The book by Nick Mavromagoulos, "In Search of the Truth".

A book that you must read, before joining the "Watchtower" organization.
  A publication by the Holy Monastery of Machaeras, Cyprus,  April 2004. 360  pages

(Cover by the Holy Monastery of Machaeras. Prologue by Archmandrite fr. Arsenios,  Prior of the Holy Monastery).

 This is a book-Testimony that keeps you alert and in suspense, right to the end; at the same time, it informs, it shapes, and it strengthens the reader's faith. It is comprised of forty narrations - or, more correctly, forty confessions by two narrators. One is the author, Nick (29 narrations) and his friend, George (11), who were for many consecutive years "Jehovah's Witnesses", but managed to escape from the soul-ravaging Organization, the "Watchtower", and are now Orthodox Christians. These narrations provide us with information as to what the Organization is; what its organizational structure is like; what kinds of oppresive methods are implemented, in order to attract new members; what their personal experieces were; what the feelings and the psychology of the members was like - whether they entered the Organization at some point in their lives or were born of "Witness" parents and grew up in their circle; and, most importantly, how difficult it is for someone to escape from its snares, its tentacles, its asphyxiating embrace.

The author, N.M., having been raised from childhood in this heretic Organization, struggled earnestly for quite a number of years to discover the Truth, which is Christ and His Church. By studying the Holy Bible, he discovered that, despite its strong religious character, the "Watchtower" Organization was distorting the word of the Gospel to suit its own needs, in total disregard of Holy Tradition and the Fathers of our Church, and, furthermore, it was treating its members as though they were living under a purely totalitarian regime. These were the precise reasons that led him to a clash and a final confrontation with the Organization, which resulted in his permanent disfellowship from it.

In his noteworthy book, the author meticulously strives to locate and to highlight both the most obvious as well as the more delicate dogmatic and theological differences between the "Watchtower" organization and the Orthodox Church of Christ (especially in the areas of Christology, Soteriology and Eschatology), in his desire to help the reader to stop and think very carefully, before maing the decision to join the specific Organization; before deciding to wilfully distance himself from the only Ark of Salvation, that is, the Orthodox Church and Faith.

The forty chapters-narrations in the book, as well as its eleven appendices that follow, do not tire the reader; the more than fifty photographs that are interspersed between the narrations, provide the reader with comprehensive archive material. The virtues of this book include its overall publishing appearance, its very carefully worded text, but most of all, the author's theological armory, his relentless search for the Truth, his candid admission of all his erroneous beliefs when he was a member of the Organization, and his objective to help the reader who might thoughtlessly render himself a victim of the Organization.

The undersigned truly envies the author's zeal and fervour for studying the Bible, and his unflagging quest for the Truth, which led him even to imprisonment, to alienation from his family and finally, to his "disfellowship" from the Organization.

Whoever does read this book - and I believe it would be a good thing for many to read it - will truly pause to think, productively, about how strong his/her faith is, in the Saviour Christ and His Church, and just how much effort he/she has put into this faith by studying the word of God, as the author did. Let them make this comparison, which will eventually benefit them. At the same time, they will be able to arm themselves suitably, in order to substantially avoid all the illegitimate and miscellaneous heretic teachings that would inevitably lead them far away from the Orthodox Christian Faith.

Finally, the author - to whom many congratulations are due for his daring to record this testimony and his entire course, from the "Watchtower" organization to our Church - has inserted the following sub-title to his book: "A book that you must definitely read, before deciding to join the "Watchtower" organization". I think he should have more aptly said: "A book that you must definitely read, so that you may never join the "Watchtower" organization."
 
  

Paul Phemis, Theologian.

 " Κοινωνία " Magazine.   Issued by the "Pan-Hellenic Union of Theologians".  48th Year. April - June 2005.  Issue No.2.  
Book presentations pages 210 -212.