Q:
Unless I am reading what you mean,
incorrectly, are you saying that Jehovah has chosen JW's and only JW's to extend
the growth of the original foundation that was laid? No other group claiming to
be Christian, can lay claim to being a part, or claim any connection to being
'His Temple' due to their failure to 'render acceptable sacred service to Him'?
You must be confident that the arrangement for such sacred service to God is
being faithfully represented by only Jehovah's Witnesses?
I'm working this point, because its a major
point in the cementing and making more firm my own realisations. I was never
really given the freedom to question these long held questions for many years,
whilst I was associating within the congregation of Jehovah's Witnesses; . . .
Please do not see my questions as being more than genuine and sincere pleadings
for help in understanding things I have loved for many many years; all with a
view of fortifying my own faith in order to make my foundation in the Christ
much more solid, in order to be able to make an effective and more discerning
defense of Gods Truth.
________________________
A:
I
totally understand your dilemma of trying to make sense of the "mystery" of
God's household within the context of what we have been taught by the Watchtower Society;
and by the reality of present conditions within the organization.
(1John 3:1; Eph. 5:32)
Due to the ever changing interpretation of Scriptures by the Watchtower Society;
and their failed expectations in connection with the fulfillment of certain
life-impacting prophecies, many former zealous Witnesses have now become
disillusioned with the leadership of the governing body which still
emphatically insist that they are the "faithful and discreet salve" of Matthew 24:45.
This has resulted in a credibility crisis within the organization, causing many
to not only wonder whether they are God's people, but also question if God
actually has a people, a household of true worshipers. (1 Tim. 3:14-15)
Therefore, like yourself, many are asking: Do only Jehovah's witnesses render
sacred service to God? Would God be using an organization that teaches lies in
order to extent the growth of the original foundation that was laid at
Pentecost? Or, perhaps, are Jehovah's Witnesses God's people because they are
the closest to the truth, rejecting such doctrines as the pagan Trinity; the
immortality of the human soul; hell fire; etc.? These questions are being
debated on the many forums on the internet, where we find former Witnesses now
suggesting that God's people are scattered among the many religions of this
world; and therefore it does not really matter how we worship God, or that we
use his name Jehovah. Of course, it must also be acknowledged that the majority
of the Witnesses are continuing to put their trust in the leadership of the
governing body, viewing any dissenters as apostate. This really does present a
confusing picture, doesn't it?
The "World Christian Encyclopedia: A comparative survey of churches and
religions - AD 30 to 2200," states that there are 19 major world religions,
which in turn are subdivided into a total of 270 large religious groups. In
addition, it is estimated that there are as many as 4,200 smaller "faiths" or
"belief systems" in the world. Why such a profusion of confusion when it comes
to religion and worship?
Does it matter how, or where, or
whom we worship? Should we expect God's people to be scattered among these many
different religions?
Our Creator, to whom all mankind owes their existence, tells us that he
acknowledges only two religions: the worship and obedience that belongs
to Him as the One and only true God, whose name is Jehovah; and the false and
deceptive worship set up by Satan in opposition to God, upon his rebellion in
the Garden of Eden when he succeeded in turning the first human couple against
their Creator and thereby gaining the authority and control over them and their
as yet unborn future offspring. The Bible tells us that "the whole world is
under the control of the evil one," namely, Satan the Devil, "who leads the
whole world astray." (1John 5:19; Rev. 12:9, NIV) This includes even
those who profess to have no religion nor believe in the existence of the
Creator.
"Truth" always remains truth! It never changes. Therefore, there can be only one
true religion. Satan's form of worship, which is based on lies, has fragmented
over the centuries into the thousands of belief systems that exist today. Why
should the many lies of Satan's religions cause us confusion when we have God's
Word which explains the truth from the very beginning. These are the only two options. We either obey and worship Jehovah
"with spirit and truth," as Jesus taught his followers; or
otherwise our obedience belongs to Satan, who is the ruler of this world. (John 4:23-24; 12:31;
2 Cor. 4:4) It is impossible to worship Jehovah and Satan side
by side. We either belong to the one or to the other; but we cannot worship
both! (1 Cor. 10:20-22; James 4:4;
1 Kings 18:21)
The apostle Paul explains: "Stop forming inappropriate relationships with
unbelievers. Can right and wrong be partners? Can light have anything in common
with darkness? Can Christ agree with the devil? Can a believer share life with
an unbeliever? Can God’s temple contain false gods? Clearly, we are the temple
of the living God. As God said, 'I will live and walk among them. I will be
their God, and they will be my people.' The Lord says, 'Get away from
unbelievers. Separate yourselves from them. Have nothing to do with anything
unclean. Then I will welcome you.' The Lord Almighty says, 'I will be your
Father, and you will be my sons and daughters.'” (2 Cor. 6:14-18; GOD’S WORD
Translation)
We see that God requires his people to separate themselves from false worship
before they can become his "sons and daughters." God pronounced this great
chasm immediately after Adam and Eve's rebellion in the Garden of Eden. God decreed that He, and
everyone who belong to him, would always be at enmity with
Satan and his world of worshipers. There can be no harmony or compromise between the two.
(Gen. 3:15; James 1:27; 4:4,7-8) This simple fact has proved true for all of
God's worshipers, ever since Cain killed his brother Abel; and will continue until
Satan and all that belongs to him will be
destroyed forever. (Gen. 4:3-8; Matt. 23:33-35; Rev. 19:19-21; 20:1-3, 7-10)
When God pronounced his sentence upon the three rebels in Eden, he at the same
time also provided the hope that at his future appointed time he would "break up
the works of the Devil," and redeem Adam's offspring from the curse of sin and
death that they had inherited from Adam. (Rom. 5:8-10, 18-21;
1 Cor. 15:21-28;
1John 3:8)
Jehovah has always had individuals who remained loyal to him, even under the
severest of suffering. The apostle Paul lists many of them by name. (Heb.
11:4-40) But it was not until God delivered Abraham's offspring out of Egypt,
and made a covenant with them at Mt. Sinai, that he had an organized nation, "a
people for his name." (Deut. 7:6-11; Isaiah 43:10; 44:1-2) The old
covenant served as a tutor, or teacher, that would lead to Christ. The many laws
under the covenant were perfect, and as such could only be kept by a perfect
person, which Jesus was, having been born without sin. By his perfect obedience Jesus fulfilled
the Law and set us free from its condemnation. With his death, Jesus set mankind
free from the curse of Adam's disobedience, and thus reconciled us to God to
become his sons and daughters. The apostle Paul explains it this way: "
"When Adam sinned, sin
entered the world. Adam’s sin brought death, so death spread to everyone, for
everyone sinned. 13 Yes, people sinned even before the law was given. But it was
not counted as sin because there was not yet any law to break. 14 Still,
everyone died—from the time of Adam to the time of Moses—even those who did not
disobey an explicit commandment of God, as Adam did. Now Adam is a symbol, a
representation of Christ, who was yet to come.
18 "Yes, Adam’s one sin brings condemnation for
everyone, but Christ’s one act of righteousness brings a right relationship with
God and new life for everyone. 19 Because one person disobeyed God, many became
sinners. But because one other person obeyed God, many will be made righteous.
20 "God’s law was given so that all people could see
how sinful they were. But as people sinned more and more, God’s wonderful grace
became more abundant. 21 So just as sin ruled over all people and brought them
to death, now God’s wonderful grace rules instead, giving us right standing with
God and resulting in eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord." ―Romans
5:12-14, 18-21, New Living Translation.
Under the old covenant, God's perfect Law could never make any man righteous for everlasting life, as Paul explains further:
"But now God has shown us a
way to be made right with him without keeping the requirements of the law, as
was promised in the writings of Moses and the prophets long ago. 22 We are made
right with God by placing our faith in Jesus Christ. And this is true for
everyone who believes, no matter who we are.
23 "For everyone has sinned; we all fall short of God’s
glorious standard. 24 Yet God, in his grace, freely makes us right in his sight.
He did this through Christ Jesus when he freed us from the penalty for our sins.
25 For God presented Jesus as the sacrifice for sin. People are made right with
God when they believe that Jesus sacrificed his life, shedding his blood. This
sacrifice shows that God was being fair when he held back and did not punish
those who sinned in times past, 26 for he was looking ahead and including them
in what he would do in this present time. God did this to demonstrate his
righteousness, for he himself is fair and just, and he makes sinners right in
his sight when they believe in Jesus." ―Romans
3:21-26, New Living Translation.
Jehovah had all along intended to make a new covenant that would
accomplish all his promises made through Moses and his prophets.include all the
nations, so it was not because the
Jews had broken their covenant with God that there is a new covenant. Paul
explains it nicely in Hebrews 8:7-13. In accordance with God's promise to
Abraham, the Messiah was born of Abraham's offspring. The promise also included
that if the Jews proved faithful to their covenant with God, then they would enjoy
the blessing and privilege of carrying the good news of God's kingdom to the
nations; and be the ones to invite people of the nations to worship Jehovah along with them, with everlasting
life in view. (Acts 13:44-49; Rom. 1:16; 3:1-4; 9:3-5) In that case, the
question you are asking, as to who God's people are, would have been a lot
easier to understand.
Let me further clarify this: The old covenant that God made with the nation of
Israel at Mount Sinai served the purpose of producing the
promised Messiah. It protected the lineage through the centuries from Abraham until the Messiah arrived. (Gen. 22:17-18)
When the Messiah, Christ Jesus, arrived at God's appointed time, he accomplished
everything God had given him to do during the short three and a half years of his ministry,
which included preaching the good news of God's kingdom; selecting the twelve
apostles as the main members of the foundation of God's household; and sacrificing
his life in behalf of all mankind, thereby opening the way for believers to be reconciled to God, and to inherit the
everlasting life that Adam had lost for us―not just for the Jews, but for all
mankind. (Rom. 3:29;
1 Cor. 15:22) With the promised outpouring of
the holy spirit on the day of Pentecost the new covenant came into force;
replacing the old covenant which had now become obsolete.
Just because the Jews are no longer God's people should not confuse us to the
fact that God has a people. And neither should you allow the teaching regarding the new covenant as presented by the
Watchtower Society
confuse you, which is for the most part based on Rutherford's own interpretation,
with his theory of types and antitypes; which, by the way, has now
been discarded with the March 15, 2015 Watchtower. Just as the Jews were God's
people under the old covenant, so Jehovah has a people for his name under the
new covenant; with the requirement that they have "washed their robes and made
them white in the blood of the Lamb." That is why they are seen rendering sacred
service to God, day and night, in his holy temple. (Acts 15:13-18; Rev. 7:9-10, 14-15; Matt. 26:26-28; Rev. 3:4-6) Clearly, it is not possible to worship God in
his temple while at the same time being affiliated with a religion of which
Satan is the god.
Had the Jews proved faithful to Jehovah, then all of the 144,000, who will rule
with Jesus in God's kingdom, would have been selected exclusively from among
them, starting with the twelve apostles, and as symbolized in John's vision in
the revelation he received from God. (Rev. 7:1-8; Exodus 19:5-6
;
1 Peter 2:5-6, 9; Dan. 7:27) These 144,000 are
the ones Jesus calls his "brothers" in his parable of the sheep and goats.
From reading it you can see that in order for someone to receive everlasting
life, he has to accept Christ's brothers the same as he accepts Jesus; for they
together with Jesus make up the foundation of God's temple, as the apostle Paul
explains in his letter to the congregation in Ephesus, who were for the most
part non-Jews. (Matt. 25:31-46; 7:21-23; Rev. 14:1-3; Eph. 2:19-22)
You will not find any of Christ's brothers as belonging to the world, including
that of Christendom. As already mentioned,
Jehovah has nothing to do with the world that is lying in the power of the
wicked one. (1John 5:19)
When Jehovah says that he will take us in upon separating from unbelievers, have you ever wondered where this
"in" is; where or what it refers to? It is God's household, the
members of which are individually his temple; and they are built upon the
foundation that God himself laid. (Mal. 3:17-18; Matt. 24:45-47;
1 Cor. 3:16-
17;
1 Tim. 3:15)
There is no provision for anyone to worship God anywhere else. Under the law of the old covenant, God instructed that
anyone who would bring a sacrifice to him had to present it at the place chosen
by him, at the entrance of
the tent of meeting. Later, when King Solomon built the temple in Jerusalem,
this became the only place where the sacrifices could be offered up. It's not
just that Jehovah did not accept any sacrifices or worship that was offered
anywhere else; but the person, even the alien resident, who would render up a
sacrifice in any other place was to be put to death. Yes, it was that serious!
(Lev. 17:8-9; see Deut. 12:13-14)
Can you believe for a moment that it doesn't matter to God where we worship him
today, in view of what the Scriptures say about God's temple under the new
covenant?
But there is another important point to consider in connection with your
question:
Should we today expect God's temple to be free of all wicked men and imposters?
(2 Tim. 3:13) In other words, if there exists within God's house false prophets
who are speaking lies in God's name, and who are succeeding in misleading many
of God's people, does that then prove that they cannot be God's people; or that
God does not have a household? That is the conclusion many have reached because
of what is happening within the organization; and not only have they left, but
they are also urging others leave. But, if we are to believe that it is not
possible for wicked men to exist within God's house, then that would mean that
God never had a people, for that has never been the case. Who was it that
Jehovah brought out of Egypt? And why did they fail to enter the promised land,
but perished in the wilderness? Were they not God's people? (Deut. 29:10-13;
Heb. 3:12-19)
To Jeremiah his prophet, Jehovah said: "Go roving about in the streets of
Jerusalem and see, now, and know, and seek for yourselves in her public squares
whether you can find a man, whether there exists anyone doing justice, anyone
seeking faithfulness, and I shall forgive her. Even if they should say: 'As
Jehovah is alive!' they would thereby be swearing to sheer falsehood... For
among my people there have been found wicked men. They keep peering, as when birdcatchers crouch down. They have set a ruinous [trap]. It is men that they
catch. As a cage is full of flying creatures, so their houses are full of
deception. That is why they have become great and they gain riches. They have
grown fat; they have become shiny. They have also overflowed with bad things. No
legal case have they pleaded, even the legal case of the fatherless boy, that
they may gain success; and the judgment of the poor ones they have not taken
up.’”
'Should I not hold an accounting because of these very things,' is the utterance
of Jehovah, 'or on a nation that is like this should not my soul avenge itself?
An astonishing situation, even a horrible thing, has been brought to be in the
land: The prophets themselves actually prophesy in falsehood; and as for the
priests, they go subduing according to their powers. And my own people have
loved [it] that way; and what will you men do in the finale of it?'” (Jer. 5:1-2, 26-31)
I don't think I need to go into the many Scriptures that tell us that there have
always been the wicked among God's people; and that it would be no different in
the last days; and that they will be removed at God's appointed time. (Mal. 3:14-16; Matt. 13:40-43;
2 Tim. 3:1-7) Of the seven letters that Jesus wrote to
the Seven Congregations, five of them he reprimanded, while at the same time
giving them time to repent. Not once did he say that they did not belong to him,
including those who were "holding fast the teaching of the sect of Nicolaus,"
which Jesus said he hated; nor did he ever tell anyone to leave. (Rev. 2:14-15, 6, 24-25) Many fail to realize that Jehovah differentiates between the wicked
within his house, and the wicked of this world. In fact, the wicked within God's
household are more reprehensible to him, and they will be dealt with first;
before God's judgment comes upon the rest of the world of which Satan is the
god. (Rom. 3:5-6;
1 Peter 4:17-19;
2 Thess. 1:6-10)
Jesus said, "he that has endured to the end is the one that will be saved."
(Matt. 24:10-13) He recognizes the challenge we face to keep our integrity under
test in a congregation that as a whole he views as "dead," as was the case with
the congregation in Sardis. (Rev. 3:1) And he also acknowledges that we need
God's help in order to remain faithful. That is why he said in prayer to his Father: "I have given your word
to them, but the world has hated them, because they are no part
of the world, just as I am no part of the world. I request you, not to take
them out of the world, but to watch over them because of the wicked one. . .
Sanctify them by means of the truth; your word is truth." (John 17:14-17; 15:17-21) When
Jesus said that his disciples would be hated by the world, he included of course the world of the Jewish system
in his day, which opposed and persecuted him and
his disciples. (John 8:42-48) Yet, the Jews were still God's people at the time.
(John 16:1-4; Luke 19:41-44) Would this not also apply to us who are living in
the days leading up to his presence? The apostle John wrote: "Young children, it
is the last hour, and, just as you have heard that antichrist is coming, even
now there have come to be many antichrists; from which fact we gain the
knowledge that it is the last hour. They went out from us, but they were not of
our sort; for if they had been of our sort, they would have remained with us.
But [they went out] that it might be shown up that not all are of our sort.
(1John 2:18-19;
2 Thess. 2:3-12)
It doesn't matter under what name God's people are known. In the first century
they were called Christians, "by divine providence." (Acts 11:26) After 325 C.E.,
and with the council of Nicaea, the name "Christian" came to be identified with
the apostate religion that Emperor Constantine adopted as the religion of his
empire. Seven hundred years later that religion split into the western and
eastern parts; and still later it fractured into many other religions, each one
adopting a different name to distinguish it from the others. What do you think:
Would Jehovah be offended on account of his people identifying themselves with
his name, calling themselves "Jehovah's witnesses," in order to designate
themselves as being separate from the many other religions who call themselves
"Christians"? (Matt. 7:21-23; Isa. 43:10-12) To be sure, identifying oneself
with God's name carries with it great responsibility, for Jehovah will execute
his judgment upon anyone who defiles his holy name; but he also protects and
blesses anyone who takes refuge in his name. (Rom. 2:24; Isa. 48:9-11; Jer. 7:8-16; 14:7; Ezek. 36:22-23; Psalms 91:14-16)
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