Breaking Free from Babylonish Religion

ONE of Jehovah’s witnesses in New Jersey reports his calling on a family who had shown some interest in God’s Word: “This family was disgusted with world conditions and thirsted for something better, but they were so wrapped up in the social activities of their church that it was difficult to start a home Bible study with them. I felt that perhaps my wife could start a study with the wife and then we could invite the husband to sit in. At the second study, Mr. C——was attending and a weekly Bible study was under way. Good progress was made and soon the family realized that they were indeed learning the truth from God’s Word, the Bible.

“Since we are located on the fringe of the New York metropolitan area, we have access to something most encouraging and unique. This is the opportunity to visit the Watch Tower Society’s headquarters in Brooklyn. So now we felt it was time for this family to see this spectacle of Kingdom activity. A date was set. Though we had visited the Society’s headquarters many times, we always look forward to going again; and this time we had the added joy of seeing this family’s amazement at what they saw. The result of this visit in respect to increased interest in the truths taught by Jehovah’s witnesses was at once manifest. After this came a circuit assembly, Memorial and a special talk. By now the family was regular in attending meetings at the Kingdom Hall.

“But they wished now to make a definite break with Babylon the Great, the world empire of false religion, in harmony with Revelation 18:4. So they wrote a letter of resignation from the Methodist Church. They were not content with just mailing the letter; they wished to present it to the pastor in person. So they invited him over for an evening’s discussion. They prepared well and had clearly in mind the Scriptural reasons for withdrawing from the church.

“The result of this meeting with the Methodist pastor gave further strength to their desire to break free from Babylonish religion. The clergyman had no defense to make. When confronted with the point that the church had become a social organization, he agreed and recognized that the fault lay with the clergy. The clergyman thought that they were doing well to be studying the Bible; he felt that the Methodists and Jehovah’s witnesses had a great deal in common. However, they assured him that this was not so, and they confronted him with Babylonish doctrines taught by the church but not taught by Jehovah’s witnesses or the Bible.

“Mr. C——, who as a member of the church had doubted the accuracy of the Bible, now told the clergyman he had faith in God’s Word and that the Bible does not contradict itself. ‘Oh,’ replied the clergyman, ‘but it does contradict itself.’ Thus the clergyman displayed his disbelief in the authenticity of the Holy Scriptures and further convinced the family of the rightness of their action in withdrawing from the church. Little did the clergyman realize that by his inability to defend his faith and stand up for the Bible as God’s sure Word of Truth he had helped them to do the right thing now more than he had in all the years he served as their pastor in Babylon the Great. It was a clergyman burdened with the loss of two pillars of his church who took leave of the family that evening. Freed from Babylonish religion, Mr. and Mrs. C—— recently were baptized at a circuit assembly, in symbol of their dedication to Jehovah God.”