https://youtu.be/cefNvuBzXcE?si=edHA3QmaX4fxLwqQ
Everyone who pushes ahead and does not remain in the teaching of the Christ does not have God. The one who does remain in this teaching is the one who has both the Father and the Son. 10 If anyone comes to you and does not bring this teaching, do not receive him into your homes or say a greeting to him
According to Mark Sanderson in his latest jwupdate #2 these verses in 2 John 9-11 will render you unredimable in 2024. No greeting at the meeting, no invite to attend a meeting at the kingdom hall and no visit from the elders. The Governing Body has decided these verses are about apostates which in jw language is anyone who opposes the Governing body and their authority. But is this the case? And what about this teaching of Christ these verses mention here.Let's find out.
The verse never mentions the word apostate, in fact you won't find this word anywhere in the 2 letter of John which consists of 1 chapter. On the other hand verse 9 clearly says that the "Everyone who pushes ahead and does not remain in the teaching of the Christ does not have God" So is this "teaching of Christ" disobedience towards Mark Sanderson and his buddies OR something entirely different?
As always the context defines the meaning and so is the case here, because the disqualifier from being greeted as a brother or a sister here is that you deny the "teaching of Christ". With that in mind look what verse 7 has to say about this:
For many deceivers have gone out into the world, those not acknowledging Jesus Christ as coming in the flesh. This is the deceiver and the antichrist
Notice that there was a specific issue the apostle John was addressing here and that was the fact that some were refusing that Jesus came in the flesh. Last time I checked most of those who left the Witnesses and are still Christians do not refuse that Jesus came in the flesh. In fact don't know of anyone in the world today that claims such a thing. Most programs or documentaries or scholars take that as a fact, that Jesus came in the flesh.
So by only this clarification no exjw can be classed as an apostate.But what exactly did John mean?
Apparently during the end of the 1st century AD a new group of false Christians had emerged, the Docetists, yes I know strange name, from the original Greek dókēsis whicj mesns "apparition or phantom".
Docetism is broadly defined as any teaching that claims that Jesus' body was either absent or illusory. Two varieties were widely known. In one version Christ was so divine that he could not have possibly been human, since God lacked a material body, which therefore could not physically suffer. Jesus only appeared to be a flesh-and-blood man; his body was an simply apparition. Other groups who were accused of docetism held that Jesus was a man in the flesh, but Christ was a separate entity who entered Jesus' body in the form of a dove at his baptism, empowered him to perform miracles, and abandoned him upon his death on the cross.
In fact if you want to see what Docetism looks like today, thr following passage from the Quran is a strong contender, Quran 4:157:
And [for] their saying, "Indeed, we have killed the Messiah, Jesus the son of Mary, the messenger of Allāh." And they did not kill him, nor did they crucify him; but [another] was made to resemble him to them. And indeed, those who differ over it are in doubt about it. They have no knowledge of it except the following of assumption. And they did not kill him, for certain.
It doesn't qualify all the criteria of Docetism but it sure looks like an attempt to diminish the the physical presence of Christ on the cross and many scholars have attempted in the past to tie that in with the Docetism of the first few centuries of the Church.
Now, this is a far cry from the definition of an apostate that the governing body slaps on their opposers and by doing so they seek to deceive you so you can believe their lies and to continue persecuting those that expose them.
For such men as the governing body members including Mark Sanderson the Bible is quite clear. In 2 John verse 7 we learn that after Jesus came here on earth "many deceivers have gone out into the world" .Interestingly the cross reference of the word "deceivers" in the NWT translation takes us to Matthew 7:15
Be on the watch for the false prophets who come to you in sheep’s covering, but inside they are ravenous wolves.
Those who try to deceive you with erroneous interpretations of verses such as 2 John 9-11 in order to push their agenda to persecute their opposers are the "deceivers" and "the wolves in sheep's clothing" they are better known as the governing body of Jehovah's Witnesses