[this article is contributed by Alex Rover]

The Adoration of the Golden Calf by Nicolas Poussin (public domain)
“DO YOU remember when you first learned about the wonderful prospect that Jehovah offers to obedient mankind?” w08 6/15 pp. 22-26 par. 1
“MOST of us in the Christian congregation can recall the joy we felt when we first learned the truth.” w07 11/1 pp. 27-31 par. 1
“When you first learned that truth, you no doubt viewed it as a genuine treasure, a piece of knowledge that filled your mind and heart with hope and joy.” w02 8/15 pp. 15-20 par. 5
Do you remember this moment? This joy? Really, who brought you out of this world and into the truth? Do you remember how happy you were? Aside from God himself, where do we direct our gratitude? Whom do we follow henceforth?
“We also love the organization [JW.ORG] that Jehovah uses to teach us wonderful truths. It was Jehovah’s organization [JW.ORG] that taught us about Jehovah’s name and what it means, his purpose for the earth, what happens to us when we die, and the hope of the resurrection. Do you remember how happy you were when you first learned these and other truths? Then do not allow the lies from false teachers to turn you against the organization [JW.ORG] that taught you these truths.—John 6:66-69.” (Simplified Watchtower [ws]11 7/15 p.11 par. 7)
In addition to distorting the Christian hope such that millions are convinced that they have neither God as their Heavenly Father nor Christ as their mediator, this organization is now directing gratitude toward itself.
Yes, who brought you out of this world? Jehovah’s own JW.ORG did! From Exodus 32:8:
“These are your gods, O Israel, who brought you up from the land of Egypt”
Remain loyal to JW.ORG, since JW.ORG gives you abundance of pure waters of truth:
“We are determined to be loyal to Jehovah and to his organization. This organization has never disappointed us and always gives us an abundance of pure waters of truth from God’s Word.” (ws11 7/15 p.12 par. 8; compare subheading: Standing On the Rock At Horeb)
Are you moving ahead with JW.ORG? It is Jehovah’s will: “Jehovah wants us to support his organization and accept adjustments in the way we understand Bible truth”. (ws14 5/15 pp. 21-26 par.15)
Your sacrifices are for Jehovah, so we need to make any sacrifices JW.ORG requests us to make:
“Each of us does well to ask himself, ‘Do I immediately apply everything I read in the Bible and in the publications of the faithful and discreet slave class, even when it requires making personal sacrifices?’” – w12 7/15 pp.22-26
Who will go before us in the wilderness ahead? Your deliverance at the great tribulation will depend on obedience to JW.ORG, as it was true of Noah:
“As events unfold during the great tribulation, Christians will need to heed instructions from God’s Word and organization. […] Since our deliverance will depend on obedience, we do well to ask ourselves: ‘How do I respond to instructions that Jehovah provides for his people now?” – w12 4/15 p.26, par. 16
“And as was true of Noah, our success depends on obedience. […] We must obediently follow the direction Jehovah provides through his Word and his organization.” w07 2/1 pp. 22-30
“a feast to JEHOVAH”
(Exodus 32:5) Every Israelite knew Jehovah had saved them from Egypt. They made a golden calf and said, it will be a feast to JEHOVAH. They reasoned: the Golden calf is not a means to idolatry, because ultimately the glory goes to the heavenly Father.
And what a feast it was! They danced, they ate, and they celebrated. They had willingly brought their gold and gave it to be melted into an idol. Likewise, Jehovah’s Witnesses are the happiest people on earth! [1] They rejoice and worship Jehovah through his JW.ORG.
So they have created a modern-day golden calf, and proudly display it through select memorabilia. Below is a small sample:
A manly blue tie showcasing JW.ORG
A JW.ORG pin made of real Jerusalem Olive Wood!
A hand-made scarf with JW.ORG for you sisters.
A modest phone case to accompany your JW.ORG apps
Wearing this item is ill-advised, as it would get you accused of idolatry.
For the truly daring among you, try wearing a Jesus pin to your meeting or assembly and share the reactions in the comments.
Now as I am sharing these items with you, the entrepreneur inside of me is thinking: “why not insert my affiliate ID?” Of course that would be highly inappropriate. Save for the last item, I believe it all constitutes idolatry so I wouldn’t want anything to do with it. But it did bring me to a final thought, which I wish to share:
I vividly remember as a child, thinking about the destruction of Babylon the Great – the false religion, how the commercial system would “weep”. As sure as it was yesterday, I recall telling myself: “this surely proves that we are not part of Babylon the Great, for which commerce might benefit so much from my religion that it may weep over our demise?”
————- An Addendum by Meleti Vivlon ————-
In line with the thoughts Alex just expressed, I wanted to draw everyone’s attention to some interesting findings from our publications regarding icons, venerated symbols, and organizations.
All eight members [in Noah’s family] had to stay close to the organization and advance with it in order to be preserved with it in the ark. (w65 7/15 p. 426 par. 11 Jehovah’s Advancing Organization)
“The ark of salvation that we enter is not a literal ark but is God’s organization.”(w50 6/1 p. 176 Letter)
“But if we were to draw away from Jehovah’s organization, there would be no place else to go for salvation and true joy.” (w93 9/15 p. 22)
These three quotes are representative of the idea that our salvation is tightly bound to being active in and obedient to the Organization of Jehovah’s Witnesses. JW.ORG is now representative of that organization and the Logo has become the icon or symbol we rally behind. Given that, consider this conflicting quote from The Watchtower:
As Christians, we face up to similar challenges today. We cannot take part in any modern version of idolatry—be it worshipful gestures toward an image or symbol or the imputing of salvation to a person or an organization. (w90 11/1 p. 26 par. 16)
By our own admission, it is a “modern version of idolatry” to impute salvation to an organization and worshipful gestures toward an image or symbol. We disdain other Christians for carrying the symbol of the cross, but we proudly bear and publish the logo of the Organization to which we repeatedly impute salvation. We are condemned by our own words as idolaters.
We love to describe our many doctrinal “corrections” as a spirit-directed process wherein the light of truth “grows brighter and brighter” (Prov. 4:18), but the fact that we can publish such diametrically opposed views as seen above indicates that we are fulfilling the next verse in that passage:
“ The way of the wicked ones is like the gloom; they have not known at what they keep stumbling.” (Pr 4:19)
[1] The Watchtower, 1997 May 1 p.23, 1995 Jan 15 p.12 par. 7, 1989 Mar 1 p.3, 1999 10/1 p.8 par. 13
Leave a Reply
47 Comments on "A Feast to Jehovah"
Did the JWs just make up their own version of “feasts to Jehovah ” ?
Seems that way…. There’s already an existing feast schedule that our Lord Jesus adhered to.
peely, I am a bit confused about your comments. You said “The “persecution of the church” is the trampling of the Temple by the disgusting thing standing in a, or the, holy place (holy is holy in God’s eyes) – the anointed within the organization under siege by the man of lawlessness who is the organization itself.”
Are you implying that the Watchtower is somehow a special organization in the fulfilment of Scripture?
pearldoxsey, would you mind making a personal comment with your scriptures to establish what your point is? I’m sorry, but I’m not always good at drawing conclusions.
Hey, don’t worry, Skye. We can catch up at a better time 🙂
peely
Hi Peely, Thanks for your reply. I’m really busy at present and I don’t have time to read your comments as much as I would like to, but I hope to get round to it eventually, and so I apologise for that. You and I do definitely have differences in our understanding of scripture, that is clear. However, I hope to catch up with you soon, and thanks again. We’ll keep in touch.
With love, Skye
For all your JW.ORG needs!
http://www.jwstuff.org/#!jw-convention-gifts/cs9
Note the new “Imitate Jesus” bottle opener/magnet!
I think I’m going to puke.
Hi Peely, About the temple – in scripture sometimes this refers to a literal temple building or individual believer, church. For example, in 2 Cor 6:16 when Paul refers to a believer or the church as “a temple of God”, note that there is no definite article. But in 2 Thess 2:4 and Rev 11:1 he speaks of “the temple of God”, note definite article and is referring to a literal temple building. And this clear understanding fits with the prophecies of Jesus Christ and the prophet Daniel.
Luke 21:28
love to you, brother
Hi Peely, The good news of the kingdom of God is to be preached in all the inhabited earth. In view of that, I find that your explanation of prophecy, in that it is so connected with the Jehovah’s Witness Organisation narrows it down too much.
The “Organization” is fast becoming exactly like the rest of Christiandom which they are OH so quick to condemn!
LaRhonda
That is an interesting point BN.
And it is certainly true of the WTS at least
Always claiming the we live in “a spiritual paradise” and touting the protection of “Jehovah’s earthly organization”
A “strong delusion” to be sure 2 Thess.2:11
According to scripture, the reality for true Christians is – “In fact, everyone who wants to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted, while evildoers and imposters will go from bad to worse, deceiving and being deceived.” 2 Tim 3:12,13
I think if we can get away from the idea that prophecy is all about Jehovah’s Witnesses, then we can begin to get a clearer idea of what Jesus was really saying.
Thank you for another informative article.
On one of the Tv.jw.org broadcasting a few months back it showed Anthony Morris III and his wife out in the door to door ministry. His wife was wearing one of the Caleb and Sophie pins. All I could thing was WOW, at least people who are wearing crosses cause people think of the one who died a horrific death for mankind. Not some man made cartoon. They might as well just wear Mickie Mouse pins.
its some of these qoutes get me . The ark of salvation is gods organisation .Noahs family had to stay close to an organisation .if we were to draw away from jehovahs organisation there would be no where else to go for salvation . What bible verses are these statements based on .kev
I agree with Hezekiah. This subject makes me very uncomfortable and has for quite some time. We have become the very thing we used to speak against, idolizing humans and their man made institutions.
If we do it, it’s okay but if other religions do it, it’s wrong. Hmmm. Something wrong with this line of reasoning. Thank you both.
Great article Alex,
They really are becoming a laughing stock due to their continued hubris.
I am curious about who is producing this merchandise?
I couldn’t see it on their website.
Is it just a group of brothers trying to make a buck by exploiting the JWORG brand or is the WTS doing it themselves?
Either way it’s quite obscene!
Ministry Ideaz, Type this in and you should come upon a site that deal in quite a lot of merchandise. It has been going on for quite a few years
When I clicked on the pictures it took me to ebay. I fear we are becoming like the television evangelists that we have condemned over and over again due to their avarice. The likening JW.org to Noah is disgraceful. Noah and his small family were truly faithful to Jehovah — he spoke directly to Noah, he did not use writings or sayings of other men to provide instructions for the Ark.
All pictures come from eBay listings. That’s what I mean the commercial system will mourn the demise of the whore that is false religion.
The WT says: “We are determined to be loyal to Jehovah and to his organisation.”
True Christians say: “We are determined to be loyal to God and to Jesus Christ.”