If you ask a Jehovah’s Witness, “Is Jesus your mediator?” almost all of them will indignantly answer, “Of course!”

They don’t know that the Watchtower teaches the opposite—that Jesus is only the mediator for a special group of 144,000 of them known as “spirit anointed” or “spiritual Israel.”

Why? Because, according to the Watchtower, only they are in the new covenant established by Jesus.

This can provide a fruitful area for discussion.

The Watchtower teaching

As you know, the Watchtower teaches that there are two classes of believers.

One class is “spiritual Israel,” a “spirit anointed” group of 144,000 Jehovah’s Witnesses chosen by God throughout the Christian era.

The other class is the “great crowd,” which consists of all the other faithful witnesses of Jehovah.

The Watchtower explanation

You can show them the Watchtower’s mediator teaching on its website in the April 1, 1979 “Questions from Readers” Watchtower column, which featured this question: “Is Jesus the ‘mediator’ only for anointed Christians?”

In a nutshell, the Watchtower’s answer was yes—Jesus is the mediator only for 144,000, not for the average Jehovah’s Witness.

Here is its reasoning (I have omitted their Scripture citations):

Moses was the “mediator” of the Law covenant made between God and the nation of Israel… Christ, though, is the “mediator of a new covenant” between Jehovah and spiritual Israel, the “Israel of God” that will serve as kings and priests in heaven with Jesus… At a time when God was selecting those to be taken into that new covenant, the apostle Paul wrote that Christ was the “one mediator between God and men…” Reasonably Paul was here using the word “mediator” in the same way he did the other five times, which occurred before the writing of 1 Timothy 2:5, referring to those then being taken into the new covenant for which Christ is “mediator.” So in this strict Biblical sense Jesus is the “mediator” only for anointed Christians.

The new covenant will terminate with the glorification of the remnant who are today in that covenant mediated by Christ. The “great crowd” of “other sheep” that is forming today is not in that new covenant. However, by their associating with the “little flock” of those yet in that covenant they come under benefits that flow from that new covenant. During the millennium Jesus Christ will be their king, high priest and judge. (The Watchtower, 4/1/79, p. 31, emphasis added)

Later that year, another Watchtower article entitled,  “Benefiting from ‘One Mediator Between God and Men’” repeated the teaching, going into more detail (The Watchtower, 11/15/79, pp. 21-27, Scripture citations omitted):

That new covenant between “our Savior, God,” and spiritual Israel continues as long as there are spiritual Israelites still in the flesh as “men” here on earth. So the covenant is in force today. Jesus’ “corresponding ransom for all” lays the basis for men and women of all sorts to become spiritual Israelites and be brought into the new covenant of which Christ Jesus is the “one mediator.”

There are still more than 9,000 who profess to be spiritual Israelites in the new covenant. Like Paul and Timothy, these are “ministers of a new covenant…” Evidently the new covenant is nearing the end of its operation for the purpose of producing 144,000 spiritual Israelites who meet God’s approval for being associated with Jesus Christ in the heavenly kingdom, the ideal government for mankind. When the last of these approved spiritual Israelites cease to be “men” because of earthly death and a resurrection to a share in the heavenly kingdom, then the mediatorship of Jesus Christ will cease also. Their inherited sinful condition in the flesh, which called for a mediator to act between them and the God of holiness, will be left behind. Like the holy angels of heaven, these glorified spiritual Israelites will need no mediator between them and Jehovah God… Under Jesus Christ they will serve as kings, priests and associated judges over all the world of mankind. (emphasis added)

What about the “great crowd”?

 What about all the rest—the millions of Jehovah’s Witnesses who are not a part of “spiritual Israel”?

They are aliens to the new covenant.

They must keep in relationship to God by remaining united in ministry with the “spiritual Israelites” who remain on earth.

Effectively, that mean submitting to all the directives of the Governing Body of Jehovah’s Witnesses.

Today, according to authentic records, there is a “great crowd” of dedicated, baptized Christians who actively collaborate with the small remnant of spiritual Israelites. Ever since the spring of 1938 they have been invited to attend the annual memorial celebration of Christ’s death, not to partake of the memorial emblems, the unleavened bread and the red wine, but as respectful observers. They recognize Jesus Christ as their heavenly King since the Gentile Times ended in 1914. They zealously join the remnant of spiritual Israelites in preaching “this good news of the kingdom” in all the inhabited earth for a “witness to all the nations” before this system of things ends in the coming “great tribulation.” They recognize that they are not spiritual Israelites in the new covenant mediated by Jesus Christ, nor part of the “chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation.”

Yet they do benefit from the operation of the new covenant. They benefit from this just as, in ancient Israel, the “alien resident” benefited from residing in among the Israelites who were in the Law covenant.

To keep in relationship with “our Savior, God,” the “great crowd” needs to remain united with the remnant of spiritual Israelites. Why? Because these spiritual Israelites are the “holy nation” of which we read in Jeremiah 31:35, 36, right after God’s promise of the new covenant… (emphasis added)

Disturbing behind the scenes discussion

Several years later, Raymond Franz revealed what happened at a Governing Body meeting after those articles were published:

In his comments, [the Watchtower Society’s president] stated that some were questioning the Society’s position (set forth in a recent Watchtower) that Jesus Christ is the mediator only for the “anointed” ones and not for the other two million of Jehovah’s Witnesses. He said of such ones: “They would merge everyone together and make Jesus Christ the mediator for every Tom, Dick and Harry.”

I could not help but think of all the Toms and Dicks and Harrys there present in the headquarters family and wondered how those words would sound to them. I knew that there was considerable discussion within the family on this subject, some of it definitely unfavorable…

For me it was evident from Scripture that Jesus Christ did offer his mediation to bring about reconciliation with God for every Tom, Dick and Harry and that his laying down his life for all persons, his providing the ransom sacrifice and making its benefits available to any and all who might choose to accept them, was the very opposite of the attitude expressed in that headquarters discussion.

It seemed that we were hearing ‘a different good news,’ not the good news as it was presented by the inspired writers of the first century.” (Crisis of Conscience, pp. 233-234)

Negative reaction among Jehovah’s Witnesses

After he gave a talk to French missionaries at a meeting in Mali, someone asked Franz, “The Watchtower says that Jesus is the mediator only for the anointed, not for the rest of us. Can you clear this up for us? Not even in prayer is he our mediator?”

Although he was repulsed by the teaching and the comments I quoted above, as a Governing Body member, Franz felt obliged to defend and explain it:

I said that even if they were not to think of Jesus as their Mediator, they could surely think of him as their Helper. And, that of one thing they could be sure: that his interest in them was as great as his interest in any other persons on earth.

However, a few days later, on going to the airport to depart for Senegal, the missionaries came out to see me off. One of the women missionaries approached and asked me, “But not even in prayer is Jesus our mediator?” I could do nothing but repeat and reemphasize basically the same points I had presented earlier in their missionary home meeting. (Crisis of Conscience, p. 234)

Discussing these issues with Jehovah’s Witnesses

Most Jehovah’s Witnesses will never read Franz’s book because the Watchtower tells them to avoid it as “apostate literature,” so I don’t recommend that you reveal what he said.

However, both his comments and my own experience indicate that the average Witness is shocked and even distraught when they learn that the Watchtower says Jesus isn’t their mediator.

So I recommend that you draw that teaching to their attention (it’s available on the Watchtower’s website at the links I provided above) and ask them about it.

Ask them to explain and defend that teaching to you because it seems completely contrary to what the Bible teaches about Jesus and his loving care for all of us.

Ask, “Does our relationship to God depend upon Jesus or does it depend on our relationship to a remnant of 144,000 people we don’t even know?”

Ask them how we can be sure who is a member of the 144,000.

We can’t.

Only God knows for sure.

Ask one of them to read aloud 1 Timothy 2:5-6: “For there is one God, and one mediator between God and men, a man, Christ Jesus, who gave himself a corresponding ransom for all—this is what is to be witnessed to in its own due time.” (Watchtower translation)

Point out that Jesus’ role as mediator is tied in directly to his ransom sacrifice.

You can say something like this: “That verse says Jesus is mediator between God and men, not between God and a limited group of 144,000. It contains the word ‘all’ so I really don’t understand. Why aren’t you and I included in ‘all’?”