Jehovah’s Witnesses often defend their beliefs by comparing themselves to the Israelites, saying, “The Israelites were God’s chosen people, even when they messed up. And even though we make mistakes, we are still God’s chosen people today.”
But that argument really doesn’t hold up. According to the Bible, the Israelites came about because of a promise God made to Abraham. God made Abraham’s descendants grow into a large nation. In Genesis 22:17 Abraham is told:
“blessing I will bless you, and multiplying I will multiply your descendants as the stars of the heaven and as the sand which is on the seashore; and your descendants shall possess the gate of their enemies.”
This promise was reiterated to Isaac and Jacob, who became Israel. They existed because God promised to make them his special people. Their status as a chosen people wasn’t based on how they acted as individuals or as a nation — their connection with God was more about God’s promise than anything they did.
Eventually, God revealed himself to the Israelites as ‘Jehovah’, leading them to worship him and giving them the Law. However, people who were not part of the Jewish nation could also worship Jehovah, for example like Job. Eventually God created ‘the Christian congregation’.
The Christian congregation was different from the Israelite congregation in various ways. In the Israelite congregation, people didn’t have a choice about being part of it; they were Jews by birth. In contrast, joining the Christian congregation required a conscious decision. People became or stayed Christians based on their actions and their relationship with God and Christ. The Israelites were always considered Israelites, no matter how badly they behaved. But a Christian could stop being a Christian for many reasons. The standards set by various New Testament writers served as a test for being a Christian. Anyone who broke certain conduct standards was not considered a Christian. If someone rejected the Christian faith, they were no longer a Christian, while a Jew who rejected their religion would still be a Jew. This distinction has little to do with the individuals and everything to do with God.
Jesus started the Christian congregation, which means all the faithful Christians together, and he promised to be “with” them until he comes back. If this is still true today, then all the faithful Christians on earth make up the Christian congregation. This is where Jehovah’s Witnesses face big problems.
Jehovah’s Witnesses believe that they are the only true Christians, so they think that the “entire body of faithful Christians on earth” is only made up of Jehovah’s Witnesses. Some people might say that a few outside their group could be true Christians, but that’s not what the Governing Body, which shares its teachings through the Watchtower Society, says. The Governing Body of Jehovah’s Witnesses have clearly stated that Christians can’t find salvation outside the Watchtower organization, claiming it’s the only “ark of salvation.” Because of these beliefs, Jehovah’s Witnesses label all other Christians as fakes or imposters, calling them part of the wicked “apostate Christendom.” So, you would expect that Jehovah’s Witnesses, both as individuals and as a group, would be better than others who say they’re Christian, and they should have always been that way. After all, no one is born a Christian; it’s a choice.
Jehovah’s Witnesses believe that there were no true Christians on the planet until the 1870s, when Charles Taze Russell, the founder of the Watchtower Society, started his Bible studies. They say that Russell was the first modern member of ‘the anointed’ and part of the ‘faithful and discreet slave class’. But this idea clashes with another belief that says ‘one generation of the “slave” class fed the next succeeding generation’. Jehovah’s Witnesses have never clarified this contradiction.
Anyway, the Witnesses claim that God somehow brought them into being in the 1870s as ‘the Bible Students’ under C. T. Russell’s leadership. After Russell passed away and J. F. Rutherford took over, they taught that in 1919, Christ inspected all the Christian religions on earth, found all of them lacking except for the Bible Students, and chose their leaders ‘to be over all Christ’s belongings.’ So, Jehovah’s Witnesses teach that not only was their religion established by God in the 1870s, and their leaders appointed as ‘the faithful slave’, but also that Christ confirmed it and gave these leaders significant spiritual authority over all Christians worldwide in 1919.
Interestingly the February 2017 Watchtower states that “In 1919, three years after Brother Russell’s death, Jesus appointed “the faithful and discreet slave.” So which is it? Was Russell the first modern member of ‘the anointed’ and part of the ‘faithful and discreet slave class’? How can that be if they admittedly claim that “a small group of anointed brothers [in 1919] who served at headquarters in Brooklyn, New York, prepared and distributed spiritual food to Jesus’ followers.” Apparently, poor Brother Russell was demoted.
What do Jehovah’s Witnesses really base all their reasoning on, besides their questionable interpretations of the Bible? Well, they claim that they are way better than all other Christian groups, and that Christ specifically chose their leaders in 1919 to have spiritual authority. In simple terms, they say their claims come from the idea that their behavior is better than everyone else’s, and that their teachings are almost the same as those of the early Christians.
To put it simply, the Witnesses believe they are God’s chosen people today because of how they act and what they teach, while the Israelites were chosen by God just because of their birth. You can’t really compare the two situations.
This obviously opens the Witnesses up to criticism. What if their claims of being such good Christians aren’t true? What if their Governing Body have been unfaithful to God by, for example, lying in God’s name? Wouldn’t that disqualify them from being “God’s chosen”? Absolutely! The truth behind the Governing Body’s claim to speak for God depends on whether they actually do speak for Him. But since God doesn’t answer these kinds of questions, people have to watch the Jehovah’s Witnesses and decide for themselves if they really measure up. And that’s exactly what’s happening on various social media platforms, forums, YouTube, Reddit, and wherever open discussion is allowed.
It quickly becomes clear that many teachings of Jehovah’s Witnesses, especially their most important one, can’t handle criticism. They have no way to prove they are ‘God’s chosen.’ The best they can do is compare themselves to the Israelites and say, ‘Well, they were God’s chosen despite their mistakes, and so are we.’ Or, they claim, they are the ONLY ones fulfilling the ‘Great Commission’, preaching the Good News. But tell me, what’s so “good” about telling people “Join us or die at Armageddon”? Individual Jehovah’s Witnesses have been so deeply taught this main idea that they can’t think any other way. Their trust in the Organization is based on claims, not real evidence — and all Jehovah’s Witnesses know this. That’s why many get really upset when their basic beliefs are questioned.
Jehovah’s Witnesses could actually prove their critics wrong by just providing real proof of their claims. But once again, they will show that the critics are right by not giving solid answers to the question asked. Any answers they do give will probably include a lot of personal attacks, mostly about the person instead of the argument, and be based on unsupported claims. These kinds of answers will just support my main point — Jehovah’s Witnesses aren’t much different from other Christian religions, but they act like they are better than everyone else.