—REVIEW—
The book for elders “Shepherd The Flock Of God” lists “deliberately spreading teachings contrary to the Bible” as a disfellowshipping offense, and this is a disfellowshipping offense according to the Christian Greek Scriptures.
The first part of the study discusses the meaning of “Bible truth.” It is shown that the only true religion is “the pillar and the foundation of the truth.” The only denomination whose doctrines are based on the Bible is Jehovah’s Witnesses. But since the last part of the 20th century, the GB has introduced a few false teachings.
The view of false teachings in the Christian Greek Scriptures is discussed. It is shown that Hymenaeus and Philetus were disfellowshipped because they spread the false teaching that the resurrection had already occurred.
The GB has also introduced a false teaching regarding the resurrection. The current GB holds that fewer persons than the Watchtower literature has previously acknowledged will get resurrection. The GB has rejected the literal meaning of the words of Jesus that the people of Chorazin, Bethsaida, and Sodom will be present on Judgment Day. The claim is that these words represent hyperboles (exaggerations).
The reason for this viewpoint evidently is the faith that in the great tribulation Jehovah’s Witnesses, who have dedicated themselves to God, will survive, while billions of others will die and be annihilated forever. In view of this, it is not logical that persons in the past who were said to be wicked will get a resurrection with the possibility of everlasting life. However, the view that billions of persons will be eternally destroyed in the great tribulation is what is wrong.
There is a detailed discussion of the context of the words of Jesus. Contrary to the GB, I show that Jesus really spoke about the resurrection, and there is strong evidence in favor of the view that people from the mentioned cities will get a resurrection and be present on Judgment Day. The arguments of the GB against this view are carefully considered.
Hymenaeus and Philetus were disfellowshipped because of their false teachings that the resurrection had already occurred. This should be a sobering reminder and wakeup call for the GB to reconsider its stance in connection with these two teachings. Because JW have become an autocratic organization, there is no one on earth who can check the hand of the current GB. However, the GB is still accountable to Jehovah, and so they should act quickly to remove the two major false teachings that I have brought to their attention via sound scholarly evidence as presented in my book and in these web page articles.
The second false teaching on the part of the GB is even more serious than the one about the resurrection. The members of the GB deny the full inspiration of the Bible. They claim that large portions of the Hebrew Scriptures have no meaning for us today, and the nuances and subtleties of the Hebrew text are not important. Only an outline of this view is given because the article “The Governing Body rejects the full inspiration of the Bible” has a detailed discussion of this subject.
Because there is one law for all members of the Christian congregations, denying the full inspiration of the Bible is a disfellowshipping offense for anyone promoting such a teaching. If the current members of the GB were simply a group of local elders in a congregation of JW, and they insisted on promoting their current view of the Bible—that it is not fully inspired—they would be disfellowshipped as apostates. Said another way, the previous members of the GB would have accused the current members of the GB of spreading the apostate teaching of denying the full inspiration of the Bible. Such ones would be deleted from the GB and subject to judicial action and possible disfellowshipping if they refused to recant such a false teaching.
THE WHOLE ARTICLE IS FOUND IN THE CATEGORY “APOSTASY.”
