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2 Tim 4:2
Preach the word; be instant in season, out of season;
reprove, rebuke, exhort with all longsuffering and doctrine.
KJV
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Five Things You Should Know about Jehovah’s
Witnesses
By R. Braun
1. The Jehovah’s Witnesses and their History
The Watchtower Society was the creation of Charles T. Russell, the
self proclaimed prophet of the end times. Russell was raised in a
protestant church in Pennsylvania, yet many of the things he heard
troubled him. Unable to cope with the doctrines or teachings of the
Bible, he formed his own theology which denied hell, eternal
judgment and the trinity. He did this because he stated that he
could not understand the teaching of the Bible. Eventually Russell
took his so called “teachings” and incorporated them into a piece of
literature called Studies in the scripture, which later became the
Watchtower magazine. Eventually Russell founded the Watchtower
Society in 1884. After Russell’s in 1916, Joseph Franklin Rutherford
took the reigns of the Watchtower Society and became the power
behind its growth and eventual success. Later, when Nathan H. Knorr
took over the society in 1942 a strong outreach began to form. It
was under Knorr that the New World Translation came into existence.
However, The Watchtower Society clamed that five Greek scholars were
involved in the process of translation, yet large quantities of
scripture currently have errors in them which disproves this alleged
truth. The Jehovah’s Witnesses are mainly known for their many books
and pieces of literature and are also known for their many failed
“end time” prophecies. Many of them are as follows:
• Russell Foretold Christ’s return would occur in 1874, but the
year 1878 came and went with no results.
• Russell changed his calculations and claimed Christ would return in
1914, with still no results.
• Nathan H. Knorr prophesied the end of the age, and the beginning of
Armageddon, but yet again the so called “prophecy” did not occur.
• Check out these verses on false prophets: Jeremiah 14:4;
Lamentations 2:14; Matthew 7:15, 24:11; 1 John 4:1.
2. The Jehovah’s Witnesses and the Body of
Christ
Jehovah’s Witnesses believe that the members of the spiritual
body cannot exceed the number 144,000. Since only the members are
the “elect” of the church, only 8,000, or less, exist today to make
up the “spiritual body”. Those who were part of the 144,000 and who
have passed away are said to be reigning with Jesus since 1918,
(another failed prophecy). The 8,000 remaining members are now known
as the remnant and are the only Jehovah’s Witnesses that have any
hope of going to heaven. The Watchtower Society truly admits that
anyone born after 1936 cannot be of the “elect.” Today, the
individual who has dedicated his life to the Watchtower Society has
no hope of true Salvation. Their will be no redemption of his soul,
and no opportunity to spend eternity in heaven with Christ. All he
can hope is that he will inherit the earth, and only on the
condition that he remains a faithful witness and knocks on enough
doors.
On the flip side, check out what the Bible has to say about the
body of Christ. Corinthians 12:12, 13 states, “For as the body is
one and has many members of that one body, being one are one body;
For by one Spirit we were all baptized into one body-Whether Jew or
Greeks, whether slaved or free…” The Bible doesn’t mention any
numbers or restriction. Salvation is free to all, and all who put
their faith in Christ will one day be with him, guaranteed. The
security we have in Christ is eternal, and not dependant on any
works, such as knocking on doors. (See eternal security). Jesus
testifies of this saying, “And I give them eternal life, and they
shall never perish; neither shall anyone snatch them out of My hand”
(John 10:28).
3. The Jehovah’s Witnesses and the Deity of
Christ and the Trinity.
The Jehovah’s Witnesses do not believe that
Christ is God, nor do
they believe in the Trinity. The JW’s do not believe that Jesus is
God in the flesh. They add the word, other, four times in Colossians
1:16, 17 in order to prove that Jesus Christ was God’s first
creation. The true translations states, “…He is before all things,
and in Him all things consist. And he is the head of the body…who is
the beginning of the firstborn from the dead…” (Col. 1:17, 18). They
believe Christ was merely the reincarnation of Michael the archangel
where this verse clearly states that Christ was before all things.
In this way the Jehovah’s Witnesses are able to deny the eternality
of Christ. In Colossians 2:9, “For in him dwells all the fullness of
the Godhead bodily. The word fullness in the Greek can be translated
pleroma which means that Christ is the completion of the godhead. He
is the fulfillment.
The Jehovah’s witnesses not only deny Christ’s equality with God,
they take things one step further, totally shunning the teachings of
the Trinity (or the doctrine that the Father, the Son, and the Holy
Spirit are all equal yet 3 distinct persons). In their New World
Translation they altered John 1:1 by stating, “In the beginning was
the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was (a god.)” When
in truth John 1:1 states, “…and the Word was God.” At their core
Jehovah’s Witnesses strongly dislike Trinitarians or those who
believe in the trinity because they believe in doing so Trinitarians
are polytheists, or those who believe in multiple gods. By altering
John 1:1 the Jehovah’s witnesses have a major contradiction on their
hands. They themselves believe in multiple gods by calling the Word,
a little god.
4. Jehovah’s Witnesses do not believe in life
after death, or hell.
So, what do Jehovah’s Witnesses believe about death anyway? The
following was taken out of Watchtower Material. They state, “At
death man’s spirit, his life-force, which is sustained by breathing
…no longer exists. When they are dead both humans and animals are in
the same state of complete unconsciousness.” Furthermore, they go on
to state, “That the soul lives on after death is a myth started by
the devil.” On the subject of hell they ask the question, “Would a
loving God Really Torment people forever? …The wicked, of course,
are not literally tormented because, as we have seen, when a person
is dead he is completely out of existence.” They also state that no
mention of hell is made in the Old Testament, and that, “only a few
in the New Testament can be misconstrued to teach it.” In response
to the Jehovah Witness teachings, check out some of these
references. Daniel 12:2, 3; Matthew 25:46; John 5:28 and Revelation
20:14, 15 all teach that everyone will exist forever in eternity in
either heaven or hell. Matthew 13:50; Mark 9:48 and Revelation 14:10
also teach that Hell exists to punish those who do not put their
faith in Christ. You may be asking yourself the same question the
Jehovah Witnesses ask, so what if hell exists? Why would a loving
God create it to torture others? Because God is Righteous and Holy,
he cannot permit sin to enter into heaven. The only way
sinful man can enter heaven is through putting
his faith in Christ’s work for him on the cross. Only this will result in sinful man’s redemption
and salvation. However, if sinful man rejects Christ, he is on the
fast track to eternity in the burning lake of fire.
5. Salvation is only through the Watchtower
Society.
So, according to the watchtower Society, just how can you get
saved? You may make “brownie points” with the society if you put in
enough hours knocking on doors and being good, but true Salvation is
through the Organization. The Watchtower Society claimed total
authority stating, “Make haste to identify the visible theocratic
organization (the Watchtower Society) of God that represents his
King, Jesus Christ, It is essential for life. In doing so, be sure
you are complete in accepting (the organization’s) every aspect.”
Every aspect means accepting the Watchtower’s numerous changes in
doctrines, false prophecies and irrational beliefs, such as the
blood issue.
The Watchtower, since its beginning in 1884 has had many
prophecies. As we saw above, each prophecy came and went,
unfulfilled leaving many JW’s confused and angry. The Watchtower in
“God’s visible Theocratic Organization” which has been proven to not
only is fallible, but also false. The truth is this: True
salvation
comes through Christ and faith in Him. As God, He
became our substitute and has the power to
forgive you of all your sins and make you a new person. Where the
Watchtower is fallible and false, Christ is perfect and true.
____________________________________________________________________________
Carlson and Decker, Fast Facts on False Teachings, Eugene, Oregon.
UP. 1994
Ankerberg and Weldon, Encyclopedia of Cults and New Religions.
Eugene, Oregon . UP 1973
Martin, Walter. The Kingdom of the Cults. Minneapolis, Minnesota.
UP. 1997
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