Totally NOT a debate about the veracity of the gospels

[Tonus]

Which river is that? The Religious River? Or... The Spiritual River?

If its the Religious one? You're still there!

I understand why you guys say this, but I hope you understand why I find it lacking. The JWs have an even harsher (and more offensive) version of this: if you aren't a JW, you are being mislead by Satan. Doesn't matter if you're an atheist or Catholic, either. As far as they're concerned you are on the wrong bank of that river. JWs even have a name that they use to separate their truth (Christianity) from that of any other believer in Christ (Christendom). The latter are, in their view, fakes designed to lead people away from god.

As an aside, it tickles me to think that a group that has shoved Jesus aside into a secondary role to Yahweh have the gumption to then tell everyone else that they aren't True Christians™. But the point is that claiming that people who don't find god simply didn't follow the instructions properly leaves us to believe that god made it unnecessarily complicated to find him. And he mocks us, too. He says he's so close to us that we may find him by chance, but then he says that the path to salvation is narrow and few find it.

So if I'm on the wrong side of the wrong river and wearing the wrong hip-waders, it's really god's fault. And this seems as if it's by design, and it makes god appear to be one nasty little customer. Telling me I got it wrong is simply insufficient for getting me to search again. Maybe god is hiding from me because I didn't follow the steps correctly. And maybe he's not there and it isn't a matter of getting the steps correct as much as it is a matter of realizing that if you can't get god to answer the door, it's not because you're pressing the doorbell improperly.