Debator: The ones that spoke to God directly indeed is how come we have the Bible itself to read. These were inspired. The rest of God's people where spirit directed. The Bible itself is the sword of the spirit so using the bible is to be directed by the spirit. We are Jehovah's people in this time. No other group follows Jehovah.
With all due respect this is hogwash. According to the American Heritage Dictionary, inspiration is "divine guidance or influence exerted directly on the mind and soul." You cannot distinguish between inspiration and "spirit directed." If God directs by the Spirit, it's inspiration. No amount of double talk will change this. You also state that "No other group follows Jehovah." Upon what do you base this claim?
Have you ever been to a Seventh Day Adventist church? They believe they are following the dictates of Jehovah by worshiping on the seventh day of the week. Ellen White was said to have had actual visitations from the unseen world directing her to worship on Saturday. In the opinion of her followers, no other group follows God except for the Adventists. Alexander Campbell believed that he (and others) restored the church of God by a deep study of the Bible's precepts. One theologian who agreed said, "The principles by which Alexander Campbell and his associates lived, appear to me to be indistinguishable from the principles of primitive and apostolic Christianity." (Dr. F.F. Bruce, 1910-1990)
Another theologian (not a follower of Mr. Campbell), speaking on the merits of inspiration, said: "Opinions, creeds invented by uninspired men, and doctrines originated in schools of divinity, all vanish like the morning dew -- all sink into insignificance when compared with a message direct from heaven. Such a message shines upon the understanding like the splendors of the noon-day sun; it whispers in the ears of mortals, saying, 'This is the way, walk ye in it.'" Another wrote: "Either revelation itself is deficient, or else the fault is in mankind. But to say revelation is deficient would be to charge God foolishly; God forbid; the fault must be in man."
Do you think that all the other religions of sectarian Christianity believe they are wrong? No. Do you think they believe they are not following Jehovah? Not a chance!
To argue that the Jehovah's Witnesses are God's ministers because no other church teaches (in your opinion) the truth is treading on thin ice. Having read the New Testament scriptures, I see nothing authorizing a change in the sabbath day from Saturday to Sunday. (I'm not a Seventh Day Adventist, however). I also read that, following baptism, one must have the Holy Spirit conferred upon him through the laying on of hands. Do the Jehovah's Witnesses do this?
On an Internet site, Matt Slick says: "The true church is not an organization, not a series of buildings, but the body of true believers. The true church consists of those who are regenerate; that is, it consists of those who are the true Christians." Of course Slick and his followers get to determine who these "Christians" really are and, more importantly, who they aren't.
So, really, your statement that the Jehovah's Witnesses must be God's Kingdom on Earth because, well, no other church teaches what you believe to be "the truth." The argument is circular. The Jehovah's Witnesses determine what the truth is and, since no one else teaches it, they must be the true church on Earth! The same template can be used with any other church, as we've seen. But it doesn't take everything into account.
The JW concept of Armegeddon is silly by today's standards. At the time Russell and Rutherford formed the foundational doctrines of the church, Judah had not gathered to its ancestral homelands. So they had to do an interpretational end run around it by giving all the scriptures that referred to Judah and Jerusalem "spiritual" meanings (since they were sure Armegeddon was right around the corner). Jerusalem became the church and Armegeddon was changed to mean a worldwide conflict. Meanwhile, the scriptures were clear. Jerusalem was NOT the church; it was the "city where David dwelt." When Israel was established in 1948, it became clear that Armegeddon was literal. It was to be a war against Judah and Jerusalem, and it had NOTHING to do with the Jehovah's Witnesses or their publishing concerns.
But the JW leadership did not correct their scriptural exegesis. Instead, they clung to it, despite it being an obvious error! There is absolutely no evidence whatsoever that the JW concept of Armegeddon is even remotely correct. To cling to it, you have to ignore entire chapters in the Bible and you have to give spiritual interpretations to prophecies that everywhere else are literal! When Armegeddon happens, it won't be here, but in Israel. When Jesus returns, he will do so in Jerusalem, at the Mount of Olives. Both Jews and early Christians understood this was a messianic prophecy, and that it was not at all spiritual, but literal. So if the JWs have missed this, it throws their entire eschatology off. Using Debator's logic, then, the Jehovah's Witnesses can't possibly be Jehovah's organization!
