My story begins in 1986. At that time I had little knowledge of the Bible. At first, the publishers would visit me and, since I asked them a lot of questions, they sent me on to the ministerial servant, and finally to the elder. I liked the elder, because for every question I asked him, he gave me an answer; although on several occasions I did not agree. He also had the habit of leaving me a Bible text when he left. The first one he gave me, and it impressed me, was Numbers 6:24, which is a blessing. Well, with that Bible text he won my trust. But I was becoming aware of my religious ignorance, and how can I defend something I do not know? So I decided to do some research.

I went to my first-communion godmother, who is a catechist, and she lent me a book. This book spoke about several religious denominations, among them the sect of the Jehovah’s Witnesses. But the book only had a summary of their history and their doctrine. That is where I learned that they do not believe in the divinity of Jesus Christ, in the cross, in the soul, etc. With this information I made the decision to send them away. Sunday morning was the day of the visit, since that was the only day I had free. When they showed up I said to the elder: “You do not believe that Jesus Christ is God”. The elder answered me: “We believe that Jesus Christ is a god”. That confused me, because I had read the opposite in the book; what I had not noticed was the way he said it to me. Of course they believe that Jesus Christ is a divine being! But they do not believe that he is the true God. In time I understood this, and I thought the book was wrong.

Going over it again, I said to the elder the following Sunday: “you do not believe in the soul”. He answered me: “We do believe in the soul” and he even gave me an example: –If I see that you have shoes and I tell you that you have no shoes, I am lying to you. Of course we believe in the soul! Once again I was confused; I still had not noticed the elder’s intention. He wanted to show me that the doctrine of the Witnesses was similar to that of Catholics. Of course they believe in the soul! For they believe that the person is a soul, but they do not believe that the soul is immortal. But how could I discover the difference? I began to believe that Witnesses and Catholics had some similar beliefs, and that gave me the confidence to accept their insistent invitation to the Kingdom Hall.

But the following Sunday, when the elder arrived, I said to him: “For me, Jesus Christ is my only hope”. He answered: “Is he your only hope? Look, we are leaving now because someone else is waiting for us, but I want you to read 1 Corinthians 15:19”. The moment they start to leave, I find the text. It was a huge shock; I felt my Catholic faith beginning to crumble, for I had just told the elder that Jesus Christ is my only hope and the Word of God was telling me the opposite. I read the verse several times and could not believe it. It was only when I read the whole of chapter 15 of Corinthians that I realized the error: he had twisted the text on me. There is a saying that goes: “a text without a context is a pretext”. Paul speaks of the resurrection of the dead because some Corinthians did not believe in it (1 Cor 15:12). Saint Paul makes a play on words: “If Christ has not been raised, as some believe, then: if for this life only we have hoped in Christ, we are of all men most to be pitied!” (Revised Standard Version, Catholic Edition). Verse 20 gave me more light: “But in fact Christ has been raised from the dead, the first fruits of those who have fallen asleep” (RSV-CE). That “But in fact!” made me read the whole of chapter 15.

That is how I realized that the Witnesses do not have the truth, for the truth is not defended by means of lies. In time, as I read the Bible, I came across 1 Timothy 1:1: “Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by command of God our Savior and of Christ Jesus our hope”(RSV-CE). Paul himself is included when he says “our” hope. The Bible does not contradict itself. After this, the elder never came back to my house. Although, when I saw him again several years later, I asked him about the text and he told me he did not remember. The last I heard of him is that he was no longer an elder. Well, I told the two who were visiting me that I no longer wanted to keep studying, but that before sending them away I wanted to ask them a few questions, one of which included that Jesus Christ was my only hope. And they gave me the same text again. Disappointed, I told them to leave and said that I wished to study the Bible on my own, without their influence. But they began to frighten me, telling me that Armageddon was just around the corner and that at any moment it could catch me “investigating”. I told them that I accepted the consequences, but that for the time being I no longer wanted them to keep visiting me.

What I went through, I do not want to happen to other people. It is horrible to feel your faith crumbling, but it is infuriating that they should try to steal it from you by means of lies.

Source: Apologetica.org