In last week’s post, I noted that in an article entitled “Appreciating Why the Messiah Was to Come,” the Watchtower makes the following claim:

“The most important reason why God’s Son came to earth was not to save mankind. Rather, it was to settle the slanderous issues raised by Satan with regard to Jehovah’s sovereignty.”

Let’s discuss what the Watchtower means by that second sentence.

What “slanderous issues” did Satan raise “with regard to Jehovah’s sovereignty”?

In Genesis 2:16-17, God told Adam, “You may surely eat of every tree of the garden, but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die.”

 But in Genesis 3:4-5, the serpent (Satan) told Eve, “You will not surely die. For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.”

 That’s it!

The Watchtower analyzes these events as follows:

When Satan led Adam and Eve into disobeying Jehovah, an important question was raised. Satan did not call into question Jehovah’s power. Even Satan knows that there is no limit to Jehovah’s power. Rather, Satan questioned Jehovah’s right to rule. By calling God a liar who withholds good from his subjects, Satan charged that Jehovah is a bad ruler… Satan implied that mankind would be better off without God’s rulership. This was an attack on Jehovah’s sovereignty, his right to rule. (What Does the Bible Really Teach?, p. 109)

It asks:

How would God handle such an insulting challenge? Some think that God should simply have put the rebels to death. But would that have answered Satan’s challenge? Would it have proved that God’s way of ruling is right? Jehovah’s perfect sense of justice would not allow him to put the rebels to death right away. He decided that time was needed to answer Satan’s challenge in a satisfying way and to prove that the Devil is a liar.  (What Does the Bible Really Teach?, pp. 30-31)

The teacher analogy

Despite the fact that the Bible nowhere states that God feels the need to prove anything to anyone, the Watchtower reasons that he does.

It uses an illustration of a teacher.

Imagine that a teacher is telling his students how to solve a difficult problem. A clever but rebellious student claims that the teacher’s way of solving the problem is wrong. Implying that the teacher is not capable, this rebel insists that he knows a much better way to solve the problem. Some students think that he is right, and they also become rebellious. What should the teacher do? If he throws the rebels out of the class, what will be the effect on the other students? Will they not believe that their fellow student and those who joined him are right? All the other students in the class might lose respect for the teacher, thinking that he is afraid of being proved wrong. But suppose that the teacher allows the rebel to show the class how he would solve the problem.

Jehovah has done something similar to what the teacher does. Remember that the rebels in Eden were not the only ones involved. Millions of angels were watching. (Job 38:7; Daniel 7:10) How Jehovah handled the rebellion would greatly affect all those angels and eventually all intelligent creation. So, what has Jehovah done? He has allowed Satan to show how he would rule mankind. God has also allowed humans to govern themselves under Satan’s guidance.

The teacher in our illustration knows that the rebel and the students on his side are wrong. But he also knows that allowing them the opportunity to try to prove their point will benefit the whole class. When the rebels fail, all honest students will see that the teacher is the only one qualified to lead the class. They will understand why the teacher thereafter removes any rebels from the class. Similarly, Jehovah knows that all honesthearted humans and angels will benefit from seeing that Satan and his fellow rebels have failed and that humans cannot govern themselves.  (What Does the Bible Really Teach?, pp. 110-112)

In this post, I want to challenge the underlying premise that God’s right to rule needs vindication as well as the teacher illustration employed to bolster it.

Challenging the assumption

Remember that the Watchtower contends that God “decided that time was needed to answer Satan’s challenge in a satisfying way and to prove that the Devil is a liar.” (What Does the Bible Really Teach?, p. 31)

My question is, “Prove that the Devil is a liar? Prove to whom? Isn’t God himself the ultimate judge of right and wrong? Is the vindication of his sovereignty really dependent on what his creatures may think of him?”

Ask the Witnesses to show you where the Bible states that God feels the need to prove anything to anyone.

It doesn’t.

Challenging the analogy

My next step would be to question the entire analogy. In the process I would further challenge their assumption that God needs to prove anything to anyone.

  • First, where does the Bible say that Jehovah was in the midst of teaching all intelligent creatures how to solve a difficult problem when Satan rebelled against him?
  • Second, why is the teacher so concerned about what each of the students thinks of him? Isn’t he the final authority and judge over what goes on in the classroom?
  • Third, why would Jehovah be so concerned about what each angel and human being thinks of him? Isn’t he the final authority and judge over right and wrong in the universe? Why would he cede this role to his creatures?

Ask one Jehovah’s Witness to read aloud Psalm 50:6: “And the heavens proclaim his righteousness, for God himself is judge.”

Isn’t that sufficient vindication?

In the third paragraph of the teacher illustration, the Watchtower says: “But he also knows that allowing them the opportunity to try to prove their point will benefit the whole class. When the rebels fail, all honest students will see that the teacher is the only one qualified to lead the class.”

However, if they wanted to make the analogy accurate, the teacher wouldn’t be letting the challengers have the floor for part of a class session in order to set up a very instructive discussion. Rather, the teacher would be standing back and lets the rebels completely take over the class for the rest of their stay at the school!

Moreover, when we analogize about Satan’s rebellion, we are not talking about a handful of students who are trying to show the class that they have a better way than the teacher of solving some difficult problem.

We are talking about students who take over the class, entice the other students into drug addiction, cheat them, beat them, rape them, and murder them. Meanwhile, the teacher supposedly steps back and lets all this happen in order to prove that his way of running the class is better!

What would any of us—Jehovah’s Witnesses included—think of a teacher who handle a class rebellion in such a fashion? And yet the analogy implies that is what God did to vindicate his sovereignty.