t was May 28th of the year 2000, and I was a young elder with a newborn baby and a devout Jehovah’s Witness wife. On top of owning and operating a business and having family responsibilities, my elder duties seemed endless. In the three years since being appointed an elder I had already seen two elders removed, which caused bitter in-fighting on the elder body because of it. Two “alpha-male” elders were constantly sparring and trying to out-quote the other using Watchtower articles during backroom elder meetings. These would sometimes last for four or five hours and were exhausting. I was serving as the Service Overseer and was a regular pioneer, although the pioneering had to give way soon as my body could not indefinitely take the pace of such a breakneck schedule.
I decided to record a message about an article that had really affected me early on in my struggle to understand the problems within the organization.
A short recap is first given of Watchtower history when N. Knorr and F. Franz took over after Rutherford’s death. Then the Watchtower article of 11-1-1946 is discussed at length. This excellent article talks about how people can understand the Bible, using 2 Timothy 3:16,17 as a key scripture.
Franz wrote that we do not need a “magisterium” to explain the Scriptures to us, and that we do not need a “visible human organization” either, as each Christian can be completely equipped for every good work through the study and application of God’s Word.
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