The “Universal Issue”: does God really need to prove anything?

If you’ve made it this far

1.In the previous reflections we’ve made a journey together. We examined the 2026 update on the blood doctrine and discovered that a teaching presented for 26 years as “God’s law” became, from one day to the next, “the Bible does not comment.” We read Proverbs 4:18 in its context and saw that it does not speak of doctrines changing direction. We opened Matthew 24:45 and discovered a parable in the midst of parables. We didn’t use opinions — we read the Scriptures and the very same publications of the organization.

2.And the conclusion has been uncomfortable. The ground has shifted under our feet. Maybe right now you feel an emptiness. Maybe you feel anger. Maybe you feel fear — that voice inside you that says: “What now? If all of this wasn’t the way they told me, what’s left?”

3. Something is left. Someone is left. Someone who has always been there. And this is the article in which we meet Him.

4.But first, pause for a moment. If you’ve made it this far, you’ve done something that takes enormous courage. You took your Bible. You verified. You had the strength to read with your own eyes — even when a voice inside told you that you shouldn’t. You did exactly what Paul commended in the Christians of Beroea:

“Now the latter were more noble-minded than those in Thessalonica, for they accepted the word with the greatest eagerness of mind, carefully examining the Scriptures daily to see whether these things were so.”

5.You read it correctly. The Beroeans weren’t criticized for verifying. They were called more noble-minded. Paul — an apostle — commended them for checking his own words against the Scriptures. What you are doing is not apostasy. It is exactly what God asks you to do:

“If, moreover, you call out for understanding and raise your voice for discernment, if you keep seeking it as for silver, and you keep searching for it as for hidden treasures, then you will understand the fear of Jehovah, and you will find the knowledge of God.”

“Keep on asking, and it will be given you; keep on seeking, and you will find; keep on knocking, and it will be opened to you.”

6. You are not an apostate. You are a Christian seeking the true God. You are a Beroean. And the Father sees it.

7.Now, after three reflections in which we examined the facts, let’s pause. Not to dismantle anything else. To rebuild. To open the Bible and discover together a Father whom perhaps no one ever truly introduced to us.

The God they painted for us

8.For years we’ve known a God through the publications. A God who watches the suffering of humanity — sick children, wars, famines, bereavements — and allows it to answer Satan’s challenge to his sovereignty. The “universal issue.” We were taught that the world’s pain has a cosmic purpose: to demonstrate that human beings can remain loyal without divine intervention.

9.But let’s try a simple exercise. Imagine being a father with three children. Your envious neighbor says to you: “Your children love you only because you protect them. If you stop protecting them, they will abandon you.” What would you do? Would you stop protecting them to prove him wrong? Would you let them suffer — illness, accidents, bereavements — to win an argument? To prove to everyone that you are better? What kind of father would you be?

10. The God of the Bible doesn’t need to prove anything to anyone.“If God is for us, who will be against us?” (Romans 8:31, NWT). The words “universal issue” and “issue of sovereignty” never appear in the Scriptures.It is an interpretive structure created by the organization — not a teaching of the Bible.

11.We were taught a God who will destroy billions of people at Armageddon — everyone who does not belong to one organization. Who communicates only through a unique channel. Who punishes those who ask questions. Who separates families. This God has frightened us for years. But is he the God of the Bible? Or is he the God of the publications?

12.Let’s compare them.

13. If you’ve felt a weight lift, it’s normal.For years we were told that the suffering of children, illness, wars — all of it “served” some purpose. But the God of the Bible does not watch his children suffer to prove a point. The God of the Bible sees the affliction, hears the cry, and comes down to deliver (Exodus 3:7-8).

14.Let’s open the Bible. Let it speak to us.

The God of the garden

15. Genesis 3:8 in the New World Translation says:

“Later they heard the voice of Jehovah God as he was walking in the garden about the breezy part of the day.”

16.Let’s pause on this verse. The Hebrew verb used here is mithallek (‎מִתְהַלֵּך‎) — a form of the verb halak(to walk) that indicates a repeated, habitual action. It does not mean “that day God passed through the garden.” It means “God was walking in the garden.” As he always did. Like a father who comes home every evening and spends time with his children. That evening was no different from the others. It was already routine. Before the sin, before the fall, before anything — this was normality: God and his children, together, in the breezy part of the day.

17.Think about it. The God they described to us — distant, communicating only through a unique channel, who delegates to an organization — is not the God of the garden. The God of the garden walks. In person. He doesn’t send an angel. He doesn’t send a publication. He comes himself. And he doesn’t come for an inspection or a report. He comes because it is the most natural thing in the world: a Father being with his children.

18. And then comes sin. The Bible uses the Hebrew word ḥēṭ’ (‎חֵטְא‎) which literally means “to miss the mark.” Not “to commit a crime.” Not “to break a law.” To miss the mark. Like an arrow that does not hit the target. Sin, in the Bible, is not a criminal act — it is an error, a step in the wrong direction.

19.And when God said to Adam “in the day you eat from it you will certainly die” (Genesis 2:17, NWT), he was not pronouncing a sentence. He was describing a reality.Like a father who says to a son: “If you touch the fire, you’ll burn yourself.” It is not a punishment. It is not a threat. It is a warning of love.Death was not the punishment of an offended Judge — it was the natural consequence of moving away from the Source of life.

20.Eden was not a test. It was a worksite. A project the Father wanted to build together with his children. A place to learn, to grow, to ask for advice. And when Adam and Eve chose to do it on their own — to seek knowledge without the Father — they did not unleash God’s anger. They unleashed His sadness.

21.And what did the Father do? The first gesture after the fall — the very first gesture, in Genesis 3:21 — is not a thunderbolt. Not a sentence. Not a pointed finger. It is this:

“And Jehovah God made long garments from skins for Adam and for his wife and clothed them.”

22. He clothed them. The first gesture of God after sin is an act of care.The children were naked, vulnerable, frightened. And the Father prepared garments for them. Not in anger — with the same tenderness as always. Like a parent who, even disappointed, tucks in their child before leaving the room.

23.This is the God of the Bible. Not a Judge who waits for the misstep to punish. A Father who — even after the fall, even after disobedience — draws near, covers, protects. If you can see it, hold it close. Because it is not the last gesture of tenderness we will find.

The God who roots for you

24.Let’s move to Genesis 4. Cain is angry. His offering was not accepted as Abel’s was. He is harboring resentment. And God — the God they described to us as a distant Judge — what does he do? He could wait. He could look down from above and let Cain “prove” his loyalty or his wickedness. He could use him as an example. Instead, he does something that takes the breath away:

“So Jehovah said to Cain: ‘Why are you so angry, and why are you so dejected? If you turn to doing good, will you not be restored to favor? But if you do not turn to doing good, sin is crouching at the door, and its craving is to dominate you; but will you get the mastery over it?’”

25.Read it slowly. It is not “you must believe in God.” It is God who believes in you. “You can do it. You can master it. Sin is crouching, but you are stronger than this.” He is rooting for him. He is not threatening — he is warning, like a father who says to his child: “Come on, be careful, you can do it!”

26.“If you turn to doing good, will you not be restored to favor?” God is not asking something for Himself. He is pushing Cain to do the right thing for Cain’s own sake. He wants him to avoid pain, not to demonstrate obedience. He doesn’t say: “Obey my organization.” He says: “Be careful. I am here. I believe in you.”

27. The God of the publications waits for you to err in order to judge. The God of the Bible arrives before the misstep to help you avoid it. He is not a God who watches. He is a God who speaks, who warns, who encourages. A Father rooting for you from the sidelines.

The God who pays for you

28.Genesis 22. The story of Abraham and Isaac. Abraham climbs the mountain with his son, the knife, the wood. The organization has often used this account to teach the importance of sacrifice and absolute obedience. But let’s stop where the story reaches its heart:

“But Jehovah’s angel called to him from the heavens and said: ‘Abraham, Abraham!’ to which he answered: ‘Here I am!’ Then he said: ‘Do not harm the boy, and do not do anything at all to him.’”

29.God stops the hand. Let’s pause here. God stops the hand. He does not want the son’s sacrifice. He never wanted it. The whole episode closes with a ram offered in place of Isaac — a substitute that God himself had provided, a shadow of what would happen thousands of years later with Christ.

30.The message is of disarming clarity: “I have never asked you and I will never ask you to sacrifice what you love for me. It is I who pay for you. It is Iwho sacrifice myself for you.” And centuries later, John wrote the words that close the circle:

“For God loved the world so much that he gave his only-begotten Son, so that everyone exercising faith in him might not be destroyed but have everlasting life.”

31. God did not ask us to give our children. He gave His.He did not ask us to suffer for Him. He suffered for us. He did not ask for sacrifice — he gave the sacrifice. This is the difference between the God they described to us and the God of the Bible. The God of the publications asks. The God of the Bible gives.

32.The next time someone tells you that you must sacrifice your family, your friendships, your mental health, your freedom of conscience to demonstrate your loyalty to God — remember Abraham’s hand. God stops it. God has always stopped that hand.

The God who breaks rules for love

33.Let’s jump to the New Testament. Jesus — the perfect reflection of the Father — is in the synagogue. It is the Sabbath. There is a man with a withered hand. The Pharisees watch: will he heal on the Sabbath? That is against the law.

“Then he said to them: ‘The Sabbath came into existence for the sake of man, and not man for the sake of the Sabbath.’”

34.Let these words sink in. “The Sabbath came into existence for the sake of man, and not man for the sake of the Sabbath.” Law exists to serve people — not people to serve law. The Sabbath was a gift, a day of rest designed for man’s well-being. Not a chain. Not an obedience test.

“Then he said to the man: ‘Stretch out your hand.’ And he stretched it out, and his hand was restored.”

35.Jesus heals. On the Sabbath. Breaking the rule. And he does not do it to provoke — he does it because before him stands a person who is suffering, and no rule is more important than a life. The Pharisees, the text says, “went out and immediately began holding council against him to kill him” (Mark 3:6, NWT). The one who wanted to save a life was condemned by those who wanted to protect a rule.

36.If Jesus — the Son of God — broke the law out of love for a person, then the Father does not ask anyone to die for a rule. He doesn’t ask a parent to stop talking to their own child for an organizational regulation. He doesn’t ask a sick person to refuse a treatment for a doctrinal interpretation that could change ten years from now.Life comes first. Always. Jesus showed it with his hands.

Further reading

If you want to keep discovering this Father, here are four episodes you can read with your Bible tonight:

A Father we did not know

37.Maybe right now you’re feeling something you haven’t felt in a long time. Maybe you’re discovering that the God who has frightened you for years — the God who judges, who controls, who watches suffering to prove a point — is not the God of the Bible. And maybe it hurts. Because to discover that the portrait of your Father was painted by someone who didn’t really know him... is a pain few can understand.

38.But the God of the Bible is here. Not in a building. Not behind a unique channel. Not in a publication. He is here. We have seen him walking in the garden in the breezy part of the day. We have heard him say to Cain “you can do it.” We have seen him stop Abraham’s hand. We have seen him heal on the Sabbath, breaking the rule for the sake of life.

39. The God of the Bible does not ask you to suffer for Him. He asks you to let yourself be loved.

40.He doesn’t ask you to sacrifice what you love. He sacrifices Himself for you.

41.He doesn’t control you. He holds your hand.

“For I, Jehovah your God, am grasping your right hand, the One saying to you, ‘Do not be afraid. I will help you.’”

42.If you’ve recognized in these pages a Father different from the one who was described to you, you might ask yourself one thing. If God is like this — if he runs to meet his son without summoning him before a committee, if he looks for excuses to save and not to destroy, if he holds a hand instead of pointing a finger — why does the organization treat so differently those who doubt, those who ask questions, those who seek? Why does a judicial committee have the power to separate you from your family?

43.In the next reflection we’ll look at what the Scriptures say about how Jesus treated those who erred, those who drifted away, those who were searching. Because the way Jesus treated people is the perfect reflection of the Father. And that reflection... does not look like a judicial committee.

44.Verify for yourselves. Open the Bible. Read Genesis 3:8, Genesis 4:6-7, John 3:16, Mark 2:27. Read them with your own eyes. Don’t trust us — trust the Scriptures and your own conscience. The truth is not afraid of questions.

“Make sure of all things; hold fast to what is fine.”

“You will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.”

45. Tonight, before sleeping, open your Bible to Isaiah 41:13. Read it out loud. “For I, Jehovah your God, am grasping your right hand.” Feel it. It is not a metaphor. It is a promise. And that hand has never let go.

A reading key