The Jehovah’s Witnesses: A False Religious Organization
The goal of this course is to give you a basic understanding of some of the teachings of the Watchtower Society, the governing body of the Jehovah’s Witnesses. The Jehovah’s Witnesses are a false religious organization headed by an organization of men who claim that they are the spokesmen for God. Hopefully, this course will better prepare you to study with any Jehovah’s Witnesses that you may come into contact with.
Overview of Basic Jehovah’s Witnesses Beliefs
One thing to be aware of when dealing with a JW is their incredible zeal. Most Jehovah’s Witnesses sincerely believe that they are following God’s will. They are convinced that they have truth that you need to hear and that your life depends on it! Not unlike being a Christian, being a Jehovah’s witness requires a significant commitment. Being a JW requires lots of time, a changed lifestyle, changed relationships, etc. When you encounter a JW, you typically encounter someone who is very zealous, committed, moral, sincere, concerned about you, prepared, and, unfortunately, deceived even to the point of brainwashed.
In some areas, particularly in morality, their beliefs are sound and similar to Christian beliefs. However, in key areas such as salvation, prophecy, the death and resurrection of Jesus, organization, Bible authority, and eternal life, they are grossly off the mark. In this course, we will focus on the areas where they are off the mark in hopes of preparing you to deal with the arguments they will use in your discussions with them.
In this first lesson, an overview of basic Jehovah’s Witnesses beliefs, we will introduce the following topics.
–Premillennialism
–The Watchtower Society
–The Nature of God
–The Nature of Man
–Miscellaneous Peculiar Doctrines
Premillennialism
Jehovah’s witnesses teach their own brand of premillennialism. There are key differences between Watchtower doctrines and mainstream premillennialism, which we will discuss. But it is important to remember when dealing with a JW that they are premillennial in their thinking.
There are a few doctrines that make one a premillennialist. The most basic, and it is implied in the name, is that the second coming of Christ will be before the 1000 year kingdom (spoken of in Revelation 20:1-4). Another characteristic of premillennialists is that they believe that the 1000 year kingdom of God is an earthly kingdom. Also, premillennialists often refer to passages in Revelation and try to apply that to current events. Finally, premillennialists have a difficult time resisting the temptation of setting an end time date.
Jehovah’s Witnesses share all of these characteristics with mainstream premillennialists. However, it is important to understand that there are several key differences between Watchtower premillennialism and mainstream premillennialism.
For example, the Watchtower has a completely different concept of the rapture. Charles Taze Russell predicted the rapture to occur in 1878, but now the Watchtower teaches that the rapture of the church is a false hope. What most premillennialists view as the rapture, JW’s view as having occurred in 1918 (3.5 years after 1914). We will cover the significance of the date 1914 later in this course.
The following pages and diagrams highlight the differences between mainstream premillennialism and Watchtower premillennialism.
Mainstream Premillennialism Summarized
Mainstream premillennialism asserts that Jesus came to the earth to establish His kingdom, but the Jews rejected Him. This rejection forced a change of plans. Rather than crowning Him, the Jews crucified Him, so Jesus set up His church instead of His kingdom. The church was totally unprophesied; it was a “mystery” element.
The Lord will end the church age suddenly. He will return, but He will not come all the way back to the earth. He will resurrect the dead saints and gather the living saints and snatch them all away to meet Him in the air. This event is known as the “rapture.” The believers shall then be with Jesus at His judgment seat in heaven.
Meanwhile, those who are left on earth will see great suffering. This suffering will last seven years and is known as the “tribulation.” The Antichrist, a charismatic leader, will appear at the beginning of the tribulation and gain a great following, especially among the Jews. After three and a half years, the Jews will reject the Antichrist and flock to Palestine. The Antichrist will gather his forces and battle the Jews there. This, the battle of Armageddon, will be the greatest battle in world history.
Christ will come back on the Mount of Olives at the height of this battle. He will imprison Satan and establish His kingdom with His throne in Jerusalem. He will
rule for 1000 years. Afterwards, Satan will be loosed for a little season.
Finally, Jesus will gather all the wicked who have ever lived before His throne and pronounce doom upon them and Satan. Then the saints will be in heaven with God, and the lost will be in hell where Satan is. See Figure 1 for a visual overview of this theory.
Figure 1: Overview of mainstream premillennialism
Watchtower Premillennialism Summarized
Watchtower premillennialism asserts that Jesus came to prophecy his kingdom and to give his life so that he could be resurrected to prepare to rule his kingdom from heaven. According the Jehovah’s witnesses, the body of Christ is a very select group of people. It ultimately will consist of 144,000.
Jesus came back invisibly and silently in the fall of 1914. This sparked a heavenly war in which Satan was cast to the earth and has since wreaked havoc on the land and sea. They believe that Revelation 12 describes this war and ousting. Three and a half years later, in 1918, Jesus spiritually raised the dead anointed ones to reign with him in heaven. The ones of the anointed who were still alive must wait until their death and then they will be immediately spiritually resurrected to join Christ. The total of anointed will be exactly 144,000. They refer to 1 Thes. 4, 1 Cor. 15, and Rev. 7 to support this teaching.
1914 marked the beginning of global changes. Their evidence for this is World War 1. This begins the great tribulation in which Satan is amassing earthly powers which will ultimately lead to the Battle of Armageddon. Satan, of course, will be defeated in this battle when Christ comes to end it. Satan will be bound and cast into an abyss for most of 1000 years. The battle of Armageddon is near. They have predicted it to occur many times, but now simply say that it is near.
During this 1000 years, the “other crowd” as well as righteous who lived before Christ, will be raised to live in the kingdom of God on earth. Also, many, but not all, unbelievers will be raised to live in the kingdom. The righteous have the job of filling the earth and of teaching the newly raised unrighteous dead.
Near the end of this 1000 years, Satan will be unleashed from the abyss. He will come to the earth with the goal of deceiving as many as possible. Then, Satan, his demons, and those who follow him will be cast into the lake of fire and will be forever destroyed. There will be no more resurrection for them.
This will usher in a new earth on which there will be billions of perfect servants of Jehovah. Jehovah will shower down upon them an overflow of divine blessings. The diagram below gives a visual overview of Watchtower premillennialism.
Figure 2: Overview of Watchtower premillennialism
The Watchtower Society
The Watchtower Society is the authoritative “spokesman” for God according to Jehovah’s Witnesses. The Watchtower Society is God’s ONLY visible organization. Their words are authoritative. They are to be believed. Even if doctrines change, the Watchtower is to be believed. Man is incapable of understanding the teachings of the Bible without the help of the Watchtower.
The explanation for any changes that may occur to practices or doctrines is that God reveals things in his own time. If the Watchtower changes its teachings, it is because God has revealed “new light” to them. The main proof text for the Watchtower Society’s claim to divine truth is Matthew 24:45-47.
24:45
Who then is the faithful and wise servant, whom his lord hath set over his household, to give them their food in due season?
24:46
Blessed is that servant, whom his lord when he cometh shall find so doing.
24:47
Verily I say unto you, that he will set him over all that he hath.
24:48
But if that evil servant shall say in his heart, My lord tarrieth;
24:49
and shall begin to beat his fellow-servants, and shall eat and drink with the drunken;
24:50
the lord of that servant shall come in a day when he expecteth not, and in an hour when he knoweth not,
24:51
and shall cut him asunder, and appoint his portion with the hypocrites: there shall be the weeping and the gnashing of teeth.
The Watchtower claims that the servant (slave in the NWT) is the 144,000 anointed. When Jesus returned in 1914, he first cleansed the heavens (the spiritual war in Rev.12). After this, he cleansed his temple, the spiritual temple of the anointed ones on earth in 1918.In 1919, he re-examined his organization and found it clean.
This organization, the Watchtower, the anointed, is the slave spoken of in Matt. 24:45. It was the only organization providing food at the proper time.
Prove that the Watchtower Society is God’s Organization and it does not matter if doctrines change or practices are wrong because it must be God’s will to reveal things in his own time. Prove that the Watchtower Society is not God’s Organization and it becomes irrelevant if the doctrines are correct or not. To know if Jehovah’s Witnesses have the truth only requires being able to prove or disprove this premise.
Jehovah’s Witnesses thinking on this topic is circular reasoning. In discussing this with them, you will go round and round and get nowhere in most cases. The following chart expresses their circular reasoning, though it could certainly be expressed other ways.
Figure 3: Jehovah's Witnesses Circular Reasoning
What Matt. 24:45-47 Teaches
Matthew 24:45-47 is a parable exhorting disciples to be ready when the Lord comes in judgment. Some brethren hold the position that this parable is speaking of the judgment that came upon Jerusalem in AD 70 while others believe that this is speaking of the second coming of Jesus. Either way, the message is the same. Watch and be ready for judgment because it is coming.
Another word of caution is that many commentators suggest that the servant in this passage refers to ministers, teachers, elders, etc. because of the “give them their food”. While the passage certainly applies to men in these positions, there is no need to restrict its teaching to these positions. It applies to all servants. If God finds any servant doing as He has commanded when judgment comes, that servant will be rewarded. There is no need to make the passage more difficult than it is!
What Matt. 24:45-47 Does NOT Teach
The word “organization” is not found in this passage (nor anywhere else in the Bible). Neither is the word “Watchtower.” And you also won’t find “Jehovah’s Witnesses” in this passage. This passage does not teach that there is or ever has been any organization that is God’s only messenger for truth.
The Nature of God
The Jehovah’s Witnesses teach that Jesus is NOT deity. The Holy Spirit, according to them, is not a person, rather an active force. Therefore, there is no trinity godhead, according to them.
The Deity of Jesus
According to them, Jesus was the first creature that Jehovah made. Pat will cover this topic much more thoroughly in his study of the deity of Christ. However, it is important to understand a few of these teachings that are peculiar to the Jehovah’s witnesses.
The Watchtower teaches that Jesus is Michael the angel. They base this primarily on the fact that the name “Michael” means “like God” and Daniel 12:1.
Another thing to be aware of here is that the NWT changes “worship” to “obeisance” when it is used in reference to Jesus. An incriminating exercise is to look at the Kingdom Interlinear Translation of the Greek Scriptures. This will show that the Greek word is the same but is translated differently in several places. If the object of “proskuneo” is Jesus, the NWT uses the English word “obeisance”. However, if the object is God, the devil, demons, or idols, they always use the English word “worship”.
The Holy Spirit
The Watchtower teaches that the Holy Spirit is God’s active force and is not a person. A primary proof text for this teaching is Matthew 3:11.
3:11
I indeed baptize you in water unto repentance: but he that cometh after me is mightier than I, whose shoes I am not worthy to bear: he shall baptize you in the Holy Spirit and [in] fire:
The argument is like this. John’s baptism is compared to the baptism of the Holy Spirit that Jesus will bring. Since John baptized with water and water is not a person, then the holy spirit is also not a person.
This argument is simply not valid. Rather than being a comparison, this is a contrast! John is pointing out that the baptism of Jesus would be greater than his baptism, though it would be similar in its execution (immersion in water) and object (a penitent person).
Also, Jehovah’s witnesses will turn to Acts 2:4 and 2:33 to show that the Holy Spirit is not a person. The argument goes like this. How can a person be poured out? How can 120 people be simultaneously filled with a person?
This argument is not valid because Paul was a person and he was “poured out.” (Phil. 2:17; 2 Tim 4:6, particularly in the NWT)
NOTE: The 120 mentioned above is the number that will be used by the Jehovah’s Witness referencing the 120 that are mentioned in Acts 1:15. However, I believe that it can be shown that not all 120 were filled with the Holy Spirit. Only the apostles were filled with the Holy Spirit and spoke in tongues. Acts 2:7 shows that those who spoke in tongues were all Galileans, the whole group of 120 would not have been all Galileans.
John 16:5-17 is a very powerful passage to show that the Holy Spirit is a person. He is referred to by a personal pronoun (He, not it) and is doing personal things like convicting, speaking, and declaring.
Also, Acts 5:3-4 show that the Holy Spirit is both a Person and God. How can someone lie to a force? Ananias and Sapphira lied to the Holy Spirit. Verse 4 states that in doing so, they lied to God.
The Trinity
The Jehovah’s Witnesses rejection of the idea of the Godhead is simply a logical conclusion of their teaching about Jesus and the Holy Spirit. Since Jesus is not Deity and since the Holy Spirit is merely God’s active force and not a person, then there is no trinity.
Beyond just being a logical conclusion of their other teachings about the nature of God, the JW’s do not have much of an argument on this point. They simply point out the difficulty in understanding how three could be united in power, eternity, and goodness. Then, since it’s confusing, it must not be true.
Some key passages to have a Jehovah’s Witness read on this topic are the following.
Gen. 1:26; 3:22; Matt. 3:16-17; 28:19; John 14:26.
The Nature of Man
We will cover this in more detail later on, but for now let’s make the following observations about Watchtower doctrine about the nature of man.
The Watchtower teaches that the spirit of man has no existence apart from the body. The soul of man is the combination of a man’s body and spirit. The soul does not live on after the death of the body. Hell is simply the grave. It is impossible for man to experience either blessing or torment in Hades. Eternal nonexistence is the fate of those who are cast into gehenna or the lake of fire.
A couple of proof texts that Jehovah’s witnesses use on these topics are the following. Psalm 146:3-4; Ez. 18:4, 20; Eccl. 9:3-10
If the Bible teaches anything at all about the nature of man and the nature of death, it is that there is an existence after this life, and that existence will either be blessed beyond description or it will be unimaginable torments and anguish. Let’s look at just a few passages that show emphatically existence beyond physical death.
1 Sam 28:3-19; Luke 16:19-31; Acts 9:36-41
Miscellaneous Peculiar Doctrines
Jehovah’s Witnesses do not celebrate birthdays. Their primary proof text is Mark 6:21-24. Along these lines, they do not celebrate Christmas, Easter, Thanksgiving, or any national holiday (Memorial Day, etc.). The only exception that I am aware of is that they are allowed to honor wedding anniversaries.
Jehovah’s Witnesses will not accept a blood transfusion. Their primary proof text is Acts 15:29. To them, this is among the most serious of sins. It is more serious than adultery or theft.