This New Watchtower is Very Weird

Added: 2026-05-05

[00:00:00]We we got ourselves a brand new watchtowwer, baby. And by the sounds of that sound I just made with the intro, I guess we're going to some type of hoot nanny and doing a little bit of line dancing.

[00:00:16]>> Don't really know what that was, but we're going to roll with it. Here in this watchtowwer, we're going to briefly talk about a couple of different things with uh our guard to apostasy, someone that was removed from Bethl for falsely for apostasy. We're going to talk about how Jehovah's Witnesses need don't need to teach people to learn about the organization but only God, which I found kind of hilarious. And then a weird little story about uh performative humility done by a governing body member. So, a couple things to say about these topics. If you find this interesting, stick around. If not, I'll catch you on the next one. With all that being said, let's do this.

[00:01:06]Hello and welcome back to the JWB Thoughts channel. My name is Wall-E and today, like I said, we're taking a look at the new Watchtower. Quickly, before we get into it, don't forget to drop a like on the video. Takes a half a second. It makes a massive difference in how the video performs in the YouTube algorithm. It's very much appreciated by me. It's a tiny small free thing. It's all I really ever ask of people is to drop a like, consider subscribing if they are enjoying it. With all of that being said, let's jump right into this thing. So, the first article is about the Gibeonites. Now, we're not going to get completely bogged down with an intricate detailed explanation about what the Gibeonites were and what they did. But essentially, they saw the Israelites were making havoc in in the old land and they said, "Hm, I don't think we want to be in this war murderous path here. So maybe we need to do a little bit of hoodwinking. And hoodwink they did. So they ingratiated themselves with the good graces of the Israelites and even got themselves a fancy little covenant. And their only punishment for their deception was that they were to be the modern-day equivalent of like operating ports. I guess they were gatherers of wood and and drawers of water, I believe the Bible called it. Uh anyway, it's not super important, but the detail there is that they did have a covenant established with them. And then later on when God got the hairbrained idea to use earthly representatives, established kings, everything went to hell in a hand basket. God using representatives on earth are like a high-fiber diet and long elevator rides. They just don't mix well together. But the people wanted a king. God gave him a king and he immediately was corrupt and wanted to kill these Gibeonites and it was a real disaster. But the Gibeonites, they didn't seek any restitution or retribution. They took it on the chin like good boys and waited. They waited on Jehovah. And eventually David came along and was able to fix things. And apparently the justice for this, I don't know why I keep saying apparently. Uh, it's in the Bible, so take that for what you will. But David's big brain galaxy brain solution to this was to go and kill seven of Saul's male descendants.

[00:03:19]So some guy was sitting in a hut somewhere just guys come storming in the door. Hey, are you a descendant of Saul?

[00:03:24]And he's like, I'm just eating Doritos, bud. And they spear to the head. And that was about the end of it. So sounds like God's perfect justice to me. But uh yeah, the lessons that Jehovah's Witnesses are I guess this will be on screen so you're not just looking at me and you're hearing this. But the lessons that Jehovah's Witnesses are supposed to take from this is where it gets a bit interesting. First off, that we have to keep our promises. Unless you're one of God's representatives, i.e. the governing body, then you can just say whatever you want and change your mind at any time. So just remember, ladies and gentlemen, there are two separate rules. the rules for the governing body and the rules for everyone else. If you're everyone else, you need to keep your promises. God's going to expect that of you. As it turns out, God doesn't expect his leadership to do that. So, curious case there, but then they go and talk about how can we imitate the Gibeonites? And they mention Sister Laura French, who was serving at the Canadia Bethl in 1926.

[00:04:27]Now, there's a bit more of a detail or there's more details in a story from a Gilead graduation from 2019. So, I just want to play you a clip of Mark Sanderson talking about the ordeal that Sister French went through back in 1936.

[00:04:45]This is Sister Laura French. She began Bethl service on May 1st, 1926. She was part of this small Bethl family in Canada made up of less than 20 persons.

[00:04:54]About 1936, it became apparent that the branch servant in Canada was an apostate. In time, the matter was investigated, and although Sister French was not involved with the apostasy, she had been a roommate with one of the sisters who was working closely with the branch servant. Thus, she was wrongly viewed as one of his supporters. And so, on May the 1st, 1936, she was among a group of seven Bethalites who were dismissed from Bethl along with the branch servant. What did Sister French do? She never complained. She did not say that it was unfair or unjust.

[00:05:23]Although she said initially she was hurt, she decided that the best remedy would be to go on serving Jehovah. She said after leaving Bethl, I had four marvelous years in the pioneer service.

[00:05:33]The first two years, she and another sister lived in a tent while preaching in a large area where there were no congregations of Jehovah's people.

[00:05:40]Later, she and her pioneer partner worked from a house car. These faithful sisters truly worked hard for Jehovah.

[00:05:46]Well, in 1940, Sister French came to Toronto for a short vacation when suddenly the ban on Jehovah's Witnesses struck. To her surprise and delight, she was invited to come and work at the underground branch office. And with the approval of Brother Rutherford, Sister French returned to Bethl Service in 1940. Now, the lesson that obviously they want people to learn is to never complain. Be like those Gibianites, I guess, just be good boys and and take it on the chin.

[00:06:14]But this whole idea of her getting wrapped up in a false accusation of apost apostasy really got my mind turning because how many people have willfully left the organization or went to the elders, wrote letters to the branch office, appealed to circuit overseers about some type of biblical interpretation that the Watchtower or had been putting forward that they through their Bible trained conscience and their relationship and Holy Spirit, you know, getting them to move and groove in whatever particular way came to a conclusion that was against what Watchtower says was official doctrine. And they tried to get people to listen to them.

[00:07:06]They tried earnestly, desperately, like why don't you guys see? It's so clear.

[00:07:12]It's so obvious here in the Bible.

[00:07:15]And then they get kicked out. They get dysfellowshipped because they are seen as an apostate only for a few years to pass. And then the governing body decides that this will now be the official doctrine. What that person was saying was right all along.

[00:07:37]Now, in this case, isn't that person >> similar in a way where it's like a false accusation of apostasy?

[00:07:49]Is there an apology that's offered? Is there an acknowledgment that that person was indeed correct all along?

[00:07:59]Never. The the line that they'll use is you were moving ahead of Jehovah's organization. And it wasn't time for that to be revealed yet. Even though in the person's mind and heart, it clearly was the time for it to be revealed because God would have revealed it to them. And the governing body doesn't like that challenge to their power. Oh, someone else can accurately interpret a scripture and come to a right conclusion that we'll later agree with, but that diminishes our power. That diminishes our control. And so we can't be having any of that. And so it just got me thinking like how many people were kicked out of the organization for this apostasy and they don't get to be featured in a Watchtower magazine or at a Gilead graduation as being this faithful servant because the only difference between the two of them is that one person didn't complain and another person did.

[00:09:05]So, it's all about like, well, are you going to challenge the leadership structure? And if the answer to that question is yes, then you are yeeted unceremoniously, never to be spoken to or about ever again, never to be apologized to either because it will always be your fault. And it's just a really sad situation that a lot of people unfortunately find themselves in the position of because the organization wants one thing, control. And then the next article, which I won't talk extensively on, it's talking about find comfort in the book of Isaiah. And I think the message here is pretty clear.

[00:09:44]They are kicking people out of Bethl.

[00:09:46]It's no longer seen as a full-time assignment, as Brother Cook explained at the last annual meeting. And so more and more people that had made their whole lives, their Bethl service, are having to figure it out here in the real world.

[00:10:03]And they give an example of someone that had been at Bethl for 17 years and they felt lost and just were kind of like in unfamiliar territory as it were. But basically, God will provide for you.

[00:10:17]Don't feel anxious and go to your congregation because you didn't get a severance package. your severance packages. We assigned you to a congregation and hopefully there's enough wellto-do, welloff Jehovah's Witnesses that can cover for our lack of a severance package that we're offering you for your 17 years of full-time service that they gave to the organization.

[00:10:43]Um, yep. And then it talks about some other stuff uh with an example of a guy that looks like Joey from The Bachelor Dancing with the Stars. And uh yeah, he apparently he has some past mistakes that he's real sad about, but now he's in pioneer school, so everything is cool. The next article, are you getting to know Jehovah better?

[00:11:03]No, we're going to just skip that one entirely. Uh but here, the next one, help others come to know Jehovah. I thought this one was mildly interesting.

[00:11:13]Here in the very first paragraph, it says, "Of course Jehovah deserves the credit for the spiritual progress our Bible student makes. We praise Jehovah and we see how he helps someone to grow spiritually. This is something that's just really annoying. Let me yap about it for 30 seconds here. When you're a Jehovah's Witness, there is this constant consistent pressure to be a better Jehovah's Witness, to be a better teacher of the Bible. And the burden, the onus is really put on the individual to perfect their craft of teaching, perfect the art of teaching.

[00:11:50]And they have all of these trainings and schools and I mean the midweek meeting is designed to help you become a better teacher. But at the end of the day, as this paragraph says, Jehovah deserves the credit for the spiritual progress our Bible students make. And Jehovah is the one that draws people to his organization. So why do I need to do all this training? I if ultimately God is going to be the one that's handling it, he's going to be the one that gets all the credit. Why do I have to put in all the freaking work for someone else to take the credit for? It always reminded me of that scripture in Isaiah when it's talking about the new world and paradise and how wonderful it's going to be because you would be able to see the the fruits of your labor. You'd be able to plant, you know, seeds in the ground and eat from the fruit. you would be able to build a house and live in it. So, you would be able to like experience the the benefits of the hard work and then you have all of this pressure. Do the hard work. Do the hard work. And everyone would be like, "No, don't take credit for yourself, Walt. Don't do don't don't take credit for yourself for, you know, giving a really good talk or anything. We wouldn't want to, you know, be boasting or bragging. All credit goes to Jehovah." And it's this really annoying thing like, "No, I put in a lot of work." And our dream of the future is where we can put in hard work and have that recognize and enjoy the benefits of it. And now you're just telling me suppress, suppress, suppress, suppress, suppress. Individuality goes out the door here. Um, but that wasn't the most interesting part of this particular article. That comes in paragraph 4. Help the student come to know Jehovah well. Jesus said that the greatest commandment is to love Jehovah with our whole heart, soul, mind, strength. A Bible student must come to know Jehovah in order to love him. We want our Bible student to dedicate himself not to us, not to a set of teachings, not to an organization, but to Jehovah.

[00:13:53]Therefore, our primary objective when conducting a Bible study is to help our Bible student come to know and love Jehovah.

[00:14:02]Now, I am in the unfortunate, not really unfortunate position, I choose to be in the position of keeping up to date with everything that's going on inside Watchtower. And I immediately remembered something that they said in the February. So, just a couple of months back, this article was called um understanding your dedication. So, it was helping people understand exactly what they were dedicating themselves to.

[00:14:30]And here it's talking about the baptism question. So I'll just read this paragraph. Um you can lull yourself to sleep with my smooth sounding voice. The Bible shows that we should make I'm going to stop doing that. The Bible shows that we should make public declaration for salvation. That is express our faith. How fing it is then that we do so when we get baptized the very action that is crucial for salvation. For that reason candidates for baptism are asked two questions. The first, have you repented of your sins, dedicated yourself to Jehovah, and accepted his way of salvation through Jesus Christ? This question focuses on how a person has prepared for baptism and is a similar to the exhortation that Peter gave to the crowd at Pentecost.

[00:15:08]The second question is, quote, do you understand that your baptism identifies you as one of Jehovah's Witnesses in association with Jehovah's organization?

[00:15:21]This question reminds us that we live up to our dedication by cooperating with the direction provided through Jehovah's organization and serving God alongside fellow Christians just as the first century disciples did.

[00:15:38]With that in mind, let me reread that paragraph 4 a couple of months later. It sounds like they're changing their tune a little bit. A Bible student must come to know Jehovah in order to love him. We want our Bible students to dedicate himself not to us, not to a set of teachings, not to an organization, but to Jehovah.

[00:15:59]So you have to dedicate yourself to an organization, but you're not dedicating yourself to an organization.

[00:16:07]Which is it? What what version are you going with? This is just a direct blatant contradiction in the questions.

[00:16:18]If you are to be baptized, you have to answer yes that you recognize that this baptism and dedication is to an organization. And yet, when they're talking about helping people to un or get to know Jehovah, they're not helping them to dedicate themselves to an organization or an individual. Like both of these things can't be true in the Jehovah's Witness lore. Now, the conspiratorial side of my brain looks at this as maybe again I I don't know. Hold up. Hold up. Maybe this is part of the rebranding.

[00:16:56]Maybe we will see in the very near future a shift or change to the baptism questions. I know for a lot of people that those baptism questions as they've been changed throughout the years, I think they did it once and I think they've done it many times actually. So I probably shouldn't even speak on this, but I was looking up something completely unrelated the other day and I think it was a 1987 watchtower that it mentioned, maybe 1984, somewhere in the 80s that they had adjusted and added something about the organization and then they adjusted again in like the late 90s or 2000s. And I know it pissed a lot of people off because it was like this is a blatant thing. You're not dedicating yourself to God and blah blah blah. You're dedicating yourself to the organization. Is this a sign that they're going back in time? Like, hey, maybe we shouldn't be all in on this dedicating yourself to the organization. That also seems like it carries some legal call me crazy. call call me a nut job, if you will, but dedicating yourself to the organization and following their rules and everything seems like it could be a little bit of a sticky situation.

[00:18:11]But the non-conspiratorial side of my brain says maybe this is just classic Jehovah's Witness thinking where they can understand on some cognitive level that it is wholly like unspiritual, unbiblical to be dedicating your life to jw.org, the Watchtower Bible and Track Society of Pennsylvania. That doesn't maybe like sit right to like put that in in, you know, out there. And so this is that part of their brain that's like, well, obviously we're not dedicating ourselves to the Watchtower Bible Track Society Corporation.

[00:18:48]And we wouldn't want to tell people, oh no, these are the rules from the corporation that you have to learn and follow. So maybe it's just some of that cognitive dissonance uh coming to fruition and that's why they can so freely and easily talk out of both sides of their mouth. Now the last thing that I want to talk about is going to take us actually to the very first article and then we'll go to the very last one as well. So they gave this little ante an anecdote about someone who was at the Bethl family. Something they could have learned from the the Gibeonites was doing humble tasks. And this person relates uh a young brother named Luke will never forget the time when he saw an older brother of the Bethl family do just that. Although the Bethlite cared for a weighty and somewhat prominent assignment. Interesting that they fully admit that some assignments do carry a bit of prominence because the governing body is very against Jehovah's Witnesses seeing any assignment that they have as being prominent. But here you have it.

[00:19:50]Uh he quietly volunteered for a night shift to watch local to watch the local Kingdom Hall site while it was under construction. And so this is uh a theme here that's going to be repeated shortly. Someone that has a prominent position in the organization and yet they're choosing to do a very humble task. We're not going to go down the whole rabbit hole of his entire experience as a Jehovah's Witness, but I wanted to just focus on this one thing where he says when he was at Bethl, "My viewpoint of serving others was refined by observing faithful older ones of the Bethl family. One time, brother Milton Henchel, a member of the governing body, was sitting at our lunch table. That day, the dining room had an overflow of people, and the waiters were frantically working to distribute the food. We, the younger brothers at the table, were quietly complaining about the slow service. Without saying a word, Brother Henchel got up and along with the waiters, started serving pictures of water and plates of bread and butter.

[00:20:52]That humble act of service is forever etched in my mind. It reminded me how Jesus served his apostles. So, stories like this pop up from time to time. Uh whether you are a Jehovah's Witness and someone's giving it to you anecdotally or in printed form like this or even in video. I always remember that I don't know if it's famous, but uh there was a video that they put on jw.org or showing a few of the governing body members out doing the preaching work, standing next to carts. Sam Herd and Tony Morris were out there door knocking. Obviously, it was a promo piece like the camera is inside the person's house. Like the perspective of it, it's like clearly this wasn't an organic witnessing experience. if the camera is inside the person's house. Obviously, these things are staged, but they do want to give the idea always that the governing body I'm talking about that the their position isn't really so different than ordinary Jehovah's Witnesses. They want to give the appearance that we are just fellow workers. We are also humble servants that are doing the best we can.

[00:22:09]And whether or not that used to be true and isn't true anymore, I'll leave that for your own decision-making to work out. But when I look at the these anecdotes that pop up from time to time, I think this is just performative humility because I don't really care what they do by, you know, handing out some bread. Hey, you got them sweet Hawaiian rolls sick. Give me a pass the butter, too. Here's some water. That's not a demonstration of humility. That could be seen as performative humility.

[00:22:41]Like, oh, these young bucks, they're sitting over here complaining. Oh, let us show what good old country gentleman does. We don't complain. We just do stuff. But at the end of the day, they are still making lifealtering decisions for millions of people around the world.

[00:23:01]I I don't know if you guys saw it, but I made a video about how long the governing body knew that they were going to be changing the blood policy. And you know, my sort of hairbrain hypothesis was maybe somewhere in and around 2014 is when I could see evidence that this was probably going to be changing.

[00:23:19]And that is a life and death decision that they sat on for more than a decade.

[00:23:28]They just didn't say anything because notifying Jehovah's Witnesses that a particular doctrine is on the chopping block wouldn't be seen as, you know, having authority, having power, you know, as if God was speaking to them. If God's speaking to you, he's going to tell you A, B, C, like he's going to give it to you straight. He's not going to be like, "Well, I don't know. it might take me 10 years to make up my mind, so I'll get back to you in a bit. He's not going to do that. And so they never go and tell Jehovah's Witnesses, hey, we're actually considering changing the blood doctrine.

[00:24:06]So if you're someone who has leukemia, go ahead and, you know, start storing your blood if you still can because this might this might be changed later. You get a free pass. You won't get dysfellowshipped or anything like that.

[00:24:21]They don't do that. That would be humility.

[00:24:26]Acknowledging that you are wrong.

[00:24:29]Acknowledging that you don't have all the answers. Not pretending that you are just a humble servant by pouring water. There is a massive difference between actual humility and this performative humility. And that's at the very top. All Jehovah's Witnesses suffer from this weird psychosis of calling humility are calling things humble when they're just have no relation to any concept that normal people have of humility at all. Walking around thinking that you somehow are part of a select group of less than like 1% of the human population that sees the code and knows the future and know everything. That's not humble. you know, cutting off your children because of a a theological disagreement. There's nothing humble about that. They're very annoyingly arrogant people. So, it's something that permeates the entirety of the organization, but it's interesting to see that this really does come from the very top of the group as well.

[00:25:36]Anyway, that's about all I have to say about this month's Watchtower. wasn't too exciting, but hopefully, as usual, we extracted a couple of interesting little titly winks for you to chew on, and hopefully you enjoyed listening to me yap. I don't know. Anyway, all that being said, stay safe, be kind, and don't forget to spend more time loving the things you love than hating the things you hate. Now, go out there, have a good ass day. Feel like that's like really important nowadays. Like, with with algorithms just feeding us hate all the time, I feel like that message is becoming more and more important. Like I know I say it all the time and so maybe it just like starts losing its value, but I just feel like every time you open any device of any kind, there's just a a a wall, a screen of hate, hate, hate, hate, hate. This is what you should hate. This is what you should hate. This is what should make you mad. And so it's like it I feel like it is a good reminder to actually like go outside, turn off those screens, like let this be the last YouTube video you watch today perhaps. Like go go go outside, walk your dog, go play with your kids, whatever the case is. Go make your own food. Like spend time loving the things that you love because there are so many forces in this world that truly just want you to spend all of your time hating the things that you hate. Anyway, I'm just yapping. Uncle Wally out.

[00:26:54]Peace.

[00:27:00]Heat up