Today, the answer to the question, “How shall we know the word that Jehovah has spoken?” can be easily answered by simply consulting the Bible. According to our faith that is indeed the word that Jehovah has spoken.
That's not entirely true. While JW's do acknowledge that the Bible is God's Word, the bottom line for them is the interpretation of the Bible put forth by the organization. The organization claims to be God's only channel of communication with mankind for our day, and that it is impossible to understand the Bible apart from them. So, in practice, to JW's, the writings of the organization are also part of the 'word that Jehovah has spoken.' And the Watchtower makes no effort to discourage this worshipful attitude, in fact, they encourage it by speaking of their writings as 'spiritual food' that Jehovah has provided. Since they make those claims, they must be subject to the same high standard of proof. Especially so, since they demand absolute obedience to those writings under pain of disfellowshipping and unscriptural shunning.
John goes on to explain how to test the validity of those who claim to speak for God, saying: “You gain the knowledge of the inspired expression from God by this: Every inspired expression that confesses Jesus Christ as having come in the flesh originates with God, but every inspired expression that does not confess Jesus does not originate with God.”
Where does it say that this is the test for false prophets particularly? Even if we take it as that, all the churches of Christendom acknowledge that Jesus
has come in the flesh. Your opinion that:
In fact, Christendom’s Trinity doctrine cleverly denies Jesus as being a mere flesh and blood mortal. That’s because the doctrine makes him out to be a super human incarnation of God.
betrays your lack of understanding of the trinity doctrine. He was not 'superhuman,' he was fully God and fully man. 100% God and 100% man. To say that the fact that he was not
only a man means that he has not 'come in the flesh' is absurd. If the only qualification for being a true prophet is to acknowledge that Jesus came in the flesh, then pretty much all of Christendom qualifies.
If that were the case then the apostles were false prophets themselves because they had many erroneous ideas about when Christ was going to set up his kingdom. Similar to our own 1975 fiasco, and other similar embarrassments and goofs, the apostles even spread a rumor among the brothers that Jesus would return before John died.
The apostles and other early Christians certainly held their ideas about what would occur in the future, and some of them were indeed erroneous. However, I do not read of the apostles making the claim to be speaking for God when advancing these ideas. Anyone can speculate, but the Watchtower advances its speculations as "Jehovah's word through Jesus Christ" and "the Creator's promise". This sort of claim to prophetic status raises the stakes. It is not every word spoken by a prophet that is subject to the test of Deuteronomy 18:22, but only "when the prophet speaks in the name of Jehovah and the word does not occur or come true."
It's simple really: the Watchtower said it was "the Creator's promise" that the generation of 1914 would see the end of the system of things. Now, that generation is substantially gone, and the Watchtower has changed its teaching on the subject. So the question that needs to be addressed is simply this: Who was lying? Was the Creator lying when He made that promise? Or was the Watchtower lying when it told us that its teaching was the Creator's promise? Even if we accepted your idea that Deuteronomy 18 does not apply in the Christian era, the Watchtower is still seen to be a presumptuous liar.
But there is ample reason to believe that Deuteronomy 18 does apply in the Christian era. I say this because Jesus warned his disciples about false prophets without explanation of what a flase prophet is. If the standard for determining who is a false prophet was changing, why would Jesus warn about them without explaining how to figure out who they were? The answer is that there was to be no change. The disciples already knew how to determine who was a false prophet. The New Testament scriptures you cite were an expansion of, not a replacement for, the principle set forth at Deuteronomy 18.
Jesus is the founder and head of a unique spiritual organization that was foretold in prophecy to be a people who are called by God's own name of Jehovah.
That is a statement completely unsupported by scripture. The word "organization" never appears in the Bible, therefore the doctrine cannot be true. (I'm being a bit sarcastic here; that, after all, is the argument JW's use against the Trinity) But my point is that the statement that the organization was foretold in prophecy is completely based upon acceptance of the Watchtower's interpretation of prophecy. In effect, the Watchtower says, "We are God's organization because our interpretation of Bible prophecy says that we are."
People believe what they want for their own selfish reasons and therefore are quick to gulp down slander and falsity in order to allow themselves to indulge in their favorite fantasies without the pangs of conscience.
Which explains the Wathctower having six million followers today despite their abominable record of lies and false prophecies.
that means that there would also be a group of true Christians who would be doing the work of preaching about Christ's presence and announcing God's kingdom.
Where did Jesus say it would be "a group"? Jesus predicted that the good news would be preached, not that "a group" would do it. Typical Watchtower deceptive technique, that of inserting a concept that isn't in the scripture to bolster their argument.
The good news (or gospel), of course, is specifically defined by Paul at 1 Cor. 15:2-4:
2 By this gospel you are saved, if you hold firmly to the word I preached to you. Otherwise, you have believed in vain. 3 For what I received I passed on to you as of first importance: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, 4 that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures
Now, if you ask a JW who comes to your door what is the good news that he is preaching, how many will respond with the above scripture? Obviously, the Bible's good news is not what is being preached by Jehovah's Witnesses. However, that message
is being spread worldwide by millions upon millions of individual Christians from different denominations and groups, different nations and languages. The concept that there would be only one group or organization doing so is foreign to scripture.
For if Jehovah's Witnesses are the false prophets that Christ foretold who are the true ones?
Christ didn't tell us to watch for true prophets in the last days; only for false prophets. The Watchtower clearly qualifies as the latter. And, even if by your elaborate human reasonings, you manage to nullify in a technical sense the scriptures proving them so, they are still, as I have pointed out above, presumptuous liars. The true prophets are the ones who wrote the Bible, and those are all the writings we need to understand God's will for us, not the self-serving ramblings of a cultic and totalitarian organization.
But, the bottom line is that the failings of individuals within the nation of Israel did not prevent God from acomplishing his stated purpose with them. The organization of Jehovah's Witnesses is in the exact same position today. Nothing in any of our failings really disqualifies us from accomplishing Jehovah's stated purpose in connection with his spiritual Israel. The Christian Scriptures in fact warn and empower us, provided God's word lives in us, to overcome the multiplicity of problems that exist in the congregations.
Everything you say in the above quote could also be said of the Catholic Church. Who is to say that God's word 'lives in' Jehovah's Witnesses any more than in Catholics or other Christians? The evidence in the behavior of the Watchtower organization in so many areas overwhelmingly indicates a lack of God's spirit. But you continue to apply the double standard: among all religions, only Jehovah's Witnesses are
not called to account for their failings. If there are pedophile priests in the Catholic Church, the Watchtower will herald it far and wide, But pedophile elders at the Kingdom Halls? It won't even be acknowledged, and if it is exposed from outside, it will be covered up and excused. What hypocrites! One thing is clear to me; if there is a "group" preaching the good news today and representing God, it is
NOT Jehovah's Witnesses - God would never allow such a corrupt people to represent him!
Tom
"The truth was obscure, too profound and too pure; to live it you had to explode." ---Bob Dylan
