This is not meant to cause offense to those who may highly respect the Governing Body of Jehovah’s Witnesses. However, we do wish to raise a question: how can any group know that they are associated with Jehovah’s appointed leaders?
It’s hard to talk to Catholics about the scriptures since they trust the Pope and Church traditions. It’s hard to talk to Mormons, since the book of Mormon supersedes the Bible and the LDS president is God’s prophet in their eyes. Shouldn’t there be some way that Catholics or Mormons could discover if there are any errors in their respective group? Yes, at some point, the authority of the Bible needs to supersede what these self-styled Apostles claim so as to determine if they really are representatives of Jehovah. It’s circular reasoning to just accept their authority without putting it to the test, otherwise no person could ever find their way out of a false religion, since everything their authority says is correct, no matter what the Bible appears to say differently.
Do you know that the organization has hidden the true meaning of Rev 2:2 right before your very eyes, it has not rendered the Greek reflexive pronoun accurately.
NWT reads (Revelation 2:2) “I know your deeds, and your labor and endurance, and that you cannot bear bad men, and that you put those to the test who say they are apostles, but they are not, and you found them liars.”
Below are two other translations to make the point clear of how the verse should read:
NAU Revelation 2:2 “I know your deeds and your toil and perseverance, and that you cannot tolerate evil men, and you put to the test those who call themselves apostles, and they are not, and you found them to be false.”
NJB Revelation 2:2 “I know your activities, your hard work and your perseverance. I know you cannot stand wicked people, and how you put to the test those who were self-styled apostles, and found them false.”
The Kingdom Interlinear version correctly renders this verse.
The phrase we wish to focus on is “who call themselves apostles”. In Greek “heautous” is a Greek reflexive, plural pronoun. The reflexive pronoun reflects the action back to the subject, and therefore, the English translation will use such words as myself, yourself, themselves. So linguistically I propose the Watchtower society is hiding something from its followers here and that’s why it’s noteworthy to check other up-to-date Bible translations and lexicons, looking into the meaning of certain words.
Here is the doctrinal error. Who does it say we should put to the test? According to the NJB translation those who were (are) self-styled apostles. Who has claimed to be the brothers of Messiah? Is it not the Governing Body who make special claims of having been appointed and then sent by Jesus who are the focus of what is read in Revelation 2:2?
The Society it seems has deliberately omitted any discussion of “putting them to the test” when it comes to its own claims of appointment and authority. Interestingly if you were to search the JW.org and search “put to the test”, you would get just seven references, and NONE have anything to do with Rev. 2:2. No Watchtower article has ever stated that the Governing Body should be put to the test by its members.
They instead turn this around on its members as the ones who are put to the test by them (field service hours, meeting attendance, contributions, regional building work etc.); Why are not the rank-and-file listening to the words of our Master Jesus? He said to put those to the test who are proclaiming themselves as apostles, this testing “requires” that those “testing” the Watchtower Society reject them, immediately, unless they repent (compare Revelation 2:21-23) and stop teaching things which are scriptural, even requiring belief in such things for “approved association”, and even if secretly rejecting any teachings from the Watchtower are still condemned. Once again, there is no application of “put those put to the test” from Revelation 2:2 to anyone in the congregations of the Jehovah’s Witnesses, though such ‘testing’ is expressly approved by Jesus for any who make special claims of having been sent by him. As we examined Revelation 2:2, we see the Watchtower Society does not want any of its members ‘putting the Society to the test,’ though it’s made up of the very ones who make the kinds of claims as self-styled apostles which we are told to “test.”