For prophecy was never uttered by the will of man, but holy men of God spoke it, being moved by the Holy Spirit" (2 Pet. 1:20-21). Orthodox: I would like to draw your attention to the text from the Epistles of the Apostle Peter: "And consider the patience of our Lord salvation, just as our beloved brother Paul, according to the wisdom given to him, wrote to you, as he says about it and in all the Epistles, in which there is something incomprehensible, which the ignorant and unconfirmed, like the rest of the Scriptures, turn to their own destruction" (2 Peter 3:3). 15-16).

Here it is said that there are two categories of people who "turn to their own destruction, like the rest of the Scriptures," these are the "ignorant and unapproved." The ignorant are people who have been baptized, but have not been taught the faith. The unconfirmed are those who do not belong to the Church, the unbaptized and the untaught. Each of these two groups of people, when reading the Bible, communicates not with the Word of God, but with their own subjective understanding of this Book.

Scripture needs to be interpreted correctly. Of the Jews who did not believe in Christ the Lord Jesus, it is said: "But their minds are blinded: for the same veil remains unremoved to this day in the reading of the Old Testament, because it is removed by Christ. To this day, when they read Moses, the veil lies over their hearts" (2 Corinthians 3:14-15). The eunuch of the queen of Ethiopia, when he read the prophet Isaiah and when the Apostle Philip asked him: "Do you understand what you read?

", answered: "How can I understand, if someone does not instruct me? and he asked Philip to go up and sit down with him" (Acts 8:30-31). Scripture is always in need of interpretation. In the biblical book of Nehemiah it is said: "And they read from the book, from the law of God, distinctly, and added the interpretation, and the people understood what they read" (Neh. 8:8). Jehovah's Witness: All of our congregations are organized in this way: Together, they form a single worldwide congregation with the anointed members of the "Governing Body" as the leading nucleus.

"World Headquarters", located in New York (Brooklyn). The role of the worldwide management of our organization is foretold in the Bible: "Thus saith the Lord of hosts: It shall come to pass in those days, that ten men out of all the nations of many languages shall take hold of the hem of Judah, and shall say, We will go with thee, for we have heard that God is with you" (Zech. 8:23). Unity is achieved by the fact that everyone loyally submits to the organized channel of communication, the "faithful and discreet slave."

Jesus said that the "slave" should distribute food on time and take care of all His "possessions," His interests of the kingdom on earth. Let us read: "Who then is the faithful and discreet servant whom his master has set over his servants, to give them food at the right time? Blessed is the servant whom his master finds, when he comes, doing so; verily I say unto you, that he shall set it over all his possessions" (Matt. 24:45-47).

This "faithful slave" is not an individual Christian, but there is a remnant of the 144,000 anointed followers of Christ who are still on earth, walking in His footsteps. Today, they are part of spiritual Israel, anointed with the spirit of God's congregation. "To those who walk according to this rule, peace and mercy be upon them, and on the Israel of God" (Gal. 6:16)

; compare: "And my witnesses, saith the Lord, are ye and my servant, whom I have chosen, that ye may know and believe me, and understand that it is I: before me there was no God, neither shall there be after me" (Isaiah 43:10). This remnant faithfully fulfills the duty of a "slave" in this time of the end by taking the lead in preaching the good news of the Kingdom and by distributing spiritual food to the household of faith in a timely manner.

See what is said: "And this gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in all the world for a witness to all nations; and then shall the end come" (Matt. 24:14). You have read the text about the veil of ignorance, but you have not read it completely. See: "But when they turn to the Lord, then this veil is taken off. The Lord is Spirit; and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom" (2 Corinthians 3:16-17).

Christ is the "head" of the church of the anointed congregation of 144,000, and through them he provides the right instruction in the faith to the "great crowd." And who in your Orthodoxy provides believers with the correct understanding (interpretation) of biblical truths? Orthodox: We will consider many of the issues that you outlined in your speech when we talk about the Church.

In answer to your question about the correct understanding of the Bible, I want to draw your attention to the term "tradition." Sectarians of various trends for the most part do not have a correct idea of this concept. Jehovah's Witness: No! On the contrary! We have an idea of what tradition is. Christ said: "... why do you also transgress the commandment of God for the sake of your tradition?" (Matt. 15:3); and again: "...

you have removed the commandment of God by your tradition. Hypocrites! Isaiah prophesied well of you, saying, These men draw near to me with their mouths, and worship me with their tongues, but their hearts are far from me. but in vain do they worship me, teaching doctrines, the commandments of men" (Matt. 15:6-7). You Orthodox, unfortunately, still hold to the tradition of the elders (Mark 7:5), "teaching the teachings and commandments of men" Orthodox: Speaking of Tradition (Holy Tradition)

, we have in mind, first of all, not the traditions of the elders and teachings, human commandments, but the Apostolic Traditions and the Teaching of the Church. The New Testament says enough about the apostolic tradition and its significance. Let us consider some of these texts: "I praise you, brethren, that you remember all my things, and keep the traditions as I have handed down to you" (1 Cor. 11:2).

Here we see that the Apostle Paul encourages with praise those who hold to tradition. Jehovah's Witness: I want to check this text against the translation of Novy Mir. Look, it is said here somewhat differently than in the Synodal translation: "I praise you for remembering me in all matters and holding fast to the traditions, as I have handed them down to you" (N.M.).