Jehovah's Witnesses are taught that out of all the hundreds of millions of Christians who have ever lived, only 144,000 were actually picked by Jehovah to be spirit-anointed, to be brought into his family and welcomed into heaven upon their death.
Only this small group of 144,000 believers have the right to call Jehovah "Father".
As only around 10,000 of this group are still alive in earth today, the overwhelming majority Jehovah's Witnesses (of whom there are roughly 7 million) are not God's children.
My question for Jehovah's Witnesses: why do you call Jehovah "Father" when you pray?
Not sure about this one. As far as I can tell, the WT affirms that the "other sheep" can call Jehovah their father as well:
ReplyDelete*** w04 2/1 p. 9 par. 4 “Lord, Teach Us How to Pray” ***
By saying “our Father,” we also acknowledge that we are part of a large family of men and women who recognize Jehovah as the Life-Giver. (Isaiah 64:8; Acts 17:24, 28) Spirit-begotten Christians are adopted as “God’s sons,” and to him they can “cry out: ‘Abba, Father!’” (Romans 8:14, 15) Millions have become their loyal companions. These have dedicated their lives to Jehovah and symbolized their dedication by water baptism. All these “other sheep” can also approach Jehovah in the name of Jesus and call Him “our Father.” (John 10:16; 14:6) We can regularly go to our heavenly Father in prayer to praise him, to thank him for all his expressions of goodness toward us, and to take our burdens to him, confident that he cares for us.—Philippians 4:6, 7; 1 Peter 5:6, 7.
How does any of that make sense? None of the scriptures they cite actually explain how someone who is not spirit-begotten and adopted as a son can call Jehovah Father.
ReplyDeleteHow come Jehovah's Witnesses are happy with explanations such as this?
I fully agree that this doesn't make any sense, as don't any of the supposed "privileges" of the "anointed." To say that the "anointed" call Jehovah "Father" in a way that the "other" sheep can't (since they aren't "spirit-begotten"), is completely unfounded in Scripture.
ReplyDeleteI was only suggesting that the argument or question that you are asking needs to be more clarified. In other words, in the WT view, its not that the "great crowd" can't call Jehovah "Father," but that they don't do so in the same way as the anointed would. So again, completely unfounded in Scripture, but needs to be more qualified so as to reinforce your point more clearly.
Well, hopefully a thinking Witness will stumble across this and help us understand why the Governing Body is teaching them things that are clearly contradicted by the Bible.
ReplyDeleteI wonder what Jesus thinks...
I hope and pray for the same. The issue of the "anointed" and "other sheep" is, in my opinion, one of the shakiest and easily dismantled of all WT doctrines. And I just can't help but think that the WT has created doctrines solely for the sake of separating themselves from "Christendom" as much as they possibly can without abandoning biblical inerrancy and infallibility. And this doctrine seems to be a prime example of this.
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