In the Watchtower system, if the elders form a judicial committee and have a hearing which establishes serious wrongdoing on the part of a Jehovah’s Witness in their congregation, they have to decide what sanction to impose. They have three options: private reproof, public reproof, or disfellowshipping. Continue reading

Not believing that the ordinary Christian is supposed to live in response to the promptings of the indwelling Holy Spirit, the Watchtower controls Jehovah’s Witnesses from the top down by means of rules and enforcement systems.

One of the disciplinary methods it employs is known as “marking.”

What is “marking,” and how is it done? Continue reading

As we consider how to relate to Jehovah’s Witnesses and how to get through to them, it’s important for us to understand the legalistic society that is the Watchtower religion—specifically, the degree to which local elders exercise control over the Witnesses in their congregation. Continue reading

As we consider how to get through to Jehovah’s Witnesses with the real gospel, I think it’s important for us as Christians to understand what it’s like for Witnesses to live under the Watchtower’s judicial system.

I don’t think the Watchtower truly understands the radical difference between the Old Testament and the New. It doesn’t believe that people become Christians by being born again, having the Holy Spirit indwell them, being transformed from the inside out, living by grace and the spirit.

Rather, it sees the New Testament as a modification of the Old Testament law system in which the Christian community has replaced the nation of Israel as “Jehovah’s organization.” Accordingly, I believe that what the Watchtower has become is essentially an Old Testament religion with a Christian veneer. Continue reading

Today we begin an examination of the Watchtower Society’s law system—that is, its rules and enforcement system. Continue reading