Why is it important to some that God only have one visible organization to represent Him on earth? Why is it important to Jehovah's Witnesses that people recognize their organization as such? What makes a Witness more moral or righteous or save-worthy if they accept that it is His one and only organization? Can't people love God and Christ and live holy lives without believing a particular organization is the only one having Jehovah's approval?
God Has Only One Visible Organization on Earth!
by Vanderhoven7 25 Replies latest watchtower beliefs
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slimboyfat
Korah, Dathan and Abiram
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Ding
In the mind of many (most?) JWs, the organization is equated with Jehovah and/or Jesus.
It's visible. They are not.
To obey/be loyal to/disobey/reject the organization is to obey/be loyal to/disobey/reject Jehovah and Jesus.
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Vanderhoven7
<<Korah, Dathan and Abiram>>
Excellent and cryptic answer Slim. And there was Noah as well.
But what was God's crucial single visible organization from 300 AD to 1800 AD i.e., before Russell came on the scene?
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slimboyfat
The wheat and the weeds
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Vanderhoven7
That's stretching it Slim.
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Riley
The WTS changes the hinge point of the bible from the New Testament and the birth ,life and death, resurrection of Christ to 1914 and 1919. The bible then becomes secondary to the literature. It is kind of like all those shitty Star Wars movies when it would have been better to just quit at Return of the Jedi.
Any new twist on an old favourite usually involves making it into some kind of club.
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Vanderhoven7
I agree with you Ding.
According to Jehovah's Witnesses you must get right with the organization if you want to be saved. It's not helpful if you come to Jesus if you don't come through the organization. Jesus can't save without the organization. I don't know how people could have been saved before Russell came on the scene. Just read the literature from the Faithful Slave at headquarters in New York.
"Come to Jehovah's organization for salvation." WT 11-15-81 p.21
"To receive everlasting life in the earthly paradise, we must identify that organization and serve God as part of it." WT 2-15-83 p.12
"Bible students...must appreciate that identifying themselves with Jehovah's organization is essential to their salvation." Our Kingdom Ministry, Nov, 1990
Those who do good things for Jesus' "brothers" because these anointed ones are his followers have the hope of surviving "the day of Jehovah."
(Watchtower, September 15, 1997 p. 17)
"Yes! genuine Christians are now being gathered into a united brotherhood earth wide. Who are they? They are the Christian congregation of Jehovah's Witnesses..." (Watchtower, July 1, 1994 p. 7)
"The Scriptures strongly support the conclusion that at Armageddon Jehovah will destroy the peoples of the earth, saving only those who obey his commandments to stand by his organization." (Jehovah's Witnesses - Proclaimers of God's Kingdom, 1993, p. 170)
"We will be impelled to serve Jehovah loyally with his organization if we remember that there is nowhere else to go for life eternal."
(Watchtower, November 15, 1992 p. 21 - "Serve Jehovah Loyally"
"Bible students need to get acquainted with the organization of the "one flock" Jesus spoke about at John 10:16. They must appreciate that identifying themselves with Jehovah's organization is essential to their salvation. (Rev. 7:9, 10, 15) Therefore, we should start directing our Bible students to the organization as soon as a Bible study is established." (Our Kingdom Ministry, November 1990 p. 1)
"You must be part of Jehovah's organization, doing God's will, in order to receive his blessing of eternal life." (You Can Live Forever in Paradise on Earth p.255)
"Only Jehovah's Witnesses, those of the anointed remnant and the "great crowd," as a united organization under the protection of the Supreme Organizer, have any Scriptural hope of surviving the impending end of this doomed system dominated by Satan the Devil." (Watchtower, September 1, 1989 p. 19)
"In this way only lovers of God and of his family, his organization, will survive and enter into the cleansed earth that is to be transformed into a glorious Paradise." (Watchtower, December 15, 1982 p. 27 - Clothing Ourselves With Love and Wearing It)
"Know that all living at Armageddon will be baptized, either with fire for destruction with the wicked or with salvation for life with the theocratic organization." (Watchtower, June 1, 1952 p. 350)I have to tell Witnesses, the organization is not the channel, the truth and the life. Jesus saves independent of men and organizations.
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enoughisenough
they need you to recognize them as God's visible organization so you will help fill the coffers. We don't need to be a member of any organization to praise Jehovah...even that which is inanimate praises God.
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joao
Business as usual...