Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you are like whitewashed tombs which indeed appear beautiful outwardly, but inside are full of dead men's bones and all uncleanness. Even so you alse outwardly appear as righteous to men, but inside you are full of hypocrisy and lawlessness. (Mathew 23:27-28) My religion (Jehovah's Witnesses) taught me that this verse referred to preachers outside our organization. It is a shame that after many years of reading the Bible, I have just realized that we are all the same, we are all hypocrites. We are all sinners.What forced me to join that particular religious group was fear of isolation. When I was 14 years old, I was treated as the black sheep of the family because I did not actively join in our religious activities (meetings, door-to-door preaching, Bible studies and assemblies). Instead, I wanted to engage in other extracurricular activities such as doing sports and joining in youth clubs.  However, my mother prevented me for she claimed that I would not be able to enter the eternal paradise on earth and will be punished further during the Armageddon because I would be violating the principles of the Bible. I had no choice but to join the group in order to be accepted by my family and relatives.  During the doctrine review prior to my baptism, I put forward a question to one of our church elders: "If I follow all the rules and become active in all our religious activities, can you guarantee that I will survive the Armageddon and enter paradise on earth?" To my disappointment he said "We're not sure, only God knows who will be saved. But if you obey all the rules and actively serve God, you have a great "chance" to enter paradise." I had many conflicting thoughts on this which led me to ponder on the story of Jesus who gave assurance to the thief that he has eternal salvation on the cross. I questioned, "Why did my religious group deny me of the assurance of salvation? Does it mean that I am considered worse than the thief?" Despite my uncertainty and confusion, my baptism pushed though.Under the belief that obeying Bible principles will give me a great chance to enter paradise, I became an active member. Every week, I joined meetings, Bible studies and preaching the Good News door-to-door; told people that they need to know the name of God, study the Bible, and convinced others to join our "true' organization to have eternal life because the end of the wickedness is coming. We were mandated to report the number of hours we spent preaching the Good News, number of Bible studies we conducted and number of magazines and books we distributed. I felt that attaining eternal life was not only competitive and challenging; it was also exhausting and frustrating.

정회원으로 가입하시면 전체기사와 사진(동영상)을 보실수 있습니다.