Jehovah's Witnesses typically read Jeremiah 31:34 ("no longer will
they teach one another, saying 'Know Jehovah!'") as a future
promise for the anointed remnant (and later for resurrected humans
in the New World). Because Jer 31:34 is read as future, the present
still requires a teaching authority — the Governing Body — to
mediate divine instruction. But the argument runs both ways: JWs
also say "we are already in the Truth," treating the Watchtower as
though it has delivered the unique, settled interpretation of
Scripture that the Christian era requires. So Jer 31:34 is deferred
when it would dismantle the channel claim, and claimed when it
would justify organisational certainty. The "already-but-not-yet"
tension that the New Testament actually teaches is collapsed in
both directions to fit the organisation's needs.
The Reformed answer to the JW's manoeuvre is not "the verse is already fulfilled" or "the verse is purely future." It is "the verse describes a direction of travel that has already begun in Christ and will only be completed at his return." Theologians call this inaugurated eschatology — the kingdom has come, but it is not yet consummated; the new covenant is in effect, but its final fullness is still ahead. This framework is not obscure — it is the mainstream Reformed understanding of the New Testament, and it is the only framework that honours both the "already" of New Testament language and the "not yet" of our ongoing experience.
- Start with the tension JWs miss. says Christ has "become the mediator of a better covenant." quotes Jeremiah's "they will all know me." says the old covenant is "obsolete and growing old and ready to vanish away." That is "already" language — the New Covenant is in effect. Ask: "If Hebrews is telling us the new covenant is in force, and the new covenant says 'they will all know me without a teacher' — what does that do to the claim that we still need a single organisation to teach us?"
- Then show the "not yet" honestly. Turn to — Paul, writing after Pentecost, under the new covenant, to a Spirit-filled church: "For we know in part… we see through a glass, darkly; but then face to face. Now I know in part, but then shall I know even as also I am known." Paul places himself in the "in part" phase. He does not say "I already have full, final, unmediated knowledge of God." He says: the full knowledge is the future, and the present is partial. That is the "not yet."
- The hermeneutical move. The new covenant is in effect now — the Spirit indwells every believer (), the Bereans can test teaching against Scripture (), and the priesthood of every believer is declared in . But the consummation of the new covenant — the face-to-face vision, the complete knowledge, the end of all teaching because every heart knows him perfectly — is the eschatological horizon. We live between the inauguration and the consummation.
- Notice the irony JWs usually miss. Hebrews is itself a letter teaching the church the very thing Jeremiah says will not need to be taught. If were a fully realised present reality, Hebrews itself would be unnecessary. The inspired author can quote Jeremiah and still teach the readers what Jeremiah means, because the direction of travel Jeremiah describes has begun but has not yet arrived. The fact that the New Testament is written at all is itself evidence for the already-but-not-yet.
- The implication for the "channel of communication." If we live in the already-but-not-yet, what kind of teaching authority does the church have now? The New Testament answer is: the apostolic witness, preserved in Scripture (), is the fixed norm; the Holy Spirit indwelling every believer () applies that witness to every heart; the plurality of elders in each local congregation (; ) offers visible pastoral care; and the mutual accountability of the whole church ( shows even apostles being publicly corrected) keeps any single voice from usurping the rest. What the New Testament never gives us is a single continuing organisation claiming to be the sole channel through which God speaks. The Reformed answer is not that the church has no teaching authority; it is that the church's teaching authority is derivative — it has no life of its own apart from Scripture, the Spirit, and the community of saints across all ages.
- The gentle pivot. "So when you hear me say I do not need a Governing Body to teach me, I am not saying I am infallible or that I reject teachers. I am saying the teacher God has appointed for this era is the Spirit applying his written Word to every believer's heart, with human teachers gifted to help — subject to correction by Scripture, the way the Bereans corrected even Paul. The full, unmediated 'all shall know him' is the future; the partial, Spirit-taught, Scripture-bound present is what Paul describes. That is where we live. Neither of us has arrived at the face-to-face yet — the question is what we rely on in the in-between."
The New Covenant is in effect now but not yet consummated. The direction of travel described in — "they will all know me from the least to the greatest, with no need for one to teach another" — has begun in Christ but will not be completed until we see him face to face (). We live between the inauguration and the consummation. That framework is fatal to the "we need a single channel of communication now" claim, because the Spirit-indwelt priesthood of every believer () is the present teaching ministry that the new covenant has already brought into being. Hebrews 8 is itself a letter teaching the very people Jeremiah says will not need a teacher — which is the already-not-yet tension written into the inspired text itself.
Jeremiah 31:34 is a future promise about the paradise earth — it doesn't apply to the present age.
Then Hebrews 8 has a problem. The writer of Hebrews quotes Jeremiah 31 in chapter 8 and applies it — in the present tense — to the church of his own day, saying Christ "has become the mediator of a better covenant" () and that the old is "obsolete and growing old" (). The inspired writer places the new covenant in effect now, not purely in the future. So the honest reading is neither "fully future" nor "fully realised" — it is "already inaugurated, not yet consummated." That inaugurated reality is enough to dismantle the claim that a single organisation is the current channel of communication, because , , and all describe present realities that are incompatible with a monopolistic organisational channel.
1 Corinthians 13:9-12 is talking about spiritual gifts like prophecy and tongues ending, not about knowledge of God.
Read verse 12 again: "For now we see through a glass, darkly; but then face to face. Now I know in part; but then shall I know even as also I am known." That is not about charismatic gifts — it is about the believer's direct, unmediated knowledge of God. Paul says his own present knowledge is "in part" and will become "face to face." If Paul — an apostle writing under inspiration — places himself in the "in part" phase, then the claim that any present-day organisation has delivered the final, full, settled knowledge of God cannot stand. The face-to- face is eschatological. The in-part is present. We live in the in-part phase, and we walk together there by Scripture and the Spirit.
But we need someone to teach us now. You can't just leave every believer on their own with the Bible.
The Reformed answer is not that every believer stands alone. 1 Corinthians 12 describes a Spirit-gifted body where teachers are a gift to the church (). calls us to submit to godly leaders. says elders are to be appointed in every town. None of this requires a single global organisation. The New Testament models a plurality of Spirit-led teachers across many congregations, accountable to Scripture and correctable by the whole church — exactly what shows the Bereans doing, and what shows Paul doing to Peter. That is not "every believer alone." That is the body of Christ with many members, each gifted, each accountable, none of them a standing governing body.
If we are in the already-but-not-yet, how do you know what to believe right now? Aren't you just saying 'it's complicated'?
Fair question. The answer is: we know what to believe from the part of the new covenant that has arrived — the apostolic witness in Scripture, the indwelling Spirit, the priesthood of every believer, the plurality of teachers accountable to the Word. Paul does not say "we know nothing." He says "we know in part." Part is real knowledge — reliable, Spirit-taught, Scripture-grounded, enough to live by and die by. What we do not have yet is the final face-to-face vision where all questions will be answered without mediation. The honest position is: I know enough to trust Christ and follow him today; I do not claim to know everything a single organisation might claim to know. Paul himself did not claim that. That is humility before God's own timetable, not vagueness.
The Governing Body doesn't claim to be inspired — they just claim to be Jehovah's current channel. Isn't that the same as your 'teachers gifted to help'?
No — and the difference is the Berean test. The New Testament models teachers who can be publicly corrected: Paul rebukes Peter to his face (), the Bereans examine even an apostle's teaching against Scripture (), and 's call to honour leaders sits inside a letter that is itself teaching the readers to test its teaching against God's Word. The Governing Body model is different at the structural level: disagreeing publicly with current Watchtower teaching is grounds for disfellowshipping, and the organisation teaches that leaving the Watchtower is leaving Jehovah. That is not a teacher who submits to the Word — that is a teacher who claims the Word's authority over the sheep without being subject to it. The test is not whether the Governing Body claims inspiration; the test is whether it is correctable from below by Scripture. If not, it is not functioning as a New Testament teacher.
The New Covenant is only for the anointed 144,000. I am of the 'other sheep,' so Jeremiah 31 doesn't apply to me — I still need a teacher.
This is the most important response to this argument, and it deserves care. The New Testament knows of no second class of Christians who are excluded from the New Covenant. says the reason no one will need to teach his neighbour is "for I will forgive their iniquity, and their sin I will remember no more." The promise of unmediated knowledge and the promise of forgiveness are bound together in the same verse. They stand or fall together. If the "other sheep" are not under the New Covenant, then by Jeremiah's own terms they have no basis for forgiveness — because forgiveness is the New Covenant blessing. says Christ is "the mediator of a new covenant, so that… those who are called may receive the promised eternal inheritance." If Jesus is mediating only for the 144,000, then only the 144,000 have forgiveness and eternal inheritance — and the rest of the eight million Witnesses have none. That cannot be what the Watchtower actually wants to say. Once the New Covenant's forgiveness is extended to every believer, so is its direct-knowledge-of-God promise. You cannot divide the two. The verse does not let you.
Jehovah has always used an earthly channel — Moses, the prophets, the apostles. Why would he stop now?
He has not stopped — but the form has changed because of what Christ achieved. says it plainly: "In the past God spoke to our forefathers through the prophets at many times and in various ways, but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son." The Son is the final prophet. After him, the apostolic witness crystallises the revelation and is preserved in Scripture. The Spirit is poured out on all flesh (), not concentrated in a priestly class. The pre-Christ economy required a mediating institution; the post-Christ economy has the Mediator himself, Jesus (), speaking through his Spirit-indwelt people from his written Word. The "channel" has not disappeared — it has been transfigured. The channel is now Christ, his Word, and his Spirit, applied to each believer. That is more direct than the Old Covenant, not less. The Watchtower model reintroduces the old mediating class that Christ's finished work abolished.
Do not get lost in technical terminology. The words "inaugurated eschatology" and "telos of the new covenant" are for the conversation between you and your own theological formation — at the door, use plain language: "already begun, not yet complete," "direction of travel," "between the first coming and the second coming." Also, do not argue that the JW is stupid for reading Jer 31:34 as purely future — many good Christians have misread it too. Frame it positively: the already-but-not-yet is the most beautiful, tension-holding reading of the New Testament, and it is where the whole Reformed and evangelical tradition has landed for good reason.
Read and together in one sitting. Notice how Hebrews says the new covenant is in effect, and how Paul says even apostolic knowledge is currently "in part." Both are true. That tension is the shape of the Christian life between Pentecost and the return of Christ. A single organisation claiming to resolve that tension on our behalf is trying to deliver what only the face-to-face vision of Christ can deliver.