Humans Are Not Naturally Totally Depraved

 What does it mean for us to say that a person has free will (free moral agency)? It means that God can make a spirit-empowered appeal to a person’s conscience so that he might choose not to resist God Who stands willing to help sinful humans to have their minds enlightened by God’s holy Word, the Bible. The Bible is a record of what God has revealed to us about Himself.

Our affirming free will in God’s rational creatures need not commit us to a doctrine that has it that the sinful world that resulted after God had declared all His creations good (see Genesis 1:26–31) is something that caught God off guard. He did not suffer defeat of His purpose to have a world of humankind, descended from Adam, living in perfect compliance to God’s will. God, as men’s contemporary, has made occur certain events in the world well after the rebellion in Eden such that they guarantee that He will in time certainly own a perfect world of humankind descended from Adam.

The idea that God actualized a world He foreknew would sin is a doctrine that is neither expressly given in Scriptures nor need we infer it from the Scriptures. In fact, it is contrary to the Scriptures. Some “exegetes” have made the doctrine that the best possible world God found that He could create was nonetheless one that He foreknew would fall into sin. Per this doctrine, God had to choose to actualize such a world because even though it would not remain sinless, yet it supposedly was the only one that offered God the maximum number of those being saved. The doctrine has it that in none of the possible worlds God surveyed did He just happen to find that the first human couple He would create (namely, Adam and Eve) would remain sinless and would procreate sinless offspring. One of the problems here is that such a theory of “possible worlds” still compromises God’s sovereignty because the theory portrays Him as One Whose will, as respects some matter, is a will He may have to abandon, even though it ideally (perfectly) suits His character. The doctrine devolves to the place whereby God had to settle for creating a world that He really did not want because He was trumped by a Second Principle beside Himself, a Principle able to specify/dictate to Him at least the range of His possible choices for the world He should have to actualize.

Certain Calvinists escape postulating a Second Principle beside God, but they know that they must hold that God freely chose some sinners to receive salvation, and that God has not done so for all the rest of sinful men. This idea of salvation is, in effect, presented as a thing that God does on the basis of no righteous principle that He be One Who exercises balanced, impartial judgment. That is a stripe of Calvinism that devolves logically—maybe even unwittingly?—to the position that God, who is our contemporary, does not look into the hearts of His temporal creatures before ever He would decide whether to intervene in behalf of a certain few members of a totally depraved world of men. Indeed, why would He intervene on such a basis since He would always find total depravity, so goes the theory, in any individual whom He would inspect? So, the doctrine of intervention held by some is that God intervenes sufficiently (unto eternal salvation), specially and miraculously in just some individuals’ behalf regardless of the total depravity supposedly in everyone’s heart at the time God would make any intervention for some of them. Therefore, such a doctrine has it that God is totally arbitrary in the matter of His deciding the “forever fate” of individuals because His decision to intervene specially and miraculously in the will of some few men is a decision He has made without any need for Him to be able to make logically meaningful distinctions among members of the fallen human race, and that all others who do not get such good will (favor) from God are individuals who had not been predestined, so goes the doctrine, to receive salvation from God. If Abraham had such a concept of God being a totally arbitrary God, then he would have not appealed to God as he did on the occasion narrated for us at Genesis 18:16-33. And God would have not entered into a soliloquy with Himself for asking Himself ‘Am I keeping hidden from Abraham that I am making an inspection of Sodom and Gomorrah to see if the report that has come to my attention about those cities means that I should destroy them?’ (See Genesis 18:16–21.) Really, Abraham’s confidence in God was that God would not act in a way that would mean an arbitrary disregard of what few persons there might possibly be in Sodom and Gomorrah whose conscience had not yet let them sink into totally depraved, abominable conduct.

In the case of Cain, God made powerful intervention in Cain’s behalf; however, He did not choose to disregard Cain’s free will by creating miraculously in a God-resisting Cain an absence of hatred for his brother. Was God being less than honest in His appeal to Cain? God said to him, “Why are you angry, and why has your countenance fallen? If you do well [like your brother Abel does], will you not [also] be accepted? And if you do not do well, sin [(unconscionable, willfully depraved conduct)] is lurking at the door; its desire is for you, but you must master it” (Genesis 4:7 NRSV). But why make appeal to Cain for him to do an impossible thing, for if it entirely depended on God’s miraculously creating in a God-resisting Cain the will for him to turn himself around−and yet God, so goes the false doctrine, had already decided before ever Cain had been born that He was not going to so create such a will in Cain−, then that means that God was not making in real (phenomenal) time, for sake of Cain’s conscience, an honest, sincere appeal to Cain for him to do something about his situation.

Scriptural Refutation of the Evangelicals' Two-Kingdoms Theology (Part 1)

The Bible tells us Christians that “in every way we recommend ourselves as God’s ministers . . . by truthful speech” (2 Corinthians 6:4, 7). None who declares himself to be ‘an ordained representative/minister sent forth from God from within a body of Christ’s disciples as a benefactor of a human government’s citizens’ has God’s approval for such a declaration; he is a liar. 

If it were possible for people comprising human government to be Christians doing the will of God, then their governance would certainly emanate from their government’s institutions which should then not differ in its moral character from that which obtains and is manifested in a religious community that truthfully claims to be Christian. There is not such a governmental phenomenon anywhere in the world. Christians are no part of what comprises human governments. We are, however, law-abiding sojourners, temporary residents among the nations (1 Peter 1:11, 12). So, then, it is as 1 Corinthians 5:12, 13 reminds us: ". . . what [do] we have to do with judging those outside [the Christian congregation]? Do you not judge those inside [the Christian congregation], while God judges those outside [it]?" True Christians do not inform the governmental structures/institutions invented by men; they do not seek to make straight that which God lets remain crooked for the time being (cf. Ecclesiastes 1:15). 

So, it is not God’s wisdom that one preaches for a denial of the Scriptures-supported facts being reviewed here. How do we know it? We know it because, among other things, the deeds of human rulers belie their claims about their knowing anything about the Kingdom of God, His heavenly government in the hands of His Son Jesus Christ. As the Bible says, “It is this wisdom that none of the rulers of this system of things came to know, for if they had known it, they would not have executed their glorious Lord” (1 Corinthians 2:8). 

That Bible passage quoted immediately above is not reference to a past-time frame of mind owned just by the Jewish rulers who were chiefly responsible for Jesus’ execution. No, but the same murderous, anti-Christ frame of mind from the Devil, which operated in the Jewish rulers—see John 8:43-47—during Christ’s earthly ministry, operated and still operates in all “the rulers of this system of things, who are to come to nothing” (1 Corinthians 2:6; cf. Acts 4:25-28), this despite the efforts of every human government to perpetuate, by whatever means at hand, its own claim of a right to sovereign control over the lives of its citizens. This, of course, is not according to God’s will, for Christians in the final analysis must be seen as those who “obey God as ruler rather than men” (Acts 5:29, 32). Yes, Christians obey secular (man-concocted) governments just so long as whatever they command does not infringe against God’s right of sovereign rulership over His servants (cf. Matthew 22:21). Our subjection to man-concocted governments that operate with God’s permission—but remember that they do not operate by His having commanded either their existence or their struggles for sovereignty—is a relative subjection. So, if a government calls for taxes, we pay the taxes. If they legislate for the common good of its citizens without targeting Christians for persecution, then we obey (Romans 13:1-7). If, however, they demand worship and sacrifice of our lives in support of their governments, then we must refuse to give to Caesar the things that belong to God, for our lives are dedicated to Jehovah God. This position is verified also by the history of early Christianity during the first three centuries of the common era. 

When governments frame mischief against us by decree, will we take up fleshly weapons against them in order to defend ourselves? We have no earthly government that needs such a defense (cf. John 18:36). In fact, if a Christian were to take up a fleshly weapon for bringing an end to another human’s life, then that would be an act directly forbidden by Jesus Christ. Matthew 26:52 says: “Then Jesus said to [Peter]: “Return your sword to its place, for all those who take up the sword will perish by the sword.” Then what relief do we have? We are certain to experience the guaranteed relief promised us at 2 Thessalonians 1:4-10. So what, then, if our persecutions result in deprivations or martyrdom? So long as our faith remains in tact and not ship wrecked, then we are victorious because we stood stalwart with help of God’s holy spirit for vindication of God’s name and Kingdom, confident of the reward of everlasting life. Such is our joy made even greater during persecutions (Matthew 5:11, 12; 1 Peter 1:5-9; 3:14, 17; Hebrews 10:34); it is ours because of courage for which we pray for strength to possess and show even unto our last breath taken from us at the hands of Satan’s henchmen, if it should come to that, for then God’s enemies will not have succeeded in despoiling our faith and thereby taking everlasting life away from us. (Compare 1 John 5:4, 5, 11-13.) 

Jesus and his Father will mete out justice against the unrepentant wicked ones for their persecutions of  Christ’s brothers. And why not, since they deserve it?  The tribulations they cause against the righteous are born of the age-old, Satanically inspired designs that the rulers of this system of things have continually implemented against Christian disciples  ever since Christ took a seat at the right-hand side of his Father (see Revelation 1:7; Acts 2:32-36; 7:51-58). Yes, the Devil’s works carried out by the rulers of this world have meant persecutions and martyrdom for Christ’s disciples. That should not surprise us, for it was not just Jewry's government during the time of Christ’s earthly ministry which remained ignorant of God and morally and spiritually bankrupt so that they opposed Jesus and his disciples right up until the nation’s destruction in 70 C.E. Indeed, it ever has been and continues to be the case that every man-concocted government is similarly infected by Satan’s murderous spirit. 1 John 5:19 tells us how extensive is Satan’s rulership: “ . . . but the whole world is lying in the power of the wicked one”; see also Luke 4:6 and John 12:31. Christ’s spirit-anointed brothers, however, have the hope of sharing in the vengeance to be visited on the nations—all of the nations—when God and our Savior Jesus Christ gloriously manifest themselves for the realization of the Christian brotherhood’s happy hope. (See Titus 2:13; Revelation 2:24-27; and Revelation 19:11-16.)

All the above Scripturally refutes the evangelicals’ “Two Kingdoms Theology.” But more about this later.

Book Review: Dissent on the margins. How Soviet Jehovah's Witnesses defied Communism and lived to preach about it.

https://www.proquest.com/religion/docview/1854845783/2DAB0DC80694742PQ/12?accountid=13565

Dissent on the margins. How Soviet Jehovah's Witnesses defied Communism and lived to preach about it. By Emily B. Baran. Pp.xvi + 382 incl. 2 maps. New York-Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2014. £51. 978 0 19 994533 5

Reviews

Emily B. Baran's book on the Jehovah's Witnesses in the Soviet Union is one of the most revelatory books on religion in the USSR, the quality of her research being truly astonishing. She has not only recovered information from Soviet state archives, but she even learned Romanian in order to gain access to the local sources in Soviet Moldavia. As a result, this book reveals a great deal about Communist policy towards religious minorities in general, a subject which has not been fully researched before.

The period covered is relatively recent, because the Witnesses did not appear on Soviet soil in any significant numbers until the end of the Second World War, when territorial gains incorporated them into Transcarpathia (Western Ukraine), where they had flourished under an earlier regime. For a time, the policy to contain them was deportation to Siberia, where those that survived, not unlike Lithuanian Catholics, were convinced that God was directing their missionary efforts under persecution. It took some time before Soviet practice took this into account and prison camp after summary trial became the preferred option.

Even here the bravery of the Witnesses often came to the fore. By the early 1960s the infamous Dubravlag became a kind of seminary. Baran writes: 'One man, sent to Mordovia in 1963, described the camp as a "school for studying his faith"... Dubravlag made it much easier for elders to minister to their imprisoned flock and convert new members.' They even formed their own choir there.

Although always small in numbers (45,000 in the whole Soviet Union at the time of its collapse, according to an official publication from the Brooklyn headquarters of the Jehovah's Witnesses), their bravery and determination won out time and time again over brutal persecution. Baran's research bears testimony to the quality of their organisation, whether in the 'underground' (though this is truly a misnomer for their activities) or in prison. It has always been thought that the Baptists led the way in establishing clandestine and home-made printing presses in the early 1960s, yet in the 1950s, when control was more lax in Poland, men swam across the River Bug and back to obtain Polish copies of The Watchtower, which were then translated and secretly printed in the USSR.

Not all Witnesses held firm to the faith. A feature of the Soviet anti-religious campaign, which intensified under Nikita Khrushchev after 1959, was the printing of testimonies of believers who renounced their beliefs under interrogation and torture. Such a man was Konstantin Potashov, who was converted to the faith while in prison for hooliganism and theft. He oversaw major printing initiatives, but was arrested in Mukachevo, Western Ukraine, in December 1962. At his trial he buckled and betrayed many Witnesses by name, before continuing for years as their public critic.

His infamy was nothing compared to that of Aleksandr Dvorkin in the present day. This unspeakable practitioner of religious repression - a key figure in Putin's Russia who attempted to turn the clock back to Communist malpractice - coined the expression 'totalitarian sect'. Baran unmasks him, though eschewing words such as those in the previous sentence. She quotes him as leading the campaign against religious minorities, being encouraged so to do both by the Moscow Patriarchate and the Russian State. For him, the Jehovah's Witnesses are a leading organisation that 'violates the rights of [its] members and inflicts harm on them through the use of certain methods known as "mind control"'. Thus Dvorkin led the way to yet another round of systematic repression of the Witnesses, an attempted reversal of the registered status which they acquired in the early '90s. Thus, in recent years, articles have appeared in the press accusing them, in true Soviet style, of ritual murder (p. 214). This book bears testimony to their lawyers' fighting such accusations in court.

Turning her attention away from the Moscow courts, Baran lifts the curtain on some less well-known corners of Europe. The accessible archives in the West Ukrainian region of Transcarpathia bear eloquent testimony to the vigour and fearlessness of the Witnesses in the post-war years, when this region fell under Soviet rule - and therefore violent political and religious repression - for the first time. Her attention moves on to Moldova, a former Soviet republic and now an independent country, another region where Witness activity has been strong. Here, as in Russia in post-Soviet times, they gained their freedom under the law, but this did not prevent attempts by clergy of the Orthodox Church to prevent them from preaching.

Much worse was what happened in Transnistria, that region of long-frozen conflict, where a thin strip of the original Soviet Moldavia is still occupied by Russian troops, forming a mini-state which has no outside recognition beyond Russia itself. Baran describes Petr Zalozhkov here as the 'Dvorkin of Transnistria', which is surely enough said. Not satisfied by persuading the state to violate its own registration laws, he even wrote a section on the Witnesses in the standard school textbook on religion, claiming that they were operating a 'pyramid scheme' to fleece converts of their money. Here, again, the Witnesses won in the courts, but they could not enforce their own decisions. To his credit, the local Orthodox bishop publicly excommunicated Zalozhkov, but disputed cases remain before the courts.

In her conclusion Baran quotes a story related by the exiled Vladimir Bukovsky. Wandering through the streets of London, he came across a simple sign outside a modest building saying 'Jehovah's Witnesses'. He required nothing more to prove that Western democracy offered true freedom of conscience.

Are there, then, no faults in this book? It is superbly written, entirely void of sociological jargon and beautifully produced by Oxford University Press. The reader would have been additionally enlightened by an account of what typically happened in a Kingdom Hall, at the times when such communal worship was possible. While not sharing their faith, as Emily Baran tells us, she cannot but admire the dedication and selflessness of generations of heroic figures whom she depicts in her pages.

AuthorAffiliation

Keston Institute, Oxford

Word count: 1056

Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2017 

Two Builders/Makers, but Only One Creator

If the designer of a certain project is also the only one who could manufacture a certain instrument that makes possible all operations carried out for completion of the project, and if the designer of the project and manufacturer of that instrument is the only one who could be the source of certain knowledge needed for operation of the instrument -- and that knowledge is knowledge that he makes sure is graciously and sufficiently imparted to, let us say, but only one other person in order that he (the student) be able to use the instrument --, then you have two persons responsible for building the project; two builders built the project. Only one of them, however, was the crucial source of knowledge and abilities necessary to the project's successful completion. We can say that he is the creator of the project (that was carried out in a certain way, namely, through use of another person) because he is: (1) the designer of the project, and (2) the gracious, unconstrained instructor of another person for him to become involved as a builder, too, for completion of the project (cf. Col. 1:15-17; Hebrews 1:2, 3; John 1:3, 10). One able to use this tool is no puppet on a string. 

We must make certain accommodation in any illustration we might present as a (rough) sort of parallel to some of what transpired in the Son's involvement with his Father for the making of all things meant to bring honor both to the Father and to the Son. An illustration meant to offer us a logical parallel to the Son's involvement with the Father in His (the Father's) creative activity must accommodate the fact that the Father used His holy spirit in order that He might graciously and sufficiently qualify His Son for him to be a co-worker with Him (the Father) for the manufacture of all things meant to bring them honor. Accordingly, we are not constrained to think that the Son's spirit-empowered involvement with His Father's creative works makes the Son's role as a co-laboring agent in the Father's service merely to be like the role that a puppet is made to assume. (Nor should we think that the Creator necessarily had to qualify His Son as a maker with his Father before the Father might enjoy relationship with many more sons besides His Firstborn Son. The Father could have chosen not to use a Firstborn Son in order to create through him other sons for them to love their Father and to experience His love for them.) Both the Father and the Son are makers, but only one (the Father) is the Creator, the One Who is the Source of certain knowledge and power graciously given over to an appreciative Son for him to use for bringing into existence the things referred to above. 

What JW.ORG Teaches, and What It Does Not Teach

If you want to learn about the monarch butterfly for free, you can find pertinent material on a venue free of evolutionistic pseudoscience; you have only to search links available on JW.ORG. For example, there is this one:

https://www.jw.org/.../Instinct-Wisdom-Programmed-Before.../

And there are other references to the intelligently designed monarch butterfly in material produced by Christian Congregation of Jehovah's Witnesses. Pertinent references are: "Life--How Did It Get Here? By Evolution or By Creation?" (p. 166); "Awake!" (December 22, 1978, pp. 24-6).

JW.ORG's materials clearly identify what another venue has called "transcendent intelligence." The real referent for that phrase is Jehovah, the God of the Bible, because His is the "transcendent intelligence" manifested in 'intelligently designed/created' life forms. The concern of some publishing institution -- but not JW.ORG -- is that it not be challenged by credible argument that its materials are openly "Christian" or "Biblical," for if that can be successfully argued, then a non-profit, religious academy that uses it -- uses it instead of using material that endorses evolutionism -- might be liable to having its tax-exempt status revoked by the IRS.

In fact, the IRS has recently become much less tolerant of any tax-exempt institution that would, in the opinion of the IRS, teach something that, as the argument goes, leads readers/students to identify with the Republican party. Christian Congregation of Jehovah's Witnesses is apolitical; it endorses no political party / political philosophy. Therefore, we Jehovah's Witnesses ought not to come under the kind of scrutiny that the IRS on June 21, 2021 stated was its concern for a certain religious institution's policies. We read this:

"The Internal Revenue Service denied a Christian nonprofit group tax-exempt status because the Bible’s “teachings are typically affiliated with” the GOP and its candidates.

“Specifically, you educate Christians on what the Bible says in areas where they can be instrumental including the areas of sanctity of life, the definition of marriage, biblical justice, freedom of speech, defense, and borders and immigration, U.S. and Israel relations,” read a letter from IRS Exempt Organizations Director Stephen Martin to Christians Engaged, a nonprofit group seeking tax-exempt status. “The Bible teachings are typically affiliated with the [Republican Party] and candidates. This disqualifies you from exemption under IRC Section 501(c)(3).”

[IRS denies tax-exempt status to Christian nonprofit group because ‘Bible teachings are typically affiliated with the Republican Party’](https://news.yahoo.com/irs-denies-tax-exempt-status...)

There are no political motivations behind any of the teachings of Jehovah's Witnesses. (However, we do not hesitate to show from the Bible what the God of the Bible has put in His Word (the Bible) that condemns homosexuality and elective abortion.) Bible study aids used by Jehovah's Witnesses give reasonable argument in support of the contention that intelligent design informs nature, and all of those Bible study aids are free of any political agenda; they are free of any endorsement of any political party or political philosophy. Those Bible study aids do, however, fearlessly, straightforwardly, and publicly identify that which another venue -- one not associated with Jehovah's Witnesses -- merely (namelessly) referred to as a "transcendent intelligence": the Bible study aids we use show from the Bible that that "transcendent intelligence" is a person, the Supreme Being who is the only Creator, the God of the Bible, whose name is Jehovah.

 

Is Your Way of Life Truly the Peculiarly Christian Way of Life?

(NB. The material below has the style of a bulleted response, which I chose as a way to make response to some sentiments I read, but which would have been better presented had they been made from purely -- and thus peculiarly -- a true Christian's worldview, and not from a worldview that Humanists espouse as a thing realizable without need for obedience to God's standards revealed in the Bible.)

How inclusive is the true Christian brotherhood? It does not tolerate in its membership those who practice racism, nationalism, sexual immorality — anyone who has not repented works of the flesh. We can forge no bonds with those who wish to remain in spiritual darkness.

How empathetic are true Christians? We have no sympathy or affection for those who are unrepentant, willful practicers of wickedness. But true Christians do indeed empathize with those conscious of their spiritual need.

As to dignity, whatever Jehovah hates are things a Christian cannot dignify, but are things he hates, too.

As to diversity, we are all of us free moral agents able to choose from any of a number of diverse lifestyles; however, there are hurtful consequences for bad choices.

As to community, Christians have the only international community/brotherhood on earth.

As to kindness, if one does not have holy spirit at work in his life, then he does not have, as a fruit of holy spirit, kindness.

As to integrity, the Bible defines it. The vast majority of men reject letting the Bible instruct them as to God’s standards for an honest, good (morally excellent) way of life.

A Christian must respect a man’s right to make a free-will choice as to what way of life he chooses for himself; however, that does not mean that we necessarily respect the very way of life some man has chosen for himself. For example, we respect that men have free moral agency; however, that means that a man can speak lies that are harmful to others. So, if he is a habitual liar, who can respect him or his words—his way of life?

As to justice, a Christian has chosen to abide by how God, in the Bible, wants us to treat others.

As to facts, every proposition of any moment to a Christian’s way of life must be weighed against whether or not the proposition is in harmony with relevant facts, which are the substance of the holy Scriptures’ record of God’s revelation of Himself to us, and of His will for us.

As to peace, a Christian has, as a fruit of holy spirit from God given us because of our obedience to Jesus Christ’s teachings, real peace.

Planet Earth has for its protector none other than its Creator, Jehovah God, who says this about the earth: “For this is what Jehovah says, the Creator of the heavens, the true God, the One who formed the earth, its Maker who firmly established it, Who did not create it simply for nothing, but formed it to be inhabited” (Isaiah 45:18). Jehovah is jealous for the future of the earth; he does not leave its future in the hands of men who have proved themselves to be enemies of the earth. So, what will He do to ensure fulfillment of His original purpose for the earth? He will “bring to ruin those ruining the earth” (Revelation 11:18). God’s earthly servants will not participate God’s rescue of planet Earth; no, but it will be by supernaturally conducted warfare against wicked men at Armageddon that God, through His warrior Son Jesus Christ, brings needed action for stopping men from ruining the earth (Revelation 19:11-18). Neither politicians nor bold action by Greenpeace can bring about the needed rescue. It will take Armageddon and, after Armageddon, the binding of Satan and his demon angels before men now obedient to God’s commands will in future participate under heaven’s direction bringing about significant change for better ecosystems. 

If you have truthfully chosen in favor of a humanity that soon enough will no longer be beset by strife, warfare, famine, pandemics, racism, nationalism, misogynism, greed, sexual immorality, murder, and life-debilitating pollution of earth’s ecosystems, then you have chosen a way of life that shows that you favor God’s heavenly Kingdom government, and have chosen to reject anti-Biblical doctrines, whether they be Humanism, materialism, evolution, hedonism, or whether they be superstitions of religionists who do not really know the Bible, God’s message to mankind. 

So, what is a Christian's love for unbelieving neighbors? It always includes that we neither wish nor do harm against our neighbors--even though they may be deceived into working to suppress the truth of the Gospel (Good News); we must rather seek to educate them as to what is God's will, and should they begin to see the truth, then we work to support their genuine effort to break free from Satan's captivity of them, and for them to have fine relationship with the God of the Bible (q.v. Acts 26:18). They cannot have that fine relationship with God until they have repented from dead works of the flesh, turned around in order to follow closely in the footsteps of Jesus Christ; they must disown themselves in unreserved dedication to do God's will forevermore, and accept baptism into the Christian brotherhood as public demonstration that they are requesting God for a good conscience (1 Peter 3:21). That is our fervent wish for all our unbelieving neighbors, people who need to obey the Good News about our Lord Jesus Christ. So, we Jehovah's Witnesses let the Bible put it this way for us vis-à-vis our unbelieving neighbors: "For I am not ashamed of the good news; it is, in fact, God's power for salvation to everyone having faith, to the [unbelieving] Jew first and also to the Greek.... For God's wrath is being revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who are suppressing the truth in an unrighteous way" (Romans 1:16, 18). 

But until an unbelieving neighbor becomes a true Christian disciple, then members of the true Christian brotherhood are limited as to what will be the extent of the love they show unbelievers. Jesus has not put us his disciples under command to surrender our lives for those who are not our friends. Jesus put it this way: "No one has greater love than this, that someone should surrender his life in behalf of his friends. You are my friends if you do what I am commanding you" (John 15:13, 14). If they are not friends of Jesus, then they are not our friends, either. 

Christians Are Not Authorized by God to Participate Politics

Sometimes we Jehovah’s Witnesses are asked, “Why won’t you vote in political elections? Aren’t you interested in voting into office a good man?”

The truth is, there are no men who can match the righteousness of our ruling king, the glorified Jesus Christ, who has proved himself loyal to all the righteous decrees of God, and who was completely — perfectly — absent any struggle that might have inclined him to lying, greed, or cowardice. So, until this perfectly qualified Ruler takes unhindered control of the world of mankind, we his followers expect to suffer. Our relief comes when Jesus strikes the earth with the rod of his mouth, and the wicked are put to death at command from him (q.v. Isaiah 11:4, 5).

You may be asking, “We may expect to suffer?” Yes, and accept it joyfully, too! The Bible at Hebrews 10:34 says this about persecuted Christians in Judea: “You accepted joyfully the plundering of your belongings, knowing that you have a better and an enduring possession.” That verse but echoes what Jesus himself said at Matthew 5:11-13: “Happy are those who have been persecuted for righteousness sake, since the Kingdom of the heavens belongs to them. Happy are you when people reproach you and persecute you and lyingly say every sort of wicked thing against you for my sake. Rejoice and be overjoyed, since your reward is great in the heavens, for in that way they persecuted the prophets prior to you.”

No, it does not please us whenever we witness that our Heavenly Father is being made sad because He is seeing His people harmed and His name blasphemed. That is something we wish that God did not have to let happen. But it is not our will that counts here; it is our heavenly Father’s will that counts (compare Luke 22:41, 42). And Jehovah’s name and sovereignty are being vindicated when we endure under hardship and prove the Devil a liar. We can certainly rejoice and be overjoyed that our being strengthened by holy spirit to endure persecution is a share we have in sanctifying God's name and proving the Devil a liar against God.

Politics is a fight against flesh and blood. A Christian’s fight is not against flesh and blood, just as we read at Ephesians 6:12: “We have a struggle not against blood and flesh but against the governments, against the authorities, against the world rulers of this darkness, against the wicked spirit forces in the heavenly places.” Yes, our struggle is against superhuman persons invisible, in the spirit realm, namely, against Satan and his demon angels. Until they are dealt with by Jesus Christ, human effort (political, manmade governments) will continue, and continue to fail, too: we will continue to witness the terrible absence of real peace and happiness for the entire human family.

Christians may not even express wrath and reviling speech against any person. We may rebuke the wicked, and try to reprove them with the Scriptures; however, for as long as we have breath, we can express our confidence that the God of the Bible will protect His namesake people as a whole; moreover, any individual servant of God who is harmed will not suffer irreversible harm. It pleases God to allow us His earthly servants to prove our love for Him, to show forth our indomitable faith, courage, and loyalty--yes! prove such things even though it may involve some of us being martyred. How do we know that is what God expects of any of us followers of Christ? Consider the following Bible verses:

1 Peter 2:19-21: “For it is agreeable when someone endures hardship and suffers unjustly because of conscience toward God. For what merit is there if you are beaten for sinning and you endure it? But if you endure suffering because of doing good, this is an agreeable thing to God.”

1 Peter 3:17: “For it is better to suffer because you are doing good, if it is God’s will to allow it.”

Revelation 2:10: “Do not be afraid of the things you are about to suffer. Look! The Devil will keep on throwing some of you into prison . . . Prove yourself faithful even to death, and I will give you the crown of life.”

As was pointed out above, nowhere in the teachings of the “New Testament” (Christian Greek Scriptures) do we read that Christians are authorized by God to take up a political struggle against men. We will try to conceal ourselves from their attacks, of course (cf. Matthew 10:23), but wicked men will be permitted to persecute us until Jesus Christ brings about our relief at the time when armies of angels under the command of Jesus Christ will annihilate our enemies. That very thing is promised us in 2 Thessalonians 1:6-10: “This takes into account that it is righteous on God’s part to repay tribulation to those who make tribulation for you. But you who suffer tribulation will be given relief along with us at the revelation of the Lord Jesus from heaven with his powerful angels in a flaming fire, as he brings vengeance on those who do not obey the good news about our Lord Jesus. These very ones will undergo the judicial punishment of everlasting destruction from before the Lord and from the glory of his strength, at the time when he comes to be glorified in connection with his holy ones and to be regarded in that day with wonder among all those who exercised faith, because the witness we gave met with faith among you.”

Do we read anywhere in the Scriptures that Christians may form — or even seek to inform — a polity (a manmade government) for assurance of “human rights”? No. Politics is a thing of the world, but Jesus has commanded us to be no part of the world. Our future is assured not through political struggles, but through blessing from Jehovah. He has a blessed Kingdom government in the hands of His Son, Jesus Christ. That government will be an everlasting government for us, one that will never disappoint us the way manmade governments do.

This faith in God's heavenly Kingdom government is not the possession of all men; indeed, by far the majority of men lack this faith. And faithless men are easily manipulated by Satanic propaganda to oppose true Christians and hate them. Jesus prayed about the matter to his heavenly Father, and stated: “I have given your word to them, but the world has hated them, because they are no part of the world, just as I am no part of the world” (John 17:14). And Jesus has addressed us on the subject several times. For example, we read this: “I have said these things to you so that by means of me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation, but take courage! I have conquered the world!” (John 16:33).

Yes, Jesus conquered the world because he did not let his faith and hope become ruined out of fear of men. It is the same for us, too! Already we have conquered the world if we do not let our faith, hope, and love for God and neighbor become ruined out of fear of men. “Because everyone who has been born from God conquers the world. And this is the conquest that has conquered the world, our faith” (1 John 5:4).

Men without faith cannot excite us with dire warnings that if we do not vote the right man into office, then our peace and security will be lost. That is not true. Jesus' words to us his disciples can never become untrue. We will continue to have the peace Jesus gives us: "I leave you peace; I give you my peace. I do not give it to you the way that the world gives it. Do not let your hearts be troubled nor let them shrink out of fear" (John 14:27).