About 25 years ago, my wife and I left the Jehovah’s Witnesses organisation (legally known as Watchtower) because of their teaching of “two classes of Christians structure”. (e.g for example …apostle John saw the 144,000 spiritual Israelites being permanently sealed before the great tribulation, he also observed a numberless “great crowd,” who come “out of all nations.” Watchtower magazine, 2010 3/15 p. 25 para 7)
This in itself is an interesting subject as the two class Christian doctrine only started around the 1940’s with the Jehovah’sWitnesses (JW) only having one class of Christians before that time in a similar way to most Christian religions.
But in April 2019, we found ourselves back with some of the JW’s again as we attended the funeral of my wife’s mother who was a staunch JW and had requested in her will a JW funeral.
Following the JW tradition at their meetings, we sang her favourite song 108 called “God’s Loyal Love” which is based on Isaiah 55:1-3. It’s interesting how a song you have sung for 25 years has new meaning when you see it unencumbered as a free Christian. The song is a pleasant one whose chorus says “Hey there, all you thirsty ones, Come and drink life’s water free. Yes, come drink, you thirsty ones; God’s loyal love you’ll see.”
First of all, it appears the last verse of the chorus has been changed from “God’s loving kindness see” to “God’s loyal love you’ll see”. Maybe the Watchtower now wants to emphasize “loyalty to the Watchtower” for some reason?
But the important point was to note the line that said, “Come and drink life’s water free” e.g life water’s is free and not paid for. This is confirmed by Isaiah 55:1-2 ( NWT) which says ”Come, all you thirsty ones, come to the water! You with no money, come, buy and eat! Yes, come, buy wine and milk without money and without cost. Why do you keep paying out money for what is not bread, and why spend your earnings for what brings no satisfaction? Listen intently to me, and eat what is good, And you will find great delight in what is truly rich”
So why does the Watchtower make its members “pay” for what God is offering free?
Indeed, why does any religious organisation make its members “pay” in terms of loyalty and obedience, when God is calling us to “Come and drink life’s water free.” with no payment required?
For example, the Watchtower requires payment in terms of complete obedience to its edicts as shown in the 2013 Watchtower magazine of November 15 on page 20 paragraph 17 which says, “At that time, the direction that you receive from Jehovah’s organization may seem strange or unusual. But all of us must be ready to obey any instructions we may receive, whether we agree with them or not, because obeying these instructions will save our lives.”
So even if one thinks the Watchtower's commands are “strange or unusual”, they must be obeyed which is a large price to pay for ones Christian freedom considering all God asks is to “Listen intently to me and eat what is good, And you will find great delight in what is truly rich” e.g. its God we need to listen to, not the Watchtower or other religious organisations…