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.:THE TESTIMONY OF MARGERY

I was a housewife who had no church background and no particular religious beliefs when the Jehovah’s Witnesses came into my life.  I didn’t know that there was someone (a Creator) who had made this world and the universe we live in. 

My story begins one Wednesday morning while preparing the family’s midday meal back in 1957.  That morning a knock came on the door and when I answered it, two young ladies stood there.  They told me that there was a Creator who had brought us into being, and they told me about Adam and the fall of man through his sin of disobedience, that because of that, death had passed upon all mankind.  Then, they then gave me a book called, The good news of the Kingdom, which they asked me to read, and made an appointment to come visit me again.  I told them to come again about this time the following Wednesday, and after reading their book which seemed like the promise of paradise on earth, I eagerly looked forward to their next visit.  I even went next door to tell my neighbors about the Witnesses’ visit, but they only scoffed at what I told them. 

As promised the following week, the two young ladies returned and added more information about the Creator’s works.  They told me why we died, and that death came through this one man, Adam, and that we all went back to the dust of the ground because of him.  After this, the Witnesses came regularly to my door, not just these two young women, but other Jehovah’s Witnesses who all seemed to have love for one another and seemed to know a lot more about the Scriptures than anyone I have ever known before.  No one I knew who went to church ever talked about God or seemed to know anything about Him, but here were people who personally knew things about God, and could relate to events in the Scriptures as if they personally knew the people involved.  This knowledge began to interest and excite me.  These feelings led me to see things that were good and evil in my life, and the things that didn’t please God.  I found that I did want to please God with my life and all that I did, so I was attracted more and more to this group of people who called themselves Jehovah’s Witnesses.  As I began to associate more and more with them, my family joined in this as well.

The next step came when I wanted to be completely in the Witnesses’ organization. I trusted that I could be saved by being under their teaching and that at Armageddon I would not perish, but would inherit everlasting life on this paradise earth through a resurrection.  I wanted to tell as many people as possible of this good news and hope that I had.  So, I went door-to-door and I told them what the Witnesses had taught me about this one man Adam whose sin brought death upon us all, but that through witnessing to the name of Jehovah God, we would secure everlasting life and be saved from Jehovah’s judgment at Armageddon, so that the paradise earth would ours to enjoy forever.  Such was the compelling power of the message we were going door-to-door with.  It seemed to me far different from the churches’ weak message, as they didn’t seem to have the power of the hope we had.

This hope we were experiencing led to the need for new premises—a new Kingdom Hall.  The funds for the building came through donation from Witnesses and a repayable loan from the Watchtower Society, with all the work being done voluntarily.  I reasoned,

“How could Jehovah God not be with us when He seemed to be blessing us with a new Kingdom Hall, and all the congregation actively being involved in its building, while witnessing to Jehovah? Surely, people would see that God was really with us in our lives and in our efforts.”

This was the year 1968, and little did I know I would never ever see the inside of the new Kingdom Hall.  I helped to lay the foundation, and was given the task of laying the first brick, but then God stepped in, and out of the Witnesses I came.

I was ill after the birth of my last daughter.  I had to have my womb removed and was recovering at home.  I hadn’t been out for several weeks, but the Witnesses took me along to the meetings, in a room they had in the town center, awaiting the new Kingdom Hall’s completion.  One weekend, my daughter (Sylvia) and son-in-law (John) came to visit me.  Both were also Witnesses, and had gone to live “where the need was great” to plant a new congregation.  They came over with their young daughter Jane, and Jane decided she would like to stay with me “Grandma” for a week.

This is the funny part of how I left the Jehovah’s Witnesses.  While Jane was staying with me, she came down with German measles, and I promised to look after her during that time, and that John and Sylvia could come and pick her up the next weekend when she would be feeling better.  Since Jane with me, I was prevented from attending the meetings because a woman there was in early pregnancy, and they didn’t want to risk her baby being affected by this bout of German measles being passed on from Jane to her.

The next weekend John and Sylvia came back to collect Jane, but before John left, he took me aside and opened the bible to Romans chapter 11, and told me to read just two verses 25 and 26:

“For I do not desire, brethren, that you should be ignorant of this mystery, lest you should be wise in your own opinion, that blindness in part has happened to Israel until the fullness of the Gentiles has come in.  And so all Israel will be saved, as it is written: “The Deliverer will come out of Zion, and He will turn away ungodliness from Jacob.”—King James Version

John asked me what I saw in those passages of Scripture, and I said, “Oh, the Jews are still beloved of God and at the proper time he will gather the nation in to Himself and take away the sin of Jacob and remove their sins, and they will know Him.”  John and Jane then left and just as John was going out the door, he said something strange, “If you never speak to me again, I’ll understand,” and with that he was gone.

I went to bed that night forgetting all about his words until the early hours of the morning. When I awoke, Scriptures kept flooding into my mind. I couldn’t retain or remember them, but they just kept coming.  I felt a wonderful peace come over me, yet at other times I would be sobbing uncontrollably, all the while my husband lay fast asleep, undisturbed at my side.  Someone seemed to be telling me things.  I saw that in preaching the Witnesses’ message door-to-door; I was persecuting the church, preaching judgment instead of grace, mercy, and salvation.  The turmoil continued on Sunday night also, but I was not tired when I got up Monday morning.

On Monday morning, I grabbed my coat and walked out the door, not knowing what I was going to do.  This was the first time after my illness that I’d been out of the house on my own.  I no sooner got into town when I saw a Witness and confronted him.  I said, “I’ve got something to tell you.”  He replied that he didn’t have time to talk because he was going to a bible study with someone, but that he would see me again later.  I then told him:

“What I have to tell you is a matter of life and death. I can no longer be a Jehovah’s Witness, because it isn’t true!  The foundation of Jehovah’s Witnesses is based on the teaching that the Jews have been utterly cast off by God, but their rejection isn’t final.  The Jews are still beloved of God, and their rejection is only until the fullness of the Gentiles have been gathered in and God will then turn His attention again to His chosen people, despite their disobedience of unbelief.” 

This Witness told me to come to the library and to keep my voice down as what I said shocked and irritated him.  He believed that what I was telling him was of the devil.  “Thanks,” I said as I walked out the door.

Now, to make a long story short, that day I confronted a whole bunch of Witnesses, and told them the same news.  None of the Witnesses I told could give an understanding of the Scripture in context of what the organization taught.  Some were bewildered and confused, but utterly refused to accept the things I was saying.  Others put my behavior down to my recent illness and couldn’t understand why I was out and about when I’d been so ill.  Still others were upset and near tears since what I was saying would lead to me being expelled from the Watchtower organization. 

And I was disfellowshipped to be sure.  A meeting was called, and I was ordered to explain my actions.  I told them to open their Bibles to Romans 11 and read the Scriptures.  They did and became fearful, not knowing how to explain what they were reading.  They tried to put what I was telling them down to a confused state of mind due to my illness, but I have a very broad Lancashire accent and somehow my voice changed.  They asked me if I’d been taking elocution lessons, which I hadn’t.  I said that I was speaking in my normal way, as I hadn’t noticed anything at all.

Anyway, I was disfellowshipped, and I began to realize it was Christ that I belonged to and not an organization.  After that the usual happened.  None of the Witnesses would speak to me, but I went about telling all that I’d previously witnessed to about Christ.  I told them that the Witnesses were not true, and that it was Christ one belongs to.  Some were shocked, others were glad I’d come to a personal relationship with Jesus Christ.

I told vicars (high ranking priests or clergymen acting on behalf of superiors), but they simply couldn’t comprehend my newfound faith.  I ended up in a little Pentecostal church.  It was rather like the Witnesses, but with real love.  If anything needed doing, people would offer their services, and the pastor, Mr. Smith, would bring sandwiches from his Sunday lunch in case anyone visited the church who hadn’t eaten.  So, much for the Witnesses telling me, “You’ll never find anyone like yourself.”  Well I did, and I’m still telling them that in Adam you die, and in Christ, all shall be made alive!

John, my son-in-law, had also found Christ, but he continued his role as a Jehovah’s Witness elder while having a Christian church praying for him.  One Sunday morning, he preached a different talk to the Witnesses than what was assigned.  He preached to them from Romans 11, and he was forcefully dragged from the platform and later disfellowshipped from the Watchtower organization.

There is much more I could add to this testimony, but this is a brief account of my experiences.  May the Lord bless this to each and every one of you who read this, and remember it is Christ and Christ alone Who you belong to, cling only to that hope, and I’ll see you up there! 

In Christian Love,
Margery