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The Two Covenants of the Watch Tower

 

In the January 22 Watchtower Study Edition, the Society writes:

'Each year, anointed ones look forward to attending the Memorial as partakers. Why do they appropriately partake of the bread and the wine? To answer that, consider what happened on the final night of Jesusā€™ earthly life. After the Passover meal, Jesus instituted what has come to be known as the Lordā€™s Evening Meal. He passed the bread and the wine to his 11 faithful apostles and told them to eat and drink. Jesus spoke to them about two covenants, or agreements,ā€”the new covenant and the Kingdom covenant. (Luke 22:19, 20, 28-30) These covenants opened up the way for those apostles and a limited number of others to become kings and priests in heaven. (Rev. 5:10; 14:1) Only the anointed remnant, who are in these two covenants, may partake of the bread and the wine at the Memorial.'

One is the New covenant, the other the Kingdom Covenant. Only the 144,000 can partake of the two covenants, just as only they may partake of the bread and wine.

They base this on Luke 22:28-30:

ā€œHowever, you are the ones who have stuck with me in my trials; and I make a covenant with you, just as my Father has made a covenant with me, for a kingdom, so that you may eat and drink at my table in my Kingdom, and sit on thrones to judge the 12 tribes of Israel."

Covenants

A covenant, simply put, can be understood as the terms on which God agrees to have a relationship with mankind. We will look at key covenants so we can reach an understanding of how they work.

From the Bible it is clear these are not covenants of equal partners, they rested on the initiative of Godā€™s divine authority. There are seven covenants in the Bible, some say eight if you include a covenant of works with Adam. We will look at three key covenants.

God made with Abraham a covenant of promise. God called Abraham to be separate and trust God for countless offspring, to make him be a blessing to all the families of earth. (Gen.12:3) ā€˜to be God to you and to your descendants.ā€™ (Gen.17:17)

In the Sinai covenant God, through Moses, called Abrahamā€™s descendants Israel out of slavery in Egypt, where they had become the numerous offspring promised to Abraham, to live for him and be a light to the nations. (Ex.19:3-6; Is.49:6)

Finally, we have the covenant of grace. In Lukeā€™s gospel we read:

Christ came, ā€˜to show the mercy promised to our fathers and to remember his holy covenant, the oath that he swore to our father Abraham, to grant us that we, being delivered from the hand of our enemies, might serve [God] without fear.ā€™ (Lk.1:72-73)

A Kingdom Covenant?

The Luke text in the NWT reads:

ā€œHowever, you are the ones who have stuck with me in my trials and I make a covenant with you, just as my Father has made a covenant with me, for a kingdom, so that you may eat and drink at my table in my Kingdom, and sit on thrones to judge the 12 tribes of Israel.ā€

                                        (Luke 22:28-30 in the NWT)

Yet Luke 22:29 does not say this in other Bibles:

ā€˜and I assign to you, as my Father assigned to me, a kingdom,ā€™ ESV

ā€˜And I confer on you a kingdom, just as my Father conferred one on meā€¦ā€™ NIV

ā€˜And I appoint unto you a kingdom, as my Father hath appointed meā€¦ā€™ KJV

ā€˜And just as my Father has granted me a kingdom, I grant youā€¦ā€™ NASB

Comparing Luke 22:19,20 with verses 28-30 in this same chapter, we can see that a different Greek word is used, both of which are translated as ā€œcovenantā€ by the NWT. In other Bibles the first word is ā€œcovenantā€ (v20) and the second word is ā€œassignedā€, or ā€œgrantedā€ or ā€œappointedā€ v29 (see quotes above).

The Watchtower have deliberately altered the NWT text in Luke 22 to make it appear that there are two covenants. One is the covenant which Jesus said was symbolised by his blood and the other is the ā€œcovenant for a kingdomā€.

The Watchtower asserts that both of their covenants are only for 144000 Christians and therefore that 99% of Christians are not part of either the New Covenant, or the covenant for a kingdom in any real sense today. The JW organisation totally misunderstands the New Covenant. They assert that the New Covenant is merely for the ones who will go to heaven and is a promise of their heavenly reward and status.

As a Consequence

* Jesus is downgraded because he is not God in flesh (dwelling with his people), rather he is an angel carrying out a task for God.

* His death isn't the central part of the new covenant for them, rather, their own glorification is. The covenant for them is about their thrones in heaven and being elevated to the same position as Christ Jesus. This is demonstrated by the constant reference to the 144000 as ā€œco-rulersā€ with Christ as though they are on the same level! (See A Government to Bring Earth-wide Peace ā€” Watchtower ONLINE LIBRARY)

* The covenant is said to be for 144000 only, therefore MOST Christians are denied it. As such, they are denied all of the blessings of the covenant relationship. This means that millions of people are being taught that:

  • they do not have a mediator

  • they are not born again

  • they are not spirit anointed

  • they will never see Jesus or the Father

  • they are not even God's child, therefore God isn't really their Father.

* If the reality of the new covenant were taught, they would know that the PROMISE of God is that they are forgiven because of Jesus. But this Satanic teaching of JWs makes them try to earn salvation and gives them a distorted view that association with the anointed is required to be in a right standing with God.

For a fuller treatment of this issue see the upcoming E-Newsletter. Not signed up? No problem, you can sign up on our website.

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