I Left the Watchtower for the Real Jesus

Robert L. Cosper

I was born the youngest of three children into a Jehovah's Witness family. Most of my family on my mother's side are still Jehovah's Witnesses. I have an uncle who has spent nearly his entire adult life working on the Watchtower's "Farm," and a brother-in-law who is a Jehovah's Witness elder. I was never baptized as a Jehovah's Witness, but I had always believed that the Watchtower Bible and Tract Society was God's organization, and that everything they taught was from Jehovah God.

In 1978 I moved away from home in Ingleside, Texas and went to Borger, Texas. It was there I met my future wife, Sharon, who was raised a Christian. After we were married, I quit attending meetings at the Kingdom Hall but still had a strong belief that the Watchtower was the only true religion. At about the time of the Gulf war in 1991, I began to feel the need for God in my life. I started reading the Watchtower literature again and began talking with the local elders about my plans to attend the Kingdom Hall again. My wife Sharon did not think much of the idea, and she started asking for help from the brothers at the First Baptist Church where she was a member.

A Christian man, Joey Garcia, loaned Sharon the video tape, Witnesses of Jehovah. After I viewed the tape, I told Sharon that the people who made the documentary had something against the Jehovah's Witnesses and that the video contained "some truth mixed with lies."

I then intended to prove this to her and was confident I would be able to convert her to my religion. Joey Garcia loaned me several books printed by the counter-cult ministries including a reproduction of the Watchtower's 1920 booklet, Millions Now Living Will Never Die. I also was able to gain access to some of the earlier editions of the Watchtower and Awake! magazines to begin my studies.

To my surprise, I found out that the Watchtower really did make the false prophecies depicted in the video. I finally had to admit, that in light of Deuteronomy 18:20-22, that the Watchtower organization was a false prophet. I even found that by the Watchtower's own definition of a false prophet, they were guilty!

With my wife's encouragement, I bought a New King James version of the Bible and started to read and pray that God would show me the true religion. One night I read John 14:6 where Jesus said, "I am the Way, the Truth and the Life..." At that point I realized it was not religion I was seeking, it was Jesus Christ. Jesus was the Truth!

My problem was that I really needed to know who Jesus was. The Watchtower had taught me that Jesus was really Michael the Archangel. I kept reading and praying. I did not know it at the time, but I also had been placed on the prayer list at two different churches.

In the end, I found many Scriptures that taught that Jesus is God. I confessed to God in prayer that Jesus Christ is LORD and accepted him as my Lord and Savior. Late in 1992, I was baptized at the First Baptist Church where my wife attended.

I give thanks to God for snatching me from the fire. I am also thankful for my wife Sharon, Joey Garcia, my brothers and sisters at the First Baptist Church and Keeler Baptist Church in Borger for their prayers. I am also thankful for counter-cult ministries like CRI [Christian Research Institute] and Watchman Fellowship. Christians can and should be defending the Faith against cults: "But sanctify the Lord God in your hearts: and be ready always to give an answer to every man that asketh you a reason of the hope that is in you with meekness and fear" (1 Peter 3:15).