Hypocritical Judgement
by Philip Mawson.
THE July 15th 1997 issue of the Watchtower magazine contains an article entitled "The Investigative Judgement A Bible Based Doctrine?"
The article is basically a refutation of a key doctrine held by the Seventh Day Adventist Church, based on Daniel 8:14, which teaches that upon Christ's ascension to heaven, He entered the holy part of the Heavenly Sanctuary.
But, in the year AD 1844 He entered the Most Holy compartment where He cleansed the sanctuary by His blood (as depicted by the High Priest on the Day of Atonement) and began a judgement work on all professed Christians (living and dead) to see if they were worthy or not to be written in the Lamb's Book of Life.
Now while the above WT article, in the main, does a fairly good job in refuting this teaching, in usual fashion the WT Society shoots a big hole in its own foot during the process.
For example, on page 26 as part of its arsenal against the S.D.A.s, the WT Society quotes Professor Anthony A. Hoekema to back up its article, but fails to say where the quote comes from.
The simple reason for this oversight is that Anthony Hoekema made his statement on page 146 of his major work "Four Major Cults". A book in which Jehovah's Witnesses also have their own boat blown clear out of the water.
So while the WT article quotes and documents other statements from different sources, it wants rank and file JWs to be kept in ignorance of their quote from Professor Hoekema's work.
For while the Governing Body may read opposition literature, it doesn't want rank and file JWs to do the same (information control is a cult hallmark).
So, in this brief treatment of the WT article we have to reach our own investigative judgement which can be none other than that of our Lord Jesus Christ in His stern words of Matthew 7:1-5.
The WT Society attempts to remove a splinter from the eye of Seventh Day Adventism, while a huge plank lies in its own eye.
In the words of Jesus Christ we offer the only verdict possible "Thou Hypocrite!"
Note:
While Seventh Day Adventists hold to some irritating doctrines, it must be admitted that there are some fine Born Again believers among them.
This, however, is not true of Jehovah's Witnesses who are light years away from historical Biblical Christianity.