INTRODUCTION
In the court case, the representative of the branch office of Jehovah’s Witnesses said that they have no rules as to how disfellowshipped and disassociated persons shall be treated by the members. Each Witness will consider the principles in the Bible and decide how much contact with disfellowshipped and disassociated persons they will have. This is a lie because the members of the Governing Body have decided that disfellowshipped and disassociated persons must be completely shunned.
There is also another side to these words that leads people astray: The members will consider biblical principles regarding the treatment of disfellowshipped and disassociated persons and act according to these principles. The truth is that not to greet and not to speak with disfellowshipped and disassociated persons has no basis in the Bible. This is a procedure invented by the members of the Governing Body. One clear proof of this is that disassociation is not even mentioned in the Bible, and therefore, how to treat disassociated persons is not mentioned in the Bible
In order to point this out to the public, I wrote a short article that was published in the Norwegian newspaper Vårt Land. Below is an English translation of this article.
VÅRT LAND FEBRUARY 27, 2024
In the court case between Jehovah’s Witnesses and the Norwegian Government, the treatment of disfellowshipped and disassociated members was a central theme. The basis for this treatment by Jehovah’s Witnesses is two biblical passages, one of them being 2 John 10-11:
10 If anyone comes to you and does not bring this teaching, do not receive him into your homes or say a greeting to him. 11 For the one who says a greeting to him is a sharer in his wicked works.
According to 2 John 7, these exhortations relate to those who are called “deceivers” and “antichrist,” those “not acknowledging Jesus Christ as coming in the flesh.” The periodical of Jehovah’s Witnesses, The Watchtower of July 15, 1985, admits that the quotation relates to those who are called “antichrists” and not to disfellowshipped persons. In one article on jw.org, these persons are said to be Gnostics. Why, then, should this quotation be applied to those who are disfellowshipped when it relates to those who are called “the antichrists”?
THEY ARE LIKE THE ANTICHRISTS
The Watchtower of August 1, 1974, page 465, solves this problem by claiming that those who are disfellowshipped are like those who are called the “antichrists.” Therefore, they must be shunned, and no one must greet them or speak with them.
But why must those who disassociate themselves be shunned? Before 1981, a Witness could resign without any sanctions against him. But then the leaders decided that those who disassociated themselves should be viewed and treated in the same way as those who were disfellowshipped. The Watchtower of September 15, 1981, page 23, says:
Persons who make themselves “not of our sort” by deliberately rejecting the faith and beliefs of Jehovah’s Witnesses should appropriately be viewed and treated as are those who have been disfellowshiped for wrongdoing.
| It is not the Bible that says that disfellowshipped and disassociated persons are a part of the antichrists and must be shunned. The leaders of Jehovah’s Witnesses are those who are saying this. |
As an attempt to find support for the practice that those who disassociate themselves must be shunned, The Watchtower of July 15, 1985, page 31, says: “Such ones willfully abandoning the Christian congregation thereby become part of the ‘antichrist’.” So, it is not the Bible that is saying that those who are disfellowshipped and disassociated must be shunned. It is the leaders of Jehovah’s Witnesses who are saying this.
NO SUPPORT IN THE BIBLE
The second scripture Jehovah’s Witnesses use as justification for their treatment of disfellowshipped and disassociated ones are the words by Paul in 1 Corinthians 5:11:
11 But now I am writing you to stop keeping company with anyone called a brother who is sexually immoral or a greedy person or an idolater or a reviler or a drunkard or an extortioner, not even eating with such a man.
The important words are “stop keeping company with,” which are translated from the Greek word synanamignymi, with the meaning “to mix together.” What the meaning of this word is we see in 2 Thessalonians 3:14, 15:
14 But if anyone is not obedient to our word through this letter, keep this one marked and stop associating with him, so that he may become ashamed. 15 And yet do not consider him an enemy, but continue admonishing him as a brother.
| If a person dies without having been reinstated in the congregation, he will be everlastingly annihilated without at hope of a resurrection. |
Here we see that the words “stop keeping company with” refer to private social interaction, such as inviting the person to his home and sharing a meal with him. However, the person should be treated in a cordial way. Paul says that the members of the congregation must “continue admonishing him as a brother”, greet him and speak with him, and in no way shun him.
So, it is the leaders of Jehovah’s Witnesses that have invented the requirement that disfellowshipped and disassociated persons must be shunned. It has no support in the Bible.
PRESSURE AGAINST THE MEMBERS
The arrangement of shunning disfellowshipped and disassociated members serves both as pressure and as a threat. The threat is that if a person dies without having been reinstated, he will be annihilated forever without any hope of a resurrection — the resurrection is very important for the Witnesses.
The pressure is expressed in the book, How to Remain in God’s Love (2016, first Norwegian edition), pages 267, 268: “Is it really necessary to avoid such a person completely? Yes, for several reasons…When he loses a precious relationship with family and friends it can cause him to “come to his senses” and understand the seriousness of his actions and take steps to return to Jehovah.”
A person must be forced to repent and turn to Jehovah. If not, he will not get back his family and friends. It is not pressure and threats that lead to repentance. But as Paul says in Romans 2:4, “God’s kindness leads you toward repentance.”
ADDENDUM
This is a short article meant as an introduction to the subject. If anyone wants to read a detailed analysis of the two principal scriptures mentioned in the article and understand how disfellowshipped and disassociated persons should be treated, I recommend my article, “The Witnesses are hoodwinked by the application of 1 Corinthians 5:11 and 1 John 7-11” in the Category, “Disfellowshipping.”
