Fritz Springmeier

And indeed the cover of her Watchtower magazine 10 said, "The Great Issue FacesYou," along with a picture of an old man with stars surrounding him.As a scholar of the Watchtower Society, my curiosity was aroused, What is thegreat issue?Her visit had caught our family at an unfortunate time when I couldn't invite themin. I took her magazines, and silently prayed she'd keep her word to return on her backcall, which she didn't unfortunately.I opened the magazine. What is the great issue—was it sin? That certainly wasChrist's great issue, his central message was man's slavery to sin. He preached thattheme from several different angles. The captives he came to set free were the captivesof sin. Those he was able to bless, were those poor in spirit, that is those who realizedtheir sinful nature.The apostle Paul continued Christ's message on sin. "This righteousness from Godcomes through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe. There is no difference, for all havesinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified freely by his grace through theredemption that came by Christ Jesus." (Rom. 3:22-24)Even the Apostle John, a favorite among the Masons and other esoteric groupsmade sin the great issue. "If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and thetruth is not in us. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sinsand purify us from all unrighteousness." (I Jn. 1:8,9)So what was the Watchtower's Great Issue?At the end of page three, which is the first article, we learn the answer, "In fact, thegreat issue facing each one of us is whether we accept or reject the sovereignty of God,"whose name alone is JEHOVAH." Having been associated with Jehovah's Witnesses,I knew that the issue of God's Sovereignty meant Jehovah's name. For instance, Moseshad done all he did to Pharoah and the Egyptians the JWs had instructed me, solely toteach them his name is pronounced Jehovah.Knowing this, it was fairly certain what would follow in the Watchtower article, "Thetime must come when he will resolve all aspects of this issue of sovereignty in harmonywith his own stated purpose: "They will have to know that I am Jehovah." 11And there they did it again. The WT Soc. has taken a Biblical concept theSovereinty of God and perverted it into a test of "Are they promoting the word Jehovahor not?"The real issue is not whether some magical word Jehovah is promoted or not. Theissue is sin.