An elder from my congregation visits my wife and I whenever he is in the area. It has been a while since his last visit. He used to come in uninvited and unexpected. I did not mind, but to the contrary, I used to invite him in for coffee and snacks and I generally extended my invitation to him to come in and visit anytime. He used to do that and sometimes bring with him another elder or sometimes a couple of sisters. Though my doubts concerning the WTS had developed a year ago, but we have recently moved in from a distant city and I did not want my wife to feel too lonely. She still attends and she feels very uncomfortable with my situation.
This elder is of the “anointed”, the only one in the congregation. He is in his mid fifties, soft-spoken and quite gentle. He is the only elder, from among half a dozen that makes an effort to call us or visit to enquire. However, he personally admitted that he had participated in several judicial committees in the early eighties that had disfellowshipped a number of “apostates”.
He had noticed that I am missing all meetings and that I surely must have some issues. So, on his last visit, he had brought along “worldly” quotes praising the New World translation of the Society in response to some questions I had asked him in his previous visit. Our discussion drifted to some of my concerns. One issue we tackled was the idea that only JWs will be saved.
The elder and I had come from Catholic backgrounds and his argument was a JW will stand a better chance of survival than a Catholic. I asked him why does he think that. He responded by saying that JWs have more accurate knowledge than Catholics. I asked him if JWs had always had accurate knowledge. He said: “ No! The Society, over time, had acquired more accurate understanding and had discarded false doctrines.”
So I asked him if that means that JWs living today, that have more accurate knowledge, will have more chances of survival than JWs that had lived years ago and had passed away having believed false doctrines? Furthermore, will JWs in the future have more chances of survival than those living today, since they will definitely be having yet more accurate understanding?
Jehovah’s witnesses main preaching thrust is that they have a monopoly on divine “Knowledge”. Their angle is that since they could successfully point to a number of flawed doctrines that the Catholic and other Christian Churches maintain, then by extension, they possessed unique “knowledge”. This “knowledge”, they continually assert, enabled them to determine that we are living in the last days, that Jesus had arrived invisibly, that he had inspected all his followers and had appointed them as his only faithful slave, and that only JWs are going to be saved.
According to the WTS doctrine, “Knowledge” leads to eternal life. Therefore, it is salvation based on “knowledge”. However, the Society freely admits that their “knowledge” had come in gradually and continues to be refined.
If “Knowledge” is measured between zero and 100, then at what level one can safely say that that is enough for salvation. If we assumed that Catholics had 25 percent, then Russell came in at 35 percent, Rutherford at 40, Knorr at 45, Franz at 50, and JWs today stand at say 55. Who can say what is the passing grade of salvation? Is it 60, 70, 80 or 100?
This is the doctrinal flaw of salvation based on “Knowledge”. Whereas, Jesus’ ransom sacrifice offered salvation based on “Faith”. Acquiring and refining more accurate knowledge comes in AFTER having exercised faith in Jesus. It is not a requirement to have BEFORE. This is why there are numerous experiences in the NT where individuals were baptized immediately after hearing a single public talk. Not only that, but Holy Spirit descended upon them in a sure sign of divine approval, some even before being baptized. These individuals did not have to come to any level of accurate knowledge before attaining this divine approval. Their journey to pastures of more accurate knowledge started afterwards. Their being eligible for salvation was decided on the moment that they, in their heart, exercised faith. Their next step was to continue to live in this faith and show positive fruitage. In the meantime, as promised by Jesus, the Holy Spirit, the comforter, will continue to teach them all things.
The Pharisees had more accurate knowledge than the average Jewish layman of the time. That still did not help them. In a way, their knowledge acted as a hindrance and a stumbling block for many of them. What they needed was faith and humility.
The Society’s contention is that Catholics maintain so many false doctrines that they could not possibly have divine approval. This could also be said to JWs, for they too, held erroneous teachings and doctrines for many years and could very well be doing so today.
While it is true that Catholics hold and promote flawed teachings, but how do we describe JWs many vacillating doctrines, teachings and expectations? 1799, prophetic interpretations, 1914, 1915, 1918, organization, 1925, 1935, elected elders, vaccination, organ transplant, blood and blood component transfusion, Higher Authorities, 1975, King of the North, The Sheep and the Goats, This Generation and others to name a few.
The society's counter argument is that it is at least discarding doctrines once they prove to be flawed, the Catholic Church instead, does not do so.
While this is commendable, but once again, proves that the Society, despites its assertion that they are the only approved slave, continues to hold and promote what later turns out to be false doctrine. If Jesus had come in invisibly as they assert and had appointed them as his sole channel, and since “Knowledge” is the catalyst for salvation, then surely, Jesus would make sure that the Society’s teachings are 100 percent truthful and correct, right from the get go. Billions of lives are at stake.
Maintaining truthful teaching and dumping flawed ones should be the task of every faithful Christian. But this endeavor, of itself, is not the main arbiter of who gets saved.
JWs and the Catholics are like two persons who boarded a lifeboat in order to escape from a sinking ship. Thereafter, they started to engage in trying to push each other overboard in self-righteous indignation of who OUGHT to have been saved. All the while their boat has not reached the safety of land yet.
The elder was not comfortable in our discussion and signs of stress were clearly visible on his face. I too was stressed, but in a different manner. Towards the end of our discussion, he intimated that he had suffered a stroke a while back. I immediately offered to suspend the discussion and apologized if I had put any undue pressure on him.
He later left and on his way out he turned to me and said that I am putting the Society under too big of a microscope and that other organizations have flaws as well.
I agreed with him completely.