That’s right!
Can you imagine being brutally beaten by government officials because you believed that God would rather have you beaten than vote in a political election? Jehovah’s Witnesses can, because this is exactly what happened in the spring of 1970 in Cameroon, Africa and in many other places around the world for many years.
You may, or may not known of this but for many, many years it was forbidden by the Watchtower for their members to vote in any sort of election.
You could be disfellowshipped for doing so.
But since 1999 there has been “New Light” From THE CHANNEL OF GOD! (governing body of JW’s)
**
November 1, 1999 Watchtower p.28-29**
The section is entitled “Questions from Readers” from their Watchtower Publications, and the question that is presented asks
“How do Jehovah’s Witnesses view voting?” Although the answer given by the Watchtower Society gives 5 negative factors to be considered,
the overall tone of the answer leaves the decision up to the individual JW. This is so drastically different than the staunch stand against voting that is so graphically laid out and demonstrated in the article about Cameroon, Africa mentioned earlier.
Code:
The 1999 article states six times that the JW has to make their own personal decision regarding whether or not to vote in a political election.
If this is the case, why did so many dedicated followers of Jehovah have to suffer such physical brutality in the spring of 1970?
The article mentions the same “Bible-trained conscience” that the JWs are to use to make this “personal decision.” What has changed in the Bible’s teachings in the last 30 years that now gives the JW freedom to vote? Would the Witnesses in Cameroon have subjected themselves to this persecution, if they knew then what they know now? Did those who suffered in Cameroon know that “in matters of individual conscience such as this, each Christian has to make his own decision before Jehovah God?”
The question each JW must consider is whether or not something that they are willing to die for today will be changed tomorrow. What a tragedy for those JWs who have lost friends and loves ones because of the Watchtower’s past rulings, only to have these rulings softened or completely overturned in 1999. These Witnesses suffered for nothing! Since the God of the Bible is unchanging, obviously, these actions were not inspired by the true and living God, but by the sinful, fallible humans who govern the Watchtower Bible and Tract Society of Jehovah’s Witnesses.
**Read the entire article here: **
freeminds.org