I know this is a few months old. But I think it's profound to people that still think like the WT trained them to think. Even after coming out of the WT, they still feel that all Christians believe that they ALONE have the true religion or denomination. While we, as Christians, do believe that Jesus is the ONLY way, truth, and life, we do NOT believe that you have to belong to our personal denomination or religion. All that believe in Jesus alone are saved, no matter the denomination.
The same religious text that identifies Jesus as the Messiah outlines a logical framework for an organizational structure God approves of. The idea that God has an organization to represent his interests is found throughout the Bible. The nation of Israel in the Hebrew scriptures was a biological race with geographic boundaries, chosen by God because of the Davidic bloodline starting with Adam and ending with the foretold Messiah. (Luke 3:23-38) Jehovah foretold a new covenant by the prophet Jeremiah in the seventh century B.C.E. (Jeremiah 31:31-34), replacing a literal race or nationality, stating that it would not be like the law covenant, which Israel broke. On the night before his death, Nisan 14, 33 C.E., when he established the celebration of the Lord’s Evening Meal, Jesus Christ announced the new covenant, to be validated by his sacrifice.
In view of the Mosaic law covenant replaced by the Christian congregation, an organizational pattern was still outlined by the first century Christians.
In fact, to this [course] you were called, because even Christ suffered for you, leaving you a model for you to follow his steps closely. 1 Peter 2:21
And let us consider one another to incite to love and fine works, not forsaking the gathering of ourselves together, as some have the custom, but encouraging one another, and all the more so as you behold the day drawing near. Hebrews 10:24-25
"Gathering of ourselves together" outlines a congregational arrangement in the same pattern as the first century Christians.
According to the Bible, simply acknowledging Jesus as a savior as a display of faith, without fine works is dead in itself.
Thus, too, faith, if it does not have works, is dead in itself. James 2:17
“Not everyone saying to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter into the kingdom of the heavens, but the one doing the will of my Father who is in the heavens will. Many will say to me in that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and expel demons in your name, and perform many powerful works in your name?’ And yet then I will confess to them: I never knew you! Get away from me, you workers of lawlessness. Matthew 7:21-23
