The Controlling Hand of The Watchtower Organisation
Jehovah’s Witnesses are taught that God has always guided his people by means of an organisation and that, although, in times past, ‘Jehovah listened to the prayers of individual worshippers, he provided instruction for them through an organisational arrangement.’ Hence, they maintain that with the establishment of the Christian congregation (at Pentecost 33CE), ‘Jehovah had brought into existence an organisation on earth made up of true Christians’1 and, as Christianity spread and congregations were formed, these ‘functioned under the direction of a governing body made up of apostles and older men [and so] today, Jehovah deals with his people through an organized body’2 and this organisation exists as the modern ‘Theocratic Organisation’ of Jehovah’s Witnesses - the Watchtower Society.3 Through their publications, the Jehovah’s Witnesses are led to believe that ‘Jehovah’s organization alone, in all the earth, is directed by God’s holy spirit or active force (Zech .4:6) Only this organization functions for Jehovah’s purpose and to his praise. To it alone God’s Sacred Word, the Bible, is not a sealed book’ and further, the Watchtower organisation is ‘the only organization on earth that understands the "deep things of God"!’ and ‘alone is supplied with "gifts in men."’4
For the Jehovah’s Witness, association with the Watchtower organisation is essential to his/her gaining salvation. In an article entitled ‘You Can Live Forever in Paradise on Earth’ The Watchtower magazine posed the question, ‘What does God require of those who will reside forever upon his Paradise earth?’ and then proceeded to list ‘four basic requirements.’ According to this article, the third of these requirements of God is ‘that we be associated with God’s channel, his organisation [for] to receive everlasting life in the earthly Paradise we must identify that organisation and serve God as part of it.’5 (italics theirs) In an even bolder claim, the Watchtower Society went so far as to state that people must ‘come to Jehovah’s organisation for salvation’!6
Many years earlier, in a convention address entitled ‘Face the Facts’ the second president of the Watchtower Society, ‘Judge’ Rutherford, likened the organisation to Noah’s ark. Speaking of the Great Crowd who were to inherit eternal life in paradise on earth, He maintained that: ‘They must find protection in God’s organization . . . The ark, which Noah built at God’s command, pictured God’s organization.’7 Whilst this view of the ark’s symbolic significance has changed, the concept of the organisation as essential to salvation persists.8
According to the Watchtower Society, throughout the physical and spiritual realms, their exist only two, rival organisations - Jehovah God’s and Satan the devil’s. Everyone and everything that is not in association with Jehovah’s organisation is automatically a part of Satan’s organisation. It follows then that, since theirs alone is Jehovah’s earthly organisation, unless people are actively associated with them (ie: as baptised members of the Jehovah’s Witnesses), they automatically constitute a part of Satan’s earthly organisation and as such, are destined for destruction by Jehovah God at Armageddon. Hence, the Jehovah’s Witnesses are conditioned to believe that, regardless of how they may personally feel about certain teachings and/or practices, as The Watchtower magazine stated:
they ‘should meekly go along with the Lord’s theocratic organization and wait for further clarification . . . Theocratic ones will appreciate the Lord’s visible organisation and not be so foolish as to pit against Jehovah’s channel their own human reasoning and sentiment and personal feelings.9
After all, should they leave, ‘Where would they go?’ for only the Watchtower organisation ‘has the sayings of life.’10
By stressing the need for an organisation to teach the Witnesses and guide them in their thinking and conduct, the Watchtower Society effectively usurps the role of the Holy Spirit who, as Jesus promised, ‘will teach you all things’ and ‘guide you into all truth.’ (John 14:26; 16:13) Following in the steps of their founder, ‘Pastor’ Russell (who claimed that reading the Bible apart from his books would lead a person into spiritual darkness),11 the Watchtower leaders warn the Witnesses that ‘the Bible is an organizational book’ that belongs solely to the Watchtower Society and ‘For this reason the Bible cannot be properly understood without Jehovah’s visible organization in mind.’12 In fact, they blindly point out that those who ‘say that it is sufficient to read the Bible exclusively’ end up believing what the churches teach!13 Furthermore, the Watchtower Society has gone so far as to blasphemously assert that, whilst their elite number enjoys the benefits of Christ as mediator, Jesus is not the mediator for the millions of other Witnesses throughout the world and hence, they must rely on the organisation to mediate spiritual direction and ultimately, salvation.14
To ensure that each Witness remains thoroughly indoctrinated, one former Witness elder has calculated that the Watchtower Society expects an active Witness to read around 3000 pages from the Society’s publications each year, compared with less than 200 pages of assigned Bible reading (most of which was in the Old Testament)! What’s more, most Witnesses never get around to doing the Bible reading.15
The authority that the Watchtower Society wields over the individual Witness is difficult for many Christians to comprehend. Nevertheless, it is a fact that must be reckoned with if we hope to reach them with the true gospel of Jesus Christ. Outright doctrinal encounters rarely succeed for, as Walter Martin once claimed, the average Witness can make a "doctrinal pretzel" out of the average Christian in about 30 seconds.16 This is so, because each time a particular verse is pointed out to a Jehovah’s Witness, s/he automatically "reads" it through the "lens" of the Watchtower Society.
Therefore, the first step that we must take is to remove the distorted lenses. To accomplish this, we must get the Witness to look at the Watchtower organisation itself. The very foundations of the Watchtower Society’s claims to authority must be undermined to the point of collapse. This can be done by demonstrating that the Watchtower leaders have made repeated false prophecies, have changed doctrines back and forth, and have misled followers to their harm - in other words, that they are not a reliable guide to follow and hence, have no right to demand the Witnesses’ loyalty.
As a growing number of former Witness testify, when the Jehovah’s Witnesses see the Watchtower organisation collapse, along with all the teachings and doctrines that depend on its authority for support, they will then (perhaps for the first time), be free to examine their beliefs and begin to think again for themselves. Then, they will be in a position to "see" what the Scriptures are truly saying about God and his Son, Jesus Christ and come to realise the extent to which God loves them - not as members of some organisation but as precious individuals, as children of God.
ENDNOTES
Reasoning From the Scriptures WTB&TS 1985 p.281
Knowledge That Leads to Everlasting Life WTB&TS 1995 p.161
Whilst the Watchtower Society can refer to one of the legal corporations bearing that name, in this article, the Watchtower Society refers specifically to the Governing Body of Jehovah’s Witnesses, housed at their Bethel headquarters in Brooklyn, New York. This consists of an authoritative, elite group of men who are responsible for the entire body of beliefs ascribed to by the Jehovah’s Witnesses. In his book Understanding Jehovah’s Witnesses (Grand Rapids: Baker, 1991, pp.49-50) Robert M. Bowman Jr. explains that this distinction is necessary since ‘Some Jehovah’s Witnesses . . . have found it useful to deny that God’s organization is to be identified with the Watchtower Society. The Watchtower Society, they argue, is actually only a corporation that God’s people use to get their work done,’ However, as Bowman rightly notes, ‘The leaders of the Watchtower Society in Brooklyn are not merely administering a corporation, they are controlling the doctrines believed by the millions of Jehovah’s Witnesses world-wide.’
The Watchtower July 1 1973 p.402
The Watchtower February 15 1983 p.12
The Watchtower November 15 1981 p.21
R. Franz Crisis of Conscience Atlanta: Commentary, 1992, pp9-10
You Can Live Forever in Paradise on Earth WTB&TS 1982, p.255 pp.14
The Watchtower February 1 1952 p.80 see also The Watchtower January 15 1983 p.27
The Watchtower February 15 1981 p.19
The Watch Tower September 15 1910 pp.298-299
The Watchtower October 1 1967 p.587
The Watchtower August 15 pp.28-29 pp.14
The Watchtower April 1 1979 p.31
D. Reed Jehovah’s Witnesses Answered Verse by Verse Grand Rapids: Baker 1986 p.121
R.Rhodes Reasoning from the Scriptures with the Jehovah’s Witnesses Oregon: Harvest 1993 pp.10-11