My name is Jerome.
I was raised a Methodist and although I always had a deep love for God I never really pursued knowing him personally. I guess I thought that path was only for those that desired to become pastors. So. as a youth I followed the course of most of my peers, being involved in sports, music and art with dreams of one day having a successful career making a comfortable living and one day settling down getting married and having a family. After all, what else is life for? That is until one day I came in contact with Jehovah’s Witnesses. Among their teachings, there were two things that immediately appealed to me. First was the notion that God wanted me to have a personal relationship with him. He offered this by making known his name Jehovah. Think about it, when making a friend, what’s the first thing you learn about a person? This, name Jehovah, along with the concept that it was possible to have God as a close personal friend, I had never heard before and it immediately gave me the impression that they were on to something that the rest of the world did not know about. The second thing was that God, instead of taking humans to heaven, desires us to live forever in paradise on earth. In fact, that is what his original purpose was in creating Adam and Eve in the garden of Eden.
Not knowing what heavenly life was like, I really had no desire to go there. Hence, this thought of living forever on earth in perfect health in a peaceful righteous world also appealed to me, enough to start a Bible study and about a year later become baptized as one of Jehovah’s Witnesses .
I continued in the religion for the next 42 years, eventually progressing to the point of being appointed an elder. However, I eventually stopped attending meetings all together. If you’re interested in my reasons why, you can read my experience here.
Since then I started a blog wherein I would share things I had learned about the religion of Jehovah’s Witnesses, how they interpret the Bible and where I feel they, in order to promote their unique teachings go beyond what God and Jesus have seen fit to convey to us in his Word. That site is entitled: Preach From the Housetops and you a certainly welcome to visit there. Your comments are also welcome.
That site serves more the function of a whistle-blower to warn others of deceptive tactics of not only the religion of Jehovah’s Witnesses but also of other high control groups. This blog, however, serves a different purpose for me. Instead of focusing negatively on where religions have and continue to be abusive, I would like to take the positive steps toward establishing what can be determined is true. In fairness to all viewpoints on the subject of truth I believe it is important to realize that this is a quest. Man’s knowledge is progressive. What may be considered true one day and even vehemently defended by ardent supporters has in the past been overturned by new information.
Hence, while I think it is important for everyone to proceed in harmony with what one regards is the wisest and safest course for oneself and others, I also feel it is the wise person that recognizes his own limitations when it comes to knowledge. We can all learn from one another. That should temper any tendency to want to force our opinions on others or condemn another’s view simply because it does not conform to our own. This only antagonizes people and leads to divisions.
With that said, I will be posting things that I feel are established truths, as far as we can know, with the aim of using them as stepping stones to greater knowledge. I say stepping stones because there may be counter arguments that it would be wise to consider. Now that I have learned the folly of living in an echo chamber, only allowing information that confirms ones own bias, it’s time to step out and appeal to as wide an audience as possible and allow the facts and information to speak for itself even if we don’t all come to the same conclusions. So, please! I would love to hear your comments! Will you join me in the search for truth?
In Search of Truth 