I know I am mainly preaching to the choir with this, but there are plenty of lurkers. I used to lurk on the old H2O when I first began having doubts and I bet there are a lot more JWs today who still want to believe they are part of God's org but see the many human failings of the so-called "visible organization."
One of, if not the only, unique teachings of Jehovah's Witnesses is that Jesus came back (has returned, is present) and in 1919 chose the Watchtower Society's board of directors as his representative Governing Body (except they didn't know they were a governing body nor did they know they were chosen since at the time they thought Jesus had been back earlier and chosen them when Russell was in charge).
So let's assume that Jesus did come back in 1914, what has he done? You would think that if Jesus was away and in heaven, and that he truly meant what he said in his departing words, "I am with you always, to the very end of the age" (Matt 28:20 NIV) that once he got back things would be radically different. But are they?
While JWs have grown in number in the last 89 years, Christianity in general has grown in huge numbers and many "new" religions have grown faster and more numerous than those who associate with the Watchtower organization. So while Jesus has been directing the work of "his people", other people (everyone except JWs), sincerely believing that they have Christ's blessing, but not uniquely chosen, have done much better or as least as well. (Let's not forget that in addition to maintaining their numbers or growing most of these other groups do a lot of charitable work to aid the poor, sick, homeless etc.)
For a long time, the writers of the Watchtower, guided by the GB (who are directed but not inspired) assigned Jesus the task of helping them separate "sheep" from "goats." Later on they decided that Jesus wasn't doing this because he hadn't yet "stood up" and "sat down" and was still "sitting" or something like that. So Jesus' role has been limited to guiding the organization. Still Jesus could do a lot here and show his real influence. As such you'd think that the "visible organization" would be ahead of the curve and Jesus with his superior oversight and all-knowing ability would be guiding carefully, avoiding the pitfalls caused when mere men run things:
- Wouldn't Jesus have come clean on what he really meant about the inhabitants of Sodom and Gomorrah on Judgment Day?
- Would Jesus have allowed the org to set rules on critical medical treatment only to change them because mere men got better insight about the components parts of blood?
- Would Jesus have waited for TV documentaries, newspaper articles and law suits naming his "visible organization" before acting to change policy about the protection of children from sexual predators?
- Would Jesus have given his blessing to his organization joining part of the United Nations organization, even if it were merely to obtain a library ticket?
If Jesus allows all these things to happen what sort of leader is he? Surely, after being away for nearly 1,900 years he'd be ready to get down to business and whip the visible org in to shape? Could it be then that the lack of evidence regarding Jesus' oversight of his organization is due to the fact he never chose them in 1919. It's a pretty big claim that the Watchtower makes, but where's the proof?
Thirdson