Friday, December 18

Keep on making sure of what is acceptable to the Lord.Eph. 5:10.

Because of our imperfect flesh and the efforts of Satan and this wicked world, we are constantly battling negative influences in our lives. Some of you dear brothers and sisters have a hard fight every day to maintain your relationship with Jehovah. That endears you greatly to him. Do not give up! Living our lives in harmony with Jehovah’s purpose will give us great satisfaction and ensure that our worship is not futile.  What should we do, however, if we commit a serious sin? Get help as soon as possible. Keeping the matter hidden will only make matters worse. Remember, David said that when he kept silent about his sins, ‘his bones wore out through his groaning all day long.’  Yes, hiding secret sins will just cause us to tire out emotionally and spiritually, but “he that is confessing and leaving them will be shown mercy.”

COMMENTARY

In Jesus’ day the Pharisees had set themselves up as the guardians of the truth — of all matters related to God and religion. They developed a very lofty view of themselves and came to regard the common people with disdain. An instance of one particularly egregious display of that attitude occurred when Jesus healed a man who had been born blind. Under interrogation by the Pharisees the blind man reproved them with reason. Their response was: “You were altogether born in sin, and yet are you teaching us?”

The leadership of the Watchtower really displays the same attitude. They feel themselves to be far above being taught by anyone outside their intimate circle of exalted ones. Although they politely include themselves among the “we” who might commit a serious sin, that is merely for show. They have never, ever, publicly acknowledged so much as a simple mistake.

Even when they change their teachings, they never acknowledge their error. It is simply new light that Jehovah has exclusively showered upon them. But if anyone had pointed out their error prior to their revision, like the Pharisees with the blind man, that person would be persecuted, perhaps even “thrown out” of the organization – disfellowshipped – like the formerly blind man who reproved the Pharisees.

But as a body they most certainly have committed serious sins and their silence also testifies against them.

The Watchtower is all about “hiding secret sins.” They have become expert at it. Whether it be their lying coverup of their 10-year secret, political partnership with the United Nations, or their backdoor lawyering, secretly paying out hush money to abuse victims – binding them with gag orders, or their hypocritical dealings with government inquiries, like the recently concluded Royal Commission in Australia, where a Governing Body member lied under oath.

As Jehovah said of Judah in Jeremiah, “As a cistern keeps its water cool, so she keeps her wickedness cool.” In other words, the Watchtower’s badness is not overt. For the most part they have kept their unseemly matters hidden.

But Jehovah sees all. They will eventually be called to account — “just a little while longer” is a phrase that comes to mind.

In all fairness though, not all the Pharisees were wicked. Some of them, like Nicodemus, actually put faith in Christ. So, while we may expect the organization to oppose Christ at his advent, becoming an outright antichrist, individuals from among Bethel will put faith in him.    

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