Members of the religious group, Jehovah's Witnesses, have a bond of TRUST with the men who run the organization.
The SOURCE of authority for that bond of Trust is explained to be superior to any other and all other religious groups.
What is the basis given for the superiority of the Governing Body's teachings and interpretations of God's will?
Just this: a mysterious understanding.
The claim is :heavenly direction.
All religious groups claim to have an understanding leading to TRUTH.
Variously it has been the following:
Pre-Moses: people did what was right in their own eyes and suffered the consequences for bad choices or reaped the benefits of good ones.
Jews, under Moses, accepted they had been selected among all Earthlings to become "special": a chosen nation for special rewards.
The source was Moses' claims that God, the True and Only real God, had contacted him (unseen by the others).
The LAW was the concrete symbol of a Divine source of "special" relationship and Truth.
IF Jews performed their end of the bargain (obeyed the Law) God protected and advanced them.
IF Jews failed to perform (broke God's perfect Law) God gave them to their just desserts.
Non-Jewish nations pursued philosophies, military conquests and meditations.
Alexander the Great trumped every other methodology by winning battles against all Gods, gurus and philosophies.
Every personal God of conquered nations was struck dumb by Alexander's victories over them.
The GREEK way of thinking, acting, believing and governing practically wiped away competing views of what worked.
A retelling of Jewish history was necessary to answer this threat to Jewish identity. Miraculous retellings were given to "prove" the Jews were special to this tribal God.
Sophisticated and educated Greeks refused to believe these reworked myths as superior to their own tales of Zeus, Athena and heroic Greek demi-gods.
The Jews lost interest (practically speaking) in their Law, Hebrew language, world view after Alexander and his generals divided up the empire.
A hardcore group of fanatical intransigents clung desperately to the Old Ways. The majority of Jewish subjects under Greek and Roman rule, became citizens of the World at large rather than a name-brand people of a tribal religion. They lost their ability to speak or read Hebrew.
JEWISH IDENTITY in the crucible of a sacrfice-based religious ritual kept Judaism from the brink of the abyss.
Meaning what? JEWS deeply desired the "promise" of being above all other groups. They wanted Top Dog identity. Only a Messiah leader could achieve that for them.
Post Alexander, Judaism was a patch on the Old Ways. It was splintered into interest groups. Three main splits: hardcore sacrific/priesthood, (Pharisee) political identity zealots(Sicarii), Roman quisling political/religious figureheads(Herodians).
When Jesus came along his groups was a gnat on an Elephant's back as far as Judaism and Roman rule. He seemed a candidate for Messiah as a Military/Religious leader until he was killed.
Jesus, like the three splinters of Judaism, claimed a SOURCE AUTHORITY for his TRUTH. He was a failure as the Great Messianic Hope of zealot Jews.
Opinions abounded about who or what Jesus might have been. These opinions became stories and legends with various claims made.
Paul, the self-styled "Apostle", made a claim for a transformed Judaism in the shadow of Jesus' ministry. Jews were no longer physical Jews; they were "spiritual" styled "Jews". For Paul's theory--Jesus was an invisible leader about to return in divine glory to set matters straight.
Christianity was deeply fractured over the actual personhood of Jesus as a Christ. Was he human? Was he divine? Christianity split into factions, sects, heresies and two main churches: ORTHODOX and CATHOLIC.
The church (Catholic) claimed a source of power from Peter himself as bestowed by Jesus.
The melding of political power (under Constantine) and a hierarchy of priests and popes ruled Christianity through FORCE until Martin Luther.
Martin Luther made an astonishing claim:
1.The visible Catholic Church was so demonstrably corrupt, it could not possibly represent Christ's Kingdom on Earth.
2.Each individual Christian could---with the scriptures alone (Sola Scriptura) be guided by Holy Spirit to TRUTH.
From the 16th century onward, people "guided" by scripture alone came to astonishly varied and contradictory "guided" conclusions about what constituted TRUTH!
The Reformation was a testing of SOURCE ATHORITY in the practical everyday world.
In the 19th century, Puritan theories of self-perfection (by pure standards of behavior) had been disproved.
An End-Times theory took over, fueld by William Miller's predictions of Christ's Second Advent.
When this failed, splinter groups formed to "explain" away the test of their SOURCE AUTHORITY and failures in predictions.
Charles Taze Russell was one among many who gave as his SOURCE the tricky understanding of INVISIBLE RETURN.
When WWI broke out--it temporarily seemed to VALIDATE Russell's theology.
After Russell's death, his successor, Judge Rutherford sought to piggy-back off of Russell's following and authority.
The source of Rutherford's TRUTH, at first, was C.T.Russell's writings!
Eventually, Rutherford repudiated most things and changed them.
HERE IS THE IMPORTANT PART. READ CAREFULLY....
The only proof of C.T.Russell's divine connection to Jehovah was the break out of WWI.
Every other thing Russell predicted was proved wrong in the most absolute sense.
Rutherford sought to prop up the failures by INTERPRETING literal events against a backdrop of scriptural "shadow plays" unveiled with himself and the governing body as players in a grand prophesy fulfilled!
Today, the Watchtower Society's sole SOURCE OF AUTHORITY is the trumped-up explanation for 1914 (maintaining Russell's link) and 1918, (bolstering Rutherford's role).
Without 1914 and 1918--THERE IS NO SOURCE OF AUTHORITY for men in Brooklyn pretending to "know" anything Jehovah says.
Destroy that foudation and you unlink the POWER SOURCE from the old men changing their minds all the time.
The bedrock of Witness claims to divine direction (keep that word uppermost in your mind: DIRECTION) is the 1914 "invisible" return of Jesus followed by Jesus "choosing" his servants in 1918 (Rutherford).
IF Jesus did NOT return in 1914, he did not choose Rutheford or the Watchtower Society.
This means they are just another misguided group of self-deluded liars!
All of Christian and Jewish history has been a tug of war between power brokers who wanted to rule others with claims of superior power sources.
JW's have the most easily demonstrated and refutable claims.
It all begins and ends with the unfeasible claim of invisible Jesus in 1914.