Today we’re going to talk about the memorial and the future of our work.
In my last video, I made an open invitation to all baptized Christians to attend our online memorial of Christ’s death on the 27th of this month. This caused a bit of a stir in the commenting section of both the Spanish and English YouTube channels.
Some felt excluded. Listen, if you want to attend and even to partake but are not baptized, I’m not going to try to stop you. What you do in the privacy of your own home is none of my business. That being said, why would you want to partake if you are not baptized? It would be meaningless. In six places in the book of Acts, we see that individuals were baptized in the name of Jesus Christ. You cannot legitimately call yourself a Christian, if you are not baptized. In fact, by saying “baptized Christian” I was uttering a tautology, because no one can presume to carry the name of Christian without first publicly declaring themselves as belonging to Christ by the act of immersion in water. If a person won’t do that for Jesus, then what claim do they have to the promised holy spirit?
“Peter said to them: “Repent, and let each one of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for forgiveness of your sins, and you will receive the free gift of the holy spirit.” (Acts 2:38)
With only one exception, and that to overcome powerful cultural and religious bias, did the holy spirit precede the act of baptism.
“For they heard them speaking with tongues and magnifying God. Then Peter responded: “Can anyone forbid water so that these might not be baptized who have received the holy spirit even as we have?” With that he commanded them to be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ. Then they requested him to remain for some days.” (Acts 10:46-48)
As a result of all this, quite a few are interested in understanding whether their former baptism is valid. That is not a question easily answered, so I’m putting together another video to address it and hope to have that out within the week.
Something else that came out in the commenting sections was a request for memorials in other languages like French and German. That would be wonderful. To accomplish it however we need a native speaker to host the meeting. So, if anyone would be interested in doing that, please contact me as soon as possible using my email address, meleti.vivlon@gmail.com, which I will put in the description section of this video. We would be happy to use our Zoom account to host such meetings and we would list them on the current schedule already published at beroeans.net/meetings.
I would like to talk a little bit about where we hope to go with all of this. When I did my first video in English at the beginning of 2018, my main purpose was to expose the false teachings of the organization of Jehovah’s Witnesses. I had no idea where this would take me. Things really took off the next year when I started doing the videos in Spanish. Now, the message is being translated into Portuguese, German, French, Turkish, Romanian, Polish, Korean and other languages. We are also holding regular meetings in English and Spanish, and we see that thousands of people are being helped to free themselves from enslavement to the false teachings of men.
This brings to mind the opening words of Zechariah 4:10 which reads, “Do not despise these small beginnings, for the LORD rejoices to see the work begin…” (Zechariah 4:10)
I may be the most public face of this work, but make no mistake, there are many working just as hard behind the scenes to get the good news preached, using whatever time and resources they have at their disposal.
We have a number of goals, and we will see which ones the Lord blesses as we move forward. But let me start off by saying that my position on forming a new religion has not changed. I am completely against that. When I talk about re-establishing the Christian congregation, what I mean is that our goal should be to return to the model established in the first century of family-like units meeting in homes, sharing meals together, fellowshipping together, free from any centralized oversight, obedient only to the Christ. The only name that any such church or congregation should choose is that of Christian. For identification purposes you might add your geographic location. For example, you might call yourself the Christian congregation of New York or the Christian congregation of Madrid or the Christian congregation of 42nd Avenue, but please don’t go beyond that.
You might argue, “But aren’t we all Christians? Don’t we need something more to distinguish ourselves?” Yes, we are all Christians, but no, we don’t need something more to distinguish ourselves. The moment we try to distinguish ourselves with a brand name, we are on the road back into organized religion. Before we know it, men will be telling us what to believe and what not to believe, and telling us whom to hate and whom to love.
Now, I’m not suggesting that we can believe anything we want; that nothing really matters; that there is no objective truth. Not at all. What I’m talking about is how we handle false teachings within the congregation arrangement. You see, truth doesn’t come from a man, but from the Christ. If someone stands up in the congregation spouting opinions, we need to challenge them immediately. They need to prove what they teach and if they cannot do that, then they need to be silent. No longer should we put up with following someone because they hold a strong opinion. We follow the Christ.
I recently had a discussion with a dear fellow Christian who is convinced the Trinity defines the nature of God. This Christian ended the discussion with the statement, “Well, you have your opinion and I have mine.” This is a very common and very foolish position to take. Essentially, it assumes that there is no objective truth and that nothing really matters. But Jesus said “For this I have been born, and for this I have come into the world, that I should bear witness to the truth. Everyone who is on the side of the truth listens to my voice.” (John 18:37)
He told the Samaritan woman that the Father is searching for those who will worship him in spirit and in truth. (John 4:23, 24) He told John in the Revelation vision that those who lie and carry on lying are denied entry into the kingdom of the heavens. (Revelation 22:15)
So, truth matters.
Worshiping in truth doesn’t mean having all the truth. It doesn’t mean having all the knowledge. If you ask me to explain what form we will take in the resurrection, I will answer, “I don’t know.” That is truth. I might share my opinion, but it’s an opinion and therefore next to worthless. It’s fun for after dinner conversation sitting around a fire with a brandy in hand, but little more. You see, it’s okay to admit we don’t know something. A liar will make some categorical statement based on his opinion and then expect people to believe it as fact. The Governing Body of Jehovah’s Witnesses does all the time and woe betide anyone who disagrees with their interpretation of even the most obscure Bible passage. However, a truthful person will tell you what he knows, but will also be willing to admit what he does not know.
We don’t need a human leader to protect us from falsehood. The entire congregation, moved by the Holy Spirit, is quite capable of doing that. It is like a human body. When something foreign, like a foreign infection attacks the body, our body fights it off. If someone enters the congregation, the body of Christ, and tries to take it over, they will find that the environment is hostile and leave. They will leave if they are not of our sort, or perhaps, they will humble themselves and accept the love of the body and rejoice with us. Love must guide us, but love always seeks the benefit of all. We not only love people but we love truth and love of truth will cause us to protect it. Remember that Thessalonians tells us that those who are destroyed are those who reject the love of the truth. (2 Thessalonians 2:10)
I want to talk about funding now, a little. Every so often I get people accusing me of doing this for the money. I can’t really blame them, because so many individuals have used the word of God as a means to enrich themselves. It’s easy to focus on men like that, but remember, the mainstream churches got there long ago. The fact is that since the days of Nimrod, religion has been about acquiring power over men, and today as in the past, money is power.
Still, you can’t get much done in this world without some money. Jesus and the apostles took donations because they needed to feed themselves and clothe themselves. But they only used what they needed and gave the rest of the poor. It was greed for money that corrupted the heart of Judas Iscariot. I have been getting donations to help me with this work. I’m grateful for that and to all those who have helped us out. But I don’t want to be like the watchtower Bible and tract society and take in money but never reveal how it is used.
I don’t use those funds for personal gain. The Lord has been kind to me, and I make enough secularly through my programming work to pay my expenses. I rent an apartment, and I just bought a four-year-old car. I have all I need. I’m also paying the rent out of my own pocket for an office and studio for the production of these videos. The money that has come in over the past year has been used to keep the web sites running, provide for zoom meetings, and support the various brothers and sisters helping with the production of videos. That requires proper computer equipment and software which we have purchased or which we subscribe to, for those who make time to work on the post production of videos, and who help maintain the web sites. We have always had just enough to meet our needs and as our needs have grown, and as they have grown, there’ s always been enough to cover the cost. We spent about $10,000 last year on such things.
What are our plans for this year. Well, that’s interesting. We recently formed a publishing company called Hart Publishers with Jim Penton. Jim has a fondness for that verse in Isaiah 35:6 which reads: “Then shall the lame man leap as an hart” which is an old English word for “an adult male deer”.
Our first book will be a reprint of The Gentile Times Reconsidered, a scholarly work by Carl Olof Jonsson which exposes the Governing Body for knowingly concealing the fact that their interpretation of 607 B.C.E. is historically inaccurate. Without that date, the 1914 doctrine crumbles, and with it goes the 1919 appointment of the faithful and discreet slave. In other words, without 607 B.C.E. as the date of the Babylonian exile, they have no claim to the authority they have taken upon themselves in the name of God that they can direct the organization of Jehovah’s Witnesses. Of course, they tried to silence Carl Olof Jonsson by disfellowshipping him. Didn’t work.
This will be the fourth reprinting of the book which has been out of print for some time, with used copies currently selling for hundreds of dollars apiece. Our hope is to again offer it at a reasonable price. If funding permits, we will also offer it in Spanish.
Shortly after that, we plan to release another book titled, Rutherford’s Coup: The Watch Tower Succession Crisis of 1917 and its Aftermath by Rud Persson, a Swedish ex-Jehovah’s Witness. Rud has compiled decades of exhaustive research of historical documents into the most thorough exposé of what really happened when Rutherford took over the organization back in 1917. The storybook account that the organization likes to tell about those years will be thoroughly exposed as false when this book is released. It should be required reading for every Jehovah’s Witness as it will be impossible for any honest hearted person to imagine that this was the man that Jesus chose out of all the Christians on earth to become his faithful and discreet slave in 1919.
Again, funds permitting, it is our desire to release both these books in both English and Spanish to begin with. Given that the subscribership of our Spanish channel on YouTube is three times as large as the English, I believe there is a huge need for this type of information for our Spanish-speaking brethren.
There are other publications on the drawing board. It is my hope to soon release a book I’ve been working on for some time. Many Jehovah’s Witnesses are starting to wake up to the reality of the Organization and want to have a tool to help friends and relatives to do the same. It is my hope that this book will provide a single-point resource to unmask the false teachings and practices of the Organization and provide a way for those exiting to retain their faith in God and not fall prey to the allure of atheism as it seems many do.
I haven’t settled on the title yet. Some working titles are: “In the Truth?” A Scriptural examination of the teachings unique to Jehovah’s Witnesses.
An alternative is: How to use the Bible to Lead Jehovah’s Witnesses to the Truth.
If you have any suggestions for a better title, please make them using my Meleti.vivlon@gmail.com email which I’ll place in the description field of this video.
Here is an idea of what the book’s chapters will cover:
- Did Jesus Return Invisibly in 1914?
- Was There a First Century Governing Body?
- Who is the Faithful and Discreet Slave?
- Is the Idea of “New Light” Biblical?
- Learning from the Failed Prophecies of 1914, 1925, 1975
- Who are the Other Sheep?
- Who is a Great Crowd and the 144,000?
- Who Should Partake at the Memorial of Christ’s death?
- Are Jehovah’s Witnesses Really Preaching the Good News?
- “Preaching in All the Inhabited Earth”—What Does It mean?
- Does Jehovah Have an Organization?
- Is the Baptism of Jehovah’s Witnesses Valid?
- What Does the Bible Really Teach about Blood Transfusions?
- Is the Judicial System of JW.org Scriptural?
- What is the Real Reason for the Overlapping Generation Doctrine?
- What Does It Mean to Wait on Jehovah?
- Is God’s Sovereignty Really the Bible’s Theme?
- Do Jehovah’s Witnesses Truly Practice Love?
- Compromising Christian Neutrality (That will be where we’ll deal with the UN in part.)
- Harming the Little Ones by Disobeying Romans 13
- Misusing the “Unrighteous Riches” (where we’ll deal with the sale of Kingdom halls)
- Dealing with Cognitive Dissonance
- What is the True Hope for Christians?
- Where Do I Go from Here?
gain, it is my desire to have this published in both Spanish and English to start with.
I hope this has been a help in getting everyone up to speed with where we are heading and the goals we have set for ourselves. Overall, our purpose is to obey the command at Matthew 28:19 to make disciples of peoples from all the nations. Please do what you can to help us achieve that goal.
Thank you for watching and for your support.
Archived Comments
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Comment by Ad_Lang on 2021-03-15 21:55:32
Very nice to see this video: it is so lovely to find that all these things are happening!
From what little research I have done, I have indeed found out about a lot of these things, like Mr. Rutherford's take-over. That's why I call the organisation of JWs one that has been hijacked. In fact, I think that Br. Russell's effort was hijacked. Sure, he may not have fully understood all truth, but I do believe he made a sincere effort. I am aware that his final article in a 1916 Watchtower is still available online, somewhere... as part of a database with lots of those old ones.
It's also exciting to look forward to the book you're hoping to finish soon. Studying with Jehovah's Witnesses has rekindled my curiosity for the Scriptures, but once baptised there was little room for growth. It's almost like you're growing, and then they put you in the freezer to preserve the state you're in, so that you no longer grow. Getting connected with like-minded individuals here and elsewhere has really helped me to maintain an interest and desire to keep following the course I chose when I insisted on getting baptised. Yes, I had to write a 12-page article to get to baptism. It is in the detail that I haven't had any interest in, rather aversion against, living forever. The brothers considered that a possible reservation.... what did they know? I don't feel different now, but it seems that focussing on what I can and should do now has brought me further than many of them have come.
Comment by Domine Ivimus on 2021-03-16 03:56:59
Thanks Eric. I am really looking forward to your article on baptism
Comment by Quasblint Xinu on 2021-03-16 09:10:05
I would like to draw your attention to something in Israel's Passover. The Israelites arranged for their family, and maybe neighbors if they were not large enough for a whole lamb to themselves, to celebrate the Passover. Would the children have been excluded? I ask this question because, when you say that the Memorial is for baptized people, you basically also exclude unbaptized children. If we consider that the Passover was looking forward to Christ and the whole family, including children would have eaten the lamb and the bread and drank the unfermented wine, would it now, when we celebrate in commemoration of Christ, be appropriate to say to our children, "Don't eat, don't drink!"
Notice what Jeremiah said about the purpose of the New Covenant:
33 “For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days,” declares Jehovah. “I will put my law within them, and in their heart I will write it. And I will become their God, and they will become my people.” 34 “And they will no longer teach each one his neighbor and each one his brother, saying, ‘Know Jehovah!’ for they will all know me, from the least to the greatest of them,” declares Jehovah. “For I will forgive their error, and I will no longer remember their sin.” – Jeremiah 31:31-34, NWT
Please note! There is here no mention of kingship or a special group set apart from the rest of God's people as if those are the special characteristics of the new covenant! The characteristics of the new covenant are that the people included in it are not under the old covenant and that now the people in the new arrangement have their sins forgiven outside the requirements of the law of Moses.
Consider also what Paul wrote:
11 However, when Christ came as a high priest of the good things that have already taken place, he passed through the greater and more perfect tent not made with hands, that is, not of this creation. 12 He entered into the holy place, not with the blood of goats and of young bulls, but with his own blood, once for all time, and obtained an everlasting deliverance for us. 13 For if the blood of goats and of bulls and the ashes of a heifer sprinkled on those who have been defiled sanctifies for the cleansing of the flesh, 14 how much more will the blood of the Christ, who through an everlasting spirit offered himself without blemish to God, cleanse our consciences from dead works so that we may render sacred service to the living God? 15 That is why he is a mediator of a new covenant, in order that because a death has occurred for their release by ransom from the transgressions under the former covenant, those who have been called may receive the promise of the everlasting inheritance. – Hebrews 9:11-15, NWT
When Paul says, "That is why", he is pointing to the forgoing verses as the reason for Jesus' being the mediator of the new covenant. The reason he mentions is that Jesus came as a high priest to obtain an everlasting deliverance (from sins). He does not put a limit by saying this is for baptized adults only.
But, let's see what Jesus himself said. Since Jesus is the mediator of the new covenant, he is in the best position to clarify who should partake of the bread and the wine. Let us examine his words in Matthew 26:26-28,26
"As they continued eating, Jesus took a loaf, and after saying a blessing, he broke it, and giving it to the disciples, he said: “Take, eat. This means my body.” 27 And taking a cup, he offered thanks and gave it to them, saying: “Drink out of it, all of you, 28 for this means my ‘blood of the covenant,’ which is to be poured out in behalf of many for forgiveness of sins.” – Matt hew 26, NWT
At the Passover festival, all the families celebrated with their kids and all partook. Since Jesus was setting the example for future Memorial celebrations, he would have clearly indicated if there was going to be a change in custom and if anyone should in future be passed over during the eating and drinking. But instead, he invites all to eat and drink and he explains the reason that they should drink: “for this means my blood of the covenant, which is to be poured out in behalf of many for the forgiveness of sins.”
Again we see that when Jesus explained the emblems, he made it clear that it is for the forgiveness of sins. Nothing mentioned about passing by the unbaptized children.
In conclusion, while I agree that the Memorial, just like the Passover, is not for "strangers" who are not part of God's people, this should only apply to not inviting unbaptized adults. According to the model of the Passover, and not having been given an exception by our Lord, it is reasonable to conclude that since the Israelite children participated in the Passover, our unbaptized children should partake with us in the Memorial, eating the bread and drinking the unfermented wine.
Mind you, if I'm mistaken on this, I would like to see scriptural reasoning why our children should be rejecting the bread and the unfermented wine, like all "other sheep" JWs do, which we condemn...
Comment by loveyourneighbor on 2021-03-16 12:29:06
Eric, looking forward to your book as well as the one on Rutherford. Very exciting to see.
You got me thinking here, and if you could critique this line of reasoning:
We look at every scripture in the Bible telling us to partake and we say: “no, that’s not for us, Jesus was talking to his apostles there, who were anointed.”
Or in scriptures linking the memorial and heavenly hope, we say: “Paul only meant that for the first century Christians who were all anointed, not us today.”
If that’s the case, than why do we participate in the memorial at all? As far as the Bible says, only people who were anointed were commanded to “keep doing this in remembrance of me”.
The logic is inconsistent. We say we’re not supposed to partake because that command was given to anointed followers.
But so was the command to “keep doing this in remembrance of me.”
Why do we follow that command, but not the command to eat the bread and drink the wine? Both were given to the same exact anointed people in the same setting.
And with all of that said, there is no record of unbelievers participating in the memorial - only baptized Christians.
My point is that if you pull the thread on JW logic, 96% of JWs should not be at the memorial - let alone the majority of attendees, who aren’t witnesses.Reply by Meleti Vivlon on 2021-03-16 14:13:54
An excellent line of reasoning. Thank you.
Comment by Lutenist on 2021-03-18 05:25:44
Please, please I beg of you, please re-print “In search of Christian freedom” by Franz. That book is what woke me up, and it can only help others. Please.
Yah bless.Reply by Meleti Vivlon on 2021-03-18 07:45:52
I would love to be able to do that. Unfortunately, we do not have the copyright.
Comment by Leonardo Josephus on 2021-03-19 04:34:26
It is good you start your book with 1914, Eric, for that is the one thing I notice that friends who are still "in" will defend, but not the way we might think. They may accept 607 BCE as a doubtful starter date, but they will all point to the signs Jesus gave at Matthew 24 etc, and consider that they may well be being fulfilled since 1914. That appears to be the main basis for their hope. And, of course, we will never actually know until Christ returns. So many changes to JW doctrine have followed the failure of their prophecies. 1925, anointed and the great crowd, 1975, overlapping generations, stand out.
Consequently I would simply call your book " Is anyone interested in the truth ? " or something like that.
Comment by loveyourneighbor on 2021-03-20 21:15:11
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