Throughout this “Stone in the Shoe Witnessing” series, when I quote something from Watchtower literature, I will do my best to provide you with a link to it, either in the body of the posts or in a related footnote.

In a February, 2017 online article, “Who is Leading God’s People Today?”, the Watchtower points out that after his ascension to heaven, Jesus worked through the apostles he had chosen and empowered them “by holy spirit.”

From this, it concludes that he works through the Governing Body of Jehovah’s Witnesses in the same way today.

Of course, this doesn’t follow at all.

Any group can claim to be “God’s organization” and to be “guided by holy spirit.”

Let’s look at three specific claims the Watchtower makes in support of its assertion and ask some stone-in-the-shoe questions.

Rather than telling Jehovah’s Witnesses the Watchtower is wrong, it is less threatening to ask Jehovah’s Witnesses how they know the Watchtower is right.

Claim #1: Angels are involved in the Watchtower’s preaching work.

The article states that “angels assisted the governing body,” citing the angelic appearance to Cornelius in the book of Acts.

If Jehovah’s Witnesses make this point to you, ask them:

  • Do you believe that angels show up at meetings of the Governing Body of Jehovah’s Witnesses and tell them what to say and do?

Most likely they will tell you no.

At best, they will have to say, “I don’t know.”

The article goes on to say that the Governing Body oversees over eight million people who are preaching and claims that angels are involved in the work.

Ask:

  • How do we know that?

If they tell you anecdotes such as that Jehovah’s Witnesses often call on people who have been praying for help, ask:

  • Don’t you think evangelicals, Mormons, Muslims, and many other groups encounter and proselytize people who have been praying for help? Does that mean that angels are helping them too?

Claim #2: The Watchtower’s founder realized the importance of 1914.

The article then jumps from the days of the apostles to the late 19th century, when Charles Taze Russell founded the Watchtower.

Ask Jehovah’s Witnesses:

  • Did Jesus lead his people between the end of the first century and the end of the 19th?
  • Who was the Governing Body then?
  • Which organization was his organization then?

They have no good answer for such questions.

The article asserts that Russell “discerned that Christ would return invisibly and that ‘the appointed times of the nations’ would end in 1914.”

Point out to Witnesses an online search reveals that Russell actually taught that Jesus returned invisibly in 1874 and that 1914 would be the end of the great tribulation and usher in the complete end of the rule of the nations of the world.

When World War I broke out, he thought that’s what was happening.

It quickly became evident that he was wrong.

You can say:

  • I don’t fault him for making mistakes because we all make mistakes.
  • But when he got it wrong, it seems to me that neither the Holy Spirit nor Jehovah’s faithful angels were giving him his information. How do you view that?

Claim #3: In 1919, Jesus appointed “the faithful and discreet slave.”

The article then claims that in 1919 Jesus appointed a small group of Jehovah’s Witnesses as “the faithful and discreet slave to give his domestics food at the proper time.”

You can ask:

  • I’m sorry. I don’t understand. I’m sure you believe this, but my question is: How do you know that such a thing took place, apart from the Watchtower’s assertion that it did?
  • Where do we find the date 1919 in the Bible?

Summary

Don’t tell Jehovah’s Witnesses that the Watchtower’s claims are completely unsubstantiated.

Instead, let your stone-in-the-shoe questions do the work for you.

 

 

 

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