Is Disfellowshipping Biblical?

Do you recall an update by the Governing Body in 2024 called Update #2 in regard to changes to disfellowshipping? This is in response to that video: https://www.jw.org/en/news/region/global/2024-Governing-Body-Update-2/

To my fellow Jehovah’s Witnesses whom I have loved from my youth, to my family who are Jehovah’s Witnesses, to those whom I served with at Bethel for over four years, to those with whom I pioneered,
to all you publishers out there:

It is now the time to awaken. It’s time to heed the apostle Paul’s words in Eph. 5:14, “Therefore, it is said: ‘Awake, O sleeper, and arise from the dead, and the Christ will shine upon you.’”

I implore you by the compassion of our God, brothers and sisters. When are we going to start questioning the beliefs of the organisation? How long are we going to allow ourselves to be deceived by a different Christ, a different spirit, a different gospel (1 Cor. 11:2-4)? A different gospel that the apostles warned us about (Gal. 1:6-9).

I feel it is now the time to put to bed the argument for disfellowshipping once and for all.

May I ask you a question? Before the eyes of God, what is worse idolatry or adultery/fornication?

Personally I would say idolatry as it is spiritual adultery/fornication. We only have to look at the first three commands of the Ten Commandments to see this. We also have a history of the nation of Israel and we see how God felt about Israel’s idolatrous ways.

So if Idolatry is worse, then why didn’t Jesus tell the congregations of Pergamum and Thyatira to disfellowship those in the congregation who were sacrificing to idols?

All Jesus says is that He would deal with them. Not a man or any group of men, nor a judicial committee, just Him and Him alone (Rev 2:16, Rev 2:20-22).

In 1 Tim. 5:20 Paul says: ”Reprove before all onlookers those who practice sin, as a warning to the rest.”

If disfellowshipping was such an important teaching, wouldn’t you have thought that this would be the time to mention it? He mentions about reproving. Why not disfellowshipping?

May I ask another question ... Who is worse in God’s eyes, Satan or those who are disfellowshipped by the organization?

Personally I would say Satan for many reasons.

But in either case, wouldn’t you agree that if anyone was going to be disfellowshipped/shunned it would have to be Satan, yes?

If 2 John 10 and 1 Cor. 5:11 are to be taken in the context of disfellowshipping. Why did God allow Satan to be in his presence? Why did God choose to talk to him (Job 1:6-12)?

Again, if 2 John 10 and 1 Cor. 5:11 are to be taken in the context of disfellowshipping. Why did Jesus talk to Satan in the wilderness even quoting Scriptures to him (Matt. 4:1-10)? A Jehovah’s Witness knows that not only are we not allowed to talk to a disfellowshipped person but we are not to even engage them in a scriptural discussion.

Again, if 2 John 10 and 1 Cor. 5:11 are to be taken in the context of disfellowshipping, why did Jesus actively go and preach to the spirits in prison (1 Pet 3:19)?

God described Israel as an apostate nation (Isaiah 10:6) Yet God actively spoke to the nation again and again telling them to repent. (Jer. 35:15).

The Governing Body use 1 Cor. 5:11 to make the point on disfellowshipping but to understand the verse we need to understand the context of the chapter.

In that chapter, Paul is shocked by what he has heard going on in the congregation. A man has taken his father’s wife and is committing immorality with her. To show how bad a situation it was, Paul’s says that such a thing was not even heard of among the nations (1 Cor. 5:1). This man was continuing to have association at the meetings, was still claiming to be Christian, was calling himself a brother (1 Cor. 5:11), and was no doubt calling himself such even in the community. This is the reason why Paul told them to take him away from there midst (1 Cor. 5:20), not only because of the possible negative effect it would have on the spirituality of others but also he would have had in mind the reputation of the Christian faith due to pagans looking in.

Now do you think if this man had left the congregation of his own accord to live an immoral life, even if he had gone to another religion, that the apostle Paul would have still written those words to the congregation? No, he would not have because this person would no longer be there at the meetings claiming to be a brother.

So if we take this context into the disfellowshipping arrangement today. If a brother or sister decided to leave the congregation to live an immoral life, no longer wanted to live a Christian life, was not going around in the community claiming to be a brother or sister of the congregation, do you think Paul would be asking us to remove him/her from our midst? To disfellowship them?

Now please read 1 John 1:10. Now read the whole of the chapter.

It's clear from the context that John was talking about not acknowledging or having association with those who were saying that Jesus had not come in the flesh (2 John 7).

I'm trying to think of how many of those disfellowshipped ever said that they thought Jesus had not come in the flesh? Do you know of any who have ever said that at a judicial committee meeting?

It's obvious that John was talking about Gnosticism. Gnostics believed that Jesus’ appearance was spiritual. They believed Jesus did not appear in a physical form because the material world was inherently corrupt. Such teaching of gnosis was affecting the congregation and some were starting to believe it. You only have to google about Gnosticism and the early church to see this. Irenaeus, in his book against heresies, speaks in depth on it.

Do you see how the Governing Body is using 2 John 10 differently to promote the idea of disfellowshipping?

In conclusion my brothers, I have decided that I will not let the organization, the Governing Body, prevent me from having the privilege of eating from the tree of life in the paradise of God (Rev 2:7). I will not let them take away my crown of life (Rev. 2:10), nor do I wish to be harmed by the second death (Rev. 2:10). I will not allow them to prevent me from eating from the hidden manna and receiving the white pebble with a new name (Rev 2:17). I will not allow a man nor a group of men to blot me out the book of life (Rev 3:5). My prayer is that you will have the same resolve.