"J" Topics & Links!

For centuries, people around the world have been confronted with the question above that Jesus asked His disciples. From Watch Tower Publications, the official publisher for the Jehovah’s Witnesses, we find in their book ‘Let God Be True’ (LGBT), the following views regarding Jesus: ‘‘Before he appeared on earth, he already had a wonderful past.’’ (p.31). ‘‘Being a mighty one...and being before all other creatures, he was a God, but not the Almighty God, who is Jehovah’’ (p.33). Jesus ‘‘was transferred from his glorious position with God his Father in heaven to the embryo of a human’(p. 36) so ‘‘it is blasphemously improper to call her (Mary) ‘the mother of God’’ (p.36), ‘‘it is clearly seen that even the man Jesus Christ was mortal. He did not have an immortal soul’’ (p.71). ‘‘Christ Jesus was put to death in the flesh and was resurrected an invisible spirit creature’’ (p.138), yet later one can read ‘‘but Paul recalls for us the witnesses who saw Jesus after he was raised from the dead.’’ (p.138), or ‘‘Less then two months later, his faithful disciples saw him ascend to heaven.’’ (p.34). We are also told that ‘‘It was Christ, who as ‘Michael’...battled the dragon’’ (p.61) in Revelation 12:7.

1. Jesus was created, he wasn’t eternal.
2. Jesus wasn’t equal to God the Father.
3. Jesus was the archangel Michael.
4. Jesus died a soulless creature on the Cross.
5. Jesus, since he was human, was not God, so Mary can’t be the ‘mother of God.’
6. Jesus was raised an ‘‘invisible spirit creature’’, yet somehow His disciples saw and touched him.

For the Witnesses, Jesus’ mission was: ‘‘Jesus went to John, showing the primary purpose for which he came to earth, namely, to bear witness to God’s kingdom which will vindicate the sovereignty and holy name of Jehovah God.’’ (p.37). Not only are the words ‘‘redemption’’ and ‘‘Redeemer’’ missing from the subject index of ‘Let God Be True’ (LGBT), but we are clearly told that ‘‘His (Jehovah’s) vindication is more important than the salvation of men.’’ (p.29). Why does God need ‘vindicating?’

Even their own ‘‘New World Translation’’ (NWT) of the Bible teaches differently: ‘‘...Jesus came into the world to save sinners...’’ (1 Tim. 1:15). Their NWT also contradicts their ‘‘invisible spirit son’’ (LGBT p.40) ‘theory’ with Jesus’ words from Luke 24:39-43: ‘‘See my hands and my feet, that it is I myself; feel me and see, because a spirit does not have flesh and bones just as you behold that I have...He took a piece of broiled fish and ate it before their eyes.’’

Since the Witnesses don’t believe Jesus is co-equal to the Father, what of the ancient Christian belief in the Trinity? They teach: ‘‘The obvious conclusion is, therefore, that Satan is the originator of the Trinity doctrine’’ (LGBT p.101). Yet, in their NWT of the Bible, one can read at John 20:28 Thomas’ words to the visibly risen Jesus: ‘‘My Lord and my God!’’ On p. 297 of ‘Let God Be True’ another contradiction of their own teaching is found, based on Mt. 28:19, when they instruct: ‘‘Besides, the candidates for baptism are to be baptized, ‘in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the holy spirit.’’ Also overlooked are such Scriptures as John 10:29, where Jesus states, ‘‘I and the Father are one’’, which can’t be misunderstood as symbolic since ‘‘this is why the Jews kept persecuting Jesus...he not only broke the Sabbath, but also called God his own Father, making himself equal to God.’’ John 5:16,18. Since Jesus taught his disciples that he and the Father are one and coequal, the Watchtower either overlooks such Scriptures, or they effectively make Jesus a liar.

The Watchtower Society doesn’t seem to mind rewriting the Bible in their NWT to fit their needs. Only their NWT renders John 1:1 ‘‘In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was a god.’’ Jesus, the Divine Word for over 1.5 billion Christians can’t be coequal to God, or the Watchtower’s teaching at ‘Kingdom Halls’ falls apart. So they dare to re-word the Bible, changing the facts about Jesus in Scripture to fit their ‘theology’. Compare Jn 1:1 in their NWT with any other Bible.

In fact, the Watchtower must change and re-interpret the Bible in ways most Christians would find strange, to at least appear consistent with their other unScriptural teachings about God and man. Yet the Bible clearly warns us against adding to, or taking away from Scripture (see Rev. 22:18-19), a warning which the Watchtower Society apparently ignores.

For example, the Witnesses teach that there is no hell. From their LGBT we find that hell is a ‘‘...place of rest in hope.’’ (p.88) and ‘‘...mankind’s common grave or the pit of burial and could not, at the same time, mean a place of fiery torture...’’ (p.89). ‘‘The hell-fire doctrine...as well as the doctrine of purgatory is based on another pagan false doctrine, that of the immortality of the human soul.’’ (p. 99).

Though this teaching is popular among their followers (and why not? IF it were true, then the worst thing that happens to a sinner is that they simply cease to be: but see 1 Cor. 15:12-19), it contradicts dozens and dozens of Scriptures that clearly support the existence of hell: see Isaiah 66:24, Mark 9:41-49 and Matthew 8:11-12 among others. The Scriptures teach us that God is both just and merciful. In His Mercy, He sent us Jesus to redeem us from sin and save us from hell; but in His Justice, to those who refuse, clearly punishment is logical and Biblically supported. Even their NWT says at Mt. 25:41 ‘‘Then he will say, in turn, to those on his left: ‘Be on your way from me, you who have been cursed, into the everlasting fire prepared for the Devil and his angels.’’ Now how can that fire be everlasting if man has no immortal soul, and if hell doesn’t exist as fire?

Regarding man’s eternal soul, even their NWT proves the soul exists: ‘‘As you receive the end of your faith, the salvation of your souls.’’ (1 Peter 1:9), ‘‘Beloved one, I pray that in all things you may be prospering...even as your soul is prospering.’’ (3 Jn.1:2) ‘‘Yes, I saw the souls of those executed with the ax for the witness they bore to Jesus’’ (Rev. 20:4) ‘‘You must love Jehovah your God with your whole heart and with your whole soul and with your whole mind.’’ (Matthew 23:37). These and other NWT verses prove that there is, indeed, a soul separate from the body of man.

Another unusual part of the Witnesses’ official writings are their beliefs regarding the Devil. For instance, they believe that the Devil wasn’t cast out of heaven until the year 1914, and cite Rev. 12:7-9 as their ‘proof.’ From LGBT, p.62 we can read ‘‘The evidence is plentiful that this vision (in Revelation 12:7-9) was realized during A. D. 1914-1918...the reason is that Satan no longer has access to Heaven but has been cast down to this earth.’’ But are we to believe that Satan and his followers co-existed with God and the saints in Heaven? What of Job 1:6-7, Isaiah 14:12-15, Jude 1:6, Matthew 25:41 or numerous other Scriptures that prove differently?

In their ‘This Good News of the Kingdom’, p. 29-30, read: ‘‘...so Baptism today must be in like manner, by being immersed in water. This immersion does not cleanse the one being baptized from sin. That is not the purpose of the baptism of Christians. The going under the water symbolizes that the one being baptized had become dead to his old course of life.’’ The Witnesses’ LGBT p. 297 echoes this: ‘‘...only immersion could be a proper symbol for that...death to one’s past course’’. But what of Acts 22:16: ‘‘why do you delay? Get up and be baptized and wash away your sins’’, or Acts 2:38: ‘‘But Peter said to them, ‘Repent and be baptized everyone of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins’’.

This brief survey of some of the Witnesses teachings and writings merely scratches the surface of how radically different they believe then the Scriptures teach. For instance, in spite of the fact that the Bible says that no one knows the day or the hour of Christ’s second coming, the Witnesses have predicted (wrongly) Jesus’ second coming and the end of the world many times; such as in 1914, 1925 and 1975. When the end failed to come in 1914, they created a new doctrine that Jesus had secretly come to establish his kingdom on earth, even though Mt. 24:23,24,27 says: ‘‘If anyone tells you at that time, ‘Look the Messiah is here’ or ‘He is there’, do not believe it. False...prophets will appear...As the lightening comes from the east and flashes to the west, so will the coming of the Son of Man be.’’

Former Witnesses have stated that even as their predicted ‘end’ drew near, that their billion dollar corporation in New York kept buying property from the profits of the literature sold by their busy followers.

The ‘Witnesses’ are a creation of men: Charles T. Russell, who started the Watch Tower in 1879 and J.R. Rutherford, who guided them after Russell’s death in 1916. Rutherford saved them from extinction by teaching ‘Christ’s secret coming in 1914’, which supposedly started the ‘last generation before Armageddon’ and the ‘Witnesses’ earthly rule and paradise’. Yet Bible scholars point out that in the Scriptures, a ‘generation’ is typically forty or seventy years. If the Witnesses’ are correct, why didn’t the end come by 1984?

How can a true faith have so many incorrect teachings? Is this why the Watchtower Society doesn’t want their followers associating with ‘non-believers’, except to recruit new members? St. Paul’s warning rings true: ‘‘I repeat...if anyone preaches another gospel to you than the one you have received, let a curse be upon him!’’ (Gal. 1:9) Since there is no doubt the Witnesses can’t trace their teachings before the 1870’s, they have a ‘new’ gospel.

Page 1656 of the New World Translation (NWT) of the Holy Scriptures, presents topical commentary, notes and Scripture references used by the Watchtower. Number 34 correctly and truly proclaims:

"C. Changing one’s religion (is) essential if proved wrong" If someone finds that the church they believed in has false teachings, that person is morally bound to find and follow the
‘‘A. Only one true religion". This last point is one teaching of their's that is accurate!