As we all "know", one of the things that “identify” Jehovah's Witnesses as representatives of the “true God” is that they are the “only” ones using God’s name, Jehovah:
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The true Christian congregation, according to the Bible, would be “a people for [God’s] name.” (Acts 15:14) They would obviously use the name of God, the Father of Jesus Christ, in their worship. Does your church do that? Do you personally know and use the name of God in worship?
They ALONE are chosen to be his “channel of communication” on earth today. Consequently they are the only ones whose proclamations can be “trusted”. According to the Watchtower they are the “Jeremiah class”, and they have been “sent by Jehovah to speak in his name”:
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28 Unlike the “clergy class”, those of the Jeremiah class have been sent by Jehovah to speak in his name. Nevertheless, the clergy prophets also claim to speak in his name and, hence, to tell the Bible truth. In this way Christendom’s religious leaders really ‘steal’ away the force and effect of the calamitous message proclaimed by the Jeremiah class.
Here the Watchtower makes the claim that the clergy strangely enough also claim to speak in Jehovah’s name, although they don’t use the name:
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3 In a similar way, Christendom claims to have a special relationship with God. ‘Why,’ she boasts, ‘we have tens of thousands of churches and a professional clergy, as well as hundreds of millions of adherents. We also possess the Bible, and we use the name of Jesus in our worship. Surely, we are favored by God!’ But what happened to ancient Jerusalem stands as a stern warning. Despite recent extraordinary political developments, we know that Jehovah will soon act decisively against Christendom and all other false religions.
Then the reasoning of the Watchtower gets even weirder:
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True, the Jeremiah class back up their message by quoting the words, “This is what Jehovah has said.” But the clergy try to add weight and the ring of truth to what they preach by affixing the words, “An utterance!” Seemingly they speak from God. So they may use a Bible text as a pretext for preaching about politics or even war propaganda. Yet Jehovah is against such clergy prophets whom he did not send forth from his intimate group and who ‘steal’ words from his Bible in order to make a wrong application of them.—Jer. 23:30, 31.
Both the clergy and the Watchtower use the Bible to substantiate their fantasies, but somehow what the clergy is doing is “false”. The clergy “steal” words from the Bible when they try to find some far fetched meaningless drivel and apply it on some contemporary event. And now we come to the interesting part:
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29 How will Jehovah show that such clergy prophets are fakes? By not fulfilling what they announce to be “an utterance!” or what they presume to speak in his name. He does not back up their falsehood. “‘Here I am against the prophets of false dreams,’ is the utterance of Jehovah, ‘who relate them and cause my people to wander about [going astray] because of their falsehoods and because of their boasting.’ ‘But I myself did not send them or command them. So they will by no means benefit this people,’ is the utterance of Jehovah.” (Jer. 23:32) Too bad for the people!
Wow, the clergy are revealed as “fakes” when their predictions, uttered in the NAME that they NEVER use, fails to be fulfilled! God “does not back up their falsehood”. As the Watchtower say: “Too bad for the people”.
Apart from the very peculiar idea that the clergy of Christendom can utter false prophecies in the NAME of a God whose name they NEVER use, it would be interested to know what kind of excuse is used in the Watchtower literature when the people who have “been sent by Jehovah to speak in his name”, people who claim to be the ONLY ones who DO use the NAME, make predictions and “utterances” that fail.
I mean here we have the ONLY organization on earth, that according to themselves represent the only true God, Jehovah, the only ones that use his name, the only ones that have the “authority” to make “utterances” in his name. Consequently they are the only ones to be completely trusted when they make predictions about the future, and indeed that is what they claim:
“So God’s servants know what this world’s rulers do not. They know Jehovah’s purposes and his seasons… Since Jehovah’s servants of today obey him as ruler, God’s holy spirit also reveals to them what season it is from his viewpoint. Amos 3:7 says: “The Sovereign Lord Jehovah will not do a thing unless he has revealed his confidential matter to his servants the prophets.”
The Watchtower April 15. 1986, page 18.
Wouldn’t it be natural to trust these people? Unlike the detestable clergy of Christendom they really know what they are talking about, don’t they? Let us find out:
“Jehovah’s Witnesses, in their eagerness for Jesus’ second coming, have suggested dates that turned out to be incorrect. Because of this, some have called them false prophets. Never in these instances, however, did they presume to originate predictions ‘in the name of Jehovah.’ Never did they say, ‘These are the words of Jehovah.” Awake! March 22. 1993, page 4.They do not claim that their predictions are direct revelations from Jehovah and that in this sense they are prophesying in Jehovah’s name.
Awake! March 22. 1993, page 3-4.
Isn’t it fantastic? Here we have this unique organization which is told in advance by Jehovah’s “holy spirit” what will happen, yet is spite of this truly fantastic knowledge they NEVER speak in Jehovah’s name when they publish Jehovah’s “confidential matters”. In spite of their claim to “know Jehovah’s purposes and his seasons” they have been unable to get even one tiny prediction right in the entire history of the Watchtower Society!
What method did God use when he wanted to demonstrate that the prophets didn’t have his approval?
Let us again take a look at what the Watchtower said:
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29 How will Jehovah show that such clergy prophets are fakes? By not fulfilling what they announce to be “an utterance!” or what they presume to speak in his name. He does not back up their falsehood. “‘Here I am against the prophets of false dreams,’ is the utterance of Jehovah, ‘who relate them and cause my people to wander about [going astray] because of their falsehoods and because of their boasting.’ ‘But I myself did not send them or command them. So they will by no means benefit this people,’ is the utterance of Jehovah.” (Jer. 23:32) Too bad for the people!
Aha, God would simply make the predictions fail; he wouldn’t back up the “falsehood” of the self proclaimed prophets, because of their “falsehood and their boasting”. Could such boasting look something like this?
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How then will people today hear the voices of God and his Chief Shepherd? By hearing God’s commands and principles as set forth in the Scriptures. Who will tell them? Not the clergy! No, but only Jehovah’s Witnesses carry on work of preaching the good news of the Kingdom and teaching Bible truth in all the earth.
Or this?
*** jv 548 24 By Human Power? Or by God's Spirit? ***
Jehovah’s Witnesses form the only religious organization in the world in which every member personally witnesses to nonbelievers, endeavors to answer their questions from the Bible, and urges them to put faith in God’s Word. Other religious organizations acknowledge that this is what all Christians should do. Some have tried to encourage their church members to do it. But only Jehovah’s Witnesses consistently do it.*** w97 1/15 22 What Does God Require of Us? ***
There is only one religious organization on this earth that has all these marks of true Christianity—Jehovah’s Witnesses!
Or maybe this?
"Spirit of Life from God Entered into Them
The announced purpose behind God’s pouring out of his spirit upon all sorts of flesh was that the recipients thereof might prophesy. The facts substantiate that the remnant of Christ’s anointed disciples have been doing that prophesying to all the nations for a witness in favor of God’s kingdom. Logically, then, they must be the ones upon whom God’s spirit has actually been poured out. That spirit is behind their worldwide preaching. Why argue about it?”
Holy Spirit, 1976, page 148.“No obstacle put in His way by the enemies will prove to be insurmountable for Jehovah. Just as at Mount Sinai He put his word in the mouth of his chosen people through the mediator Moses and thereafter he led them under the protective shadow of his hand into the Promised Land, so he has done for the remnant of spiritual Israel. He has put his word, his message of the hour, into the mouth of the spiritual remnant for them to confess openly before all the world, for their own salvation and for that of responsive hearers.”
Holy Spirit, 1976, page 175.
So there you have it folks, the only religion on earth that could rightly make correct predictions in Jehovah’s name NEVER do it, therefore they can’t be blamed when all their predictions fail, which they always do. The clergy of Christendom on the other hand, which hate the NAME of God, and NEVER use it are the ones who constantly make “utterances” in the NAME they NEVER use, and who’s predictions of course always fail too. Make sense, eh?
Well, to the true believer in the Watchtower Society it does, of course.
Norm.