Imagine reading that football scoreline in the daily newspaper, and then imagine discovering that it was actually true! Gosh, football fans would be amazed wouldn’t they, and the youngsters who always want to support the best would probably all start supporting Stamford!

However, imagine how they feel when they all flock to Stamford the next week and find an average team, no different to anyone else in their own league, and just sing along during the match hoping they’ll get the result newspapers had told them they could now expect. And then they go home wondering just how that excitement came about and just how they beat Man Utd 9-1  the week before.

Well, let’s introduce a phrase called lying by omission. You see, the newspapers did tell the truth, BUT, they failed to tell us that all the Man United players had their hands tied behind their backs and the were also only allowed to play barefoot.
Now that changes things doesn’t it!

Deception using that same principle goes on in the world around us on a scale unimaginable to most and far more than most people would even think possible, but that’s not what I want to look at right now, here I want to apply that deception and lying by omission principle specifically to teachings of religious cults, like the Jehovah’s Witnesses for example.

I have had chats with many Jehovah‘s Witnesses over the years, all of whom are absolutely wonderful guys and on the face of it at least, appear model examples of how to live godly lives.
But come on guys, are you satisfied deep down inside or is this just a facade? Do you really have the answers to all life’s questions like you wish us to believe when we read your comics, do you have real inner peace? Do you really believe that you are as good as you say you are and you are righteous enough to gain the favour of Jehovah? That’s a rhetorical question by the way because we both know the answer. And for anyone who is deceived into thinking the answer is yes, we just need to run through a few of the 10 Commandments. Normally the ninth, ‘thou shall not lie’ (over the previous eight) settles the score….!
At this point I would like to say that as with other perpetrators of mass deception, it’s usually only a tiny minority at the top of the hierarchy who are responsible, the rest of us just need to start asking ourselves is there anyone in my life I trust that could actually be deceiving me?

If you are a JW, please open your Bible in Isaiah 3 verse 12. What does it say? I’ll save you the trouble of looking it up, this below is copied directly from the New World translation,
“My people, your leaders are causing you to wander, And they confuse the direction of your paths”.
You see, even your own Bible says that your leaders are confusing you!!

At this point I would hope you’re going to tell me that I have taken that right out of context. Well, that is exactly the point that I would like to make.

Not long ago I was given a JW Watchtower leaflet and I respectfully told the guy I would read it, which I did from cover to cover, and I underlined all the quoted Scriptures. They were all very carefully selected to prove and back up the point which was trying to be made in the magazine. But, every single one of these scripture verses was quoted out of context, similar to how I did with the Isaiah passage. Clever people can actually make the Bible say absolutely anything they want to say using this technique, and they get away with it because so many people don’t study their Bibles. A few JW’s I’ve spoken to are very God fearing people and do know their Bibles but most will never even know the two verses either side of each of the verses they so enthusiastically bombarded us with when we opened our doors to them and they are oblivious of the true context.

Think back to that football example now and this is where the importance of the lying to us by omission technique should be considered. Preachers use verses out of context so often, but so often that goes unnoticed simply because people don’t study for themselves.

In the case of JW’s you’re not even allowed to think for yourself are you. Have you ever wondered why? This same JW I chatted to recently said to me something like “just think about it William all over the world all the people in the Kingdom Halls are all in unity and talking about exactly the same thing”. Well yeh that does sound nice doesn’t it but, ordinary citizens too are probably all in unity doing the same thing in North Korea and China, and they were in Nazi Germany too, and if you weren’t you know what the probable outcome was if caught. Just like you know the outcome in your case if you don’t toe the line and the leaders call you to account.

Come on guys, start to think for yourselves. Start to read the Bible for yourselves, start to read all those parts of it that they don’t teach you in Kingdom Halls. Whenever I’m naive enough to enter into a debate with a JW thinking I may show my thoughts, if I do get a chance to say anything and I go to a chapter, or incredibly many times even a single verse, either side of the one they quote they often have no idea at all.
We all know that anybody on the planet could take a few Scriptures completely out of context and make the Bible say whatever they wanted it to say to suit their agenda.

So please, after reading this, just ask yourself a few questions. If you’re one of those people who were led into the JW organisation whilst you were at a vulnerable time of your life, please do understand that there is life outside their control. Until I met a guy who’d actually walked away I really had no idea just how difficult that was though and what scars it can leave behind, but, it can be done and anyone can do it and there’s plenty of loving and practical help for those that do. Never forget, coming to know the truth of the mission of Jesus Christ can supernaturally set us all free, no matter what our past. You can find a gospel message on any of the first three pages of this Finding the Way section. May you be blessed and set free as you read on.