End disenfranchisement of Bahamian Jehovah’s Witnesses

Dear Editor,

According to JW.org, there are currently 1,795 Jehovah’s Witnesses (JWs) and 28 Kingdom Halls in The Bahamas.

Worldwide, there are over eight million JWs in 240 countries.

The number of Watch Tower Bible and Tract Society members in The Bahamas represents an extremely small fraction of the overall Bahamian population of approximately 400,000.

Concerning the religious demographics of The Bahamas, 80 percent of Bahamians are Protestants; 14 percent are Catholics, while the unaffiliated, other Christian and other religion round out the remaining six percent.

I am assuming JWs fall under the other religion category, as they are not considered evangelical Christians by the church.

Rejecting the doctrines of the Trinity, the physical resurrection and deity of Jesus Christ, salvation by grace through faith in Christ, eternal separation from God in the lake of fire, the immortality of the soul and the personality and deity of the Holy Spirit, the Watch Tower is clearly outside the parameters of Christian orthodoxy.

Church historians and theologians have long labeled JWs Arians, named after a fourth century Alexandrian presbyter named Arius, whose heretical beliefs about Jesus Christ were roundly condemned at the Council of Nicaea in AD 325.

The JW belief of Jesus being a mere creature is based on an heretical rendering of John 1:1 in the New World Translation (NWT), the sectarian Bible of the Watch Tower.

Notwithstanding the clear explanation of the Trinity given in the Westminster Confession of Faith and the Athanasian Creed, JWs insist on misrepresenting the Trinity as three gods, which is really tritheism.

Biblical Christianity is fiercely monotheistic (Deuteronomy 6:4; 1 Corinthians 8:6). Christians understand God to be one in essence, three in person.

The Hebrew word for God in Genesis 1:1 is Elohim, which is plural. This can explain why God used the plural pronoun “us” in referring to Himself in Genesis 1:26; 11:7 and Isaiah 6:8.

Furthermore, the ancient Hebrew word for one in Deuteronomy 6:4 is echad, which is a composite unity. The apostle Paul in Ephesians 5:31 used the marriage analogy of Genesis 2:24 to underscore this point.

A man and woman joined together in holy matrimony become one flesh in the eyes of Jehovah, which brings us to another important point. The name Jehovah, despite its glaring absence from any of the thousands of New Testament Greek manuscripts discovered so far, has been inserted a staggering 237 times in the New Testament of the NWT.

This word is based on the Hebrew tetragrammaton YHWH or JHVH. Scholars have long noted that there are no vowel letters or English J sound in ancient Hebrew. It might be a source of surprise to many Bahamian JWs to learn that the word Jehovah was first mentioned in William Tyndale’s Bible in the early 1500s – over 1,500 years after the completion of the New Testament.

Interestingly, not one of the NWT translators were Hebrew, Greek or Aramaic scholars – language skills needed by anyone attempting to undertake the mammoth task of translating the Bible from the original languages.

Of the five named translators referenced by former JW Raymond Franz, only his uncle, Frederick Franz, had a college education, which was two years at the University of Cincinnati. Along with fellow translators Milton Henschel and Nathan Knorr, Franz would preside over the Watch Tower as president.

The first president of the Watch Tower was Charles Taze Russell, who is credited with establishing the cult in the 1880s. His successor was Judge Joseph Rutherford. Russell died in 1916. His death came two years after his prediction of the return of Christ failed to materialize.

JWs also predicted the second coming and the Battle of Armageddon for the years 1918, 1925 and 1975. Like Seventh Day Adventists, Russellites, as they were originally called, believe in a millennial reign of Christ on earth, possibly in Jerusalem.

This eschatology is based on a wooden literal interpretation of Revelation 20:1-10. In any case, JWs found a way to rationalize the 1914 false prediction by asserting that Christ did in fact return, albeit invisibly in the heavens, where He now reigns through the Watch Tower, located in Brooklyn, New York.

According to JWs, the generation that saw 1914 will witness the return of Christ. With 1914 being 107 years ago, time is running out for this important JW prediction.

Each month, this organization churns out a staggering 40 million copies of The Watchtower magazine in 180 languages, which are then disseminated to 236 countries.

Initially labeled Zion’s Watch Tower, this magazine was founded in 1879 by Russell; and serves as the mouthpiece of God, as per JWs. Russell not only rejected the cardinal tenets of historic Christianity, but was a vociferous conscientious objector, who hindered mobilization in Canada around the time of WW1, while railing against the Woodrow Wilson administration for its participation in the war.

Following in the footsteps of their pioneer, Bahamian JWs are not allowed to vote, sing the national anthem, say the pledge of allegiance join the Royal Bahamas Police Force (RBPF) or the Royal Bahamas Defence Force (RBDF).

Bahamian JWs are also prohibited from actively serving in the Free National Movement (FNM) or the Progressive Liberal Party (PLP), as their Reasoning from the Scriptures textbook enjoins political neutrality and pacifism. While JWs do pay taxes, they believe that the PLP and FNM are members of a satanic system.

This Watch Tower anti-government rhetoric conflicts with the New Testament injunction to honor the king (1 Peter 2:17) and to submit to the civil authorities (Romans 13:1-7; 1 Peter 2:13-14; Titus 3:1).The FNM and PLP, while admittedly secular organizations, come under the sovereign purview of God.

For the Bahamian JW, failure to comply with the Watch Tower regarding political abstention would lead to the penalty of being disfellowshipped by the Governing Body. Thus, Bahamians in this religious organization are deprived of exercising a privilege Sir Lynden O. Pindling, Sir Milo B. Butler, Sir Randol Fawkes, Mary Ingraham and other freedom fighters fought long and hard for.

Sir Lynden was one of the framers of our constitution, which guarantees religious freedom. It is because of the founding fathers The Bahamas today is a melting pot of religious diversity and cultural pluralism.

Coincidentally, this May is the 41st anniversary of the tragic HMBS Flamingo incident, in which four brave defense force officers made the ultimate sacrifice in defending this country from hostile foreign invaders.

Bahamian JWs wouldn’t have the religious and civil liberties they currently enjoy in The Bahamas, had it not been for the likes of RBDF marines Fenrick Sturrup, Austin Rudolph Smith, Edward Arnold Williams and David Allison Tucker — men who served a distinguished organization that protects our way of life.

It is unfortunate that faulty Watch Tower theology has led Bahamian JWs to demonize both the RBPF and the RBDF — two stellar institutions that work tirelessly in protecting the lives and property of JWs.

I am of the view that since January 1967, both the FNM and PLP have done far more positive than negative in governing The Bahamas.

Stuck in their theological cul-de-sac, Bahamian JWs are unwilling to concede this point. Considering the fluidity of the Watch Tower, as demonstrated by its 1952 decision to allow its members to be vaccinated after prohibiting it in 1931, the Minnis administration, in conjunction with the PLP, should attempt to reach out to the Governing Body of the Watch Tower in Brooklyn, via the Bahamas Consulate General, with the stated aim of appealing to the organization to allow its Bahamian members to vote in the upcoming election. I think a favorable outcome is not out of the realm of possibility.

While our theological differences are irreconcilable, it is high time that JWs are enfranchised and allowed to participate in our electoral process as law-abiding denizens of the Commonwealth of The Bahamas.

— Kevin Evans

The post End disenfranchisement of Bahamian Jehovah’s Witnesses appeared first on The Nassau Guardian.

source https://thenassauguardian.com/end-disenfranchisement-of-bahamian-jehovahs-witnesses/