How would you respond to:
The WT is much like the Jewish nation. They have veered from true & just practices, just like the Jews sometimes did. But it is still the truth, just like Jehovah kept using the Jews for so long and then corrected the matter.
BTW, interesting note here at http://www.livingwaters.cl/books/friends/chapter08.htm :
The importance of being in the synagogue
In Jesus' times, the synagogue was the center of the religious life and the Jewish social life. To be expelled from it was to become marginalized, an outcast. For that reason the Jews feared being expelled from it. The formerly blind man's parents, in spite of the joy that they felt when seeing their healthy son, didn't dare be exposed to being thrown out of the synagogue by giving a favorable testimony about Jesus.
The parents didn't want to jeopardize themselves, despite having strong reasons for doing so.
The same thing happened to others who were secret followers of Jesus. Joseph of Arimathea "was a disciple of Jesus, but secretly because he feared the Jews." (John 19:38). So too was Nicodemus. (John 3:1-2; 7:50-52; 19:39-42) And many others: "Yet at the same time many even among the leaders believed in him. But because of the Pharisees they would not confess their faith for fear that they would be put out of the Synagogue; for they loved praise from men more than praise from God." (John 12:42-43).
The man's parents hardly had great honor, because they were the parents of a beggar, but even so, they didn't want to lose what little that they had. Joseph of Arimathea, Nicodemus and the rulers on the other hand did possess a great deal of honor. Is it not therefore strange that the parents didn't want to lose their honor? They didn't admit openly that Jesus was the Christ -although they believed it in their hearts - in order to avoid being thrown out of the synagogue.
For them, being in the synagogue meant having both God and men on their side. For that reason, it didn't suit them to be thrown out for any reason.
Yet to continue in the synagogue after believing in Jesus caused problems of the conscience. They surely didn't have peace, because they could not defend Jesus when others spoke badly of him.
They don't appear in the book of Acts (although perhaps they were with the Christians). They perhaps didn't have the wonderful privilege of following him, because they loved the praise of men more than the glory of God.
