The Jehovah's Witnesses are a strange cultural phenomenon and one that has always puzzled me. Members call it "the truth" and, more boldly, "Jehovah's organization." But many of those on the outside remain dumbfounded. "How dare you?" we ask. Under what presumption do they proclaim that which they have not been told to proclaim?
My problem is that religions don't just pop into being. Jews have their Moses, Christians have Christ, the Muslims have Muhammed, the Latter-day Saints have Joseph Smith and the Seventh-Day Adventists have their Ellen G. White. Alexander Campbell believed that Christianity could be rediscovered by going back to biblical truths, but he never claimed ecclesiastical authority over his followers. How could he? Unless God actually comes to you and inspires you with a revelation, how can anyone start a church or claim divine apostolic authority?
So I read about the various leaders of the Watchtower Bible and Tract Society and I wonder how they can put so much faith in a manmade organization. How would they ever know whether they were doing God's will or not unless there was some sort of communion between heaven and earth? And how can they be so sure their biblical exegesis is correct when scholars are constantly debating it?
Were I a Witness, I would have to face these tough decisions. What's particularly sad is that large groups of them want the end to come quickly and have in some cases bet the farm on the idea that they would never grow old but would live to see the triumphant return of Christ and the destruction of the wicked.
In the early church, we know Peter had divine authority, but did Paul? If he had it, did Clement? If so, when did it stop and if not, where does one draw the line? If Clement had it, did he pass it on? And how did the divine authority get from Peter and the apostles to a book publishing outfit in the United States?