Once more, Jehovah’s Witnesses block your approach to God as Father.

If, by any chance, you have been following my series of videos on the Trinity, you will know that my principal concern with the doctrine is that it hinders a proper relationship between us as children of God and our heavenly Father by distorting our understanding of the nature of God. For example, it teaches us that Jesus is God Almighty, and we know that God Almighty is our Father, so Jesus is our Father, yet he isn’t, because he refers to the Children of God as his brothers.  And the Holy Spirit is also God Almighty, and God is our Father, but the Holy Spirit isn’t our Father nor our brother, but our helper. Now I can understand God as my Father, and Jesus as my brother and the holy spirit as my helper, but if God is my Father and Jesus is God, then Jesus is my Father, and so is the holy spirit.  That makes no sense.  Why would God use the perfectly understandable and relatable human relationship like that of a father and child to explain himself, and then mess it all up? I mean, a father wants to be known by his children, because he wants to be loved by them.  Surely Yahweh God, in his infinite wisdom, can find a way to explain himself in terms we mere humans can understand.  But the Trinity breeds confusion and clouds our understanding of who God Almighty really is.

Anything that inhibits or perverts our relationship with God as our Father becomes an attack on the development of the seed that was promised in Eden—the seed that would crush the serpent in the head. When the full number of the children of God is complete, Satan’s reign comes to its end, and his literal end is also not far off, and so he does everything he can to block the fulfillment of Genesis 3:15.

“And I will put enmity between you and the woman and between your offspring and her offspring. He will crush your head, and you will strike him in the heel.”” (Genesis 3:15)

That seed or offspring is centered on Jesus, but Jesus is now beyond his reach so he concentrates on those who are left, the Children of God.

There is neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, male nor female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus. And if you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham’s seed and heirs according to the promise. (Galatians 3:28, 29)

“And the dragon grew wrathful at the woman, and went off to wage war with the remaining ones of her seed, who observe the commandments of God and have the work of bearing witness to Jesus.” (Revelation 12:17)

For all their failings, the Bible Students in the 19th century had freed themselves from the false teachings of the Trinity and Hellfire.  Fortunately for the devil, but unfortunately for the 8.5 million Jehovah’s witnesses around the world today, he found another way to disrupt the true Christian relationship with the Father. JF Rutherford seized control of the Watch Tower publishing company in 1917 and was soon promoting his own brand of false teachings; perhaps the worst of which was the 1934 doctrine of the Other Sheep of John 10:16 as a secondary non-anointed class of Christian.  These were prohibited from partaking of the emblems and were not to consider themselves as God’s children, but only as his friends and were not in any covenant relationship with God (no anointing of the holy spirit) through Christ Jesus.

This doctrine creates a number of problems for the teaching committee of the organization in that there is no support for God calling Christians his “friends” in the Christian scriptures. Everything from the gospels through to the Revelation to John speaks of a father/child relationship between God and the disciples of Jesus. Where is there one scripture where God calls Christians his friends? The only one he called a friend specifically was Abraham and he was not a Christian but a Hebrew under the Mosaic Law Covenant.

To show just how ridiculous it can get when the writing committee over at Watch Tower headquarters tries to shoehorn in their “Friends of God” doctrine, I give you the July 2022 issue of The Watchtower. On page 20 we come to the study article 31 “Treasure Your Privilege Of Prayer”. The theme text is taken from Psalm 141: 2 and reads: “May my prayer be as incense prepared before you.”

In paragraph 2 of the study, we are told that, “David’s reference to incense suggests that he wanted to give careful thought to what he was going to say to his heavenly Father.”

Here is the complete prayer  as rendered in the New World Translation.

O Jehovah, I call on you.
Come quickly to help me.
Do pay attention when I call to you.
2 May my prayer be as incense prepared before you,
My uplifted hands like the evening grain offering.
3 Station a guard for my mouth, O Jehovah,
Do set a watch over the door of my lips.
4 Do not let my heart incline to anything bad,
To share in vile deeds with evil men;
May I never feast on their delicacies.
5 Should the righteous one strike me, it would be an act of loyal love;
Should he reprove me, it would be like oil on my head,
Which my head would never refuse.
My prayer will continue even during their calamities.
6 Though their judges are thrown down from the cliff,
The people will pay attention to my words, for they are pleasant.
7 Just as when someone plows and breaks up the soil,
So our bones have been scattered at the mouth of the Grave.
8 But my eyes look to you, O Sovereign Lord Jehovah.
In you I have taken refuge.
Do not take away my life.
9 Protect me from the jaws of the trap they have laid for me,
From the snares of evildoers.
10 The wicked will fall into their own nets all together
While I pass by safely.
(Psalm 141:1-10)

Do you see the word “Father” anywhere? David refers to God by name three times in this short prayer, but never once does he pray to him calling him “Father”.  (By the way, the word “Sovereign” does not occur in the original Hebrew.) Why doesn’t David refer to Jehovah God as his personal Father in any of his Psalms?  Could it be because the means for humans to become adopted children of God had not yet arrived? That door was opened by Jesus. John tells us:

“However, to all who did receive him, he gave authority to become God’s children, because they were exercising faith in his name.  And they were born, not from blood or from a fleshly will or from man’s will, but from God.” (John 1:12, 13)

But the writer of the Watchtower study article remains blissfully ignorant of that fact and wants us to believe that, “David’s reference to incense suggests that he wanted to give careful thought to what he was going to say to his heavenly Father.”

So what’s the big deal? Am I making a mountain out of a molehill? Bear with me. Remember, we’re talking about how the organization is, whether wittingly or unwittingly, blocking Witnesses from having a proper familial relationship with God. A relationship, which I might add, is essential for the salvation of the children of God. So now we come to paragraph 3.

“When we pray to Jehovah, we should avoid being overly familiar. Instead, we pray with an attitude of deep respect.”

What?  Like a child shouldn’t be overly familiar with his daddy?  You don’t want to get overly familiar with your boss. You don’t want to get overly familiar with the leader of your country. You don’t want to get overly familiar with the King.  But your father?  You see, they want you to think of God as father only in a very formal way, like a title.  Like a Catholic might call his priest Father. It’s a formalism. What the organization really wants is for you to fear God as you would a king. Notice what they have to say in paragraph 3 of the article:

Think about the amazing visions that Isaiah, Ezekiel, Daniel, and John received. Those visions differ one from the other, but they have something in common. They all depict Jehovah as a majestic King. Isaiah “saw Jehovah sitting on a lofty and elevated throne.” (Isa. 6: 1-3) Ezekiel saw Jehovah seated on his celestial chariot, [Actually, there is no mention of a chariot, but that’s another topic for another day] surrounded by “a brilliance . . . like that of a rainbow.” (Ezek. 1:26-28) Daniel saw “the Ancient of Days” clothed in white garments, with flames of fire coming from His throne. (Dan. 7:9, 10) And John saw Jehovah seated on a throne surrounded by something like a beautiful emerald-green rainbow. (Rev. 4:2-4) As we reflect on Jehovah’s incomparable glory, we are reminded of the incredible privilege of approaching him in prayer and the importance of doing so with reverence.

Of course we revere God and we have deep respect for him, but would you tell a child that when speaking to his daddy, he shouldn’t be overly familiar? Does Jehovah God want us to think of him first and foremost as our sovereign ruler, or as our dear father? Hmm…Let’s see:

Abba, Father, all things are possible to you; remove this cup from me. Yet not what I want, but what you want.”” (Mark 14:36)

“For YOU did not receive a spirit of slavery causing fear again, but YOU received a spirit of adoption as sons, by which spirit we cry out: “Abba, Father!” 16 The spirit itself bears witness with our spirit that we are God’s children.” (Romans 8:15, 16)

“Now because YOU are sons, God has sent forth the spirit of his Son into our hearts and it cries out: “Abba, Father!” 7 So, then, you are no longer a slave but a son; and if a son, also an heir through God.” (Galatians 4:6, 7)

Abba is an Aramaic word of intimacy. It might be translated it as Papa or Daddy.  You see, the Governing Body needs to support their idea that Jehovah is the universal king (the universal sovereign) and the other sheep are just his friends, at best, and will be subjects of the kingdom, and may, just maybe, if they are very loyal to the Governing Body, they might just make it all the way to actually being God’s children at the end of the thousand year reign of Christ. So they tell their people not to be overly familiar with Jehovah when praying to him. Do they even realize that the word “familiar” is related to the word “family”? And who is in the family?  Friends? No! Children? Yes.

In Paragraph 4, they point to the model prayer where Jesus taught us how to pray. The question for the paragraph is:

  1. What do we learn from the opening words of the model prayer found at Matthew 6:9, 10?

Then the paragraph starts off with:

4 Read Matthew 6:9, 10.

Okay, let’s do that:

““You must pray, then, this way: “‘Our Father in the heavens, let your name be sanctified. 10 Let your Kingdom come. Let your will take place, as in heaven, also on earth.” (Matthew 6:9, 10)

Okay, before going further, answer the question for the paragraph: 4. What do we learn from the opening words of the model prayer found at Matthew 6:9, 10?

The opening words are “Our Father in the heavens…” What do you learn from that? I don’t know about you, but it seems pretty obvious to me that Jesus is telling his disciples to look upon Jehovah as their Father. I mean, if that were not the case, he would have said, “Our Sovereign Lord in the heavens”, or “Our Good Friend in the sky.”

What does the Watchtower expect us to answer? Reading from the paragraph:

4 Read Matthew 6:9, 10. In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus taught his disciples how to pray in a way that pleases God. After saying “you must pray, then, this way,” Jesus first mentioned important matters that are directly related to Jehovah’s purpose: the sanctification of His name; the coming of the Kingdom, which will destroy all of God’s opposers; and the future blessings that He has in mind for the earth and for mankind. By including such matters in our prayers, we show that God’s will is important to us.

You see, they completely bypass the first and most important element.  Christians are to consider themselves children of God. Isn’t that remarkable? Children of God!!! But too much focus on that fact is inconvenient for a group of men pushing the false teaching that 99.9% of their flock can only aspire to be God’s friends at the present time. You see, they have to push that fallacy because they calculate the number of God’s children as only 144,000 because they interpret the number from Revelation 7:4 as literal. What proof do they have that it is literal? None. It’s pure speculation. Well, is there any way using scripture to prove them wrong. Hmm, let’s see.

“Tell me, you who want to be under law, Do you not hear the Law?  For example, it is written that Abraham had two sons, one by the servant girl and one by the free woman;  but the one by the servant girl was actually born through natural descent and the other by the free woman through a promise. These things may be taken as a symbolic drama; [Ooh, here we have an antitype applied in scripture.  The Organization loves its antitypes, and this one is for real. Let’s restate that:] These things may be taken as a symbolic drama; for these women mean two covenants, the one from Mount Siʹnai, which bears children for slavery and which is Haʹgar. Now Haʹgar means Siʹnai, a mountain in Arabia, and she corresponds with the Jerusalem today, for she is in slavery with her children. But the Jerusalem above is free, and she is our mother.” (Galatians 4:21-26)

So what’s the point? We’re looking for proof that the number of anointed is not limited to a literal 144,000, but that the number in Revelation 7:4 is symbolic.  To determine that, we first need to understand what two groups the apostle Paul is referring to. Remember, this is a prophetic antitype, or as Paul calls it, a prophetic drama.  As such, he is making a dramatic point, not a literal one. He is saying that the descendants of Hagar are the Israelites of his day centered around their capital city, Jerusalem, and worshipping Jehovah in their great temple. But of course, Israelites did not literally descend from Hagar, Abraham’s slave woman and concubine.  Genetically, they descended from Sarah, the barren woman. The point Paul is making is that in a spiritual sense, or a symbolic sense, the Jews descended from Hagar, because they were “children of slavery.”  They  were not free, but condemned by the law of Moses which no man could keep perfectly, except of course, our Lord Jesus. On the other hand, Christians—whether Jews by descent or from the Gentile nations as were the Galatians—were spiritually descended from the free woman, Sarah, who gave birth by a miracle of God.  The Christians are therefore children of freedom. So when speaking of the children of Hagar, the “servant girl”, Paul means the Israelites. When speaking of the children of the free woman, Sarah, he means anointed Christians. What Witnesses call, the 144,000. Now, before going further, let me ask you one question: How many Jews were there in the time of Christ? How many millions of Jews lived and died in the span of 1,600 years from the time of Moses to the destruction of Jerusalem in 70 C.E.?

Okay. Now we are ready to read the next two verses:

“For it is written: “Be glad, you barren woman who does not give birth; break into joyful shouting, you woman who does not have birth pains; for the children of the desolate woman are more numerous than those of her who has the husband.” Now you, brothers, are children of the promise the same as Isaac was.” (Galatians 4:27, 28)

The children of the desolate woman, Sarah, the free woman, are more numerous than the children of the slave woman. How could that possibly be true if that number is limited to just 144,000? That number has to be symbolic, otherwise we have a contradiction in Scripture. Either we believe God’s word or the word of the Governing Body.

“. . .But let God be found true, even if every man be found a liar. . .” (Romans 3:4)

The Governing Body has nailed its colors to the mast by continuing to cling to the absurd teaching of Rutherford that only 144,000 will be chosen to rule with Jesus. One silly teaching generates another and  another, so now we have millions of Christians who willingly turn down the offer of salvation that comes by accepting the blood and flesh of Christ as represented by the emblems.  Yet, here we find hard evidence that the number 144,000 cannot be literal, not if we are going to have a Bible that doesn’t contradict itself.  Of course, they ignore this, and have to perpetuate the unscriptural teaching that Jesus is not the mediator to the other sheep. They tell their flock to think of Jehovah as their king and sovereign. Just to confuse the flock, they will also refer to Jehovah as father, all the while contradicting themselves by saying he is only a friend to the other sheep.  The average Jehovah’s Witness is so indoctrinated that he or she isn’t even aware of this contradiction that their belief in Jehovah as their friend cancels out any thought of him as their father. They are not his children, but they call him Father.  How can that be?

So now we have direction—don’t you love that word—“direction”—such a great JW word.  A euphemism really—direction. Not commands, not orders, merely direction. Gentle direction. Like you are stopping the car, and rolling down the window, and asking a local for directions to get where you’re going. Only these aren’t directions. They are commands, and if you don’t obey them, if you go against them, then you will be chucked out of the Organization. So now we have direction to not get familiar with God in prayer.

Shame on them. Shame on them!

I should mention that the point I just shared with you from Galatians at 4:27,28 is not something I discovered on my own, but rather it came to me by way of a text message from a PIMO brother I recently met.  What this illustrates is that the faithful and discreet slave of Matthew 24:45-47 is not a man nor a group of men nor religious leaders, but the average child of God – a Christian who moved by holy spirit shares food with his fellow slaves and so each of us can play a role in providing spiritual nourishment at the proper time.

Again, thank you for watching and for supporting this work.

Meleti Vivlon

Articles by Meleti Vivlon.
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