They are also on record as saying higher education is a waste of time. Why? Because the end is just around the corner, a phrase that has been repeated and repeated since the year 1914 till now.
From my own observation, I believe education not only keeps the rank and file busy, it keeps them mentally maladroit when attempting to understand scripture in its proper cultural and religious context. The folks in charge of scriptural exegesis at Bethel are incredibly...creative in taking Jewish scriptures from two thousand years ago and applying them to insignificant events in WTBTS history. It may be comical to outside observers, but it's sad to see otherwise intelligent people deprived of education for the sole purpose of being controlled. If people go to college they may be tempted to take advanced courses on religion and scripture, and that could easily result in 1) large numbers of people leaving the movement, and 2) a great amount of embarrassment on the part of those who understandably feel duped. I would think if the WTBTS forbids its members from attending other churches, it would absolutely forbid them from participating in secular religious studies.
Jehovah's Witnesses state that every baptized witness is a minister of God.
Yes, and there's nothing in the scriptures that support that. And if so, why don't regular members baptize their children instead of having some stranger in a cheap pre-fab pool do it in a circus-like atmosphere If the above were true, I'd much rather take my son or daughter to a place they'd remember, then baptize them myself.
The question though, is, who performed the first baptism in the Society? And where did he get the authority? Who was the first minister? How did the WTBTS get the authority to oversee all the baptisms in our day?
As I understand it, a Christian minister of God is someone who goes to school gets the opportunity to further their education at a higher level, then studies Greek, Hebrew, Latin, and what is available in ancient manuscripts, and demonstrates they have a comprehension of all these issues..... And of course they would need to get a pass on these subjects. I think this would be the minimum standard required in the mainstream Christian Churches, Greek Orthodox, Catholic, all branches, Church of England and most of the mainstream Protestant religions.
Very true. But before the great apostasy, when there was revelation -- when God chose His own servants and organized His own church instead of picking it out of a line-up of existing manmade churches and societies -- He didn't exactly rely on résumés. The prophet Jeremiah wrote of his calling:
Before I formed thee in the belly I knew thee; and before thou camest forth out of the womb I sanctified thee, and I ordained thee a prophet unto the nations. Then said I, Ah, Lord God! behold, I cannot speak: for I am a child! But the Lord said unto me, Say not, I am a child: for thou shalt go to all that I shall send thee, and whatsoever I command thee thou shalt speak. ... Thou therefore gird up thy loins, and arise, and speak unto them all that I command thee: be not dismayed at their faces, lest I confound thee before them. For, behold, I have made thee this day a defenced city, and an iron pillar, and brasen walls against the whole land, against the kings of Judah, against the princes thereof, against the priests thereof, and against the people of the land. And they shall fight against thee; but they shall not prevail against thee; for I am with thee, saith the Lord, to deliver thee. (Jeremiah 1)
This seems very different than the God who examined all the world's religions and chose one. He chose Jeremiah and presumably Moses, Ezekiel, Isaiah and all the other prophets before they entered mortality, and he ordained them. And if He chose Russell, Rutherford and others, including all the members of the Governing Body, then He chose them and ordained them before they were born as well. Only why is there no record of it?
When Samuel was still a boy, he heard a voice call his name. When he went to the high priest, Eli, thinking he had called him, the aged priest, after it had happened twice, told the boy if it happened a third time to reply, "Here am I, Lord!" And when it did, he did, and the Lord gave the boy a revelation regarding Eli and His wretched sons. Now if God is unchangeable, as we're told, why would He not give Russell, Rutherford and those among the Governing Body a head's up in a similar fashion? Instead, we're to understand that the Lord came to the earth in 1919 and, after examining all the manmade religions, personally chose the WTBTS as being the closest one to the original church. And if He told no one, how was "The Truth"™ ever notified of this momentous event? That would bother me more than anything else in the religion. (The Society doesn't consider itself a church, oddly, even though Jesus freely used the word in referring to his ancient organization.)
The thing about 1914 and 1919 is that these are both crucial dates. First, Jesus was enthroned as King of Heaven in 1914, having cast Satan out (he was actually cast out before Adam). Next, after establishing himself, he looked over the various religions and, when he saw the WTBTS, he lowered the gavel and declared it to be his true religion. After countless generations of establishing his own organizations, the e Lord finally decided to pick an existing manmade organization and put his stamp on it. Strange, don't you think? That he would change his own modus operandi and pick something established by some men in suits. If I were running Bethel, I'd let a little "new light" in and declare that God inspired the men who built it up and that He, Jehovah of Armies, was behind its establishment. If they keep the story as it is now, they won't be able to frown disapproval when they talk about manmade churches.
