["Jehovah's Witnesses: Proclaimers of God's Kingdom", pp 206-209 -- video 178]
When Moses was sent to say to Pharaoh "let my people go!", he did not go alone. There was an already-existing system of governance in Israel, partriarchal elders from every tribe of Jacob's descendants. Will God scrap the patriarchy, and start something completely new -- something more like the "theocratic arrangement" of the Watchtower? That is, top-down corporate-type pyramid structure? Something -- when you stop to consider -- more like Egypt under the Pharaoh?
At the flash point of the Reformation, 500 years ago in 1517, Martin Luther led the march towards liberty which broke the yoke of dependence upon the vastly powerful Catholic priesthood and pyramidal hierarchy. Ironically, JW.ORG (The Watchtower), that most anti-Catholic of cults, has constructed a religion which makes dependence inevitable. Their 2-tiered "Christian" pyramid, with an all-powerful priesthood at the top of the structure, exerts enormous pressure upon the average JW to conform to rules of men. Under this legalistic pressure, the Witness has little incentive to develop a Bible-trained intellect, heart or conscience. After all, it is loyalty to the Governing Body, NOT loving God with your whole MIND, which will guarantee your entry into paradise.
Jehovah's Witnesses are very fond of using Job 27:5 to "prove" themselves different from hypocritical, compromising churchgoers, as well as "unfaithful" JWs -- "Until i die, I will not renounce my integrity". But was Job's integrity like the "faithfulness" of JW's? For Witnesses, "integrity" is bound up with following the dictates of a group of men in New York -- even when your reason, your conscience, and your reading of Scripture tell you something else. For Job, on the other hand, "integrity-keeping" meant following his clear conscience and DEFYING the "orthodox teachings" and counsel of men -- even when those men were the local elders (wise men), his own close friends, and his wife. So loyal was Job to his own God-trained conscience that not only did he challenge the "wisdom of Uz", and reject the unbelief of his own wife: Job actually demanded an audience with God Himself, where he might defend his own righteousness and vindicate his character! Job's accusers ("comforters") surely should have disfellowshipped him -- not just for the sins which they are sure Job has committed, but for the "clear blasphemy" of declaring HIMSELF righteous instead of vindicating God. -- Job 32:1,2
In Ephesians 2:11-18, the Apostle Paul plainly agrees with the Apostle John that Christ has ONE flock, ONE body, and that all Christians have ONE hope (see also Ephesians 4:4-6; John 10:16). Yet, the Scriptures, especially the Old Testament prophets, say much about an earthly rule of God. Isaiah 19:23-25 contains a spectacular prophecy, which is especially powerful in the light of the ongoing crisis in the Middle East. One day, says Isaiah, both Egypt and Assyria -- those 2 great empires on either side of little Israel -- BOTH of them will worship the God of Israel. In the light of realities then (both empires were polytheistic), even in the light of realities now, what with Islam dominating that part of the world, how likely is it that this prophecy will ever be fulfilled? Yet the God of Israel is already the God of former polytheists all over the western world. Even now, Muslims claim that their God is the God of Abraham, and therefore the same God as Jews and Christians worship.
TOPICS: JW.org; Watchtower; propaganda; ransom sacrifice; Theocratic organization; Governing Body; Charles Taze Russell; Joseph F Rutherford
#watchtower #cultsandextremebeliefs #jworg #propaganda #jehovahswitnesses
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