In the article, “God’s administration — his channel of communication,” I demonstrated that God’s channel of communication does not refer to humans, to the 11 members of the Governing Body, as these men claim. This channel is abstract: it is the way God communicates with humans and how he directs them to find his truth.
God uses the Bible and the preaching of the good news of the kingdom to communicate with humans. In addition, the article says: “Parts of the Bible that had been sealed were now understood because of God’s direction.”
The subject of this article is the meaning of the word “direction.” How God directs his people to understand parts of the Bible that previously have been sealed, and the difference between direction and inspiration.
The Watchtower of October 1, 1994, page 8, comments on how sincere persons can learn the truth about God:
“Jesus assured us that after his death and resurrection, he would raise up a “faithful and discreet slave” that would serve as his channel of communication. (Matthew 24:45-47) The apostle Paul identified this channel to the Ephesian Christians when he wrote that “there might be made known through the congregation the greatly diversified wisdom of God, according to the eternal purpose that he formed in connection with the Christ, Jesus our Lord.” (Ephesians 3:10, 11) It was the congregation of anointed Christians, born at Pentecost 33 C.E., that was entrusted with the “things revealed.” (Deuteronomy 29:29) As a group, anointed Christians serve as the faithful and discreet slave. (Luke 12:42-44) Their appointed assignment from God is to provide spiritual understanding of the “things revealed.” All who want to understand the Bible should appreciate that the “greatly diversified wisdom of God” can become known only through Jehovah’s channel of communication, the faithful and discreet slave.”
Paul’s letter to the Ephesians discusses God’s sacred secret, which refers to Jesus Christ and the purpose of God associated with him. We read in 1:9 (above) and 3:4-10 (below):
9 the sacred secret of his will…for an administration…to gather all things together [again] in the Christ, the things in the heavens and the things on the earth.” (1:9-11)
4 So when you read this you can realize my comprehension of the sacred secret of the Christ. 5 In other generations this secret was not made known to the sons of men as it has now been revealed to his holy apostles and prophets by spirit 6 namely, that people of the nations should, in union with Christ Jesus and through the good news, be joint heirs and fellow members of the body and partakers with us of the promise. 7 I became a minister of this according to the free gift of God’s undeserved kindness that was given me through the operation of his power.8 To me, a man less than the least of all holy ones, this undeserved kindness was given, so that I should declare to the nations the good news about the unfathomable riches of the Christ 9 and should make everyone see the administration of the sacred secret that has been hidden through the ages in God, who created all things. 10 This was so that now, through the congregation, there might be made known to the governments and the authorities in the heavenly places the greatly diversified wisdom of God.
The Watchtower of September 15, 1971, page 569, commented on the sacred secret, and we read:
It is not that the congregation on earth teaches wisdom to the heavenly authorities. Rather, it is that God, by his dealings and the working out of his purposes in connection with the Christian congregation, reveals surpassing wisdom, even to the angels.—1 Pet. 1:10-12. (the author’s italics)
How God would solve all the problems Satan had created was a sacred secret for four thousand years. In the first century CE, the sacred secret was revealed: Jesus came to earth, and he formed a congregation of anointed Christians. By this, God’s “greatly diversified wisdom” was revealed.
Thus, the words in Ephesians 3:10, 11, quoted to show that the truth can only be “known through Jehovah’s channel of communication,” do not mean that the anointed members of the congregation were the oracles of such truths, channeling them to the world through their preaching. But they show that God’s wisdom was seen, or revealed, through his dealings with the congregation of anointed Christians in the first century CE.
Because the congregation of anointed Christians still exists, Paul’s words also imply that God’s wisdom will be made known through his continued dealings with this congregation today. Therefore, when The Watchtower of 1994 says that the understanding of the Bible can only be achieved through “Jehovah’s channel of communication,” this has a clear basis in the Bible.
In 1994, the understanding was that “the faithful and discreet slave” consisted of all the anointed Christians on the earth, men and women. And Jehovah’s channel was identical to the slave. In chapter 2 of my book My Beloved Religion — And The Governing Body, I show that the words about “the slave” are completely misunderstood. The words are not a designation or title bestowed upon a small elite group during Christ’s presence. But they refer to all Christians who are like faithful slaves when Jesus comes as the judge in the great tribulation. Thus, the expression “the faithful and discreet slave” as a title should therefore be deleted from the Witnesses’ spiritual vocabulary.
An important concept to grasp at this point is that “Jehovah’s channel of communication” is not a small group of men, nor is it the anointed congregation by itself. As shown in the Watchtower references quoted above, this channel of communication involves Jehovah’s “administration” or managerial procedure in advancing his purpose—his ways of going about it. We can think of Jehovah’s channel of communication, not as a human conduit per se, but as his method for communicating his truths. In other words, Jehovah himself is the primary part of this channel inasmuch as truths are only revealed by means of “his dealings . . . with the Christian congregation”.
Therefore, we should not think of God’s channel of communication as a group of humans who, acting as a conduit, receive inspired or semi-inspired messages from God and then ‘channel’ these messages to others. Jehovah’s channel, or method of communication, includes himself and involves the various ways in which he interacts with the Christian congregation to facilitate the uncovering of certain truths—that “apparatus” is the channel. Since the inception of the Christian congregation in the first century CE, God has done this in two basic ways, through inspiration and direction.
The important issue now is how God’s channel of communication communicates the truth. To understand that we must understand the difference between inspiration and direction. My book My Beloved Religion — And The Governing Body, pages 98 and 99, has a discussion of this issue, and I present this discussion below.[1]
[1]. Regarding the district assembly in 1974, The Watchtower of October 15, 1974, page 636, says: “This year the striking subject was “Human Plans Failing as God’s Purpose Succeeds.” It focused attention on the Bible passage at Ephesians 1:10, which speaks of God’s “administration at the full limit of the appointed times” for the blessing of mankind. What is this “administration”? “The term ‘administration’ does not mean the Messianic kingdom of His Son Jesus Christ,” the speaker emphasized. No, rather, it refers to God’s way of administering or managing things, his procedure in handling matters with a view to producing unity. The instrument God uses in his “administration” or management of things, it was shown, is the kingdom of his Son Jesus Christ.” (the author’s italics) His “channel of communication” is his “administration,” his way of administering the truth about his purpose. See also “The Watchtower of 15 October 1974, pages 611-631.
INSPIRATION AND DIRECTION IN THE FIRST CENTURY CE
In the book of Acts, we see how the spirit both used inspiration and direction. The word inspiration means that the spirit directly gave information to a servant of God, whereas direction means that the spirit maneuvered a situation in a particular direction, enabling a spiritually minded servant of God to draw a particular conclusion. Very good examples of inspiration and direction are seen in Acts chapter 10.
Until this time, only Jews and Samaritans had become a part of God’s people. But now, it was Jehovah’s time for people of the nations to also become a part. Peter should be the one to introduce this new procedure. Let us now study Acts chapter 10 and learn how Jehovah used his channel of communication to reveal truths and advance his purpose among the people of the nations.
An angel spoke to the army officer in a vision and told him to send some men to Joppa to Simon Peter (vv. 1–6). This was an example of divine inspiration—direct and specific information from God. The next day, Peter fell into a trance, and three times he saw a vessel with unclean animals coming down to the earth. Peter was asked to eat the “unclean” animals. But he refused because this was against the law of Moses (vv. 9–16). This vision was also by means of divine inspiration.
While Peter was contemplating the meaning of the vision, three men of the nations approached him. This was a strange situation for Peter because no one from the nations had yet become part of the Christian community. There was no cooperation between the Jews and the nations, so naturally, Peter would have refused to have anything to do with these men. However, the spirit, which could refer to an angel, told Peter to go with the men (vv. 19, 20). This was again a case of inspiration, and inspiration was necessary because Peter would never have had anything to do with people of the nations (v. 28). Only because he was directly told to go with these men did he do so.
Then he came to the house of Cornelius, and because of the vision of the vessel with the “unclean” animals, Peter drew the only conclusion a spiritually minded Christian could draw: Apparently, God wanted him to enter the house of these people of the nations (vv. 23–28). However, this was not a case of inspiration directly telling Peter what to do; it was direction, because the spirit had maneuvered the situation to help Peter draw the right conclusion.
But now an embarrassing situation arose. Cornelius told Peter about the angel and his vision, and then he said: “And now all of us are in front of God who is present, to hear all the things you have been instructed by Jehovah to say” (v. 33). And yet, Peter had not received any instructions from Jehovah as to what he should say when this moment arrived.
But because of the whole situation, the visions that both he and Cornelius had seen, and the angels who had spoken to both of them, he drew the only conclusion a spiritually minded servant of God could draw: ‘Jehovah has sent me to preach the good news about the Kingdom to these people of the nations,’ and so he did (vv. 34–43). This was direction because the spirit had maneuvered the situation in a way that would help Peter draw the right conclusion.
We must remember that what Peter did—entering the house of persons of the nations and preaching to them—was unprecedented because it had never been done before. Then, while Peter was speaking, the holy spirit fell upon those hearing Peter’s speech, and they were speaking in tongues (vv. 44–46). This was inspiration. And how did Peter react? He drew the only conclusion a spiritually minded servant of God could draw: Because these people had received the holy spirit, they should be baptized (vv. 47, 48). This was direction, and the baptism of people of the nations was also unprecedented.
We see in this account that the spirit, by four examples of inspiration, maneuvered the situation, so Peter three times was directed to draw particular conclusions. By this, people of the nations for the first time became members of “the people of God.”
DIRECTION IN OUR TIME
The Bible students and Jehovah’s Witnesses have never claimed to be inspired by God and to receive messages from him. Such a claim would have been a rejection of the Bible as the only authority for the Christian faith because we would then have to believe that the humans who claimed to receive messages from God told the truth.
This means that the communication of the truth today must be based solely on direction, not on inspiration. In connection with Peter, God used various forms of inspiration to help him draw the right conclusions and be guided by God. But what does God use today instead of inspiration in order to help his people find his truth? Today, Jehovah uses direction from his Word, the Bible, and maneuvers situations as he deems fit to advance his purpose. The important point is that God can maneuver matters in harmony with his will by directly making something happen, or by indirectly allowing something to happen. Then, when his servants on earth catch sight of what has happened, the spiritually minded servants of God use “insight” to draw the right conclusion from what they see (Daniel 11:33, 35). Let us look at the practical side of this.
The truth about God’s purpose started to be understood in the 1870s. But what was the basis for this?
In the 1870s, God had made the Bible available in English and other languages. C.T. Russell had long sought the truth about God and realized that only a systematic study of the Bible could lead to it. Just by reading the Bible, Russel and his friends learned some basic principles: the Bible is inspired by God, every account is included for a particular purpose, and all nuances and subtleties are important. They also learned that every doctrine must accord with God’s attributes, his love, his righteousness and justice, his power, and his wisdom. Closely adhering to these tenets is the basis for having clear direction by God. Deviating from any of these, the direction becomes cloudy and unclear, and more a matter of guesswork or fiction.
Russell and several friends began a systematic study of the whole Bible based on this foundation, and the group gradually came to understand the basic Christian doctrines. The various Christian religions at that time had creeds and human traditions that contained wrong doctrines, which were ignored by Russel’s group. They followed the aforementioned principles in their study and therefore understood many of the basic Christian doctrines that members of other denominations did not grasp.
According to Matthew 11:25, Jesus says:
At that time Jesus said in response: I publicly praise you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because you have hidden these things from the wise and intellectual ones and have revealed them to young children.
And Daniel 12:9 says:
Then he said: “Go, Daniel, because the words are to be kept secret and sealed up until the time of the end.
The meaning of the text of the Bible was purposely hidden by God, and it should first be understood in the time of the end. This shows that even the group around Russell, sincere truth-seekers who studied the Bible according to the aforementioned principles, could not simply read the Bible and understand everything in it. A systematic Bible study would help them understand some basic Christian doctrines. But in order to understand the details of God’s purpose, they would also need God’s direction.
So, the question is, how did God direct this small group of Bible students? As I have shown in connection with Peter, God maneuvered things and made certain things visible for Peter, so he could draw the right conclusion. God can also make visible to his servants things that others have done, such as events in world history, and on this basis, they are directed to draw the right conclusions.
One example of direction is the Bible translation The Emphatic Diaglott, which was translated by Benjamin Wilson in 1864. In Matthew 24:3, this translation uses the English word “presence” for the Greek word parousia. The attention of Russell and the other Bible students was directed toward this translation. This led to a detailed study of the word parousia, which in turn led to the conclusion that Jesus would have an invisible “presence” rather than a visible coming, a belief held of most other Christian denominations.
Did God use direction in connection with Wilson? This is very likely because the word parousia is crucial to an accurate understanding of the Christian Greek Scriptures. In any case, the Bible students somehow caught sight of this new translation, and this led them to discover something profound, the very important doctrine of Christ’s presence.
When the Bible students spoke with others about their faith, the focus was on the hope of reigning with Jesus in heaven. However, they also realized that the Bible promised the restoration of the earthly paradise. But precisely who would live in this paradise was unclear.
Revelation 7:9-17 mentions a great crowd standing before the throne. For a long time, God’s anointed servants had asked the question that we find in Revelation 7:13 (NWT13): “These who are dressed in white robes, who are they, and where did they come from?” At that time, the view was that the great crowd was a secondary heavenly class.
In 1923, The Watchtower discussed the illustration of the “sheep” and the “goats” in Matthew 25:31-46, arguing that the “sheep” were separated from the “goats” at present and that the “sheep” would live in the paradise earth. While the heavenly calling remained the focus, several articles in The Watchtower also addressed the earthly hope. And in the 12 years after 1923, more and more servants of God spoke about the coming paradise on this earth.
And in 1935, at the assembly in Washington D.C., a great number expressed that they looked forward to life in the paradise earth; 840 persons were baptized at this assembly, most of whom expressed these earthly sentiments. This means that Jehovah had answered the question of the anointed servants of God, expressed in Revelation chapter 7. He had directed the attention of his anointed servants toward these persons with an earthly hope. And when all these with an earthly hope appeared, the anointed servants drew the only possible conclusion they could: Here is the great crowd! This was a clear example of God’s direction.
God’s direction can also be that he fulfills his prophecies, and his spiritually minded servants observe and recognize that fact. One example is the prophecy of Revelation 17:3, 7-11. Seven kings or world powers are mentioned. God’s direction is seen in two areas. Daniel chapters 7 and 8 describe different world powers. By studying these chapters, the identity of the seven kings can be understood. So, one aspect of God’s direction here is that his servants understand how one part of the Bible interprets another part.
When John wrote Revelation, the five world powers, Egypt, Assyria, Babylonia, Persia, and Greece, had fallen. John says that “one is [in existence],” which was the Roman Empire in John’s day. One king “has not yet arrived,” and this would be the Anglo-American Empire. After these, the wild beast, which is an eight king that “springs from the seven,” would arrive.
After World War I, the Bible students identified the League of Nations as the eighth king of the wild beast. This wild beast “was and is not, yet it is about to ascend out of the abyss.” How would that occur? During World War II, the League of Nations, “the wild beast,” was in the abyss because it no longer functioned. But after the war, it ascended out of the abyss as the United Nations.
When this happened, the prophecy had been fulfilled, representing the second aspect of God’s direction in this matter. By seeing the prophecy fulfilled, God’s spiritually minded servants were directed to understand it.
It is also interesting to see that, because the prophecy of the seven kings and the eighth one was clearly understood, God’s servants had anticipated this fulfillment. In the lecture “Peace Can it Last” at the New World Theocratic Assembly in 1942, N.H. Knorr pointed out that the war, then in progress, would end with a period of peace, followed by the League of Nations coming to life again. True to that prediction, it descended from the abyss as the United Nations.[1] When Knorr spoke correctly about the future, he was not inspired. But he followed Jehovah’s direction about the fulfillment of his prophecies.
In 1965, a new milestone in understanding the resurrection was reached, evidently under God’s direction. There may have been many questions about the resurrection sent to headquarters, or another reason why the leading brothers saw the need for a thorough study of all the Bible passages that directly or indirectly relate to the resurrection.
The result of this study was 12 articles in The Watchtower that discussed all the different sides of the resurrection.[2] These articles stressed the love and wisdom of Jehovah because the thrilling understanding was that most of the people who had lived on the earth would get a resurrection, including inhabitants of Capernaum, Chorazin, Bethsaida, who had rejected the preaching of Jesus, as well as the inhabitants of Sodom.
God’s direction was that the leading brothers were in some way persuaded of the need to embark on a thorough study of the resurrection. And the spiritually minded anointed servants drew the only possible conclusion from what they found in God’s word regarding the resurrection. There are also many other examples of God’s direction in our time.
[1]. See Revelation Its Grand Climax At Hand! pages 246-248.
[2]. The Watchtower of 1965: “Worship the God of Resurrection”;“Death and Hades to Give Up the Dead,” “Part II”; “The Dead Who Are in Line for Resurrection,” Part II”; “For Whom There Are Resurrection Hopes,” Part II”; “Who Will be Resurrected from the Dead?”, “Part II”; “Who Will be Resurrected—Why?”; “Our Own Twentieth-Century Generation and the Resurrection”; “Earthly Opportunity Opened Up by Resurrection.” in The Watchtower of January 1, January 15, February 1, February 15, March 1, and March 15, 1965.
SUPPOSED DIRECTION FROM GOD IN OUR TIME
I have mentioned several situations in which God’s direction was clearly evident. However, there have also been situations in which anointed Witnesses believed that Jehovah’s direction was there, only to be wrong. Disfellowshipping Witnesses for the use of tobacco, which began in 1973, is one such example, and I use this example in the article “Analysis of the evidence used to show that the Governing Body is ‘the faithful and discreet slave’.'”
Creating a disfellowshipping offense that is not directly mentioned in the Christian Greek Scriptures is to go against Jehovah’s direction. When the members of the Governing Body make decisions on matters where the Scriptures are silent, they are not directed by God but by their own gut feeling.
Another example where the members of the Governing Body went their own way without Jehovah’s direction was their new definition of the word porneia (illicit sexual intercourse), and its application inside marriage. This began in 1974, and the error was acknowledged and corrected in 1978.
These are two important examples of errors by the members of the Governing Body that went against Jehovah’s direction before the late 1980s.
As proof that the 11 members of the Governing Body are “the faithful and discreet slave,” they claim that the new understandings of Bible subjects that they have presented are led by holy spirit, and in these, they have been directed by God.
At the beginning of this discussion, I showed that the reason why the Bible Students in the 1870s were directed by God to find the truth, was that they based their study on the belief that every word in the Bible is inspired by God, that all accounts are included with a particular purpose, and that all the nuances and subtleties in the text are important.
However, the members of the present Governing Body have rejected the full inspiration of the Bible. And so, as one would expect, the basis for new explanations in the last part of the 20th century and in the 21st century reflects this new view of the Bible.
Two of my examples of God’s direction relates to the resurrection, that all those who are in the memorial tombs will be resurrected, and that this means that billions—most of those who have lived on the earth—will come to life on Judgment Day.
However, in The Watchtower of June 1, 1988, a new view was presented, that fewer people who previously believed will receive a resurrection. Could this be God’s direction? I have shown that God’s direction means that he causes the attention of his servants to be focused on something, and his spiritually minded servants will, because of what they see, draw the right conclusion.
The previous view was that the inhabitants of Chorazin, Bethsaida, Capernaum, and Sodom would get a resurrection. But The Watchtower of June 1, 1988, rejected this understanding. What was the reason for this change of view? Had Jehovah directed his servants to discover something new in the Bible that required a change of view? Not at all! The argument was that the words of Jesus in Matthew 11:21-24 were hyperbole, i.e., exaggerations. But this argument that the text does not mean what it actually says is, in reality, a rejection of the text of the Bible.
The clearest example of the rejection of the full inspiration of the Bible was expressed in The Watchtower of March 15. 2015, with the rejection of most of the types and antitypes in the Hebrew Scriptures. This view means that large portions of the Hebrew Scriptures have no meaning for us today.
Had God directed the members of the Governing Body to discover something that required this enormous change of view? There is nothing in the Watchtower literature indicating that. On the contrary, most of the 96 “clarified beliefs” that are listed between 1990 and 2021, in my view, simply represent a change of mind of the members of the members of the Governing Body and not direction from God. And very few of the arguments in favor of the new understandings have a sound biblical basis. I have looked carefully to see if I could find some evidence of Jehovah’s direction. But I have found none.
