God’s wisdom in allowing bearded JWs July 25 Watchtower

by Listener 24 Replies latest watchtower bible

• 

  Phizzy

  " It’s almost as if Jehovah is now the puppet and the GB is pulling his strings.".

  Good observation, they make up some shit, and it's "Guidance form Jehovah". That, if Jehovah exists, is Blasphemy ! LOL.
• 

  Jeffro

  Rattigan350:

  Shaving everyday is just part of basic hygiene like brushing one's teeth and putting on deodorant.
  Wearing beards are just a sign of the laziness and rebelliousness of the people today.

  Or... they could.. wash their beards. I suppose you insist on baldness too. 🤦‍♂️
• 

  Phizzy

  And the shaving of Pubes ?
• 

  Gorb

  Whahahahahahahahahaha

  It is a sect and it stays a sect.

  Leaders are crazy, they think they are Jesus brothers.

  Thats a dissorder.

  Gorby
• 

  hoser

  The only reason they write stuff in the watchtower is to correct the followers.

  There must be a report from a circuit overseer somewhere that some people are murmuring about the new dress code.

  So they made up this fake experience to counsel the followers.
• 

  Vidiot

  Journeyman - “…Just admit it was a stupid edict in the first place, and you're correcting a long-standing error…”

  You know they’ll never do that, right?
• 

  HereIam60

  I commented this elsewhere....but still..the best comment ever on beards - back in the '90s a young brother in our conrgegation grew one, was considered "rebellious" , was talked about etc. But one Sunday as he entered the hall, a sweet elderly sister called him over and said "Brother...whenever I see you, I think of Jesus, because Jesus had a beard!"
• 

  Ron.W.

  Thanks for posting.

  That beard paragraph in the wt is utterly pathetic, and also sinister in the way it controls and brainwashes the rank and file jw dolts and droids..

  I hate the way they try to include 'Jehovah' into every pathetic facet of their lives..

  " We went into the lavatory and there was enough paper.." Jehovah's rich blessing.

  " We cancelled our papers and milk while on holiday.." jehovah's hand was in this.

  "Our car passed its yearly MOT." Jehovah has richly blessed us..

  "Our toaster has lasted for five years." Jehovah spirit is surely guiding it..

  I'm sure you can think of other things they say...
• 

  blondie

  Up until 1968 the WTS did not picture Jesus with a beard. WT 1968 p. 288 Questions from Readers "Nevertheless, as already shown, it is apparent that Jesus did wear a beard, and so artistic representations of him in future Watch Tower publications will harmonize with the Scriptural evidence to that effect." But added this "In recent years in many lands a beard or long hair on a man attracts immediate notice and may, in the minds of the majority, classify such a person undesirably with extremists or as rebels against society. God’s ministers want to avoid making any impression that would take attention away from their ministry or hinder anyone from listening to the truth." and at the end "In paradise restored on earth it would not be out of order if men returned to wearing beards, in perfect fashion, like Adam in Eden." Picture of Adam without beard by WTS: https://www.pinterest.com/pin/73465037648316667/
• 

  aqwsed12345

  There was a time when Christian doctrine concerned itself with matters of salvation, the Incarnation, the sacraments, and the eternal truths revealed by God. But in the surreal theological theater of modern sectarianism, even the facial hair of a man has been mystically elevated into the realm of "divine direction." A recent example of this absurdity is the July 2025 issue of the Watchtower magazine, which claims—without irony—that the "superior wisdom and power" of God guided a religious organization's governing body into allowing its male members to grow beards.

  The paragraph in question offers the tale of a woman named Rahela from Slovenia, who reportedly struggled to accept this shocking new reality: that a fellow believer could appear on stage with facial hair. But with much prayer and reflection on her Creator’s sovereignty, she came to terms with this seismic doctrinal shift. We are expected to believe that Almighty God, the Lord of Hosts, chose to exercise his infinite wisdom in resolving the crisis of... beards. That this anecdote is meant to inspire awe or reverence is not only pitiable—it is profane.

  What emerges from such accounts is a grotesque caricature of divine providence. The omnipotent God who crafted galaxies, who redeems souls, is reduced to a micromanaging bureaucrat of grooming policy. The faithful are encouraged to meditate on God's inscrutable ways because a man was permitted to appear with stubble on his chin. The implication is as staggering as it is ludicrous: that God himself changed his mind about something that Scripture never even condemns, because a few men at the top changed theirs.

  In truth, this is not theology—it is manipulation. By attaching the name of God to every policy shift and preference of the leadership, the line between divine will and human control is intentionally blurred. Once, Jesus was portrayed beardless in Watchtower publications, against all historical and scriptural evidence, simply because the cultural taboos of the time demanded it. Now that society has shifted again, so has "God's guidance." This is not revelation; it is reinvention.

  The mechanism is clear: invent a rule, enforce it for decades, then rescind it as a matter of spiritual enlightenment, attributing both the original prohibition and the new permission to the same divine source. Meanwhile, the laity is infantilized—trained not to discern right from wrong through prayer, Scripture, or conscience, but to await new instructions from above. And when those instructions arrive, they must be accepted as if descending from Sinai itself, even when they contradict what was once taught as sacred.

  The tragedy of this theater is not only the intellectual insult it pays to those who love and fear God, but the spiritual damage it inflicts on sincere souls. It replaces the liberty of the Gospel with the chains of organizational whim. It conditions believers to associate divine approval with external compliance, and to accept that even their appearance must be sanctioned from above. But what is most blasphemous is the way God's name is drafted into every petty edict—as if He were the mascot of every memo and adjustment.

  This is not faith. It is religious theater scripted by bureaucrats who presume to speak for God but contradict Him by their every inconsistency. The God of Scripture does not obsess over grooming trends. Christ wore a beard not as an act of rebellion but because he was a man in first-century Judea. His appearance was not subject to committee vote. That this needs to be said at all is a testament to how far from apostolic Christianity such sects have strayed.

  To attribute the changing fashions of men to the eternal purposes of God is to profane the divine name. True reverence does not mean blind submission to every organizational pivot; it means worshiping God in spirit and truth. And the truth is this: the Creator of heaven and earth did not descend from his throne to approve goatees. What did descend, however, is a spirit of control masquerading as guidance—and the faithful should have the courage to see through the charade.