by Nathan Natas 65 Replies latest watchtower scandals
Hawk,
It was I that posted the Evidence Rule 505, not sKally, but in my subsequent post, the link was to those statutes, 29 and 32, to which you drew attention. I duly noted your finer point that Rule 505 only applies to evidence given during trial. :) So I guess that's the good news for appeal. Yay!
Thanks for the explanation.
outnfree
I think it would be interesting to read previous News Articles about Judge Groff in relation to JW Elders' "religious privilege", and make a comparison with what New Hampshire Laws actually say.
The following News Articles are taken from http://www.SilentLambs.org (I have highlighted important statements in red):
Man convicted of sexual assault
without church testimony
07/27/2001
Associated Press Newswires
Copyright 2001. The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.
NASHUA, N.H. (AP) - A Hollis man has been convicted of molesting twin sisters although his apparent admission to church elders could not be used in the trial.
A jury deliberated two hours Tuesday before convicting Gregory Blackstock, 45, in Hillsborough County Superior Court of three counts of rape. He already was serving a five- to 10-year sentence for sexually assaulting a 9-year-old East Kingston girl in that town.
Blackstock's lawyers have moved to have the latest verdict set aside. No date has been set for a hearing on the motion or sentencing.
"We're fairly confident that the verdict will be set aside," defense lawyer Paul Garrity said. "The evidence was insufficient to support the verdict. "I think the judge will take a close look at it."
Assistant County Attorney Roger Chadwick said prosecutors believed the evidence supported the charges.
"Obviously, we're very satisfied," Chadwick said.
He said it was "a tremendous relief for me given the work that went into the case to see the jurors believe these girls, who were so courageous to get up and testify."
The girls, now 10, testified in open court.
More charges are pending against Blackstock in an unrelated case. He was accused of sexually assaulting a Hollis girl, who is now in her teens, between 1989 and 1996. A trial has been scheduled in October.
Judge William Groff ruled that Blackstock can't be sentenced under the state's "three strike's" law although he was convicted of three counts of rape. However, he could face an enhanced minimum sentence of 15 years for each charge because of his earlier conviction in Rockingham County.
Earlier, Groff found that elders in Blackstock's Jehovah's Witness congregation could not be made to testify about Blackstock's statements to them. He cited the "religious privilege" rule, which holds that religious leaders can't be required to disclose a confession or other statements made in confidence in their capacity as spiritual advisers. Prosecutors wanted to subpoena a minister and elders from Blackstock's congregation to testify about meetings at which they discussed the allegations.
Blackstock became acquainted with the girls' families while living in East Kingston and attending a Jehovah's Witness church there. He worked with the parents, and lived with the family for a period of time, Chadwick said during the trial.
The sisters' mother contacted her church elders after one of the girls disclosed the abuse, Chadwick said. One of the elders then contacted elders in the Hollis congregation.
Blackstock was accused of molesting the twins between October 1998 and June 1999 at his mother's home in Hollis.
The defense argued the girls' mother inadvertently misled them into making up the abuse charges by repeatedly questioning them and sharing with them her experience of sexual abuse.
The mother spoke to the girls in general terms when she began to have concerns about Blackstock's relationship with them, Chadwick said. When she read them a children's story about sexual abuse - "No-No the Little Seal" - the girls confided to her about the abuse, Chadwick said.
"She did what any mother would do," Chadwick said, adding later, "I'm glad the jury found that acceptable."
_________________________________________________
Meaning of girls' 'privates' disputed
By ANDREW WOLFE, Telegraph Staff
wolfea@telegraph-nh.com
NASHUA – A Hollis man asked a judge Thursday to throw out his conviction for molesting twin sisters, arguing the 10-year-old girls weren't specific enough when they testified that he touched their "privates."
Gregory Blackstock, 45, formerly of 68 Flint Pond Drive, also argued that prosecutors failed to prove he acted with the purpose of sexual gratification.
Blackstock was found guilty of three counts of aggravated felonious sexual assault July 26 after a trial in Hillsborough County Superior Court.
If Judge William Groff upholds his conviction, Blackstock is scheduled to be sentenced Sept. 25. Groff did not immediately rule on the issue after hearing arguments Thursday.
If Groff overturns Blackstock's convictions, prosecutors could seek to appeal his ruling, or request a new trial. On the other hand, Blackstock could argue that the case should be dismissed, and that double jeopardy bars the state from trying him again.
Blackstock is currently serving a five- to 10-year prison sentence for sexually assaulting a 9-year-old East Kingston girl in that town. He also faces trial next month on charges that he sexually assaulted a Hollis girl, now 17, between 1989 and 1996.
Blackstock was convicted of molesting the twin girls between October 1998 and June 1999 at his mother's home in Hollis.
Blackstock met the girls and their family while living in East Kingston and attending the same Jehovah's Witness congregation as they. He became close with the family and lived with them for a time. The alleged assaults took place while the girls visited him in Hollis.
The girls, who are now 10, both testified during the trial that Blackstock had touched their "privates." The girls drew circles on an anatomically correct drawing to indicate the area to which they were referring.
Blackstock's lawyer, Paul Garrity, argued that evidence wasn't enough to prove sexual contact with their genitalia.
"They circled an area on the body that encompassed stomach, groin, legs and genitalia," Garrity said.
Assistant County Attorney Roger Chadwick disagreed, saying the drawings were somewhat more specific. In any case, he argued, the term "privates" is unambiguous.
"We're dealing with a very specific term, commonly used to refer to the genitalia," Chadwick said.
"Common sense seems to rule out any question as to where a 10-year-old girl . . . means when she says ‘privates,' " Chadwick wrote in his response to Blackstock's motion. "If you were to look up from this paper and see someone stumble into your room, bent at the waist and complaining of having been kicked in the ‘privates,' would you, could you, have any doubt as to where they had been harmed?"
In making their arguments, Chadwick and Garrity cited two previous state Supreme Court rulings. In a 1997 case, the court upheld a conviction based in part on testimony by the victim, who said she was touched in her "privates," and used a stuffed bunny to point out what she meant.
In a 1989 case, the Supreme Court upheld Groff's decision to overturn the sexual assault conviction of a Lowell, Mass., man, because the victim testified that the man "stuck his fingers in my bum." The court found the word "bum" was too ambiguous to prove sexual penetration.
Garrity argued the situation in Blackstock's case was akin to the 1989 case, while Chadwick likened it to the more recent case.
Garrity also charged that prosecutors failed to prove that Blackstock acted for sexual gratification, as state law requires in such cases.
Prosecutors offered no evidence of the circumstances surrounding the alleged assaults – not even whether they happened at the same or different times, Garrity said. For all the jury knew, Blackstock could have stumbled into the girls by accident, or touched them while he was sleeping, Garrity said.
"You can't infer criminal intent from no evidence," Garrity said. "They presented no evidence of the circumstances surrounding this touching.
"It's like this hand in the Addams Family, floating in the ozone," he said.
Chadwick countered that the simple fact both girls were assaulted rules out an accident, and shows that the touching was purposeful.
Blackstock's case already has produced other noteworthy legal rulings.
Before the trial, Groff ruled that Blackstock couldn't be sentenced under the state's "three strikes" rape law, because he committed all of the alleged offenses before he was charged with any of them. Some judges have interpreted the law differently, and the state Supreme Court has yet to decide the issue.
In another pretrial ruling, Groff found that elders in Blackstock's Jehovah's Witness congregation couldn't be made to testify about his statements to them because of the "religious privilege" rule, which holds that religious leaders can't be required to disclose a confession or other statements made in confidence in their capacity as spiritual advisers.
Andrew Wolfe can be reached at 594-6410.
________________________________________________________
The following News Article was taken from http://www.GospelCom.net:
[Jehovah's Witnesses] Judge: Sisters may pursue church case
Item 2496 • Posted: 02/26/2003 • Weblogged by Religion News Blog
http://www.gospelcom.net/apologeticsindex/rnb/archives/00002496.html
The Telegraph, Feb. 26, 2003
http://www.nashuatelegraph.com/
By ANDREW WOLFE, Telegraph Staff
NASHUA – Two sisters can pursue their claims that elders from their Jehovah’s Witness congregation in Wilton ignored their mother’s complaints of sexual abuse, a judge has ruled.
The sisters say that church elders failed to report their father’s abuse or do anything to stop it. They also claim that church policy and practices shield abusers from prosecution.
The church disputes that the elders were made aware of the abuse at the time.
Hillsborough County Superior Court Judge William Groff rejected the church’s arguments that the suit should be dismissed on constitutional and other legal grounds in a series of rulings earlier this month.
Groff ruled, however, that the state’s three-year statute of limitation for lawsuits prevents the sisters from suing their father for the abuse.
One of the sisters’ lawyers, Cynthia Waldt of St. Paul, Minn., declined to comment on Groff’s rulings Tuesday.
The church’s lawyer said he will ask Groff to reconsider.
“Obviously, we feel badly for the two plaintiffs, but neither Watchtower (the church’s national governing body) nor the congregation are responsible for what happened,” Donald Gardner of Manchester said.
“We’re confident that when Watchtower and the elders present their evidence, the facts will clearly show that neither (the church nor its elders) . . . knew of any child abuse until years after it had stopped, by which time the authorities already were involved.”
The sisters’ suit stems from the case of Paul Berry, 46, formerly of Greenville, who was convicted of 17 counts of aggravated felonious sexual assault after a trial in 2000 in Hillsborough County Superior Court.
Berry was sentenced to serve 56 to 112 years in prison, one of the stiffest sentences ever imposed for a sexual assault case in New Hampshire. The state Supreme Court upheld his convictions in a ruling last year.
Berry was convicted of repeatedly assaulting his stepdaughter, Holly Berry, 24, of Berkeley, Calif., while she was between 4 and 10.
Berry also had been charged with assaulting his biological daughter, Heather Berry, 20, of Charlestown on several occasions while she was between 3 and 6. Prosecutors and Heather Berry dropped those charges after the conviction and sentence in her sister’s case.
The Telegraph ordinarily doesn’t identify victims of sexual abuse, but the Berry sisters chose to go public when they filed the suit in 2001.
Their suit names Berry, the Wilton congregation of Jehovah’s Witnesses and the national organization, the Watchtower Bible and Tract Society of Brooklyn, N.Y.
Around the time of Berry’s trial, the sisters claim they learned their mother had told church elders of the abuse while it was happening, and asked for their help.
Their mother testified that the elders told her to keep quiet, pray more and strive to be a better wife.
Groff ruled that the girls can’t sue the church for allegedly violating a state law that requires people to report suspected child abuse, because the law doesn’t allow such claims. However, he ruled that the elders’ alleged failure to report the abuse or take other action on their mother’s concerns can be used as evidence of negligence.
Groff ruled that “any reasonable person” would have understood “the overwhelming risk of harm” from sexual abuse, and “the magnitude of that potential harm.”
“This rendered the elders’ conduct unreasonably dangerous in view of the horrific consequences to the plaintiff by not taking steps to report the abuse or properly counsel the plaintiff’s mother,” Groff wrote, assuming for argument’s sake that the elders did conceal the abuse.
“The prevention of sexual abuse of children is one of society’s greatest duties,” he continued. “Clearly the social importance of protecting the plaintiff from her father’s continued brutal sexual abuse outweighs the importance of immunizing the defendants from extended liability.”
The Watchtower Society had argued the church couldn’t be held responsible for a failure to protect children from a parent’s abuse. The society also argued that allowing the suit to proceed would violate the constitutional protection of freedom of worship.
Groff disagreed, finding that religious beliefs don’t excuse people from obeying state laws, including the law requiring people to report suspected child abuse.
The Jehovah’s Witnesses also claimed the elders to whom Berry’s mother reported the abuse were ministers of the church, and that state law protects the confidentiality of communications between the elders and members of the church – just as a priest can’t be forced to testify about matters disclosed during confession.
Groff found that issue requires further hearing, to decide whether elders were, in fact, ministers and whether their conversations with Berry’s mother should be considered confidential. A hearing on that matter is scheduled for March 17, but is expected to be postponed, Gardner said.
Groff ruled in the church’s favor on a similar issue in a criminal sexual abuse case involving a Hollis man convicted of sexually assaulting several girls. In that case, Groff found that elders in the man’s congregation couldn’t be forced to testify about disclosures the man made while the elders were investigating abuse charges.
I just found a few VERY interesting Articles about Judge Groff -- here they are:
http://www.seacoastonline.com/2001news/6_2_e1.htm
Portsmouth Herald
Judge's narrow ruling overlooked the crime
Superior Court Judge William Groff's decision that French kissing doesn't meet the state law's definition of sexual contact strains credibility.
That decision, plus an earlier one by Judge Groff involving a young boy's use of the word "bum" instead of "anus" in his testimony, shows how difficult it is to prosecute sexual assault cases involving children.
The French kissing case involved a 16-year-old boy and a 6-year-old girl. He was charged with kissing the girl on the lips and inserting his tongue into her mouth. Foisting one's tongue into another's mouth is a most intimate act, we'd say, and it's usually done for sexual gratification.
State law for the purpose of convicting someone of sexual assault defines sexual contact as "intentional touching of ... sexual or intimate parts, including breasts and buttocks ... which can reasonably be construed as being for the purpose of sexual arousal or gratification."
It also defines "sexual contact" as "the intentional touching whether directly, through clothing or otherwise, of the victim's sexual or intimate parts, including breasts and buttocks."
Groff must be a strict constructionist. He reasoned that the tongue is neither sexual nor intimate. He wrote, "A tongue is not related to sexual relations, nor is it private. A tongue is displayed daily by the average person in speech and other conduct."
"To accept the state's definition of tongue as an 'intimate part,'" Groff wrote, "would result in a person potentially committing a felonious sexual assault by touching a person's tongue with a finger."
The judge further reasoned that French kissing can't be considered sexual contact under state law "even if done without consent and even if done for the purpose of sexual gratification."
The rationale may seem convoluted but it stands unless the Supreme Court were to rule otherwise. No decision has been made on whether to contest the ruling.
In his 1989 decision, Groff set aside a jury verdict convicting a 35-year-old man of aggravated sexual assault because the 12-year-old boy in his testimony wasn't precise in defining into what part of his buttocks the defendant had inserted his fingers. The state Supreme Court later upheld Groff's action, which had come under heavy criticism.
It's difficult to second-guess a judge, but Groff seems to be a stickler for definitions of sexual assault as stated in state law, without allowance for interpretation.
Perhaps he reasons that sexual assault convictions are so severe in nature that only strict adherence to the law as written and narrowly defined serves the ends of justice and guarantees due process for defendants.
But it does appear this approach makes for peculiar decisions, such as the one that says that a teen-age boy French kissing a 6-year-old isn't sexual assault.
Groff may have felt that the law was vague on this point, but his decision further adds to the confusion.
— The Nashua Telegraph
________________________________________________
http://www.wayoflife.org/fbns/therapists.htm
Though not a monetary award against psychotherapists, a court decision in May 1995 had strong repercussions for Recovered Memory Therapy lawsuits. Reuters reported that in MANCHESTER, NEW HAMPSHIRE, Superior Court Judge William Groff set a national precedent by ruling that recovered memories of sexual assault cannot be used as evidence at a trial. One case involved accusations of rape against a 51-year-old teacher, John Monahan. The "victim" claimed she was 13 years old at the time of the rape, though she did not remember the incident until she underwent therapy. The other case involved accusations by a woman against her father, 58-year-old Joel Hungerford. She claimed he raped her on the eve of her wedding in 1991, but she did not recall it until after a year in therapy. The judge said in his opinion: "The phenomenon of memory repression and the process of therapy used in these cases to recover the memories have not gained general acceptance in the field of psychology and are not scientifically reliable."
__________________________________________
NASHUA (AP) -- French kissing doesn't amount to sexual contact under New Hampshire law, according to Hillsborough County Superior Court Judge William Groff.
Last week Judge Groff dismissed a felony sexual assault charge against a city teen-ager, finding that sexual assault laws don't cover kissing with the tongue.
The young man faced a charge of felonious sexual assault, involving a 6-year-old girl.
State law defines sexual contact as intentional touching of sexual or intimate parts.
The tongue, Judge Groff ruled, is neither sexual nor intimate.
Judge Groff's ruling doesn't set a binding precedent, but it can be cited by lawyers to support arguments in other cases.
Roland Simard, 18, originally was charged with eight felony sexual assault charges, alleging he sexually assaulted two girls, who were 5 and 6, between September 1998 and December 1998. He was 16 at the time, but was certified to stand trial as an adult.
Mr. Simard was tried on three charges, all involving the older girl, and was convicted on only one -- the French kissing charge.
Prosecutors dropped the other charges before the trial in February, largely because the younger girl was reluctant to testify, court records show.
Mr. Simard's lawyers argued he was entitled to a new trial on the French kissing charge, but also argued it should be dismissed for failing to allege a crime. Mr. Groff agreed on both points.
Mr. Groff's ruling recalled another of his decisions in a sexual assault case more than 10 years ago, involving the legal definition of sexual penetration.
In 1989, Mr. Groff overturned convictions of a Lowell, Mass., man who was found guilty of sexually assaulting a young boy in Nashua because the boy used the word "bum" rather than "anus" in his testimony. Because of the potential ambiguity of the word "bum," Mr. Groff found that the boy's testimony wasn't enough to prove sexual penetration.
________________________________________
http://www.cmonitor.com/stories/news/state/0823_porn.shtml
Thursday, August 23, 2001
NASHUA
NASHUA - A judge says an eighth-grade teacher's confession that he secretly videotaped pupils undressing and later threw the tapes away cannot be used during his trial.
Superior Court Judge William Groff ruled Tuesday that the police failed properly to inform Paul Gagnon, 44, of his rights before getting a taped confession.
In that confession, Gagnon, a former teacher at Nashua Catholic Regional Junior High School, said he had about 50 videotapes, according to testimony during a hearing earlier this month in Hillsborough County Superior Court. Gagnon also told detectives he had thrown out the tapes and cameras with the trash, court records show.
According to court records, the police found 119 videotapes, three video cameras, various child pornography, female undergarments and other items in a Dumpster outside the school.
Gagnon's lawyer, Eric Wilson, called it a major victory on one charge of destruction of evidence, which grew out of the items found in the trash after Gagnon learned police had been notified.
However, Groff said police searches of Gagnon's home and car were legal. Gagnon still faces 31 charges of possession of child pornography that did not involve pupils at the school.
Assistant County Attorney John Harding declined to comment on the rulings, but said the case would continue. The trial is scheduled for September.
Gagnon was arrested after pupils found a camera hidden in a room in which they changed for class skits.
Gagnon's lawyer argued that the police never read Gagnon his Miranda rights, informing him he had the right to a lawyer and that anything he said could and would be used against him in court.
Gagnon read a copy of the Miranda rights and said he understood them, but that waiver was limited to a written statement he made denying knowledge of the video camera at the school, according to court testimony.
When detectives questioned him further, he admitted using the camera to videotape children surreptitiously, court records show. When detectives later told Gagnon he would be charged with a felony and then taped his confession, they needed to read Gagnon his Miranda rights again but didn't, Groff ruled.
Quote from the original News Article on the first post of this Thread:
He also found that the meetings during which the Berrys discussed their situation were treated as confidential by the church at the time, so the elders were barred from reporting any allegations or admissions of abuse.
Correct me if I am wrong, but as far as I know, there is NOT ONE STATE in the country that BARS ANYONE FROM REPORTING ABUSE TO THE AUTHORITIES.
"Religious Privilege" simply means that "Ordained Ministers" are not REQUIRED to report, it does not BAR them from reporting, does it?
Quote from the original News Article on the first post of this Thread:
Groff found that Jehovah’s Witness elders are “ordained ministers” under the law, and thus the privilege applies.
What does New Hampshire Law state that an "Ordained Minister" is? What are the requirements of being classified as an "Ordained Minister"?
Because, according to the following Watchtower Publications, EVERY BAPTIZED JEHOVAH'S WITNESS IS AN "ORDAINED MINISTER"!
The Watchtower, January 15, 2001 Issue, Page 12, Paragraph 4:
At their baptism, new disciples are ordained as ministers of Jehovah God. Who ordains them? In principle, the words recorded at 2 Corinthians 3:5 apply to them: “Our being adequately qualified [as ministers] issues from God.” They could wish for no greater honor than to be ordained by Jehovah God himself! After their baptism, they will continue to grow spiritually as ministers of the “good news” as long as they accept the leadings of God’s spirit and continue to apply his Word.—Matthew 24:14; Acts 9:31.
Page 25 (of the same Issue):
Closing the morning session was the baptism talk—always a highlight at large gatherings of Jehovah’s Witnesses. What a joy to see newly dedicated ones follow in Jesus’ footsteps by submitting to water baptism! (Matthew 3:13-17) All who take this step have already accomplished much as doers of God’s word. Moreover, when baptized they become ordained ministers of the good news, deriving much joy from knowing that they are sharing in sanctifying Jehovah’s name.—Proverbs 27:11.
__________________________________________
The Watchtower, November 15, 2000 Issue, Pages 15-20:
Who Are God’s Ministers Today?
“Our being adequately qualified issues from God, who has indeed adequately qualified us to be ministers of a new covenant.”—2 CORINTHIANS 3:5, 6.
IN THE first century of our Common Era, all Christians shared an important responsibility—the duty to preach the good news. All of them were anointed and were ministers of the new covenant. Some had additional responsibilities, such as teaching in the congregation. (1 Corinthians 12:27-29; Ephesians 4:11) Parents had weighty obligations within the family. (Colossians 3:18-21) But all shared in the basic and vital work of preaching. In the original Greek of the Christian Scriptures, this responsibility was a di·a·ko·ni´a—a service, or ministry.—Colossians 4:17.
2 As time went by, things changed. A class developed, known as the clergy, who reserved for themselves the privilege of preaching. (Acts 20:30) The clergy were a small minority of those calling themselves Christians. The great majority became known as the laity. While the laity have been taught that they have certain obligations, including the making of contributions for the upkeep of the clergy, most have become little more than passive listeners in the matter of preaching.
3 The clergy claim to be ministers (from minister, a Latin translation of di·a´ko·nos, “servant”).* [FOOTNOTE SAYS: The Greek word di·a´ko·nos is the source of the word “deacon,” an official in the church. In churches where women can be deacons, they might be called deaconesses.] For this, they graduate from colleges or seminaries and are ordained. The International Standard Bible Encyclopedia says: “‘Ordain’ and ‘ordination’ ordinarily refer to special status accorded ministers or priests through officially sanctioned rites, with associated emphasis on authority to proclaim the Word or to administer sacraments, or to do both.” Who ordains the ministers? The New Encyclopædia Britannica says: “In churches that have retained the historic episcopate, the ordaining minister is always a bishop. In Presbyterian churches, ordination is conferred by ministers of the presbytery.”
4 Hence, in the churches of Christendom, the privilege of being a minister has been severely restricted. Yet, this is not the case among Jehovah’s Witnesses. Why not? Because it was not that way in the first-century Christian congregation.
Who Really Are God’s Ministers?
5 According to the Bible, all Jehovah’s worshipers—heavenly and earthly—are ministers. Angels ministered to Jesus. (Matthew 4:11; 26:53; Luke 22:43) Angels also “minister for those who are going to inherit salvation.” (Hebrews 1:14; Matthew 18:10) Jesus was a minister. He said: “The Son of man came, not to be ministered to, but to minister.” (Matthew 20:28; Romans 15:8) Therefore, since Jesus’ followers were to “follow his steps closely,” it is not surprising that they too must be ministers.—1 Peter 2:21.
6 Shortly before his ascension to heaven, Jesus said to his disciples: “Go . . . and make disciples of people of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the holy spirit, teaching them to observe all the things I have commanded you.” (Matthew 28:19, 20) Jesus’ disciples were to be disciple-makers—ministers. The new disciples they made would learn to observe all the things Jesus’ commanded, including the command to go forth and make disciples. Man or woman, adult or child, a true disciple of Jesus Christ would be a minister.—Joel 2:28, 29.
7 In harmony with this, on the day of Pentecost 33 C.E., all of Jesus’ disciples present, men and women, joined in telling forth “the magnificent things of God.” (Acts 2:1-11) Further, the apostle Paul wrote: “With the heart one exercises faith for righteousness, but with the mouth one makes public declaration for salvation.” (Romans 10:10) Paul addressed those words, not to a restricted clergy class, but “to all those who [were] in Rome as God’s beloved ones.” (Romans 1:1, 7) Similarly, all ‘the holy ones in Ephesus and faithful ones in union with Christ Jesus’ were to have their “feet shod with the equipment of the good news of peace.” (Ephesians 1:1; 6:15) And all those who heard the letter addressed to the Hebrews were to ‘hold fast the public declaration of their hope without wavering.’—Hebrews 10:23.
8 When, though, does a person become a minister? In other words, when is he ordained? And who ordains him?
Ordination as a Minister—When?
9 As to when and by whom a person is ordained, consider the example of Jesus Christ. He did not have a certificate of ordination or a degree from some seminary to prove that he was a minister, and he was not ordained by any man. Why can we say, then, that he was a minister? Because Isaiah’s inspired words were fulfilled in him: “Jehovah’s spirit is upon me, because he anointed me to declare good news.” (Luke 4:17-19; Isaiah 61:1) Those words leave no doubt that Jesus was commissioned to tell forth good news. By whom? Since Jehovah’s spirit anointed him for the work, Jesus was clearly ordained by Jehovah God. When did this happen? Jehovah’s spirit actually came upon Jesus when he was baptized. (Luke 3:21, 22) Therefore, it was at his baptism that he was ordained.
10 What of Jesus’ first-century followers? Their status as ministers also came from Jehovah. Paul said: “Our being adequately qualified issues from God, who has indeed adequately qualified us to be ministers of a new covenant.” (2 Corinthians 3:5, 6) How does Jehovah qualify his worshipers to be ministers? Consider the example of Timothy, whom Paul called “God’s minister in the good news about the Christ.”—1 Thessalonians 3:2.
11 The following words addressed to Timothy help us to understand how he became a minister: “You, however, continue in the things that you learned and were persuaded to believe, knowing from what persons you learned them and that from infancy you have known the holy writings, which are able to make you wise for salvation through the faith in connection with Christ Jesus.” (2 Timothy 3:14, 15) The foundation of Timothy’s faith, which would move him to make a public declaration, was knowledge of the Scriptures. Was personal reading all that was needed for this? No. Timothy needed help to gain accurate knowledge and spiritual understanding of what he read. (Colossians 1:9) Thus Timothy was “persuaded to believe.” Since he had known the Scriptures “from infancy,” his first instructors must have been his mother and grandmother, his father evidently not being a believer.—2 Timothy 1:5.
12 However, more was involved in Timothy’s becoming a minister. For one thing, his faith was strengthened by association with Christians in nearby congregations. How do we know? Because when Paul first met Timothy, the young man was “well reported on by the brothers in Lystra and Iconium.” (Acts 16:2) Additionally, in those days certain brothers wrote letters to the congregations in order to strengthen them. And overseers visited them in order to build them up. Such provisions helped Christians like Timothy to progress spiritually.—Acts 15:22-32; 1 Peter 1:1.
13 In view of Jesus’ command recorded at Matthew 28:19, 20, we can be sure that at some point Timothy’s faith moved him to imitate Jesus and be baptized. (Matthew 3:15-17; Hebrews 10:5-9) This was a symbol of Timothy’s whole-souled dedication to God. At his baptism Timothy became a minister. From then on, his life, his strength, and everything he had belonged to God. This was an integral part of his worship, “a sacred service.” However, Timothy did not then rest on his laurels. He continued to grow spiritually, becoming a mature Christian minister. This occurred because of Timothy’s close association with such mature Christians as Paul, his own personal study, and his zealous preaching activity.—1 Timothy 4:14; 2 Timothy 2:2; Hebrews 6:1.
14 Today, ordination for the Christian ministry is similar. One who is “rightly disposed for everlasting life” is helped to learn about God and his purposes by means of a Bible study. (Acts 13:48) The individual learns to apply Bible principles in his life and to pray meaningfully to God. (Psalm 1:1-3; Proverbs 2:1-9; 1 Thessalonians 5:17, 18) He associates with other believers and takes advantage of provisions and arrangements made by “the faithful and discreet slave.” (Matthew 24:45-47; Proverbs 13:20; Hebrews 10:23-25) Thus he makes progress in a structured process of education.
15 Eventually, the Bible student, having developed a love of Jehovah God and a strong faith in the ransom sacrifice, wishes to dedicate himself completely to his heavenly Father. (John 14:1) He makes that dedication in personal prayer and then gets baptized as a public symbol of that private act. His baptism is his ordination ceremony because that is when he is recognized as a fully dedicated servant, a di·a´ko·nos, of God. He must remain separate from the world. (John 17:16; James 4:4) He has presented his whole self “a sacrifice living, holy, acceptable to God” without reserve or condition. (Romans 12:1)* [FOOTNOTE SAYS: While Romans 12:1 applies specifically to anointed Christians, the principle applies also to the “other sheep.” (John 10:16) These ‘join themselves to Jehovah to minister to him and to love the name of Jehovah, in order to become servants to him.’—Isaiah 56:6.] He is God’s minister, imitating Christ.
What Is the Christian Ministry?
16 What did the ministry of Timothy include? He had special duties as a traveling companion of Paul. And when he became an elder, Timothy worked hard at teaching and strengthening fellow Christians. But the central part of his ministry, as was the case with Jesus and Paul, was preaching the good news and making disciples. (Matthew 4:23; 1 Corinthians 3:5) Paul told Timothy: “You, though, keep your senses in all things, suffer evil, do the work of an evangelizer, fully accomplish your ministry.”—2 Timothy 4:5.
17 It is similar with Christian ministers today. They engage in a public ministry, an evangelizing work, pointing others to salvation on the basis of Jesus’ sacrifice and teaching meek ones to call on Jehovah’s name. (Acts 2:21; 4:10-12; Romans 10:13) They prove from the Bible that the Kingdom is the only hope for suffering mankind and show that even now things are better if we live by godly principles. (Psalm 15:1-5; Mark 13:10) But a Christian minister does not preach a social gospel. Rather, he teaches that ‘godly devotion holds promise of the life now and that which is to come.’—1 Timothy 4:8.
18 True, most ministers have additional ways to serve, which may differ from one Christian to another. Many have family obligations. (Ephesians 5:21–6:4) Elders and ministerial servants have duties in the congregation. (1 Timothy 3:1, 12, 13; Titus 1:5; Hebrews 13:7) Many Christians help to construct Kingdom Halls. Some have the wonderful privilege of working as volunteers in one of the Watch Tower Society’s Bethel homes. However, all Christian ministers share in the preaching of the good news. There are no exceptions. It is sharing in this work that identifies one publicly as a genuine Christian minister.
The Attitude of a Christian Minister
19 Most of Christendom’s ministers expect to be given special respect, and they take such titles as “reverend” and “father.” However, a Christian minister knows that Jehovah alone is worthy of reverence. (1 Timothy 2:9, 10) No Christian minister claims such lofty respect or aspires to special titles. (Matthew 23:8-12) He knows that the basic meaning of di·a·ko·ni´a is “service.” The verb associated with it is sometimes used in the Bible with regard to personal services, such as waiting at tables. (Luke 4:39; 17:8; John 2:5) Even though its usage in relation to the Christian ministry is more elevated, a di·a´ko·nos is still a servant.
20 No Christian minister therefore has reason to feel self-important. Genuine Christian ministers—even those with special responsibilities in the congregation—are humble slaves. Jesus said: “Whoever wants to become great among you must be your minister, and whoever wants to be first among you must be your slave.” (Matthew 20:26, 27) When showing his disciples the right attitude to cultivate, Jesus washed their feet, doing the work of the lowliest slave. (John 13:1-15) What a humble service! Hence, Christian ministers humbly serve Jehovah God and Jesus Christ. (2 Corinthians 6:4; 11:23) They show lowliness of mind in serving one another. And when they preach the good news, they unselfishly serve their unbelieving neighbors.—Romans 1:14, 15; Ephesians 3:1-7.
Endure in the Ministry
21 For Paul, being a minister took endurance. He told the Colossians that he suffered much in order to preach the good news to them. (Colossians 1:24, 25) Because he endured, however, many accepted the good news and became ministers. They were begotten as sons of God and brothers of Jesus Christ, with the prospect of becoming spirit creatures alongside him in heaven. What a glorious reward for endurance!
22 Endurance is necessary today for those who are really God’s ministers. Many struggle daily with sickness or the pains of old age. Parents work hard—many of them without a mate—to raise their children. Courageously, children at school resist the wrong influences that surround them. Many Christians face bitter economic struggles. And many suffer persecution or face hardships because of today’s “critical times hard to deal with”! (2 Timothy 3:1) Yes, the almost six million ministers of Jehovah today can say with the apostle Paul: “In every way we recommend ourselves as God’s ministers, by the endurance of much.” (2 Corinthians 6:4) Christian ministers do not give up. They are truly to be commended for their endurance.
23 Moreover, as it did in Paul’s case, endurance brings wonderful fruitage. By enduring, we preserve our close relationship with Jehovah and make his heart rejoice. (Proverbs 27:11) We strengthen our own faith and make disciples, adding to the Christian brotherhood. (1 Timothy 4:16) Jehovah has sustained his ministers and blessed their ministry during these last days. As a result, the final ones of the 144,000 have been gathered, and millions more have the confident hope of enjoying everlasting life on a paradise earth. (Luke 23:43; Revelation 14:1) Truly, the Christian ministry is an expression of Jehovah’s mercy. (2 Corinthians 4:1) May all of us treasure it and be grateful that its fruitage will last forever.—1 John 2:17.
____________________________________________________
The Watchtower, November 1, 1997 Issue, Page 20:
Gilead School and Special Service
In December 1942, I was among several pioneers in Arizona who received a letter of invitation to a new missionary school that was being established by Jehovah’s Witnesses. The school was initially called the Watchtower Bible College of Gilead. Later the name was changed to the Watchtower Bible School of Gilead. The campus was located nearly 3,000 miles [4,800 km] away near the city of Ithaca in upstate New York.
After a brief visit to Oregon, in January 1943, several of us pioneers left the heat of the Arizona Desert in a Greyhound bus. Several days later we arrived at our destination and found the snow of an upstate New York winter. The school opened on February 1, 1943, when its president, Nathan H. Knorr, said in his inaugural address to the one hundred students: “It is NOT the purpose of this college to equip you to be ordained ministers. You are ministers already and have been active in the ministry for years. . . . The course of study at the college is for the exclusive purpose of preparing you to be more able ministers in the territories to which you go.”
____________________________________________________
The Watchtower, May 1, 1996 Issue, Page 16:
Moreover, at a Christian’s baptism, he is ordained as a minister of God, so that he can say with Paul: “God . . . has indeed adequately qualified us to be ministers.”—2 Corinthians 3:5, 6.
____________________________________________________
Knowledge That Leads To Everlasting Life Book (1995), Page 178:
LIVING UP TO YOUR DEDICATION AND BAPTISM
17 It is important to remember that baptism is not the end of your spiritual progress. It marks the beginning of lifelong service to God as an ordained minister and one of Jehovah’s Witnesses. Although baptism is vitally important, it is not a guarantee of salvation. Jesus did not say: ‘Everyone baptized will be saved.’ Instead, he said: “He that has endured to the end is the one that will be saved.” (Matthew 24:13) Therefore, it is vital that you seek God’s Kingdom first by making it the paramount concern in your life.—Matthew 6:25-34.
____________________________________________________
1994 Yearbook of Jehovah's Witnesses, Pages 251-252:
Some years ago, hundreds of Jehovah’s Witnesses were in prison because of their stand of Christian neutrality. Now, however, as baptized preachers, ordained ministers of God, Jehovah’s Witnesses in Poland are exempt from military service. Their exemption is granted by the government on the basis of a certificate issued by the Society to those who qualify. While no Witnesses are presently imprisoned for reasons of neutrality, they have not forgotten those prisoners whom they met in years past and who showed a sincere interest in God’s Word. They continue to visit these, assisting them to conform their lives to his will.
____________________________________________________
The Watchtower, June 1, 1989 Issue, Page 21:
A New Home for the Gilead Missionary School
ON FEBRUARY 1, 1943, Nathan H. Knorr, former president of the Watchtower Bible and Tract Society, delivered the opening address to the first class of a new school. He explained to those one hundred students that “it is not the purpose of this [school] to equip you to be ordained ministers. You are ministers already and have been active in the ministry for years. . . . The course of study . . . is for the exclusive purpose of preparing you to be more able ministers.” To this day the Watchtower Bible School of Gilead continues to train ministers for the foreign missionary work.
____________________________________________________
The Watchtower, August 15, 1988 Issue, Page 27:
What does water baptism signify?
Complete immersion in water is a fitting symbol of a person’s dedication to God, whereby the individual becomes an ordained minister. While under the water, he, in effect, dies to his former course of life, and on coming out of the water, he becomes, as it were, alive to a new course of self-sacrifice in Jehovah’s service. (Compare Romans 6:2-4; 12:1; Philippians 3:16.)—6/15, page 29.
____________________________________________________
Revelation -- Its Grand Climax At Hand Book (1988), Page 153:
16 That cavalry needs equipment for the warfare. And how wonderfully Jehovah has provided this! John describes it: “For the authority of the horses is in their mouths and in their tails; for their tails are like serpents and have heads, and with these they do harm.” (Revelation 9:19) Jehovah has ordained his dedicated, baptized ministers for this service. Through the Theocratic Ministry School and other congregation meetings and schools, he has taught them how to preach the word, so that they are able to speak authoritatively with “the tongue of the taught ones.” He has put his words in their mouths and sent them forth to make known his judgments “publicly and from house to house.” (2 Timothy 4:2; Isaiah 50:4; 61:2; Jeremiah 1:9, 10; Acts 20:20) The John class and the great crowd have left behind a stinging message, corresponding to “tails,” in the thousands of millions of Bibles, books, brochures, and magazines distributed over the years. To their opponents, who are advised of the coming “harm” from Jehovah, these armies of cavalry truly seem like two myriads of myriads.—Compare Joel 2:4-6.
____________________________________________________
The Watchtower, June 15, 1988 Issue, Pages 28-31:
Becoming an Ordained Minister—God’s Way!
A VISITOR would likely have been intrigued—perhaps even perplexed—by what he heard. The scene was a convention of Jehovah’s Witnesses. An address was being given to a group of people who were about to get baptized. Surprisingly, the speaker told these baptismal candidates: “Your presence in this group of baptismal candidates indicates your desire to be an ordained minister of the Kingdom.”
‘How can that be?’ a visitor might have asked. ‘Is not baptism for persons freshly exposed to Christianity—and for babes? Does it not take years of extensive training and education to become an ordained minister?’ Perhaps you would reason similarly. But what the Bible actually says about baptism and ordination may surprise you.
Before One Is Baptized
First of all, baptism is not for persons barely acquainted with the Christian message. The Bible, at Acts 8:12, shows that people in the first century were baptized after “they believed.” Matthew 28:19 also shows that a person must become a ‘disciple’ before baptism. And how does one become a ‘believer,’ or ‘disciple,’ (‘taught one’)? Through careful study of the Bible! In this way, a person gains an accurate knowledge of Jesus and Jehovah God. (John 17:3) Only after gaining this knowledge is a student in a position to consider getting baptized. In the first century, established Christians gave such instruction to new converts.—Acts 8:31, 35, 36.
In congregations of Jehovah’s Witnesses today, arrangements are similarly made for interested individuals to enjoy a free home Bible study. A person with a responsive heart gradually comes to appreciate what he is learning. He is moved to share his newfound convictions with others. (Romans 10:8-10) He begins regularly attending Christian meetings, where he gains yet more Biblical instruction. (Hebrews 10:24, 25) And after weeks or months of this, the new believer develops a desire to follow the Bible’s counsel at Romans 12:1: “Consequently I entreat you by the compassions of God, brothers, to present your bodies a sacrifice living, holy, acceptable to God, a sacred service with your power of reason.”
Knowledge alone, however, does not qualify one to make this dedication. One must also repent and “turn around.” (Acts 3:19) Why is this? Frankly, some have had immoral life-styles prior to learning God’s standards. Others have been wrapped up in selfish pursuits. But to present themselves to God as “holy, acceptable,” they must show regret for such past actions. They must be remorseful for having used their life, vitality, and abilities in unscriptural pursuits. Such remorse must also be accompanied by appropriate action so as really to “turn around,” or change their life course.
To help the new believer further, Christian elders arrange to meet with him and spend time reviewing the basic teachings of the Bible. This, for one thing, assures the elders that the prospective Christian has acquired an accurate knowledge of God’s purposes. And, of course, the review proves most helpful to the student. As needed, certain matters that were not correctly understood are clarified.
Baptisms are generally held in connection with conventions or assemblies of Jehovah’s Witnesses. On such occasions, a pointed talk is given to the baptismal candidates. They are reminded that baptism is not a matter of joining a new religion. Jesus said: “If anyone wants to come after me, let him disown himself and pick up his torture stake and continually follow me.”—Matthew 16:24.
The candidates are further reminded of the deep significance of baptism. The text at 1 Peter 3:21 is often read: “That which corresponds to this is also now saving you, namely, baptism, (not the putting away of the filth of the flesh, but the request made to God for a good conscience,) through the resurrection of Jesus Christ.” Here, Peter compares baptism to Noah’s experience of passing through the waters of the Flood. While those waters proved death-dealing to earth’s wicked populace, they proved life-saving to Noah as they safely carried him in the ark. Likewise, baptism ‘saves’ Christians from this wicked world. When someone, on the basis of his faith in the benefits of the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, gets baptized, such a person is, in a sense, in a ‘saved’ condition before God. He is no longer considered a part of this wicked generation doomed to destruction.—See Acts 2:40.
Therefore, getting baptized is not a step that should be taken in the heat of emotion, as so often happens at religious revival meetings. Highlighting this is the fact that before new disciples are actually immersed, the minister presiding at the baptism asks them two penetrating questions. Their answers in the affirmative are a “public declaration” of their faith in the ransom and of the fact that they have unreservedly dedicated themselves to Jehovah. (Romans 10:9, 10) Now they are ready for water baptism.
Ordained as Ministers of the Kingdom
Complete immersion in water is a fitting symbol of their dedication to God. While under the water, it is as if they have died to their former course of life. On coming out of the water, it is as if they are now alive to a new course of self-sacrifice in service to God.—Compare Romans 6:2-4.
How, though, does ordination fit in with the action of baptism? Note what M’Clintock and Strong’s Cyclopædia of Biblical, Theological, and Ecclesiastical Literature (1877), Volume VII, page 411, says: “Ordination signifies the appointment or designation of a person to a ministerial office, whether with or without attendant ceremonies.” (Italics ours.) This acknowledges that there is no need for an elaborate ceremony or a certificate of ordination to be a Christian minister.
But does the Bible teach this? Consider Jesus Christ. There is no question that he was the foremost minister of God. Nevertheless, did he have some elaborate ordination ceremony before commencing his preaching work? Did he have a certificate identifying him as a minister? Quite the contrary. It was after his simply getting baptized in water that God expressed his approval of Jesus as his Son and ordained him as His minister.—Mark 1:9-11; Luke 4:18-21.
What of first-century Christians? There is no report of any ostentatious ordination for these early Christian ministers. The record in Acts repeatedly tells of the performance of simple baptisms of believers. This was followed by their zealously sharing in the public ministry.—See Acts 2:41-47; 8:36-39; 22:14-16.
What evidence did such ministers have of their ordination? Paul says at 2 Corinthians 3:1-3: “Are we starting again to recommend ourselves? Or do we, perhaps, like some men, need letters of recommendation to you or from you? You yourselves are our letter, inscribed on our hearts and known and being read by all mankind. For you are shown to be a letter of Christ written by us as ministers, inscribed not with ink but with spirit of a living God, not on stone tablets, but on fleshly tablets, on hearts.” The effect of God’s spirit on these taught ones’ hearts produced a new Christian personality, which could be read by all observers. This was sufficient testimony that God had indeed ordained the ones sharing in teaching these new disciples.
Exerting Oneself in the Ministry
Likewise today, a minister is recognized by his works. He is earnest in ‘exerting himself vigorously’ in his ministry. (Luke 13:24) He views his ministry as a grand privilege from God. He does not take it for granted.—1 Timothy 1:12-16.
Kingdom preaching is the prime obligation of such ministers. All other pursuits must be limited so that they can ‘fully accomplish their ministry.’ (2 Timothy 4:2, 5) Of course, they must care for their own as well as their family’s physical needs. However, they are ‘content with sustenance and covering.’ They do not allow personal pursuits or personal desires to distract them from the ministry. (1 Timothy 5:8; 6:7, 8; Philippians 2:20-22) They make sure of the “more important things.” (Philippians 1:10) They strive to keep before themselves the fine example of Jesus Christ, whose life was centered around Kingdom preaching.—Luke 4:43; John 18:36, 37.
Nevertheless, when a person is baptized as an ordained minister, he is actually in the early stages of his service to God. True, he has gained knowledge of Christ Jesus and Jehovah God. He has also made many changes in his life so that his Christian ministry cannot be found fault with. (2 Corinthians 6:3) The newly baptized Christian still has much growing to do. His baptism, which signifies his ordination, is just one important milestone in his growth as a Christian. (Philippians 3:16) Therefore, each ordained minister must continue building up heart appreciation of spiritual things. He needs to schedule time for personal study. He should take advantage of all provisions for the congregation to meet together. He should work on improving the quality of his prayers, resulting in a closer personal relationship with God.—Luke 6:45; 1 Thessalonians 5:11; 1 Peter 4:7.
We hope these Scriptural thoughts have helped you to understand why a university degree is not a requirement for those who wish to serve as ministers of God. Over three million of Jehovah’s Witnesses are faithfully serving God as his ministers, proclaiming the truths outlined in his Word. Why not let one of them assist you in gaining knowledge of the Bible?
[Picture on page 29]
According to the Bible, a Christian minister is ordained at baptism
____________________________________________________
The Watchtower, March 15, 1988 Issue, Pages 14-15:
But it seems that some among Jehovah’s people have gone to the other extreme. Many Christian parents let their children wait until they are in their late teens before broaching the subject of baptism. Time and again, we hear of youngsters making a valid dedication solely on their own initiative. For example, the preteen son of an elder sincerely wanted to get baptized. So his father had three other elders discuss with the youngster the questions designed for those contemplating baptism.* [FOOTNOTE SAYS: The series of questions to be answered by all who wish to be baptized as Jehovah’s Witnesses are found in the book Organized to Accomplish Our Ministry. It is made available to those preparing for baptism.] Their conclusion was that, though quite young, he qualified to be baptized as an ordained minister of Jehovah God. Why, attending the Pioneer Service School in the Bahamas recently was a ten-year-old baptized girl, the daughter of two full-time ministers!
____________________________________________________
The Watchtower, May 15, 1987 Issue, Page 13:
Who are these earthly servants of God? Well, who are the only ones that regularly call on people with the Kingdom good news? Even opposers recognize them as Jehovah’s Witnesses. Now more than three million strong, the ranks of these Kingdom proclaimers are rapidly increasing. Last year, 225,868 new ministers of the good news were ordained. And in that one year, 2,461 new congregations of Jehovah’s Witnesses were established earth wide, an average of over 6 each day, making a total of 52,177 congregations in 208 lands. Truly, the prophecy of Isaiah 60:22 is having its fulfillment: Jehovah is speeding up his preaching and ingathering work “in its own time.” And now is that time!
Page 27 (of the same Issue):
Indeed, from the snow-tipped mountain peaks in the alpine north to the Mediterranean island of Sicily in the south, modern-day witnesses of Jehovah in Italy reflect the zeal of their first-century counterparts. Each day of the year they spend, on an average, over 100,000 hours in the Kingdom-preaching work. The result? Last year alone, almost 12,000 persons were baptized and became ordained ministers of Jehovah. Now they, together with the 131,000 other witnesses of Jehovah, are “buying out the opportune time” in Italy.
____________________________________________________
The Watchtower, January 15, 1987 Issue, Page 30:
Another treat was the baptism talk, “Gaining Peace With God Through Dedication and Baptism.” The speaker showed that our baptism is at one and the same time a most serious and a most joyous occasion. By means of it, we gain peace with God and become ordained ministers of Jehovah’s Witnesses. And our dedication is no mere commitment, for we can have and care for a number of commitments at the same time. Rather, to be dedicated means for us to be exclusively devoted to the Divine Being, Jehovah God.
____________________________________________________
The Watchtower, September 1, 1985 Issue, Pages 18-19:
Defending Our Qualification as Ministers
11 All along, it has been necessary for genuine God-ordained Kingdom ministers to defend their authorization for the ministry. That certainly has been true of Jehovah’s Witnesses in this 20th century. Their qualification as duly ordained ministers of God has been challenged and discounted. By whom? Particularly by Christendom’s theological-seminary graduates who receive a certificate of ordination and become paid clergymen. They consider themselves duly schooled and adequately qualified to be the exclusive professional ministers of the God of the Bible.
12 The situation was similar in the first century C.E. In the Roman province of Galatia, even the inspired writer of about half the books of the Christian Greek Scriptures met with a development that challenged his qualification as an apostle of Jesus Christ, for it put in question the correctness of what he was teaching as Christianity. So he was obliged to tell the Galatians: “I marvel that you are being so quickly removed from the One who called you with Christ’s undeserved kindness over to another sort of good news. But it is not another; only there are certain ones who are causing you trouble and wanting to pervert the good news about the Christ. However, even if we or an angel out of heaven were to declare to you as good news something beyond what we declared to you as good news, let him be accursed. As we have said above, I also now say again, Whoever it is that is declaring to you as good news something beyond what you accepted, let him be accursed.”—Galatians 1:6-9.
13 True, that writer, the apostle Paul, did not first learn Christian teachings by personal contact with Jesus Christ or His 12 apostles. Later, Paul did spend some time with the apostle Peter, or Cephas. (John 1:42; Galatians 1:18, 19) But in defense of his being a qualified minister of the good news from God by Christ, Paul could tell the unstable Galatian Christians: “Yes, when they came to know the undeserved kindness that was given me, James and Cephas and John, the ones who seemed to be pillars, gave me and Barnabas the right hand of sharing together, that we should go to the nations, but they to those who are circumcised.” (Galatians 2:9) So those Galatians should have asked themselves: If Jesus’ disciples James, Peter, and John recognized Paul as a bearer of the true good news, what basis do we have for challenging his message and moving away from it?
14 But what about Jehovah’s people today? Well, since a person like Paul was obliged to defend his qualifications as a minister of God and Christ, why should we be surprised if we, as dedicated, baptized witnesses of Jehovah, are challenged and have to defend our standing as Kingdom ministers? Of course, as in Paul’s case, such baseless challenging of us proves nothing.
____________________________________________________
Sing Praises To Jehovah Book (1984) Song 202:
Song 202
To God We Are Dedicated!
(Exodus 39:30)
1. To Christ, by our God, Jehovah, we have been drawn. He sent us his truth like beams of dawn. Down from his heav’nly throne, His light has clearly shone. Our faith in him has grown, And now we ourselves do disown. To God we are dedicated. We’ve made the choice. In him and his Son, we do rejoice.
2. All those who make this decision are duly trained; As God’s ministers they are ordained. They join their voices strong To sing the Kingdom song, In one united throng, Since now to their God they belong. By water immersion they’ve supported their vow And preach God’s own Kingdom message now.
3. Through our dedication may God grant our request To have a good conscience and be blest. A joy beyond compare Is what we now can share —Jehovah’s name to bear. To him we have access in pray’r. To God we are dedicated; may we be wise And this favored standing always prize.
____________________________________________________
Awake!, May 22, 1984 Issue, Page 27:
Students of Gilead School do not become ordained ministers first upon graduating. They were ordained as ministers long before coming to Gilead. What N. H. Knorr told the first class, on its very first school day, still is true today. He said:
“It is NOT the purpose of this [school] to equip you to be ordained ministers. You are ministers already and have been active in the ministry for years. This is a requirement for entrance . . . The course of study at the [school] is for the exclusive purpose of preparing you to be more able ministers in the territories to which you go.”
Graduates of the 76th class have, on the average, been serving as ordained ministers for more than 12 years, with 8 of those years being spent in full-time service. Interestingly, 1 in 3 of the graduates, a total of 14, had served as full-time ministers at Bethel homes in Britain, Canada or the United States.
Sam Gjesdal, assigned to Brazil, pointed out a feature of Gilead School that made graduation especially meaningful. “Worldly colleges dish out information and you take what you can get,” he said, “but here they really care about you and they want to see that you do the best you can. They take a real interest in you.”
Even the graduation exercise was different. There was no noisy fanfare to inaugurate the program. There was no pompous procession led by solemn-faced college faculty heads. There was no one marching down the aisle of the Assembly Hall to blaring music. There was no one garbed in long black robes and square-topped, tasseled college hats. No, there was nothing here in evidence to glorify human creatures and their attainments. Instead, glory and thankfulness were centered on the One who made it all possible, Jehovah God. Gilead graduations are truly different.
____________________________________________________
United In Worship of the Only True God Book (1983), Page 99:
10 The first ones to be baptized in harmony with those instructions given by Jesus were Jews (and Jewish proselytes), who as a nation were already dedicated to God and were shown special consideration by him down till 36 C.E. However, when the privilege of Christian discipleship was extended to the Samaritans and the Gentiles, before being baptized they personally had to make an unreserved dedication to Jehovah to serve him as disciples of his Son. For all, including Jews, this continues to be the significance of Christian water baptism down to our day. This “one baptism” applies to all who become true Christians. They thus become Christian witnesses of Jehovah, God’s ordained ministers.—Eph. 4:5; 2 Cor. 6:3, 4.
____________________________________________________
The Watchtower, November 15, 1982 Issue, Page 17:
Who Are God’s Ministers Today?
“We . . . sent Timothy, our brother and God’s minister in the gospel of Christ.”—1 THESSALONIANS 3:1, 2, AMERICAN STANDARD VERSION; SEE ALSO AUTHORIZED VERSION, NEW WORLD TRANSLATION.
RECENTLY, in Central America, ordained ministers of religion helped to organize a revolution that toppled a government. In the Far East an ordained minister led an ambush that resulted in two deaths. In southern Asia ordained ministers organized landless laborers in their struggle against the “oppressors.”
2 These men all claimed to be Christian ministers, but were they? Is this the kind of thing a minister of God should be doing? This is an important question, since it is largely through the activity of God’s true ministers that people learn about him and gain the opportunity for everlasting life. (1 Corinthians 3:5; John 17:3) We need to be able to recognize who God’s real ministers are. But how can we? Only the Bible can help us.
“Minister” in the Bible
3 First of all, what is a minister according to the Bible? In the original language of the Christian Greek Scriptures, the word for “minister” was di·a´ko·nos. Though there are various ideas about the origin of this word, the meaning is well known. Basically, it means “a servant.” In the Gospels di·a´ko·nos and related words are often used with reference to serving those reclining to eat a meal. (Luke 4:39; John 2:5, 9) However, in the Greek of Jesus’ day the word often had a more elevated association. In non-Biblical documents it was used with reference to religious officials, and in the first translation of the Hebrew Scriptures into Greek it was used to describe court officials and attendants of the Persian king Ahasuerus. (Esther 1:10; 6:3, Septuagint Version) Of course, the most elevated ministry that a human can share in is the service of the Most High God, Jehovah.
4 Since being a minister of God is such a high privilege, how does a genuine minister view himself? He should not be proud or feel self-important. Certainly, he does not accept flattering titles such as “Holy Father” or “Reverend.” (Matthew 23:8-12) Rather, Jesus showed that a genuine Christian minister would be humble. He said: “Whoever wants to become great among you must be your minister, and whoever wants to be first among you must be your slave.”—Matthew 20:26, 27.
5 A minister obeys his master’s commands. However, in doing so, his work may benefit someone else. For example, if his master has guests, then the minister obeys his master by caring for the needs of the guests. Christian ministers, being “God’s ministers” and “ministers of Christ,” obey the commands that God gave through his Son, Jesus Christ. (2 Corinthians 6:4; 11:23) But the work they do benefits other humans. For example, Paul was a minister to “people of the nations.” (Ephesians 3:1-7) His ministry brought great blessings to those who responded favorably. And it brought honor to Jehovah God and Jesus Christ, whose commands he was obeying.
The Greatest Minister of Religion
6 But what should a minister actually do? We can answer this by considering the activities of the greatest minister of religion who ever lived, Jesus Christ. Jesus said: “The Son of man came, not to be ministered to, but to minister and to give his soul a ransom in exchange for many.” (Matthew 20:28) As a minister, whose orders did Jesus obey? To whom did he minister? And how? Jesus obeyed the orders of his heavenly Father. (John 8:28) And, to start with, he ministered to the Jews only. (Romans 15:8) But, ultimately, his ministry was for the benefit of all right-hearted persons.—John 3:16.
7 What did Jesus do as a minister? One thing he did was avoid getting involved in politics. On at least two occasions he had the opportunity to take a political stand, but he refused. (Mark 12:13-17; John 6:15) Why? Because his ministry was above politics, and the benefits it offered, including everlasting life, were much greater than those offered by political action. Besides, a minister of God cannot be a minister of this world. (Matthew 6:24) Hence, Jesus remained “no part of the world.” (John 17:14; James 4:4) So, what Jesus did was preach and teach. He publicly declared God’s name. He preached that God’s kingdom was the only hope for mankind. He taught his disciples God’s high moral standards and trained them to follow him in the ministry. Finally, he climaxed his ministry by sacrificing his life for mankind. —Matthew 4:17; 5:27-32; 20:28; John 17:3-6.
8 Jesus is a model for all “to follow his steps closely.” (1 Peter 2:21) Only those who closely imitate the ministry of Jesus Christ can honestly call themselves God’s ministers today. If we examine the activity of Christian ministers in the years following Jesus’ death we will see what this involved.
The Christian Minister
9 First, how did a servant of God in those days qualify to be a minister? Today, most ministers in Christendom receive from some seminary or college documents proclaiming their status. These are their qualifications. However, Jesus did not have such a document. He was a qualified minister because God anointed him to be one. (Luke 4:18, 19) Similarly, the apostle Paul said: “Our being adequately qualified issues from God, who has indeed adequately qualified us to be ministers of a new covenant.” (2 Corinthians 3:5, 6) Thus, God qualifies his own ministers. How?
10 Consider the example of Timothy, who was “God’s minister in the good news about the Christ.” (1 Thessalonians 3:2) Paul wrote to him: “You, however, continue in the things that you learned and were persuaded to believe, knowing from what persons you learned them and that from infancy you have known the holy writings, which are able to make you wise for salvation through the faith in connection with Christ Jesus.”—2 Timothy 3:14, 15; see also verses 16 and 17.
11 Does this mean that Timothy merely read the Bible and thus became a minister? No. First, he was “persuaded to believe” by other ministers. Who were these? Since he had known the Scriptures “from infancy,” he must have received at least basic instruction from his mother and grandmother, his father evidently not being a believer. (2 Timothy 1:5) Additionally, when Paul first met Timothy he was already “well reported on by the brothers in Lystra and Iconium.” (Acts 16:2) Hence, his faith had been further developed by his association with fellow Christians in these congregations. Additionally, in those days various prominent brothers, and especially the governing body of the Christian congregation in Jerusalem, used to write letters to the different congregations to strengthen their faith, and traveling overseers used to build them up by their visits.—Hebrews 10:23; Acts 15:22-32; 1 Peter 1:1.
12 At some point Timothy’s faith, made strong by such study and association, moved him to be baptized in symbol of his dedication to God, to spend the rest of his life serving Him. (Matthew 28:19, 20; Hebrews 10:5-9) Logically, at that point he became a minister of God. But his progress did not stop there. His ministerial ability was further strengthened by a special spiritual gift and by personal instruction and training from the apostle Paul. And Timothy continued making progress by his personal study and by association with other Christians. (1 Timothy 4:14; 2 Timothy 2:2) Thus, Timothy was a ‘minister of the good news.’ As such, what did he do?
13 He had special duties, since he was a traveling companion of Paul. Being an elder, Timothy worked hard at teaching and strengthening his fellow Christians. This was a part of his ministry. (1 Timothy 4:6) But the central part of his ministry, just as it had been with Jesus, was preaching the good news. (Matthew 4:23) The apostle Paul told Timothy: “You, though, keep your senses in all things, suffer evil, do the work of an evangelizer, fully accomplish your ministry.”—2 Timothy 4:5.
14 Who, though, besides Timothy and Paul, were expected to share in the Christian ministry? Merely the elders or the special traveling representatives? No. The apostle Paul pointed to the fact that the preaching of the good news was motivated by the faith that all Christians are supposed to possess. He said: “With the heart one exercises faith for righteousness, but with the mouth one makes public declaration for salvation.”—Romans 10:10.
15 Does this mean that all those who genuinely possess the Christian faith should be Christian ministers, sharing in the preaching of the good news? Yes. Paul’s words were addressed to the whole congregation at Rome, not just to the elders. (Romans 1:1, 7) The whole congregation at Ephesus were to have their “feet shod with the equipment of the good news of peace.” (Ephesians 6:15; 1:1) And all those who heard the letter addressed to the Hebrews were to ‘hold fast the public declaration of their hope without wavering.’ (Hebrews 10:23) Remember, too, that on the day of Pentecost everyone, men and women, joined in publicly declaring “the magnificent things of God.”—Acts 2:1-21; 1:14.
16 Moreover, shortly before his ascension to heaven, Jesus had said to his followers: “Go therefore and make disciples of people of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the holy spirit, teaching them to observe all the things I have commanded you.” (Matthew 28:19, 20) Those who responded in all the different nations were not to become mere listeners. They were to be disciples, with all that this involved.—Luke 10:1; 14:27, 33; John 13:35; 15:8; Acts 1:8.
God’s Ministers Today
17 So far, we have seen that the true Christian minister avoids politics and is separate from the world. He is humble and maintains the high moral standards that Jesus taught his followers. He is God’s minister, imitating Christ. Hence, he should not follow his own ideas or water down truth so as to make it more acceptable to others. Nevertheless, his ministerial work benefits fellow humans, both believers and nonbelievers.—Matthew 20:28; 26:39; 1 Peter 4:8-10.
18 As with Jesus and Timothy, a vital part of a present-day Christian’s ministry is the preaching work. What does he preach? Well, salvation is still on the basis of Jesus’ sacrifice. And those who wish to be saved still have to call on Jehovah’s name. (Acts 4:12; Romans 10:13) Moreover, the kingdom is still the only hope for suffering humanity. Hence, Jesus prophesied: “This good news of the kingdom will be preached in all the inhabited earth for a witness to all the nations; and then the end will come.” (Matthew 24:14) God’s true ministers are the ones who fulfill this prophecy and teach these truths. And who are doing this God-given work? Only Jehovah’s Witnesses.—Isaiah 43:10-12.
19 How does one qualify to be a minister? In the same way that Timothy did: By building up a firm faith in God’s purposes, based on a study of the Bible; by strengthening that faith through association with other Christians; by undergoing water baptism in symbol of a dedication made in prayer directly to God to serve him from that point on; and by accepting guidance and direction from the Governing Body of the Christian congregation. (Hebrews 10:23-25; Matthew 24:45-47) Who shares in this ministry? All who have a sincere, active faith in God’s purposes, based on accurate knowledge. The sharing in the ministry as Christian witnesses of Jehovah is a proof of the genuineness of that faith.—James 2:17.
20 In these last days, many ministers of religion in Christendom are busy preaching a “social gospel,” mixing in with politics or questioning the existence of God and the relevance of the Bible. And Christendom’s laity shows little interest in acting as ministers. Hence, we are thankful that God has raised up ministers who keep his name before mankind and help honest-hearted persons to learn the vital truths of God’s Word, the Bible. There are more than two million of these ministers around the world and with God’s help they are ministering to all mankind.
___________________________________________________
Our Kingdom Ministry, December 1981 Issue, Page 4:
Question Box
• The March 15, 1981, Watchtower made the point that ordination as a minister of God takes place at one’s baptism. How does this affect our view of those who are qualified to perform marriages?
In each state the requirements for performing marriages may differ somewhat. In some states, cities or communities, the marriage ceremony may be solemnized only by ministers who are duly registered by the local authorities. It is, therefore, essential to check locally to find out what legal requirements are necessary for performing marriages and to comply with them. Please do not write the Society for such information as we do not have such available for the various states, cities or communities in this country.
Because Christian marriage is a very serious and binding commitment made by two individuals before Jehovah, the marriage ceremony should be presided over by a well-qualified ordained minister who gives the marriage talk and solemnizes the marriage. Therefore, it is preferred that congregation elders, men well spoken of in the congregation, care for this responsibility in order that all things take place in proper order.
Information dealing with the marriage discourse, ceremony and approved vows is to be found in The Watchtower of March 15, 1969, pages 174-179, May 1, 1974, pages 274-277, March 15, 1977, pages 172-185 and Awake! of May 22, 1974, pages 3-6.
Arrangements for the use of a Kingdom Hall for marriage should be approved by the body of elders of the congregation. Since the Scriptural direction is to marry “only in the Lord” (1 Cor. 7:39), those performing marriages should refrain from solemnizing unequaled marriages, nor should such weddings be held at the Kingdom Hall. If there are any very unusual situations in this connection, it is best to write to the Society about the circumstances involved.
___________________________________________________
The Watchtower, March 15, 1981 Issue, Pages 14-17:
Who Are God’s Ministers?
SEVERAL years ago a number of objections were raised against having the term “minister” apply to all dedicated and baptized Christians. These objections were based on differences in language, the way other religious bodies and men in official positions might view their claim to be ministers, and so forth. However, it does not appear that such objections are sufficiently strong to negate the position that Jehovah’s people have held for the greater part of the last 100 years.
“DI·A´KO·NOS”—A MINISTER
In the English translation of the Christian Greek Scriptures the verb “minister” and the noun “minister” occur many times. The Greek noun thus translated is di·a´ko·nos, which literally means ‘through the dust,’ as though applying to one who gets dusty running errands. It appears to be used in three distinct senses, which we will now examine.
First of all, the term di·a´ko·nos is used to refer to one who serves in a material, secular sense, and may simply refer to serving in a household. Thus, in one of Jesus’ parables, we read: “The king said to his servants [di·a´ko·noi], ‘Bind him hand and foot.’” (Matt. 22:13) The same word is rendered “minister” at Romans 13:4, where the reference is to secular governments.
In certain contexts, this Greek word di·a´ko·nos is used in a special restricted official sense, as at Philippians 1:1, where it is applied to certain persons in the Christian congregation who hold an appointive office, for it is there linked with others holding the office of overseer, or “bishop.” Thus we read: “Paul and Timothy, slaves of Christ Jesus, to all the holy ones in union with Christ Jesus who are in Philippi, along with overseers and ministerial servants [or, “deacons,” di·a´ko·noi].” The term is also used in this special sense at 1 Timothy 3:8, 12, where the apostle Paul lists the qualifications of such ministerial servants, or “deacons.”
Finally, there are other instances in which these inspired Christian Greek Scripture writers appear to have used this term in a broader way, which also carries more weight than merely referring to a servant that performs mundane duties. This is when it is used to apply to any dedicated person who serves God in sacred or spiritual matters, and so here some languages translate it by a more fitting word, namely, “minister,” which conveys the sense of an elevated or godly service. Thus the apostle Paul at Colossians 1:23 refers to himself as one who was “made a minister [di·a´ko·nos],” or one who ‘had become or became a minister.’ (See Authorized Version; Revised Standard Version; Phillips’ New Testament in Modern English; The New English Bible.) Paul also speaks of others as ministers, as in the case of Timothy.—1 Tim. 4:6, AV; RSV; New International Version.
“DI·A·KO·NI´A”—MINISTRY
Closely related to the Greek word di·a´ko·nos is the noun di·a·ko·ni´a, referring to a “service” or a “ministry.” This Greek word is also used in both a secular and a religious, or sacred, sense. It is used in a secular sense at Acts 6:1, where we read: “Now in those days, when the disciples were increasing, a murmuring arose on the part of the Greek-speaking Jews against the Hebrew-speaking Jews, because their widows were being overlooked in the daily distribution [footnote, “ministration”].”
When di·a·ko·ni´a is used in a religious sense some translators in certain languages use a special word for it, rendering it not as a “distribution” or a “service,” but as a “ministry,” meaning an elevated, godly service. Thus in such languages the apostle Paul is made to say regarding his apostleship to the Gentiles, “I glorify my ministry.” (Rom. 11:13, RSV; NE; NIV) He further wrote that he was grateful that God ‘considered him faithful by assigning him to a ministry,’ a godly, elevated “service.” (1 Tim. 1:12, Kingdom Interlinear Translation) Thus Paul wrote Timothy: “You, though, keep your senses in all things, suffer evil, do the work of an evangelizer, fully accomplish your ministry.” Timothy’s evangelizing, or preaching of the “good news,” was not a mundane service. It was a godly, elevated service—a ministry—and it constituted him a minister. By the same token today, all who share in this evangelizing ministry are indeed ministers.—2 Tim. 4:5, AV; NIV; RSV.
It is the way Christian Greek Scripture writers under inspiration use the Greek words di·a´ko·nos, di·a·ko·ni´a and similar ones that sets the pattern for Jehovah’s Witnesses. Actually, not only are Jehovah’s Witnesses a religious organization in the commonly accepted meaning of the term “congregation,” or “church,” but they also constitute an association for the training and equipping of men, women and youths to be ministers, “servants,” in an elevated or godly sense, preachers of the good news of God’s kingdom. For this purpose they have an ongoing body of study courses for the education of men, women and young people in the vital knowledge of the Bible so that they may be increasingly effective as God’s ministers. These study courses are covered at five weekly meetings in which there is exposition of Bible doctrine, interpretation of Bible prophecies, instruction in Christian conduct and training in the preaching and teaching of Bible truths.
ORDINATION AS MINISTERS
As with all religious organizations, Jehovah’s Witnesses have the privilege and right to determine when their students have reached the point where they qualify to be ministers of God’s Word, “servants” in an elevated, godly sense. After an appropriate personal training period they are examined by the duly appointed elders in their congregation. If students can give evidence of having an adequate knowledge of God’s Word, a heart appreciation of its message, and have unreservedly dedicated themselves to Jehovah to do his will and to follow in the footsteps of Jesus Christ, and if they have brought their lives in line with God’s requirements and principles, they are admitted to baptism and are thereby ordained as ministers. There is sound Scriptural precedent for this procedure, for it was only after Jesus had presented himself for baptism that he began his career as God’s anointed minister, preaching the good news of God’s kingdom.—Mark 1:9-15.
But is there sound reason for considering baptism, complete submersion in water, as an adequate ordination ceremony? Perhaps not according to prevailing customs in Christendom, but there certainly is from a Scriptural point of view, even as can be seen from what M’Clintock and Strong’s Cyclopædia of Biblical, Theological, and Ecclesiastical Literature (1877), Vol. VII, page 411, has to say on the subject. According to it, an ordination is “the appointment or designation of a person to a ministerial office, whether with or without attendant ceremonies. . . . A scriptural investigation of this subject can hardly fail to impress any ingenuous mind with the great significance of the fact that neither the Lord Jesus Christ nor any of his disciples gave specific commands or declarations in reference to ordination.” A diploma or an ordination certificate is no more needed by ministers today than one was needed by the apostle Paul.—2 Cor. 3:1-3.
MINISTRY OF JEHOVAH’S WITNESSES
How do Jehovah’s Witnesses carry on their ministry? Some of them serve as appointed elders, and as such they preach and teach in their congregations from the platform and at congregational Bible classes held in the homes of the Witnesses. However, the most extensive and most distinctive method used by the Witnesses in their ministry is that used by the apostles and other early disciples of Jesus in obedience to his command: “Into whatever city or village you enter, search out who in it is deserving . . . When you are entering into the house, greet the household; and if the house is deserving, let the peace you wish it come upon it.”—Matt. 10:11-13.
Similarly, the apostle Paul distinguished himself by preaching both to congregations and to individuals in their homes. As he told the elders of Ephesus: “You well know how . . . I did not hold back from telling you any of the things that were profitable nor from teaching you publicly and from house to house. But I thoroughly bore witness both to Jews and to Greeks about repentance toward God and faith in our Lord Jesus.” (Acts 20:18-21) This provides a fine precedent for God’s ministers today.
Regarding modern-day house-to-house ministry with the use of religious tracts the Supreme Court of the United States in the case of Murdock v. Commonwealth of Pennsylvania (1943) ruled: “The hand distribution of religious tracts is an age-old form of missionary evangelism—as old as the history of printing presses. . . . This form of religious activity occupies the same high estate under the First Amendment as do worship in the churches and preaching from the pulpits.”
Also, in the United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit, in the case of Ransom v. United States (1955), that court stated that it could not “validly distinguish . . . between ministers of Jehovah’s Witnesses who preach from door to door and on street corners as their vocations, and ministers of more conventional faiths who preach in pulpits, teach in church schools or carry on various other religious activities for their churches.”
Would the fact that these ministers did not devote all their time to their ministry reflect unfavorably on their claim to be ministers, meaning they did not qualify to be such? Not at all, for even the apostle Paul engaged in secular activities to support himself and those with him. (Acts 18:3, 4; 20:33, 34) This position was supported by this ruling of the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit in the case of Wiggins v. United States (1958): “Ministers of Jehovah’s Witnesses . . . have no choice except to engage in secular pursuits in order to obtain funds to make the ministry their vocation. . . . The test . . . is . . . whether, as a vocation, regularly, not occasionally, he teaches and preaches the principles of his religion.”
So who are God’s ministers? They are the dedicated and baptized Christians who make service to God and neighbor their chief aim in life! (Mark 12:28-31)
[Picture on page 15]
Scripturally, ordination as a minister of God takes place at one’s baptism
[Pictures on page 16]
Following the Bible precedent, Jehovah’s Witnesses pursue their ministry “publicly and from house to house”
Pages 18-20 (of the same Issue):
FEMALE MINISTERS
Yes, all dedicated and baptized Christians, regardless of sex or age, can be proclaimers, preachers, ministers, “servants” in an elevated or sacred sense—provided they give proof thereof by their conduct and their witnessing. Thus the apostle Paul wrote at Romans 16:1: “I recommend to you Phoebe our sister, who is a minister of the congregation that is in Cenchreae, that you may welcome her in the Lord in a way worthy of the holy ones, and that you may assist her in any matter where she may need you, for she herself also proved to be a defender of many, yes, of me myself.” Obviously, Paul’s reference is to something more than merely physical service. It is to something having to do with the spoken word, the Christian ministry. However, she had not been appointed as a female ministerial servant, as Jehovah God through Paul made no provision for women in such an office.
Again, when writing the Christian congregation in Philippi, Paul makes reference to Euodia and Syntyche as “women who have striven side by side with me in the good news [evidently preaching and teaching the good news of God’s kingdom] along with Clement as well as the rest of my fellow workers, whose names are in the book of life.”—Phil. 4:2, 3.
Also, not to be overlooked is Priscilla, wife of Aquila. She is mentioned repeatedly, most often even ahead of her husband. (Acts 18:2, 18, 26; Rom. 16:3; 1 Cor. 16:19; 2 Tim. 4:19) When eloquent Apollos arrived in Ephesus and it was apparent that he needed further instruction, ‘Priscilla and Aquila took him to their home and they both expounded the word of God more correctly to him.’—Acts 18:26, Kingdom Interlinear Translation.
Several courts in the United States have recognized female Jehovah’s Witnesses, in carrying on the door-to-door evangelistic work, as ministers. For example, the Supreme Court of Vermont, in Vermont v. Greaves (1941), stated that Elva Greaves “is an ordained minister of a sect or class known and designated as ‘Jehovah’s Witnesses’.”
YOUTHFUL MINISTERS
The same principle may be applied to youthful Christians. Although in no sense of the word could they serve as appointed servants in the congregation, their age would be no impediment to their being preachers and proclaimers of the “good news,” ministers of God. Jesus at the age of 12 showed himself to be capable of ‘ministering’ God’s Word. (Luke 2:46-50) Samuel became “a minister of Jehovah” as a mere “boy.” (1 Sam. 2:11, NW; see also American Standard Version; The Jerusalem Bible; Rotherham.) And so in modern times some in their early teens or even younger, after having dedicated themselves to Jehovah and having been baptized, are proving by their activity in preaching the good news of God’s kingdom at every opportunity, as well as by their conduct, that they are indeed ministers of God.—2 Tim. 2:22; Eccl. 12:1.
A “SACRED SERVICE”
Jesus laid down the rule that a man’s claims must be measured by his works. He stated: “The works themselves that I am doing, bear witness about me that the Father dispatched me.” (John 5:36) By the same token, those ministers (or, “servants” in an elevated sense) that God sends forth, male or female, young or old, are to be recognized by their service for the Kingdom interests, their “sacred service” to their God, Jehovah.—Matt. 4:10; Rom. 12:1, 2.
So among Jehovah’s Witnesses today, anyone who upon adequate instruction in God’s Word has been baptized in symbol of dedicating his or her life to God, and who thereafter seriously undertakes service to Jehovah God in witnessing to his name and kingdom, is truly a minister in God’s view. (John 12:26) However, whether they would always want to introduce themselves when calling from house to house as a “minister” would depend upon the circumstances, including the local attitude toward the term “minister.” In any case, today’s ‘great crowd out of all nations’ are described at Revelation 7:9-17 as ‘rendering God sacred service day and night in his temple.’ All are God’s ministers—his servants in a sacred, elevated sense.
________________________________________________
The Watchtower, November 15, 1972 Issue, Pages 701-702:
Persistence
· Sometimes, even when one is attempting to do good for another, considerable persistence is required. This often proves true with the ministers of Jehovah’s witnesses who are doing the best possible good, that of aiding people to understand and apply God’s Word and thus be in line for divine blessings.
A woman minister of Jehovah’s witnesses in Malaysia called on a young Chinese girl living in a garage behind a large home. She left with the girl a copy of the Bible study aid From Paradise Lost to Paradise Regained in the Chinese language. Arrangements were made for a return visit to establish a free home Bible study with the girl.
On the first visit the girl was busy with a big pile of ironing and had not read any of the book. Saturday was her day off from work, and so arrangements were made to call then. On the second call the Witness found that the girl still had a big pile of ironing as well as a room full of visiting relatives. Coming the next Saturday for the third call, the minister learned that the girl was behind in her ironing. But she was still interested in the free Bible study and planned on speaking with her sister to see if her fleshly sister would like to join in the study. The next call, the fourth, the girl had some good news; her sister wanted to study also, so the following week they were all to meet at her sister’s home some two miles away.
Early the next Saturday a thunderstorm was brewing. But the witness of Jehovah, not wanting to fail to keep her appointment, went anyway, getting drenched to the skin in the process. She found the house locked and nobody at home. The Witness thought to herself: ‘I am determined to give the girl one more chance.’
On the sixth visit the Witness went to the girl’s residence and found her sincerely apologetic. Arrangements were made for the study to be held the following Saturday. On the seventh visit the Bible study actually got under way, and from then on there was no delay or interruption at all. The young Chinese girl studied well, began coming to Christian meetings of Jehovah’s witnesses and is now herself an ordained minister. All of this because of perseverance in doing what is good.—Gal. 6:9.
________________________________________________
The Watchtower, December 15, 1971 Issue, Page 762:
The governing body is very grateful to God for the religious Society that is to be used as an agency of Jehovah’s Christian witnesses. This legal nonprofit Society, through being manned by faithful dedicated, baptized disciples of Jesus Christ, all ordained ministers, who volunteer their services as directly to Jehovah God, has tremendously facilitated the carrying on of the greatest work on earth today, namely, the preaching of the good news of God’s now established kingdom in all the inhabited earth for a witness to all the nations before the end of this system of things arrives, shortly now.
Page 763 (of the same Issue):
‘After three months of regularly studying the Bible I began to make changes in my life. I disposed of my guns. My former friends thought I had gone crazy and stopped associating with me in my unarmed condition. The religious ornaments were removed from my living room. Within a year I was attending the meetings of Jehovah’s witnesses in the Kingdom Hall and even began sharing in the field ministry with them. Finally I was baptized, becoming an ordained minister myself.
________________________________________________
The Watchtower, May 1, 1971 Issue, Page 280:
The man decided that, in view of his “addiction” to the game, in his case it would be best to give it up altogether. He gave away the draughtboard or checkerboard. The crowds that had frequented his place drifted away. He had more time to handle his business as well as ample time to study God’s Word in peace. He once again began to make fine spiritual progress. Soon thereafter he was baptized at a large assembly of Jehovah’s witnesses, thus becoming himself an ordained minister of God.
________________________________________________
The Watchtower, February 15, 1971 Issue, Pages 123-124:
On the second day of the gathering the 679 active witnesses of Jehovah in Liberia were happy to see sixty-two persons baptized in the Atlantic Ocean. A wide variety of backgrounds and walks of life was represented in these newly ordained ministers. One was a well-known lawyer, another an American woman formerly with the Peace Corps. There was a young African girl who had suffered repeated beatings in school because of her faith, and a seventy-seven-year-old former Protestant preacher. All were now united in the worship of the true God.
________________________________________________
Awake!, January 8, 1971 Issue, Page 13:
In October of 1963 further evidence was submitted to the court. This outlined in great detail the fact that full-time ministers of Jehovah’s witnesses are ordained ministers entitled to the exemption provided by the constitution.
________________________________________________
The Watchtower, October 15, 1970 Issue, Page 614:
What happens, though, when God’s Word is put to work in the lives of such people? Well, from Panama comes news of a man who started studying the Bible and subsequently quit his heavy drinking, gambling, smoking and beating of his woman companion, the mother of his four daughters. Wanting to conform to God’s righteous standards, he desired to marry her. She consented; they were married, and that same week he was ordained as a Christian minister.
________________________________________________
The Watchtower, April 15, 1970 Issue, Pages 250-251:
Is it true that all of Jehovah’s witnesses are really ministers? Have they had schooling for the ministry?
Yes, in the true Bible sense of the word all of Jehovah’s witnesses are ministers. A minister of God is a public servant of God, one who follows in the footsteps of Jesus Christ. (1 Pet. 2:21) Every true Christian who is dedicated to God and baptized in symbol of that dedication renders such ministerial service as a regular part of his worship and is therefore an ordained minister.—Isa. 61:1, 2; Matt. 24:14; 2 Cor. 3:5.
While seminary training and written certificates of ordination are not required for Scriptural ordination, nevertheless, Jehovah’s witnesses do undergo an intensive program of schooling and training for the Christian ministry. They attend five congregation meetings a week, which amounts to five hours of instruction, as well as doing much personal Bible study at home. At their Theocratic Ministry School they learn to speak and teach effectively. This training never ends. Uniquely its students never graduate, nor do they want to graduate. They thoroughly enjoy the school program and, being progressive in outlook, they appreciate the need to keep on learning and improving their skills as ministers of God.
________________________________________________
The Watchtower, January 1, 1970 Issue, Page 21:
This has been a most joyful year for Jehovah’s witnesses because Jehovah God has blessed their efforts so much in preaching this good news in all parts of the earth. One of the outstanding events of the year was the “Peace on Earth” International Assembly of Jehovah’s Witnesses held in North America and Europe in July and August at which 840,572 persons were in attendance. These, along with others who were not able to get to one of the assemblies, are determined to keep on with the preaching of this Kingdom good news. All are lovers of peace because they worship the God of peace. (2 Cor. 13:11) We still have work to do, and we find that, in the midst of their doing that work, Jehovah has blessed the efforts of his people so that a new peak in publishers of 1,336,112 was reached in the 1969 service year. Throughout the year there were on the average 1,256,784 ministers who could be counted on to spend time in the field ministry every month. Of course, these publishers of the Kingdom good news cannot all be in the work of spreading the message full time, but the dedicated, baptized disciples certainly are all ordained ministers. Out of all of these persons, however, there were 76,515 baptized ministers preaching full time as missionaries, special, regular and vacation pioneers. These spent anywhere from 100 to 150 hours per month spreading the good news of the Kingdom. The remaining number of persons, constituting a great congregation world wide, averaged each from ten to fifteen hours each month in the preaching of God’s kingdom and implanting the word of truth in the hearts and minds of other people.
________________________________________________
1970 Yearbook of Jehovah's Witnesses, Pages 24-25:
This has been a most joyful year for Jehovah’s witnesses because Jehovah God has blessed their efforts so much in preaching this good news in all parts of the earth. One of the outstanding events of the year was the “Peace on Earth” International Assembly of Jehovah’s Witnesses held in North America and Europe in July and August at which 840,572 persons were in attendance. These, along with others who were not able to get to one of the assemblies, are determined to keep on with the preaching of this Kingdom good news. All are lovers of peace because they worship the God of peace. (2 Cor. 13:11) We still have work to do, and we find that, in the midst of their doing that work, Jehovah has blessed the efforts of his people so that a new peak in publishers of 1,336,112 was reached in the 1969 service year. Throughout the year there were on the average 1,256,784 ministers who could be counted on to spend time in the field ministry every month. Of course, these publishers of the Kingdom good news cannot all be in the work of spreading the message full time, but the dedicated, baptized disciples certainly are all ordained ministers. Out of all of these persons, however, there were 76,515 baptized ministers preaching full time as missionaries, special, regular and vacation pioneers. These spent anywhere from 100 to 150 hours per month spreading the good news of the Kingdom. The remaining number of persons, constituting a great congregation world wide, averaged each from ten to fifteen hours each month in the preaching of God’s kingdom and implanting the word of truth in the hearts and minds of other people.
The Watchtower, September 1, 1969 Issue, Page 522:
IMPROVING ONE’S CHRISTIAN MINISTRY
All true Christians are greatly concerned about performing their ministry in the best possible manner. It therefore was another rich blessing for them to receive much fine counsel on how they can improve their ministry. For those about to become ordained ministers of Jehovah God there was the discourse on baptism. What a thrill it was to see 12,894 at these assemblies in North America stand up and present themselves for water immersion! The candidates for baptism were told that it was a happy time to be living in spite of worsening world conditions. Why? Because it is still not too late to gain God’s goodwill and the resultant everlasting life by becoming a whole-souled servant of Jehovah God.—Prov. 8:35.
________________________________________________
The Watchtower, April 1, 1969 Issue, Page 209:
Now, as to skill, this is something that the world makes much of, and, indeed, many extraordinary feats are accomplished with skilled minds and hands. Success in the ministry requires skill too, but the art of being a good teacher of God’s Word is not too difficult for anyone to master. While it takes many years of study and practice to become a skilled surgeon or engineer, and those who qualify are few, this is not true of those who wish to be skillful ministers. Not that it does not take much study and putting into regular practice the things learned. It does, but the unique thing about the ministry is that one can begin to share in it after only a short time of study. When one begins to learn the good things from God’s Word and sees the importance of teaching these to others, there is no reason for him to hold back in speaking these good things to his neighbor. He, of course, should be careful as a novice that he does not teach error unwittingly, so he should listen closely to instructions from more experienced ministers while getting on-the-job training. Before long he can make a dedication to God and get baptized and become a skillful ordained minister in teaching others.
________________________________________________
The Watchtower, January 1, 1969 Issue, Pages 25-26:
It is evident from the report that tens of thousands have found the Word of God to be true and accurate, and with all diligence they want to tell others about God’s truth. What a joy it has been to see 82,842 persons with whom Bible studies have been conducted in 1968 go on to dedicate their lives to Jehovah and be baptized in water in public symbol of their dedication to the doing of God’s will henceforth! These 82,842 newly baptized individuals are not joining a religious organization just to be members, as many of them were when they went to “church” in Christendom. Their days of going to “church” once a week to be a hearer and not a doer of God’s work are gone forever. These newly baptized persons have heard the call, “Get out of her, my people,” and they have gotten out of false religion, 82,842 of them, and have now become ministers of God, and they feel like the apostle Paul, who said: “Really, woe is me if I did not declare the good news!” (1 Cor. 9:16) These newly ordained ministers have associated with the more than one million others of Jehovah’s witnesses around the world, and together they find great joy in preaching to others and teaching them to know the Bible.
________________________________________________
The Watchtower, August 1, 1968 Issue, Page 466:
Religious news editor Louis Cassels also had this to say of Jehovah’s witnesses: “Their phenomenal growth rate is the result of a zeal for evangelism which puts the established churches to shame. Every Witness is regarded as an ordained minister, and is sent out to ring doorbells, pass out literature on street corners and preach the [Kingdom] message to as many people as possible. . . . Behind this passion for convert-winning is the firm conviction of the Witnesses that the end of human history is imminent. They expect it to come at any hour, and almost certainly within the next 10 years.”
________________________________________________
The Watchtower, February 1, 1966 Issue, Page 75:
In contrast with the lack of personal visitations by the ministers of Christendom the fact is that every week of the year Jehovah’s witnesses conducted 770,595 home Bible studies during 1965, and this conducting of home Bible studies was not being carried on by just the presiding minister of a congregation alone. Rather, this work was being done by all those who make up the congregation, for all the witnesses of Jehovah are ordained Christian ministers.—Isa. 61:1-3.
________________________________________________
The Watchtower, May 15, 1966 Issue, Pages 300-301:
Christ Jesus was a perfect example of balance when he was on the earth. Note some of the things he said and agreed with: “It is Jehovah your God you must worship, and it is to him alone you must render sacred service.” (Matt. 4:10) “Give us today our bread for this day.” (Matt. 6:11) “Keep on, then, seeking first the kingdom.” (Matt. 6:33) “My yoke is kindly and my load is light.” (Matt. 11:30) “Pay back, therefore, Caesar’s things to Caesar, but God’s things to God.” (Matt. 22:21) “You must love Jehovah your God with your whole heart and with your whole soul and with your whole mind.” (Matt. 22:37) “You must love your neighbor as yourself.”? (Matt. 22:39) “This good news of the kingdom will be preached in all the inhabited earth.” (Matt. 24:14) “Go therefore and make disciples of people of all the nations.” (Matt. 28:19) “Martha, you are anxious and disturbed about many things. A few things, though, are needed, or just one.” (Luke 10:41, 42) He was not unbalanced by tradition; he healed a woman on the sabbath. (Luke 13:10-17) It is easy to discern that, though Jesus recognized the need to care for family responsibilities and pay taxes due, the big thing is to worship Jehovah, preach his word and kingdom, and be a praiser of his name. In fact, only such ministers will be saved. Reflect on James 2:24, 26 in this regard: “You see that a man is to be declared righteous by works, and not by faith alone. Indeed, as the body without breath is dead, so also faith without works is dead.” To get life you must be a working minister, which means to be a preacher and teacher of the good news of God’s kingdom. You must be a dedicated worshiper of Jehovah God. Jehovah’s witnesses are a society of ordained ministers and today they are participating in a twofold saving program.
________________________________________________
The Watchtower, September 15, 1964 Issue, Page 563:
PRAY TO MAKE RIGHT DECISIONS
19 Young and old, all of us are constantly called upon to exercise wisdom in making right decisions. James again counsels us: “If any one of you is lacking in wisdom, let him keep on asking God, for he gives generously to all and without reproaching; and it will be given him. But let him keep on asking in faith, not doubting.”—Jas. 1:5, 6.
20 There is the case of the teen-age ordained minister of Jehovah in the United States of America. During his high-school days he built a good record in sports as well as academically. Near the time for his graduation he was offered a football scholarship to attend college. Outstanding sports leaders visited him to encourage him to accept. This young man was now called upon to make a vital decision. For days the battle continued in his mind; one day he would decide to accept the scholarship, the next day he would decide for the full-time ministerial service. Finally he made it a matter of prayer to Jehovah for wisdom. Along with his daily appeals he spent afterschool hours in the public preaching work. In response to his prayers he was strengthened to decide for the full-time pioneer service and to reject the scholarship offer. A right decision was made.
Page 555 (of the same Issue):
All the above-described vast throng of worshipers come as dedicated ones well instructed in Jehovah’s theocratic requirements. They do not come empty-handed without gifts for their loving God. Rather, they come full of pleasing ‘sacrifices of praise,’ full of right public declarations that they have learned how to make through Jehovah’s anointed ones still on earth. (Heb. 13:15) Yes, these “foreigners” out of the nations have “joined themselves to Jehovah” by making a dedication in association with the anointed remnant of spiritual Israel. (Zech. 8:23; Gal. 6:16) All these of the “great crowd” from the nations also come to offer their prayers through Jehovah’s temple arrangement. Concerning this Isaiah further foresaw: “And the foreigners that have joined themselves to Jehovah to minister to him and to love the name of Jehovah, in order to become servants to him, . . . I will also bring them to my holy mountain and make them rejoice inside my house of prayer. . . . their sacrifices will be for acceptance upon my altar. For my own house will be called even a house of prayer for all the peoples.” (Isa. 56:6, 7) Truly this vast crowd of foreign worshipers have today come to be dedicated, baptized and ordained ministers of Jehovah and thus have an official standing of recognition before God’s heavenly throne. (Rev. 7:15) Like those of the anointed remnant, these alien nonmembers, not of the new covenant, count it an inestimable privilege to bear the unique name of Jehovah as Jehovah’s witnesses.—Jer. 31:31-34.
________________________________________________
The Watchtower, August 1, 1964 Issue, Pages 479-480:
Questions from Readers
• Does the scripture at Isaiah 61:1, 2 constitute the ordination of the “other sheep”?—L. H., U.S.A.
Isaiah 61:1, 2 reads: “The spirit of the Lord Jehovah is upon me, for the reason that Jehovah has anointed me to tell good news to the meek ones. He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to those taken captive and the wide opening of the eyes even to the prisoners; to proclaim the year of good will on the part of Jehovah and the day of vengeance on the part of our God; to comfort all the mourning ones.”
Note here that the prophet says that he has been anointed by Jehovah’s spirit. Jesus applied this prophecy to himself but only after he had been anointed by God’s holy spirit at the Jordan at the time of his baptism. (Luke 3:21, 22; 4:17-21) His body members are also anointed with Jehovah’s spirit at the time of their being begotten by Jehovah to be sons of God. They become members of the body of Christ, the Anointed One.—2 Cor. 1:21, 22.
The “great crowd” of “other sheep” mentioned and described at John 10:16 and Revelation 7:9 are not anointed by Jehovah’s spirit even though they do have a measure of his spirit, and hence Isaiah 61:1, 2 does not constitute their ordination to preach. However, they are ordained of Jehovah God to be his ministers and certainly they are not ordained to do something different now from what the spiritual remnant are anointed to do. So they could properly quote Isaiah 61:1, 2 as setting out the work in which they are commissioned to share as ordained ministers.
Jehovah God’s command to all those dedicating themselves to him to preach the “good news of the kingdom” constitutes the terms of the ordination of the “great crowd” of “other sheep.” (Matt. 24:14) The command of God regarding the responsibility to preach is in the Bible for anyone to read, but this commission does not constitute anyone’s ordination until after one has studied God’s Word, gained accurate knowledge, dedicated himself to God, for the doing of his divine will, and then symbolized that dedication by water baptism. Thus the “great crowd” of “other sheep” have their ordination from God by virtue of his command to dedicated Christians to preach the Kingdom good news, and Jehovah also backs them up with his holy spirit, just as his spirit was upon the pre-Christian prophets and witnesses.
_______________________________________________
The Watchtower, February 1, 1964 Issue, Page 86:
Among the witnesses of Jehovah any adult, dedicated and baptized male Christian who is qualified may serve in such ministerial capacities as giving public Bible discourses and funeral talks, performing marriages and presiding at the Lord’s evening meal or supper. There is no clergy class. Overseers and their ministerial assistants are merely servants of their fellow Christians. They are not specially ordained and therefore they are such special servants only so long as they have an appointment so to serve.—Eph. 4:11-16; 1 Tim. 3:1-7.
_______________________________________________
The Watchtower, January 1, 1964 Issue, Page 23:
This conducting of home Bible studies was not being carried on by just the presiding “minister” of Jehovah’s witnesses’ congregations, but this work was being done by those who make up the congregation. All witnesses of Jehovah are ordained Christian ministers. In the apostles’ days any dedicated, baptized man or woman was commanded to ‘go and disciple the people of all nations.’ There is no difference in Christian work today. Neither God’s Bible nor the commandments in it have changed. But people’s conclusions as to what Christian religion should be have changed. Why not make your religion like what Jesus taught his to be, Christian?
_______________________________________________
The Watchtower, June 1, 1963 Issue, Pages 332-333:
One’s baptism is a public demonstration of death to a past course of life. If the candidate remained submerged in water, truly it would mean his death. Fittingly, one is raised to life as it were, alive to do the will of Jehovah. Thus one’s day of baptism could be said to be the day of one’s start in a new life. Baptism serves both as a public confession of one’s dedication and as a sign of one’s being an ordained minister. Doubly blessed by Jehovah is this individual. The date of one’s baptism should be recorded and remembered always. As far as Jehovah’s visible organization is concerned it is the date of your ordination to the ministry of the Most High.
_______________________________________________
The Watchtower, March 1, 1963 Issue, Pages 144-145:
PROTESTANTISM AND THE GENERAL PRIESTHOOD
9 It was reformer Luther who brought the teaching of the general priesthood back into daylight. He was a keen Bible student and soon saw how far the Catholic church had removed herself from the early church by her special priesthood, and in his fight against the papacy he made diligent use of what he had found. “We were all consecrated to be priests at our baptism,” he emphasized, and he mocked the pope for thinking he could make priests out of already baptized Christians by an ordination ceremony. “That the pope or the bishop anoints, tonsures, ordains, consecrates and dresses a person differently from the laity,” he said, “may well make a hypocrite or a fool out of him, but it will never make him a Christian or a spiritual man.”
10 Then Luther, with great zeal, set out to practice the general priesthood in his newly formed church, teaching that the most important work of a Christian, a work that incorporates all the other priestly duties, is to “teach the Word of God.” In this he suffered defeat, however. He had to learn that the common people had been spiritually so neglected by the Catholic church that the general priesthood and its duties were beyond their apprehension. Luther’s work in this respect was never followed up by his successors. It faded out.
11 Already such pre-Reformation movements as the Waldenses in Central Europe and the Lollards of Britain had tried to live up to the general priesthood. After the “reformation” a movement in Germany known as “Pietism” and our generation’s Oxford movement have to some extent tried to do the same, but all these efforts were evidently without the support of God’s holy spirit, because they all came to nothing, and even within the Lutheran church today the situation has not changed since Luther’s time: The doctrine of the Christian general priesthood is recognized in theory, but not practiced.
12 Nevertheless, many nonepiscopal Protestant clergymen, including Lutherans, claim they have the general priesthood and that their ministers are just servants taken out of the flock for a special task. In theory, it is said, any member of the congregation could function as such, just as the settlers in America chose the most suitable layman among them to be their minister, wherever they settled, until they could get a “real” minister, or just as sea captains are often considered ministers to their crew and passengers. The fact is, however, that the Protestant churches, including the Lutheran, have a special priesthood. The fact is that ordinarily nobody can preach or perform ceremonies in their churches without a special ordination. Normally, nobody gets ordained without special academic training, and they dress differently from the rest, at least when officiating. Any exceptions are so rare that they only emphasize the rule. In Protestant churches it is not as in the early church, where, according to Norwegian professor Hallesby, “all ceremonies of the church could be performed by any Christian.” Therefore, honest Protestant ministers, whose churches teach the general priesthood, admit that they actually do have a special priesthood.
______________________________________________
The Watchtower, January 1, 1963 Issue, Pages 17-18:
38 To follow in the footsteps of Christ Jesus does not require a training in a theological seminary or a religious college. If such higher education were necessary, then Peter and John could not have been apostles of Christ Jesus. Those two men were ordinary men with sound minds. They appreciated and loved truth. They were men who listened and learned from their teacher Jesus Christ. When their resurrected Teacher explained to them why he had died upon the torture stake, they were not the kind to shrink back but they were ready to move out, and at Pentecost they preached the things that they heard and believed. So the Bible record tells us that when the Jewish Sanhedrin “beheld the outspokenness of Peter and John, and perceived that they were men unlettered and ordinary, they got to wondering. And they began to recognize about them that they used to be with Jesus.” (Acts 4:13) It is the spirit in a person, his zeal, devotion and knowledge that count, not his degree or diploma that hangs on a wall. These men had gained true knowledge because they had been with Jesus and learned the truth. They were fearless in expressing that truth. It was not their college education, or the rabbinical schools of their day, that qualified them as ministers of God. They never enrolled in them. They were ordained as God’s ministers by God, not by men. To wear “the cloth” the clergy of Christendom may trace their lines of descent back to A.D. 325 and the Nicean creed, but not back to Christ Jesus or the Word of God.
39 This information should be of real encouragement to individuals in all parts of the world who love the Bible, and it should help them in taking their stand for the ministry. If Peter and John, fishermen, could be apostles of Jesus Christ and could qualify to represent God as his ordained ministers in the earth, then why cannot anyone who loves the truth in God’s Word and who is devoted to God and has dedicated his life to God’s service do likewise? All the early Christians were ministers and they studied God’s written Word. It becomes clear that every person who becomes a Christian must also be a preacher of the good news. The difficulty in Christendom today is that the clergy are the only ones recognized as ministers, and their congregations have been made a listening flock, not a preaching flock. There has been a development of the clergy class and a laity class in Christendom, and, as was pointed out in The Outline of History, H. G. Wells saw “the profound difference between the fully developed Christianity of Nicaea and the teachings of Jesus of Nazareth.” Of early Christianity he said: “Its only organization was an organization of preachers, and its chief function was the sermon.” That is what real Christians today see the need for the organization to be. The whole organization of Jehovah’s witnesses is made up of ordained ministers, and their chief function and training is the use of the sermon. They use Bible sermons from door to door and in their home Bible study work. Christians now must be just like Jehovah’s witnesses in the days of the apostles, who went from house to house and delivered sermons to the people of the homes visited, to any family, and they studied the Bible with them. Paul said: “I did not hold back from telling you any of the things that were profitable nor from teaching you publicly and from house to house.” (Acts 20:20) H. G. Wells showed that from and after A.D. 325 the religious leaders of Christendom established elaborate rituals around an altar, consecrated deacons, bishops, priests, and established the mass, and went into the construction of temples. What a difference from the way true Christians worshiped the Almighty God Jehovah!
______________________________________________
The Watchtower, October 15, 1962 Issue, Pages 626-627:
IS EVERY WITNESS A MINISTER?
Yes, in the true Scriptural sense of the word. A minister of God is a public servant (Greek, diákonos, “through the dust”) of Jehovah God, one who follows in Jesus’ footsteps, getting out in public, even traveling dusty roads, to preach the good news of God’s kingdom. There is an urgency about it, as the apostle Paul emphasized when he said: “I solemnly charge you before God and Christ Jesus, . . . preach the word, be at it urgently.” (2 Tim. 4:1, 2) Every true Christian gladly renders such ministerial service as a regular part of his worship leading to salvation. As Romans 10:10 states: “With the heart one exercises faith for righteousness, but with the mouth one makes public declaration for salvation.” Authority to minister comes to dedicated men, women and youths from the highest Source, God himself. “Praise Jehovah from the earth, . . . you young men and also you virgins, you old men together with boys. Let them praise the name of Jehovah.” (Ps. 148:7, 12, 13) Everyone who wants God’s approval responds to that command, bearing in mind the words of James: “You see that a man is to be declared righteous by works, and not by faith alone. Indeed, as the body without breath is dead, so also faith without works is dead.” (Jas. 2:24, 26; Rev. 22:17) If you embrace the teachings of the Bible and live your faith, you will be God’s minister too.
WHO ORDAINS JEHOVAH’S WITNESSES?
The only valid ordination to the Christian ministry comes from God. (2 Cor. 3:5, 6; Isa. 61:1, 2) Those who are ordained by an organization of men are ministers of such organization, but those ordained by God are his ministers. In the Bible God outlines the requirements for those who become his ministers. They must study his Word to learn his will and then bring their lives into harmony with it. If one does this, God requires that one make a personal dedication to do His will. (Rom. 12:1) This dedication, this vow to do God’s will, is made in private prayer to Jehovah God through Christ. Then, in symbol of such dedication, one must be baptized in water as Jesus was. (Matt. 3:13-17) He now becomes God’s ordained minister.
He did not ordain himself by vowing to serve God, nor did the one baptizing him ordain him. God’s commission to all those dedicating themselves to do His will is what constitutes the ordination of such persons as his ministers, and He backs them up with his holy spirit. Not only men, but women and qualified youths may receive this Scriptural ordination. (Ps. 68:11; Acts 2:17, 18; Rom. 16:1; Eccl. 12:1) While God’s commandment to preach the Kingdom good news is there in the Bible for all to read, it constitutes the ordination only of those who meet his requirements. It may be compared to the issuing of a diploma to a school graduate. While the wording of the diplomas is basically the same, and anyone can read them, what they say does not apply to everyone. One’s name belongs on such a diploma only when he meets the requirements. Likewise, it is after study, dedication and baptism that the commission of God recorded in the Bible constitutes one’s ordination. Of course, seminary training and written certificates of ordination are not requirements for Scriptural ordination. (John 7:15; Acts 4:13; Gal. 1:11, 12, 15-17) Rather, ministers ordained by Jehovah and backed up by his holy spirit produce living letters of recommendation. (2 Cor. 3:1-3) Every sincere student of God’s Word will appreciate that the real purpose of studying the Bible is to qualify for this ordination that means life for others as well as for himself. (2 Tim. 3:16, 17; 1 Tim. 4:16) Of course, students newly associated with the society of Kingdom witnesses may share in giving the public witness, but they become ordained ministers only when they make a dedication and are baptized in obedience to God’s will. (Matt. 28:19, 20) Toward that end they study diligently.
Page 634 (of the same Issue):
All of those who live at Bethel are ordained ministers of Jehovah’s witnesses, who, like their more than 900,000 fellow ministers throughout the world, are keenly interested in seeing the message of God’s kingdom preached in all the inhabited earth. For that reason each one of them considers it a privilege to perform any task at Bethel to advance that preaching work. This they do voluntarily without any material recompense except the food and shelter of the home and an allowance of $14 a month for personal necessities.
______________________________________________
The Watchtower, March 1, 1962 Issue, Page 156:
When discipleship displaces church membership, when building faith, hope and love overshadows the building of church edifices, when the saving of human lives becomes more important than saving traditions and conventionality, when serving God becomes more important than satisfying self, then men want to be ministers, but not ministers of religious organizations that fail to teach God’s Word. They want to be ministers of God. And during the years 1957 through 1960, rather than there being a decline in the ministry, in the New World society of Jehovah’s witnesses 277,866 persons became such ordained ministers, dedicated public teachers of God’s Word.
______________________________________________
The Watchtower, January 1, 1962 Issue, Page 20:
Today everyone in the congregation of God must be a dedicated, ordained minister, a preaching and teaching minister, and there is no time between now and “down to the end” to become sluggish. A Christian must be an industrious person. He took on this work to get things done. Otherwise there would be no basis for his hope ever to be realized. Paul felt that way about his meeting his obligations and said: “Really, woe is me if I did not declare the good news!” (1 Cor. 9:16) If ever there was an energetic follower of Christ who wanted to help all people proclaim God’s kingdom it was Paul. He said: “I have made myself the slave to all, that I may gain the most persons.” (1 Cor. 9:19) He had no use for lazy people. There was work to be done. His Master, Jesus, died in this work, and Paul, being a good imitator of him, could say to us: “Become imitators of me, even as I am of Christ.”—1 Cor. 11:1.
______________________________________________
The Watchtower, April 1, 1961 Issue, Page 215:
Ordained Ministers Let Light Shine
WHAT does it mean to be ordained? To be ordained means to be invested with ministerial functions or to be appointed authoritatively, even as Jesus Christ was ordained by God. One who is thus ordained has as his vocation or divine calling the Christian ministry.
Who are God’s ordained ministers today? The clergy who attended a theological seminary and thereafter underwent an elaborate and pompous ordination ceremony? No; if such were essential then neither Jesus nor his early disciples and apostles would have qualified as God’s ordained ministers, for they neither had such formal education nor underwent any such ordination.
God’s ordained ministers today are those who have recognized Jehovah God as their Sovereign, Jesus Christ as their Savior, themselves as sinners and their need of Christ’s sacrifice in order to have a proper standing before God. These upon dedicating themselves to do God’s will, and being baptized at the first opportunity, are ordained by means of God’s holy spirit or active force.
To all such Jesus’ words apply: “You are the light of the world. A city cannot be hid when situated upon a mountain. Likewise let your light shine before mankind, that they may see your right works and give glory to your Father who is in the heavens.”—Matt. 5:14, 16.
Light both dispels darkness and gives life. The light that the ordained Christian minister lets shine is the life-giving truth that dispels the darkness of false religion, superstition and ignorance. It is the truth about Jehovah’s purposes and his will for man.
How can we let our light shine? By bringing these truths to others as we go from house to house, stand on the streets, and whenever an opportunity presents itself. We also let our light shine when we teach others by making return visits upon them and by conducting Bible studies in their homes. And we let our light shine when we make public confession at our congregational meetings.
We let our light shine by the kind of speech we use. We want to use words that are decent, clean, helpful, respectable, that express our thoughts clearly and forcefully. We want to avoid not only obscene, vulgar and corrupt language but also slovenly and slipshod expressions. Yes, let “neither shameful conduct nor foolish talking nor obscene jesting, things which are not becoming,” be mentioned among you, says the apostle Paul.—Eph. 5:3, 4.
In particular do we want to watch our actions. We want to be careful that nothing we do will reflect unfavorably upon our heavenly Father and the New World society. “Therefore, whether you are eating or drinking or doing anything else, do all things for God’s glory.”—1 Cor. 10:31.
Where must we let our light shine? Everywhere! In the Christian home, and especially so if our mate is not also a Christian. How brightly our light shines under such circumstances when we are careful to heed the Scriptural admonition about “chaste conduct together with deep respect” and having as an adornment “the secret person of the heart in the incorruptible apparel of the quiet and mild spirit.” How often such conduct has opened the eyes of the unbeliever, even though at times it may have taken years and years to do so!—1 Pet. 3:1-4.
We also want to be careful to let our light shine at our place of employment. By an integrity-keeping course we bear witness that we are no part of the world. So let us faithfully give full measure to our employer, neither loitering at our work nor taking things from our employer that do not belong to us.
Nor would we overlook the need to let our light shine when enjoying recreation. Here also we are Christian ministers and therefore may not let down the guards of propriety. At such times we do well to call to mind Paul’s example: “I browbeat my body and lead it as a slave, that, after I have preached to others, I myself should not become disapproved somehow.”—1 Cor. 9:27.
Letting our light shine on all occasions is not easy. It requires being on guard and exercising self-control. But is it not worth it? Thereby we bring honor to Jehovah’s name; thereby we help our neighbor to see the truth and get on the road that leads to everlasting life, and thereby we assure salvation for ourselves. So “let your light shine before mankind, that they may see your right works and give glory to your Father who is in the heavens.”—Matt. 5:16.
________________________________________________
The Watchtower, February 15, 1961 Issue, Page 108:
For the past two years more than 180 new ministers were ordained for this service every day of the year!—Acts 2:47.
________________________________________________
The Watchtower, January 1, 1961 Issue, Pages 18-19:
RESULTS OF CHRISTIAN MINISTRY
5 The prophet Moses knew it was necessary to listen to the words of Jehovah, and he said: “Apply your hearts to all the words that I am speaking. . . . It means your life.” (Deut. 32:46, 47) The earnest endeavor of Jehovah’s witnesses has been to make this truth known around the world. Last year, in 1960, they did make the truth known in 179 different nations, islands of the sea and protectorates. Under the direction of the Watch Tower Society’s eighty-five branch offices there have been 851,378 ordained ministers preaching the truth concerning the good news of God’s kingdom world-wide. These Christian people have given freely from the good treasure of their hearts by good works. Because of their global preaching activity in many tongues, talking to all kinds of people, Jehovah’s witnesses are now enjoying the regular cooperation of 47,896 more individuals than they did the year before. Their service year report shows a 6-percent increase in the number of persons regularly preaching with the organization.
6 A new peak of publishers was reached, too, during 1960. There have been as many as 916,332 different persons sharing in the preaching of the good news of God’s kingdom. This is great cause for rejoicing. These individuals have all used their treasure to do good, and if they continue faithful in the ministry and apply their hearts to the Word of God, their good treasure will become greater. This great crowd of people, numbering 916,332, are organized into 21,008 congregations. In these congregations Jehovah’s witnesses study the Word of God together, and they go out in the field ministry from house to house, and in so doing put their faith into action. They all want to do good with their knowledge of God’s Word. These congregations, in turn, comprise 1,561 circuits, and these circuits are grouped into 194 districts situated throughout the world.
7 It is a joy to report that during the 1960 service year 69,027 persons were baptized in water in symbol of their dedication to the doing of Jehovah’s will. With these thousands of newly ordained ministers bringing forth good treasure from their hearts, many, many more thousands of people of good will will be reached with the good news of God’s kingdom. On April 10, 1960, there were 1,519,821 persons assembled at the Memorial service of Christ’s death. This was the world-wide attendance, and on that evening 13,911 individuals partook of the emblems served.
8 The eighty-five branch offices in the principal countries and islands of the earth direct the affairs of the districts, circuits and congregations of Jehovah’s witnesses. In these main offices of supervision known as Bethel homes there are 1,299 ordained Christian ministers working. In connection with many of these offices the Society has printing plants where Bibles, books, booklets, magazines, tracts and other information are printed in over 125 languages for the spreading of the good news by means of the printed page.
________________________________________________
The Watchtower, January 1, 1960 Issue, Pages 4-11:
Ordained Ministers of God
“We also thank God incessantly, because when you received God’s word which you heard from us you accepted it, not as the word of men, but, just as it truthfully is, as the word of God, which is also at work in you believers.”—1 Thess. 2:13.
RELIGIOUS organizations, such as the Protestant and the Catholic, make much ado about ordaining their clergy. A pastor of a congregation must have first studied in a theological seminary for a number of years, and after he graduates then he is presumed ready to enter the clergy class. Now comes an elaborate ceremony with much pomp and pageantry. Many dignitaries are on hand to officiate and watch the ceremony. The individual is consecrated or set apart to the service and worship of his God. As the clergyman advances in his religious rank from priest to bishop or archbishop, it is necessary for him to go through more ceremonies with even greater splendor and display on the part of the ecclesiastical body. Many of the clergy of Christendom are ordained or invested with sacerdotal functions, in great costly cathedrals with lavish display so as to be an elaborate public spectacle. But the founder of true Christianity was ordained with holy spirit from heaven after his being dipped under the waters of the Jordan River by a man with “clothing of camel’s hair and a leather girdle around his loins” and whose “food . . . was insect locusts and wild honey.”—Matt. 3:4.
2 What a difference in ordination! Jesus went through such a simple procedure to become Jehovah’s ordained minister. Furthermore, there is no record in the Scriptures that Jesus went to any particular school to be trained for the ministry, though certainly as a young man he studied the Word of God, the Hebrew Scriptures. It is quite evident that he was not taught at a special school by the scribes and Pharisees, the religious leaders of his day. We do read, though, that at twelve years of age Jesus was about his Father’s business questioning such men, that is, the scribes and Pharisees. Luke, the historian, said that his parents were looking for him after the Passover while on their way home from Jerusalem and “began to hunt him up among the relatives and acquaintances. But, not finding him, they returned to Jerusalem, making a diligent search for him. Well, after three days they found him in the temple sitting in the midst of the teachers and listening to them and questioning them. But all those listening to him were in constant amazement at his understanding and his answers.”—Luke 2:44-47.
3 This young lad, only twelve years old, said to his parents: “Did you not know that I must be in the house of my Father?” However, Jesus traveled home with his parents, and the account reads: “Jesus went on progressing in wisdom and in physical growth and in favor with God and men.”—Luke 2:49, 52.
4 The time came, however, for Jesus to be at his Father’s business all the time, and when he reached the age of thirty he went to John the Baptist, a prophet of Jehovah who was baptizing in the river Jordan. In this out-of-the-way place there was “a voice of a man crying out in the wilderness, ‘Prepare the way of Jehovah, make his roads straight.’” He was John the Baptist, and he put Jesus completely under the water and raised him up out of it. In this way Jesus symbolized his dedication to the doing of his Father’s will, and Jehovah acknowledged him as his beloved Son in whom he was well pleased. “After being baptized Jesus immediately came up from the water; and, look! the heavens were opened up, and he saw descending like a dove God’s spirit coming upon him. Look! also, there was a voice from the heavens that said: ‘This is my Son, the beloved, whom I have approved.’” (Matt. 3:3, 16, 17) Jesus was now the Christ, the anointed one. He was ordained of God and must begin his great preaching work as an ordained minister. “Furthermore, Jesus himself, when he commenced his work, was about thirty years old.”—Luke 3:23.
5 No one can say that the ordination of Jesus was one of show, done with many priests or clergymen around. There was no procession. Neither was he a graduate of any prominent theological school. He was a carpenter’s son, a carpenter himself, who had now stepped forward to take up the vocation of the ministry.
6 All of Jesus’ disciples were similarly baptized, fully immersed in water, and, after instructing them concerning God’s kingdom as being at hand, Jesus sent them out to preach the Kingdom message just as he was doing. They were well trained. They knew the word and will of God and lived as Jesus told them to live. No theological seminary for them, but still they were ordained ministers of God. Jehovah later used them to organize the early Christians into congregations and they appointed overseers to shepherd the flock of God, not to lord it over them. In those days every person who became a Christian became an ordained minister, because Jehovah made them “ambassadors substituting for Christ, as though God were making entreaty through [them].”—2 Cor. 5:20.
7 It was after Jesus’ resurrection from the dead that he spoke to his assembled disciples and said: “Go therefore and make disciples of people of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the holy spirit, teaching them to observe all the things I have commanded you.” (Matt. 28:19, 20) The apostles were not told to do anything different in the way of baptizing true followers of Christ Jesus from what had been done in their own case, or from the example that Christ Jesus set. So, then, there is no formalistic religious ritual that one must go through in order to become one of God’s ordained ministers. Christ Jesus set the simple pattern.
8 of course, being baptized in water does not make one an ordained minister. God does the ordaining of the one being baptized, who has already recognized Jehovah God as the sovereign Ruler and Christ Jesus as his Savior, recognizing also that he himself is a sinner and that he needs the merit of Christ’s sacrifice in order to have a proper standing before God. When one is baptized in water it has great meaning, for here the baptized one is declaring publicly that he is dedicated or set aside for Jehovah’s service and worship. Of course, he must know what he is doing and must continue to prove himself worthy of this very high purpose. God accepting the baptized one, he ordains him to the divine ministry.
9 To be ordained means to be invested with ministerial functions, or to be appointed authoritatively. Jesus was appointed authoritatively by God to do specific service, which was God’s will for him. Jesus in the synagogue of Nazareth read his ministerial functions from the scroll of Isaiah: “‘Jehovah’s spirit is upon me, because he anointed me to declare good news to the poor, he sent me forth to preach a release to the captives and a recovery of sight to the blind, to send the crushed ones away with a release, to preach Jehovah’s acceptable year.’ With that he rolled up the scroll, handed it back to the attendant and sat down; and the eyes of all in the synagogue were intently fixed upon him. Then he started to say to them: ‘Today this scripture that you just heard is fulfilled.’”—Luke 4:18-21.
10 It was prophesied at Isaiah 61:1, 2, that Christ would do this work, and that is why Jesus could quote this scripture and say that he was fulfilling it. Jesus was ordained, appointed to this service, at the Jordan River at the time of his baptism. There Jehovah’s spirit came upon him and now he was authorized to do God’s work. It was now time for him to speak and to make a public declaration. Jesus certainly did that!
11 All persons who have read the Greek Scriptures know of the tremendous preaching and teaching program Jesus carried out during his three and a half years of ministry. They also know of the work the apostles did, work of which the apostle Paul spoke when he said: “For with the heart one exercises faith for righteousness, but with the mouth one makes public declaration for salvation.” (Rom. 10:10) Christians today can do no different. The same commission that fell upon Jesus to declare good news, to preach a release to captives, to bring sight to the blind, and to preach Jehovah’s acceptable year, was passed on to his faithful Christian followers. A similar and very positive expression of this matter was made for our day by Jesus himself when on the Mount of Olives. He said: “This good news of the kingdom will be preached in all the inhabited earth for the purpose of a witness to all the nations, and then the accomplished end will come.” (Matt. 24:14) But the apostles and all of Jesus’ followers were to make the preaching of good news their commission in life.
SCOPE OF THE MINISTRY
12 This matter of one’s being an ordained minister before God or before worldly governments is not a light matter. It involves one’s every word, thought and action, a real following of the principles as set down by Christ Jesus, yes, walking in his footsteps. Just how far-reaching is this ordination of a Christian before God? Is a minister one ordained just during the time he is preaching this good news to someone? Or is this ordination, because he is dedicated to Jehovah God, a twenty-four-hour-a-day ordination? Can an individual step out of his professed vocation for a short period of time and act differently, or is he obligated to keep his ministerial garments on constantly? The Scriptures show that Jesus as a young man was a carpenter, but he changed his vocation. He would have liked to change his vocation earlier in life, but it was not God’s will. He had to reach thirty years of age first, the age for a Levite to become a full-fledged priest under Jewish Law. Then when he was ordained by God he put foremost in his mind the doing of his Father’s will, which was the preaching of the kingdom of the heavens as being at hand. His disciples he trained to do the same kind of work, or follow the same vocation.
13 The theological meaning of the word vocation is: “A calling to the service of God in a particular station or state of life, esp. in the priesthood or religious life, as shown by one’s fitness, natural inclinations, and, often, by conviction of a Divine invitation. The station or state of life to which one receives such a calling. An official invitation to a particular ecclesiastical office, as a pastorate.” Jesus indeed had “a calling to the service of God.” He had a summons to a particular activity or career. His vocation was now “seeking first the kingdom and his righteousness.” (Matt. 6:33) So, too, any individual becoming an ordained follower of Christ Jesus must henceforth live a Christian life in that way. Jesus’ apostles had to do this in order to prove that their vocation was that of an ordained minister before God, even though before worldly governments men looked upon them as fishermen, tax collectors or tentmakers.
14 Being a dedicated Christian today is not a part-time occupation any more than it was then. It is a full-time vocation. A true Christian is not just a Christian on Sunday for a few hours while he is in his church or at a prayer meeting. A truly dedicated person, an ordained minister before God, must be a Christian his whole life from the time he takes up following Christ Jesus and walking in his footsteps. In the world an individual may say that his vocation is that of a carpenter, a mason, an engineer, a doctor, and that he makes his living by such occupation. But if that particular individual dedicates his life to Jehovah God and is baptized in water, then that secular occupation he pursues becomes secondary and his Christian ministry must become the thing of first importance, really now his vocation, because he was called to God’s service. Jesus said: “Keep on, then, seeking first the kingdom and his righteousness, and all these other things will be added to you.” A Christian’s first job, his principal interest, then, is his call to a Christian life. It must be that. His vocation must be that of an ordained minister before Jehovah God. He may quit his secular work, but he may never quit his divine call to God’s service. If a Christian quits the ministry he loses his eternal life. Which is more important, then?
15 Dedication to Jehovah’s service and symbolizing that dedication by water baptism is not a joining of some earthly religious organization. It is not such a minor step as that. It is the biggest thing that one has ever done in his life. His being immersed in water is a declaration to all fellow Christians and peoples of the world that henceforth he is dedicated to God, to serve as his minister. This is his vocation, and from then on the whole word of God as it is set forth in the Bible must be his guide. He as a true Christian has acted as Paul said: “When you received God’s word which you heard from us you accepted it, not as the word of men, but, just as it truthfully is, as the word of God, which is also at work in you believers.”—1 Thess. 2:13.
16 ‘You have received God’s word and accepted it,’ have you? What, now, is involved? The apostle Paul said it involved even one’s eating and drinking. That may sound absurd, but let us read what he wrote to the Corinthians: “Therefore, whether you are eating or drinking or doing anything else, do all things for God’s glory. Keep from becoming causes for stumbling to Jews as well as Greeks and to the congregation of God, even as I am pleasing all people in all things, not seeking my own advantage but that of the many, in order that they might get saved.” (1 Cor. 10:31-33) Paul was interested in saving lives through his “eating or drinking or doing anything else.” But how does one’s eating and drinking tend to save lives? Paul explains it in the eighth and tenth chapters of First Corinthians.
17 Paul knew that Christians were ‘to keep themselves from things sacrificed to idols’ (Acts 15:29); but he explained to the Corinthians: “Everything that is sold in a meat market keep eating, making no inquiry on account of your conscience, for ‘the earth belongs to Jehovah, and so does its fullness.’ If anyone of the unbelievers invites you and you wish to go, proceed to eat everything that is set before you, making no inquiry on account of your conscience. But if anyone should say to you: ‘This is something offered to a god,’ do not eat on account of the one that disclosed it and on account of conscience. ‘Conscience,’ I say, not yours, but that of the other person. For why should it be that my freedom is judged by another person’s conscience? If I am partaking with thanks, why am I to be spoken of abusively over that for which I give thanks?” (1 Cor. 10:25-30) It may have been that the meat sold in the meat markets had been offered to idols, but how would a person know? He might not have inquired whether the animal, or even the part of it that he bought, was offered to an idol. So, Paul says, if a person invites you to dinner, eat what he has. Paul knew “that an idol is nothing in the world and that there is no God but one.” (1 Cor. 8:4) But, if someone eating with you says, “This is something offered to a god,” then because of that man’s conscience do not eat any of it. Because of your own conscience? No, but because of the conscience of the other person. You may stumble that one by your eating.
18 Paul argued that a Christian’s freedom or knowledge should “not somehow become a stumblingblock to those who are weak.” If you should eat the food offered to idols after thanking God for it you might still ruin a man. “But when you people thus sin against your brothers and wound their conscience that is weak, you are sinning against Christ. Therefore, if food makes my brother stumble, I will never again eat flesh at all, that I may not make my brother stumble.” (1 Cor. 8:9, 12, 13) Paul’s ordination, his being set apart for God’s service, included how he ate and drank. It involved his every action in everyday things. Paul was interested in saving lives. So he said: “Do not by your food ruin that one for whom Christ died. . . . For the kingdom of God does not mean eating and drinking, but means righteousness and peace and joy with holy spirit.” “All things are lawful; but not all things are advantageous. All things are lawful; but not all things build up. Let each one keep seeking, not his own advantage, but that of the other person.”—Rom. 14:15, 17; 1 Cor. 10:23, 24.
19 May Christians today look at things differently and allow their eating or drinking to stumble a Jew or a Greek or a brother in the congregation? No! We are in the same position as was Paul. He would rather be “pleasing all people in all things, not seeking my own advantage but that of the many, in order that they might get saved.” (1 Cor. 10:33) Would you do the same? If you are an ordained minister like Paul you would.
EATING, DRINKING, SPEECH AND WORK
20 But, someone says, things like that do not happen today. People do not offer food to idols. Well, then, how about your drinking habits? There is plenty of drinking done today, and Paul mentions drinking as something to watch. People drink all kinds of beverages, but the drinking causing the most disturbance in the minds of some people is the drinking of alcoholic beverages. Maybe a person who wants to drink wine will argue that Paul admonished Timothy to drink a little wine for his stomach’s sake. Another may say that Jesus’ first miracle was the making of wine. Still another will say that wine makes glad the heart. What is said is true, and in most countries and states it is lawful to have and use alcoholic beverages, but is it to the advantage of another brother? Will your drinking such a beverage serve to “build up”? Let us think not of our own advantage, but of that of the other person.
21 Suppose there is an overseer in a congregation of God’s people, a man of influence, one looked up to, who goes out some evening with friends but he does not control his drinking of intoxicating liquor and he becomes drunk. The Bible states very definitely that drunkards will not inherit the Kingdom. “What! Do you not know that unrighteous persons will not inherit God’s kingdom? Do not be misled. Neither fornicators, nor idolaters, . . . nor thieves, nor greedy persons, nor drunkards . . . will inherit God’s kingdom.” (1 Cor. 6:9, 10) Even though some of you were like this before coming into the truth, Paul says, you were washed clean. So why go back to this sort of practice again and stumble your brother? Now a brother may see this intoxicated overseer walking down the street in a zigzag fashion. This observer is shocked, disturbed and offended that an ordained minister of his congregation should think so little of his ordination before God that he should become a drunkard. This carelessness in drinking has become a cause for stumbling a brother in the congregation of God.
22 Let us follow this drunken man a little farther. As he nears his home his neighbor with whom he studies the Bible observes his drunkenness, and he, too, is stumbled, because he thought that this ordained minister was living a Christian life. Well, the neighbor decides he will no longer study the Bible with this individual, and says to his wife: “If that is what the Bible did for him, there are better men than that to associate with who do not even have faith in God. Why should I change my way of life and take up something new when here one of the prominent ones in the congregation, who claims to be an ordained minister, is drunk?”
23 How very right Paul was when he said: “Therefore, whether you are eating or drinking or doing anything else, do all things for God’s glory.” (1 Cor. 10:31) Was this to God’s glory? Certainly a Christian does not want to stumble a Jew, a Greek, a neighbor, a friend, or one of his brothers in the congregation of God. What every ordained minister must be interested in is saving the lives of all people for God’s new world. “So, then, let us pursue the things making for peace and the things that are upbuilding to one another. Stop tearing down the work of God just for the sake of food. True, all things are clean, but it is injurious to the man who with an occasion for stumbling eats. It is well not to eat flesh or to drink wine or do anything over which your brother stumbles.”—Rom. 14:19-21.
24 A Christian must watch his step in other things too. Paul presents this truth when writing to the Colossians: “Let the word of the Christ reside in you richly in all wisdom. Keep on teaching and admonishing one another with psalms, praises to God, spiritual songs with graciousness, singing in your hearts to Jehovah. And whatever it is that you do in word or in work, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, thanking God the Father through him.”—Col. 3:16, 17.
25 Paul says to watch your words and work, which take up a good part of our time every day. Just how do we speak to people and how do we work for our employer? One’s Christian training certainly expresses itself in these two things.
26 Are the words that come out of our mouths decent, clean, helpful and respectable? Would we be pleased to have God listen to us in everything we say? James wrote about our words when he said: “A fountain does not cause the sweet and the bitter to bubble out of the same opening, does it? . . . Neither can salt water produce sweet water.” As for that little member in the body, he says: “The tongue is a fire. . . . Not one of mankind can get it tamed. An unruly injurious thing, it is full of death-dealing poison. With it we bless Jehovah, even the Father, and yet with it we curse men who have come into existence ‘in the likeness of God.’ Out of the same mouth come forth blessing and cursing. It is not proper, my brothers, for these things to go on occurring this way.” The mouth of an ordained minister should be teaching and admonishing others with graciousness. There should be no such thing as bragging and lying against the truth. The mouth should always praise Jehovah. “Moreover, the fruit of righteousness has its seed sown under peaceful conditions for those who are making peace.”—Jas. 3:6-12, 18.
27 Ordained ministers of Jehovah cannot have dual personalities with two vocabularies, one clean and upright, the other filthy and wicked. A Christian can train himself and be able to use good words that express his thoughts clearly and forcefully. The Christian does not have one vocabulary he uses in the congregation of God’s people and then another set of cruel, harsh, dirty words to be used where he works. Remember what Paul says: “Whatever it is that you do in word. . . , do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, thanking God the Father through him.” Peter confirms this, too, using good expressive words: “For, ‘he that would love life and see good days, let him restrain his tongue from what is injurious and his lips from speaking deceitfully, but let him turn away from what is injurious and do what is good; let him seek peace and pursue it. For Jehovah’s eyes are upon the righteous and his ears are toward their supplication, but Jehovah’s face is against those doing injurious things.’”—1 Pet. 3:10-12.
28 Then there is that other part of the Christian life—work. Considerable time is spent at some kind of labor, but how does one perform his work and earn his daily bread? All individuals in effect make a contract or an agreement with their employer. When an employer hires a man to do a certain work he agrees to pay the worker a certain wage. The employee should not shirk his work, do less than he agreed to do. He should be honest and give his employer full measure. If one is hired as a carpenter for so many hours a day and he receives so much pay for those hours, then certainly during that period of time he should be diligent in doing good carpenter work for all those hours. He is not paid to loaf. He is paid to work. If a Christian is working in a store owned by a rich man he has no right to steal from that rich man because he is wealthy, nor has he the right to steal from customers by charging them more than the goods are worth and keeping the difference. That is stealing. A man can steal, too, from his employer by loafing on the job. The man expects to be paid by his employer. Why cannot the employer expect the work to be done for the money he pays out? “Whatever it is that you do . . . in work, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus.” Do you?
29 Paul did not feel that Onesimus, a slave of Philemon, should be kept from his employer. When Onesimus became a Christian, Paul found out he was a slave and sent him back to his owner. The slave, now a Christian, still belonged to Philemon even though Philemon was a Christian too. Paul, writing about Onesimus, said: “I am exhorting you [Philemon] concerning my child, to whom I became a father while in my prison bonds, Onesimus, formerly useless to you but now useful to you and to me. This very one I am sending back to you, yes, him, that is, my own heart.” Even though Paul found Onesimus, who had run away from his owner, most helpful to himself, yet Paul wanted him to go back to his owner, because that was right, and there was where he belonged by law, and so that Philemon might “have him back forever, no longer as a slave but as more than a slave, as a brother beloved, especially so to me, yet how much more so to you both in fleshly relationship and in the Lord.” (Philem. 10-12, 15, 16) The Scriptures indicate that no matter what condition one finds himself in, as a slave or a free workman, a Christian should work as though he were doing it “in the name of the Lord Jesus, thanking God the Father through him.”
30 Christians must be honest. They must be truthful. They must prove they are ordained ministers, not only when they preach the good news, but in everything they do, so that all kinds of men might get saved. By this they prove that ‘the word of God is at work in believers.’ Are you a Christian doing good works in your eating, drinking, talking, working, preaching or doing anything else, doing all to God’s glory in order that someone might get saved? Are you ‘seeking peace and pursuing it’? A Christian knows “Jehovah’s eyes are upon the righteous,” his ordained ministers.—1 Pet. 3:11, 12.
“Become holy yourselves in all your conduct.”—1 Pet. 1:15.
Pages 12-18 (of the same Issue):
Do You Let Your Light Shine?
AN ORDAINED minister of God carries a heavy responsibility. He starts in where Jesus left off. It was the Master who said to his faithful followers: “You are the light of the world. A city cannot be hid when situated upon a mountain. People light a lamp and set it, not under the measuring basket, but upon the lampstand, and it shines upon all those in the house. Likewise let your light shine before mankind, that they may see your right works and give glory to your Father who is in the heavens.” (Matt. 5:14-16) This light of truth shines in the world day and night because of the activeness of true Christians. When ordained ministers preach from house to house, the light shines. But that is not the only time he lets his light shine. It must shine during his eating, during his drinking, during his general conversation, during his working as well as when he is in the congregation of God’s people. At no time can a Christian hide or turn off his light. “You are the light of the world. . . . Let your light shine before mankind.”
2 An ordained minister of God looks to the future. So, then, if he would “love life and see good days, . . . let him seek peace and pursue it.” (1 Pet. 3:10, 11) While pursuing peace he has no time for wrongdoing and so getting out of harmony with God’s Word. If he does, it will be seen. As a minister he must for twenty-four hours a day prove that he is living a Christian life. He is observed just like a city situated on a hill; there is no hiding it. It is there to be seen for many miles around. You cannot hide that city any more than you can hide the light of a true Christian. An ordained minister’s light shines continually. It is always aglow, unless the minister deliberately smothers the light by the way he eats, drinks, talks, works or preaches the good news of God’s kingdom. But never let that happen! Let people of all kinds see your right works, because when they see your right works all kinds of men will give glory to your Father who is in the heavens.
3 The house-to-house preaching that the kingdom of God is at hand is vital, very important; and this good news helps people to see more clearly the great blessings God has in store for believers. But let them also observe the Christian’s right works, the way he lives, how he conducts himself at work and at play, the way his children behave themselves, the way he mixes with people in the congregation, along with his teaching ability. Yes, all this tells if he lets his light shine.
4 An individual who has dedicated himself to Jehovah’s service and has been baptized in water cannot say that he is a part-time Christian. He must be a full-time Christian. He may not be able to spend all his awake hours preaching from house to house and conducting Bible studies as do pioneers and missionaries. But that makes no difference as to being a Christian. God’s commandments are the same for all Christians. Many Christians among Jehovah’s witnesses are referred to as pioneers and missionaries, full-time preachers. These individuals have been able to arrange their affairs so that they can spend all their time in teaching and ministering to other persons by going from house to house and conducting Bible studies in the homes of believers. It is easily seen that not all persons who have dedicated their lives to Jehovah God and have been baptized can devote all their time to the preaching work, but certainly they must devote all their time to the Christian life. They must prove that they are ordained ministers before God just as surely as one who evangelizes all his wakeful hours. All Christians must be full-time light bearers just as Jesus was, because they are walking in his footsteps.
5 What, then, must we conclude? This: A Christian, whether he be a pioneer, a missionary, or a person known as a congregation publisher, must be an ordained minister before God full time. According to the Scriptures, in Paul’s writings as well as Peter’s and in Jesus’ own words, one living a Christian life must “keep on, then, seeking first the kingdom and his righteousness.” Furthermore, Jesus said: “If you observe my commandments, you will remain in my love, just as I have observed the commandments of the Father and remain in his love.” (John 15:10) There are no exceptions; all Christians have the same commandments, the same Redeemer, the same God.
WORKS BECOME MANIFEST
6 What a person really is will eventually manifest itself. Paul pointed out to Timothy: “The sins of some men are publicly manifest, leading immediately to judgment, but as for other men their sins also become manifest later. In the same way also the right works are publicly manifest and those that are otherwise cannot be kept hid.” (1 Tim. 5:24, 25) A simple example will help us see Paul’s point. There was a thief in a certain city who had been robbing homes for two years and another man who for the first time tried to rob a home. On the novice’s first venture of this kind he was caught leaving the house with the stolen goods. He was turned over to the police. The trial was held. The witnesses gave their testimony and he was proved to be a thief. The judgment: six months in prison. This man’s sins were “publicly manifest, leading immediately to judgment.”
7 But how about the first thief, who has been stealing for two years now? He decides to make another robbery. This time, however, he is apprehended. The police arrest him. He is brought before the court, and in the evidence presented it is proved not only that he robbed in the last home he unlawfully entered, but that he had robbed many other homes during the past two years! While this thief may have had a good reputation in the community up to this time, now his “sins also become manifest,” but only later, after two years. One cannot always hide his real way of life. If he is a thief, eventually it will become manifest.
8 Paul reasons that just as the sins of some people are manifest immediately and other men’s sins become manifest later, so the same is true with the right works of some persons. Maybe another illustration will show this truth clearly. A woman zealous in preaching the good news from house to house has excellent success in interesting people in God’s Word, resulting in many home Bible studies. By her right works, in but a short period of time several persons come to the Kingdom Hall of Jehovah’s witnesses, study with the congregation, start preaching the good news themselves, dedicate their lives to Jehovah’s service and are baptized. This woman’s right works are publicly manifest immediately to all in the congregation.
9 On the other hand, there is another woman in the same congregation just as zealous in going out in the witnessing work, but for some reason the people she meets and has studies with do not come to the Kingdom Hall so quickly. She studied with them for well over a year, but no results yet.
10 It so happens that the husband of this second woman is not interested in the Bible and its message and for two years he has been very much opposed to her taking up the ministry work. When they were married ten years ago they were very worldly people, going out to parties, night clubs and getting drunk. It was a wild life but a rather unhappy one, with many family brawls during their sobering-up period and at other times. Their children kept them home some a little later on, but real happiness was missing. There was no peace at home. However, a little over two years ago this woman began studying the Bible with one of Jehovah’s witnesses. It did not take her very long to appreciate what Paul wrote to the Thessalonians: “We also thank God incessantly, because when you received God’s word . . . you accepted it, not as the word of men, but, just as it truthfully is, as the word of God.” (1 Thess. 2:13) She wanted salvation, for now she learned she could enjoy a better life. She dedicated herself to Jehovah’s service. She was baptized in water and proved herself to be an ordained minister, making her mind over and living a good Christian life along with her preaching work. She let her light shine. She attended all the meetings at the Kingdom Hall and brought her children with her in addition to studying with them at home. But her husband never came to the Kingdom Hall with her. Her fellow witnesses in the congregation did not know much about her husband or her home life, because the husband would not allow any of Jehovah’s witnesses to come into his home.
11 This woman, now an ordained minister, had to show right works at home as well as on the outside, always following the commandments of God. She looked to Peter for advice, who wrote under inspiration of holy spirit: “In like manner, you wives, be in subjection to your own husbands, in order that, if any are not obedient to the word, they may be won without a word through the conduct of their wives, because of having been eyewitnesses of your chaste conduct together with deep respect. And do not let your adornment be that of the external braiding of the hair and of the putting on of gold ornaments or the wearing of outer garments, but let it be the secret person of the heart in the incorruptible apparel of the quiet and mild spirit, which is of great value in the eyes of God. For so, too, formerly the holy women who were hoping in God used to adorn themselves, subjecting themselves to their own husbands, as Sarah used to obey Abraham, calling him ‘lord.’ And you have become her children, provided you keep on doing good and not fearing any cause for terror.”—1 Pet. 3:1-6.
12 This dedicated woman, a good housewife, a loving mother, was not allowed to speak the truth to her husband. This he forbade. However, the great change he saw in her through her right works spoke louder than words. No longer would she become drunk. Her disposition changed. Her home was clean and always in order; her meals were better and served on time. The children were well behaved and taught to love and respect their father. Conditions at home were much better than they used to be. But why?
13 Well, after two years of living as a Christian and at the same time putting up with some rough treatment, one day on her coming home from the field service her husband said to her: “There has been a great change in you. What made it?” Of course, the only answer was: “I am trying to live according to the Word of God, seeking peace and pursuing it.” He answered: “If the word of God made you do so many right works, maybe if I let the Word of God work on me, I, too, can become a believer.” He did!
14 So in the life of this woman we see her right works “manifest later.” Yes, God’s Word is true: “In the same way also the right works are publicly manifest and those that are otherwise cannot be kept hid.”—1 Tim. 5:24, 25.
15 While some people’s right works produce good results quickly, still other persons’ right works become manifest eventually, even after many years. Never become discouraged because there seem to be no results from your right works. Keep on being a Christian. Salvation will come to some because of your letting your light shine even though it be observed in small things, eating, drinking, conversation, working or doing anything else. Be sure that, whatever you do, it is for God’s glory. One should not be seeking one’s own advantage, but that of the many in order that they might get saved! Remember, this Christian woman was not seeking her own advantage, but that of her husband, so that he, too, might get saved and share the joys of living in God’s new world. Be a Christian all day long, prove yourself to be a full-time ordained minister before God.
16 An ordained minister in his going from house to house or doing right works for his employer or at home toward his wife and children, and conducting himself properly in the congregation is not trying to show off. The Word of God must be guiding him, and, because of his following the Word, life becomes pleasant and peaceful. “For Jehovah’s eyes are upon the righteous and his ears are toward their supplication.” (1 Pet. 3:12) We are admonished to “take good care not to practice your righteousness in front of men in order to be observed by them; otherwise you will have no reward with your Father who is in the heavens.” (Matt. 6:1) “Do all things for God’s glory.” Do not be a hypocrite!
17 Do not do the things you are doing to be seen of men, but, whatever you do, do it as to Jehovah God and let him give you the reward. Do not appear to be a minister of God in the same way as the clergymen do in the world today by putting on an appearance of holiness before their congregations. Do not be classed or described by Jesus as the scribes and Pharisees were in his days. Jesus said of them: “All the works they do they do to be viewed by men . . . They like the most prominent place at evening meals and the front seats in the synagogues, and the greetings in the marketplaces and to be called ‘Rabbi’ by men. . . . Whoever exalts himself will be humbled, and whoever humbles himself will be exalted. Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! because you shut up the kingdom of the heavens before mankind; for you yourselves do not go in, neither do you permit those on their way in to go in. Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! because you traverse sea and dry land to make one proselyte, and when he becomes one you make him a subject for Gehenna twice as much so as yourselves.” (Matt. 23:5-15) A real ordained minister directs the attention of people to God, not to himself. By paying constant attention to God’s Word and preaching it one will not only save himself but those who listen to him.—1 Tim. 4:16.
CONTROLLED BY GOD’S WORD
18 A Christian’s whole life must be controlled by the Word of God. He must believe what it says and delight to do Jehovah’s commandments. He must appreciate God’s righteousness and want to live according to what is written in the Bible. It was Jesus who said: “Keep on, then, seeking first the kingdom and his righteousness, and all these other things will be added to you.” (Matt. 6:33) Some individuals when reading this text only read “keep on, then, seeking first the kingdom,” for that is the extent of their interest. They are anxious for Armageddon, the battle of the great day of God the Almighty, the time when Jehovah will destroy all wickedness from the earth and establish his righteous new world. Why so anxious? Because they want to live in paradise, have perfect life, peace and happiness, food and shelter and all the good things that the new world offers.
19 However, those persons seeking only the Kingdom and not Jehovah’s righteousness now should read the whole text. Jesus said: “Keep on, then, seeking first the kingdom and his righteousness.” His righteousness, too, is something to keep on seeking. It is now that we must know Jehovah’s principles of truth and righteousness and how to live. If a Christian is seeking Jehovah’s righteousness, then he will want to know what a Christian should do. For example, the Bible says that a single man or woman should not live in fornication. “If they do not have self-control, let them marry, for it is better to marry than to be inflamed with passion.” (1 Cor. 7:9) When married, neither mate can live in adultery, because that is not seeking his righteousness. “You heard that it was said, ‘You must not commit adultery.’”—Matt. 5:27.
20 In the Word of God there is excellent admonition on how single persons should live and on the conduct of married couples, on the raising of children, on the work to be done by the congregation of God, and on how overseers should deport themselves. There is counsel given on loving our neighbors and being hospitable to strangers. Advice is given on one’s moral way of life as to his language, his eating, his drinking, his working, his honesty, his general disposition. He surely cannot be a murderer, a thief, a drunkard, an idolater, a liar, a greedy person, an extortioner, a reviler. A Christian’s whole life is governed by Scriptural principles set out clearly in God’s Word. So, then, let us keep on seeking God’s righteousness as well as the Kingdom, but not just the Kingdom. If you do right, the promise is that all other things will be added to you.
21 By doing what is right a Christian puts on a new personality and conforms his life to God’s will in true righteousness and loving-kindness. The apostle Paul in writing to the Ephesians said so: “You should put away the old personality which conforms to your former course of conduct and which is being corrupted according to his deceptive desires; but that you should be made new in the force actuating your mind, and should put on the new personality which was created according to God’s will in true righteousness and loving-kindness.” (Eph. 4:22-24) A Christian knows that Satan, the god of this world, “has blinded the minds of the unbelievers” and keeps them in darkness. The Devil wants all human creatures to conduct themselves according to their own deceptive desires. “Because everything in the world—the desire of the flesh and the desire of the eyes and the showy display of one’s means of life—does not originate with the Father, but originates with the world.” (1 John 2:16) So the Devil would like to keep everyone ‘conformed to his former course of conduct which is being corrupted.’
22 But when one learns the truth he can change his personality, putting away the old one with its ugly language that he once used. He will also put away his lazy or dishonest working habits, and so many other bad habits that would interfere with letting his light shine. He knows that “Jehovah’s face is against those doing injurious things.” So the Christian makes a big change in order to “seek peace and pursue it,” for he knows that “Jehovah’s eyes are upon the righteous.”—1 Pet. 3:11, 12.
23 The Word of God has a powerful effect upon an individual who is sincere. Hundreds of thousands of persons have allowed God’s Word to guide them until they have seen the importance of becoming an ordained minister before God, even though most of the worldly governments do not recognize them as such. Still they keep letting their light shine. No longer do they conform themselves to the old course of conduct, but they take on an entirely new outlook as regards life, knowing that the Word of God is at work in still other believers and that these other believers are letting God’s Word have an effect upon their lives. Paul knew that “you should be made new in the force actuating your mind.” And what is that force that actuates the mind? It is God’s spirit, his active force, which is revealed to us through his Word. Study the Word of God so as to put on the new personality, one befitting a full-time ordained minister and pleasing to God. Surely the personality that God gave Adam in the original creation in the garden of Eden was according to God’s will; and it was in true righteousness and loving-kindness that he made this man. He was a perfect creature. He was put on a perfect earth. His personality must have had the quality of one seeking peace, for there in the garden of Eden he was at peace with all the animals, a condition that the prophet Isaiah describes will exist in the paradise earth under the kingdom of heaven after the battle of Armageddon.
24 It is certainly God’s will today for one to seek peace with God and show meekness and righteousness, for it may be that he will be hid in the day of Jehovah’s anger. (Zeph. 2:3) Jehovah’s witnesses in all parts of the world want to prove themselves worthy ministers of God by steadfastly preaching the good news of God’s kingdom. They want to show appreciation for the ordination they have received from Jehovah and prove by right works that they can live Christian lives. Their vocation is their call to the divine service of their God. By putting on this new personality, which was created according to God’s will in true righteousness and loving-kindness, they can serve better and accomplish more. Jehovah’s witnesses, God’s ordained ministers, will devote their full time to Christian living and will conduct themselves in this old world as Jesus did. They remember what he said: “If you were part of the world, the world would be fond of what is its own. Now because you are no part of the world, but I have chosen you out of the world, on this account the world hates you.” (John 15:19) But even though the world hates them, Jehovah’s witnesses are going to show love toward all persons in the world and are going to stay at peace with them. They “will seek peace and pursue it. For Jehovah’s eyes are upon the righteous.”
25 As ordained ministers before Jehovah God, Jehovah’s witnesses will carry out His will. “In fact, to this course you were called, because even Christ suffered for you, leaving you a model for you to follow his steps closely. He committed no sin, nor was deceit found in his mouth. When he was being reviled, he did not go to reviling in return. When he was suffering, he did not go to threatening, but kept on committing himself to the one who judges righteously.” (1 Pet. 2:21-23) To him also his ordained ministers commit themselves in ever doing right.
Pages 18-19 (of the same Issue):
The Peace and Unity of Jehovah’s Witnesses
TO DO the right thing always brings satisfaction and an inward peace. The doers of Jehovah’s will know that “abundant peace belongs to those loving your law, and for them there is no stumbling block.” (Ps. 119:165) This is certainly true concerning Jehovah’s witnesses, who live together in peace and unity world-wide. As ordained ministers they recognize that loving Jehovah’s law and abiding by it are essential to peace and happiness in life. Seeking peace and pursuing it is the wise course, and one can be confident that Jehovah’s eyes will be upon him.
2 While many men do not recognize or believe that real satisfaction in living can come from doing Jehovah’s will, yet others rejoice to learn what the will of God is and then do it. The Bible informs us that the angels listen to the voice of his word. Should not we humans? “Jehovah himself has firmly established his throne in the very heavens, and his own kingship has held domination even over everything. Bless Jehovah, O you angels of his, mighty in power, carrying out his word, by listening to the voice of his word. Bless Jehovah, all you armies of his, you ministers of his, doing his will.”—Ps. 103:19-21.
3 Surely the angels of heaven in Jehovah’s organization are not obstinate. Rather, they appreciate Jehovah’s sovereignty over everything and that his will is done. Furthermore, “you ministers of his,” Jehovah’s ordained ministers on earth, must recognize that Jehovah is the Sovereign Ruler and that you, too, must be “doing his will.” His will is for you to preach this good news of the Kingdom in all the world for the purpose of a witness.
4 Without question, Jehovah God has a visible and invisible organization. As to Jehovah’s visible organization the apostle Paul says that it will work together as one man. No one individual can claim really to be a Christian and still say that he is not needed in God’s organization and separate himself from it. Isolationism does not fit in with the doing of Jehovah’s will. Paul had this fact very clearly in mind when he wrote to the Corinthians, saying: “If the foot should say: ‘Because I am not a hand, I am no part of the body,’ it is not for this reason no part of the body. And if the ear should say: ‘Because I am not an eye, I am no part of the body,’ it is not for this reason no part of the body. If the whole body were an eye, where would the sense of hearing be? If it were all hearing, where would the smelling be? But now God has set the members in the body, each one of them, just as he pleased.” (1 Cor. 12:15-18) So all Christians must be in this body or the one organization that God is using. There is no isolationism in your own body, is there?
5 One who professes to be a Christian must always be part of Jehovah’s visible organization. He must always be a “working part” of the body, not dead tissue and waste or useless matter, which are cast off through the proper channels. To be a part of this Christian body one must always be a full-time minister, “listening to the voice of his Word” and “doing his will.” No Christian can ever say to another Christian, “I have no need of you.” Only peace and unity, oneness in organization, must exist for Christians to be really doing the will of God. Paul went on to describe this oneness of Christians: “The eye cannot say to the hand: ‘I have no need of you’; or, again, the head cannot say to the feet: ‘I have no need of you.’” (1 Cor. 12:21) Jehovah’s witnesses recognize this principle and that is why there are no divisions in the New World society of Jehovah’s witnesses. All of them together are his ordained ministers and individually they must live as Christians. All of them have an obligation to preach the good news and around the world they do just that.
_______________________________________________
The Watchtower, May 1, 1959 Issue, Page 275:
The outstanding feature of the graduation, which took place February 15, 1959, was the powerful discourse by N. H. Knorr, president of the School as well as of the Watch Tower Society, on the subject “Ordained Ministers—Before God or Before the Nations of the World?” He pointed out that regardless of what worldly nations may think or do, what really matters is having God’s recognition and approval as ministers. Forcefully he developed the theme that every dedicated and baptized Christian is a full-time minister, even though secular work may greatly limit his preaching activity. Such secular work is merely engaged in to pay the expenses of the ministry, as it were.
_______________________________________________
The Watchtower, August 15, 1957 Issue, Pages 485-487:
Is Ordination Through Baptism Valid?
Some persons view ordination resulting from baptism as strange and new. Being accustomed to elaborate ceremonies, many of them overlook Scriptural and historical facts about ordination and baptism. These facts follow.
WHAT is ordination through baptism? Who practice it? Is it something novel, something new? How were early Christians ordained? What does it mean to be ordained? Is baptism which results in ordination a valid ceremony? These are vital questions for every Christian. Oddly enough, few professed Christians are able to give clear, explicit answers. There is no reason for vagueness when secular history and the Bible have much to say about ordination and baptism.
An understanding of the words “ordain” and “ordination” is both interesting and enlightening. To ordain means “to establish by appointment,”1 “to appoint or establish.”2 Ordination, says The Encyclopedia Americana, is “the ceremony by which priests, deacons, subdeacons, candidates for the minor orders and ministers of any denomination are admitted to their specific office in the church.”3
Does ordination require a special ceremony? Giving us a fuller insight into ordination, McClintock and Strong’s Cyclopaedia says it is “the ceremony by which an individual is set apart to an order or office of the Christian ministry. . . . In a broader, and in fact its only important sense, . . . the appointment or designation of a person to a ministerial office, whether with or without attendant ceremonies. The term ordination is derived directly from the Latin ordinatio, signifying, with reference to things or affairs, a setting in order, an establishment, an edict, and with reference to men, an appointment to office. . . . A scriptural investigation of this subject can hardly fail to impress any ingenuous mind with the great significance of the fact that neither the Lord Jesus Christ nor any of his disciples gave specific commands or declarations in reference to ordination.”4
Two things readily become apparent about ordination: (1) An ordained minister, in the broad sense, is an appointed minister, and (2) his ordination is not confined to any particular kind of ceremony.
EARLY CHRISTIANS ALL ORDAINED MINISTERS
Scholars who have studied the early history of Christianity are impressed by this singular fact: All early Christians were considered ordained ministers if they had undergone the rite of water baptism. All baptized believers, historians show, were authorized to preach God’s Word; and baptism was the sole initiatory rite.
Those who had not been baptized among the early Christians were treated as learners; hence they were in a position different from the baptized believers. The work Ecclesiastical History tells us: “There reigned among the members of the Christian church, however distinguished they were by worldly rank and titles, not only an amiable harmony, but also a perfect equality. . . . Whoever acknowledged Christ as the Saviour of mankind, and made a solemn profession of this confidence in him, was immediately baptized and received into the church. But in process of time, it was thought prudent and necessary to divide Christians into two orders, distinguished by the names of believers and catechumens. The former were those who had been solemnly admitted into the church by baptism, and, in consequence thereof, were instructed in all the mysteries of religion.”5
So we see, then, that among the early Christians believers were received into the organization after a period of training and education in God’s Word. During this period the catechumens were students or persons of good will, and after their baptism each was regarded as an ordained minister of God’s Word.
WHO DOES THE ORDAINING?
We speak of ordination through baptism, but who does the ordaining? Many religious groups today, such as the Society of Friends, Disciples of Christ, Plymouth Brethren and Jehovah’s witnesses, do not recognize any human right of ordination. They recognize the ordination as coming only from Almighty God Jehovah.
Christ Jesus himself was not ordained by the clergy and religious system of his day. No man ordained the Lord Jesus. True, John the Baptist baptized Jesus, but that does not mean that John ordained Jesus. Christ dedicated himself to God, saying: “Look! I am come (in the roll of the book it is written about me) to do your will, O God.”6 So why did Jesus insist that John baptize him? Because Jesus wanted to symbolize in a public confession that he had dedicated himself to God. The Bible tells us of Jesus’ baptism that “immediately on coming up out of the water he saw the heavens being parted, and, like a dove, the spirit coming down upon him; and a voice came out of the heavens: ‘You are my Son, the beloved; I have approved you.’”7 By pouring out his spirit upon his Son, Jehovah God himself, and not John the Baptist, ordained Christ Jesus.
After his ordination immediately following his baptism in the River Jordan Jesus publicly stated the authority of his ordination by reading from Isaiah 61:1, 2: “He opened the scroll and found the place where it was written, ‘Jehovah’s spirit is upon me, because he anointed me to declare good news to the poor, he sent me forth to preach a release to the captives and a recovery of sight to the blind, to send the crushed ones away with a release, to preach Jehovah’s acceptable year.’”8
Jehovah God alone, then, authorizes ordination. He does the appointing, the ordaining. Showing further that no man or earthly organization can ordain God’s ministers are the words of the apostle: “Paul, an apostle, neither from men nor through a man, but through Jesus Christ and God the Father, who raised him up from the dead. For neither did I accept it from man, nor was I taught it, except through revelation by Jesus Christ.”9 Jehovah ordains his ministers through his Son, Christ Jesus.
RECOGNIZED AND CERTIFIED BY MAN
Though ordination itself proceeds only from God, yet this ordination may be recognized and certified by man. Man-made organizations acting as governing bodies may declare one to be duly ordained.
In declaring one to be duly ordained man-made organizations usually require some form of ceremony. It varies with each religious organization. In many large orthodox denominations the ceremony is elaborate; in other groups it is often very simple. The ceremony Jesus underwent just before he was ordained was a very simple one, and it marked his stepping into the ministry.
Today the New World society of Jehovah’s witnesses uses the same simple ceremony that Jesus underwent to symbolize by public witness the dedication of a believer which leads to God’s ordination of him as a minister. The fact that a ceremony is simple does not render it invalid or cause it to be of slight importance. We must remember that ordination is in “its only important sense, . . . the appointment or designation of a person to a ministerial office, whether with or without attendant ceremonies.”4
In Christ Jesus’ case there was a simple ceremony preceding his ordination. Since Christ Jesus left us, as Peter declared, “a model for you to follow his steps closely,”10 Jehovah’s witnesses follow the example of Jesus and that of the early Christians in the matter of baptism in association with ordination. Actually, the submission to the ceremony of public immersion in water brands each one of Jehovah’s Christian witnesses. It marks him as a person who has dedicated his entire life to the service of Jehovah God as a minister. So water baptism is the ceremony one of Jehovah’s witnesses undergoes to symbolize publicly his dedication to Jehovah to become his ordained minister.
Just as Jesus was not ordained by John, so one of Jehovah’s witnesses is not ordained by the hands laid upon him by the one who baptizes him in water. However, since water baptism has a relationship to his ordination from God, he properly submits his baptismal date as the approximate time of his ordination. This is done to satisfy the law of the land when an ordination date is required.
Because of its Scripturalness, water baptism in token of one’s dedication to God for ordination as his minister is recognized by the New World society of Jehovah’s witnesses and their legal servant, the Watch Tower Society. For purposes of record, within the meaning of the law of earthly nations, baptism is a valid ceremony of ordination for Jehovah’s witnesses.
Since ordination in reality comes from God through Christ, no certificate of ordination is needed. Jesus had none; the apostles had none. The best proof that one can have of his ordination is fruits of Kingdom preaching. As the apostle put it: “Do we, perhaps, like some men, need letters of recommendation to you or from you? You yourselves are our letter.”11
Ordination through water baptism is indeed a valid and time-honored practice of true Christianity.
REFERENCES
1 Webster’s New International Dictionary.
2 Funk and Wagnall’s Practical Standard Dictionary.
3 The Encyclopedia Americana, 1942 ed., Vol. 20, p. 770.
4 Cyclopaedia of Biblical, Theological, and Ecclesiastical Literature, Vol. VII, p. 411, McClintock and Strong, 1877, Harper & Brothers, New York.
5 Mosheim, Ecclesiastical History, Vol. 1, p. 100.
6 Hebrews 10:7, NW.
7 Mark 1:10, 11, NW.
8 Luke 4:17-19, NW.
9 Galatians 1:1, 12, NW.
10 1 Peter 2:21, NW.
11 2 Corinthians 3:1, 2, NW.
_____________________________________________________
The Watchtower, September 1, 1956 Issue, Page 520:
But in spite of all this opposition Jehovah’s witnesses continue to preach the good news of the Kingdom. They are triumphing over their enemies in doing so. In New York city alone the number of their congregations has increased from one in 1935 to 57 in 1956. And even in Communist Russia their numbers are increasing amazingly and that even though they refuse to compromise one iota and have to carry on their work entirely underground. If, as Dean Pike also said, communism is a religion and it takes a better religion to defeat it, Jehovah’s witnesses have that better religion.
What accounts for their triumphing over their enemies or theirs being a better religion? For one thing, the manner in which they carry on their work. Not only do they have ordained ministers preaching from the public platform, but each one of them is an ordained minister and preaches. Where? At the doorsteps of the people, in the market places, in the homes and as opportunity affords no matter where they may be. Whether worldly courts recognize them as ministers or not, they know they have dedicated themselves to Jehovah God to do his will, they know he has commanded them, through his Son, to preach the Kingdom and they are preaching.
_____________________________________________________
The Watchtower, January 1, 1956 Issue, Page 23:
9 Today there are 17,011 full-time ordained ministers working throughout the world. To these ranks there could be added many more; and the Society confidently hopes that those who can arrange their affairs to get into the full-time ministerial activity will do so, for in this field there is an abundant blessing. A slight decrease in the number of pioneers has appeared during 1955 service year, there being 254 fewer full-time ministers than in 1954. We sincerely hope that this becomes reversed during the 1956 service year, and that many more will feel confident that Jehovah will open up the windows of heaven and pour out a blessing greater than the pioneers can contain, even as he is doing for all of his servants in overflowing measure. All of these ministers not only preach the good news from house to house and conduct Bible studies, but leave printed sermons with the people in the form of Bibles, books, booklets and magazines, as well as tracts and other publications that will aid a person to gain a clear understanding of what Jehovah’s purposes are in these last days.
_____________________________________________________
The Watchtower, December 15, 1955 Issue, Page 742:
Over twenty-nine million hours of preaching spent in 1955 by 236,124 ordained ministers was bound to have powerful effect upon the thinking of millions. By 1955 in North America there was one minister of Jehovah’s witnesses for every 922 inhabitants of the continent. The gathering work in this part of the world has gained great momentum and no amount of clergy opposition can now slow it down. Thousands of congregations are continually expanding as they absorb the tens of thousands of new ones fleeing to God’s organization for safety.
_____________________________________________________
The Watchtower, November 1, 1955 Issue, Pages 661-671:
Ordination of the Qualified Ministers
PAUL says: “Our being adequately qualified issues from God, who has indeed adequately qualified us to be ministers of a new covenant.” (2 Cor. 3:5, 6, NW) That means it must be God who ordains or appoints a person to be his minister. This fact was typified in the case of Jeremiah, who was a minister of the old law covenant of Israel. Being of the priestly family of Aaron, Jeremiah was automatically in line to be a priest at the temple in Jerusalem. But to be more than a priest, namely, a prophet who would prophesy with respect to all nations of the earth, Jeremiah needed more than to be born as the son of Hilkiah the priest. No man could make him such a prophet. God, who inspires prophecy, was therefore the One to ordain or appoint him as prophet, to qualify him adequately. Jeremiah points to his ordination or appointment from God, when he says: “The word of Jehovah came unto me, saying, Before I formed thee in the belly I knew thee; and before thou camest forth out of the womb I hallowed thee, I appointed [ordained, AV] thee a prophet unto the nations. . . . thou shalt go to whomsoever I shall send thee, and whatsoever I command thee thou shalt speak. . . . And Jehovah put forth his hand and touched my mouth; and Jehovah said unto me, Behold, I have put my words in thy mouth. See, I have this day set thee over the nations.”—Jer. 1:4-10, Da.
2 Even Jesus the carpenter of Nazareth had to have this ordination from Jehovah God. As a man Jesus was not of a priestly family in Israel. As a member of the royal tribe of Judah he was an heir to the earthly throne of David but not to a heavenly throne and royalty. To be a high priest like the royal priest King Melchizedek, Jesus had to be ordained by Jehovah, and Jehovah had sworn prophetically that Jesus should be such a royal priest. To be a heavenly king sitting on Jehovah’s own throne at his right hand, Jesus had to be anointed with something more than the anointing oil at the hands of a human prophet or priest. He had to be anointed and thus ordained or appointed with the holy spirit from Jehovah God. As Paul writes: “The Christ did not glorify himself by becoming a high priest, but was glorified by him who spoke with reference to him: ‘You are my Son; today I have become your Father.’ Just as he says also in another place: ‘You are a priest forever after the likeness of Mel·chiz´e·dek.’”—Heb. 5:5, 6, NW.
3 Jesus did receive the needed ordination from God. When John, the son of priest Zechariah, baptized Jesus in the Jordan River, he did not ordain Jesus to be either priest or king. He could not do so. John did not know why he was baptizing Jesus. He did not then understand that he baptized Jesus merely to symbolize that Jesus had dedicated himself to do God’s will for which he had come into the world. The water baptism symbolized Jesus’ dedication, for a change of course in life. It was first after Jesus had been baptized and came up out of the water that his heavenly Father Jehovah God ordained or appointed him by audibly acknowledging the dedicated Jesus as his spiritual Son and by anointing him with his holy spirit. (Matt. 3:13-17) Shortly afterward, to show that it was Jehovah, not the priestly John the Baptist, who had ordained him, Jesus went to the synagogue in Nazareth and read to the people Isaiah’s prophecy: “Jehovah’s spirit is upon me, because he anointed me to declare good news to the poor, he sent me forth to preach.” Then Jesus said to the congregation: “Today this scripture that you just heard is fulfilled.”—Luke 4:16-21, NW; 3:21-23.
4 Did Paul also have this ordination or appointment from God? He said: “For the purpose of this witness I was appointed [ordained, AV] a preacher and an apostle . . . a teacher of nations in the matter of faith and truth.” (1 Tim. 2:7, NW) “Appointed” or “ordained” by whom? Paul answers in his words to the Galatians: “Paul, an apostle, neither from men nor through a man, but through Jesus Christ and God the Father, . . . when God, who separated me from my mother’s womb and called me through his undeserved kindness, thought good to reveal his Son in connection with me, that I might declare the good news about him to the nations, I did not go at once into conference with flesh and blood. Neither did I go up to Jerusalem to those who were apostles previous to me.” (Gal. 1:1, 15-17, NW) Paul was baptized, likely by Ananias who told him to get baptized. Afterward Paul was “filled with holy spirit” in evidence that he was ordained or appointed by Jehovah through Christ, who had chosen him as a vessel to bear his name.—Acts 9:15-18, NW.
5 Even the first uncircumcised Gentile converts had this ordination or appointment from God to be ministers of his new covenant. If their ordination had not been by God, the Jewish Christians would have been unprepared and disinclined to recognize them then as ordained Christian ministers. Before the apostle Peter finished preaching to the Italian Cornelius and many of his relatives and intimate friends, these uncircumcised non-Jews believed and accepted God’s mercy through Christ and God ordained or appointed them as his ministerial witnesses. The Bible history says: “While Peter was yet speaking about these matters the holy spirit fell upon all those hearing the word. And the faithful ones that had come with Peter who were of those circumcised were amazed, because the free gift of the holy spirit was being poured out also upon people of the nations. For they heard them speaking with tongues and glorifying God. Then Peter responded: ‘Can anyone forbid water so that these might not be baptized who have received the holy spirit even as we have?’ With that he commanded them to be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ.” Later, at Jerusalem, Peter explained to his fellow Jewish Christians: “When I started to speak the holy spirit fell upon them just as it did also upon us originally. . . . If, therefore, God gave the same free gift to them as he also did to us who have believed upon the Lord Jesus Christ, who was I that I should be able to hinder God?”—Acts 10:44-48; 11:15-17, NW.
6 So Peter had them baptized, not to ordain them (God had done that already), but for them to symbolize their faith and dedication that God had already accepted with miraculous evidence.
7 How about dedicated witnesses of Jehovah today? These also rely upon this appointment or ordination from him in order to be qualified as his ministers in this most necessary respect. Today on earth there is only a remnant of those whom Jehovah God has been choosing during the past nineteen centuries and appointing or ordaining to be his anointed ministers of the new covenant. These are the remnant or “remaining ones” of the seed of God’s womanly organization. (Rev. 12:17, NW) To them he says: “Ye are my witnesses, saith Jehovah, and my servant whom I have chosen.” (Isa. 43:10, AS) As a group this remnant now form a servant body or a slave body. They form what Jesus in his prophecy called “the faithful and discreet slave,” who has been “appointed over his domestics to give them their food at the proper time.” From whom have the remnant received their appointment or ordination as such? Not from men, but from their Master, the reigning King Jesus Christ. Since coming into his kingdom in 1914 and since coming to the temple in 1918 for the judgment first of the “house of God,” he has found this remnant of dedicated, anointed Christians doing what they were appointed to do. So he has done to them what he promised: “Truly I say to you, He will appoint him over all his belongings.”—Matt. 24:45-47, NW.
8 What proof do we have of their being appointed by God through his invisible, glorified Christ and of their being adequately qualified? The proof is their giving of the spiritual “food at the proper time.” It was not with regard to them that Jehovah prophesied: “Behold, the days come, saith the Lord Jehovah, that I will send a famine in the land, not a famine of bread, nor a thirst for water, but of hearing the words of Jehovah.” (Amos 8:11, AS) It was with regard to Christendom’s clergy and their congregations. They reject the food served at the hands and mouths of the “slave” class and so suffer famine spiritually. All because these do not recognize the unorthodox ordination or appointment of the “faithful and discreet slave” class. But there are hundreds of thousands of others who are conscious of their spiritual need and who find out where to get the spiritual food and who do accept it at the hands of the anointed remnant of Jehovah’s witnesses. These are the honest, humble, sheeplike people whom Jehovah’s Right Shepherd Jesus Christ brings into the fold to be his “other sheep,” making them “one flock” with the anointed remnant.—John 10:16.
MINISTERS UNDER THE NEW COVENANT
9 Since the “other sheep” must follow Jehovah’s Right Shepherd, they also must be ‘faithful and true witnesses’ just as he was; they also must be adequately qualified ministers of Jehovah God. Of course, they cannot be “ministers of a new covenant” in the sense that the apostle Paul was, who was in the new covenant as a member of the “holy nation” of spiritual Israel and who was therefore a priestly minister, a member of the “royal priesthood” with a heavenly calling. But we must remember that spiritual Israel was typified or foreshadowed by natural Israel of ancient time. As members of that chosen nation the natural Israelites were in the old law covenant with Jehovah their God. But among the natural Israelites there were many non-Israelites who were temporary residents or alien sojourners and who served in various ways in Israel, some even being temple slaves. These also worshiped Jehovah as their God and his law protected them and provided many blessings and privileges for them. They were “your temporary resident who is inside your gates” who were not to work on Israel’s sabbath day. (Ex. 20:8-10, NW) They were to bring no reproach upon Jehovah’s name but were to praise him along with the natural Israelites. They had to show how blessed they were by him through his natural seed of Abraham.
10 Likewise with the “other sheep,” the modern-day “temporary resident who is inside [the] gates” of spiritual Israelites. They are not spiritual Israelites in the new covenant, but they do live under the blessings and provisions of that new covenant and must harmonize their lives with it. They must be a New World society with the remnant of spiritual Israel. They are under the one general law of being Jehovah’s witnesses and preaching the Kingdom news for a witness to all the nations, before this worldly system of things completely ends. (Matt. 24:14) To do this, they also have to be adequately qualified, and this requires them, first of all, to have an ordination from God. As the necessary step toward this they have willingly and lovingly dedicated themselves to God through his Son Jesus Christ, and this full surrender of themselves to him they have symbolized as Jesus did, by water baptism. In view of their proper dedication of themselves God accepts them into the “one flock” of his Right Shepherd Jesus Christ, not to be members of spiritual Israel or of the royal priesthood with a heavenly inheritance nor to be priestly ministers of the new covenant, but to be witnesses of Jehovah and adequately qualified ministers under the new covenant. He ordains or appoints them as his earthly ministers, to serve with the anointed remnant of spiritual Israel. All such have this ordination or appointment by virtue of Jehovah’s acceptance of their dedication through Jesus Christ the Mediator of the new covenant. So they are all his ordained ministers, whether male or female according to the flesh.
11 On this basis alone it would be proper for all nations that claim to give consideration to Christian ministers to recognize them as Scripturally ordained ministers. The nations are self-willed and dictatorial when they set up their own rules and requirements and by them declare who is a real ordained minister recognized by God. When the nations require a written authorization from some man, group of men or religious organization, or some man-made ceremony to be performed before they recognize these dedicated men and women as God’s ministers, it is Scripturally out of order. Uninspired lawmakers of this world did not write the Scriptures, but God caused the writing of those Scriptures by the moving force of his spirit, and his true ministers have the testimony of his inspired Scriptures respecting their ordination by him for having dedicated themselves to him. The proof of what his ordained ministers should be ought to be taken from the written Word of God who does the ordaining, not from man-made laws and their legal interpretation by judges.
12 God, the Universal Sovereign, has the right to determine how his visible organization of his people shall be framed and operated and who shall be his ministers in it and upon what conditions. Even religious sects of Christendom recognize this right of their sectarian organization. Last year the chief administrative officer of the Presbyterian Church in the United States of America, when speaking to 400 delegates of the World Presbyterian Alliance at Princeton, New Jersey, included among the basic religious freedoms the ‘freedom to determine the internal government and conditions of a church body.’ He then said: “When in the considered and prayerful judgment of a church the freedom to fulfill these responsibilities is essentially abridged by state or society, it is the duty of the church to say ‘no’ to the state and ‘no’ to the society.” (New York Times, July 29, 1954) Jehovah’s witnesses theocratically stick to His rules and appointments as to how his New Covenant organization should be built and operated. They say no to worldly interferers.
13 They need no religious men to lay hands upon them to be ordained. Their ordination is from God and results to them from dedicating their eternal existence to him through Christ. They are not ordained by the hands laid upon them by the one who baptizes them in water in symbol of their dedication. But, inasmuch as their water baptism has a relationship to their ordination from God, they may, for the purposes of record, submit their baptismal date as the approximate time of their ordination, to satisfy the law of the land where an ordination date is asked for. What Jehovah’s witnesses want upon themselves to qualify them is the hand of God, the hand of Him who touched Jeremiah’s mouth and said: “Behold, I have put my words in thy mouth.” (Jer. 1:9) They want the hand of Him who brought Ezra the priest safely to Jerusalem, “the good hand of his God upon him”; the same hand of which Nehemiah, the builder of Jerusalem’s walls, says: “So the king gave [them] to me, according to the good hand of my God upon me.” (Ezra 7:6, 9, 28; Neh. 2:8, 18, NW) Says the psalmist: “Let thy hand be upon the man of thy right hand, upon the son of man whom thou madest strong for thyself.” (Ps. 80:17, AS) Jehovah’s is the first hand that should be upon us to ordain or appoint us as qualified ministers. Without first his hand upon us the laying of human hands upon us afterward has no force, but is mere form.
14 It is Jehovah’s hand that sets his anointed remnant of spiritual Israel and their dedicated companions apart, separates them. As King Solomon prophetically said to God at the temple inauguration in Jerusalem: “You yourself separated them as your possession out of all the peoples of the earth, just as you have spoken by means of Moses your servant when you were bringing our forefathers out from Egypt, O Lord Jehovah.” (1 Ki. 8:53, NW) That they are all of them separated from this world to preach the good news of God’s kingdom, the apostle Paul showed in the introduction of his letter: “Paul, a slave of Jesus Christ and called to be an apostle, separated to God’s good news, which he promised aforetime through his prophets in the holy Scriptures, concerning his Son.” (Rom. 1:1, 2, NW) Because of thus being set apart, separated, they are obligated to practice the clean, undefiled form of worship, the pure religion, which includes, among other things, “to keep oneself without spot from the world.” (Jas. 1:27, NW) Therefore they are unlike the “regular ministers” or clergy of Christendom who claim to be set apart and whom the law gives a set-apart status and yet who mix in with the politics and combats of the nations and spot themselves all up with this world.
SPECIAL APPOINTMENTS
15 All the nation of spiritual Israel and their dedicated companions are separated and have a status set apart from this world. They are all a New World society of qualified ministers. Yet they do have certain members among them specially set apart to various responsible services, to which they are ordained or appointed. For example, in the first century there were Christian prophets and teachers in the Antioch (Syria) congregation and these were all ministering in these responsible positions. Then the record says: “As they were publicly ministering to Jehovah and fasting, the holy spirit said: ‘Of all persons set Bar´na·bas and Saul apart for me for the work to which I have called them.’ Then they fasted and prayed and laid their hands upon them and let them go.” (Acts 13:1-3, NW) That laying on of the hands of the congregation by means of their representative men was a form of ordination or appointment to a special service. Later in the course of their activity in this special service Paul and Barnabas made appointments of older men in newly formed congregations to responsible service positions: “they appointed older men to office for them in the congregation and, offering prayer with fastings, they committed them to Jehovah in whom they had become believers.” (Acts 14:23, NW) The apostle Paul, when assigning the appointive power to young Timothy, said: “Let no man ever look down on your youth. . . . Never lay your hands hastily upon any man; neither be a sharer in the sins of others; preserve yourself pure.”—1 Tim. 4:12; 5:22, NW.
16 So appointments of special servants within the New World society must be made, not democratically, but theocratically, by the governing body or by acting representatives of the governing body in other lands. However, the appointment of these special ministerial servants or overseers within the congregation does not mean that a separate clergy class is being created and all the rest of the congregation are not ministers adequately qualified by God. All of us retain our adequate qualification from God as long as we study and faithfully serve Jehovah as his witnesses.
17 The ancient laying on of the hands of responsible servants of the congregation had the force of ordaining or appointing. That ceremony had some actual effect in those early days when “through the laying on of the hands of the apostles the spirit was given.” Those who laid their hands on Paul and Barnabas did not impart the spirit but they were told by the spirit to set them apart for special work. Today we do not have the spirit speaking audibly to us or the apostles bodily present with us to lay their hands upon us to impart the miraculous gifts of the spirit, and there is no professed Christian on earth today that can Scripturally prove he is even an apostolic successor with such power. Those miraculous gifts of the spirit have passed away as well as the apostolic channels. That is why Paul classed the “laying on of the hands” as part of the “elementary doctrine about the Christ.” (Heb. 6:1, 2; Acts 8:18 and 1 Cor. 13:8-11, NW) The formality of literally laying hands upon a person at his appointment has no special power today.
18 What does matter is the plain appointment itself by the authorized governing body. That appointment may be delivered verbally or by letter, even by a formal appointment letter. What matters here is that the appointment comes from the recognized governing body, and so the signature of the appointment letter or form must show that it comes from such authoritative body. The signature’s being handwritten or stamped does not alter the matter or weaken or void the appointment. If the stamp is that of the governing body and is imprinted by the one who has the authority to use that stamp, then the appointment is authoritative and is binding.
19 This is true even though rubber-stamping an appointment letter or form may not be so ceremonial or impressive-looking as a literal formalistic laying of men’s hands upon the head of an appointed person. Stamping an official letter is good Bible practice.
20 When Queen Jezebel wanted to issue instructions to the older men of Jezreel, what did she do? Have King Ahab sign instruction letters? Listen: “She wrote letters in A´hab’s name and sealed them with his seal and sent the letters to the older men and the nobles that were in his city dwelling with Na´both.” The older men and nobles recognized the stamped-in seal and carried out the instructions that apparently came from the king. (1 Ki. 21:8-11, NW) The value and power of an authoritative stamp or seal King Ahasuerus showed when he said to Esther his queen and to Mordecai his prime minister: “You yourselves write in behalf of the Jews according to what is good in your own eyes in the king’s name and seal [it] with the king’s signet ring, for a writing that is written in the king’s name and sealed with the king’s signet ring it is not possible to undo.” Prime Minister Mordecai did accordingly: “He proceeded to write in the name of King A·has·u·e´rus and do the sealing with the king’s signet ring and send written documents by the hand of the couriers.” In the face of that uniform stamp the governors of all of Persia’s provinces and also the Jews recognized the binding force of those written documents and they acted as instructed in them.—Esther 8:8, 10, NW.
21 So let no one undervalue the power of a properly stamped letter; the stamp gives it weight and authority. Now one form letter with such true, official stamp may appoint more than one servant of a congregation, but the duties assigned to any person appointed determine the degree of responsibility of that appointed person, whether he has more responsibilities than other servants. What else the letter may say or whom else the same letter may appoint to a different service does not take away from that servant’s special position. So stamped appointment letters (form letters in many cases) are used by the Watch Tower Bible & Tract Society and its many branches today as a convenient way of making appointments of servants for more than 14,000 congregations of Jehovah’s witnesses throughout the earth. In all such congregations the members recognize the stamp and accept the appointment. Who, then, has a right to question the power of the ordination or appointment? You may be sure that all such special servants put in office by these stamped appointment letters the Society’s governing body keeps its hands on, not literally, but to back them up, support and sustain them or to remove them in the general interests of the work.
INSCRIBED LETTER OF RECOMMENDATION
22 The apostle Paul himself raised the question of qualification. He said: “And who is adequately qualified for these things? We are; for we are not peddlers of the word of God as many men are, but as out of sincerity, yes, as sent from God [not from men], . . . we are speaking.” (2 Cor. 2:16, 17, NW) But did Paul have or carry around with him even a stamped or sealed letter of appointment or of recommendation from the governing body at Jerusalem or from those who laid their hands on him and Barnabas at Antioch? Could he show such a letter to the synagogues that he visited for preaching or to congregations that he established or to Governor Felix or Governor Festus or to King Agrippa or to Emperor Nero when he finally appeared before him on trial at Rome? There is nothing to show he had such a letter! Paul did not need such a letter. He had something better than a man-composed, man-signed letter on writing tablets or paper. He had witnesses at Damascus to testify that he had been baptized in water to symbolize his dedication or his faith in Jehovah through Jesus Christ. He was also “filled with holy spirit” and had the miraculous gifts of that spirit. What is more, he had the power to lay his hands on baptized believers and impart to them the gifts of the spirit. From this he knew that his being adequately qualified had issued from God. What need did he have, then, of a stamped or sealed letter from anyone on earth? The most telling evidence of anyone’s being adequately qualified for a service or ministry is the product of his work, what he has accomplished. Paul had that evidence, and it served as a most impressive letter of recommendation proving his appointment.
23 To the Christian congregation that he had established in Corinth he said: “Are we starting again to recommend ourselves? Or do we, perhaps, like some men, need letters of recommendation to you or from you? You yourselves are our letter, inscribed on our hearts and known and being read by all mankind. For you are shown to be a letter of Christ written by us as ministers, inscribed not with ink but with spirit of the living God, not on stone tablets, but on fleshly tablets, on hearts.” (2 Cor. 3:1-3, NW) Later on the newly instructed Apollos got such a letter of recommendation from the Christian brothers at Ephesus to the congregation at Corinth, but Paul did not need such a literal letter of recommendation. (Acts 18:24-28, 1-11) Those very disciples whom he had made during a year and a half of intense preaching and teaching activity at Corinth were themselves a power-laden letter.
24 Those disciples were Paul’s letter written on his heart because he carried them along with him in his affections and he wrote them letters because he cared for them. At the same time he had taught and trained them to be preaching witnesses of Jehovah and Christ, and so those Corinthian Christians were Paul’s letter on open display, “known and being read by all mankind.” They were a letter not from man, not even from the governing body at Jerusalem.
25 They were “shown to be a letter of Christ,” and Jesus Christ, who had chosen Paul to be a special vessel to bear his name to the non-Jewish nations, used Paul himself as his minister in writing that letter. Paul could not have written that human letter by himself, for, as Jesus told his disciples, “apart from me you can do nothing at all.” (John 15:5, NW) He used Paul in a much harder way than by merely having him sit down with literal pen and ink and write a letter on paper recommending himself by written words rather than by laborious deeds. Aside from Paul’s working weekdays as a tentmaker with Aquila and Priscilla, Jesus used Paul to write this human letter of recommendation by having him talk in the Jewish synagogue every sabbath, to win over both Jews and Greeks. In time he became more “intensely occupied with the word [of God], witnessing to the Jews to prove that Jesus is the Christ,” staying there all together a year and a half, “teaching among them the word of God.”
26 When Paul finally left Corinth he left behind the fruitage of his labors. What? A Christian congregation including Crispus the former presiding officer of the synagogue and all his household, whom Paul himself baptized. This congregation was a letter of recommendation, “inscribed not with ink but with spirit of the living God,” for it was done by the spirit of God which worked through Paul, he coming to them “with a demonstration of spirit and power, that [their] faith might be, not in men’s wisdom, but in God’s power.” God’s spirit in Paul produced or wrote the readable words of that congregation letter. The letter was written on no cold stone tablets, but on warm, loving “fleshly tablets, on hearts.” Those hearts were something to read, for they told of love first to God, they told of belief, of faith exercised for righteousness, and they overflowed so as to move the mouths of the Corinthians to make public declaration for salvation. Acts 18:1-11; 1 Cor. 2:4, 5; 2 Cor. 3:1-3; Matt. 22:37, 38; Rom. 10:10, NW) For anyone to produce such a living, speaking letter of recommendation of its writer his being adequately qualified by Almighty God was most certainly required.
27 How about today? Except for appointment letters sent to congregations or carried by specially appointed servants of God’s visible organization, Jehovah’s witnesses do not carry letters of appointment or recommendation to prove that they, as dedicated men and women, are Scripturally ordained ministers of God serving in connection with his new covenant through the Mediator Jesus Christ. The New World society of Jehovah’s witnesses who use the Watch Tower Bible & Tract Society as their servant need no such letters of appointment or ordination, no such letters of recommendation, any more than Paul did. Christendom does not recognize the Watch Tower Bible & Tract Society as an instrument in God’s hands. But the “Modern History of Jehovah’s Witnesses” now being published in the columns of the magazine The Watchtower gives an authentic, documented history of how the Most High God and his Son Jesus Christ have used the Society, yes, and used the official magazine that it publishes, since the time both of these were begun. Today this Bible magazine has a printing of at least 2,100,000 copies each issue, in forty-one languages, and the publishing Society has seventy-five branches spread over the earth. That fact is an inerasable letter known and read by all men and it recommends to every good conscience these two instruments as being used by God for fulfilling his glorious purpose in this most crucial time of uncertainty, doubt and fear.
28 Christendom and her nominally Christian governments refuse to recognize the Scriptural ordination of the dedicated witnesses of Jehovah. Hence they do not give them the standing and consideration of ordained ministers of religion. In place of being respected as adequately qualified ministers, Jehovah’s witnesses have the distinction of fulfilling Jesus’ prophecy: “You will be hated by all the nations on account of my name.” (Matt. 24:9, NW) No paper letters that you witnesses could show them would alter the world’s attitude toward you. But you have a letter, and you yourselves have been used to write it, that speaks more authoritatively than any handwritten, typewritten or printed letter stamped and sealed to show your divine ordination or appointment. It is a living letter the contents of which are spread over all the earth in more than 160 lands and territories, to be read in over 100 languages. Since 1919, despite world-wide hatred, the anointed remnant of the adequately qualified ministers of the new covenant have preached the good news of the Kingdom to all nations. In this way they have been writing by the spirit of God on fleshly tablets, on hearts, and today the “great crowd” of other sheep gathered to the “one flock” of the Right Shepherd Jesus is proof they were ordained by God. It is a human letter of recommendation testifying that they are the “faithful and discreet slave” class of God.
29 Particularly since 1931 the “great crowd” of other sheep have been associating and preaching with the anointed remnant. They cannot escape history. They too have been writing history by loyally serving with the remnant as witnesses of Jehovah, suffering with them, dying with them, keeping Christian integrity with them till now. Their being ordained, adequately qualified ministers of God has all along also been questioned and rejected by Christendom. But what does the voice of accomplished history testify today? Are they divinely sent, adequately ordained ministers under God’s new covenant? Do they have any unimpeachable letter of recommendation that silences all question as unwarranted and all accusation as prejudiced and false? Not any letter in ink on paper or scratched on stone tablets, but the living letter written by means of God’s spirit upon sheeplike people. It is a recommendation letter written on “fleshly tablets, on hearts” of other believing men and women who since 1931 have increased from far less than one hundred thousand to now over 550,000 witnesses of Jehovah in the New World society.
30 Let the Devil’s heaven and earth destroy or wipe that living, spirit-filled letter out, if they can! The destructive floodwaters of the war of Armageddon will wash out of existence those devilish heavens and earth and their bloodstained record but never wash out the contents of this living letter written by all of Jehovah’s witnesses with his spirit. All the survivors of Armageddon will be our letter of recommendation before all the universe! That letter of recommendation will even be read by the dead when they are resurrected after Armageddon. The contents of this letter will yet grow longer as more human hearts are written upon until Armageddon. When the world’s religious systems are destroyed amid that war, it will survive and will thereafter spread over the face of the cleansed earth as a living testimony to the power and spirit of Jehovah now operative in his adequately qualified ministers. So keep on writing this “New World society” letter by thoroughly accomplishing your ministry, preaching this good news of the triumphant kingdom for a witness to all the nations until this world ends!
______________________________________________________________
The Watchtower, October 15, 1955 Issue, Page 628:
23 What do Jehovah’s witnesses care whether worldly courts of law rule that they are “regular ministers” specially “set apart” or not? They know that they have dedicated themselves to God to do His will and they know that he commands them through Christ to go out to the people and preach and prove themselves his ordained ministers by actively serving the interests of his kingdom. Jehovah has known better than to wait for 200 years for the clergy of Christendom to stir their laity to action. The limited “time of the end” not allowing for that estimated time, Jehovah has raised up his own witnesses and they are giving the Kingdom witness right on time, just as he has ordered.
Page 640 (of the same Issue):
QUALIFIED TO BE MINISTERS
Adequately qualified ministers are needed today more than at any other time in man’s history. That means ministers ordained by God. Further, it means they must have the light from God through Christ shine upon them and they must make public confession of the true faith. As proof that Jehovah’s dedicated witnesses today meet these qualifications, ‘food at the proper time’ is being served to hundreds of thousands who are conscious of their spiritual need. These in turn, adequately fed, grow to maturity, dedicate their lives to do God’s will and prepare themselves for the ministry. Are you one of such? Then you will read with lasting benefit the new 384-page book Qualified to Be Ministers. Not only is it a provision to train and qualify new ministers, but also it is an aid to maturity and advancement for those already engaged in preaching activity. It covers preparation and delivery of speeches, composition, private study, the ministry, congregation activities, worship—clean and unclean—modern history of Jehovah’s witnesses, and theocratic society. Send for a copy for 50c.
______________________________________________________________
The Watchtower, June 1, 1955 Issue, Pages 331-332:
MINISTERIAL STANDING DENIED
The second of the two main questions, Is the pursuer a “regular minister” by virtue of his appointment as a pioneer? as a congregation servant? the judge decided against Walsh. Sir John Cameron, the Dean of Faculty of Advocates in Scotland, who appeared for Walsh, had argued strongly that if it were decided that Jehovah’s witnesses were a religious denomination it must then be for the denomination to determine who were its regular ministers. Surely no one outside could tell a denomination who its ministers were to be! The test must be subjective. He maintained that “regular” meant “according to rule” and since Walsh was appointed according to the rule of Jehovah’s witnesses the court must hold that he is a “regular minister.” The judge held, however, that since all of Jehovah’s witnesses were ordained ministers, the ordination itself did not create a “regular minister” and that it was for the court to decide the matter as far as the National Service Act was concerned.
Dealing with the term “minister” the judge said: “In order to be a minister a person must first be invested with the office of a minister of religion and second, be in use to, or at least entitled to, (for that is how I read these words) administer the religious ordinances of his communion. I am also of opinion that these two essential elements necessarily imply that a minister is in some way set apart in spiritual things from the ordinary members of his communion.”
The judge then applied his definition to Walsh’s appointment as congregation servant. He objected to the form of appointment, a letter signed with the Society’s stamp, and to the fact that the same letter was used to appoint other ministers to lesser offices in the congregation. He concluded that “the emphasis is definitely on administration rather than on spiritual leadership.”
The judge also found fault with the scholastic requirements of a congregation servant. Of the theocratic ministry school, where a congregation servant must have been trained for at least a year before his appointment, the judge said: It “sounds scholastic, particularly when taken along with the instructions and prescribed schedule of study.” Then, to the surprise of all who attend these schools, the judge went on to say that “what is taught is such as can be understood by children of . . . tender years.” The fact is that the ministry school is not geared down to the intellectual standard of children, but children are required to attend to get out of the course what they can. And that they get a great deal out of it is shown by the progress they make.
Commenting on the Dean’s argument that the founders of Christianity were not selected because of any scholastic attainments, the judge had this to say: “It was argued that the apostles were not required to have any particular qualifications but as plain men were commanded to preach and that Jehovah’s witnesses are following that example. That argument is, in my opinion, beside the point, for it is quite obvious that in exempting a regular minister of a religious denomination from national service in 1948 parliament was not thinking of a minister such as those who preached in the early church, but of a minister of religion as known in modern times.”
The judge found that Walsh was not a “regular minister” because of his pioneer status, even though the ministry was his vocation. A pioneer devotes more than a hundred hours a month to actual preaching to the public, apart from time spent in study and at meetings of Jehovah’s witnesses. How many clergymen devote that much time to their preaching? And the pioneer is not dependent on a stipend but earns his keep as Paul did! The judge’s chief difficulty was the age at which Walsh became a pioneer. In his opinion “it is absurd to treat a boy of 15 years as being a minister of religion.” It is clear that the judge could not get out of his mind the orthodox pattern and when Walsh did not fit that he could not see him in the role of “regular minister.”
PUBLICITY AND APPEAL
Great publicity was given to the case in the Scottish press and the national British dailies. The case itself was unusual enough, but the flight of three officers of the Society from headquarters to Edinburgh to stand beside Douglas Walsh in the witness box appealed to the public and attracted reporters from far and near. The major papers devoted more than a thousand column-inches to the case. Outstanding both for accuracy and space was The Scotsman. This high-quality paper reported fully each day and gave twenty-eight column-inches to the decision itself.
Jehovah has ordained his witnesses to be his ministers in restoring true worship in the earth at this most critical day in man’s history. Their authority comes from him. Every one of Jehovah’s witnesses must be a minister but some are appointed to positions of responsibility that distinguish them from other ministers in the organization. Do such appointment and added responsibility according to the law of Britain make the pioneers and congregation servants “regular ministers” under that law? Lord Strachan said they do not but Jehovah’s witnesses claim they do. Hence their appeal to the High Court of Justiciary in Scotland where three judges will next hear the case.
_____________________________________________________________
The Watchtower, February 1, 1955 Issue, Page 86:
“A Right Kind of Minister”
THE term minister (Greek: diákonos) as used in the Greek Scriptures means, literally, a servant. (1 Tim. 4:6, NW) It here refers to one who is a public servant of Jehovah, and is ordained by him, after having first taken the step of dedicating himself by a solemn agreement to do the will of God. Such a minister, in order to prove worthy of the name and retain divine favor, will faithfully strive to carry out whatever commands and commissions are laid upon him by the “superior authorities.” Such a minister will also, of necessity, prove to be a close footstep follower of Jesus Christ, the foremost minister of God, and, like him, will recognize the prior obligation to be a preacher of the good news of Jehovah’s established kingdom by Christ. Thus, like Jesus, he will prove to be one of Jehovah’s witnesses, witnessing to the truth.—Rom. 13:1; John 18:37, NW; Isa. 43:10, AS.
_____________________________________________________________
The Watchtower, March 1, 1954 Issue, Pages 138-139:
AN ORDINATION CEREMONY?
The Associated Press dispatches reporting on the 1953 mass baptism of Jehovah’s witnesses in connection with their international assembly stated that Jehovah’s witnesses considered their baptism as an ordination ceremony and that each baptized witness was an ordained minister. Upon what grounds do they base their position?
In the first place, it, the baptism, being performed at God’s command, is recognized by him as authoritative. It represents their agreement to follow in the footsteps of Christ Jesus, who certainly was the minister of Jehovah God. This ordination is further recognized as authoritative by the instrument God is using at the present time to give an effective and harmonious witness to his name and kingdom, namely, the Watch Tower Society. And on November 30, 1953, the Supreme Court of the United States ruled that this baptism of immersion by Jehovah’s witnesses is a valid ceremony of ordination within the meaning of the law for Jehovah’s witnesses. Incidentally, the 1954 Yearbook of Jehovah’s Witnesses shows that 50,665 ministers were thus ordained during 1953.
But is it not necessary to go to a theological seminary to be qualified as a minister? If it were, then neither Jesus nor his apostles, with the exception of Paul, could have been recognized as ministers. In fact, some asked regarding Jesus: “How does this man have a knowledge of letters, when he has not studied at the schools?” And the educated class at the time wondered at the boldness of Peter and John, for they noticed that Peter and John were unlettered and ordinary men. But that did not keep them from preaching the good news. And not only they, but all the early Christians preached. (John 7:15; Acts 4:13; 8:4, NW) One can become adequately equipped to preach by studying at home evenings and week ends, and by attending the various Bible classes arranged for under the direction of the Watch Tower Society.
It follows, then, that a diploma from a theological seminary is likewise not a ministerial prerequisite. The very best proof that one could have that he is a minister is the same to which Paul pointed as his letters of recommendation, namely, individuals who, due to one’s efforts, have dedicated themselves to Jehovah God.—2 Cor. 3:1-3, NW.
Once having dedicated ourselves to God and symbolized it by water baptism, we may never let that fact slip out of our consciousness, for it is better not to have vowed than to vow and then not to pay our vows. (Eccl. 5:5) Jesus was ever conscious of having agreed to do God’s will and he spoke of God’s will as a cup he was drinking and a baptism with which he was being baptized and had yet to be baptized with. (Matt. 20:22, 23; Luke 12:50, NW) Only by keeping integrity to God and by associating with God’s people, the New World society, may we hope to survive the destruction of this wicked world in the coming battle of Armageddon and enter into the new world of righteousness even as Noah and his family entered a new world after the flood.—Matt. 24:37-39; 2 Pet. 3:7, 13; Rev. 16:14, 16.
To sum up: we have seen that John’s baptism was a picture of repentance; that Christian baptism in water is a picture of dedication to do God’s will; that only complete immersion is water baptism, that only it fittingly pictures dedication and that it serves both as a public confession of one’s dedication and as an ordination ceremony; that neither a theological seminary training nor a diploma is a prerequisite to being a minister of Jehovah God, and that by keeping integrity we can hope to survive the destruction of this wicked system of things to enter into the new world of righteousness as members of the New World society.
______________________________________________________________
The Watchtower, January 1, 1952 Issue, Page 18:
GENERAL SURVEY OF WORK DONE
17 These 384,694 publishers were not alone in their work. They were taking along and training some “babes”. Some who had been prisoners in devilish organizations heard the good news of God’s kingdom and began to pull away from the old world and its way of thinking, and they associated themselves with these publishers for the new world. They too went out and preached, 57,686 of them, for the first time. Combined, that means 442,380 ministers—a new all-time peak for Jehovah’s witnesses! The Society is interested in the welfare of every one of these 442,380 persons and it wants to see them continue as ordained ministers. This is the way Paul felt. He wanted to help the members of the early church to become qualified, fully grown, mature ordained ministers. Paul knew why he was called; he said: “I should declare to the nations the good news.” He said we should imitate him as he imitated Christ. If it was his responsibility to declare the good news, then it is the responsibility of everyone who comes to this knowledge to declare the good news. That is why Jesus said he gives “gifts in men”, namely, “with a view to the training of the holy ones for ministerial work.”
______________________________________________________________
The Watchtower, November 1, 1951 Issue, Pages 671-672:
• Must we be baptized before we are recognized by God as an ordained minister? The booklet Defending and Legally Establishing the Good News states that when in court we should say we are unordained ministers if we have not been baptized.—E. B., Indiana.
The authorities of the land generally call for some ceremony in connection with ordination for the ministry, and that is why the time of one’s baptism is generally submitted as the date of one’s ordination. Certainly that was so for Jesus, for it was then that the spirit descended upon him, in fulfillment of Isaiah 61:1, 2. However, a person may devote himself to God through Christ and begin carrying it out in faithful worship and active service long before water baptism, because the opportunity for baptism is not right at hand. In such a case God ordains such one his minister from the time of his dedication and looks for him to symbolize it at the first opportunity. The legal booklet is particularly viewing the matter from the standpoint of the law of the land, and is recognizing the two classifications made concerning ministers, namely, ordained ministers and regular unordained ministers. So viewed through the eyes of the law of the land, the legal booklet suggests that we determine which group we belong to on the basis of whether we have been baptized or not. The same legal rights extend to all ministers, whether they are counted ordained or regular.
However, the legal booklet also takes recognition of the fact that one may be ordained by God or anointed with his spirit before being baptized with water, for it shows that Cornelius and his fellow Gentile believers were ordained with the spirit of God before they were immersed in water. (Acts 10:44-48) Though that was extraordinary, yet it shows that God can ordain a dedicated person before water baptism. So while an unbaptized one may be ordained by God, he may still point out to the court that he has not as yet undergone the ordination ceremony of water immersion, and for that reason may be classed by the law of the land as a regular minister rather than an ordained minister. That the Watchtower Society itself places weight and significance to the act of water immersion is shown by the fact that only those who have so symbolized their dedication to God are entitled to a personal copy of the booklet Counsel on Theocratic Organization for Jehovah’s Witnesses.
______________________________________________________________
The Watchtower, February 15, 1951 Issue, Page 112:
Federal Court of Appeals Rebukes Unfair Board
On October 18, 1950, the United States Court of Appeals at Cincinnati again reversed the convictions of two ministers of Jehovah’s witnesses. Twice convicted, Peter Niznik and Raymond Comodor, part-time missionary evangelists (company publishers) in Pennsylvania, were discharged with the judgments against them reversed. Basis of the reversal was the refusal of their Selective Service board to classify them as ministers of religion. The court held that the action of the board was invalid and void, contrary to the regulations, arbitrary and discriminatory.
Upon the second trial the board members had attempted to justify their refusal to grant exemption from training and service. They testified that they had looked through the files and, after having done so, ruled that these registrants should not be given a minister’s classification. They did not dispute or question the overwhelming evidence submitted by the registrants as to their background, training and activity in the ministry. The truthfulness of the statements submitted by them orally and in writing was not questioned. But solely upon the grounds that they were Jehovah’s witnesses, had not attended an orthodox religious seminary and had not been “regularly” ordained according to orthodox ceremony and ritual, the board ignored the regulations pertaining to ministerial classification in such cases and denied exemption. In setting aside the convictions the court said:
“Although the members of the draft board performed long, laborious, and patriotic duties, nevertheless, their ruling in this regard, that appellants were not entitled to classification as ministers of religion, was based not upon the evidence or information in appellants’ files, or upon a belief in the truthfulness of the statements made by appellants, but upon the fact that they were members of Jehovah’s witnesses. The regulation pertaining to ministerial classification in this case was plain.
“‘(a) In Class IV-D shall be placed any registrant who is a regular or duly ordained minister of religion . . . (b) A regular minister of religion is a man who customarily preaches and teaches the principles of religion of a recognized church, religious sect, or religious organization of which he is a member, without having been formally ordained as a minister of religion; and who is recognized by such church, sect, or organization as a minister.’ Section 622.44 of the Selective Service Regulations.
“Disregard of this provision, and refusal to classify as a minister of religion solely on the ground that appellants were members of a religious sect and that they had not attended a religious seminary and had not been regularly ordained, was arbitrary and contrary to the law and regulations. ‘In classifying a registrant there shall be no discrimination for or against him because of his race, creed, or color, or because of his membership or activity in any labor, political, religious, or other organization. Each registrant shall receive equal and fair justice.’ Section 623.1(c) of the Selective Service Regulations.
“The classification of the local board, accordingly, was invalid, and its action void. The judgments are, therefore, reversed, the convictions are set aside, and appellants are discharged.”
The religious magazine The Christian Century recalled the thousands of other cases involving Jehovah’s witnesses, which resulted in their being denied classification as ministers and sentenced to long terms in prison. Commending the court for stopping such arbitrary and capricious determinations in these cases, the editors wrote: “This paper has contended since the first of these Witness cases came up, that the designation of ministers is a church and not a state function. We trust Selective Service will accept this ruling by the federal court. The government agency should never have allowed itself to become entangled in an ecclesiastical issue of this sort, and now that the court has opened a way out . . . should hasten to take advantage of the opportunity.”
Court and publication agree that whether a person should be recognized as a minister must not be determined according to orthodox standards of the popular religious organizations or prejudice. Both call upon boards to administer fairly the act and regulations.
_____________________________________________________________
The Watchtower, February 1, 1951 Issue, Pages 78-81:
GOSPEL MINISTERS AND AMBASSADORS EXEMPT
16 The consecrated priests and Levites were exempted from conscription for military service in Israel. (Num. 1:45-54; 2:32, 33) Since Jehovah’s witnesses are consecrated to God as followers of Jesus Christ, they should likewise be exempted from military duties with carnal weapons. God now exempts them, not requiring them to fight as did Joshua, Gideon, Samson, Jephthah, Barak and David of ancient times. Jehovah God has made these Christian witnesses his ministers of the Kingdom gospel. In the United States of America the Selective Service Act of 1948 exempts ordained and regular ministers of the gospel from military obligations. But the officers charged with applying that Act allow the exemption only to those who are full-time ministers, and not to all the rest. But each one of Jehovah’s witnesses has as his vocation the ministry and is a minister of the gospel, whether able to render full time or only part time. Not merely the full-time servants among them, but each and every one of Jehovah’s witnesses is under a vow of dedication, which involves “duties superior to those arising from any human relation”. God’s Word therefore appoints each and every one of them a minister of God and preacher of the Kingdom gospel; and officers of the law of the land, while having a legal right to do so, have no Scriptural right to discriminate and limit military exemption only to some, while excluding others. In doing so they must take responsibility before God for ‘framing mischief by law’.
17 Being such ministers and preachers, they have not abandoned their neutrality as conscientious objectors and turned aside to engage in military support of this or that side of any worldly conflict. Jesus predicted their neutrality and their preaching activities at this militant time. When he prophesied, “Nation will rise against nation and kingdom against kingdom,” he did not say his true followers would engage in such armed rising. Instead, he foretold they would be roughly treated and be “hated by all the nations”, not just enemy nations, but all. Then giving Jehovah’s witnesses a commission for this day as well as foretelling what type of work they would do, he said: “This good news of the kingdom will be preached in all the inhabited earth for the purpose of a witness to all the nations, and then the accomplished end will come.” (Matt. 24:14, NW) So now each and every witness who is under vow to Jehovah God through Christ must obey that prophetic command and fulfill his commission as an ordained minister of the good news of the Kingdom. There is no exemption to any consecrated minister. Those taking the lead among them must set the example, and the others must imitate them. (1 Pet. 5:1-3) These leading ministers do not engage in carnal warfare, but preach. The rank and file of Jehovah’s witnesses, being also ministers of God, copy their faithful example and peacefully preach.
18 To these Christian witnesses the apostle Paul wrote: “He committed the message of the reconciliation to us. We are therefore ambassadors substituting for Christ, as though God were making entreaty through us. As substitutes for Christ we beg: ‘Become reconciled to God.’” (2 Cor. 5:19, 20, NW) As “ambassadors substituting for Christ” Jehovah’s witnesses have conscientious objection to serving in the military and related establishments of the nations.
19 Ambassadors are exempt from military service in the nation to which their government sends them, especially in a hostile nation. Remember, in Bible times ambassadors were sent, not to friendly nations, but to nations at war or threatening war. God’s ambassadors substituting for Christ are not sent to friendly nations, but to hostile nations. All nations of this world of Satan are hostile to God. The message given these ambassadors to deliver is, “Become reconciled to God.” This shows that the nations are not friendly. How, then, could these ambassadors Scripturally serve in the military forces of such nations or Scripturally consent to do so when required by national law? To desert the ranks of His ministers and thus quit preaching would mean to fight against God, who sent his ambassadors that they might call on the nations to become reconciled to God, not fight him. Jehovah’s witnesses are God’s ambassadors sent to ALL the nations, with the same message for all. Consequently they have not enlisted in the fighting forces of any of the nations. They maintain strict neutrality toward such nations in their mortal combats. They keep true to the divine government, which sends them as ambassadors, even though this neutrality and this Kingdom-preaching cause them to be “hated by all the nations”. They have not fought for the unreconciled systems which God will destroy at Armageddon. Hence their conscientious objection!
20 Concerning these ambassadors the apostle says in this same letter: “Though we walk in the flesh, we do not wage warfare according to what we are in the flesh. For the weapons of our warfare are not fleshly, but powerful by God for overturning strongly entrenched things. For we are overturning reasonings and every lofty thing raised up against the knowledge of God, and we are bringing every thought into captivity to make it obedient to the Christ.” (2 Cor. 10:3-5, NW) For this spiritual warfare you are ordered: “Take up the complete suit of armor from God”; and such spiritual armor you must take up “that you may be able to stand firm against the machinations of the Devil; because we have a fight, not against blood and flesh, but against the [spiritual] governments, against the authorities, against the world-rulers of this darkness, against the wicked spirit forces in the heavenly places.” Satan the Devil is the “ruler of this world” and the “god of this system of things”. (Eph. 6:11-13 and John 12:31 and 2 Cor. 4:4, NW) The very application of such military terms in a spiritual way to God’s ambassadors shows they are not pacifists.
21 Their warfare is not against blood and flesh. Their real foes cannot be touched by carnal weapons, and hence they take up God’s spiritual armor. They turn their fighting qualities and energies into the spiritual warfare in order to liberate people from the bondage of the wicked spirit forces dominating this world. They are in God’s spiritual army under Jesus Christ. For them to desert it and join this world in its fights would be disloyalty to God and Christ. It would deserve to be punished with destruction without hope of any life in the righteous new world. They must keep their agreement with God and pay their vow to him, for those who are “false to agreements” are by God’s law “deserving of death”. (Rom. 1:31, 32, NW) So Jehovah’s witnesses keep neutral toward worldly conflicts and obey these strict orders from on high: “As a right kind of soldier of Christ Jesus take your part in suffering evil. No man serving as a soldier involves himself in the commercial businesses of life, in order that he may meet the approval of the one who enrolled him as a soldier.” (2 Tim. 2:3, 4, NW) By this neutral stand toward worldly conflicts and by loyal endurance in the spiritual warfare these soldiers enrolled by Christ meet his approval.
AN EARTH-WIDE BROTHERHOOD
22 Since God’s ambassadors are sent to all nations with the one message of reconciliation, then all those who become reconciled to him become one earth-wide association of brothers. In just that way Jehovah’s witnesses are an international congregation of Christian brothers. God’s Word forbids them to split up over selfish interests and start fighting one another; it commands them to keep united and preserve peace among themselves. To emphasize this, the question was asked: “Does Christ exist divided? . . . For whereas there are jealousy and strife among you, are you not fleshly and are you not walking as men do?” (1 Cor. 1:13; 3:3, NW) On this account they have not abandoned their neutrality toward this world and joined the armies of this divided world under their enemy Satan the Devil. To do so would have meant to become pitted against their spiritual brothers, the children of God, just as in war Protestant becomes pitted against Protestant, Catholic against Catholic, Jew against Jew. This would have resulted in fratricidal warfare for which they would be held strictly accountable by their heavenly Father. Contrary to taking or seeking to take the life of their brothers, the sons of God, they are exhorted to lay down their lives for their brothers, in imitation of Jesus Christ and not of Cain who slaughtered his brother Abel. Hence the apostle John writes:
23 “Do not marvel, brothers, that the world hates you. We know we have passed over from death to life, because we love the brothers. He who does not love remains in death. Everyone who hates his brother is a manslayer, and you know that no manslayer has everlasting life remaining in him. By this we have come to know love, because that one surrendered his soul [or, life] for us; and we are under obligation to surrender our souls [or, lives] for our brothers.”—1 John 3:11-16, NW, margin.
24 The spirit of Jehovah God is upon his witnesses for them to “preach good tidings unto the meek” and to “bind up the brokenhearted”, rather than to break hearts by carnal combat. Now when the river of life-saving truth is flowing forth from the throne of God’s established kingdom, his witnesses must be like trees whose leaves are “for the healing of the nations” and “for medicine”, rather than wounding the nations. (Isa. 61:1; Luke 4:18; Rev. 22:2; Ezek. 47:12) This is the “surpassing way” of love, the love of God with all that a person has and the love of one’s neighbor as oneself.—1 Cor. 12:31–13:7, NW.
25 All the foregoing is only a partial statement of the case of Jehovah’s witnesses, which they have made to boards, officials and courts having the responsibility under the law of the land to determine whether they shall be granted the rights given to conscientious objectors and ministers. But enough has been said to prove to such boards and officials and all others that Jehovah’s witnesses are consistent in their claim. They are not pacifists, but are ministers and conscientious objectors on Scriptural grounds. In taking this stand the boards have been enabled to see that Jehovah’s witnesses stay neutral toward this world and that they remain God’s ministers and ordained preachers of the good news of his kingdom under Christ, with Scriptural and conscientious objection to their participation in worldly war in any form.
________________________________________________________________
The Watchtower, January 1, 1950 Issue, Page 10:
JEHOVAH’S witnesses are ministers of God, ordained to preach the Word.
________________________________________________________________
End of Quotes
Nathan Natas posted some good Watchtower Quotes about them claiming NOT to have any Clergy Class in the Watchtower Organization.
I thought I would help out some and post some more Quotes about the Watchtower NOT having a Clergy:
The Watchtower, February 1st 1954 Issue, Page 93:
...Jehovah has in recent years, by means of his Word, his spirit and his guiding providences, again provided for a service organization in the earth to carry out his purposes. Known as the New World society [of Jehovah's Witnesses], it brings to the people the truth, has no clergy-laity distinction but all its members work and preach.
____________________________________________
The Watchtower, April 15th 1955 Issue, Pages 229-230:
Christ made no provision for a clergy-laity distinction in the Christian congregation but said, “Do not you be called ‘Rabbi’, for one is your teacher, whereas all you are brothers. Moreover, do not call anyone your father on earth, for One is your Father, the heavenly One.” However, he did provide for overseers and assistants, missionaries, shepherds and teachers, “with a view to the training of the holy ones for ministerial work, for the building up of the body of the Christ.” There was no clergy-laity distinction, because all were preachers. Christ set the example for all to follow, even as Paul shows: “Become imitators of me, even as I am of Christ.”—Matt. 23:8, 9; Eph. 4:11, 12; 1 Cor. 11:1, NW.
____________________________________________
The Watchtower, November 1st 1957 Issue, Pages 647-648:
NO CHRISTIAN LAITY
Most persons who profess to be Christians think they are doing quite well if, in addition to being honest and giving to charity, they go to church on Sunday, listen to a sermon and contribute toward the clergyman’s salary and the other expenses of their religious organization. No doubt this misapprehension of theirs largely rests on the false distinction between clergy and laity. Such a distinction, while very common among pagan religions, never did have a place in true Christianity; it certainly did not exist in the early Christian congregation. As one religious journal observed in commenting on “Layman’s Sunday”:
“Certainly in the little band of Jesus and his disciples there was no division into clergy and laity. Much as any [clergyman] would like to regard Jesus as his counterpart in the early situation, his manner, speech and mood were what we would today call ‘lay.’ And just so, the disciples who might look from here like a [newly formed] laity were really the preachers who were sent out.
“In the rest of the New Testament the word for clergy (kleros) means not a special order among the Christians but all the Christians. And the word for laity (laós) means not a recipient part of the congregation but, again, all the Christians. All are called to one service, and all are God’s people. Our distinction between clergy and laity was not known to the New Testament, so St. Paul could not have added ‘clergy and laity’ to the list of Jew and Gentile, slave and free, rich and poor, men and women who are one in Christ. Had he lived in the second century, however, he might have so expanded his list.”--The Christian Century, October 12, 1955.
____________________________________________
The Watchtower, June 15th 1958 Issue, Page 359:
The fact of the matter is that the very profession or vocation of a Christian clergy is without Scriptural foundation or precedent. The clergy-laity distinction was wholly unknown by Christians of the first century. They heeded Jesus’ instructions: “Do not you be called ‘Rabbi’, for one is your teacher, whereas all you are brothers. Moreover, do not call anyone your father on earth, for One is your Father, the heavenly One. Neither be called ‘leaders’, for your Leader is one, the Christ.”--Matt. 23:8-10.
____________________________________________
The Watchtower, July 1st 1958 Issue, Page 409:
Jesus gave no instruction about a clergy and a laity. Hence Jehovah’s witnesses recognize no such distinction. Jesus made no room for clergymen, doctors of divinity, or “fathers” as distinguished from the ‘common herd’ of sheep. In fact he warned against it, as did his apostle Paul. So to be one of Jehovah’s witnesses one must be a minister. In the organization of Jehovah’s witnesses all are brothers, all are preachers of the good news of God’s established kingdom.--Matt. 23:8-12; 1 Pet. 5:3; Matt. 24:14.
____________________________________________
The Watchtower, August 15th 1958 Issue, Pages 487-488:
These Christian ministers and witnesses of Jehovah follow the example set by the apostles and go “from house to house,” looking for those who are “conscious of their spiritual need.” Finding such ones, they make return visits, endeavoring to start a weekly home Bible study. If successful, they continue this study, not only until the student dedicates himself to do God’s will, but until he no longer needs such aid. All ministers are either being trained or training others. There is no clergy-laity distinction, nor are honorary titles bestowed upon any. All keep progressing from students to ministers who can assist others.--Acts 20:20; Matt. 5:3; 23:8.
____________________________________________
The Watchtower, April 15th 1959 Issue, Page 255:
What are meetings of Jehovah’s witnesses like?
They are quite unlike orthodox church services. For instance, no collection is ever taken; contributions are wholly voluntary. At the meetings the Bible is studied, in conjunction with Bible study aids. There are upbuilding discussions in which all can participate. No one is looked down upon either because he is a beginner in Bible knowledge or because of economic circumstances. There is no clergy-laity distinction. At the meetings all--men, women and children--learn how they can walk in the footsteps of Christ, sharing their faith and hope with others. Their meetings are not limited to Jehovah’s witnesses. They would like you to know that all persons of good will are welcome. By attending, you will better understand why Jehovah’s witnesses are different and, above all, you will learn more about the Kingdom good news--the only basis for true happiness today.
____________________________________________
The Watchtower, July 1st 1961 Issue, Page 415:
The question may now well be posed: Where today do such organizational arrangements as existed among these early Christians prevail? Where are there assemblies held in the vernacular tongue, in which there are overseers and assistants but no clergy-laity distinction, in which the emphasis is upon the Word of God and which are in the nature of a school? There can be only one answer: at the Kingdom Halls of Jehovah’s witnesses.___________________________________________
The Watchtower, January 1st 1963 Issue, Page 18:
The whole organization of Jehovah’s witnesses is made up of ordained ministers, and their chief function and training is the use of the sermon. They use Bible sermons from door to door and in their home Bible study work.
___________________________________________
The Watchtower, March 1st 1963 Issue, Page 147:
Also in the congregational life of Jehovah’s witnesses, we notice the general priesthood. Although in every congregation a number of its members are appointed to do special services, such as having oversight, taking care of statistics, literature and money, assigning territories for the preaching work and presiding at Bible studies, corresponding to the pattern of the early church, these members are servants of their brothers and not a clergy, and the rest are not a laity. At the congregational meetings all present participate in the oral discussions. Because he is a minister, any competent male member is called on to perform funerals, baptisms and weddings, and to conduct the service in annual commemoration of the Lord’s death. After appropriate training, given to everybody, all qualified males are assigned to teach and preach from the platform, which is possible because the subjects to be taught in a congregation of all ministers are so manifold and varied that there are assignments for all degrees of teaching and preaching ability. Thus, as in the early church, ‘all ceremonies are performed by any Christian.’--Phil. 1:1; 1 Tim. 2:12; Eph. 4:11-13.
___________________________________________
The Watchtower, February 1st 1964 Issue, Page 86:
Among the witnesses of Jehovah any adult, dedicated and baptized male Christian who is qualified may serve in such ministerial capacities as giving public Bible discourses and funeral talks, performing marriages and presiding at the Lord’s evening meal or supper. There is no clergy class. Overseers and their ministerial assistants are merely servants of their fellow Christians. They are not specially ordained and therefore they are such special servants only so long as they have an appointment so to serve.--Eph. 4:11-16; 1 Tim. 3:1-7.
___________________________________________
The Watchtower, October 15th 1964 Issue, Pages 611-612:
This society’s members adhere strictly to the high moral standards set forth in the Bible. Not content with that, they also recognize and accept the responsibility of following the example of Jesus, who was a faithful and tireless preacher of the kingdom of God. So this society is truly distinctive in that all its members, young and old, male and female, are Christian ministers. Among them there is no division into clergy and laity. When they come together, each one, as opportunity affords, shares in ‘holding fast the public declaration of his hope, inciting his fellows to love and fine works.’--Matt. 24:14; Heb. 10:23, 24.
___________________________________________
The Watchtower, May 1st 1965 Issue, Page 278:
In the early Christian congregation there was no salaried clergy, in fact, no clergy-laity distinction; all preached as they had opportunity and to the extent of their abilities. Far from being served and paid, those who took the lead bore the greatest burdens, even as Jesus showed it should be: “Whoever wants to become great among you must be your minister [diákonos, “servant”], and whoever wants to be first among you must be your slave.”
___________________________________________
The Watchtower, July 15th 1967 Issue, Page 424:
Does true Christianity inspire unselfishness in our times, in this last third of the twentieth century, as it did nineteen centuries ago? Yes, it does. Among whom? Among the Christian witnesses of Jehovah. They have an organization patterned after the early Christians’ in which there is no clergy-laity distinction but in which every Christian is a minister of the good news.
___________________________________________
The Watchtower, May 15th 1968 Issue, Page 306:
There is no clergy-laity distinction among true followers of the Lord Jesus.
___________________________________________
The Watchtower, April 1st 1969 Issue, Page 199:
Jesus, the Head, does not split up the body of his congregation into a clergy class and a laity class of the “common people.” He says to his followers: “Do not you be called Rabbi, for one is your teacher, whereas all you are brothers. Moreover, do not call anyone your father on earth, for one is your Father, the heavenly One. Neither be called ‘leaders,’ for your Leader is one, the Christ.”--Matt. 23:8-10.
So Jesus shows that there is no division among those who make up the true church. All are brothers; there are no class distinctions.___________________________________________
The Watchtower, July 1st 1969 Issue, Page 407:
There exists no clergy-laity distinction [among the Jehovah's Witnesses], but all together are brothers and servants of Jehovah and one another.
___________________________________________
The Watchtower, October 15th 1969 Issue, Page 634:
In harmony with this, there is no clergy-laity distinction among Jehovah’s witnesses. All baptized Christians are spiritual brothers and sisters, just as Jesus indicated.
___________________________________________
The Watchtower, December 1st 1969 Issue, Page 727:
We [Jehovah's Witnesses] will continue to disapprove of the dividing up of the religious people into clergy and laity. We have the Bible behind us in this position.___________________________________________
The Watchtower, February 1st 1971 Issue, Page 80:
Such men [of Christendom] had become a clergy class that preached the religious philosophies of men to church members who formed an inactive and inferior laity class. This was not God’s way, and the religious organization that prompted it was not his.
[...]
Every dedicated, baptized person in this Christian organization [of Jehovah's Witnesses] is a preacher.___________________________________________
The Watchtower, June 1st 1971 Issue, Page 330:
Another reason why many feel there is no place for them in the service of God is due to the clergy-laity distinction that is fostered in the churches. However, there was no clergy-laity division in early Christianity, and there is none today in true Christianity. Whether one has a heavenly hope or one hopes to live forever on the paradise earth when God’s will is fully done here, still each one has a responsibility before God as a minister in harmony with what is set out in the Scriptures. The setting apart of a clergy class dates back to Babylonish, pagan worship. No precedent for it is found in the ministry of Jesus or his disciples. As M’Clintock and Strong’s Cyclopædia says, “The great commission in Matt. xxviii, 19, 20 was not delivered to the eleven apostles merely, but to the general body of the disciples . . . So on the day of Pentecost the whole mass of believers at Jerusalem seem to have been inspired with preaching powers.” While referring to a “technical distinction between clergy and laity,” they go on to say that this “is almost ignored in the New Testament, and we find members of the Church, whether official or private, male or female, freely exercising their liberty in proclaiming Jesus everywhere.”
___________________________________________
The Watchtower, November 15th 1971 Issue, Page 677:
JEHOVAH’S WITNESSES—Their Teachings and Practices
[...]
There is no clergy-laity distinction among them.--Mark 10:42-45.
Their religion is not a set of rituals but a way of life.--Rom. 12:1, 2.
___________________________________________
The Watchtower, March 15th 1973 Issue, Page 167:
Jehovah has allowed no dividing of his “sheep” into a clergy class and a laity class [among the Jehovah's Witnesses].
___________________________________________
The Watchtower, August 15th 1974 Issue, Page 491:
Christendom’s religious architecture distorted truth in yet another way. The interiors of cathedrals and churches were designed in such a way as to separate the priestly or clergy class from the laity. In the special area set aside for them, priests performed ritualistic ceremonies at the altar. Greater sanctity was thus attached to one group of professed Christians than to another. This contradicted the truth that all of God’s devoted servants are “holy,” all are “brothers.”--Matt. 23:8-10.
___________________________________________
The Watchtower, April 1st 1975 Issue, Page 202:
CLERGY-LAITY DISTINCTION
Jesus Christ had given no instructions for his disciples to be divided up into clergy and laity. They were all equals as members of a spiritual family, all spirit-begotten brothers of Jesus Christ, anointed to be a body of priests, with prospects of being heavenly kings and priests with Christ. The apostle Peter called them “a royal priesthood.” (1 Pet. 2:5, 9)
___________________________________________
The Watchtower, October 1st 1977 Issue, Page 599:
Special titles that set apart a “clergy” class from a “laity” are not used among Jehovah’s Witnesses.___________________________________________
Truth Book (1981), Page 119:
Jesus, the Head, does not split up the body of his congregation into a clergy class and a laity class of the “common people.” He says to his followers: “Do not you be called Rabbi, for one is your teacher, whereas all you are brothers. Moreover, do not call anyone your father on earth, for one is your Father, the heavenly One. Neither be called ‘leaders,’ for your Leader is one, the Christ.” (Matthew 23:8-10) So Jesus shows that there is no division among those who make up the true church. However, he did arrange for men to take the lead in the Christian congregation, to serve the spiritual needs of their brothers and organize the work of preaching the good news. Jesus said such ones were not to “lord it over” their brothers but were to be like slaves or servants to them. (Matthew 20:25-28)
___________________________________________
The Watchtower, December 1st 1981 Issue, Page 23:
Since they [Jehovah's Witnesses] were all ministers, these Christians rejected a clergy-laity distinction.___________________________________________
The Watchtower, February 1st 1982 Issue, Page 7:
...no clergy-laity distinction was intended in genuine Christianity.___________________________________________
The Watchtower, August 15th 1984 Issue, Pages 10-15:
Must All True Christians Be Ministers?
“All things are from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of the reconciliation.”—2 CORINTHIANS 5:18.
“THERE was no distinction [in the apostle Paul’s day] between clergy and laity for there were no clergy.” That startling statement, which appeared in the London Times, expresses a basic truth regarding early Christianity. There was no clergy-laity division. Does that mean that the Christian congregation was without any visible leadership? And were there no ministers in any sense?
2. Some time after Pentecost, 33 C.E., as the number of anointed Christians grew by the thousands, it became necessary to appoint qualified men in each congregation to serve as overseers and as ministerial servants. But they did not form a clergy class. Their appointment did not depend on a university or seminary career. They did not receive a salary for their services. They were humble men with spiritual qualifications, appointed by holy spirit to care for the flock. Were they, though, the only ones who preached the ‘good news of the Kingdom’? Were they the only ministers in the congregation?--Matthew 24:14; Acts 20:17, 28; 1 Peter 5:1-3; 1 Timothy 3:1-10.
3. These questions are answered by Paul’s counsel in his letters to the Christians in Corinth. Note the introduction to his second letter: “Paul . . . to the congregation of God that is in Corinth, together with all the holy ones who are in all of Achaia.” There is no doubt about it—he wrote to the whole body of anointed Christians in Corinth and Achaia, not just to those taking the lead. Thus his comments on the Christian ministry are very pertinent to “all the holy ones.” Based on his activity and Timothy’s, he reasoned: “Since we have this ministry according to the mercy that was shown us, we do not give up.” “But all things are from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of the reconciliation . . . We are therefore ambassadors substituting for Christ, as though God were making entreaty through us.” He continues: “In no way are we giving any cause for stumbling, that our ministry might not be found fault with; but in every way we recommend ourselves as God’s ministers, by the endurance of much.”--2 Corinthians 1:1; 4:1; 5:18-20; 6:3, 4.
4. These words imply that every anointed Christian has to be a minister and ambassador for Christ. For what reason? Because the world, by its sin, is “alienated from the life that belongs to God” and needs a ministry of reconciliation in order that obedient and loyal people from all nations may have a relationship through Christ with the Sovereign Lord Jehovah.--Ephesians 4:18; Romans 5:1, 2.
5. To the congregation in Rome, Paul wrote: “But what does it [God’s Word] say? ‘The word is near you, in your own mouth and in your own heart’; that is, the ‘word’ of faith, which we are preaching. For if you publicly declare that ‘word in your own mouth,’ that Jesus is Lord, and exercise faith in your heart that God raised him up from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart one exercises faith for righteousness, but with the mouth one makes public declaration for salvation.”--Romans 10:8-10.
6. Did Paul direct those words to a select few? His introduction shows otherwise, for he wrote: “To all those who are in Rome as God’s beloved ones.” He added: “I give thanks to my God through Jesus Christ concerning all of you, because your faith is talked about throughout the whole world.” Clearly, Paul directed his counsel and encouragement, including chapter 10, to the whole congregation. The privilege of making public declaration was open to all. In fact, he strengthened his argument by adding: “However, how will they call on him in whom they have not put faith? How, in turn, will they put faith in him of whom they have not heard? How, in turn, will they hear without someone to preach? How, in turn, will they preach unless they have been sent forth? Just as it is written: ‘How comely are the feet of those who declare good news of good things!’”--Romans 1:7, 8; 10:14, 15.
7. How encouraging that is for every anointed Christian! It means that all of them should have the joy of spreading the Kingdom message of salvation to others. Yes, in God’s sight, their feet can be and should be “comely” in a figurative sense. Why so? Because genuine Christianity is not an egocentric religion that leads to self-satisfaction, seclusion and vows of silence. On the contrary, it promotes an active Christian ministry expressed in word and deed! How conscious Paul was of that is seen by his exclamation: “Really, woe is me if I did not declare the good news!”--1 Corinthians 9:16; Isaiah 52:7.
8. But what about the millions of true Christians who do not have an anointing by holy spirit because their hope is for everlasting life on earth, not in heaven? Must they also be ministers?--Psalm 37:29; 2 Peter 3:13.
Are Those of the “Great Crowd” Ministers?
9. The book of Revelation supplies a partial answer to those questions. For example, after having seen in vision the anointed congregation of 144,000, John says: “After these things I saw, and, look! a great crowd, which no man was able to number, out of all nations and tribes and peoples and tongues, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, dressed in white robes; and there were palm branches in their hands. And they keep on crying with a loud voice, saying: ‘Salvation we owe to our God, who is seated on the throne, and to the Lamb.’” Certainly these, who are now being gathered to survive the great tribulation, are not hiding their Christian identity. They are declaring with “a loud voice” the origin of their salvation. How do they do that today? Among other things, by aiding the small remnant of anointed ones in the fulfillment of other vital ministerial prophecies and commands.--Revelation 7:9, 10, 14.
10. For instance, this numberless crowd is playing an essential role in carrying out Jesus’ command to preach and teach, which he gave to his faithful disciples in Galilee. On that occasion Jesus said: “All authority has been given me in heaven and on the earth. Go therefore and make disciples of people of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the holy spirit, teaching them to observe all the things I have commanded you.” That mandate was given to all Christians, not to a select clergy class.--Matthew 28:18-20; 1 Corinthians 15:6.
11. Jesus’ command is also closely related to the prophecy that he gave regarding “the conclusion of the system of things.” He stated: “This good news of the kingdom will be preached in all the inhabited earth for a witness to all the nations; and then the end will come.” How has this challenge to preach the Kingdom message worldwide in one generation been met? Certainly the dwindling thousands of anointed Christians could not have done this lifesaving work alone. It would have been an impossible task!--Matthew 24:3, 14; Luke 21:32.
12. The anointed “joint heirs with Christ” are happy to recognize the part played by the more than two million ministers of the “great crowd” who have spread the message of the Kingdom throughout the world in such a relatively short space of time. Even back in the 1930’s, many true Christians accepted the responsibility of the ministry in other lands and offered to serve where the need was greater. Thanks to the self-sacrificing example of these brothers and sisters, whether of the anointed or of the “other sheep” class, the Kingdom work took stronger root in many countries in Europe, Africa, Asia and the Americas.--Romans 8:17.
13. Prior to 1943 “the faithful and discreet slave” class of anointed Christians saw the need to establish a missionary school so that Christian ministers could receive additional training and preparation with a view to opening up and accelerating the preaching work in many other lands. From its inauguration in 1943 and up till March 4, 1984, that Gilead School (“Gilead” in Hebrew means “witness heap”) has trained some 6,100 graduates, most of whom have been sent to foreign assignments around the world. Only 292 (4.8 percent) of these Gilead graduates professed to be of the anointed class, so the majority of these specially trained ministers have been of the “great crowd.” Like the rest of Jehovah’s Witnesses worldwide they accepted the Christian ministry as an integral part of Christian life when they made their dedication to Jehovah through Christ Jesus.--Matthew 24:45-47; Hebrews 10:7.
Vocation Based on What?
14. Does that mean that Christians have a personal vocation, or calling from God, to the ministry? It is true that some in Christendom have depicted their “vocation” as an extremely emotional experience, as if God had called them directly to his service. But is the Christian ministry mainly based on something as transient as emotion?
15. When the apostle Paul spoke of sacred service to God, what did he show to be the basis of it? He wrote: “Consequently I entreat you by the compassions of God, brothers, to present your bodies a sacrifice living, holy, acceptable to God, a sacred service with your power of reason [“as an act of intelligent worship,” Phillips; “as rational creatures,” The New English Bible, footnote].” Yes, sacred service to God is based on reason. How so? Because one’s dedication and personal relationship to Jehovah are founded on knowledge of the true God. Thus the Christian’s calling to the ministry, although a happy experience in itself, is not just the result of an emotional reaction. It has a solid motivation—love of God and love of neighbor.--Romans 12:1; John 17:3.
16. But you may ask, Were those early Christians also ministers even if they had full-time secular work or were housewives? Yes, they were. Maybe they could spend only a small fraction of their time in the Christian ministry, preaching and teaching, but that was their prime purpose in life. They knew they had to ‘let their light shine’ as true disciples of Christ. In effect they were worker-ministers long before Christendom had its worker-priest movement.--Matthew 5:16; 1 Peter 2:9.
Proof of Their Ministry
17. How do Jehovah’s Witnesses prove that they are ministers if they have no diploma or university degree? Well, how did the early Christians establish that they were ministers? Christ himself provided this insight: “Every good tree produces fine fruit.” Christian ministers should produce “fine fruit,” which includes sharing in the disciple-making work.--Matthew 7:17.
18. The apostle Paul explained it this way: “Are we starting again to recommend ourselves? Or do we, perhaps, like some men, need letters of recommendation to you or from you? You yourselves are our letter, inscribed on our hearts and known and being read by all mankind. For you are shown to be a letter of Christ written by us as ministers, inscribed not with ink but with spirit of a living God, not on stone tablets, but on fleshly tablets, on hearts.” How was that writing on hearts accomplished? By the preaching of the seedlike word of faith that became implanted in the heart. In turn this seed motivated the receiver also to preach the same message of salvation to others.--2 Corinthians 3:1-3.
19. Do Jehovah’s Witnesses have proof of ‘a letter of Christ written by them as ministers’? The facts speak for themselves. In 1931, when they first accepted their unique name, there were about 50,000 Witnesses preaching around the world. The report for 1983 shows a peak of over 2,652,000 ministers preaching the Kingdom good news in association with 46,235 congregations. Yes, there are nearly as many congregations now as there were Witnesses in 1931! The truth has indeed been written on millions of hearts over the last few decades—and that is irrefutable proof of the ministry of Jehovah’s Witnesses.--Isaiah 43:10-12.
20. The need for Christian ministers today is more urgent than ever. The time is short and the harvest is great. All the more reason, then, for us to be qualified, capable ministers who preach and teach in a productive way. How can we do that? How can we be more effective ministers? Are the examples of Christ and the apostles of practical value for us today?--Ephesians 5:15, 16; Matthew 9:37, 38.
___________________________________________
God's Word Book (1989), Page 147:
There were only about 10,000 Witnesses back then, but they knew the work that had to be done. Courageously, they set about the task of preaching. They realized that a clergy-laity division was contrary to both the Bible’s commands and the apostolic pattern. So all of them, to the last individual, learned how to speak to their neighbors about God’s Kingdom. They became an organization of preachers.
____________________________________________
Proclaimers Book (1993), Pages 144-145:
There is no clergy-laity distinction among true Christians [Jehovah's Witnesses]. (Matt. 20:25-27; 23:8-12)
Page 204:
The Bible Students [Jehovah's Witnesses] were keenly interested in understanding not only Bible doctrine but also the manner in which God’s service was to be performed, as indicated by the Scriptures. They realized that the Bible made no provision for titled clergymen, with a laity to whom they would preach. Brother Russell [Founder of the Jehovah's Witnesses] was determined that there would be no clergy class among them. Through the columns of the Watch Tower, its readers were frequently reminded that Jesus told his followers: “Your Leader is one, the Christ,” but, “All you are brothers.”--Matt. 23:8, 10.
____________________________________________
The Watchtower, February 15th 1994 Issue, Page 7:
It is precisely because of this close adherence to Bible teachings that the veneration and idolization of human leaders so characteristic of cults today is not to be found among Jehovah’s Witnesses. They reject the concept of a clergy-laity distinction. The Encyclopedia of Religion aptly states about Jehovah’s Witnesses: “A clergy class and distinctive titles are prohibited.”
____________________________________________
The Watchtower, May 1st 1994 Issue, Page 23:
Although various Protestant groups broke free from the power of Rome, they carried with them many of the basic teachings and practices of the apostasy--the clergy-laity concept...
Page 25:
They [Jehovah's Witnesses] never had a clergy class...
____________________________________________
The Watchtower, May 15th 1995 Issue, Page 18:
The Bible Students [Jehovah's Witnesses] ...came to see that there is no Scriptural basis for a clergy-laity distinction. (Matthew 23:8-10) On the contrary, all Christians [Jehovah's Witnesses] are to be preachers of the good news. (Acts 1:8)
Elders are untrained volunteers:
Quote from the Paducah Sun (Kentucky) Newspaper - January 28th 2001:
"Both Brown and Moreno said that the elders, who volunteer and are essentially untrained clergy, might err in their application of a policy both believe puts protecting children first."
_______________________________________________
Quote from "An Unlikely David: Barbara Anderson's struggle to stop predatory pedophiles in the cloistered world of Jehovah's Witnesses"
September 3rd 2002:
By Michael Morris
(The original article can be found here: http://www.toasted-cheese.com/ezine/2-3/morris.htm)
Parents of most denominations would not hesitate to call police first when sexual abuse of their child is reported. But to the Witnesses, all outsiders - even police and social workers -- are co-conspirators with Satan, part of the condemned world soon to be destroyed by God. As a Witness, when dealing with any wrongdoing "you go to elders first, and then elders make the decision for where you go [from there]. To bypass the organization would be treason," said Anderson.
But these same elders "volunteer, and are essentially untrained clergy," according to a Jehovah's Witness spokesman in the Paducah Sun. They attend no seminary, and have no minimum education requirements, beyond basic literacy. They are equipped for nothing more than enforcing organizational guidelines, delivering biblical platitudes and offering a moment of prayer. When encountering a case of child sexual abuse for the first time, their instructions are first to "call the Legal Department" at the group's headquarters.
______________________________________________________
Yes, Outnfree, you are critically thinking very well and yes I think we even have a shot at the "motion to reconsider" stage but usually they do go to appeal.
Thank you for letting me know that it was you. If you want the actual links to look for yourself go here
Rules of Evidence:
http://www.courts.state.nh.us/rules/evid/index.htm
Now the above rules only apply to giving testimony in court. If you scroll down to Article V you will see Rule 505 which releates to Clerical privilege.
Now scroll down further to Article XI (MISCELLANEOUS RULES) and read Rule 1101 which deals with the "Applicability of the Rules". I have bolded the more important sections for you "Outnfree".
http://www.courts.state.nh.us/rules/evid/evid-1101.htm
RULES OF EVIDENCE, ARTICLE XI. MISCELLANEOUS RULES
R ule 1101. Applicability of Rules
(a) Courts. - These rules apply to the proceedings in the district and municipal courts, probate courts, superior court, and the supreme court.
(b) Proceedings Generally. - These rules apply generally to all civil and criminal proceedings unless otherwise provided by the constitution or statutes of the State of New Hampshire or these rules.
(c) Rule of Privilege. - The rule with respect to privileges applies at all stages of all actions, cases, and proceedings.
(d) Rules Inapplicable. - The rules (other than with respect to privileges) do not apply in the following situations:
(1) Preliminary Questions of Fact. - The determination of questions of fact preliminary to admissibility of evidence when the issue is to be determined by the court under Rule 104.
(2) Grand Jury. - Proceedings before grand juries.
(3) Miscellaneous Proceedings. - Proceedings for extradition or rendition; preliminary examinations in criminal cases; juvenile certification proceedings under RSA 169-B:24; sentencing, or granting or revoking probation; issuance of warrants for arrest, criminal summonses, and search warrants; proceedings with respect to release on bail or otherwise; contempt proceedings in which the court may act summarily; proceedings with respect to parole revocation or probation violations; recommittal hearings; divorce cases; and domestic violence proceedings.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
So Outnfree, you can see for yourself that His honour applied an evidence court rule to the statutory requirement of failing to report child abuse. Failing to report child abuse is found in a completely different statute. What we call N.H. RSA 169
Here you can find the the above reporting critera statute I am referring to in "Title XII: Public Safety and Welfare, Chapter 169-c, section 29"
http://www.gencourt.state.nh.us/rsa/html/XII/169-C/169-C-29.htm
You can also find the purpose of Chapter 169 here:
http://www.gencourt.state.nh.us/rsa/html/XII/169-C/169-C-2.htm
Hope all this helps understand where His Honour went off course in my mind. Let's hope Anderons team pulls this out of the fire for the Berry girls sake.
hawk
I postet the newspaper article about the courtcase, on the JW site, here is the responce. Dear Brother, Please note the following Posting Guidelines. I removed your post on the abuse case because it does not conform to the upbuilding of our members. Please be mindful of the following guidelines when making furture postings. Thank you. Your sister in faith, CaroleRenee, WBOTW Assistant Manager 5. Remember when posting in JW NEWS that not all worldly news reports are accurate or even truthful. Verify what you want to post before you do so; make sure it is not faith destroying or disturbing. 6. Remember that we have many children and young people on this site. It is our policy that NO POST be allowed that is dealing with child abuse in any form whatsoever. ALL posts on this matter will be deleted without excuse or explanation. 7. ANY post that places Jehovah or his Organization (the Christian Congregation) in a bad light or that is apostate or any post that inspires doubt about the spiritual direction of the Faithful and Discreet Slave Class or the elder arrangement will be deleted - along with the member who posted it!
I think the real issue here is the ethical and moral responsibility of elders to prevent child sexual abuse. The legal system varies from state to state and country to country. But an individual, especially one professing to believe in Christianity, must answer before God. If he withholds information from the proper authorities, he becomes as guilty as the perpertrator.
In the past, the Watchtowers have reminded its members that when a crime was committed in Israel the entire community was held responsible. It was up to them to find the guilty party and to see that justice was done. This shared responsibility was part of God's law. And there are Biblical examples to be cited. In some cases, the entire nation was held responsible.
Bill Bowen clearly saw this issue and no longer would keep silent to protect the organization. When the Watchtower Society took action against him it added to its collective guilt. If the courts fail to render the proper judgment, God will not.
Isn't it wierd how the society spends all this time tearing down the catholic traditions like confession, then hides behind the same privileges that those customs have created?
CZAR
