Jesus referred to his message as “the good news”. Not just good news, but the good news! It is news so good that it surpasses any other news. Why? Because it promises escape from all our enemies, including the ultimate enemy, death.
But every Christian religion has their own version of the good news. They can’t all be right. Jehovah’s Witnesses preach a message of good news that promises two different hopes of salvation. They preach that only 144,000 comprise a “little flock” that will inherit everlasting life in God’s kingdom with Jesus. Pretty much every space in that number, 144,000, has been filled according to JW theology. The hope that they preach from door-to-door is different. They preach that millions will live on a paradise earth. They call this larger group, “the other sheep,” based on their interpretation of Jesus’ words in John 10:16.
“And I have other sheep, which are not of this fold; those too I must bring in, and they will listen to my voice, and they will become one flock, one shepherd.” (John 10:16)
In the first video of this series, we learned there are many facets to being one of the other sheep, according to the teachings of JW publications. We looked at each of those facets and saw that they are all based on human interpretation. There was no scriptural support. So, that left us to answer the question: Who really are the other sheep that Jesus referred to? Can we learn that answer from just the Bible without depending on the interpretation of the writers of Watch Tower publications?
Yes, and that is what we are going to learn how to do in this video.
Look again at John 10:16 and you’ll notice that Jesus refers to two groups: “This fold”, and “other sheep”. Our goal is to know who the other sheep really are. From what Jesus says here, the one thing we can say for sure is that the other sheep are not part of “this fold”. So, if we can identify who make up this fold, then we can begin to determine the identity of the other sheep. With exegesis, we usually start by reading the context. The context should reveal the circumstances that prompted Jesus to say those words.
The term, “this fold”, refers figuratively to a “flock of sheep”. Who was present when Jesus referred to “this fold”? In English grammar, the word “this” is a demonstrative determiner which is used to specify the proximity or distance of the noun it refers to. So, “this fold” would be a flock of sheep that was present at that time. Who constituted a figurative flock of sheep that belonged to Jesus at the time he was uttering those words? Well, who was Jesus speaking to?
If you read the preceding chapter, chapter 9, you’ll see that he was speaking in public and that not only were his disciples present, but so were crowds of Jews. He had just cured a blind man on the Sabbath, using a method that involved work. That put him at odds with the Pharisees who had a warped, overly strict interpretation of how to obey the law regarding the Sabbath day.
Therefore, this fold could refer, not just to Jesus’ disciples, but to the Jews that were present. Right after he finished speaking, we read that “a division again resulted among the Jews because of these words. Many of them were saying: “He has a demon and is out of his mind. Why do you listen to him?” Others said: “These are not the sayings of a demonized man. A demon cannot open blind people’s eyes, can it?”” (John 10:19-21)
Perhaps Jesus was speaking only about his disciples, who were all Jews. Or perhaps he was referring to the nation of Israel as a whole. How can we determine which? The immediate context doesn’t tell us, so now we look at the wider context.
In the book of Matthew we read about a woman, a non-Jew from Phoenicia, who was imploring Jesus to free her daughter from demonic possession. Jesus did help her after seeing her faith, but his initial response was, “I was not sent to anyone except to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.” (Matthew 15:24)
Would the lost sheep of the house of Israel be “this fold”?
On another occasion, Jesus gave this similar instruction to his disciples before sending them out to preach the good news: “Do not go off into the road of the nations, and do not enter any Samaritan city; but instead, go continually to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.” (Matthew 10:5, 6)
We must also remember that Israel was still in a covenant relationship with Jehovah. He had promised them that they would become a kingdom of priests if they kept his covenant as stated in Exodus 19:6. That covenant was still in effect at the time that Jesus came, a shepherd greater than Moses or King David. If they had repented instead of murdering God’s Son, they would have continued to be God’s sheepfold.
So, this fold must refer to the sheep that were then present. The organization claims Jesus was referring to all spirit anointed Christians for the last 2,000 years when he said that. That would mean all Gentile and Jewish Christians who were anointed with holy spirit throughout time. But, we must remember that there were no spirit anointed Christians present to represent “THIS fold”. The anointing by holy spirit was still in their future and wouldn’t come until Pentecost, 50 days after Jesus was murdered.
So, who are the other sheep? According to the Governing Body, the other sheep are unanointed Jehovah’s Witnesses. Does it make any sense that Jesus was here referring to a bunch of Jehovah’s Witnesses who would not even be on anyone’s radar for the next 1900 years? Really?!
That doesn’t fit with anything we can find in Scripture. What does fit with Scripture?
Well, we just read Matthew 10:5, 6 where Jesus tells his disciples to preach the good news only to “the lost sheep of the house of Israel.” They were not to go to the Samaritans nor to the people of the nations, the Gentiles.
But that changed after Jesus died. Now it was time for other sheep (non-Jews) who were not of “this fold” (Israel) to “become one flock, one shepherd.” (John 10:16)
The first account we have of other sheep being added to the flock that was exclusively Jewish is found in the book of Acts. Here’s the account:
“When the apostles in Jerusalem heard that Samaria had received the word of God, they sent Peter and John to them. On their arrival, they prayed for them to receive the Holy Spirit. For the Holy Spirit had not yet fallen upon any of them; they had simply been baptized into the name of the Lord Jesus. Then Peter and John laid their hands on them, and they received the Holy Spirit.” (Acts 8:14-17 BSB)
And then, 3 ½ years after Jesus was resurrected, the first Gentile converts received holy spirit and become part of the one flock, under the one shepherd.
“While Peter was still speaking these words, the Holy Spirit fell upon all who heard his message. All the circumcised believers who had accompanied Peter were astounded that the gift of the Holy Spirit had been poured out even on the Gentiles. For they heard them speaking in tongues and exalting God. Then Peter said, “Can anyone withhold the water to baptize these people? They have received the Holy Spirit just as we have!” So he ordered that they be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ.” (Acts 10:44-48 BSB)
Okay, so the other sheep are non-Jewish Christians. That fits with Scripture. There is only one flock under one shepherd. But doesn’t that mean that all Jesus’ true disciples are children of God, born again, anointed with holy spirit?
If so, then why do Jehovah’s Witnesses teach that there are two groups? In part, they believe that because they’ve accepted the teaching that only 144,000 make up the spirit anointed body of Christ. Witnesses are taught that the number 144,000 from Revelation 7:4 and 14:1 is literal. If that’s true, then 144,000 would constitute a little flock by comparison with the millions of Jehovah’s Witnesses they believe make up a great crowd of other sheep. The term great crowd comes from Revelation 7:9.
We’ve just seen from Scripture sound evidence that the other sheep of John 10:16 refers to non-Jewish believers, Gentiles. However, this understanding is being challenged by the JW teaching regarding the identity of the little flock of Luke 12:32, the 144,000 of Revelation 7:4, and the great crowd of Revelation 7:9. We will need to apply our newfound study method of exegesis to understand what each of those terms really means. We’ll start with the little flock of Luke 12:32 and see how that relates to the 144,000 of Revelation 7:4 in part 3 of this series.
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