[A Review of the October 15, 2014 Watchtower article on page 7]
“Faith is the assured expectation of what is hoped for.” – Heb. 11:1
A Word About Faith
Faith is so vital to our survival that not only did Paul supply us with an inspired definition of the term, but an entire chapter of examples, so that we could fully comprehend the scope of the term, the better to develop it in our own lives. Most people misunderstand what faith is. To most, it means believing in something. Yet, James says that “the demons believe and shudder.” (James 2:19) Hebrews chapter 11 makes it clear that faith is not just believing in the existence of someone, but believing in the character of that person. To have faith in Jehovah means to believe he will be true to himself. He cannot lie. He cannot break a promise. Therefore having faith in God means believing that what he has promised will come to be. In each instance given by Paul in Hebrews 11, the men and women of faith did something because they believed in God’s promises. Their faith was alive. Their faith was demonstrated by obedience to God, because they believed He would keep his promises to them.
“Moreover, without faith it is impossible to please God well, for whoever approaches God must believe that he is and that he becomes the rewarder of those earnestly seeking him.” (Heb 11:6)
Can We Have Faith in a Kingdom?
What will the average Jehovah’s Witness conclude upon seeing the title for this week’s study article?
A kingdom isn’t a person, but a concept, or an arrangement, or a governmental administration. Nowhere in the Bible are we told to have unshakeable faith in such thing, because such things cannot make or keep promises. God can. Jesus can. They are both persons who can and do make promises and who always keep them.
Now, if the study is trying to say that we should have unshakable faith that God will keep his promise to set up a kingdom by which he will reconcile all humanity to him, then that’s different. However, given the repeated parts in the Kingdom Ministry, previous Watchtowers, as well as convention and annual meeting program discourses, it is more likely that the underlying message is to continue to believe that Christ’s kingdom has been reigning since 1914 and to have faith (i.e., believe) that all our doctrines based on that year are still true.
Something Remarkable About the Covenants
Rather than go through this study article paragraph by paragraph, this time we’ll try a thematic approach to get at a key discovery. (There is still much to be gained by a topic breakdown of the study, and that can be found by reading Menrov’s review.) The article discusses six covenants:
- Abrahamic Covenant
- Law Covenant
- Davidic Covenant
- Covenant for a Priest Like Melchizedek
- New Covenant
- Kingdom Covenant
There is a nice little summation of them all on page 12. You’ll notice when you see it that Jehovah made five of them, while Jesus made the sixth. That is true, but in fact, Jehovah made all six of them, for when we look at the Kingdom Covenant we find this:
“…I make a covenant with YOU, just as my Father has made a covenant with me, for a kingdom…” (Lu 22:29)
Jehovah made the Kingdom Covenant with Jesus, and Jesus—as the God appointed King—extended that covenant to this followers.
So really, Jehovah made each of the covenants.
But Why?
Why would God make covenants with men? To what end? No man went to Jehovah with a deal. Abraham didn’t go to God and say, “If I’m faithful to you, will you make a deal (contract, agreement, covenant) with me?” Abraham just did what he was told out of faith. He believed God was good and that his obedience would be rewarded in some measure which he was content to leave in God’s hands. It was Jehovah who approached Abraham with a promise, a covenant. The Israelites weren’t asking Jehovah for the law code; they just wanted to be free of the Egyptians. They weren’t asking to become a kingdom of priests either. (Ex 19:6) All that came out of the blue from Jehovah. He could have just gone ahead and given them the law, but instead, he made a covenant, a contractual agreement with them. Likewise David wasn’t expecting to become the one through whom the Messiah would come. Jehovah made that unsolicited promise to him.
This is important to realize: In each case, Jehovah would have accomplished all that he did without actually making a promissory agreement or covenant. The seed would have come through Abraham, and through David, and the Christians would still be adopted. He didn’t have to make a promise. However, he chose to so that each one would have something specific to put faith in; something specific to work for and to hope for. Rather than believing in some vague, unspecified reward, Jehovah lovingly gave them an explicit promise, swearing an oath to seal the covenant.
“In this same way, when God decided to demonstrate more clearly to the heirs of the promise the unchangeableness of his purpose, he guaranteed it with an oath, 18 in order that through two unchangeable things in which it is impossible for God to lie, we who have fled to the refuge may have strong encouragement to take firm hold of the hope set before us. 19 We have this hope as an anchor for the soul, both sure and firm, and it enters in within the curtain,” (Heb 6:17-19)
God’s covenants with his servants give them “strong encouragement” and provide specific things to hope for “as an anchor for the soul”. How marvelous and caring is our God!
The Missing Covenant
Whether dealing with one faithful individual or a large group—even an untested one like Israel in the wilderness—Jehovah takes the initiative and sets up a covenant to demonstrate his love and to give his servants something to work for and to hope for.
So here’s the question: Why didn’t He make a covenant with the Other Sheep?
Why didn’t Jehovah make a covenant with the Other Sheep?
Jehovah’s Witnesses are taught that the Other Sheep are a class of Christian that has an earthly hope. If they put faith in God, he will reward them with everlasting life on earth. By our count, they outnumber the anointed (allegedly limited to 144,000 individuals) by well over 50 to 1. So where is God’s loving covenant for them? Why are they seemingly ignored?
Does it not seem oddly inconsistent for God to make a covenant with faithful individuals like Abraham and David, as well as groups like the Israelites under Moses and the anointed Christians under Jesus, while completely ignoring millions of faithful ones serving him today? Would we not expect Jehovah, who is the same yesterday, today and forever, to have placed some covenant, some promise of reward, for millions of faithful ones? (He 1:3; 13:8) Something?…. Somewhere?…. Buried in the Christian Scriptures—perhaps in the Revelation, a book written for the end times?
The Governing Body is asking us to put faith in a kingdom promise which has never been made. The kingdom promise made by God through Jesus was for Christians yes, but not for the Other Sheep as defined by Jehovah’s Witnesses. There is no kingdom promise for them.
Perhaps, when the resurrection of the unrighteous occurs, there will be another covenant. Perhaps this is part of what is involved in the ‘new scrolls or books’ what will be opened. (Re 20:12) It’s all conjecture at this point, of course, but it would be consistent for God or Jesus to make another covenant with the billions resurrected in the new world so that they too could have a promise to hope for and work toward.
Nevertheless, for now the covenant held out to Christians, including the real other sheep—the gentile Christians like myself—is the New Covenant which includes the hope of inheriting the kingdom with our Lord, Jesus. (Luke 22:20; 2 Co 3:6; He 9:15)
Now that is a promise made by God in which we should have unshakeable faith.
Which for good reason William of Ockham refused to include the “infinite regress” argument to prove the existence of God. Some things just have to be left to faith and what Paul said at 1 Corinthians 2:2, “For I decided not to know anything among you except Jesus Christ, and him impaled.” (see also Hebrews 11:1-2). A thought also for today’s WT study.
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I ran across the following passage above, and it really gave me pause, but then I forgot where it was located in the archives. Now that I found it, here it is: “Paul reveals that Jesus is the “firstborn of creation.” Here is where the difference between the “wise and clever” and the “little children” becomes evident. If Jesus was created, then there was a time that he didn’t exist; a time when God existed all alone. God has no beginning; so for an infinity of time he existed alone. The trouble with this thought is that time itself is… Read more »
For many people this idea that God created time is difficult to imagine because they view everything from the bottom of the well that is time in our physical universe. We are bound by the walls of that well and our view is bounded by the physical. We cannot imagine a time without time because our very language doesn’t give us the words to express those concepts. We are bound by time, ruled by time and completely subject to time. Therefore, to talk about anything existing outside of time creates a paradox for us. But only human hubrus would allow… Read more »
Meleti provides an interesting follow-up to the question about whether God could create Time, and thus if Time is a created thing. However, he has not made a convincing case, which is not helped by the presence of two contradictory statements: “There is nothing to which he is subject.” and later, “… for Jehovah to be what he is, he can be subject to nothing save himself.” If He is subject to nothing, then He cannot be subject to Himself. These two statements cannot both be true. In the context of the Beroean Pickets forum, the key issue is that… Read more »
qspf writes “Meleti provides an interesting follow-up to the question about whether God could create Time, and thus if Time is a created thing. However, he has not made a convincing case, which is not helped by the presence of two contradictory statements: “There is nothing to which he is subject.” and later, “… for Jehovah to be what he is, he can be subject to nothing save himself.” If He is subject to nothing, then He cannot be subject to Himself. These two statements cannot both be true. ” Paul says that God has subjected all things under the… Read more »
The math examples are fine as illustrations, but illustrations are not proof. Math makes sense withinthe framework of the physical universe, but Jehovah is outside of it. Likewise, the fact that Jehovah may or may not limit his interactions with the physical universe to the laws he made up for that universe doesn’t require him to obey those laws outside of that universe. To illustrate–not prove–if I make up a game I would logically play by its rules, but when the game is over, I would no longer have to follow its rules. The example you give comparing the Trinity… Read more »
Really enjoyed this post,this position of the other sheep not in a covenant was my main stimulus to question my JW beliefs. The post mentions the major covenants, but if you take a good look at the bible,everyone Jehovah dealt with is put into a covenant or agreement of some sort,Adam with the tree,even Cain the murderer had a covenant,Noah had one,Abraham was mentioned,as was King David ,the tribe of Judah had a covenant,the whole nation of Israel,all under a covenant, the new covenant in force now. Yet the poor old other sheep forgotten! It is also an inconvienent truth… Read more »
Thank you Meleti and Menrov for the insights. This has always seemed an obscure topic, but your comments helped me to explain the summary chart this way in the WT study: WT Conductor: So how many covenants are there? Little Girl: Six! me: Jehovah has a singular purpose to reconcile mankind to himself and to express his sovereignty throughout the physical universe, overcoming the effects of mankind’s sin and falling under the influence of Satan’s evil. Jehovah did not have to utilize mere men to accomplish this, but by undeserved kindness on His part He kindly invited mankind to participate… Read more »
An excellent article Meleti. I had never before considered the covenants in exactly this light. But you have have made a very strong case. The whole scriptural history of covenants was heavily built upon in the full week elder school, and it was explicitly impressed upon us that most modern Christians are not part of any covenant, but are only “side beneficiaries”. Now we draw upon past examples of “organization” to claim that “this is the way God has always done things” (even though that’s not strictly true), but we should equally well bring the reasoning in this article to… Read more »
Also it speaks of paying taxes to them . Oh man
This is a little off subject but I wanted to share it. We had the CO visit last night. The CO explained that one reason they know that they have the truth is the 1962 change in the superior authorities teaching. No mention was made that originally Russell had presented the correct view of this scripture. It was explained that the doctrinal change on Romans 13:-1-2 is an example of “the light getting brighter”, completely avoiding any mention that this new light was a return to an original belief. ———————————————————————– Did Jehovah and/or Jesus direct Rutherford to introduce a false… Read more »
What feeble reasoning is that supposed to be proof .its absolutely obvious who the superior authorities are just by looking at the verses in context .they speak of those who rule they are gods ministers who bear the sword to punish bad deeds .it speaks of them being placed in position by god . Of course the verses do raise a few questions . The correct interpretation has been obvious to millions of Christians for years. And God couldn’t of course flashed his light and let them know about could he .
It just shows what a spiritual bully Rutherford must have been to sail that one at the brothers & sisters. Anyone with 1/2 a spiritual brain can see what the scripture means.
But alas, that was the man.
No wonder the Bible Students jumped ship when he pirated the WTS after Russel’s death.
Years on, we are in a similar position with the current GB and their grandiose claims!
What’s funny is that if you look at the Greek text of this passage, the word covenant is not used here, it is a different Greek word. The Greek word for covenant is DIATHEKE the Greek word used here in Luke in this verse is a different one. The Greek word used there is DIATITHEMAI it means to appoint to bequest or assign. so it should read: and as my father appointed a kingdom and conferred it on me, so do I confer on you. The ESV has it : and I assign to you,as my father assigned to me,… Read more »
Luke 22:29 NWT. The Society want JWs to believe that this is a covenant/agreement made specifically with the 144,000 anointed because they alone are to be rulers in the Kingdom with Jesus Christ, and this does not include the “other sheep”. Of course this is just another false teaching.
Good comments by all. Fine analysis Meleti, as usual. And if there is one thing you can learn from the writers of the WT, it is the way they create sort of new nouns: Edenic promise, Messianic Kingdom, Davidic covenant etc. I guess most of us recognize these “words” but actually cannot be found in the bible. When you use these terms in field service talking to other, they often look at you as you are from…well, Mars… Par. 4 reads partially Jehovah issued three decrees regarding humans: Our God would create mankind in his image, humans were to expand… Read more »
Thank you for contributing these thoughts, Menrov. I have been trying to working on an article about the development of the seed and contrasting that with what we’ve always been taught is the theme of the bible. I was missing some key elements so the article has been in the draft stage for several months, but you have just filled in the missing pieces.
I also appreciate your paragraph by paragraph breakdown which makes a nice complement to the article, so I’m editing it to include a link to your comment.
Paragraph 9 the week after speaks of the new covenant being a basis for the forgiveness of sins . And it was ratified by the blood of jesus if a person is not in this covenant then on what basis are thier sins forgiven .i say again the new covenant is THE COVENANT WHICH MAKES FORGIVENESS OF SINS POSSIBLE BY CHRISTS BLOOD . Yet the so called great crowd see no need to be in it . And yet they still feel that thier sins are forgiven by christs blood . If that is possible why did god bother initliating… Read more »
Brilliant question, Meleti….” Why didnt Jehovah make a covenant with the Other sheep?”. Werent the Gentile proselytes under the Law Covenant as long as they agreed to circumcision? Seems like the Other Sheep, according to WT belief, are actually under NO agreement with their heavenly father. A “step-child” with no inheritance agreed upon in writing.
Wow. I’ve only started looking through this article, but its . . . I’m not sure how else to put it . . . but its WT gobbledygook. Par. 9 makes a point in stating WHEN the Abrahamic covenant went into effect. (1943 BCE is the date given, but all WT dates prior to 587 are false by their own distorted reckoning – but that is besides the point). But notice the wealth of proof given to arbitrarily state when it went into effect. But then their is a “spiritual fulfillment” of that covenant (p. 11). “Cockamamy” is the word… Read more »
Bobcat, Luke 22:28-30 is perhaps the biggest and most contentious misinterpretation of scripture ever. Blending the New Covenant with the Kingdom Covenant by saying Judas was “dismissed” before verse 20 even though verse 21 puts him right back there. No other gospel writer is quoted to contradict this, and yet the WT is bold enough to say that Luke was not writing chronologically? No proof is given except their contentious supposition that Judas COULDN’T have been there to receive the emblems due to the fact that it would have included him into the Kingdom Covenant of Luke 22:28-30. No reference… Read more »
Not sure if the translation or use of covenant is key in order to understanding this passage as one will never know what word Luke originally used in this passage. In NET the word covenant is not even used: 28 “You are the ones who have remained with me in my trials. 29 Thus I grant to you a kingdom, just as my Father granted to me, 30 that you may eat and drink at my table in my kingdom, and you will sit on thrones judging the twelve tribes of Israel. I believe these verse are not as complicated… Read more »
We should all be quite aware of Jesus words, “In the house of my Father there are many abodes,” and only one was necessary for Kingdom heirs. Otherwise who else could Revelation 7:14 be referring to but more partakers who will yet “come out of the great tribulation,” who have also “washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb?” (John 14:2)
Luke 22:28-30 Of course there is always the possibility that Jesus actually meant what he said – always a good place to start!
I’m so glad I have faith in Jesus and not “the organization” I was just mentioning to my husband the other day about how as practicing witnesses we were told to point people to the “Organization”, rather than to the risen Savior, Jesus the Christ. I wonder how I was so blind for so many years…
Sadly, the JW other sheep do not have a proper relationship with our Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ, and that is the danger of belonging to a religious organisation which feeds its members false religious teachings. When a person becomes a Christian in the true Biblical sense, it is then that they experience the “real hope” as they begin to understand the true meaning of the Covenants which God gave to His people. It is that “hope” that provides the stimulus for faith and love, and enables us to come into a proper relationship with our Heavenly Father and Jesus… Read more »
So here’s the question: Why didn’t He make a covenant with the Other Sheep?
Because the other sheep are the antitypical type of the “alien residents” who were not in any covenant.
Signed: Fred Franz
Thank you. That clears up a lot.
“it is with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah”, that is to say, with those who are Jews because of being natural descendants of Israel and Judah, and who have faith in the promises which God made to the effect that through the house of Judah should the great Deliverer come; these are the ones with whom God will make the covenant. (Life Page 187 ,1929) Nobody but the Natural Jews are under the New Covenant -signed Rutherford (10 years after the GB was appointed as the “FDS ” by Jesus Christ ) Apparently Thousands of… Read more »