You stand there,
Pious twisted face,
Separate from,
The human race,
Self proclaimed,
Righteous one,
Looking down,
On those you shun.
But I see through you,
“Holy” child,
I see the sadness,
In that smile,
I see the longing,
In those eyes,
I hear your painful,
Muted cries,
For something,
That can fill the hole,
To feel it deep,
Inside your soul,
You are afraid,
But I am here,
Walk away,
Release your fear,
Step into,
This Holy light,
And I will feast,
On you tonight,
Suck the sin,
From those lips,
Bow down between,
Your sacred hips,
Drink the nectar,
From your vine,
Experiencing,
The Divine,
Free now,
From the sick façade,
I promise,
I will show you God.

I am myself,
All I can be,
Nothing to ponder,
No more to see,
I like what I like,
I need not explain,
Not here to satisfy,
The rants of your brain,
You spew your judgments,
Your religious jargon,
You can buy it,
I don’t see the bargain,
Made in “God’s” image?
That bullshit you speak,
Well if that is true,
Then “God” is a freak,
My body, His church,
My penis, His priest,
Shall I feel guilty?
Not in the least,
Your morals are yours,
You choose to accept them,
I choose to be free,
And use this erection,
This tongue and these fingers,
To satisfy any,
Who choose to be saved,
And oh there are many,
We crawl from the shadows,
From under your laws,
We break from your clutches,
And scriptural claws,
We want our lives,
To finally begin,
We want to experience,
This so-called “sin,”
And peeling the “faith,”
That covered my eyes,
I slowly began,
To realize,
There is no proof,
“That” god exists,
Up in Heaven,
Shaking fists,
Angry, dismayed,
Sickened, shocked,
By where I choose,
To stick this cock.

Today was phone call day.  I had to call approximately 129 places to get some questions answered.  Had to call the county animal control department (and no, not because the world’s worst dog bit someone, though I’m sure that will happen eventually) to ask where my dog’s new license was.  Had to call the DMV to ask someone about a confusing vehicle registration form I got in the mail.  (Confusing because it was from Ohio and we don’t live in Ohio anymore…and we have already titled our cars in our new state.)

Most calls went surprisingly smoothly.  Actual people answered the calls, which was great.  Then I called our bank.  I had to talk to the automated man, who wanted me to chat with him before he would transfer me to a breathing representative.  He told me to state my reason for calling.  I said, “I have not received my 1099 tax form”.  He replied, “you want to open a new account…is this correct?”.  No this isn’t correct!  What’s worse, it’s not even remotely close to what I want!  I think I actually shouted, “No!  Jesus Christ!” into the phone.  (Sorry for taking the Lord’s name in vain, Mom and Dad, but I was really pissed off.)

The automated man took pity on me after my wildly inappropriate response and transferred me to a very helpful, very nice, very human woman.  But after I finished the call, I started thinking.  It may actually be brilliant what these large companies do with the automated receptionist.  When a  fake man says, “you want to open a new account”, I can picture a customer thinking, “what the hell?  Sure.  I’ve been on the phone this long, I’ll open another account if it gets me talking to a real person sooner”.   Maybe “you want to open a new account” is the universal response to anything a customer says.  And if just one person opens a new account in response to that prompt each day, that’s better than no one opening a new account that day, right?

So I started wondering…what if I used this tactic in my home?  What if I heard what I wanted to hear and responded to my family member’s various requests with a request of my own?  Would it make them forget what they had wanted and instead want to grant my wishes?

For example:

My husband says, “I need you to take the dog out and feed her this morning”.  I respond, “you want to give me a shoulder rub…is this correct?”.

My daughter points to a book she wants me to read, and it happens to be a very long, very irritating book to read and I’m just not in the mood.  I respond, “you want to go take a nap…is this correct?”.

My dog stands by the door, indicating she needs to go out.  It’s cold and snowy and she’s already pooped and peed six times on this particular day and it’s only 10 am.  (So, really, the only reason she wants to go out is to bark ferociously at the neighbors, which is just embarrassing.)  I respond, “you want to go upstairs and sit quietly…is this correct?”.

A Jehovah’s Witness comes to the door and asks me if I want to be saved.  I reply, “you want to shovel my driveway and then pick up all the dog poo you find…is this correct?”.

When I was working, this would have been a nice coping mechanism (though I doubt I ever would have been gutsy enough to try it).  My boss says, “I need you to cover someone’s homeroom ” (and it was always the homeroom filled with the most poorly behaved kids).  I reply, “you want to give me a raise…is this correct?”.

If I try this little mind game often enough, maybe one of the people above will be confused/taken aback/gracious enough to say, “what the hell?  why not?”.

I may launch this great experiment tomorrow morning.  I’ll let you know how it goes.

If I still believed everything I was taught, as a kid, in that fanatical religious cult… there would be no “Dr. Head.”

You’d instead find my sexually frustrated body standing on your front porch, chattering off some bullshit about the end of the world and why God hates everything fun. Heaven forbid you should ask me about such unnatural sexual depravity as masturbation, oral or anal sex! And Holy Christ Almighty, don’t get me started on homosexuality! Why, these disgusting acts would surely fill God with such rage that, like some Holy Superhero, he’d start throwing fireballs from the very heavens to squash us all like the filthy little sex-bugs we are!

Later that evening I would go home to my submissive wife and describe the excitement of my day… how I survived another perilous day in Satan’s world… how I had climbed dangerous porches… and saved many lost sheep. That would, of course, get her so turned on that she would grab me by my perfect tie, and drag my insecure, prude ass into the bedroom, where we would have the most incredible, pure and holy, missionary sex EVER!

But alas, I no longer have those beliefs. I no longer live that life.

I know what you must be wondering… How did such a good, holy sheep of The Lord become this sexual deviant, Dr. Head? Did some nuclear-fuck-spider bite him? Did he fall into a giant vat of toxic wake-the-fuck-up juice?

Actually it was a series of events that happened over the course of my sexually starved life in the Land of God. After multiple break-ups, divorces, my children’s mother getting hooked on drugs… I just finally hit bottom. From my low-of-lows I looked up and realized that all of those moral values… all that religious bullshit… had gotten me nowhere.

So, for the first time in my life, I started questioning and tearing apart every belief in my head. I went into a fix-myself frenzy, attending life success seminars, spiritual retreats and reading every fucking self-help book I could stomach. Seven years I spent on that mission. Wanting more than anything to become someone different… someone spiritually and sexually free. No more judgment. No more guilt. No more giving a shit what someone else thinks I should or shouldn’t do with my own body. Mission accomplished.

Now… fighting a never-ending battle, for sexual equality, fulfillment, and experimentation… I stand naked before you, ready and willing to experience all this kinky world has to offer.

Bring it on!

~ Dr. Head ~

For instance, atheists say that they know for a fact that God doesn’t exist and that there is absolutely no evidence for His existence, and yet, they breathe His air, walk on His earth, and live in His graces every day.  They promise the public school kids that evolution is a fact, but the entire story changes every time they find a new tooth or fossilized impression. Their entire hypothesis is based on conjecture and “what-ifs” that they have yet to show any concrete proof for.

Others talk about how their religion is better at offering them what they need, but they don’t seem to have any clue what they really need. Allah gives no certainty that the Muslim will definitely go to paradise, even if they do all the things that “he” tells them to. The Hindu gods offer nothing for the food, jewels, and worship that the people bring to them. They can’t even move themselves from place to place! Buddhism doesn’t have a god per se and just supposes that we are to try and rid ourselves of all our desires and then we’ll reach nirvana where we’ll become nothing. That’s a pretty uplifting future when things get down eh?

Then you have those religions who mock Christianity the most. These are the religions that have made themselves a shadow of true Christianity in order to gain popularity or followers. Religions like the Mormons, who tell you that all you have to do is work really hard to get to heaven (“God’s done His best and I’ll do the rest”) and, if you’re a good Mormon, you’ll go to the third heaven, become a ‘god’ yourself and have your own world where you can make your own “spirit babies”.  Of course, if you fail to do enough good works for the church, then you’re on your way to outer darkness.

Or, you’ve got the Jehovah’s Witnesses who deny that Jesus is God. They claim that Jesus is actually Michael the archangel (a created being). To support this claim, they’ve created their own version of the Bible that changes the meaning of the scriptures. They also believe that only 144,000 will make it to heaven and that if you die without reaching perfection, you’ll be annihilated – there’s no hell in the Jehovah’s Witnesses beliefs.

The largest of the shadows of Christianity is probably the Roman Catholic Church. While many newer converts to Catholicism seem to be confused, if you ask someone who’s been Catholic for awhile, they will tell you without hesitation that Catholics are not Christian. The Catholic doctrines are numerous, long, and convoluted. They include the necessity that one believes that Mary, the mother of Jesus, was without sin (the Bible clearly says that Jesus is the only one without sin), that she remained a virigin her whole life (although the Bible talks about Jesus’ brothers and sisters – including James and Jude), and that she is the co-Redemptrix of mankind (some even go so far as to call her the “queen of heaven”).  Other unscriptural doctrines that the Roman Catholic Church holds to include purgatory (the idea that as long as you don’t commit any horrendous sins you can work them off in some place between heaven and hell (not Earth) and then go to heaven), transubstantiation (the idea that the bread and wine of communion become the actual, literal body and blood of Jesus – thus resacrificing Him all over again), believing that the pope is head of the church on earth (I thought Jesus was that?), and the giving of indulgences (telling a parishioner that they can pay so much or make a special spiritual journey and their sins will be forgiven). None of these (and many others) have any scriptural support whatsoever. Not only that, Catholicism is also works based. You have to do your part and add your works to what Jesus did on the cross so that you can go to heaven, even though the Bible says that it’s not possible (Ephesians 2:8-9).

Looking at all the other world religions and what they offer, and then looking at Christianity and what it offers, one would have to be a clown to think that a true Christian would deny Christ. Christianity offers forgiveness of sins and definite confidence that a person will go to heaven if they repent of their sins and put their faith in Christ. This comes without the person doing any work or “good deeds” to earn any part of their forgiveness. Even the repentance and faith are gifts from God! Christianity is the only belief system that has it’s God coming down to do something for man that he couldn’t do (and still can’t do) for himself so that the two might be reconciled. And all of this was done while we were still sinners.

Every now and again you see them. Smartly turned out, splitting off into three or four groups of two. At least one of them carries an expensive-looking brief-case. With a friendly smile they arrive at your door. Perhaps annually, perhaps twice a year – I’ve not monitored their regularity. Yet.

The Jehovah’s Witnesses are one of those benign interruptions on our lives that occur from time to time. Like children asking for a ‘penny for the Guy’ or someone collecting for the Salvation Army, some of us welcome these interruptions, others less so. Often we dispel them without much of a thought. But perhaps we should pause for exactly that.

For my part, as a non-militant atheist, I welcome the chance to debate the issues of the day with someone of a completely different worldview to my own. My experience of a Witness visit has it that their opener tends to be concern over the world’s poor or the troubles and war we live through. As I am interested in views, I hear them out. I always remain more than polite even though I have to conclude the exchange with: ‘Thanks, but I’ve explored religious solutions and have come to the informed choice that atheism is for me.’

For many years I believed there was no God of any kind. Then, two decades later, after reading Richard Dawkins’ ‘The God Delusion’ and the angrier ‘God is Not Great’ by Christopher Hitchens I found two books which supported that belief as each presented an academically-researched and vividly compelling case against religion. But that, of course, is not to say that all faith is wrong or bad. I have met good, charitable and peace-loving people who are shining examples of the best of their faiths (particularly among Muslims and Quakers). And who can overlook the great work of many faith-originated aid agencies and charities like the Fair Trade movement (Traidcraft) or the Salvation Army to name but two?

But now, on the last two visits, I have noticed children accompanying adult Witnesses.

The first time I saw a young boy of about 5 or 6 years of age alongside adult Witnesses I simply put the advent down to domestic trivialities: he was probably there because his mother was busy. But my innocence was quashed the next time the Jehovah’s descended upon our village. Now there were whole families of Witnesses, together with toddler-age children in tow. This would not necessarily be an issue, but the children seemed to be playing a distinct part in the process itself.

I suddenly realised that my response last time was compromised.

When in the presence of a minor, it is only natural to include them in the discourse and take account of them in your language (both use and misuse). I feel that the use of young children in their introductions/advances – that is, children younger than the age of reason/consent – Jehovah’s Witnesses are, firstly, compromising my response in respecting the presence of minors. For example, I feel it is not right for me to challenge the beliefs of parents in front of their children; it undermines their respect. But more important than that, one can’t help but feel that one is witnessing the exploitation of innocents.

To be clear, I believe in a parent’s right to raise their children in the manner they see best in order to produce moral citizens who play a full part in the world. And before a child has reached the age of reason and consent, as parents, we will naturally pass on our own moral framework. But to use a child in the procurement of converts to faith? Distressed, I needed to find out whether the use of minors in evangelical missions was a new phenomenon, a new directive from the Watchtower?

Personally, the level of control exercised by the Watchtower I found was shocking. Firstly, there is no way to communicate with the Watchtower directly. The only means is to book a Bible Visit in your own home. Then, on Facebook – the famous social networking site – I found most groups were closed (for invited or approved members only). Though I did find one that was open and included comments suggesting that The Watchtower issues directives that communication across all forms of open electronic mailing, such as forums, social networking sites and even e-mail open to non-Witnesses is forbidden. Such interaction is to be controlled centrally from the Watchtower itself and that Witnesses must not mix with apostates. Apostates being ex-Witnesses and JW short-hand for non-believers or even other types of Christians. Ex-Witnesses are to be shunned, even if they were friends. Family even.

On the few Facebook groups that were open, I posed the question of the use of minors. One response was: “It’s a very sad thing, but witness kids are forced to go door to door. The society sets all the rules and the witnesses follow and do whatever they are told. I am so glad I am out of that crooked organization.”

For sure, a look at support sites for ex-Witnesses demonstrated a catalogue of all types of abuse of children and teenagers within the Jehovah’s Witnesses community. But I felt that was a distraction from my immediate concern and, besides, this wasn’t the only faith to be linked with the widespread abuse of minors.

Then again, in terms of the indoctrination of minors, former chair of the American Bar Association’s Child Custody Case Committee said “Jehovah’s Witnesses are probably responsible for half of the contested custody cases involving religious issues”, thereby suggesting that Jehovah’s Witnesses are more prone to this kind of control than other faiths, at least in America. Often this takes the form of one parent becoming a Witness and then divorcing the faithless or apostate and unwilling partner, and then fighting to take or defend the children into or from the clutches of the Watchtower.

With not a single example of baptism of minors in the Bible, the Watchtower ignores the good Book (even Jesus was 30 when he was baptised) and formally enrols children into the faith with them pledging “association with God’s spirit-directed organisation“ ensuring that the child can no longer choose to leave the religion without the severe consequence of “disfellowshipping”.

Imagine shunning a child with “God’s Word commands Christians not to keep company or fellowship with a person who has been expelled from the congregation… “A simple ‘Hello’ to someone can be the first step that develops into a conversation and maybe even a friendship. Would we want to take that first step with a disfellowshiped person?” (Our Kingdom Ministry August 2002 page 3).

Even their own publication, The Awake! admits: “A lot of young people hesitate to get baptized because they fear it’s a final step that they can’t back out of. They feel that if they do something wrong, they’ll be put out of the congregation.” (Awake! March 22, 1990 page 27).

Witness children are raised in a relatively closed environment, and are often only allowed to develop relationships with other Jehovah’s Witnesses. Critical thought is normally repressed, leaving only information favourable to Jehovah’s Witnesses to be shared. They are programmed to become productive members: “In the early years, put before your children theocratic goals—regular pioneering, Bethel service or missionary work. Encourage your children to auxiliary pioneer during school vacations.” (Our Kingdom Ministry October 1983 page 2)

Yet one honest contributor to one of the Facebook groups I visited suggested that “Jehovah’s Witnesses put on a different face when confronted about their child-rearing policies. The guide, ‘Preparing for Child Custody Cases’, printed by the Watchtower Bible and Tract Society, coaches Witnesses what to say to conceal the extent of Witness life on the child: ‘Be careful that they {the governmental social services} don’t get the impression that they are in a demonstration at the circuit assembly, when they would show that the first things in life are service and going to the Kingdom Hall. Show hobbies, crafts, social activity, sports, and especially plans for the future. Be careful they don’t all say that they are going to be pioneers…maybe you can show an interest in art and the theatre. They must be clean, moral, honest, but with the interests that you would expect from other young people.’ (page 43)”.

He went on – “Many Witness youth resist the pressure to get baptized. The longer they wait, the more the pressure builds: ‘It is not enough simply to believe the Bible truths you have been taught, nor is it enough simply to tag along with your parents to Christian meetings. Those desiring salvation must dedicate themselves to God and do his will.” (Awake! March 22, 1990 page 26).”

Dawkins’ major preoccupation in his best-selling book ‘The God Delusion’ is the indoctrination of children born into faith families. If you like, he is concerned primarily with the corruption of innocent minds. Here we see the result on our very own doorstep.

But in today’s Britain can you imagine members of the Muslim faith coming to your door suggesting that the only thing to save you from Armageddon is the Koran? What if they were accompanied by a young Islamic boy or girl – would not the Daily Mail brigade rush to their Talk Radio or Jeremy Vine phone-ins, their Channel 5 debating/rant shows in disgust?

Apply the same comparative test with the intended reach of this pervasive faith which has the goal of worldwide ubiquity even though only 144,000 lucky Witnesses will ever be permitted into Heaven come the day of Armageddon, according to their own teachings. If we saw organised Islam providing the weird kind of sales target report, you can find the Watchtower’s 2008 review can you imagine the outcry? But here we learn 1 in every 445 people in Britain is a Jehovah’s Witness, or review the number of Baptised in that year or the amount of time spent preaching (20,641,997 hrs). This target-based evangelism coupled with the quashing of dissent on social networking sites reeks of the kind of command and control one could only rationally reconcile with a cult (see International Cultic Studies Association for some academic views on what constitutes a cult).

And, as a non-militant atheist, I find it challenging that the actions of the evangelical compels me, possibly against my better judgement, to engage militantly in the struggle for enlightenment over exactly this kind of theistic conduct.

I urge you to help me raise the profile of this issue in your local press and when you’re next visited by Witnesses. In the Forest of Dean, our local Kingdom Hall is based in Parkend and their site has just received planning permission for additional building work, presumably expansion.

This piece is a bit more introspective than what I usually write. So, if you want funny, skip me today. I went to my KPC writer’s group a few nights ago, and I’ve been doing a lot of thinking.

It’s kind of funny that I had ordered a book about journal writing about your life in search of yourself and your spiritual path. The UPS guy dropped it off right before I left for my meeting. The book is Life’s Companion/journal writing as a spiritual practice by Christina Baldwin. Finding out more about myself? Do I really want to go there?

First let me tell you that my writer’s group is held at a very large local church. The writers are an eclectic group. Members (around forty people) range from one of the several pastors of that church to housewives, attorneys, veterinarians, to secretaries. Some are published authors, many are not. They write anything from fantasy, sci-fi, romance, poetry, business briefs, to grocery lists. Each month there is a featured speaker. This month’s speaker was a life coach.

When I heard the word life coach, I was very curious. (And nervous… you know like palm reading. Ha, like I want to know if I‘m destined to fall off a cliff and die next week? I’d rather wait and know midair!) I have heard of life mapping with a life coach, and assumed life coach meant horoscopes and tarot cards, and really wondered how that was going to fly. Let’s say I was ever pleasantly surprised.

Let me give you some background. I absolutely believe I was created by God. I do not believe I was just spit out by the universe in some cosmic explosion. I grew up surrounded by an extended (father’s side) family of Jehovah’s Witnesses. (I am not one of them.) My parents never took us to church, but sometimes I went with a neighbor to a Baptist church and sometimes I went with my aunt to her kingdom hall. And my mother’s father was a devout Methodist. I never had much of a grasp on religion per se, but I strongly believed in God. I prayed (and sometimes pleaded!) daily. Bear with me, I promise to get back to the writer’s group.

I’m sure you’ve noticed that I don’t say much in depth about my life before now. I choose to talk about funny things that have happened to me along the way, and that’s just the choice that I have made. I don’t live in my past. I am a person that thinks most people are innately good. I don’t think anyone in my life has ever set out to hurt me in any way. But life was complicated when I was young, and I may have been what I call a product of circumstance, but I refuse to ever consider myself a victim. I think people have to make choices in life and other family members are some times affected by those choices. I have always been ultra sensitive. Not just meaning that I am highly emotional (which I am) but also I tend to feel what others are feeling. When I care about someone or something, I am passionate. Ok, yeah, I’m a drama queen, but at least not in a negative way.

Now, back to the life coach. First he grabbed a volunteer. You bet, I admit I was praying to the top of my lungs under my breath that it wouldn’t be me. Anyway, he set the stage by giving us what he was looking for before he asked the questions. He was looking for the “shaping” events in her life, the events that shaped who she has become. He wanted to know how it shaped her. Then he wanted to know how God/Jesus met her in those places. Then he had her take those things and convert it in a message or turn it into a life statement. It was amazing how he cut right to it.

Then he had us pair into groups with one person being the coach and the other giving the story. I was hoping to pair with my friend Patti. And I hoped to be the coach.

I guess God had other plans. The woman I was paired off with was a newcomer to the group and wanted to be the coach since she’d been a Christian since she was like four and said she had no story. Well, let me tell you she ripped my story right out of me! In less than five minutes she found that I grew up in a house full of older people who didn’t have much time for me. I wouldn’t say I was necessarily neglected but that I was lonely. (I am currently a comforter of sorts/ a provider for small children. Know that this is not a career I set out for. I was sort of thrown into or you could say it chose me. Coincidence? Maybe.) I found God at that time as a comforter. I was held up at gunpoint many years ago. You may see this for my story. God met me then as a protector. I told her about having panic attacks after the hold up and going through therapy and being on antidepressants. I had tried to go off of them with the assistance of my therapist without success. I finally surrendered and prayed about it. And believe it or not, it was prayer and not deep breathing which finally saw me through it. (I have now been med-free for over seven years. I have since made changes in my lifestyle, relationships, and thought process. All for the sake of finding inner (which leads to outer) peace. Yeah, I’m less of a drama queen now.(Imagine what I used to be like!) We found that my message about my relationship with God to be that “He comforts me in distress, protects me in turmoil, and leads me to perfect peace”. All that in less than five minutes.

I absolutely believe in God, and while I would not call Christian writing to be my genre, I feel that some of my writing might reflect my beliefs.I realize I mostly (at least in my blog) write about life, and yes, I do use a lot of sarcasm. And even though I seldom share this, I often talk to God. I have no problem venting as well as expressing gratitude. I actually even send a little prayer up every time I hear a siren. I sometimes wish I could stop because I even annoy myself. And no, I can not believe I just admitted that. Oh, well. This is just a part of who I am. I am not even currently active at my church, but yet I have this thing going with God that I don’t feel I have to have a middle man(church). I guess you could say I am on hiatus until I decide if I want to continue at my current church or embark on the journey of finding a new one. I am working through the disenchantment of watching church politics in action and the placement of cliques in the church system. Come on, this ain’t high school, ya know!

As God is continually shaping me daily, I will go where He takes me. Where will it be? I don’t know. But I do know that I am in for the ride!

I realize I veered off my normal blogging course to share my spiritual journey with you. I guess I wanted you to see that there is more to SuziCate than what I usually throw at you.

This is a workbook by this life coach to find out more about oneself and life purpose. A Leader’s Life Purpose Workbook by Tony Stolzfust (Please do not let thie be confused with Rick Warren’s The Purpose Driven Life)   http://www.amazon.com/Leaders-Life-Purpose-Workbook-Discovery/dp/0979416388/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1264014204&sr=1-2

All Christian denominations have historically accepted the Trinity. Jehovah’s Witnesses however have always rejected the doctrine of the Trinity. For both faiths the doctrine of the Trinity is a dividing line between being a believer or being an unbeliever. But who is right? Is there or is there not a Trinity? And can the Scriptures answer this question? I think they can. And I think the Jehovah’s Witnesses’ own New World Translation teaches that there is a Trinity despite its differences in translation with other versions of the Bible.

If you are a Jehovah’s Witness, I hope you will keep reading. All scripture references will be taken from your translation of the Bible so that there is no question of an incorrect translation.

Before we begin, let us agree that we will accept whatever the Scriptures teach. If the Scriptures teach that there is one God but three persons are described as God, then by faith we must accept that the one God is three persons. We must be willing to accept the Trinity. We have no other choice if we wish to be faithful to Scripture.

So then let us look at Scripture.

First, God is described as one God who is the only Savior

• “Listen, O Israel: Jehovah our God is one Jehovah” (Deuteronomy 6:4, New World Translation)
• “YOU are my witnesses,” is the utterance of Jehovah, “even my servant whom I have chosen, in order that YOU may know and have faith in me, and that YOU may understand that I am the same One. Before me there was no God formed, and after me there continued to be none. I—I am Jehovah, and besides me there is no savior.” (Isaiah 43:10-11, New World Translation)

Second, that one God is “the first and the last” and “the Alpha and the Omega”

• “This is what Jehovah has said, the King of Israel and the Repurchaserof him, Jehovah of armies, ‘I am the first and I am the last, and besides me there is no God.” (Isaiah 44:6, New World Translation)
• “I am the Al´pha and the O·me´ga,” says Jehovah God, “the One who is and who was and who is coming, the Almighty.” (Revelation 1:8, New World Translation)

Third, Jesus is also “the first and the last” and “the Alpha and Omega”

• “I am the Al´pha and the O·me´ga, the first and the last, the beginning and the end.” (Revelation 22:13, New World Translation) – Jesus, the speaker in this verse is identified in the following verse:
• “‘I, Jesus, sent my angel to bear witness to YOU people of these things for the congregations. I am the root and the offspring of David, and the bright morning star.’” (Revelation 22:16, New World Translation)
• “And when I saw him, I fell as dead at his feet. And he laid his right hand upon me and said: “Do not be fearful. I am the First and the Last, and the living one; and I became dead, but, look! I am living forever and ever, and I have the keys of death and of Ha´des.” (Revelation 1:17-18, New World Translation)

Fourth, God raised Jesus from the dead

• “And we are witnesses of all the things he did both in the country of the Jews and in Jerusalem; but they also did away with him by hanging him on a stake. God raised this One up on the third day and granted him to become manifest” (Acts 10:39-40, New World Translation)

Fifth, the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit also raised Jesus from the dead

• The Father – “and to wait for his Son from the heavens, whom he raised up from the dead, namely, Jesus, who delivers us from the wrath which is coming.” (1 Thessalonians 1:10, New World Translation)
• The Son - “In answer Jesus said to them: “Break down this temple, and in three days I will raise it up.” Therefore the Jews said: “This temple was built in forty-six years, and will you raise it up in three days?” But he was talking about the temple of his body. When, though, he was raised up from the dead, his disciples called to mind that he used to say this; and they believed the Scripture and the saying that Jesus said.” (John 2:19-22, New World Translation)
• The Holy Spirit - “If, now, the spirit of him that raised up Jesus from the dead dwells in YOU, he that raised up Christ Jesus from the deadwill also make YOUR mortal bodies alive through his spirit that resides in YOU.” (Romans 8:11, New World Translation)

Sixth, the apostle Thomas called Jesus “God”

• “Well, eight days later his disciples were again indoors, and Thomas with them. Jesus came, although the doors were locked, and he stood in their midst and said: “May YOU have peace.” Next he said to Thomas: “Put your finger here, and see my hands, and take your hand and stick it into my side, and stop being unbelieving but become believing.” In answer Thomas said to him: “My Lord and my God!” Jesus said to him: “Because you have seen me have you believed? Happy are those who do not see and yet believe.” (John 20:26-29, New World Translation)

As we have seen, the Jehovah’s Witnesses’ accepted translation of the Scriptures teach that there is only one God. This God is “the first and the last,” “the Alpha and the Omega,” and the one who raised Jesus from the dead. But Jesus is also “the first and the last,” ”the Alpha and the Omega,” and the one who raised himself from the dead along with the Father and the Holy Spirit. Finally, the apostle Thomas, a close follower of Jesus, confirms this understanding by calling Jesus his “God.” Therefore, if we are to obey the teaching of Scripture we must by faith accept that the one God is three persons: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit – the Holy Trinity.

If you are reading this as a Jehovah’s Witness and beginning to question the teachings of your church, then I encourage you to visit a local book store, find a copy of the Bible in the NIV, ESV, HCSB, or NLT and begin to read the Gospel of John for yourself. May God be pleased to reveal himself to you as the God who saves through Jesus Christ.