Friday, September 18
What son is he that a father does not discipline?
We need discipline from Jehovah in order to be fit to survive into his righteous new world. We show that we accept God’s direction in our lives by faithfully enduring in his service and allowing his spirit to refine us. And if we commit a serious sin, we can be sure that Jehovah will forgive us if we are truly repentant and humbly accept discipline. Soon, Jehovah will make an even grander name for himself than he did when he delivered the Israelites from Egypt. And just as surely as his ancient people inherited the Promised Land, so all Christians who endure as faithful worshippers of Jehovah will inherit life in God’s righteous new world. With such wonderful prospects ahead of us, may we not stop praying for the sanctification of God’s glorious name.
Commentary
It is true — we all need discipline from Jehovah.
But when the Watchtower says “we” what they mean is you — you need discipline. The leadership of the organization considers itself above correction. And they certainly are above being corrected by any mere human.
But God does not merely discipline individuals. He is the Corrector and Punisher of nations – and especially of those who bear his name.
In the prophecy of Jeremiah Jehovah expresses his determination to set things straight, saying to his people at a time when they are confronted with a terrifying situation: “‘For I am with you,’ declares Jehovah, ‘to save you. But I will make an extermination among all the nations to which I scattered you; however, you I will not exterminate. I will discipline you to the proper degree, and I will by no means leave you unpunished.’”
Left to its own device the Watchtower has interpreted a vast body of prophecy to the 1914-1919 period. They claim that Jehovah disciplined and punished them for having “compromised” by removing a few pages from the Finished Mystery book to satisfy government censors. In reality the Finished Mystery was a rambling, amateurish, screed that is an embarrassment to the Watchtower to this day. If anything, Jehovah should have punished them for having published such nonsense in the first place!
Clearly, though, at this point in the year 2015, with the record now in public view concerning matters such as the Watchtower’s duplicitous association with the United Nations for 10 years, the shameful way in which the organization has become the legal adversary of sexually abused children, the sheer falsity of the Watchtower’s entire prophetic exegesis, the leadership of Jehovah’s Witnesses desperately need to feel Jehovah’s stern hand of correction upon them.
And as Jehovah is living, they most certainly will.