Экс-свидетель Иеговы и критик Общества «Надзорец» Вим де Гойй скончался в возрасте 64 лет

Former Jehovah’s Witness Turned Christian Publisher Wim de Goeij Dies At 64 by Stefan J. Bos, Worthy News Europe Bureau Chief OUDE IJSSELSTREEK, NETHERLANDS (Worthy News) – Wim de Goeij, a former Jehovah’s Witness who became a prominent Dutch publisher of Bible-teaching materials and outspoken critic of the Watch Tower Society, has died. He was 64. His family said De Goeij died suddenly Friday following a cardiac arrest. Shortly before his death, he was reportedly asked whether he was afraid to die. “Why should I? I can’t wait to see my Lord and Savior,” he replied, according to relatives. De Goeij, a copywriter and designer, embraced personal faith in Jesus Christ after what he described as “a severe inner struggle” following more than three decades within the Jehovah’s Witnesses, which he later viewed as a dangerous cult. He told Worthy News that he was grateful to have found freedom in Christ following years of hardship and spiritual pressure. LIFE INSIDE JEHOVAH’S WITNESSES In a 2016 interview with Dutch evangelical broadcaster EO, De Goeij recalled leaving the Jehovah’s Witnesses at the end of 1994 after growing increasingly troubled by the organization’s teachings and demands. He also referred to the Watch Tower Society, the organization used by Jehovah’s Witnesses to produce and distribute the movement’s religious literature. “My wife and I didn’t know that we both had doubts—we didn’t dare express them,” he explained. De Goeij described a childhood marked by feeling like an outsider because he was forbidden from joining birthday celebrations, school trips, and organized sports. “When my friends had birthdays, I wasn’t allowed to go to their parties,” he remembered. “There were so many things I wasn’t allowed to take part in.” “BRAINWASHED FOR MORE THAN 30 YEARS” From an early age, he also accompanied Jehovah’s Witnesses in their door-to-door evangelism. “For more than thirty years, I was brainwashed,” he later charged. “But I grew up in it and had absolutely no idea this was happening.” His doubts intensified after relatives left the movement and became Christians. Although Jehovah’s Witnesses were discouraged from maintaining contact with people regarded as apostates, De Goeij and his wife, Mirjam, continued visiting relatives in Luxembourg. “I sensed a certain joy and freedom in them that were new to me,” he explained. BREAKING WITH THE WATCH TOWER He eventually stopped preaching door to door because, in his words, “I was proclaiming something I no longer believed myself. It felt like an act.” De Goeij vividly remembered his final attempt at door-to-door evangelism. “I had already stretched out my arm to ring the doorbell. Suddenly I thought: ‘Man, what on earth are you doing?’ I turned around and walked away.” De Goeij and his wife stopped attending Jehovah’s Witness meetings in December 1994 and were formally expelled from the community in 1997. The couple subsequently struggled to determine what they could still believe after abandoning teachings they had followed for decades. FINDING FREEDOM IN CHRIST In 1995, after extensive Bible study and listening to Christian teaching, they committed their lives to Jesus Christ. “Through personal faith in Him, you are born again, a new creation,” De Goeij stressed. “The scales fell from our eyes.” Central to his criticism were Jehovah’s Witness teachings about Jesus. Unlike most Christians, Jehovah’s Witnesses reject the divinity of Jesus Christ as God manifested in the flesh. Instead, they teach that he is God’s first creation and identify him with Michael the archangel. They also teach that 144,000 anointed Christians will reign with Christ in heaven, while other faithful Jehovah’s Witnesses hope to live forever in a restored paradise on Earth. They claim that Christ began ruling invisibly as King in 1914 and expect God to destroy the present ungodly world system at Armageddon. De Goeij rejected those doctrines after turning to what he described as Bible-believing Christian faith. He became particularly outspoken about the New World Translation used by Jehovah’s Witnesses, arguing that key passages concerning the deity of Christ had been rendered to support Watch Tower theology. CHALLENGING WATCH TOWER He believed salvation came through personal faith in Jesus Christ and being “born again,” rather than through adherence to what he viewed as the rules and authority of the Watch Tower organization. De Goeij later founded and maintained Wachttorenkijker.nl, a Dutch-language website challenging Watch Tower teachings, and became involved with the Vlichthus Foundation, which distributes Bible-study materials, books, and brochures. Despite becoming a publisher and widely distributing Bible-teaching materials, De Goeij remained humble about his role, once telling a Worthy News reporter that God could use anyone to spread His Word, “even a donkey.” He was referring to the biblical account of Balaam and his donkey in Numbers 22, in which God allowed the animal to speak to correct the prophet. Jesus also entered Jerusalem riding on a donkey in Matthew 21 as He fulfilled God’s plan. “I emphatically do not oppose the people who belong to it, but I do oppose the organization,” De Goeij stressed about his work involving Jehovah’s Witnesses. SHARING THE GOSPEL His objections extended beyond theology. De Goeij criticized what he described as intense social pressure within the movement, its door-to-door preaching requirements, and the consequences of expulsion, known as disfellowshipping, under which members may severely limit or end association with former members. “Thank God, I was set free from it,” De Goeij declared. “I am happy. Happier than I could ever have imagined beforehand. Happy in the Lord Jesus Christ—the Name above every name.” He urged Christians encountering Jehovah’s Witnesses to focus on the Gospel rather than becoming drawn into lengthy doctrinal arguments. “Tell them the Gospel,” he urged. “Tell them that they must become born-again children of God before they can enter the Kingdom, as Jesus says in John 3.” De Goeij stressed that his concern was for Jehovah’s Witnesses themselves, whom he viewed as victims rather than enemies. FINAL YEARS IN HEELWEG “I feel deeply, deeply sorry for them,” he explained in the 2016 interview. “This organization deceives millions of people worldwide in the name of God.” De Goeij spent his final years in Heelweg, a hamlet in Oude IJsselstreek in the eastern Netherlands, promoting what he called “the Gospel of God’s grace” and warning others about teachings he believed had kept him spiritually bound for much of his life. He is survived by his wife, Mirjam, their two children, and four grandchildren. Worthy News reports from a biblical worldview with a commitment to accuracy, transparency, and editorial independence. Learn more about About Worthy News, our Editorial Standards, AI Use Policy, Ownership of Worthy News, News Tips and Corrections, and Worthy News Staff. 💡 Did you know? 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