If the Jehovah’s
Witnesses belong to the true "congregation" (i.e., their preferred
translation of ekklēsia, which is most often rendered as
"church"), then there must be scriptural evidence that their
particular ekklēsia is the one,
true, and visible body of Christ, which has existed in unbroken continuity
since its very foundation. I'll be using their own translation of the
Bible to support this particular standard.
- Christ himself built his ekklēsia (Matthew
16:18).
- The ekklēsia is the body of Christ (Colossians
1:24) and is therefore one, since Christ has only one body.
- The ekklēsia is “a” bulwark of truth (1
Timothy 3:15).[1]
- The ekklēsia is a visible body.
For "if your brother commits a sin," how can you
"speak to the congregation [i.e, ekklēsia]" to
resolve the matter if you can't even find it? (Matthew 18:15-17).
- The ekklēsia must be a permanent body
since Jesus says that not even the “gates of the Grave” (Matthew 16:18)
will overcome it.
With these points in mind, the Jehovah's Witnesses should be asked the following:
- Where in history do we find anything remotely similar
to the ekklēsia of the Jehovah’s Witnesses?
- If you believe that your ekklēsia was the original ekklēsia, but somehow went missing for a number of centuries (as is evidenced by the vast difference in beliefs and practices between you and Christians of the intervening period), shouldn’t we
conclude that the “gates of the Grave” did indeed overcome the ekklēsia until
Charles Taze Russel “resurrected” it in the 1870s? In other words,
did Jesus predict wrongly in Matthew 16:18?
[1] The NWT inserts
the indefinite article “a” in this verse, presumably to imply that the ekklēsia is
but one “pillar and support of the truth” among others.
However, among the 28 renderings listed on Bible
Hub, the vast majority (93%) translated stylos to
mean the pillar.
