You are my witnesses, says Jehovah. — Isaiah 43:10.
Jehovah here speaks to His covenant people Israel, whose very existence bears witness to Jehovah’s formation of Israel (Isaiah 43:1), their affliction and deliverance from Egypt, and their settling in the land of Canaan. Their very existence even today testifies that Jehovah’s promises, made long before, are sure of fulfillment.
One sect, however, has taken Isaiah 43:10 as though it applies to their organization. This group, therrefore, calls themselves "Jehovah's Witnesses", based on what is stated in Isaiah 43:10. There is nothing in Isaiah 43:10 are anywhere else in the Bible that gives us any reason to think that Jehovah was speaking of designing an authoritarian organization here at the end of the age as being "Jehovah's witnesses."
However, the the very existence of Israel bears testimony to fulfillment of Jehovah's words as recorded in Jeremiah 24:6:
For I [Jehovah] will set mine eyes upon them for good, and I will bring them again to this land: and I will build them, and not pull them down; and I will plant them, and not pluck them up. -- American Standard Version (ASV).
This cannot be speaking of spiritual Israel, since it speaks of bringing them "again to this land", that is, the land that God had given to Israel. If one is honest, it should be realized that this is speaking of natural Israel, not spiritual Israel.
But in the fulfillment of the prophecy, Israel is serving as witnesses for Jehovah. The very fact that Israel has been restored as a nation shows that the people of Israel are providing a testimony on behalf of Jehovah, that Jehovah's promises are fulfilled. But the prophecy also states that they will be planted and not plucked up. This indicates that they will never again be removed from their land.
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Israel, however, is a prophetic type of the Messiah, for Jehovah says: “When Israel was a child, then I loved him, And called my son out of Egypt.” (Hosea 11:1) Matthew 2:15 tells us that this was fulfilled in Jesus. Jesus is called the “faithful witness.” (Revelation 1:5; 3:14) In the first century, the disciples were told that they were to be witnesses of Jesus in Jerusalem, in all Judea and Samaria, and to the uttermost parts of the earth. (Acts 1:8) Today, Christians cannot bear witness as having actually seen Jesus, thus we today can only bear witness to what we have learned of Jesus as revealed in the Bible. In bearing such witness concerning Jesus, many Christians in the first century also were said to be ‘God’s witnesses’, in that they had seen how Jesus' God, Jehovah, the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, had raised up Jesus. They could bear witness of having received the knowledge of how God had exalted Jesus to Jehovah’s right hand. (Acts 3:13-26; 5:30-32) Regardless, the scriptures indicate that bearing witness for Jesus in harmony with scriptural truth is to also bear witness for the God of Jesus.
Having the example before us, all who belong to Jesus, and who bear witness that Jehovah raised Jesus up as a prophet like Moses, could be spoken of as being witnesses for Jehovah, but such would be irrespective of denomination ties, for one cannot properly bear witness concerning Jesus without also bearing witness concerning the God of Jesus, since it was Jehovah, the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob who raised Jesus as a prophet like Moses, and who raised Jesus from the dead, and who then exalted Jesus as His own right hand. — Exodus 3:14,15; Deuteronomy 18:15-19; Acts 3:13-26; 5:30-32; Romans 10:9; 1 Corinthians 15:14-18; 1 Peter 1:21.
Bearing witness for Jesus and His God, however, has nothing at all to do with joining an authoritarian religious organization that demands all be in submission to a man or a body of men. It does have to do with being in submission to the head of the church, Jesus. It is only through Jesus, not through an authoritarian organization, that one is saved.
