Leaving the Witnesses can become a faith-challenging experience.  The "Where will we go away to?" mentality often forces one on a fruitless quest to find a substitute organization that will fulfill all the expectations previously provided by the Watchtower Society.   When it is discovered that there is no perfect religious denomination, one might become disillusioned and turn to atheism as the default choice.

It is my opinion that the Society, though unintended, is being used by Satan to destroy one's faith in both Christianity and God.  Many former Jehovah's Witnesses cannot reconcile themselves to joining a religious group, against which they have been preaching for years.  Consequently, some may feel that they have no choice but to lose faith in all religions, which may even include God Himself.

Being a former Jehovah's Witness is almost like being a member of a very exclusive club.  Our experience, while not necessarily remarkable, is very similar and characteristic.  We all seem to have dealt with many of the same problems one way or another.  In the process, depending upon how successful we have been, we have become specialists of sorts in one or two particular areas relating to the post-Witness experience.  At least, that is the way I feel about my experience in leaving the Witnesses.

I have always been interested in science and so, as a Witness, I was among the first to develop a slide talk on Basis for Belief in God.  I gave my talk to the Bethel family and numerous congregations in the Eastern States as an assigned Bethel speaker.  As the years went by, I developed a number of similar talks on various science topics and one on The Missionary Journeys of the Apostle Paul.  However, not many years after we left Bethel, the Society got new light and banned public slide talks.  I think it was because the speakers weren't following the Society's outline closely enough.  Or maybe when the lights were out, too many brothers and sisters went to sleep instead of listening.  I don't really know for sure.  Needless to say, I was very disappointed until, not many years later, the ban was specifically lifted for me.  That was when I left the Witnesses and found that many in Christendom's churches also enjoyed the same presentations for the same reasons.   At that time, I also became attached to the Does God Exist? ministry coordinated by John Clayton who lives in Niles, Michigan.  For the past 30 years or so, John's rigorous schedule had him conducting more than 40 weekend seminars a year all over the US and occasionally abroad.  In a way, he was a true Circuit Servant.  He didn't get paid, only reimbursed for his travel expenses along with some voluntary contributions of appreciation.

John Clayton was the first speaker I heard inside a church building when he was visiting San Diego many years ago.  He was giving a seminar on the existence of God from an "old-earth" perspective.  Old earth, you say, what is so unusual about that?  The Society believes in an old earth, and so I assumed that everyone else did too.  I had no idea that many Christians believe that the earth was miraculously created about 6 to 10 thousand years ago in seven, 24-hour days.  The closest I had come to something unusual like that was when Dean Songer, a Gilead school instructor, corrected me about animal predators.  He said that animals did not eat meat until after Adam sinned.  That was certainly news to me because I had never read anything like that in the Society's publications.  When I brought up the example of Tyrannosaurus Rex and his sharp, pointy, meat-eating teeth, Dean indicated that its big pot belly confirmed it was a vegetarian, even though this was still a point of continued dispute among Biblical commentators.  However, since then, Tyrannosaurus Rex has slimmed down considerably in the eyes of paleontologists, and so I don't know what Dean might say now about its meat-eating teeth, which are still sharp and pointy.

Over the years, I have continued to be active in the Does God Exist? ministry that focuses on high school students and their parents.  Because of the growing evidence of an old earth, many young Christians find themselves in conflict with their parents and the traditional young-earth instruction they received in Sunday school.  If they don't go to a traditional Christian college, which generally does not teach geology-related topics, they are in danger of losing their faith in their religious heritage and sometimes in God altogether.  Our ministry, which seeks to reconcile such differences, is also effective for anyone who has lived through a similar faith-challenging experience.  The subject I will be supporting will respond to arguments found in science and the Bible used to challenge the existence of God.

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