[3] It was translated into Croatian, Czech, Danish, Dutch, French, German, Greek, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Polish, Portuguese, Romanian, Russian, Spanish and Swedish.

Franz spent 43 years as a Jehovah's Witness, serving as a full-time preacher in the United States and a missionary in Puerto Rico and the Dominican Republic.

He left the Governing Body in 1980 after a high-level inquiry was launched into allegations that several headquarters staff including Franz were spreading "wrong teachings".

Franz claimed he declined repeated requests over the next two years for further media interviews about the workings of the Watch Tower Society, but in 1983 decided to end his silence after a number of Watchtower articles criticized the motives, character and conduct of former Witnesses who conscientiously disagreed with the organization.

[6][7] Franz claimed that many Jehovah's Witnesses who choose to leave because they cannot "honestly agree with all the organization's teachings or policies" are subsequently disfellowshipped, or formally expelled, and shunned as "apostates".