The Watchtower Society claims to be God’s sole channel of communication to mankind.

Instead of laughing at the Witnesses or arguing with them about this claim, draw them out with diagnostic stone-in-the-shoe questions.

Treating the Watchtower claims seriously and expressing a willingness to consider the Witnesses’ arguments is the most non-threatening way to proceed.

You have to be careful.

You don’t want to come across as a scoffer or as a persecutor or you will lose them.

You can say something like this:

  • You have told me that the Watchtower is God’s sole channel of communication. I’m trying to understand exactly what you mean by that.

The Watchtower argues that both history and reason lead to the conclusion that God would not have other spokesmen who refuse to submit to the authority and direction of his one true organization:

Today the anointed spirit-begotten witnesses of Jehovah, comprising the ‘faithful and discreet slave,’ serve as an earthly channel of communication for the great crowd of people who will survive Armageddon. These anointed witnesses along with the ‘great crowd’ of companions form the modern-day Christian organization through which God’s spirit is in operation. (Matt. 24:45-51; Rev. 7:9-17) Never has God had more than one channel of communication at one time. Failure to recognize and associate with his anointed witnesses would certainly indicate that one is not in Jehovah God’s organization and under his spirit.” (emphasis added)[1]

 The Watchtower equates trusting in God with trusting in them: “Trusting in Jehovah will include trusting the modern visible channel that he has clearly been using for decades to serve his purposes.”[2]

The Watchtower strongly discourages Jehovah’s Witnesses from questioning any of its teachings:

Theocratic ones will appreciate the Lord’s visible organization and not be so foolish as to pit against Jehovah’s channel their own human reasoning and sentiment and personal feelings… After being nourished to our present spiritual strength and maturity, do we suddenly become smarter than our former provider and forsake the enlightening guidance of the organization that mothered us? “Forsake not the law of thy mother.” (Prov. 6:20-23)[3]

You can ask:

  • I don’t mean to cause offense, but given the obedience Jehovah’s Witnesses give to the Watchtower organization, do you see why outsiders might think that you are following men rather than God?

Despite their total reliance on the organization, because Witnesses believe the Watchtower is God’s channel of communication, they see themselves as followers of God rather than of men.

You can say:

I’m trying to understand how all this works.

  • What person or group actually decides what will be published in Watchtower literature? (The Governing Body.)
  • Do you believe that Jehovah communicates to them beforehand what he wants published?
  • If so, how does that work? For example, is it your understanding that He does this by an audible voice? Through dreams or visions? By communications from angels? By planting thoughts in their minds? (If necessary, assure the Witnesses that these are sincere questions on your part. You really want to understand how it works.)
  • If Jehovah does communicate exactly what he does or doesn’t want published in the literature, then he would be using fallible men to produce inspired and infallible directions, just as he did with Moses and the Bible authors. Is that what you mean by the Watchtower being God’s channel of communication?
  • If so, how do you account for their being errors from time to time in what is published in Watchtower literature?
  • Is it just that those who are responsible for what is published study the Bible and pray just as you or I might do and then publish their best understanding and interpretation of God’s message?
  •  Wouldn’t that mean that what is published may constitute God’s communication or it may contain their writers’ mistaken understanding of what God is saying?
  • If something the Watchtower publishes is based on human misunderstanding and is not, in fact, Jehovah’s message, does he want Witnesses to believe and obey the Watchtower anyway for the sake of unity?
  • Or does he want you to use the Bible to evaluate what is published and reject that erroneous Watchtower teaching in order to make sure that you are following God and not men?

I once said to a Witness, “If you believe something the Watchtower says and it was wrong, doesn’t that mean you were really following men and not God?”

He said, “No, it’s up to Jehovah to correct his organization, not me.”

If they tell you something like that, you can follow up by asking:

  • Does Jehovah correct them immediately as he did when Nathan mistakenly told David that God wanted him to build the temple?
  • If he sometimes waits, does that mean Jehovah wants Jehovah’s Witnesses to follow the mistaken understanding for the time being? Why would he want that?
  • When Jehovah communicates to them a more accurate teaching, how does he do it? Does he then speak to them with an audible voice? Through dreams or visions? By communications from angels? By planting thoughts in their minds?
  • They thought that their original message came from Jehovah, but later they realized they were mistaken. How do they make sure that their new understanding is really from Jehovah?

 Summary

 These are the sorts of questions Jehovah’s Witnesses never think to ask.

Or at least they dare not ask them.

 Therefore, you and I need to ask them and pray that they will become stones in the shoes of the Witnesses to whom we ask them.

 

[1] The Watchtower, “The Value of Right Association Through Congregational Meetings,” 1/15/66, p. 44)

[2] The Watchtower, “Stand Still and See the Salvation of Jehovah!”, 6/1/03, p. 21

[3] The Watchtower, “Jehovah’s Theocratic Organization Today,” 2/1/52, p. 80

 

 

 

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