Caste System
The kingdom of God has an inside and an outside. Outside is outer darkness. It is a binary
condition: either you inherit the kingdom, or you are cast outside.
The founders of the Jehovah's Witnesses, reflecting that there are
ever rulers and ruled, volunteered themselves to serve as the ruling
classes:
- "Rulership for Some,
Benefits for Many
- "SINCE the days of the apostles, God has been
choosing from among mankind a limited number of
faithful Christians, adopting them as sons. The
change that these adopted sons experience is so
complete that God’s Word describes it as a new
birth. The purpose of the new birth is to
prepare such born-again servants of God to
become rulers in heaven."
- "...Those
who are born again will become part of a
government in heaven. For what purpose? To bring
everlasting benefits to untold millions of
people, subjects of God’s government who will be
living on earth."
- (Tract, "Born Again, What Does it Mean?",
watchtower.org).
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It's a tough job, but somebody's got to do it! They are the
rulers, and their subjects are the great unwashed, the many who are
not born again and not adopted as children of God. But in inviting
millions to aspire to a destiny outside the kingdom of God, where are
they inviting them to dwell? Paradise Earth...or outer darkness? The Watchtower
organization admonishes the lower class of believers not to hope to
be born again, not to aspire to the kingdom, and not to look for
the Holy Spirit:
- "A believer may be baptized in water in symbol
of his unconditional dedication to Jehovah God, yet if he does not get the baptism with the
holy spirit from God and through Christ, he will never enter the kingdom
of the heavens to reign with Christ...Those who are baptized with Jehovah's
spirit and thus baptized into Christ's body number finally only 144,000
faithful believers."
- ("New Heavens and A New Earth," Watchtower
Bible and Tract Society, Inc., 1953, pp. 306-308).
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But the Bible says those without the Holy Spirit are not of Christ:
"But you are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God
dwells in you. Now if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he is not His."
(Romans 8:9).
As if to underscore their exclusion from the body of Christ, Jehovah's Witnesses
outside of the super-annuated remnant of the 144,000 also refuse to join
in communion:
"Then Jesus said to them, 'Most assuredly, I say to you, unless you
eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink His blood, you have no life in
you.'" (John 6:53).
They reject the Lord's ordinances because they are outside the
kingdom. But what hope is there for those who are outside Christ? The Watchtower Society
claims to have found a back door, a salvation plan without Christ, without
the Holy Spirit, in David and the patriarchs. But King David put
his trust in Christ, owning Him as Lord: "The LORD said to my Lord,
'Sit at My right hand, Till I make Your enemies Your footstool.'"
(Psalm 110:1). Moreover, David was filled with the Holy Spirit:
"Then Samuel took the horn of oil and anointed him in the midst of his brothers;
and the Spirit of the LORD came upon David from that day forward.
So Samuel arose and went to Ramah." (1 Samuel 16:13);
"Now these are the last words of David. Thus says David the son of
Jesse; thus says the man raised up on high, the anointed of the God of
Jacob, and the sweet psalmist of Israel: 'The Spirit of the LORD spoke
by me, and His word was on my tongue.'" (2 Samuel 23:1-2).
David looked to the Holy Spirit for a new heart:
"Hide Your face from my sins and blot out all my iniquities. Create
in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me. Do
not cast me away from Your presence, and do not take Your Holy Spirit from
me. Restore to me the joy of Your salvation, and uphold me by Your
generous Spirit." (Psalm 51:9-12).
The Jehovah's Witnesses don't share David's hope; they prefer to blaze their own trail. Where
will it lead? Jesus said, "I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father
except through Me." (John 14:6). The invitation is not to join a closed list, but is sent
out to "whosoever will":
"And the Spirit and the bride say, Come. And let him that hears say,
Come. And let him that is thirsty come. And whosoever will, let him take
the water of life freely." (Revelation 22:17).
Why not enter through the open door? Why try to find another way into the sheep-fold, when there is no
other way?
Elected Bishops
When the Watchtower Society devised their system of spiritual apartheid, they
meant it and were able to make it stick against the previously
independent Bible Students:
"Finally in order to streamline their Organization the
Society officially promulgated in 1938 “The Theocracy,” and had
every company of Jehovah’s Witnesses, by resolution, vote away their
autonomy in spiritual matters. In this the Jehovah’s Witnesses
agreed to accept without question the Society’s teachings, and to
bow abjectly to her supervision. They further granted the Society
the sole right to come into the congregation and to appoint servants
from Brooklyn to be their Theocratic Exactors— Zoneservants, who in
turn would be “the eyes and ears” of the Society."
(Schnell, William J., 30 Years a Watchtower Slave: The
Confessions of a Converted Jehovah's Witness (p. 48). Baker
Publishing Group. Kindle Edition.)
What is the Bible system of church governance?
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