Fast Facts on False Teachings

All Along The Watchtower

(Jehovah’s Witnesses)

Introduction

I’d like to read you the first verse of the Gospel of John from two different sources.

First, from the NKJV of the Bible:

John 1:1 "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God."

Second, from the New World Translation of the Bible:

John 1:1 "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was a God."

Notice the difference? If you do, you’ll understand the difference between biblical Christianity and the cult called The Watchtower Bible and Tract Society – better known as the Jehovah’s Witnesses.

The "Word" is a preincarnation name of Jesus. John identifies Him when he says in verse fourteen, "the Word became flesh and dwelt among us." Jesus was the Word. But was He "God," or was He simply "a god?"

He was and is simply "a god," less than God, not God in human flesh if you are a Jehovah’s Witness! As with other false teachings we want to look first at their background, then their beliefs.

Charles Taze Russell was the founding father of the Jehovah's Witnesses. He was raised in a protestant church in Pennsylvania. As he grew up, Russell said there were certain things which he did not like in the Bible, like the teaching of hell and eternal judgment or the teaching of the trinity. He said the trinity wasn't rational and he could not understand it.

In his early twenties Russell came under the influence of the Adventist movement begun by William Miller. Miller believed he had discovered from the Scriptures that Christ's second coming would occur in 1843, a date he subsequently changed to 1844. When the event failed to take place, Miller simply admitted he had been mistaken. A number of Miller's followers, however, went back to their Bibles and worked out their own assorted date-setting systems.

Among these Adventists was N. H. Barbour of Rochester, New York, with whom Russell collaborated to publish in 1877 Three Worlds and the Harvest of This World. The book set forth Barbour's view that Christ had returned invisibly in 1874 and that the dawn of a golden age could be expected in 1914. Charles Russell held this position the rest of his life. When he broke with Barbour over theological differences, he set forth his own views in Zion's Watch Tower begun in 1879 and financed from the income of his clothing business. In 1884, blending his own teachings with some of Barbour's, he incorporated his group as the Watch Tower Bible and Tract Society. In 1909 Russell moved its headquarters to Brooklyn, New York, where it has remained to this day.

During his life tenure as the first president of the Watchtower Society, Russell authored six volumes of the seven-volume series known as The Studies in the Scriptures. Although Russell never had any formal theological training, these works of his nevertheless provided the basis for the early theology that was adopted by the Watchtower followers. We know how important the series was to Russell from his claim that people would "go into darkness" by studying the Bible alone, without the aid of his Studies.

Russell died in 1916 having been proven a false prophet. The Watchtower Organization was taken over in 1917 by a very dynamic leader, a man named Joseph Franklin Rutherford. Because he had briefly served as a judge in Missouri, he is often referred to as Judge Rutherford. It was under Rutherford's leadership that the name "Jehovah's Witnesses" began to be used. He said they would do this to vindicate the true name of Jehovah, since he claimed that Jesus Christ is not God and the Holy Spirit is not God, but Jehovah alone is God. Their Scriptural basis for the name is found in Isaiah 43:10,

Isaiah 43:10 "You are My witnesses," says the LORD, "And My servant whom I have chosen, That you may know and believe Me, And understand that I am He. Before Me there was no God formed, Nor shall there be after Me."

We have no problem with the term "Jehovah." It is simply an Old Testament identification for God. Actually, the Jews never pronounce the name of God. When writing in Hebrew the ancient Jews did not use vowels, only consonants. They spelled this name YHWH, the unutterable name of God. Most likely it would have been pronounced "Yahweh," but it has been Anglicized as Jehovah, simply referring to the Old Testament identification for God.

Rutherford was also famous for his many prophecies. In fact, he prophesied that the patriarchs Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob would return visibly to this earth to help promote the kingdom of God. He was so sure of this prediction that he built a large palatial mansion in San Diego, California, for Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob to live in when they would return sometime between 1925 and 1929.

But 1929 came and went and Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob never showed up. That's when Rutherford moved into the mansion himself and lived there until he died in 1942, also proven a false prophet.

The organization was taken over in 1942 by a man named Nathan H. Knorr. It was under Knorr's leadership that it developed its strong missionary outreach all over the world. It was also under his leadership that the Witnesses did their own translation of the Bible, which they call The New World Translation. It first appeared in 1950 in successive volumes, with the whole Bible produced in a single volume in 1961.

The new translation was just part of the problems created by Nathan H. Knorr. You would think he had learned a lesson about false prophets from his predecessors. And in fact the man did withstand the urge for many years. But finally, in 1966, he could no longer resist, and Knorr also began to prophesy through the Watchtower and Awake magazines. His first major prophecy was that the year 1975 was going to be the end of the age and that Armageddon would occur at that time. Obviously 1975 has come and gone and Armageddon did not occur. It was just too big a lie to weave a new tale around.

Many Jehovah's Witnesses understood what God had said in Deuteronomy 18:20-22, where He gave us the biblical test for a prophet.

"A prophet who presumes to speak in my name anything I have not commanded him to say, or a prophet who speaks in the name of other gods, must be put to death. You may say to yourselves, "How can we know when a message has not been spoken by the Lord?" If what a prophet proclaims in the name of the Lord does not take place or come true, that is a message the Lord has not spoken. That prophet has spoken presumptuously. Do not be afraid of him."

In 1976 and 1977 over a million Jehovah's Witnesses left the Watchtower, deeply disillusioned with the organization that claimed to be the voice of God on earth, but had proven again and again to be a false prophet.

Knorr, also proven to be a false prophet, died in 1977. The organization was then run by a very aged gentleman named Frederick Franz, who had been its leading theologian for over 60 years. Franz is upheld by the Society as its most knowledgeable Hebrew scholar. However, to keep this image he had to misrepresent himself under oath in a 1954 court trial in Scotland. After claiming a working knowledge of Hebrew, he was discredited when he could not translate a simple Bible verse, Genesis 2:4, back into Hebrew.

Franz brought the organization through one of its most trying times, the failure of its prediction that the world would end in 1975. Some members, fully believing the Society's chronology, had sold their homes and property to devote themselves to fulltime door-to-door service. Their publication, Kingdom Ministry, had commended this act of dedication as an excellent way to spend the few remaining months before the world's end in 1975:

"Reports are heard of brothers selling their homes and property and planning to finish out the rest of their days in this old system in the pioneer service. Certainly this is a fine way to spend the short time remaining before the wicked world's end."

Since 1980 Franz also had to struggle to hold the organization together in the face of the disfellowshiping at Bethel Headquarters of several top leaders who had major doctrinal differences with Watchtower teachings. President Franz's own nephew, Raymond Franz, was removed from the Board of Directors and subsequently disfellowshiped. Franz died at the end of 1992 at the age of 98. The Watchtower continued to grow, under the leadership of Milton G. Henschel. I’m not sure who heads the group today.

The Watchtower is built upon a shaky theological foundation, and lovers of truth who examine it carefully and discover its major cracks soon find themselves in deep trouble with the leadership. It seems to be based on human reason, rather than biblical revelation. They reject certain teachings of Scriptures simply because they are beyond human reasoning!

God can only be known by His revelation of Himself to man. Human reasoning must fall short. That is not to say that God’s revelation is unreasonable; it is not. But reasoning cannot replace revelation.

Let’s see where that kind of approach leads in the area of beliefs and the Bible, God, Jesus, salvation, and life after death.

Witnesses will tell you that their ultimate source of authority is the Bible. However, as we pointed out, they have their own unique translation of the Bible, the New World Translation.

Is it accurate? In a pamphlet by Michael Van Buskirk titled, The Scholastic Dishonesty of the Watchtower (1975), it is pointed out that the Jehovah's Witnesses have wrongly quoted the famous Greek scholars H. E. Dana and J. R. Mantey in their classic A Manual Grammar of the Greek New Testament. Van Buskirk includes an interview with Professor Mantey, who insists that indeed the Watchtower has falsely quoted his work. Mantey states the following concerning the Watchtower:

"When they do meet certain passages of Scripture that seem to be against their viewpoint, to my great disappointment, they mistranslate them deliberately and deceptively - deliberate deception - in some cases and, to me, that is unpardonable. It's dishonest and, to a certain extent, it's diabolical."

The New World Translation does indeed introduce "deliberate and deceptive" changes from conventional English translations of the Bible in a number of passages simply to support their own theology. For example, Philippians 2:6, one of the great Christological passages, has always been understood to be a reference to the deity of Christ. The King James Version of Philippians 2:6 reads as follows:

"Who, being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God."

Other English translations have altered the text to read somewhat differently. The RSV reads,

"Who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped."

The NIV reads similarly,

"Who, being m very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped."

In each instance the deity of Christ is attested to (most clearly in the KJV). The New World Translation, however, reads,

"Who, although he was existing in God's form, gave no consideration to a seizure, namely, that he should be equal with God."

This rendering changes the meaning derived from traditional translations which show Jesus is God. According to J. P. Mantey and another highly respected scholar, Bruce Metzger, this rendering is made to fit the Watchtower’s theology that Jesus is not God. They simply change the words with no basis in scholarship because they believe the deity of Christ to be against reason – even though it is part of God’s revelation of Himself.

Another obvious example is the insertion of the word "other" in brackets in Colossians 1:16. The New World Translation reads,

"because by means of him all [other] things were created in the heavens and upon the earth, the things visible and the things invisible .... All [other] things have been created through him and for him."

The NKJV reads,

Colossians 1:16 For by Him all things were created that are in heaven and that are on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or principalities or powers. All things were created through Him and for Him.

To support the doctrine that Christ was not co-eternal with the Father, but had a beginning, the Watchtower felt compelled to insert the word "other," even though neither the Greek nor any other English translations contain or warrant it.

According to the Watchtower, "The Holy Scriptures of the Bible are the standard by which to judge all religions." It is true that the

Jehovah's Witnesses cling to the Protestant teaching that the Bible alone is their final authority. The Jehovah's Witnesses argue that the Bible is the Word of Jehovah God. What appears to be a traditional Protestant principle of authority is rapidly eroded, however, when their translation is made to fit their theology rather than the opposite. This is what Professor Mantey meant when he labeled this methodology "diabolical."

Another major difference between the Watchtower and traditional Christianity with respect to the authority of the Bible is that, realistically and practically, they ultimately appeal to their own helps and tools in order to insure that the Bible is interpreted and understood "correctly." Dr. Walter Martin points out that Russell, from the very beginning, believed that the Bible need not even be read apart from Russell’s own notes and books. Here’s a quote from Russell’s series, Studies in the Scriptures,

"Furthermore, not only do we find that people cannot see the divine plan in studying the Bible by itself, but we see, also, that if anyone lays the SCRIPTURE STUDIES [Russell’s writings] aside, even after he has used them, after he has read them for ten years - if he then lays them aside and ignores them and goes to the Bible alone, though he has understood his Bible for ten years, our experience shows that within two years he goes into darkness. On the other hand, if he had merely read the SCRIPTURE STUDIES with their references, and had not read a page of the Bible, as such, he would be in the light at the end of two years, because he would have the light of the Scriptures."

Jehovah’s Witnesses are taught that all other versions of the Bible besides the New World Translation are unsuitable and tainted. Furthermore, they are taught that interpretations of the Bible that differ from the Watchtower's are invariably false. It is extremely difficult to conduct a two-way dialogue with someone who is convinced from the outset that only a Jehovah's Witness can understand Scripture. This is true with respect to any verses of Scripture a Christian uses to attempt to defend the doctrine of the Trinity or the deity of Jesus Christ or any other orthodox doctrine.

What they don’t believe about God is what you need to know. They don’t believe God exists as a Trinity – Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

"The trinity doctrine was not conceived by Jesus or the early Christians" Let God Be True, 1952, p. 1111.

"The plain truth is that this is another of Satan's attempts to keep the God-fearing person from learning the truth of Jehovah and His Son Christ Jesus" Let God Be True, p. 93).

In Watchtower theology neither Jesus Christ nor the Holy Spirit is God. We’ll talk about Jesus in a moment. As for the Holy Spirit, here are a few quotes from their writings:

"... The holy spirit is the invisible active force of Almighty God his servants to do his will" (Let God Be True, p. 108).

"As for the 'Holy Spirit,' the so-called 'third Person of the Trinity,' have already seen that it is, not a person, but God's active force" (The Truth That Leads to Eternal Life, Brooklyn: Watchtower Bible and Tract So1968, p. 24).

"The Scriptures themselves unite to show that God's holy spirit is but is God's active force by which he accomplishes his purpose executes his will" (Aid to Bible Understanding, Brooklyn: Watchtower and Tract Society, 1969, 1971, p. 1543).

The Holy Spirit is indeed God, the third Person of the Trinity. He is called God by the apostle Peter in a comparison of verses three and four of Acts chapter five.

The doctrine of the Trinity is not unreasonable. What is unreasonable is to suppress the biblical revelation that God eternally exists in three Persons – Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

Who is Jesus to the Witness? Again, it is Who He is not that you must realize. Jesus Christ is not God in human flesh, but rather a created being:

"Jesus, the Christ, a created individual, is the second greatest personage of the Universe. Jehovah God and Jesus together constitute the superior authorities" (Make Sure of All Things, p. 2071).

"He was a god, but not the Almighty God, who is Jehovah" (Let God Be True, p. 33).

"If Jesus were God, then during Jesus' death God was dead in the grave" (Let God Be True, 1946, p. 911).

"The truth of the matter is that the word is Christ Jesus, who did have a beginning" (Let God Be True, p. 88).

Witnesses teach three states of Jesus Christ’s person: a prehuman, a human, and a posthuman state. Before Jesus was born of Mary, He existed in a prehuman state as the living Word of God. He was created by or born of God, but he was not God, who by definition had no beginning. In this position, he enjoyed a superiority to all other creatures. Jesus existed in this prehuman state as Michael the Archangel.

In Jesus' human state, Witnesses teach, as orthodox Christianity does, that Jesus was born of the Virgin Mary. But because he was not God, his birth cannot be spoken of as an incarnation. He was born a man. Jesus simply laid aside his prehuman spirit state and took on a human nature. They deny therefore that Jesus Christ had two natures, human and divine. At Jesus' baptism Jehovah poured out on him his spirit to empower him to fulfill his mission. Jesus, in His humanity, was born sinless and remained so.

In the posthuman sate, Witnesses teach that Jesus' resurrection body was not physical. In place of his body, Jehovah raised up Jesus with a spirit body. Jesus' body was disposed of in a mysterious and unknown way by Jehovah. The Watchtower has proposed two theories: (1) the body dissipated into gases (vaporized); (2) angels took the body to a place where it will be revived as a memorial in the future.

The Bible teaches that Jesus was fully God and fully human. Jesus claimed to be God, Almighty God, Jehovah God, many times – especially when He called Himself "I AM."

He rose from the dead in a physical body. Jesus shows Thomas the print of the nails in his hands (John 20:24-27) and eats breakfast with the disciples (John 21:12-13; cf. Luke 24:30-34), offering clear attestation to his retaining a physical body.

Witnesses do not regard salvation as a free gift from God based upon Jesus Christ's work on the cross. Rather, their literature stresses a salvation by works. Russell wrote,

"They must be recovered from blindness as well as from death, that they, each for himself, may have a full chance to prove, by obedience or disobedience, their worthiness of life eternal" (Charles Taze Russell, Studies in the Scriptures, Vol. 1, p. 158).

Elsewhere they state:

"All who by reason of faith in Jehovah God and in Christ Jesus dedicate themselves to do God's will and then faithfully carry out their dedication will be rewarded with everlasting life..." (Let God Be True, p. 298).

For Jehovah’s Witnesses, salvation consists of believing plus obedience. The Bible teaches we are saved by grace through faith alone. Man's good works can never contribute to his salvation:

Ephesians 2:8, 9 NASB "For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God; not as a result of works, that no one should boast"

Titus 3:5 NASB "He saved us, not on the basis of deeds which we have done in righteousness, but according to His mercy"

Witnesses teach that Jesus' death on the cross and shed blood reversed and removed the effects of Adam's sin and the sin of Adam's offspring. The human Jesus came as the Second Adam and with the help of the "holy spirit" remained sinless, unlike the first Adam. Not tainted by sin, Jesus was free from the guilt of sin and the wrath of Jehovah. Therefore, Jesus was able to become a ransom or substitute for the sins of the world.

For Witnesses, Christ’s ransom and Jehovah's offer of salvation is extended to two sets of people:

First, an exclusive or heavenly congregation comprised of 144,000 according to their misreading of Revelation 14:3-4. Only these 144,000 are "born-again," meaning that they will reign eternally without bodies, as spirits.

Second, the ransom of Jesus "must embrace more than those of his bride.'' These who are saved once the number of the 144,000 is complete are destined to dwell on the earth. These cannot be born-again and will live in a body.

The Bible knows no distinction between an earthly and heavenly class. All Christians receive the forgiveness won for them through Christ's ransom (John 3:16). Second, the Christian does not claim a higher standing before God through merit and works. This status is freely given by virtue of Christ's merits and righteousness (Romans 3:24; Ephesians 2:8-9). All believers will one day stand before God in heaven (Philippians 2:9-11).

Witnesses believe that the "first resurrection" of God's 144,000 has already taken place, in 1918. This first resurrection was spiritual and not physical in nature. This spiritual resurrection was, of course, not visible to people on earth.

Those of the 144,000 still remaining on earth are called "the remnant." They will, upon death, rise to join the remainder of their number already ruling with Jesus from his throne since the time of the first resurrection in 1918. Witnesses teach that the War of Armageddon and the dawning of the Millennium must occur before the last of the 144,000 die. When might that be? Hard to say… But in

1961, during a worldwide memorial meal, 13,284 partook of the sacrament - meaning, of course, that there were presumed to be at least this many of the 144,000 yet remaining at that time.

Jehovah's Witnesses are not eagerly awaiting the return of Christ, but rather the imminent battle of Armageddon in which Christ will lead Jehovah's forces to victory over evil. Only the faithful Witnesses will escape death in this battle. Then there will be an earthly resurrection of all the dead. The heavenly spiritual resurrection of the 144,000 members of the body of Christ will have already been completed. Everyone who was annihilated (the Jehovah's Witnesses' concept of death) will be recreated and given a second chance during the Millennium to believe and obey Jehovah. Those who fail during the probationary period will be permanently destroyed. All who remain on the earth after this will enjoy a perfect earth forever. The 144,000 will remain in heaven with Christ.

Jehovah's Witnesses emphatically deny the biblical concept of hell and claim that Sheol and Hades mean only "the grave." This they do despite the many passages which clearly teach that hell is a place of eternal torment and conscious separation from God (see Matthew 8:11-12; 13:42, 50; 22:13; Luke 13:24-28; 16:19-31; Revelation 14:9-11).

Jehovah's Witnesses deny conscious eternal punishment and argue instead for painless extinction or annihilation (absence of being). It is one of the attractive features of their teaching! But it implies a superficial view of the evil of sin and of the holiness of God. It also involves the teaching that man does not possess an immortal soul. They claim that man is a soul. But the Bible teaches that the soul exists as a conscious entity after it departs from the body (cf. Luke 20:37-38; Revelation 6:9-11), and that it will be joined to a glorified resurrection body.

End Times

up rulership in heaven as King of Kings. The second coming of 1914 was therefore not a physical return of Christ to earth, but rather the coronation of Christ as King in heaven, from which place He now rules from his throne. Satan was thrown out of heaven - to earth - after being defeated in the celestial war and immediately vented his rage by pouring out his vengeance and wrath on the human race, as is evidenced by the start of World War I (1914 - 1918).

The period following 1914 is described as the "Time of the End." Rutherford oftentimes preached that "millions now living will never die." The urgency of witnessing for Jehovah lies in the impulse to warn all people of the imminence of coming judgment and to present them with the opportunity to become a part of Jehovah's kingdom.

Communion

Only the 144,000 are allowed to participate in the Lord’s Supper on the grounds that Jesus ate this meal with His chosen apostles and that it is only for those who will partake of it forever in heaven. They take communion once annually because Jesus celebrated it during Passover, an annual holiday.

Miscellaneous

One practice of the Witnesses which sets them apart from orthodox Christians is their rejection of blood transfusions. They base this on the erroneous idea that transfusions are forbidden by Genesis 9:4 and similar texts. What these verses actually prohibit, however, is eating flesh with the blood still in it. Because of their misunderstanding, some Witnesses and their dependent children have met a premature and often preventable death.

Witnesses hold numerous other distinctive beliefs:

They reject the celebration of Christmas.

They believe that Christ died on a torture stake rather than on the traditional cross.

They do not celebrate birthdays or holidays, holding that participating in these is a form of creature worship.

They reject human government, military service and flag saluting, holding that such things are idolatry.

Concerning human government, compare the teaching of the apostle Paul in Romans 13:1-7,

Romans 13:1 Let every soul be subject to the governing authorities. For there is no authority except from God, and the authorities that exist are appointed by God.

Romans 13:2 Therefore whoever resists the authority resists the ordinance of God, and those who resist will bring judgment on themselves.

Romans 13:3 For rulers are not a terror to good works, but to evil. Do you want to be unafraid of the authority? Do what is good, and you will have praise from the same.

Romans 13:4 For he is God's minister to you for good. But if you do evil, be afraid; for he does not bear the sword in vain; for he is God's minister, an avenger to execute wrath on him who practices evil.

Romans 13:5 Therefore you must be subject, not only because of wrath but also for conscience' sake.

Romans 13:6 For because of this you also pay taxes, for they are God's ministers attending continually to this very thing.

Romans 13:7 Render therefore to all their due: taxes to whom taxes are due, customs to whom customs, fear to whom fear, honor to whom honor.

Conclusion

Let’s go back where we started – to John 1:1. The Jehovah's Witnesses' New World Translation renders this verse, "The Word [Christ] was a god" (insert added). The Watchtower magazine states that

"because there is no definite article 'the' (ho) it means Christ is only a god, not the God" (The Watchtower, 7 December 1995, 4).

The Greek of John 1:1

"is not saying that the Word (Jesus) was the same as the God with whom he was but, rather, that the Word was godlike, divine, a god" (Reasoning from the Scriptures, 1989, 212).

It is not proper to translate this verse "The Word was a god" simply to deny the deity of Christ. It is not necessary to translate Greek nouns that have no definite article with an indefinite article; there is no indefinite article in Greek. In other words, theos (God) without the definite article ‘ho’ (the) does not need to be translated as "a God" as the Jehovah's Witnesses have done in reference to Christ.

The fact is, the presence or absence of the definite article does not alter the fundamental meaning of theos. If John had intended an adjectival sense to say that the Word was godlike or divine - a god - he had an adjective (theios) ready at hand that he could have used. Instead, John says the Word is God (theos).

So it comes down to a choice. What will it be: Man’s reason? Or God’s revelation?

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ISBN 0-89693-823-9.

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ISBN 1-56507-168-9.

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ISBN 0-8010-1149-3.

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ISBN 0-87123-796-2.

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