Series: The Berean Examinations — Study B06 (Study Edition)

"For there is one God, and there is one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus, who gave himself as a ransom for all." — 1 Timothy 2:5–6

HAVE YOU EVER WONDERED...

  • How do you close your prayers — and what does that mean?
  • Does Jesus mediate for all people, or only for 144,000?
  • Who did Job long for — and who answered that longing?

START WITH YOUR OWN PRAYERS

1 Before any argument, answer one question honestly: when you pray, how do you end your prayer? If you are one of Jehovah's Witnesses, you already know — you have said it thousands of times, at every meal, meeting, and bedside: "...through Jesus Christ, amen." Hold that answer. This entire study is about whether your prayers have been telling the truth.

2 Because here is what few people outside the organization know — and what this study must state carefully, from the Society's own publications, since it is often disbelieved: the Watchtower teaches that Jesus is not the mediator for most Jehovah's Witnesses. The Watchtower of April 1, 1979 stated that Jesus is the mediator "only for anointed Christians" — the 144,000 — and not "the Mediator between Jehovah God and all mankind." The great crowd, it is taught, merely benefits from an arrangement made for others.

1, 2. (a) How do Witnesses close their prayers? (b) What does the Watchtower teach about the scope of Jesus' mediation?

THE CASE — STATED FAIRLY

3 The reasoning is precise, even lawyerly, and deserves respect. In the Bible, a "mediator" is a covenant office — Hebrews always says "mediator of a covenant" (8:6; 9:15; 12:24). Moses mediated the Law covenant for Israel — not for Egypt. So if the new covenant is made with "spiritual Israel" (the 144,000), then, the argument runs, its mediation extends exactly as far as the covenant does. The nations were blessed through Israel's covenants without being parties to them; likewise the great crowd today.

4 The motive is care about biblical precision — refusing to let "mediator" become a vague devotional word. Very well: let us match that precision, and ask the two questions the argument itself requires. First: what does the mediator's own verse say about his reach? Second: who is actually in the covenant?

3, 4. (a) What is the covenant-legal argument? (b) What two questions must be asked?

FOLLOW THE CHAIN OF "FOR"S

5 Read 1 Timothy 2:1–6 slowly, watching the connectives. Paul urges prayers "for all people" (v. 1) — because this pleases God, "who desires all people to be saved" (v. 4) — "For there is one God, and there is one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus, who gave himself as a ransom for all" (vv. 5–6). The mediator verse is the reason for praying for everyone. Now insert the restriction and listen: pray for all people... because there is a mediator for 144,000. The argument breaks. Paul's "for" only works if the mediation is as wide as the "all."

6 Notice, too, that the verse welds the mediation to the ransom: "one mediator... who gave himself as a ransom for all." The ransom is the mediator's own job description. The Watchtower affirms the ransom is for all while restricting the mediation — but they are one act in one sentence, and the sentence will not split. And the two "ones" stand together: one God — of how many? "Is God the God of Jews only? Is he not the God of Gentiles also? Yes... since God is one" (Romans 3:29–30). One God of all; one mediator for men. A mediator for a class would need a god for a class.

5, 6. (a) What happens to Paul's argument if the mediation is restricted? (b) What does the verse weld together?

WERE YOU BROUGHT NEAR — OR KEPT ADJACENT?

7 Who, then, is in the covenant? Read Ephesians 2:12–13, 18. Paul tells Gentile believers they were once "alienated... and strangers to the covenants of promise" — the exact condition the restricted-mediator doctrine assigns to the great crowd today. And then the gospel's announcement: "But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ... For through him we both have access in one Spirit to the Father." Access through him — that is mediation, stated as accomplished fact, for both peoples together. The doctrine re-imposes the very alienation Paul says ended.

8 Even the Moses precedent is wider than the model. At the covenant assembly of Moab, the roll call includes "the sojourner who is in your camp... that you may enter into the sworn covenant" (Deuteronomy 29:11–12) — the outsider taken inside. "One law for the native and for the stranger" (Exodus 12:49). If Sinai's mediation reached the resident alien as a covenant member, can the better covenant (Hebrews 8:6) do less?

9 And Hebrews gives a simple test. Read Hebrews 7:25. "He is able to save to the uttermost those who draw near to God through him, since he always lives to make intercession for them." Ask your own prayers the question: do you draw near to God through him? If yes — and every "through Jesus Christ, amen" says yes — then he is interceding for you, which is mediation at work. If no, then John 14:6 closes every other road: "no one comes to the Father except through me." There is no third lane.

7–9. (a) What ended, according to Ephesians 2? (b) Whom did even Sinai's covenant include? (c) What test does Hebrews 7:25 give?

YOUR PRAYERS WERE RIGHT ALL ALONG

10 So return to paragraph 1. Every time you have prayed "through Jesus Christ," you have approached God through an appointed intermediary, in his name, on the basis of his sacrifice. That is not like mediation — that is mediation's definition, enacted. The doctrine says he is not your mediator; your prayers, thousands of them, have quietly said he is. And here is the warmest finding in this whole series: your instincts are sounder than your doctrine. The piety was correct all along. All this study does is introduce your theology to your prayers — and let the prayers win.

11 The oldest ache in Scripture asked for exactly this. Job, suffering, looked at the Almighty and said: "He is not a man, as I am... There is no arbiter between us, who might lay his hand on us both" (Job 9:32–33). No daysman; no one with a hand on each. God's answer took centuries to arrive, and it is a person: "one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus" — true Son Godward, true brother manward, a hand on each party — and the bridge is exactly as wide as the human race it was built from. There is no toll gate on it. There never was.

10, 11. (a) What have your prayers been enacting? (b) What did Job long for, and who answered it?

📖 KEY SCRIPTURES IN THIS STUDY

1 Timothy 2:1–6 · Romans 3:29–30 · Ephesians 2:12–18 · Deuteronomy 29:10–13 · Exodus 12:49 · Hebrews 7:25 · John 14:6 · Job 9:32–33

💬 TALKING WITH A WITNESS FRIEND

Open with the warmest question in this series: "When you pray, how do you close your prayer?" They will say it — through Jesus Christ. Then, as a gift: "Then he is your mediator already. Your prayers have known it all along — I'd just love to show you the verse that agrees with them." Three gentle questions:

  1. "Could we read 1 Timothy 2:1–6 and trace the word 'for'? Who are we told to pray for — and what reason does verse 5 give?"
  2. "Ephesians 2 says Gentiles were once strangers to the covenants but have been brought near by the blood — which of those two conditions are you in?"
  3. "Hebrews 7:25 — he saves those who draw near to God through him. Is that what you do every night?" Handle with care: If the 1979 teaching comes up, show the source soberly — never as an exposé. Prayers first, publications second. The message of this study is not that your friend was orphaned; it is that they never were.

✅ IN REVIEW

  • Paul's command to pray for all people rests on the mediator verse — restrict the mediation, and the argument breaks.
  • The ransom is the mediator's job description — one act, one sentence, unsplittable.
  • Ephesians 2 announces the stranger-to-the-covenants condition ended: "through him we both have access to the Father."
  • Hebrews' test: whoever draws near through him has him as intercessor — and every Witness prayer draws near through him.
  • Job's longed-for arbiter — a hand on both parties — is the man Christ Jesus, and his bridge spans the whole race.

Sources for the teachings examined: The Watchtower, April 1, 1979 ("Questions from Readers"); Insight on the Scriptures, "Mediator"; Worldwide Security Under the "Prince of Peace" (1986). For the full evidentiary treatment, see the complete Study B06 in this archive.

Hear, O Israel: Yahweh our God, Yahweh is one — one God of the whole race, one mediator between that God and that race, the man Christ Jesus — and one bridge, unnarrowed and untolled, bearing every prayer that ends in his name.