The book for elders “Shepherd the Flock of God” chapter 18, point 3 (2) says:
Joining Another Religious Organization and Making Known His Intention to Remain With It: If it is learned that a person has taken up association with another religion or religious organization and thus is identified with it, a committee (not judicial) should be selected to investigate the matter and endeavor to provide spiritual assistance. If the individual has joined another religion or religious organization and intends to remain with it, he has disassociated himself.
Chapter 5 in my book My Beloved Religion — And The Governing Body, third edition, shows the biblical criteria for disfellowshipping offenses. In connection with the disfellowshipping offenses that are mentioned in 1 Corinthians, chapters 5 and 6, three expressions that serve as signals for identifying disfellowshipping offenses are seen, 1) actions that are said to be wicked, 2) actions where it is said that a person is handed over to Satan and 3) actions where it is said that we must avoid or reject a person.
In the second letter of John, we find a situation that parallels point 3) above. I quote verses 7-11:
7 For many deceivers (planos) have gone forth into the world, persons not confessing Jesus Christ as coming in the flesh. This is the deceiver and the antichrist. 8 Look out for yourselves, that YOU do not lose the things we have worked to produce, but that YOU may obtain a full reward. 9 Everyone that pushes ahead and does not remain in the teaching of the Christ does not have God. He that does remain in this teaching is the one that has both the Father and the Son. 10 If anyone comes to YOU and does not bring this teaching, never receive him into YOUR homes or say a greeting to him. 11 For he that says a greeting to him is a sharer in his wicked works.
In order to understand the text, the focus here must be on the phrase “acknowledges Jesus Christ as having come in the flesh.” The use of “Christ” together with “Jesus” implies the persons did not deny that a man with this name had lived on the earth. So, the denial had to relate to the nature of this man. The Pre-Gnostic Kerinthos lived at the same time as the apostle John. He taught that Jesus was a mere man, though being holy. At his baptism, Christ, or the holy spirit, was sent from heaven and dwelt in the man Jesus. But before his death, Christ left the man Jesus and returned to heaven. Thus, Jesus had come in the flesh but not Christ. This may have been what John had in mind. In any case, there was a wrong view in connection with the nature of Jesus Christ that the Antichrists taught.
On this background, we may get a correct understanding of 2 John 7-11. Verse 7 mentions “the antichrist” in the singular, and the antichrist is also called “the deceiver” (planos). This shows that John speaks about one of the groups of antichrists as representing the whole group. The basic error of the antichrist is the same as the error 1 John mentions: “not acknowledging Jesus Christ as coming in the flesh.” The fact that the verb “to come” is perfect in 1 John 4:2 and present in 2 John 7 has little importance because both the Greek perfect and present are aspects, and each aspect stresses a different part of the same action and not the time of the action. Thus, both clauses may refer to the teaching of Kerinthos.
This teaching of Kerinthos and his group was false, and in order to protect the Christians from any influence of the false teachings of the group, John says that the Christians should not receive an antichrist into his house. When a guest arrived at a home, he was greeted, and his feet were washed. So, the words “(not) say a greeting to him” are the same as “never receive him into your homes” — not welcoming (greeting) him as a visitor.
Because of the false teachings of the Pre-Gnostics and John’s admonition to avoid them, it is obvious that a Christian who left his congregation and became a part of the group of Pre-Gnostics should be disfellowshipped from the congregation.
The words of Titus 3:10, 11 are relevant in our situation as well:
10 As for a man who promotes a sect, reject him after a first and a second admonition, 11 knowing that such a man has turned out of the way and is sinning, he being self-condemned.
The word “reject” is translated from the Greek word paraiteomai, which means “purposely to avoid association with someone” This word shows that the man should be disfellowshipped from the Christian congregation because he had made a sect. According to the Bible, there is only one true religion, and this means that any other religion is a “sect” according to the terminology of the Bible.
According to 1 Timothy 1:20, Hymenaeus and Alexander “were handed over to Satan,” which indicates that they were disfellowshipped from the Christian congregation. According to 2 Timothy 2:17,18, the reason why they were handed over to Satan was that they were spreading false teachings.
Thus, there are two reasons why joining a religious organization is a disfellowshipping offense, 1) joining another religious organization is the equivalent of joining a sect, and 2) joining another religious organization is to participate in spreading false teachings. This means that persons who join another religious organization deserve to be disfellowshipped.
The policy of Jehovah’s Witnesses until 1986 was that a Witness who joined another religious organization should be disfellowshipped. But from that year on, such a person was not disfellowshipped. But the view was that he had, by his free will, disassociated himself from the congregation. I will give a detailed discussion of this when I discuss the different sides of disassociation.
