In 1 Corinthians 5:13, Paul says, “Remove the wicked person from among yourselves”. In extreme situations, the Christian congregation will expel or disfellowship one of their members. I say “extreme situations” because disfellowshipping someone should rarely happen. Around 80,000 Jehovah’s Witnesses were disfellowshipped last year. This is 1% of all Witnesses.
Paul shows that those who should be disfellowshipped are wicked. But just think of the background of the 80,000 Witnesses who were disfellowshipped last year. Before they became Witnesses, they had a Bible study where they learned that they had to repent their former course of life and start to live according to Bible principles. After studying the Bible for several months, or a year or more, they wanted to be baptized. Before this could happen, the baptismal candidate had long conversations with three different elders where he or she had to comment on different questions. When the three elders were convinced that the baptismal candidate really had repented and was living according to the principles of the Bible, the elders recommended that he or she should be baptized.
After the baptism, he or she became a member of the congregation of Jehovah’s Witnesses. He or she cooperated with other Witnesses, attended meetings, and was preaching the good news of the Kingdom. But the view is that after some time, he or she became wicked, i.e., he or she became much worse than he or she was before becoming a Witness — most people in the world are not wicked — and the congregation had to disfellowship this Witness. This did not happen to one or to a few Witnesses, but to 80,000 during last year. Something is wrong, very wrong! It is impossible to believe that 80,000 Christians who had dedicated their lives to Jehovah became wicked.
There are three reasons Why we should believe that more than 90% of the Witnesses should not have been disfellowshipped if the instructions of the Christian Greek Scriptures had been followed:
- The Christian Greek Scriptures show that there are 11 offenses (violations of God’s laws) that can lead to disfellowshipping. The members of the Governing Body have introduced 37 other disfellowshipping offenses that have no basis in the Bible.
- Not only have the members of the Governing Body invented 37 extra-biblical reasons for disfellowshipping. But they have also completely misunderstood the Greek words dealing with the 11 real disfellowshipping offenses, which means that they have a wrong view as to how the 11 offenses must be practiced to deserve to be disfellowshipped.
- The instructions the Governing Body has given to the elders of the judicial committees have no basis in the Bible. And because the elders in the judicial committees have not been educated in the way to treat and judge fellow Christians, the decision of disfellowshipping a Witness often is based on their gut feelings.
Different articles discussing disfellowshipping in the Biblical way will be added.
