Have you really seriously thought about what that statement, that preamble, of every organizational change means? It means the Governing Body themselves—yes, that group of old white (and Sam Herd) men in New York—openly admit that they are not inspired by God. That’s not an accusation. That’s their own statement.
Official Watchtower (JW.org) statement
From The Watchtower (Study Edition), February 2017, article titled “Who Is Leading God’s People Today?”:“The Governing Body is neither inspired nor infallible. Therefore, it can err in doctrinal matters or in organizational direction.”
This article is available directly on JW.org / Watchtower Online Library Paragraph 12.
Do you know who is inspired? The Holy Spirit that's who.
Jesus said he would send a helper—the Spirit of truth—to guide his followers into understanding. That wasn’t reserved for a select committee centuries later. That was given to believers.
And the Bible?
The entire Bible is inspired by God.
So now we have a clear line:
Scripture — inspired
Holy Spirit — inspired
Governing Body — not inspired
So why does their word carry more weight than Scripture?
If what you read in The Watchtower, the weekly workbook, or any publication doesn’t align with the Bible, then it’s conjecture—no matter how confidently it’s presented.
Jesus didn’t say, “Wait for a governing body to interpret everything for you.”
He said the Holy Spirit would teach you.
And that already happened.
So what are people really following?
Not Christ. Not Scripture.
But a phrase: “The Governing Body has decided.”
That’s not faith—that’s compliance.
It’s almost like a modern version of a mind trick: say it with enough authority, and people stop questioning. And it works—because most people don’t want to stand alone. They want leadership they can see, touch, and follow.
But Jesus directly warned against that.
He said:
“Do not call anyone your father on earth, for you have one Father—the one in heaven.”
Yet what do we do?
We build structures. Titles. Chains of authority.
We say we need a “faithful and discreet slave.”
We say we need human leadership to guide us.
But Scripture already gives the structure:
The head of every man is Christ
The head of Christ is God
The head of the woman is the man
There’s no governing body in that chain. There's no faithful and discreet slave like either.
Think back to the group of faithless Jews at the foot of Mount Sinai. Remember, Moses went into the mountain. He was gone for 40 days. The people, the people, the people, needed someone to follow. Who could they possibly follow? So they imposed upon Aaron to create a golden calf statue and they called this statue Jehovah.
Because visible leadership feels safer than faith in the invisible.
And here’s another uncomfortable truth:
People are told that without the organization, the preaching work would fail—that entire nations would never hear the message of the Good News.
But that’s simply not true.
The Bible, dare I say "The Good News", has already been translated, distributed, and read across the globe for centuries—far beyond any single organization’s reach.
If God could create the universe from nothing, He doesn’t need a centralized human organization to accomplish His will.
So the real question is this:
Are you following Christ…
or are you following men who admit they are not inspired?
Because you can’t place your trust in both.
At some point, every person has to decide:
Is your authority the Word of God—
or the words of men?