Let me tell you about the greatest guy I know: Joe.
Joe is the greatest because of his integrity. You’ll never meet a more ethical, fair-minded, good-hearted guy than Joe.
Let me tell you why I praise Joe so highly (you’ll be literally singing his praises too once you hear.)
Joe used to have the most beautiful backyard in the neighborhood. Replete with fountains and trees: a real orchard! He always left the gate open and allowed the neighborhood kids to come in and play, and eat the fruit off his trees, etc. Well, all except for one tree, which he had posted with a sign: “Do not eat from this tree! Violaters will be prosecuted to the full extent of the law!” I know; that doesn’t sound like Joe. But, hey, I guess he really loved that tree.
So one day the inevitable happened: he found a couple of kids munching on the fruit from his favorite tree. The kids didn’t know it was wrong; they couldn’t read. But he threw them and everyone else out of the yard, locked the gate, posted a guard, and then destroyed the orchard! (Did I mention that Joe has a violent temper?)
It seems those kids hadn’t acted entirely on their own initiative when they ate that forbidden fruit. No; there was an instigator: the neighborhood bully, who was jealous of Joe: Stan.
When Joe burned down his own orchard and threw everybody out, he also put Stan in charge of all the kids. Of course he knew that Stan was a real low-life, and that he’d treat the kids miserably and lead them into all kinds of mischief that would lead to their ruin. But, hey: they had chosen Stan over him — and Joe was pretty peeved about that — so let them suffer the consequences of their own choice! That’s fair, isn’t it?
But then Joe got to thinking. He had gone to so much work planting that orchard: he really wanted people to enjoy it. So, he decided to murder his son in order to forgive everyone for what those two kids had done.
But, before he had his son murdered, he told his favorite kids to act out the upcoming murder by ritually killing animals. Wasn’t that a great act of love on Joe’s part? But, before you start singing his praises along with me, I have to tell you that there is still more evidence of his great love and forgiveness for all humanity!
Joe decided to murder all the kids who followed Stan (the guy Joe left in charge) and then have the remaining kids plant a new orchard for themselves on a new plot of land Joe would give to them. Wasn’t that generous? Those few kids are going to live happily ever after thanks to Joe’s forthright way of dealing with those original two “bad” kids.
I know that some people think Joe could’ve handled this whole situation better somehow. But, hey: Joe says he’s a lot smarter and better than anyone else, so he knows best. Better not to question his actions, or you won’t be allowed into that future new orchard. Just keep praising him, and using his name at least once in every sentence, similar to how some people use the word f**k. Just be sure to use his full name: Joe Hovah.
From: Songs of Innocence and Songs of Experience (1794) by William Blake
I went to the Garden of Love,
And saw what I never had seen:
A Kingdom Hall built in the midst,
Where I used to play on the green.
And the gates of this building were shut
And ‘Thou shalt not,’ writ over the door;
So I turned to the Garden of Love
That so many sweet flowers bore.
And I saw it was filled with graves,
And tombstones where flowers should be;
Elders in black gowns were walking their rounds,
And binding with briars my joys and desires.
—
A little girl I spied me there
who sang sad songs of woe and death
and shivered in the fetid gloom
and struggled for her every breath.
“Come away and play with me!
Away from bogus rules and lies
we’ll journey through this flowering world
where light shines through unfettered skies!”
Then grieved to see I’d called in vain.
She turned away in sad lament:
“If false or true, I cannot go with you.
I don’t know how to play; just ‘listen and obey.'”
(Slightly altered & with additional verses by Steve McRoberts)
The Governing Body has long claimed that they (as “the faithful and discreet slave” represented by their Watchtower corporation and its publications) are “God’s sole mouthpiece on Earth” and that, along with their faithful members (the Jehovah’s Witnesses), they fulfill the same role as the biblical prophets of old in delivering God’s message to the world.
So, the answer to the question in our title seems obvious: according to them, their [non-]inspiration comes from their god Jehovah.
They make the above disclaimer so that we won’t hold their checkered record of errors against them (if we try, they’ll fire back with: “We never claimed to be infallible!”) So, in effect, they ask us to treat them as inspired, infallible prophets today and in the future, but not in the past (not even when today becomes the past.) What a great deal for them! They get to be as wrong as wrong can be and not ever be held accountable or evaluated on their past record!
But what we really want to examine in this article is how this communication supposedly transpires between Jehovah and the Governing Body (or whoever has happened to be at the helm of the Watchtower issuing “God’s messages” at the time.)
Surprisingly, the Watchtower has not offered much in the way of explanation of this miraculous process. It’s also odd that Witnesses don’t bother to inquire. If anyone else were to claim that a god had imparted a message to them that they would like to share, a Witness would no doubt ask questions as to how the supposed “prophet” had received this communique.
In fact, the Bible (which Witnesses laughably claim to be their sole authority) admonishes us to investigate such claims, and not just gullibly believe in them:
Dear friends, do not believe everyone who claims to speak by the Spirit. You must test them to see if the spirit they have comes from God. For there are many false prophets in the world. 1John 4:1 (NLT)
So, here’s what the Watchtower has told us over the years:
The holy spirit is the active force of the living God, which he sends out through his Son, Christ Jesus, and which operates toward Jehovah’s people, enlightening and directing his theocratic organization on the earth today as it did in the days of the apostles.”
—Watchtower 1960 May 15 p.299
3. Not Holy Spirit: The Bible!
Question: By what mechanism would you understand God’s spirit to direct your decisions?
Answer: Well, what I mean by that is, by prayer and using our constitution, God’s word, we would go through the scriptures and see if there was any biblical principle at all that would influence our decision – and it could be that in our initial discussions there was something that maybe we were missing and then in another discussion that would come to light. So we would view that as God’s spirit motivating us because we believe the Bible is God’s word and came by means of holy spirit. (Australian Royal Commission transcript: 15935:10)
Immediately prior to this, Jackson stated that a majority vote by the Governing Body members would decide an issue.
So this is quite a different image from the one painted earlier in their history: of angelic or holy-spirit supernatural intervention into their minds! Now we see a group of ordinary men merely kicking around their ideas about the Bible and then putting said ideas up for a vote.
And, we need to bear in mind that when the Governing Body speaks of “God’s word” they don’t just mean the Bible, but they include their own Watchtower publications under that umbrella:
To the whole series of messages of truth which he gave and which he continues to give ever since the lighting have been flashing from the temple and upon the record of his Word. The expression “the word”, therefore includes every revelation of truth down to and including the book Vindication and whatsoever shall be revealed and published, by the Lord’s grace, as long as the remnant is on earth.
—Watchtower 1932 April 1 p.101 (emphasis added)
A former Governing Body member relates an incident in which two members brought forth an idea in which the 1914 date would be changed to 1957 to correspond with the launching of the Russian satellite Sputnik fulfilling the prophecy of “there will be signs in the heavens.” This, however failed to win a majority vote, but it’s interesting to see how close millions of Jehovah’s Witnesses came to abandoning their precious 1914 date on a show of hands! (Crisis of Conscience [Commentary Press; Ex-library edition, 1983] by Raymond Franz)
4. Not the Bible: Spirits of Dead People!
Watchtower 2007 Jan 1 p.27 (Click to enlarge)
As you can see above, In the year 2007 the Watchtower told us that they may have been receiving their “divine truth” in the form of spirit messages from the dead! They conjectured that their 1935 doctrine of a “great crowd” destined for everlasting life on earth, may have been conveyed to them from the spirits of dead people!
But the Watchtower has always told us that spirit messages are from the devil:
Spirit messages are quite plentiful which purport to give the human family superior wisdom from the so-called spirit world… We think that the devil and his angels are responsible for… the messages. The Golden Age 1924, Jan 16 p.251
Watchtower tract of 2006 (click to enlarge)
So, as usual, they can’t seem to get their story straight. When Rutherford imagined that angels were putting thoughts into his head, the Governing Body now tells us he was wrong. So, where were his thoughts coming from, then?
The 2007 Watchtower tells us that the Governing Body figured that spirits of dead people [which their 2006 tract tells us cannot possibly exist] had imparted information to them on an important doctrine.
Though the Watchtower has claimed that its doctrines come from “holy spirit,” it turns out — according to Governing Body members themselves — that the doctrines really come from some old men sitting around reading the Bible and voting on whatever odd ideas they may concoct.
This just doesn’t sound like the way the Bible describes Jehovah’s communications with his “prophets of old.” Can you imagine Isaiah and Jeremiah sitting around arguing about what they thought God’s message was, and then taking a vote on it? And then later changing their minds and issuing a retraction and revision; then going back to the original message; then changing it again, and again?
Who’s Messaging Whom?
Just as there is a good deal of confusion as to who is delivering the “divine truth” messages, it turns out there is also some muddle as to who is on the receiving end. The receiver has usually been associated with whoever currently holds the reigns of the organization and is identified as “the faithful and discreet slave” (aka “that faithful and wise servant”.)
At first it was thought that the receiver of this divine knowledge was Charles Taze Russell:
THE WATCH TOWER unhesitatingly proclaims Brother Russell as “that faithful and wise servant.” He delivered the message faithfully, finished his course and has now entered into his reward. Through him the Lord gave to the church the message that is so essential to each one who in this harvest time would win the glorious prize.” —Watch Tower 1917 Mar 1 p.67
Years after Russell’s death the above sentiment was deemed “creature worship,” and the messages were then delivered to the “remnant” (the remainder of the 144,000 anointed Jehovah’s Witnesses still alive on earth.)
Why to this group and to no one else — not even other Jehovah’s Witnesses (known as “the other sheep” or “the great crowd”)? This is because the Watchtower tells us that only the anointed are qualified to understand the Bible since it was written primarily for them, and since Christ is their mediator while the rest of the world must settle for them as their mediator!
Also, it is to the spirit-anointed Christians who will rule in that kingdom that most of the Christian Greek Scriptures is directed, including the promises of everlasting life.
—Watchtower 1974 June 15 p.376 (emphasis added)
So in this strict Biblical sense Jesus is the “mediator” only for anointed Christians.”
—Watchtower 1979 Apr 1 p.31 (emphasis added)
To keep in relationship with “our Savior, God,” the “great crowd” needs to remain united with the remnant of spiritual Israelites.” —Watchtower 1979 Nov 15 p.27
But this chart (which depicts the Governing Body as only a part of the F&D Slave Class) was later deemed incorrect by the Watchtower. The F&D Slave class was changed yet again: this time from the remnant to just the governing body (and then just to them when in session: when they are engaged in kicking around their wild guesses as to the meaning of Bible verses in their [brain-]storming sessions. [Reminiscent of how the Pope is only infallible when he is issuing his proclamations on the faith.])
The “faithful and discreet slave” was appointed over Jesus’ domestics in 1919. That slave is the small, composite group of anointed brothers serving at world headquarters during Christ’s presence who are directly involved in preparing and dispensing spiritual food. When this group work together as the Governing Body, they act as “the faithful and discreet slave.”
— jw.org (10th Nov 2012)
So, here’s a historically accurate depiction of the disorganized mess that the Watchtower claims is “God’s organization and only channel of truth” through which the “divine truths” flow:
Christians who do not have the misfortune of being Jehovah’s Witnesses, and who take to heart what the Bible actually says at 1Tim 2:5, have always had a much simpler hierarchy:
In the end I don’t think the Governing Body knows how “Jehovah communicates with them,” or if he even does. But, given their egregious record of errors and their frequent changes of mind, I think I know, and I think you do as well.
When I was very young I used to annoy my older brother with a couple of oft-repeated, awe-inspiring statements:
Just think: You’ll be in heaven FOREVER!
Since there’s a God, anything’s possible!
At least they were awe-inspiring to me. To my brother: not so much. The first statement would invariably cause him to roll his eyes. But he came back with some logical arguments to my second grand statement.
“If anything’s possible because God exists,” he asked, “Is it possible for God to die?”
Without thinking I blurted out “Yes! Anything’s possible.”
“Then, if God died,” he concluded, “not everything would be possible anymore, because you said it was all based on there being a God.”
“Okay,” I replied, “that’s true, but God hasn’t died, so all things are currently possible.”
At that point he just shook his head; our Catholic upbringing restrained us from pursuing this further. However, later in life (after I’d graduated from being a Catholic and from being a Jehovah’s Witness) I read a question that would’ve been a perfect comeback for my brother to use: “Can God create a square-circle, or an object so heavy that he can’t lift it?”
This question points out an apparent distinction between the miraculous and the impossible. Both violate the laws of physics, but impossibilities seem to carry it further by being paradoxical as well. [I am speaking of miracles in the strictest sense; not in the casual usage which merely means that something is amazing.]
The Bible makes this distinction too. We are indeed told that “With God all things are possible.” But we are also told that there are things it is impossible for God to do: He cannot die and he cannot lie. This certainly qualifies the statement regarding all things being possible. It’s plain that all things are not possible (since the Bible just listed two such things.)
So what are we left with? We evidently cannot truthfully say that all things are possible. But then how can we allow room for miracles? Do we revise our statement to: “God can do anything that it is possible to do?” That’s not a very awe-inspiring statement. That wouldn’t have even evoked an eye-roll from my brother.
I think what Christians want is a definition something like this: “God can do things that would be impossible for anyone else to do: as long as these things do not involve an inherent paradox.”
But here’s the thing: miracles always involve an inherent paradox.
Let’s take the following analogy: “Yesterday I was awarded the title of International Chess Grand-Master, though I have lost every game of chess I have ever played.”
The statement contains a paradox because of the definition of the title International Grand Master: one can only earn that title by winning many chess games. So, if someone was awarded that title without having won any games the title would be a misnomer: as meaningless as my pointing to a circle and saying “This is a square.”
Let’s return to biblical miracles. Take a mundane one: Jesus turning water into wine. This is a paradox because water is not wine anymore than a square is a circle. “Wine” defines the juice of grapes which have undergone a chemical change due to the time-consuming process of fermentation. Just as it is a mistake to call someone a Grand Master who has not gone through the lengthy process of winning many high-level chess tournaments, it is a mistake to call something “wine” which has not undergone the slow process of fermentation.
The laws of physics are even more strict than the rules governing chess titles. The laws of physics hold that a quantity of water in a vessel cannot spontaneously change into wine because physical objects do not change their nature without some other physical force acting upon them. If you could violate a physical law you would create a paradox. Such paradoxes are subtler than the ones we’ve discussed (and so typically go unrecognized) but they are there nonetheless.
Let’s take one more biblical example: the “multiplying loaves and fishes.” The definition of bread is, at minimum: flour that has been baked. The minimum definition of a fish includes having parents and being hatched from an egg. Something that has not been hatched cannot be a fish anymore than something that has not been baked can be bread.
If Jesus created some things resembling fish (which for convenience we’ll call fish), were they created alive or dead? It seems very strange to create dead fish, replete with perfectly functioning hearts destined to never beat in beings created for the sole purpose of feeding another species. I wonder if his followers came equipped with knives to kill and “clean” the fish, or if it was the first Middle-Eastern sushi feed in history. This god supposedly cares about every sparrow, but evidently doesn’t spare a thought for fish. Go figure.
Miracles are, by their nature, unbelievable; they contradict the laws of physics, and you can’t do that — even if you’re God.
That last statement is bound to rankle believers, who reason that since their god created everything he can do anything he likes with it. So let me elaborate. Let’s say that I “play god” by creating a two-dimensional world on a piece of paper with my pencil. Okay, I created this world, so I can damn well do what I please with it.
Only, I can’t. I can’t make the characters I draw speak audibly or have them dance into the third dimension [well, maybe with some creative origami and a pair of scissors] I can’t expect them to go out and get jobs, etc. There are limits to what can possibly take place in the two-dimensional world I have created. Even though I possess powers that a two-dimensional being would consider supernatural [if they were capable of thought], when it comes to my dealings with two-dimensional characters on paper I can’t go beyond the restrictions of that world, and it doesn’t matter a jot if I created it or not.
So too, in our universe there are restrictions: they are known as the laws of physics. God itself cannot violate these laws. This is why “miracles” [the violation of the laws of physics] are only reported where scientific scrutiny isn’t available. Either they happened in the distant past, or they are simply unverifiable hearsay where we are asked to take someone’s word that they took place. But what is more likely: that someone is mistaken/fibbing, or that the impossible has occurred?
A miracle, by definition, is a violation of the laws of physics: the very laws that govern our existence in this universe. Violating them would create a paradox. If God can do miraculous things only if they don’t involve a paradox, then God cannot do any miracles.
Since the Bible is chock-full of miracles, it follows that the Bible is false.
Since the Bible is false, then the Watchtower (which claims to be based on the Bible) is also false.
Since the Watchtower is false, then you are all free to go and live your lives! Thanks for listening, and have fun!
Let me tell you about the greatest guy I know: Joe.
The Governing Body has long claimed that they (as “
That last statement is bound to rankle believers, who reason that since their god created everything he can do anything he likes with it. So let me elaborate. Let’s say that I “play god” by creating a two-dimensional world on a piece of paper with my pencil. Okay, I created this world, so I can damn well do what I please with it.