The February, 2017 online the Watchtower article, “Who Is Leading God’s People Today?” teaches that after Jesus ascended to heaven the apostles constituted “a visible body under an invisible Leader.”

It states: “As a governing body, they gave direction to all the congregations. – Acts 15:2.”

Challenge the Watchtower’s interpretation of what happened in Acts 15.

Ask the stone-in-the-shoe question:

  • Was the early church structured as a top-down organization headed by a governing body, as the Watchtower is today?

Witnesses will assure you that it was.

Ask one of the Witnesses to read aloud Acts 15:1-2:

Now some men came down from Judea and began to teach the brothers: “Unless you get circumcised according to the custom of Moses, you cannot be saved.” But after quite a bit of dissension and disputing by Paul and Barnabas with them, it was arranged for Paul, Barnabas, and some of the others to go up to the apostles and elders in Jerusalem regarding this issue.

You can comment:

  • I notice that it was men from Jerusalem who caused the problem in the first place by claiming to have authority to direct the Antioch congregation.
  • Why didn’t the Christians at Antioch didn’t simply obey what these men from the Judean “headquarters” taught them?
  • Why did Paul and Barnabas feel free to engage in “quite a bit of dissension and disputing with them”?

The Witnesses may claim that Paul and Barnabas were also members of the Governing Body.

 If so, point out:

  • Paul and Barnabas didn’t oppose them privately as part of a meeting in Jerusalem of a “governing body,” but rather at the congregation in Antioch in front of all the believers who were there.
  • Paul and Barnabas didn’t go on their own initiative to meet in Jerusalem as part of a governing body. Instead, it was the local congregation at Antioch which appointed them to go to Jerusalem to get the matter straightened out.

Ask one of the Witnesses to read aloud Paul’s description of what happened (Galatians 2:6): “But regarding those who seemed to be important—whatever they were makes no difference to me, for God does not go by a man’s outward appearance—those highly regarded men imparted nothing new to me.”

Ask:

  • What does Paul mean when he says that those Jerusalem apostles “seemed to be important” and were “highly regarded men” but that “whatever they were makes no difference to me”?
  • Does that sound like Paul regarded the apostles as a Governing Body whose approval he needed to obtain?
  • Did the apostles impart direction to him?

Ask one of the Witnesses to read aloud Galatians 2:9-10:

…and when they recognized the undeserved kindness that was given me, James and Cephas and John, the ones who seemed to be pillars, gave Barnabas and me the right hand of fellowship, so that we should go to the nations but they to those who are circumcised. They asked only that we keep the poor in mind, and this I have also earnestly endeavored to do.

  • I notice that Paul he didn’t say that James, Peter, and John were the core of a Governing Body. He says only that they “were reputed to be pillars.”
  • Did they give him orders as to how to proceed? No, Paul says they asked him to remember the poor.

Rather than meekly submitting to directives from Jerusalem, Paul confronted anyone to his face when he was wrong.

Ask one of the Witnesses to read aloud Galatians 2:11-14:

However, when Cephas came to Antioch, I resisted him face-to-face, because he was clearly in the wrong. For before certain men from James arrived, he used to eat with people of the nations; but when they arrived, he stopped doing this and separated himself, fearing those of the circumcised class. The rest of the Jews also joined him in putting on this pretense, so that even Barnabas was led along with them in their pretense. But when I saw that they were not walking in step with the truth of the good news, I said to Cephas before them all: “If you, though you are a Jew, live as the nations do and not as Jews do, how can you compel people of the nations to live according to Jewish practice?”

Ask:

  • Wasn’t it men from James who triggered the problem?
  • Why did Paul resist Peter face-to-face instead of humbly submitting to his authority as a member of the Governing Body in Jerusalem?
  • Who was it that was in the wrong? The apostle Peter and certain men who came from James! One of Jesus’ inner circle and men who came from Jesus’ half-brother, James, the man who presided over the Acts 15 meeting!

If the Witnesses claim that Paul was entitled to speak up because he was one of the Governing Body, you can say:

  • Paul didn’t oppose Peter privately as part of a meeting in Jerusalem of a “governing body,” but at the congregation in Antioch in front of all the believers who were there.

Summary

You can sum up with this stone-in-the-shoe question:

  • Based on Paul’s example, what should we do when someone of supposed organizational importance promotes false doctrine or practice—meekly obey and wait for God to straighten them out or refuse to go along and instead take a public stand for what is right?

 

 

 

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