CORRECTING FALSE “JEHOVAH’S WITNESSES” TEACHINGS, PART 1 OF 3
After Russell’s death, his followers formed several groups, the largest being The Watchtower Society, under the leadership of “Judge” Rutherford. They adopted the name “Jehovah’s Witnesses” in 1931.
The JWs are a pseudo-Christian cult. The organization is led by the leaders of the Watchtower Bible & Tract Society, headquartered in Brooklyn, NY. The organization claims to be the “‘faithful & discreet slave’ class whom Jesus has ‘appointed over His belongings.’” This comes from a misinterpretation of Matthew 24:45–47, which I will address below. The JW theocracy is a hierarchical governing body that is claimed to be organized under the ultimate headship of Jehovah God, Who appointed Jesus as the Head of the Christian Congregation. Under Jesus, the JWs place their “slave class,” which is made up of Watchtower Society leaders, and under their rule, elders and ministerial servants of the local Kingdom Halls (their words for local congregations).
In Matthew 24:45–47, Jesus said to His apostles: “Therefore you also must be ready, for the Son of Man is coming at an hour you do not expect. Who then is the faithful and wise servant, whom his master has set over his household, to give them their food at the proper time? Blessed is that servant whom his master will find so doing when he comes. Truly, I say to you, he will set him over all his possessions.” (ESV)
When interpreting a passage with a contested or controversial meaning, it’s always wise to identify what it cannot mean. To help us do that, consider Matthew 20:25-26a: “But Jesus called them to him and said, ‘You know that the rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and their great ones exercise authority over them. It shall not be so among you’” (ESV). Whatever Jesus meant in Matthew 24, it couldn’t have been that He was approving of a hierarchical theocracy lording it over all true disciples everywhere. That makes the JWs’ “church government” system faulty from the start.
While the New Testament clearly establishes order in local Christian congregations or churches, it nowhere establishes a hierarchical governing body or system over any of the churches other than God, who orders the churches by means of the written word. According to the word, each church is to appoint elders (also interchangeably called pastors or shepherds, bishops or overseers, and presbyters, which is just a transliteration of the Greek word for “older men”) and deacons into official positions of ordering authority (Acts 14:23; 1 Tim. 3:1–13, 5:17; Titus 1:5–9), and respect the general authority of evangelists, preachers, and teachers of the word (2 Tim. 4:1–5; Titus 2:15).
The New Testament clearly names these leadership roles in the church and makes the order of authority abundantly clear. In Ephesians 4:11–12, the apostle Paul writes, “And he gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the shepherds and teachers, to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ, until we all attain to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to mature manhood, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ, so that we may no longer be children, tossed to and fro by the waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by human cunning, by craftiness in deceitful schemes” (ESV). Then in 1 Corinthians 12:28, he writes, “And God has appointed in the church first apostles, second prophets, third teachers, then ... administrating” (ESV, abridged for relevance).
So, the Head of the whole church, Jesus (Eph. 1:22), has set apostles, prophets, evangelists (gospel preachers), and teachers in place to handle all leading and teaching necessary to protect the church from false teaching. There’s no mention of any “slave class” hierarchical organization here, not to mention all such hierarchical structures “lording over” local churches violate Matthew 20:25–26 and 1 Corinthians 4:6. The JWs are teachers of the kind of doctrine Paul warned us about and that the true organizational leaders and teachers in the church are commanded to protect us from.
Jesus’ prophecy asks, “Who then is the faithful and wise servant...?” (The word rendered “servant” in the ESV is the word for “bondservant” or “slave” in Greek.) It’s a question to every single follower of Jesus, not at all intended to set up some kind of cultic leadership cabal but to prod us all to investigate our own hearts and decide whether we will be faithful to teach and lead each other to remain true to Him even when times are tough. It was a question those to whom Jesus originally spoke the words could answer then, in those times, and which every successive generation of Jesus-followers has answered since. It has absolutely nothing to do with any so-called Christian organization that didn’t exist before the 1800s.
---JLP
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