" This translates as "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?" or "My God, my God, why have you left me?"

This was a profound question. One could even see it as the question a vengeful opposition member might ask to cause others to abandon God. That former member could pose the question as an accusation, then say, "It is because you did not care about me! You pretended to care! But inside, you were just using me and you used me up! And at the moment I needed you most, you turned your back on me. You should be ashamed of yourself! No one listen to God! He is deceiving you for selfish reasons! He doesn't care about you!" But, of course, anyone who believes Jesus is the Son of God and knows the Scriptures, knows that this is not the kind of question Jesus was asking.

Jesus' question was a quote from a Scripture that gives us a way of handling a question for which we do not have a clear answer. Yes, he was not querying God. Jesus was querying his disciples. Even with his dying breaths he was teaching us. No wonder he is called "the great teacher". Jesus was giving his disciples homework to do.

The Hebrew Scriptures are where the question was first asked. Surely, if we ignored those Scriptures, we would never have the answer to that question. That is why it is vitally important for a Christian to have an intimate knowledge of the Scriptures. Without that knowledge, we will get mislead by wayward thinking. So what was the answer to the question?

If you read Psalm 22, you will see the question asked in the first verse, then the psalmist goes on to recount that Jehovah saves his people even when it seems they have no hope. And then he relates his situation to God, how hopeless it seems. Then he makes his very specific request and proceeds to declare his faith in God, promising to make Jehovah's name known. He proceeds to recount, in general, Jehovah's history of saving his people, then he promises to recount Jehovah's saving acts to others and the purpose of doing such: so that they may repent and turn back to God. Then he recalls the hope that Jehovah has given to everyone putting faith in God's name and states that they will recount firsthand accounts of Jehovah's saving acts to all generations so that they too will have faith.

So what was the true answer to his question? What was the thing that we have no way of knowing without a knowledge of the Scriptures? Isaiah gave the answer when he prophesied about Jesus' death: "It was Jehovah’s will to crush him, and he let him become sick. If you will present his life as a guilt offering, he will see his offspring, he will prolong his days, and through him the delight of Jehovah will have success. Because of his anguish, he will see and be satisfied. By means of his knowledge the righteous one, my servant, will bring a righteous standing to many people, and their errors he will bear."

Thus, it was not any complacency or malicious negligence on Jehovah's part that Jesus suffered and died. It was for a very specific purpose: in order that many may be saved through faith that Jesus' sacrifice carried off their sins far away so that they would not be used against us.

But more than that, Jesus' question was a personal expression of faith meant to show us how to overcome feelings of despair and anguish and to overcome questions of faith. What was Jesus trying to tell us? That when we undergo severe trials, or have been bit with opposition poison, we must not get caught up on the question and instead seek the answer in what we know about the one who seems to be the cause of our anguish, or who appears to have neglected us. By reviewing what he knew about Jehovah, Jesus was able to accept what was taking place and we can too, no matter how distressing the circumstances.

Additionally, like Jesus, in trying times we should draw closer to Jehovah through prayer and the preaching work. Helping others to have and strengthen faith will help us to have and strengthen our own faith as we look to the hope.

A Lack of Faith

Now why did I just go through that? What does that have to do with the purpose of this blog? Because our disgruntled former members are all victims of their own lack of faith. Instead of thinking about what they know of others in the faith, of the elders in their congregation, of the governing body and of Jehovah, they obsess over their circumstances or feel Jehovah's spirit go away from them.

That is why the apostle John said: "They went out from us, but they were not of our sort; for if they had been of our sort, they would have remained with us. But they went out so that it might be shown that not all are of our sort." (1 John 2:19) What sort is that? "The sort who have faith for the preserving of our lives." (Hebrews 10:39) "For faith is not a possession of all people." (2 Thessalonians 3:2)

A person with faith has faith, not just in Jehovah God, but also in others who serve him faithfully. They don't expect the circumstances to always be perfect. However, to think that one imperfect man, namely oneself, knows better than anyone else is arrogant and is what has led to all the various sects of Christendom. Such a person lacks both humility and insight.

The person without faith immediately goes to the negative answer. Consider, when a mother disciplines her child, does she do it because she hates the child? The child might think so, but if the child had faith in their mother, the child would reconsider its thought, knowing her mother, remembering her expressions of love, the scraped knees she mended, and how some of her discipline protected the child. So the child with faith would know that the mother loves the child and has the child's best interests at heart. So the child stops looking for the worst in their mother and accepts the discipline, then remembers next time not to look for the worst because they do not want to cause their mother undue distress or experience the discipline all over again.

Jehovah's Witnesses can have that faith, not just in Jehovah and Jesus, but also in those taking the lead among us, because we are convinced that they genuinely have our best interests at heart. No other religion can claim that. When you look around, you see priests being allowed to molest children by the thousands while our opposers lyingly compare us, and see evangelists fleecing their flocks, popes vying for political leverage for their own advantage and sending their own members off as fodder in unholy wars about greed for their own gain, or rousing their members against Jehovah's people, purposefully misleading them with doctrines they know to be false simply to fill their coffers from which they embezzle right before their eyes and betray the one whom they claim to serve.

Examine Your Own Experience Before You Make a Judgment

Now look at yourself. Do you make perfect decisions? When you make what you believe to be the right decision, do others always view your decisions as selfless, right or perfect, even when it proves to be such? Did you learn all you know about the Bible because you learned it on your own, in a vacuum? Do you go around accusing everyone of being ignorant because they don't know something you think you know? Are you always right? Is there some religion that you think has perfect knowledge? Do you think you have that perfect knowledge of the Bible? Has God commissioned you through an angel? Has his Son commissioned you?

Look at the ones who caused you to question. Have their lives improved by opposing the organization? Have they become better people? More loving? More fair? More knowledgeable about the Bible and God's will? Are they performing the house to house ministry that Christ commanded? (Luke 10:1-10) Or have they abandoned belief in God altogether? Answer those questions and you will know the truth about them and that truth will free you from their lies. It is all about recognizing fruitage as to whether it is good or bad. (Matthew 7:15-20)

Examine your own motives. Are you just looking for a way out of performing the ministry? Why? Might it be because you are tired of the disrespect by people of the world? Fearing the judgmental glances or false rumors by family and former friends? Are you seeking to be free of obligations and responsibilities? Free of being told what to do and how to live? (Really, no one tells you, do they? Is it not just your own perception that you are being told what to do? Are you not relying too much on the words of others and not making your own informed choices?)

Did someone you care deeply about get shunned? Is your anger at the circumstance not because you care more about what you want than what Jehovah wants? Do you scoff at "speaking in agreement" because you are so arrogant as to demand you not only be heard, but obeyed? Should others obey you? Should the elders obey you? Should the governing body obey you? Should Christ? Should God? Who put you in the judgment seat? Who declared your word so important? Whom do you obey? Is it not your own belly, or the opposition member who misleads you?

Don't just gloss over those questions. Answer them completely and objectively, not to conveniently fit the paradigm you have created for yourself, but to find the actual facts. Think about why you come to the answers you do and whether it is selfishly motivated or not.

"Moment of Clarity"

Some claim to have "a moment of clarity" as they like to call it, yet it is anything but clarity. If they had clarity, instead of jumping to conclusions, they would think more deeply about what they know and what they have known. Clarity comes from objective analysis, not a feeling and jumping to conclusions about that feeling.

A "moment of clarity" is the feeling that you are in an external mindset. Some might describe it as a feeling of being disembodied. Others will feel like they are being snapped back into a former mindset. It is often confused with "cognitive dissonance", which is actually something different, though may relate to it in most cases.* It is also not to be mistaken for one's "calling".** But a "moment of clarity" occurs when your entire reality experiences a massive shift to a completely different perception, as if it is the only perception you have ever known.

* Cognitive dissonance is when a former way of thinking is trying to reassert itself through decision-making, such as when a person who normally does bad things is wanting to do good, but desiring to do bad, or inversely when someone who normally does good things turns to do bad, only to have their conscience strike them. It also occurs when one is accustomed to doing something by habit, but then tries doing it differently. The former way tries to reassert itself, making it difficult to perfectly execute the new action or think in a new way. We experience cognitive dissonance any and every time we try to change a habit or learn something new or retain conflicting viewpoints in mind. Everyone experiences it innumerable times throughout their lives. It is a normal part of learning and growing. This may precede a "moment of clarity", (see below) but is not the same.

** The "calling" occurs when one recognizes the truth and is inexorably drawn to it through Jehovah's holy spirit, becoming convinced that it is the truth. For some, such as myself, this can be the result of seemingly miraculous circumstances, and for others, it may simply occur as a revelation. A second calling may also occur later, whether through heavenly anointing or spiritual assignment. For example, Paul was called to the truth by Jesus himself at Acts 9:3-9, but did not receive his heavenly anointing and spiritual assignment until a few days later, shown in verses 15, 17 and 18. A "moment of clarity" can occur at any time after the calling to the truth, or anointing or spiritual assignment, but is not that experience.

In "a moment of clarity", the person perceives that they could easily walk away from the life they have been living at that moment, without any connection to it, and go off into the world as if it is what is supposed to be. To that person, it is like a fog lifting, like waking up from a dream. In reality, it is Jehovah lifting his spirit to allow them to make up their mind whether to return to the world or continue in the truth with unwavering conviction. (For some people, a similar experience may occur as a result of a dissociative experience or psychotic break. The cause is different, but the experience may be quite similar and the results can be harmless or just as devastating.)

For someone who has never been away from the truth, such "moment of clarity" would seem new and alien, and may seem seductive as they would suddenly see Jehovah's organization from a worldly perspective, as if experiencing reality for the very first time, when, in fact, it is just the opposite. They are experiencing the absence of Jehovah's spirit and guidance for the first time. For those of us who have ever spent any time in the world, whether not raised in the truth or gone inactive for any time, it is like returning to our former life before becoming involved in the truth.

I myself experienced that "moment of clarity" back when I was still studying. (Others may experience it years after baptism.) It was like waking up from a dream, but waking up in a waterless wasteland void of humidity. But the second it happened, I knew exactly what it was. It frightened me because I knew it was wrong. But instead of just assuming I had woke up from some kind of brainwashing, as some of our opposers like to call it, or that it was "evil" or from Satan, as someone lacking in objectivity might call it, I understood that it was a chemical reset in my brain that was allowing me to objectively resolve conflicting viewpoints that had been warring in my subconscious. (The cognitive dissonance that preceded it.) That moment allowed me to objectively compare what I had been taught by Jehovah's Witnesses―and how much my thinking and circumstances had improved by having that knowledge―to what I had beforehand.

I also thought about how it was I got the truth in the first place, through circumstances that in no way could be counted as coincidence, and I thought about the genuine concern my congregation showed that no other church I had visited ever showed. Thus, by knowledge, by careful examination, I was able to objectively examine why I was doing it and what it meant for me. I also thought about what my life would be like without it, and who I would be, returning to old ways. I remembered the unsavory attitudes of every single one of our disgruntled former members I had ever seen up to that point, both in person and online, and I knew I did not want to be that person, bitter and void of spirituality. So I voluntarily chose, with soundness of mind, to be one of Jehovah's Witnesses, and then my thinking snapped back to the reality I chose, simply by choosing it. It felt like returning to a well-watered region.

Think

So if you are a Witness, and something or someone causes you to question the organization, do not get stuck on the question, jumping to the conclusion that the answer is only bad. Instead, think about what you know about your brothers and sisters in the organization, about their intentions and about their desire, not to protect themselves, but to protect all of us. Think about what you know about Jehovah from the Scriptures. Compare your circumstances to your past or to others you preach to.

Think about who you are and your own motivations and priorities. Be objective and honest instead of jumping to conclusions that happen to be convenient and self-serving. Be brave with yourself and face who you are rather than giving in to self-pity and desire, laying blame on everyone else.

Don't be an opposer's tool. Be accountable to yourself and to Jehovah God. You decide who you are going to be. You decide what you are going to hope in. Do not be suckered into false decisions by your own desires and false justifications. But every decision has an outcome controlled only by the decision itself and you are in control. The choice is being put before you and you are the one who needs to look at what you actually know, not getting caught on the question.—De 11:26-28.

Eve got caught on the question, adopting Satan's views without question, letting him deceive her, failing to consider what she knew about Jehovah. She did not think about the fact that Jehovah created her, that he created her husband first and that she should have gone to him first. She should have sought clarifications from Jehovah about the situation. But instead, she took a disgruntled angel at his word and it cost her, her husband and their descendants their lives and happiness. The rest of their brief lives were miserable as they watched their offspring descend into madness, disease, miscarriages and violence and Eve found out just how much Jehovah had been helping her, but it was too late. She lost out on life and eternal happiness because she did not think deeply about the answer to the question, but let someone else do her thinking for her.

Are you going to stop thinking at the question and let our opposers do the thinking for you? Or are you going to look past convenient answers and think deeply about something more than your own belly?

For more on this style of critical thinking, see the video: 5 tips to improve your critical thinking