Now this video, while focusing specifically on Jehovah’s Witnesses, really has a much broader appeal, because the principles we’ll be looking to today can apply, do apply in fact, to all religions. And anyone watching this who is a member of any religion that calls itself Christian should think long and hard about what we’re talking about here, because we are talking about life and death—about eternal salvation.
The annual meeting of Jehovah's Witnesses at the start of October has become the event at which the Organization releases major doctrinal changes, euphemistically termed "New Light" and "Adjustments." For instance, totally dropping a one-hundred-year requirement to count time is considered to be an "adjustment."
I don’t know about you, but during my 40 years serving as an elder of Jehovah’s Witnesses with all the additional duties that went with that job, I struggled with the obligation imposed on me to keep my field service hours above the congregation average. So, to eliminate that obligation and call it an adjustment is an insult to everyone who struggled month after month to meet that artificially imposed obligation.
Will there be major changes to JW theology announced at this year's October meeting? That does seem likely, especially considering the article congregations will be studying the following month. It's titled "How to Develop 'an Obedient Heart'" — and it's a doozy. Let me take you to the key paragraph of that study article and see if you can spot the danger it presents to your spiritual health and welfare.
On page 10, Paragraph 6 of the October 2026 Study Edition reads:
"The Exodus account shows that we need to examine our reasons for obeying Jehovah and those he assigns to lead his people. Do we obey only when we see some immediate benefits? It's possible that some of the Israelites sprinkled the ram's blood on the doorposts simply to save their firstborn. Also, does our obedience depend on what others do? On the night of the Passover, Jehovah gave the Israelites 'favor in the eyes of the Egyptians.' (Ex. 12:36) But when the Egyptians later turned against them, the Israelites lost their trust in Jehovah and rebelled. (Ex. 14:10-12) In contrast to their attitude, if we have an obedient heart, we will be moved to trust in Jehovah and in those he has raised up to take the lead. (Read Jeremiah 23:4.) We will follow the direction we receive even if we do not fully understand all the reasons for it or if doing so angers those who hate Jehovah. How can we avoid making the same mistakes the Israelites made and develop an obedient heart?"
There are three key phrases in this paragraph that require your special attention, because the danger they represent could easily slip right past you.
"…we need to examine our reasons for obeying Jehovah and those he assigns to lead his people."
"…if we have an obedient heart, we will be moved to trust in Jehovah and in those he has raised up to take the lead."
"We will follow the direction we receive even if we do not fully understand all the reasons for it…"
Let's start with that last one. What does it actually mean to follow direction even when you don't understand the reasons behind it? Let me give you a Scriptural example.
Jehovah told Abraham: "Take, please, your son, your only son whom you so love, Isaac, and travel to the land of Moriah and offer him up there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains that I will designate to you." (Genesis 22:2)
Notice the word "please." God is asking Abraham to do him a favor. He doesn't say, "Do this or I'll kill you." But it's a big ask, isn't it? Please go to a place I'll designate — and kill your son and make a burnt offering of him to me.
Abraham didn't know why Jehovah was asking this of him. He wasn't given an explanation. He didn't understand the reasons behind this direction. But he had complete faith in God — complete trust in God. And it turned out well for him.
"Then Abraham reached out his hand and took the knife to kill his son. But Jehovah's angel called to him from the heavens and said: 'Abraham, Abraham!' to which he answered: 'Here I am!' Then he said: 'Do not harm the boy, and do not do anything at all to him, for now I do know that you are God-fearing because you have not withheld your son, your only one, from me.'" (Genesis 22:10-12)
With that in mind, let's look again at the other two phrases from paragraph 6.
"…we need to examine our reasons for obeying Jehovah and those he assigns to lead his people."
"…if we have an obedient heart, we will be moved to trust in Jehovah and in those he has raised up to take the lead."
If you are a loyal member of the Organization of Jehovah's Witnesses, you'll surely agree with the first part of those statements. You'll want to be like Abraham — to obey Jehovah and trust in Jehovah. But in the coming months and years, you are not going to receive direction from Jehovah through the Watchtower magazine or the annual meeting. You're going to receive it from the Governing Body. We know that to be true, because if the direction you get from the Watchtower were from Jehovah God there would be no need for new light and adjustments. What you get would be the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth.
But this article wants you to think that obeying those Jehovah assigns to lead his people, and trusting in those Jehovah has raised up to take the lead is synonymous with obeying Jehovah himself.
What credentials does the Governing Body present to justify such a claim? Ah, now there’s the real question. And it deserves an answer. Let’s look to the Bible to see what credentials Jehovah God has presented to his people in the past to get them to follow a man.
In Paragraph 6, the article directs you to the account of the tenth plague. The Israelites were told by Moses to kill a ram — a sacred animal to the Egyptians — and put its blood on the doorposts of their homes so that the angel of death would pass over them and spare their firstborn.
They were obeying those whom Jehovah had assigned to lead his people. They were trusting in those Jehovah had raised up to take the lead — namely, Moses and Aaron. But this was not blind faith. Over the course of many days, Moses had called for nine punitive plagues to fall upon Egypt, and each had happened exactly as foretold — from the first, when all the water in Egypt was turned to blood, to the ninth, when a mysterious darkness fell upon the land for three full days, but only upon the Egyptians, not the Israelites.
These were powerful miracles that could not be produced by human hands. In other words, Jehovah made it unmistakably clear through powerful works who it was that he had assigned to lead his people. And every direction Moses issued to the Israelites came true. There were no later revisions, no adjustments were needed, and there was no "new light."
Has Jehovah God assigned the Governing Body to lead his people? Has He raised them up to take the lead? If the Governing Body were to tell you to do something risky, would you do it trustingly — just as Abraham did when Jehovah asked him to offer up his son?
Abraham's faith was grounded in a lifetime of personal experiences in which he had seen the hand of God at work. The Israelites' trust that Moses was the one assigned to lead them was based on a series of extraordinary, miraculous manifestations of God's power. What does the Governing Body have to offer?
Paragraph 6 cites a verse to be read during the Watchtower study: Jeremiah 23:4.
"And I will raise up over them shepherds who will really shepherd them. They will no longer be afraid or be terrified, and none will be missing," declares Jehovah. (Jeremiah 23:4)
The implication is that the members of the Governing Body and those they have appointed down to the local level are these shepherds Jehovah has raised up — and that, unlike the shepherds of Christendom, they are not false shepherds abusing the flock and teaching false doctrines.
But let's go a little deeper and read the context of Jeremiah 23.
"'Woe to the shepherds who are destroying and scattering the sheep of my pasture!' declares Jehovah. Therefore this is what Jehovah the God of Israel says against the shepherds who are shepherding my people: 'You have scattered my sheep; you kept dispersing them, and you have not turned your attention to them.' 'So I will turn my attention to you because of your evil deeds,' declares Jehovah. 'Then I will gather together the remnant of my sheep from all the lands to which I have dispersed them, and I will bring them back to their pasture, and they will be fruitful and become many.'" (Jeremiah 23:1-3)
So — are the shepherds taking the lead among Jehovah's Witnesses, or for that matter, any other Christian religion, the ones destroying and scattering the flock and committing evil deeds? Or are they the righteous shepherds described in verse 4?
Perhaps the very next verse will shed some light on that.
"'Look! The days are coming,' declares Jehovah, 'when I will raise up to David a righteous sprout. And a king will reign and show insight and uphold justice and righteousness in the land.'" (Jeremiah 23:5)
Everyone agrees that the king Jehovah raises up is Jesus Christ. A shepherd doesn't own the flock — he watches over it on behalf of the owner. And in this case, the owner is Jesus.
In Israel, when Moses was sent to liberate the people, the hierarchy was simple:
All the Israelites → Moses → God.
The Bible tells us there is a similar hierarchy in the Christian congregation.
"So let no one boast in men; for all things belong to you, whether Paul or Apollos or Cephas or the world or life or death or things now here or things to come, all things belong to you; in turn you belong to Christ; Christ, in turn, belongs to God." (1 Corinthians 3:21-23)
The flock of God → Christ → God.
But this is not the hierarchy that Jehovah's Witnesses have implemented. Instead, there are seven levels, as depicted in a graphic from the April 2013 Watchtower.
[show graphic]
Notice that directly under Jehovah is the Governing Body. But something is missing. Where is Jesus — the King, the owner of the flock of God?
Was it just an oversight? Or are we seeing a pattern in which the Governing Body are subtly trying to usurp the role of Christ over the Congregation of God?
Surely not, you say. Hmm, then I ask you to tell me how many times in this article about developing an obedient heart is Jehovah mentioned. It was easy to check using the Watchtower Library. “Jehovah” appears 50 times in this article. Fifty times. But how many times is Jesus mentioned? Once. That’s right, once. And to be honest, we shouldn’t even count that single occurrence because his name is merely used as an adjective. Here it is, from Paragraph 1:
"When it comes to obeying God, some make a show of obedience to gain prestige, as did the religious leaders in Jesus' day."
This is the heart of the matter. This is where the real danger hidden in this Watchtower article is exposed.
Jehovah's Witnesses claim they are the only people doing God's work on earth today. So what is that work? Jesus tells us plainly:
"In answer Jesus said to them: 'This is the work of God, that you exercise faith in the one whom he sent.'" (John 6:29)
Jehovah didn't send the Governing Body. He sent Jesus. And we cannot claim to be doing God's will unless we exercise faith in the one He sent.
This article sets out to honor Jehovah God — and refers to him by name fifty times. But the Governing Body is overlooking a crucial truth:
You cannot give glory to God unless you first give glory to His Son. That is God's own arrangement. That is God's hierarchy.
"…so that in all things God may be glorified through Jesus Christ." (1 Peter 4:11)
"Through him [Jesus] let us always offer to God a sacrifice of praise, that is, the fruit of our lips that make public declaration to his name."* (Hebrews 13:15)
You cannot honor Jehovah while bypassing the one He sent.
"Whoever does not honor the Son does not honor the Father who sent him." (John 5:23)
Did you get that? If you don’t honor Jesus, the son of God, you do not honor the Father.
And here is what happens when you fail to give God the glory that is His due, glory and praise and honor that can only now be given through the son:
"But on a set day Herod clothed himself with royal raiment and sat down upon the judgment seat and began giving them a public address. In turn the assembled people began shouting: 'A god's voice, and not a man's!' Instantly the angel of Jehovah struck him, because he did not give the glory to God; and he became eaten up with worms and expired." (Acts 12:21-23)
According to Josephus, Herod Agrippa I took five very painfilled days to die.
So it isn’t a wise course of action to try to push aside Jehovah’s appointed king. You don’t want Jesus to get angry, do you? You wouldn’t like him when he’s angry.
“Kiss the son, that He may not become incensed And YOU may not perish [from] the way, For his anger flares up easily. Happy are all those taking refuge in him.” (Psalm 2:12)
The Governing Body of Jehovah's Witnesses wants you to believe two things.
One: That God needs an organization to accomplish his will.
Two: That there must be someone at the top of that organization to direct it.
The first premise requires the second.
But Jehovah God not only does not need an organization. In fact, he rejects the very idea of an earthly organization run by a group of men.
For roughly four hundred years after Israel settled in the promised land, there was no king.
"In those days there was no king in Israel. What was right in his own eyes was what each one was accustomed to do." (Judges 21:25)
Then, very stupidly, the people decided they wanted a king. Jehovah, through his prophet Samuel, told them this was a very bad idea. He foretold all the harm that would follow if they persisted — but they wouldn't listen. So he gave them a king, and in time, everything he warned them would happen, did happen.
In the first century, there was no organization and no Governing Body. Jesus had his appointed apostles, and like Moses, everyone could see they were assigned by God — because they could perform miracles, even raising the dead. But their purpose was not to govern. Jesus governed, and continues to govern, over each individual disciple.
Paul — one of the foremost apostles — told the Corinthians, as we just read, that he was not over them. He was their servant. All things belonged to them, they belonged to Christ, and Christ to God. That's it — plain and simple. And under that arrangement, led by the powerful holy spirit of God, the good news *"was preached in all creation that is under heaven"* (Colossians 1:23).
The good news got preached in all the inhabited earth without the need for an organization. In fact, it was only when things got organized that it all when wrong.
Do you remember the parable of the wheat and weeds? Notice one particular detail as we read it together:
"'Let both grow together until the harvest; and in the harvest season I will tell the reapers, First collect the weeds and bind them in bundles to burn them up, then go to gathering the wheat into my storehouse.'" (Matthew 13:30)
The weeds are bundled and burned first. But the wheat — notice this — is not bundled. Jesus is not describing the destruction of all religious organizations save one. The wheat is not gathered into an organization. Each stalk of wheat is gathered individually.
The Governing Body, like so many religious leaders throughout history, has quietly stepped into the place of Jesus — positioning themselves as the ones telling the flock what to do, how to do it, and when to do it.
But their power is waning as prophecy after prophecy has failed to come true.
When people see their influence slipping away, they sometimes double down and take drastic steps to consolidate it. This article hints at exactly that.
Returning to Paragraph 6, notice this phrase again:
"We will follow the direction we receive even…if doing so angers those who hate Jehovah."
What are they referring to? Paragraph 9 of the same article tells us:
"Moreover, during the great tribulation, the message we preach may become more forceful and direct, causing people to decide whether they will accept the Kingdom or not. To those who hate Jehovah, our message may seem like an 'unusually great' plague. (Rev. 16:21) No doubt, they will become enraged, just as Pharaoh had become at the Red Sea. We can prepare for future opposition by being obedient now to the command to preach despite how others may view us."
They may very well act on this. Remember, Jeremiah spoke of shepherds who were destroying and scattering the sheep. The leaders of the Organization may well issue direction — supposedly from Jehovah — telling the flock to preach a harsh message of condemnation. But if that message does not come from Jesus Christ, our King, then from whom will it come? If the spirit guiding these men is not from God, then what spirit is it? Because make no mistake — a spirit is at work here.
Here is something for every Jehovah's Witness to carefully consider:
"Dear friends, do not believe everyone who claims to speak by the Spirit. You must test them to see if the spirit they have comes from God. For there are many false prophets in the world. This is how we know if they have the Spirit of God: If a person claiming to be a prophet acknowledges that Jesus Christ came in a real body, that person has the Spirit of God. But if someone claims to be a prophet and does not acknowledge the truth about Jesus, that person is not from God. Such a person has the spirit of the Antichrist, which you heard is coming into the world and indeed is already here." (1 John 4:1-3 NLT)
This is where the buck stops with you. You, the individual. Do you believe that Jesus is the Son of God, sent to rescue us from death? Is he your king? Fine, then when someone tells you that they are speaking in his place, do you just buy that blindly? Because if you do, then you are disobeying what John under inspiration is telling you to do. You are failing to test them to see if they are from God or are speaking under the influence of another spirit, a wicked one.
It’s not easy to stand on your own two feet, spiritually speaking. It’s easier to let someone else take the lead. But you cannot serve two masters. Either you serve the Governing Body, or you serve Jesus Christ. Either you follow the Governing Body wherever they may go, or you follow Christ. The choice is yours. Make it a good one.