The Watchtower tries to portray Jesus as a person who avoided arguments.
Why would they do this? There are two reasons. One reason is to keep
its members from getting caught in debates that could possibly damage their
trust in Watchtower teachings. Second the Watchtower can use that false image
of Jesus as a justification for ignoring serious challenges to their authority.
This is the basic idea presented in the following quote from an article in
the August 1 1993 article "Let No One Spoil Your Useful Habits"
"Many people will debate for hours, week after week, but not because they
are seeking truth. They just want to undermine another's faith while flaunting
their own supposed education in Hebrew, Greek, or evolutionary science. When
encountering them, some Witnesses have felt challenged and have wound up
having extended association centered on false religious belief, philosophy,
or scientific error. It is noteworthy that Jesus did not let that happen
to him, though he could have won debates with religious leaders who were
schooled in Hebrew or Greek. When challenged, Jesus replied briefly and then
turned his attention again to humble ones, the real sheep. Matthew 22:41-46;
1 Corinthians 1:23-2:6"
Do you see the unsubstantiated claim here? The picture of Christ they want
to give their readers is a person who gives a brief answer to his challengers
and then ignores them by teaching those whom he judged as sincere. But lets
read their proof text and see what really happened there.
| Now while the Pharisees were gathered together Jesus asked them "What do you think about the Christ? Whose son is he?" They said to him: "David's". He said to them: "How, then, is it that David by inspiration calls him 'Lord,' saying, 'Jehovah said to my Lord: "Sit at my right hand until I put your enemies beneath your feet?" If, therefore, David calls him 'Lord,' how is he his son?" And nobody was able to say a word in reply to him, nor did anyone dare from that day on to question him any further. |
We can see that Jesus gave a rebuttal that silenced his questioners. He
won the argument. After winning the argument the Pharisees were the
ones that gave up because they had nothing else to say. If they had
been able to raise another point Jesus would have been obligated to answer
them. An argument is not finished until one has finished off the
counterarguments. Typically, when a person loses an argument they
find a way to politely or impolitely walk away. The person who walks
away from an argument is usually the loser.
Rather than ignore questions, a good teacher welcomes the challenge. Jesus
kept going until his opponents gave up. Isn't that what people ought
to do when they think they have the TRUTH? The Watchtower has adopted an
attitude of stonewalling any question that challenges their official teaching.