GOD’S ADMINISTRATION — HIS CHANNEL OF COMMUNICATION

The members of the Governing Body have claimed that they are “the faithful and discreet slave.” They have also claimed to be “God’s channel of communication,” through which he reveals his truth. This article will discuss what the Christian Greek Scriptures say about God’s channel.

THE USE OF THE WORDS “CHANNEL OF COMMUNICATION”

In the 1870s, C.T. Russell and his friends conducted a systematic study of the Bible and were able to ascertain its basic doctrines rather quickly. They told others about what they had found, and the basic tool they used in their preaching was Zion’s Watch Tower and Herald of Christ’s Presence. After the death of Russell, this magazine continued to be published, and the number The Watch Tower of July 1, 1931, page 198 says:

God has graciously provided, however, a means of communication among the remnant. For years he has used The Watch Tower as such a means of communication, and its columns are constantly used in an effort to give forth the truth to the remnant. It is not man’s truth, but it is God’s truth; and therefore the channel of instrument is God’s, and not man’s.

We note that the means of communication is The Watch Tower magazine, and the focus is not on humans but on God. The Watchtower of June 1, 1943, page 166, said:

The food that the Lord’s “sheep” feed upon and that their feeders must serve to them is the spiritual food provided by the Life-giver, Jehovah. He gives it through his Good Shepherd, Christ Jesus. Jehovah himself is the great “Shepherd and Bishop of our souls”. He sees to it that it is the right food, in due season, and that it is served through his approved visible organization. The spiritual food served up during the past sixty years and published in many languages in hundreds of millions of pieces of literature proves that the Society of Jehovah’s consecrated people, as represented by the Watchtower Bible and Tract Society, is God’s approved visible organization. While there are many so-called “Bible societies”, yet the Watchtower Society is the only one that has faithfully devoted itself, not to publish religious traditions and errors, but to printing and distributing the true-to-fact and harmonious explanations of the Bible as God’s infallible Word.

Again, we see that the focus is on the organization and the magazine it publishes, and not on humans. In 1955, a new expression was coined, namely, God’s “channel of communication.” The background for this expression is that drinking water for the people flows through a channel, and therefore, figuratively, truths from God flow through his “channel of communication.” The Watchtower of May 15, 1955, page 316, says:

The evidence, therefore, is overwhelming that the anointed Christian remnant among Jehovah’s Witnesses today comprise the collective channel of communication.

I agree with the three last quotations that the organization that publishes The Watchtower has been, and is being used by God to spread his truths. The Watchtower of October 1, 1994 (above), of March 15, 2003, page 27 (middle), of August 1, 2004, page 10 (below) say:

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.

Jehovah gives us sound counsel through his Word and through his organization, using the publications provided by “the faithful and discreet slave.” (Matthew 24:45; 2 Timothy 3:16) How foolish to reject good advice and insist on our own way! We “must be swift about hearing” when Jehovah, “the One teaching men knowledge,” counsels us through his channel of communication.​—James 1:19; Psalm 94:10.

¹⁰ In his own due time and through his chosen channel of communication, Jehovah has revealed to humble ones details regarding the outworking of his purpose. These glorious things remain hidden from those who proudly rely on, or stubbornly cling to, human wisdom or thinking. (1 Corinthians 2:6-10) But the humble ones, having been given an accurate understanding of Jehovah’s purpose, are moved to magnify Jehovah because they appreciate his impressive glory all the more.

I also agree with the quotations above that to get a correct understanding of the Bible, one needs teachers who are servants of God and who know the Bible. The apostle Paul confirms this in Romans 10:13-15:

¹³ For “everyone who calls on the name of Jehovah will be saved.” ¹⁴However, how will they call on him if they have not put faith in him? How, in turn, will they put faith in him about whom they have not heard? How, in turn, will they hear without someone to preach? ¹⁵How, in turn, will they preach unless they have been sent out? Just as it is written: “How beautiful are the feet of those who declare good news of good things!”

The only organization that sends out preachers of the good news of the Kingdom worldwide is Jehovah’s Witnesses through The Watchtower Bible and Tract Society. Therefore, the truth about God can only be learned through this organization. In all the quotations above, the focus has been on the anointed remnant and on their organization. But in 2013, the focus shifted to a particular set of human beings. The Watchtower of July 15, 2013, page 23, says:

¹⁰ Who, then, is the faithful and discreet slave? In keeping with Jesus’ pattern of feeding many through the hands of a few, that slave is made up of a small group of anointed brothers who are directly involved in preparing and dispensing spiritual food during Christ’s presence. Throughout the last days, the anointed brothers who make up the faithful slave have served together at headquarters. In recent decades, that slave has been closely identified with the Governing Body of Jehovah’s Witnesses. Note, however, that the word “slave” in Jesus’ illustration is singular, indicating that this is a composite slave. The decisions of the Governing Body are thus made collectively. (the author’s italics)

Today, the Governing Body consists of 11 men, and they claim that they, exclusively, have been appointed by God to be his “channel of communication.”

Thus, the focus has shifted from the organization and the unnamed persons used by it to a small group of men whose names are not only known but who have literally become the face of the organization today. This amounts to a power grab that is based on the reasoning of the members of the Governing Body and not on the Bible.

In what follows, I will discuss God’s administration, and on this background, we will clarify what can rightly be called God’s “channel of communication.”

GOD’S REAL “CHANNEL OF COMMUNICATION”

The word oikonomia occurs three times in the letter to the Ephesians, and the contexts of these occurrences are the focus of this study. But first, I will show how the word is used in the other six occurrences in the Christian Greek Scriptures. In Luke 16:2-4, oikonomia occurs three times:

 ¹ Then he also said to the disciples: “A rich man had a steward (oikonomos) who was accused of handling his goods wastefully. ² So he called him and said, ‘What is this I hear about you? Hand in the account of your stewardship (oikonomia), for you can no longer manage the house.’ ³ Then the steward (oikonomos) said to himself, ‘What am I to do, seeing that my master is taking the stewardship (oikonomia) away from me? I am not strong enough to dig, and I am ashamed to beg. ⁴ Ah! I know what I will do, so that when I am removed from the stewardship (oikonomia), people will welcome me into their homes.’

The Greek word oikos means “house,” and oikonomos means “householder; administrator,” the person in charge of the household, who was often a slave. And the word oikonomia refers to the household itself. A word has a meaning and several references, which are the things in the world denoted by the word.

In the situation with the rich man and the steward (householder), the renderings “stewardship” and “management” (NIV) are good. The focus is on how the man handles the household, and therefore, “your household” would be misleading.

Below are the NWT13 renderings of three other passages with oikonomia.

1 Corinthians 9:17

¹⁷  If I do this willingly, I have a reward; but even if I do it against my will, I still have a stewardship (oikonomia) entrusted to me.

Colossians 1:25

²⁵ I became a minister of this congregation in accord with the stewardship (oikonomia) from God that was given to me in your behalf to preach the word of God fully.

1 Timotheus 1:4

⁴  nor to pay attention to false stories and to genealogies. Such things end up in nothing useful but merely give rise to speculations rather than providing anything (oikonomia) from God in connection with faith.[1]

In 1 Corinthians 9:17 and Colossians 1:25, the focus is on Paul’s work, compared to that of a householder managing the household. The verb “dispense” means “to give out things,” and the point in 1 Timothy 1:4 is that false stories and genealogies give rise to speculation rather than giving out anything from God’s “household.”

“TO GATHER ALL THINGS TOGETHER” OR “TO GATHER ALL THINGS TOGETHER AGAIN”?

In his letter to the Ephesians, Paul discusses the sacred secret (mystērion), and in 1:8-10 (NWT13) we read:

⁸ This undeserved kindness he caused to abound toward us in all wisdom and understanding ⁹ by making known to us the sacred secret (mystērion) of his will. It is according to his good pleasure that he himself purposed ¹⁰ for an administration (oikonomia) at the full limit of the appointed times, to gather all things together (anakefalaioō) in the Christ, the things in the heavens and the things on the earth.

There is an important difference between the NWT13 and the NWT84 in verse 10. The rendering of NWT84 is “to gather all things together again.” (italics mine) The footnote says:

‘To gather…together again.’ According to G.H. Thayer’s Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament, fourth ed. (1901)p. 39 ‘to bring together again for himself.’

The difference is that NWT84 has the adverbial “again,” whereas NWT13 lacks it. The NWT84 shows that the unity between the things in the heavens and the things on the earth that will occur had one time earlier existed. But this idea is lacking in the NWT13.

Applying the principles of lexical semantics, we find that the use of “again” has a very good basis.  I will bring three quotations to show that.

Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament: Based on Semantic Domains, by J.P. Louw and E. Nida says about this word:

To manage and provide for a household… In biblical times a household would consist of more than the nuclear family, that is to say, more than simply husband, wife, and children, for servants, slaves, and permanent hired workers living with the family would be regarded as a part of the total household.

 New Testament, vol. III, page 682, has the following comments on the verb anakefalaioō:

Iren. [Irenaeus, c. 130 — c. 200 CE, Church father] used anakafalaioō in the sense of gathering together, summation. Since every summation implies a kind of repetition, the word may sometimes have the direct sense of “to repeat.” The ana- thus assumes an iterative sense which it does not have elsewhere…Apsines [a Greek philosopher in the 3rd century CE] used anakafalaioō with reference to the repetition of an event. The recapitulare in Iren. [Irenaeus] is also to be understood in the first instance as repetition, though it is to be noted that it sums up the original and is thus qualitative…In this summation, however, the prominent element may be, not that of repetition, but that of the affirmation and confirmation implied in repetition.

We note the comment on the preposition ana (“up, upon, on”), which is often used distributively (= referring to each individual of a group rather than collectively to all individuals). The use of this preposition with a distributive meaning at the beginning of the verb anakefalaioō could signal the repetitive meaning of doing again, is the argument. Additions of prepositions to a word may change its meaning. For example, the Greek word gnosis means “knowledge,” but with the preposition epi (“over, upon”) prefixed, as epignosis, the meaning may be “accurate knowledge.”

Several commentators of Ephesians also argue about the repetitive meaning of 1:10. Galatians and Ephesians in Meyer’s Commentary on the New Testament (1883, 1979), page 322, says in comments on Ephesians 1:10:

Consequently anakefalaioō, summatim recolligere, “recapitulate summarily,” which is said in Rom xiii 9 of that which has been previously expressed singulatim, “individually,” in separate parts, but now is again gathered up in one main point, so that at Rom. l.e en touto to logo denotes that main point in which the gathering up is contained. And here this main point of gathering up again, unifying all the parts, lies in Christ.

The important point is that the commandments in Romans 13:9 have been stated before and are now summarized again (anakefalaioō) in the saying, “You must love your neighbor as yourself.”

The commentator A.S. Wood in Ephesians in The Expositor’s Bible Commentary (1978) Vol. 11, page 26, also stresses the repetitive nature of the verb:

The verb anakefalaioō (“to bring together”) means to sum up together again (Rom 13:9). It is derived not from kefalē (“a head”) but from kephalaion (a summary, or sum total”). When a column of figures was added up, the total was placed at the top.

The three quotations above show that the use of the adverbial “again” in NWT84 has a solid linguistic basis. I do not know why the Governing Body deleted this important word from NWT13. But a characteristic of this translation is that subtleties and nuances in the original text often are ignored and is not rendered in English.

But what is the meaning of the words “to gather all things together again in the Christ, the things in the heavens and the things on the earth”? Before Adam and Eve sinned, there existed a unity between God’s family in heaven and God’s family on the earth, and again this unity will be created through Jesus Christ. This is a part of the sacred secret of God.

THE SACRED SECRET OF GOD 

We have seen that the basic meaning of the Greek word oikonomia is “household.” But using the rendering “household” in Ephesians 1:10 could create wrong connotations. Many translations does not translate the word oikonomia in this verse,” but they use some kind of circumlocution.  NRSV and NAB translate the word as “plan” and NKJV translates the word as “dispensation.” I think that the word “administration” of NWT84 and NWT13 is a fine rendering of oikonomia. This English word is abstract, as is the Greek word, and it includes the basic meaning of something that is administered, just as a household is administered. The Watchtower of October 15, 1974, page 636, has a fine explanation of the meaning of oikonomia:

“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)

If we compare this definition with the words “Biden’s administration” we see a difference. The phrase “Biden’s administration” refers to Joe Biden’s power as president in the USA and to the policies of the president. But it also includes all the ministers and persons employed to carry out the president’s instructions.

Because Jehovah is almighty, he is not dependent on angels or humans to effectuate his purpose. So his administration is solely connected with himself, and if we should coin a new word, his position would be that of “supremeship” rather than “stewardship.” I will now analyze some of the expressions in Ephesians 1:8-12 (NWT13).

⁸  This undeserved kindness he caused to abound toward us in all wisdom and understanding ⁹  by making known to us the sacred secret of his will. It is according to his good pleasure that he himself purposed ¹⁰ for an administration at the full limit of the appointed times, to gather all things together in the Christ, the things in the heavens and the things on the earth. Yes, in him ¹¹ with whom we are in union and were assigned as heirs, having been foreordained according to the purpose of the one who accomplishes all things as he decides according to his will, ¹² so that we who have been first to hope* in the Christ should serve for the praise of his glory. ¹³ But you also hoped in him after you heard the word of truth, the good news about your salvation. After you believed, you were sealed by means of him with the promised holy spirit, ¹⁴ which is a token in advance of our inheritance, for the purpose of releasing God’s own possession by a ransom, to his glorious praise.

The administration is God’s sacred secret, and the following excellent definition of the sacred secret is found in the study edition of NWT13:

The sacred secret of his will: The term “sacred secret” is mentioned several times in Paul’s letter to the Ephesians. Generally speaking, Jehovah’s “sacred secret”  centers on Jesus Christ (Col 2:2; 4:3) However, the sacred secret has many facets. These include: Jesus’ identity as the promised offspring, or Messiah, and his role in God’s purpose (Ge 3:15); a heavenly government, God’s Messianic Kingdom (Matt 3:11; Mr 4:11); the congregation of spirit-anointed Christians, of which Christ is head (Eph 5:32; Col 1.18; Re 1:20); the role of these anointed ones who share the Kingdom with Jesus (Lu 22:29, 30); and the selection of the anointed from among both Jews and Gentiles (Ro 11:25; Eph 3:3-6: col 1:26, 27).

The word mysterion (“sacred secret”) is based on the prophecy in Genesis 3:15 about the “seed of the woman.” This prophecy shows that God would do something to restore the order of the earth that Satan had partially destroyed. But how this would be done with the help of the “seed” was a sacred secret until it was revealed in the first century CE.

The construction of the clauses in verses 9 and 10 shows that the sacred secret is “the administration,” which is God’s way of administering and managing things. That oikonomia (“administration”) refers to the way God is managing things accords with the words  “the sacred secret of his will” and “that he himself purposed.” The sacred secret is also put in a time frame, because it begins “at the full limit of the appointed times.” The Watchtower of October 15, 1974, page 622, connects these words with the words “the full limit of the time” (Galatians 4:4) when Jesus was born by a woman, and we read:

¹⁰ When God’s Son Jesus Christ was glorified in heaven and founded the Christian congregation at Jerusalem on the day of Pentecost of 33 C.E., the “administration at the full limit of the appointed times” started operation in its first stage, the most essential stage. The congregation of those who were to be associates in the unifying work with Jesus Christ in the heavens had to be gathered and unified under its Head, God’s Chief Servant. In this way “the things in the heavens,” the things destined for the heavens, would be ‘gathered together again in the Christ,’ so that the “body” used by God in his administration might be complete.​—Eph. 1:9-11.

¹¹ However, according to God’s purpose, the due time must come for the second feature of his “administration,” namely, to ‘gather together again in the Christ’ “the things on the earth.” This time arrived when the Gentile Times came to their fulfillment in autumn of the year 1914 C.E. There the time came for the Messianic Kingdom rule as formerly exercised by King David over in the Middle East to be reinstated, not in earthly Jerusalem, but in the heavens.

¹² In heaven, at God’s right hand, was where the permanent Heir of King David was now located, namely, the Lord Jesus Christ. Then it was that Jehovah installed this heavenly Heir of King David on the throne, with royal power not just over the territory of ancient Israel but over all the earth, over all mankind for whom Jesus Christ had died as a perfect human sacrifice. Thereby the Kingdom of the Messiah went into operation. At that time, in a culminating way, the “full limit of the appointed times” had been reached when the “administration” that God was conducting ‘should gather together again in the Christ’ the estranged “things on the earth.” This would be the second stage of the gathering or uniting work according to God’s purpose.

This is a very good explanation. The gathering of “the things in the heavens” (those who will reign with Jesus in the heavens) started at “the full limit of the time” in the first century CE. And the gathering of “the things on the earth” (those who will live in the earthly paradise) started at “the full limit of the appointed times of the nations” (Luke 21:24) in 1914.

THE ADMINISTRATION AS GOD’S CHANNEL OF COMMUNICATION 

The sacred secret is again mentioned in Ephesians chapter 3, verses 4-10. Verse 9 has the expression “oikonomia (nominative) tou mysteriou (genitive).” The genitive case in Greek can have several different meanings. The NWT13 and many other translations take the construction as subjective genitive. This means that the  genitive “the sacred secret” is subject and it owns “the administration.”

I find this problematic because this understanding seems to contradict 1:9, 10 where it is said that the sacred secret (mysterion) is the administration (oikonomia). In other words, the sacred secret is how God would administer everything to solve the problems Satan had created. If we accept that the sacred secret is the administration, then the rendering “the administration of the sacred secret” would mean “the administration of the administration,” which is a tautology.

An alternative understanding of the genitive that accords with 1:9, 10, is that this is an appositive genitive, which means that the words in genitive stand as apposition to the word in nominative. If this is correct, the translation would be “the administration which is the sacred secret.”

The works of God’s channel of communication in the first century CE

As we have seen, God’s administration is the way he administers or manages things. How God would arrange things in order to fulfill the prophecy of Genesis 3:15 that the seed of the woman would crush the head of the snake was a sacred secret. But in the first century CE, this sacred secret was revealed, as Ephesians 3:4-10 shows:

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.

Verse 5 says that this sacred secret was revealed by the spirit to Christ’s holy apostles and prophets. A revelation is an act of communication, and the mentioned revelation shows that God’s administration is his “channel of communication.” This is also shown in verse 10, where we read that “through the congregation” the “greatly diversified wisdom of God ” might “be made known” to God’s family in the heavens.

The Watchtower of September 15, 1971, page 569, has an interesting comment on the issue of communication that is mentioned in verse 10:

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)

This comment is confirmed by the words of 1 Peter 1:10-12:

¹⁰ Concerning this salvation, the prophets who prophesied about the undeserved kindness meant for you made a diligent inquiry and a careful search. ¹¹ They kept on investigating what particular time or what season the spirit within them was indicating concerning Christ as it testified beforehand about the sufferings meant for Christ and about the glory that would follow.¹² It was revealed to them that they were ministering, not to themselves, but to you, regarding what has now been announced to you by those who declared the good news to you with holy spirit sent from heaven. Into these very things, angels are desiring to peer.

The sacred secret was revealed to the apostles and the prophets, and God’s wisdom was made known to his family in the heavens. But verse 9 shows that there is a third way God’s channel of communication works, and it is expressed by the word “see.” Who should see? The answer is “everyone.” And how should everyone see? By “declaring…the good news about the unfathomable riches of the Christ.” This is explained in Ephesians 3. In verses 1-3, we read:

 ¹ For this reason I, Paul, the prisoner of Christ Jesus in behalf of you, the people of the nations—²  if, really, you have heard about the stewardship of God’s undeserved kindness that was given to me for your sakes, ³ that by way of a revelation the sacred secret was made known to me, just as I wrote previously in brief.

Verse 2 says that Paul was given a stewardship (oikonomia). Receiving a stewardship means receiving the responsibility for directing a household. And what was this “household”? It was God’s undeserved kindness. This oikonomia (“administration”) is different from the oikonomia mentioned in 1:10 and 3:9, of which God is the administrator or has the supremeship. The nature of Paul’s stewardship is seen in verse 8:

This undeserved kindness was given, so that I should declare to the nations the good news about the unfathomable riches of the Christ.

The two quotations above show that Paul should fulfill his stewardship by preaching about the undeserved kindness of God, which is seen in the life and actions of Jesus Christ.

God’s administration, his way of administering and managing things, was used as his channel of communication in three ways in the first century CE:

• The sacred secret was revealed to the apostles and prophets.
• God’s greatly diversified wisdom was made known to his family in the heavens.
• The good news about Christ was declared for the nations.

In order to place these three ways of communication in the right setting, we must connect them with Paul’s words in Ephesians 1:10, “to gather all things together again in the Christ, the things in the heavens and the things on the earth.” The gathering of persons with a heavenly hope, the things in the heavens, started “at the full limit of the appointed times,” in 29 CE at the beginning of the 70th week, according to Daniel 9:25. The things on the earth would be gathered in the next important phase of God’s administration, the time of the end.

The works of God’s channel of communication in the time of the end

God’s sacred secret, his administration, was revealed in the first century CE, and the apostle Paul wrote about it in the letter to the Ephesians. This letter was inspired by God, and he also inspired the other books in the Christian Greek Scriptures. God managed the situation so the Bible became complete with 66 books. This was a part of God’s channel of communication that would be used in the time of the end in order to gather “the things on this earth.”

After 1914, when Christ’s presence began, the holy Bible was the focus of the sincere Christians who wanted to serve God. They viewed this book as a message from God, as his channel of communication. But God’s administration, his way of managing things, also used another side of this channel. Paul says in 1 Timothy 3:15:

¹⁴ I am writing you these things, though I am hoping to come to you shortly, ¹⁵ but in case I am delayed, so that you may know how you ought to conduct yourself in God’s household, which is the congregation of the living God, a pillar and support of the truth.

The word “household” in the verse is translated from the Greek word oikos, and a better translation would be “house.” We learn that God’s “house” is “the congregation of the living God,” and that this congregation is “the pillar and support of the truth.”

The congregation’s firm support of the truth is implied in the next verse, 1 Timothy 3:16: “he was preached among the nations.” In 2 Timothy 4:2, Paul writes to Timothy: “Preach the word,” and this preaching should be in contrast with those “who turn away from listening to the truth” (4:4). All Jehovah’s Witnesses today are preachers of the word of God all over the world, and by doing this, they are as a congregation supporting the truth.

This worldwide preaching is also one side of God’s “channel of communication.” There is also a third side of this channel. Paul received the understanding of the sacred secret through a revelation. But in the time of the end, inspiration does not occur any longer. However, Daniel 12:9, 10 says that a part of the book of Daniel should be sealed until the time of the end. At that time, the people of God should understand the whole book of Daniel (11:33).

God’s administration is again at work. By maneuvering different events on the earth in a particular direction, God’s spiritual-minded servants will see this and draw the right conclusion. By this kind of direction, God lets his servants gradually understand what has been sealed. This process is described in the article, “God’s channel of communication — the difference between inspiration and direction.”

God’s administration, his way of administering and managing things, has also been used as his channel of communication in three ways in the time of the end:

• The holy Bible with God’s purpose is available for the nations.
• The good news of the established Kingdom was preached to all nations.
• Parts of the Bible that had been sealed are now understood because of God’s direction.

To place the three ways of communication that God administered in the first century CE alongside the three ways he has administered in the time of the end after 1914, we need to understand the place of human beings and the stewardships some of them have received.

The role of human beings in God’s channel of communication

We must always keep in mind that Jehovah God is the supreme part of his administration. He is the one who is administering or managing everything in accordance with his purpose. He has the supremeship, so to speak.

But what about the human stewardships, that humans were appointed as leaders of a household? The only one said to be appointed by God in the first century was the apostle Paul. He was not appointed to understand God’s sacred secret, nor was he appointed to make known God’s wisdom for his family in the heavens. But he was appointed as a steward of God’s undeserved kindness to preach the good news to the people of the nations. (Colossians 1:25)

In the Christian Greek Scriptures, we do not find any passage referring to the time of the end that says one or more servants of God are appointed to a stewardship in this period, either to understand the deep truths of the Bible or to preach the good news of the Kingdom. But God’s servants are indirectly admonished to preach the good news of the Kingdom, as Jesus said in Matthew 24:14.

This means that the leaders of the Bible students and Jehovah’s Witnesses, C.T Russel, J.F. Rutherford, and N.H. Knorr was not appointed by God, and neither did they claim to be so. But each of them was a sincere person who wholeheartedly served Jehovah. However, Jehovah’s administration is also his channel of communication with his creatures. He has handled the situation so that his channel of communication has used the organization of Jehovah’s Witnesses—not the leaders of the organization, but the organization itself. I showed this at the beginning of this study.

However, in the 21st century, the members of the Governing Body have increasingly wielded power. And today, the 11 members of the Governing Body have all power over the doctrines, the Kingdom Halls, and the money. They claim to have been appointed by God to this position and that they are “God’s channel of communication.”

In the 21st century, the members of the Governing Body have formed the community of Jehovah’s Witnesses into their image. They have made a great number of changes, and they have introduced numerous of false teachings. Most of the 107 changes in previous viewpoints (“beliefs clarified”) introduced by the Governing Body between 1990 and 2020 are either wrong or questionable. So the facts on the ground show that the present 11  members of the Governing Body are not God’s channel of communication. The articles they have published in The Watchtower and other literature are based on a different view and understanding of the Bible than the leaders of the Bible Students and Jehovah’s Witnesses held for 120 years. Their viewpoints are, to a great extent, based on human reasoning and not on Jehovah’s thoughts.

God’s channel of communication is abstract. It is his administration (oikonomia), the way he is administering and managing his purpose. No human on the earth is a part of God’s channel of communication. But God’s channel of communication has used humans connected with Watchtower Bible and Tract Society as a tool, to preach the good news of the kingdom.

CONCLUSION

Since the 1870s, The Bible Students and Jehovah’s Witnesses have been used by God’s administration, his channel of communication. Understanding the Bible can only be achieved with the help of representatives of this Christian community.

God’s administration refers to God’s way of administering or managing things, his procedure in handling matters with a view to producing unity. According to Paul’s letter to the Ephesians, the mentioned unity will be the result of God’s gathering of persons with a heavenly hope in the first century CE, and his gathering of persons with an earthly hope in the time of the end.

There was unity between God’s family in heaven and on the earth before Adam and Eve sinned. And a similar unity will again be achieved by God’s administration, by his way of administering and managing things.

Jehovah’s people on earth has been used by God’s channel of communication since the 1980s with no focus on humans. However, in the 21st century, the members of the Governing Body engaged in a power grab. They elevated themselves and claimed to be God’s channel of communication. Now the focus was changed to humans, to the 11 men who constitute the Governing Body. This violates several Bible principles.

 

 

 

[1]. The NWT84 has the rendering “a dispensing of anything by God,” and the footnote says: “Lit., “house-administration.”