Watchtower – Council Approved by God?

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The Watchtower corporation's charter stipulates that its central control stems from a council it terms “the ecclesiastical Governing Body of Jehovah's Witnesses.”[1-2]

Watchtower teaches that deliberations of its Governing Body are patterned after what it terms “The Jerusalem Gathering”.[3] Of the Jerusalem gathering, Watchtower says:

The biblical account of the Jerusalem gathering is found in Acts Chapter 15, where it reveals the deliberations and decisions of that council.

Does Watchtower’s Governing Body follow that biblical pattern?

Historian Zoe Knox observes[4]:

The biblical pattern would have Watchtower’s Governing Body disclose its deliberations. But, as observed by Historian Knox, Watchtower fails to follow this model. Watchtower does not disclose the deliberations of its Governing Body.

Jesus’ followers are truth lovers. It is a patent falsehood to say Watchtower’s Governing Body is patterned after something that it fails to adopt. How could such a thing be said to have God’s approval?

Marvin Shilmer
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References

1 Article 2 of Amended and Restated Charter Watch Tower Bible and Tract Society of Pennsylvania, Inc., dated and signed April 8, 2003 by Don Adams, President of the corporation.

2 For more on Watchtower’s Governing Body see the articles:

- Watchtower—Modeled after what?

- Governing Body Represents Who?

- Watchtower’s Governing Body

3 The Watchtower, May 15, 1986, p. 26

4 Knox, Zoe, The Watch Tower Society and the End of the Cold War: Interpretations of the End-Times, Superpower Conflict, and the Changing Geo-Political Order, Journal of the American Academy of Religion, December 2011, Vol. 79, No. 4, pp. 1018–1049

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