My name is Matthieu, and for many years, I was a devoted Jehovah’s Witness. I served as a ministerial servant in France, married to a fellow Witness, and I truly believed I was where I belonged. But everything changed when I was 37. Why? Because I studied the Bible too much.
It all started when I tried to find my own answers about the book of Daniel. The explanations given by the organization never fully satisfied me, so I decided to look deeper. What I found shook me to my core. I realized that the prophecy leading to 1914—the very foundation of Jehovah’s Witness teachings—simply did not hold up.
An elder noticed my doubts and challenged me. He told me to prove, using the Bible, that the organization’s teaching was correct. But instead of finding confirmation, I found contradictions. Verses from Haggai and Zechariah placed the biblical 70 years in a completely different way than the Watchtower taught. Their entire reasoning for 1914 collapsed before my eyes.
From that moment on, I knew I was in a religion that did not have God’s approval. I wanted to leave. But leaving is not so simple.
“Freedom means the ability to change religion freely,” say legal experts. But in reality, the moment I leave, I lose everything—my elderly parents, my siblings, my uncles, and every friend I have ever known. People I have helped, people I have been through struggles with, people I have trusted with my life—they will abandon me. The moment I walk away, my entire life will be erased.
Even in other religions, it is possible that some family members or friends might choose to distance themselves if beliefs change. But that would be their personal choice—not something enforced by a system. What Jehovah’s Witnesses do is different. It is an organized, mandatory rejection, leaving people like me completely alone.
We are in 2025. It is time for these harmful practices to end. No one should lose their entire support system simply because they no longer believe in a religious doctrine.
I am deeply committed to fighting this injustice. Let Jehovah’s Witnesses believe whatever they want that is their right. But they must stop destroying the lives of those who choose to leave.
Tomorrow, I will take action. I will go to the police and file a formal complaint. Because no one should have to pay the price of total isolation just for seeking the truth.