I just read this article about Luther and I'll quote a paragraph. It's interesting how you can substitute a few words and see it IDENTICAL to the WT.
"By the 16th century the Catholic Church had entrenched and linked “membership”
in the Church with salvation. The threat of “excommunication” was used as a weapon to
keep followers in line and to punish those that had move outside the boundaries of
conduct and actions set by the Church hierarchy. The Church taught that “it alone” was
God’s instrument and representative on Earth and salvation could only be found by its
means. Further, the Pope as the leader of the Catholic Church was by then declared as the
“Vicar of Christ”, or his personal representative. Until the 5th century, this title had been
reserved to describe the Holy Spirit sent to Christ’s Apostles to complete their religious
training. Once the title was transferred to the pope, it began to imply an extraordinary
holiness of supreme and universal primacy existed over all of Christendom in this office,
in one human being" - https://www.hccfl.edu/media/173616/ee2luther.pdf
Now let me substitute pope and catholic church for governing body and watchtower.....
"By the 20th century the governing body of Jehovah's Witnesses had entrenched and linked “membership”
in the WBTS with salvation. The threat of “disfellowshipping” was used as a weapon to
keep followers in line and to punish those that had move outside the boundaries of
conduct and actions set by the Watchtower hierarchy. The WBTS taught that “it alone” was
God’s instrument and representative on Earth and salvation could only be found by its
means. Further, the governing body as the leader of the Jehovah's Witnesses was by then declared as the
“substitute for Christ”, or his personal representative. Until the 19th century, this title had been
reserved to describe the Holy Spirit sent to Christ’s Apostles to complete their religious
training. Once the title was transferred to the the governing body, it began to imply an extraordinary
holiness of supreme and universal primacy existed over all of the Jehovah's Witnesses in this office,
in one human being