A word of warning: I don’t want to offend anyone, but I’m not going to mince words in this video. Forgive me if I sound harsh, but Jehovah’s Witnesses in particular are facing a crossroads, a do-or-die moment.
The Governing Body just reversed an eighty-year-old policy that prohibited blood transfusions. They claimed they did this because the light got brighter in fulfillment of Proverbs 4:18.
Well, the light got brighter, but not in the way they thought. It is my hope that it got brighter for you, dear viewer.
You see, Proverbs 4:18 begins by saying, “The way of the righteous…”
So the light only gets brighter for the righteous. The unrighteous—that is, the wicked—stumble around in darkness, according to the next verse.
So, are you righteous? Are the members of the Governing Body righteous?
How can we tell who is righteous? You might think it is not for us to judge, but that is a naïve cop-out. Jesus told us this:
“A new commandment I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so also you must love one another. By this everyone will know that you are My disciples, if you love one another.” (John 13:34–35, BSB)
Everyone will know that we are Jesus’ disciples if we show one another the self-sacrificing love he displayed.
Jesus is the perfect image of his Father, the one true God, so Christ’s love for us is a reflection of God’s love.
If someone lacks the love that Jesus displayed, if they lack the love of God, can they be considered righteous?
The Governing Body says they love the brothers, but words come easily. Lies are made up of words. It is actions that speak the truth.
They continue to claim that they are God’s channel of truth. Yet for eighty years, their “truth” was that it was a mortal sin to allow yourself, your mate, or even your child to receive a blood transfusion. They claimed that truth came from God. Now they claim that new light from God means blood transfusions are no longer a sin.
So is God to blame for the thousands of unnecessary deaths this prohibition caused? Or was it an error caused by human imperfection? If the former, God would be a monster. If the latter, then the men of the Governing Body have committed a sin.
What are we supposed to do if we sin? Repent! Have they repented? No! Have they accepted any responsibility for the harm their unscriptural prohibition has caused countless parents and children? No!
Have they demonstrated—and are they now demonstrating—the self-sacrificing love of Christ by which the world would recognize them as genuine disciples of Jesus?
Can you honestly answer yes to that question?
Does that trouble you? It should. If it doesn’t, then the light isn’t shining on your pathway.
Love is everything. Scripture says that God is love (1 John 4:8). Indeed, the apostle John has much to say about love, and it bears directly on our discussion today.
“The children of God and the children of the Devil are evident by this fact: Everyone who does not carry on righteousness does not originate with God, neither does he who does not love his brother. For this is the message which YOU have heard from [the] beginning, that we should have love for one another; not like Cain, who originated with the wicked one and slaughtered his brother. And for the sake of what did he slaughter him? Because his own works were wicked, but those of his brother [were] righteous.” (1 John 3:10–12)
There is so much here to analyze, but let’s start with the binary nature of this passage. There are only two options: either you’re a child of God or you’re a child of the Devil. There is no middle ground, no third position. That binary nature of salvation began in the Garden of Eden. God declared that there would be two lineages: the offspring of the serpent and the offspring of the woman. Jesus tells us of only two resurrections: one of the righteous and the other of the unrighteous.
So are you a righteous person being guided by God’s light, or do you allow men to light your way?
First John 3:10 also tells us that the difference between the children of God and the children of the Devil is evident. Being evident means that it is plain for all to see.
All we have to examine is whether they practice righteousness. Righteousness has to do with love for one’s brother. Do they practice love of brother?
John then refers to Cain, whose worship was unacceptable to God. But instead of changing his worship to gain God’s approval, he murdered his brother. He murdered his brother because his own works were wicked.
Now look at the first-century governing body. That’s a term I use to describe the Sanhedrin, which was composed of the chief priests, as well as the high priest, the Sadducees, the Pharisees, and the scribes. They murdered Jesus and afterwards persecuted and killed his followers. Why? Because their works were wicked and they had no love for their brother.
When we look at the Governing Body of today, we see a similar pattern. Anyone who disagrees with them—whether that disagreement is based on a truthful revelation of Scripture or not—gets shunned, spiritually killed, and cut off from family and friends. Fortunately, any further punishment they might be willing to inflict is prohibited by law in most countries.
It is also a fact that they have callously caused the deaths of thousands through their blood doctrine, which they now admit was wrong, and yet they do not apologize—just as Cain did not repent after slaughtering his brother. A lack of repentance is a sure sign of wickedness.
But it goes further than that. John also tells us:
“By this we have come to know love, because that one surrendered his soul for us; and we are under obligation to surrender [our] souls for [our] brothers. But whoever has this world’s means for supporting life and beholds his brother having need and yet shuts the door of his tender compassions upon him, in what way does the love of God remain in him? Little children, let us love, neither in word nor with the tongue, but in deed and truth.” (1 John 3:16–18)
Through a misapplication of Scripture—essentially through lies—the Governing Body induced its people, including its circuit overseers and elders, to shut the door of their tender compassions. Can you imagine being with a father and mother whose child is dying and telling them that it would be wrong to allow a blood transfusion, only to learn many years later that it was really a matter of conscience and not a law of God at all?
Have we seen any display of tender compassion from the Governing Body toward those who are suffering? Have we heard any expressions of remorse, any display of tender compassions toward those they’ve harmed through their decades-long enforced prohibition on blood transfusions?
John says, “Little children, let us love neither in word nor with the tongue, but in deed and truth.”
The love the Governing Body expressed at the annual meeting was in word and with the tongue. But in deed, there has been no demonstration of love, and certainly no truth.
So, the light has grown brighter for you, because it has revealed the true nature of the Governing Body that you, as a loyal Jehovah’s Witness, have been following and obeying. What are you going to do? Are you going to follow the path that light is illuminating?
And so, dear friends, my former brothers and sisters in the organization of Jehovah’s Witnesses, you are at a crossroads. Something has happened that is far and away the most significant change within the congregation of Jehovah’s Witnesses in my lifetime. It demands a response. It demands action.
“Well, what am I supposed to do with this information?” you might ask.
The word of God does not leave you in the dark on this matter. It presents a similar situation to guide you toward a wise decision.
It was on Pentecost in 33 C.E., about 50 days after Jesus had been murdered, that the Holy Spirit was poured out on about 120 of his disciples. They began to preach boldly, speaking in many tongues. Crowds had gathered in Jerusalem from all over the Roman Empire. Many of these people had not even been in Jerusalem when Jesus was killed. Nevertheless, Peter tells them that they bear bloodguilt. He says the following:
“Therefore let all Israel know with certainty that God has made this Jesus, whom you crucified, both Lord and Christ!” When the people heard this, they were cut to the heart and asked Peter and the other apostles, “Brothers, what shall we do?” Peter replied, “Repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. This promise belongs to you and your children and to all who are far off—to all whom the Lord our God will call to Himself.” (Acts 2:36-39 BSB)
Those Jews—three thousand of them—recognized at that moment that they had to switch sides. They had to leave the wicked camp of the children of the Devil, that belonged to the governing body of their day, and join the children of God. And as Peter says, this promise belongs to all whom the Lord our God will call to himself.
Those three thousand, along with those who followed afterwards, escaped the destruction that came upon the nation. God is gracious. He could have brought destruction on Jerusalem immediately for having murdered his Son. Instead, he gave them 33 years for the preaching to reach them and for everyone to have the opportunity to make a decision: to side with God or remain with Satan.
But in 66 CE, the time had come. They had been commanded to flee when they saw Jerusalem surrounded by armies, and those who were faithful did so and were saved. Then, in 70 CE, over a million Jews were killed, and the city and its temple were razed to the ground.
And our Father has not changed. He does not vary like shifting shadows, as the Bible says.
Do not be fooled into thinking that the Governing Body’s bloodguilt for preaching a falsehood, causing the deaths of thousands, and refusing to repent will go unpunished. That is not the way our Father works.
In the book of Revelation, we read about a harlot who is guilty of many things, including shedding the blood of the prophets. Revelation 17:6 says,
“I saw that the woman was drunk with the blood of God’s holy people, the blood of those who bore testimony to Jesus.”
We know what happens to that harlot. And we know from Revelation 18:4 that those who remain associated with her will also share in her plagues, just as the Jews in Jerusalem in 70 CE received the punishment meted out to those who had killed Jesus Christ.
The Governing Body of Jehovah’s Witnesses are like the Jewish leaders of the first century, who considered Jesus’ disciples to be apostates.
But the Jewish leaders were the true apostates, and so it is with the Governing Body.
They mimic the actions of the Jewish leaders to a tee.
Be like those three thousand who cried out to Peter and the apostles:
“Men, brothers, what should we do?”
And Peter urged them:
“Get saved from this crooked generation.” (Acts 2:37–41)
Or perhaps, to bring it into our day, we can say: “Get saved from this overlapping generation.”
It is sad to say, but the majority are content to ignore the light. They continue to blindly support the Governing Body. They think nothing will happen to them because they’re just following the crowd. Yet Scripture is rife with warnings against just such an attitude. Take this one from the lips of Jesus:
“In reply he said: ‘Every plant that my heavenly Father did not plant will be uprooted. Let them be. Blind guides is what they are. If, then, a blind man guides a blind man, both will fall into a pit.’” (Matthew 15:13–14)
This is where your personal responsibility comes into play. If you follow a blind guide, then you are blind, and both of you will fall into a pit.
Do not fool yourself into believing there will be no accounting. There is always an accounting with God.
“Therefore, if someone knows how to do what is right and yet does not do it, it is a sin for him.” (James 4:17)
As I said at the start, this is a do-or-die moment, a time for action, a time to make a decision that will affect the rest of your life. Make it a good one. Follow the path of light.