[From ws15/11 for Jan. 25-31]
“May the God of peace . . . equip you with every
good thing to do his will.”— He 13:20, 21
This entire article is based on the premise that Jesus has been ruling over the Organization of Jehovah’s Witnesses since 1914. For a Scriptural examination of the flaws in that belief, please read 1914 - A Litany of Assumptions.
The opening paragraph of this week’s study states that Jesus “spoke more about the Kingdom than about any other subject—referring to it more than 100 times during his ministry.” That would work out to a little over one mention every two weeks. I’m sure he spoke about it more than that, so perhaps the writer should have rephrased this as “He is recorded as referring to it more than 100 times.”
This may seem picky, but one must remember that we were told in the 2012 annual meeting that every issue of The Watchtower goes through dozens of reviews to ensure accuracy of even the smallest details before ever being printed and released to the public. This is meant to inspire unquestioning reliance on every word sounded down from the Governing Body.
Be that as it may, a quick scan of these 100+ mentions reveals a number of recurring phrases.
- The kingdom of the heavens
- The good news of the kingdom
- The sons of the kingdom
- The kingdom of God
Matthew prefers “kingdom of the heavens”, using it more than any other phrase; while Mark and Luke use “kingdom of God” most frequently.
From paragraphs 2 thru 9, we learn of early methods that the Bible Students used. A testimony card and the portable phonograph which played recordings of talks by Judge Rutherford.
Paragraphs 10 and 11 speak of the preaching that was effected by Russell and Rutherford through the use of newspapers and radio broadcasts.
Paragraph 12 covers public witnessing—still our mainstay—as well as the much more recent cart work.
Paragraph 13 introduces the preaching possible by using the JW.org website.
Paragraphs 14 thru 18 covers all the training Jehovah’s Witnesses receive for the preaching work.
Paragraph 19 concludes with these words:
“More than 100 years have elapsed since the birth of God’s Kingdom. Our King, Jesus Christ, continues to train us.…And how grateful we are that the God of peace continues to equip us for this most enjoyable work! Indeed, he gives us “every good thing” we need to do his will!”
This is a nice bookend to the thought expressed in paragraph 3: “So this vast preaching work would be carried out under his [Jesus'] direction. And our God has equipped us with “every good thing” to help us fulfill that commission.” All of which is consistent with the overall theme that for the past 100 years, Jesus has been ruling over the Organization of Jehovah’s Witnesses.
What History Teaches Us
Is this consistent with the historical facts? After all, we are attributing divine direction to all our work and any decision we’ve made is said to have come from Jesus himself.
According to our teaching, in 1919 Jesus chose us as a group and J. F. Rutherford and his supporters specifically to be his faithful and discreet slave. At this time, Rutherford was promoting the idea that millions then living would never die because the end would be coming in 1925. We excuse this by blaming human imperfection, but is it fair to do that while also claiming that all these decisions and training come from Jesus? We are saying that Jesus chose this man at a time when he was publicly promoting a falsehood that would lead to the disillusionment of tens of thousands and bring reproach on the preaching work. (From 1925 to 1928, memorial attendance fell from 90,000 to 17,000 as a direct result of this disappointment - Jehovah’s Witnesses in the Divine Purpose, pages 313 and 314)
Did Rutherford meet the Scriptural qualifications for being appointed as the faithful slave? (See Qualifications to Become God's Channel of Communication)
Rutherford also introduced a clergy and laity class with his creation of a secondary group of Christians who are denied the hope of becoming God’s children. This is now the “good news of the kingdom” that we preach around the world. It is a false hope, yet we promote it in the name of Christ. Apparently, this is what Christ wants.
Since the article is directly referring to Jesus' alleged direction of our Organization in the preaching work, we should recall that computers were discouraged for any theocratic activity and the internet was villified. Then, apparently, Jesus changed his mind, and suddenly the internet is the prime means for us to preach the good news.
During the 20th Century, Jesus, as the one supposedly directing the Organization, apparently felt the need to change the time frame of "this generation" (Mt 24:34) once per decade until finally telling us by the mid-1990s that it didn't apply at all to a measurement of time. Then he changed his mind again in 2010 to tell us that a whole new definition of the word, never before encountered in Scripture, applied.
A good manager knows that those under his authority need a sense of stability. Constantly changing requirements dishearten and disillusion. Yet this is the pattern set by Jesus' rulership over the past 100 years, if the allegations made in this Watchtower are to be accepted as true.
By claiming that Jesus is directing and training us, we put the responsibility on him for all these changes. Again, putting this down to merely the imperfection of men doesn't work, because if Jesus is in charge and allows this type of conduct to go on for over a century, then ultimately, he is to blame.
It gets worse, because in addition to all the above, we are now told that the faithful and discreet slave Jesus identified for us starting back in the first century never ever was. Now we are told that the slave only came into existence in 1919 and consists of a small group of seven men. We are told that Jesus delights in these men and will appoint them over all his belongings when he returns. So despite all their "mistakes" he's invested even more confidence in them.
Now Jesus, it seems, wants us to treat the word of this Governing Body as if it were his very own. We are told that God's word and the publications are on par. (See Avoid Testing Jehovah in Your Heart) Each new teaching is treated as gospel, at least until it is abandoned for a newer version.
So, have we really been under Christ's rulership for the past 101 years? Or is someone else ruling?
Archived Comments
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Comment by Menrov on 2016-01-26 15:07:15
First question : leqding text says God of prace..is this to refer to YHWH being God and He is synonym for peace OR is this referring to the entity that is the master (god) of peace, being Jesus.
Reply by Meleti Vivlon on 2016-01-26 16:54:22
Good question. I wonder if there is really a difference, being that Jesus is the image of God and the reflection of his glory.
Comment by sam on 2016-01-26 16:31:49
In his second letter to the Thessalonians, Paul explicitly warned the brothers not to allow themselves to be seduced by official sounding proclamations heralding the presence of Christ. At Thessalonians 2:1-5, the inspired apostle wrote: “However, brothers, respecting the presence of our Lord Jesus Christ and our being gathered together to him, we request of you not to be quickly shaken from your reason nor to be excited either through an inspired expression or through a verbal message or through a letter as though from us, to the effect that the day of Jehovah is here. Let no one seduce you in any manner, because it will not come unless the apostasy comes first and the man of lawlessness gets revealed, the son of destruction. He is set in opposition and lifts himself up over everyone who is called “god” or an object of reverence, so that he sits down in the temple of The God, publicly showing himself to be a god. Do you not remember that, while I was yet with you, I used to tell you these things?”
Now consider the facts:
Since they were initially formed into an association, the International Bible Students were seduced into believing that the presence of Christ commenced in 1874. One of the first issues of the Watchtower Magazine in 1878 heralded 1914 as the year designated in Bible chronology, corroborated by occultic pyramidology, as the beginning of the day of Jehovah. Some of those early Bible Students were so shaken from their reason by Russell’s apocalyptic message that in the early part of 1914 they sold their winter clothes, assuming they would not need them come the winter of 1914-15. The Watchtower Society teaches that the resurrection has already begun too – supposedly in 1918.
About a decade after 1914 had come and gone the Watchtower Society dropped 1874 as the date of Christ’s return and adopted 1914. However, up until 1970 the Watchtower taught that the great tribulation and the day of Jehovah had begun in 1914, but that God had cut it short. Also, as is well known, back in the 1960’s the Watchtower Society began building anticipation for the year 1975. Again, many became “excited” through “verbal messages” issued by circuit and district overseers and other Watchtower officials. But, needless to say 1975 came and went uneventfully. But to this day the Society continues to issue official sounding verbal messages and apostolic-like letters in the form of various publications insisting the parosuia has already begun and the day of Jehovah is here.
But 1914 is easily refuted. Simply considering the context of the 21st chapter of Luke ought to convince reasonable minds that the so-called gentile times, “the appointed times of the nations,” did not begin when the Chaldeans destroyed Jerusalem.
A few days prior to Jesus’ remarks he had stunned the apostles when he told them that the temple in Jerusalem was going to be thrown down without so much as a single stone remaining upon another stone. When the disciples questioned Jesus regarding when these things would occur he went on to explain to them that Jerusalem would be surrounded by pointed stakes and distressed from every side and that the holy place would be trampled upon by the nations until the appointed times of the nations had been fulfilled. Jesus went on to tell them that when they saw the disgusting thing standing in the holy place they were to immediately flee out of Jerusalem and not return. So, their heeding the sign Jesus gave them would be of life and death importance.
Now ask yourself: If I had been one of the apostles on the Mount of Olives listening to Jesus explain the events that were to occur, would I have perhaps understood him to mean that the trampling of Jerusalem by the nations had already begun five centuries prior when Nebuchadnezzar destroyed Solomon’s temple? No sober-minded person would ever arrive at that conclusion. And yet, that is precisely what Jehovah’s Witnesses believe today!
That being the case, how can any honest-reasoning person deny that Jehovah’s Witnesses have been positively shaken from their reason and seduced by the Watchtower’s clever but specious presentation of chronology?
“THAT THEY MAY GET TO BELIEVING THE LIE”
According to the Watchtower the man of lawlessness is manifest in the clergy of Christendom. The apostasy that Paul prophesied supposedly occurred some 17 centuries ago when Constantine assumed control of what passed for Christianity. However, Paul indicated that the presence of a man of lawlessness would be an immediate prelude to the authentic presence and manifestation of Christ.
It is most noteworthy that Paul also described the man of lawlessness as “the son of destruction.” That is an allusion to Judas, the traitorous apostle and treacherous associate of Jesus. This, and Paul’s revelation that the man of lawlessness sits down in the spiritual temple of The God, which is to say – Christ’s congregation – indicates that the man of lawlessness exists inside the intimate group of Christians up until the manifestation of Jesus Christ.
Just as the apostles were oblivious to Judas’ duplicitous nature up until the moment he betrayed the Lord with a tender kiss, so too, the chosen ones who make up the temple of Christ are presumably unaware of the existence of the man of lawlessness in their midst. That is because he is an agent of Satan and can easily transform himself into a minister of righteousness, just as his master, Satan, is capable of transforming himself into an angel of light, as he did in connection with the superfine apostles who had wheedled their way into leadership positions among the Corinthians back then.
Satan the Devil Paul went on to say: “But the lawless one’s presence is according to the operation of Satan with every powerful work and lying signs and portents and with every unrighteous deception for those who are perishing, as a retribution because they did not accept the love of the truth that they might be saved. So that is why God lets an operation of error go to them, that they may get to believing the lie, in order that they all may be judged because they did not believe the truth but took pleasure in unrighteousness.”
Keep in mind that Paul’s sobering warning was directed to anointed Christians. They are the ones whom Satan has demanded to have to sift as wheat. And that is why Jehovah allows an operation of error to go to those who otherwise know the truth, in order to have their love of the truth tested. And according to the context of our apostle’s warning, the operation of error emanating from Satan, through his man of lawlessness, is intended to deceive anointed Christians into accepting a faux parousia. Also, it should be noted that Jesus himself warned of a great deceptive work that would counterfeit the very presence of the Christ that would be in operation during the conclusion of the system, which will be so convincing so as to deceive even the chosen ones, were that possible.
That the foretold “operation of error” is in effect at this moment is evident by the fact that Paul said it was in order that they may be judged. In other words, those who continue to believe the lie after Christ’s parousia actually commences will be adversely judged. This is the means by which Jehovah shall cause his people to pass under the rod during the judgment.
When considering the Watchtower Society’s long record of false proclamations regarding the parousia and the day of Jehovah, dating all the way back to 1874, and the artifice used to twist the meaning of the appointed times of the nations, (and many other prophecies not highlighted in this article) and the fact that the Organization claims to speak for Jehovah himself, in affect, claiming to be a god, can there be any doubt that the man of lawlessness resides within the Bethel leadership of Jehovah’s Witnesses?
During the test to come all of Jehovah’s Witnesses will be required to dislodge the operation of error that the Watchtower has implanted in their minds or risk losing all. The question all of Jehovah’s Witnesses reading this article ought to consider is this: When the Son of man arrives will he really find the faith dwelling in me?
Comment by Anonymous on 2016-01-26 16:38:24
The Gentile Times have ended. Their Kings have had their day......30 years later World War 2 erupts. Hmmm.....
Reply by CJ on 2016-01-26 18:57:13
The gentile times have ended has nothing to do with World War 2. It says the Jerusalem would be trampled on until the gentile times have been fulfilled. The gentile times being fulfilled means that the Jews are
now able to return to their land. And we have seen this since 1917 and even more so with these last days. :) the JWs have taught replacement theology and have taught this to mean that God's Kingdom is now established. Which is all wrong. .Reply by Meleti Vivlon on 2016-01-26 19:25:34
This is not an interpretation that is based in Scripture, but if you want to discuss it, please submit proof and I'll open up a topic on it.
Comment by Hamilton Grey on 2016-01-26 17:30:20
20 And I saw an angel coming down out of heaven with the key of the abyss and a great chain in his hand. 2 He seized the dragon, the original serpent, who is the Devil and Satan, and bound him for 1,000 years. 3 And he hurled him into the abyss and shut it and sealed it over him, so that he would not mislead the nations anymore until the 1,000 years were ended. After this he must be released for a little while
One of Jesus first duties as king of the kingdom is the above. Are we to assume Satan now only to be abyssed for 900 years as the kingdom has now been 'active' for over 100 years?
Comment by Nick O. on 2016-01-26 18:01:01
When one attempts to defend the position that Jesus has been ruling invisibly since 1914, often his defense follows with a list of the things that Jesus supposedly started to accomplish as King in 1914. One might cite, directing the congregation and taking a lead in the preching of the good news. We no longer teach that he is yet serving as judge in seperating the sheep from the goats. All this begs the question then: In what manner, does the kingship of Jesus Christ differ from the kingship referenced at Colossians 1:13? This scripture is recognized by Jehovah's Witnesses as evidence that Christ was King over the christian congregation as far back as 33CE. But was Christ reappointed in 1914, only to accomplish the same things as when he was crowned the first time?
Comment by Father jack on 2016-01-26 18:14:12
100 years of kingdom rulership . Isnt that lovely , lets celebrate . ? Christ rules over the world revelation 11 v15 . Paradise or what . ?
Comment by Buster on 2016-01-28 14:35:17
Wait a minute I thought Jesus came back as king in 1878... What is that now old light :)
Comment by AR on 2016-01-28 20:38:01
Thanks Meleti, great review. Well the Organisation is about preaching and teaching. And one receives good training as a minister to preach and teach.
And like a pro athlete, they also try various methods to achieve optimum results. However, by trying keep ahead of the pack, some athletes have introduce supplements or steroids in their training program. Well, in like manner, The GB , have a great training program, however, over the time they have introduced a supplemented program(material) added 'nutrients' which seem to be outside the rules that the scriptures are govern, that is, not to add or subtract from it.
You could say, it's given them the edge over the last 100 years, over other religions even, but at what cost. Going undetected , proclaiming that Gods word, was its primary text book, and having Gods backing, was the reteric, however included in that was, teachings , 'that had the ring of truth' but in fact was a supplement program, Twicked to suit the current light of understanding at any given time. When ones started to speak up(testing) the teaching program, and coming up with something contrary to their beliefs. A scandal was on the horizon!
The spin doctors came out, Quoting Prov 4:18 was 'the get out of Jail' card. We accepted those adjustments as the light gets brighter so does our understanding. However , brave individuals continue to test , this teaching program as outlined in 1 John 4:1 and what have they found. 1 John 4:6 exposing of errors. So maybe Jesus has been examining these teachings and slowly been revealing falsehood as prescribed in Prov 4:18. Mark twain said, I quote" if you tell the truth, you have nothing to hide."That sounds right. Nothing to hide.
Comment by Robert on 2016-02-06 04:01:50
I still read "Studies in the Scriptures" by Charles Taze Russell. The Truth will set you free. The W.T.S. went into apostasy after Russell.