Carnival Mirrors

By Patricia Lyon

What would you do if two Jehovahs Witnesses came to your house, and you considered yourself to be a Christian?

What would you do if you were unsure of your knowledge of the Bible and of the Witnesses teachings?

Carnival Mirrors answers the questions according to my experiences of several years. To turn the Witnesses away is wrong; to argue doctrine is wrong. Simply letting the Holy Spirit take control is right. He will act according to each persons background, and this book is according to my background. There will never be a time that I could approve the Watchtowers way. I have personally seen and heard how this organization can, without conscience, change doctrine around, quote writers out of context, manifest a carnal spirit toward others, substitute mens opinions for Gods Word, mislead its own people, and do other things that no Christian should do. I was never a Witness, just a churchgoer, but I searched the things I read and was told. And, that is how I found the truth. How easy it was. Everyone can see this deception, and Carnival Mirrors will show you how one person did it.

• Language: English
• Publisher: WestBow Press
• Release date: Aug 24, 2012
• ISBN: 9781449756789

Patricia Lyon

Pat earned a BA in foreign language and a Bachelor of Missions in religion at Kansas City College and Bible School, wrote Sunday school material, served as Sunday school and Bible teacher, sub-pastor, superintendent, treasurer, and secretary, and presently attends the Middletown, New York Salvation Army Corps.

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Copyright © 2012 Patricia Lyon

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ISBN: 978-1-4497-5678-9 (e)

WestBow Press rev. date: 08/16/2012

Contents

Preface

Introduction

1      GOD NEEDS TO STRAIGHTEN EVERY CLOWN’S MIRROR

2      TAKING THE WATCHTOWER AT ITS (FALSE) WORD

3      IF BILL IS A FIREMAN, AND BARRY IS A FIREMAN, THEN BILL IS BARRY!….(OR SO THE WATCHTOWER WOULD SAY)

4      THE WATCHTOWER SHELL GAME

5      WHERE THE SPIRIT OF THE LORD IS(N’T) IS LIBERTY (TO THINK THE WAY THE WATCHTOWER WANTS YOU TO THINK)

6      A PEEK AT THE PICTURE OF DORIAN GRAY

7      (THE WATCHTOWER VERSION OF) A BIBLE STUDENT

8      …THERE IS NO GOD… - PSALM 14:1

9      THE (UN)FAITHFULNESS OF JEHOVAH’S WITNESSES

10      GOD’S STANDARDS (AS DETERMINED BY THE WATCHTOWER) FOR THE TRUE CHURCH

CONCLUSION

AUTHOR BIO

DEDICATED

to

Anna Lyon, my mother: They think they have the truth and are willing to tell you. If you have the truth, shouldn’t you be telling them?

and

Rose Ventre, my encourager: Write it!

Preface

Jehovah’s Witnesses have elements of Christianity, but that does not necessarily make them Christians. They are not to be classified as Bible-believing Christians, even though they say they are the only ones who are true Christians. The teachings of Jehovah’s Witnesses are unlike those of any other Christian denomination.

Most people know about the Witnesses’ refusal of blood transfusions, refusal to salute the flag, and refusal to participate in any type of military organization or government office or voting. But, their teachings, drawn partly from the Bible, are in disagreement with the teachings of the entire Bible and all other Christian denominations.

Some of the Witness teachings of crucial differences are: Jesus is not God the Son, but is Michael, supposedly, the first angel that God created. We do not have a soul. Hell is simply the grave. Eternal punishment for the wicked is annihilation. The Trinity is a pagan teaching. The Holy Spirit is not a person, but is only a force. Witnesses alone have perfect unity (printed and taught in spite of the various splits over doctrine). Salvation is, to a large degree, earned or merited (a big reason for the zealous house-to-house calling, which one Witness actually told his friend he hated). Only 144,000 people will go to heaven. The Witnesses who go through Armageddon and remain true will be rewarded by being able to participate in the earthly Kingdom. The only hope for mankind, instead of only faith in Jesus, is to be in the Watchtower organization now.

Measure the Watchtower’s methods by the Bible and plain facts. Then, answer these questions: Is the Watchtower organization God’s true organization for salvation? What will happen to me at the Judgment, if I trust that organization for my salvation?

Introduction

This is the third attempt to record my experiences with Jehovah’s Witnesses. The first and second attempts contained errors which were not my fault, but were due to the never-ending changeable teachings of the Watchtower. Also, the first Witness couple that came to my house over 20 years ago had given me false information. Either they did not know what their own teachings were, or their teachings at that time were different from what they were later.

My experience has been quite a revelation to me. The most appalling element throughout was how freely the Witnesses use partial truths and lies to convince people that the Watchtower’s way is the only true way.

My first encounter with one of these methods of deception led to my discovery of its true danger. Its purpose was to persuade me to a system of changeable truths, misrepresentations, and outright lies. It was then I decided to investigate more closely the Watchtower’s teachings. These were things which seemed to contradict the basic doctrines of Christianity and seemed to make the Watchtower the dispenser of truth.

This book is the result of my discoveries over the past 25 years. Other authors have exposed the ways of deception and the many errors of the Watchtower. But, those authors were either former Witnesses or Christians who were well-grounded in both the Bible and the Watchtower teachings. My difference is that I knew practically nothing of the Watchtower teachings and the methods used to deceive people.

It is my prayer that my own experiences will serve to illustrate how important it is to be as well-equipped as we can be as Christians. Knowledge comes by study; wisdom comes from God; preparedness comes from a combination. If everyone who had ever considered himself a Christian had been well prepared over the years, today we would not have the many forms of Christianity which have strayed from the truth. May God enlighten everyone who reads and applies to himself the necessity for being more than a bench warmer in the house of God.

1

GOD NEEDS TO STRAIGHTEN EVERY CLOWN’S MIRROR

Most of my church life has been spent in holiness churches, whose basic teachings are in agreement: Pilgrim Holiness, Church of God (Holiness), Nazarene, and The Salvation Army. All I knew about Jehovah’s Witnesses was that they didn’t believe in blood transfusions. Obviously, I was ill-equipped to know how to properly counter any of their teachings. By not knowing what they believed and not knowing the methods they used to prove their beliefs, I was ignorant of how false the teachings really were. I actually thought the Witnesses were only an odd denomination of Christianity.

Naturally, I couldn’t have cared less about their going out and teaching others about God. And, if I had, my fear would have kept me from being the one who would defy their errors. However, God had it in His plans to plant me where He wanted me. I had to learn to let Him use me to accomplish His purposes, so that the Witnesses He brought to me might be put in touch with truths they might not ever hear again.

After two Witnesses had come to my home and had spoken with my mother, and, after she had issued me the challenge which was stated in the Dedication, I tried to think of what I would use to combat the information given to my mother. The only weapon which first came to my mind, other than the Bible, was the title of a book that had been mentioned in a college class over 20 years earlier: Thirty Years a Watchtower Slave. Using that as the beginning of what was to become my library, I began to take a stand against the aggressive, sometimes unchristlike, onslaught of some Jehovah’s Witnesses. (Let me state here that not all Jehovah’s Witnesses are rude or carnal. I have learned from my dealings with people of all religions and denominations that generalizations of a group and its members’ godly personalities are just not reliable. Some of the Witnesses I met were truly ladies and gentlemen, and some were not.)

One of the Witnesses who first came to my door was a man with two young boys. This person used a false interpretation of the Bible to try to convince me that God’s Kingdom is going to be on earth for most Christians, while only a select few go to heaven. Because Christians talk about spending eternity in heaven, the Witnesses apparently assume that the many verses of the Bible which speak about God’s Kingdom on earth are either ignored or rejected by other churches. This assumption is false. The churches simply emphasize the heavenly over the earthly. The Bible says that one day heaven and earth will be one, when the heavenly kingdom and earthly kingdom unite.

This man, as the Witnesses who were to come after him, was a skillful talker. He asked me, In the Lord’s Prayer, where did Jesus say God’s kingdom would come? Didn’t he say, ‘as in heaven, so in earth’?

Quickly in my mind I rattled through the words, and, as soon as I came to thy kingdom come, my next thought was to search for where. I totally omitted thy will be done without even realizing it. Naturally, it seemed at the time that the Witness was correct when he had said that Jesus prayed for God’s kingdom to come to earth. I was rather speechless for the rest of the visit, wondering if he could be right after all.

After he had left, though, I had all the time I needed to think without his non-stop talking.