Gilles Gray writes:
The short answer is, God communicates with Jehovah’s Witnesses very poorly indeed.
Jehovah’s Witnesses are the first to affirm that God doesn’t directly communicate with them at all.
However, this fact doesn’t stop them from making the baseless assertion that God communicates to them through reading the bible, through holy spirit and through their leaders (known as the Governing Body, or the Faithful and Discreet Slave).
Here is a claim made by one of the first leaders of the Watchtower Organisation:-
Communication through reading the bible
Although this claim is an extremely common response made by nearly all JWs when confronted with this question, in fact when one stops to consider precisely what is meant, it doesn’t amount to much in the way of compelling evidence. The claim that God talks to the leaders of the Organisation through their reading of the bible is misleading and pointless, by anybody’s standard.
Jehovah’s Witnesses believe that by regularly studying the bible, the secret messages from God contained therein are gradually revealed. They assert that the bible translates itself, and over time their leaders have come to understand the underlying inspired words of God.
The problem with this claim is the fact that anyone can make the exact same assertion. For example, there is an alternative contrasting understanding on what the bible says with regards to the consumption of blood at Acts 15. This alternative understanding is backed up by other verses in the bible, which is as equally as compelling as the ‘no blood policy’ proclaimed by Jehovah’s Witnesses. The fact that there is an alternative contradictory understanding backed up by the bible, means that this alternative rendition must also be considered as the communication of God’s thoughts, if we are to be logically consistent.
The fact that there are two contradictory bible perspectives, which are both in harmony with other portions of the scriptures, means that the god of the bible is both tolerant and intolerant of the consumption of blood, at the same time. This makes no logical sense, and undermines the claim made by Jehovah’s Witnesses that God communicates His thoughts to people when they make a comprehensive study of the bible.
In addition, there are also the examples of believing JWs who were disfellowshipped for speaking out against certain teachings imposed by the Governing Body, and only a few years later, the Watchtower changed its teaching to the one for which the former member was ejected. This would suggest that God ‘communicated’ with the JW who was removed before He spoke to the leaders of the Organisation, and then allowed them to be removed from the congregation… for being correct.
The other problem for Jehovah’s Witnesses is the fact that throughout the history of the Watchtower Organisation, the leaders have positively asserted that their teachings are those found in the bible.
What undermines this position is the fact that many of their former ‘bible based’ teachings have been discarded, in many cases through necessity, after their claims proved to be untrue.
If many of their former teachings proved to be untrue, it stands to reason that God never ‘communicated’ those teachings to the Governing Body. If so, those former teachings had to be the thoughts of men, the presumptuous ideas of mistaken, misled individuals who spoke in the name of Jehovah without His say-so. (Deuteronomy 18:20-22)
Having taught ideas that have later proved to be untrue, the dilemma for Jehovah’s Witnesses is to know how to distinguish an untrue bible based teaching made by their overzealous mistaken leaders, from a bible teaching that has been ‘communicated’ from Jehovah.
- Both are claimed to be based on a bible verse.
- Both examples are alleged to be harmonious with the rest of the scriptures.
- Both claims originate from the thoughts/mouths of the dubious leaders of the Watchtower Organisation.
The fact is, there is no method to distinguish whether the current and future teachings of Jehovah’s Witnesses are anymore credible than those they previously believed and have subsequently abandoned. This leaves JWs with no certain way of knowing whether or not Jehovah truly does communicate to them through an extensive study of the scriptures.
The holy spirit directs the Governing Body
In a similar vein, on examination, the claim that God directs the Organisation through the holy spirit, means nothing. The ‘holy spirit’ that Jehovah’s Witnesses describe is not in the least comparable to the ‘Holy Spirit’ mentioned in the bible. The Holy Spirit in the bible was a ‘hands-on’ supernatural force which Jesus and Jehovah used to personally direct, guide and physically empower their true followers.
The ‘holy spirit’ referred to by Jehovah’s Witnesses is merely a ‘mindset’ or ‘feeling’ someone attains when reading the scriptures. There is no direct influence from God or Jesus. This means that anyone who reads the bible can make the exact same claim as the JWs, including atheists. Anyone reading the bible can be said to be in ‘communication’ with God and Jesus via the holy spirit. The phrase means absolutely nothing.
Communication through the Governing Body
As for the claim that God speaks to Jehovah’s Witnesses through the Governing Body, one only has to make a quick search into the Watchtower’s failed eschatology to confirm that there is absolutely no good evidence to believe that God even remotely directs these individuals. Considering that the bible condemns Jehovah’s Witnesses for speaking out presumptuously in God’s name, having never received authority directly from Him to do so, one would conclude that the very opposite is true.
There is no justifiable reason to conclude that God communicates with Jehovah’s Witnesses at all. Aside from mere wishful thinking, the evidence just isn’t there.