In 1870, at the age of eighteen, an ex-Congregationalist by the name of Charles Taze Russell started a Bible class in Pittsburgh. In 1876, the class elected Russell as their Pastor. He founded the "Herald of the Morning" in 1879, which eventually developed into what is known today as "The Watchtower Announcing Jehovah's Kingdom." Today this publication has grown to over seventeen million copies per month in over one hundred languages.
In 1884, Russell incorporated the "Zion's Watch Tower Tract Society" at Pittsburgh. Today this organization has branches in over one hundred countries, and it has missionary works in over two hundred and fifty. With over one-half million volunteer workers, the Jehovah's Witnesses have become a serious threat to Bible believers throughout the world.
Russell died in 1916, and Judge J.F. Rutherford took over the Society's leadership. It was under Rutherford's leadership that the group took the name "Jehovah's Witnesses," and Society headquarters moved to Brooklyn. Rutherford died in 1942, and Nathan Knorr took control and boosted the membership to over two million. In 1961 the Society published its own "translation" of the scriptures, called "The New World Translation of the Holy Scriptures." Knorr died in 1977, and Frederick Franz took over the leadership of the Watchtower Society. Franz is the current leader of the Jehovah's Witnesses (1991).
Rather than bore ourselves with the corrupt history of the Watchtower Bible and Tract Society, we shall get straight to the main issue at hand: What does the Bible say about their DOCTRINES? The true Bible-believer realizes that the primary purpose for the Lord giving us the Scriptures is DOCTRINE (2 Tim. 3:16), and we are supposed to KNOW sound doctrine from false doctrine. Many have departed from the faith and have given themselves over to "doctrines of devils" (1 Tim. 4:1), and it is our Christian duty to check these people and arm ourselves against their false teachings.
The main false doctrines taught by the "JW's" (Henceforth used to abbreviate "Jehovah's Witnesses") are as follows: (1) that God is not a Trinity, (2) that Jesus Christ did not physically rise from the dead, (3) that there will be no literal and physical Second Coming of Christ, and (4) that there will be no place of eternal torment for the wicked. These are the major heresies taught by the JW's, and we shall examine each of these in light of God's pure and preserved words. Let us begin with a look at the Trinity.
Is God A Trinity?
According the Bible, God is a Triune Being. As all humans are a trinity (soul, body, and spirit--1 Ths. 5:23), God is also a Trinity. In Genesis 1:26, God said, "Let us make man in our image. . ." In Genesis 11:7, God said, ". . . .let us go down, and there confound their language. . ." The terms "us" and "our" obviously refer to the Holy Trinity. So the Trinity is found in the very early chapters of the Bible.
In the New Testament, we can see all three Members of the Trinity at the Baptism of Jesus in Matthew chapter three. God the Father is speaking from Heaven. God the Son is being baptized, and God the Holy Ghost is descending like a dove. When Jesus gave the Great Commission in Matthew 28:18-20, He said in verse 19, "Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost." 1 John 5:7 tells us that there are THREE that bear record in Heaven: ". . . the Father, the Word, and the Holy Ghost: and these three are one." (The "Word" is Christ according to John 1:1-3, 14, and 1 John 1:1-3.)
God is a Trinity. He isn't three Gods, like the JW's accuse us of believing, but He is ONE Triune God. The pagans who worshipped three gods did so because they knew from observing the creation that God must be in some way associated with the number "THREE." They never fully understood the Holy Trinity, but you must admit that they came much closer than the JW's.
As a man is a soul, a body, and a spirit, God the Father is the Soul of the Trinity, God the Son is the Body, and God the Holy Ghost is the Spirit.
According to Psalm 19:1 and Romans 1:20, God's creation actually declares the Trinity doctrine. One can see PROOF of the Trinity everywhere in the universe. The universe consists of three parts: Time, Space, and Matter. Time consists of three parts: Past, Present, and Future. Space consists of three parts: Length, Width, and Height. Matter consists of three parts: Energy, Motion, and Phenomena. There are three heavens in 2 Cor. 12:2, and on earth there are three forms of life: Man, Plant, and Animal. These forms of life are found in three places: Land, Sea, and Air. God is continually showing us through His creation that He is a Trinity.
A perfect example of this is the sun. The sun has three kinds of rays: chemical rays, light rays, and heat rays. Chemical rays cannot be seen or felt, but they can be very powerful. When one receives a sunburn, it is from the sun's chemical rays. This is a type of God the Father. Light rays are sometimes visible to the human eye. This is a type of Jesus Christ, the "light of the world" (John 8:12) and the "Sun of righteousness" (Mal.4:2). Heat rays are a type of the Holy Ghost for they bring comfort to us by warming our bodies, just as the Holy Ghost, the Comforter (John 16:7), brings comfort to us.
So one can clearly see that God's word and God's creation both testify to the fact that He is a Trinity. However, some people aren't getting the message. The book, "Let God Be True", (Watchtower Bible & Tract Soc., 1952) says the following on page 92:
"The trinity doctrine was not conceived by Jesus or the early Christians."
Then on page 93, this book says:
"...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 Jesus Christ."
On page 102 of the 1946 edition of "Let God Be True," the JW's make a very blasphemous statement concerning the Holy Trinity: "...Sincere persons who want to know the true God and serve Him find it a bit difficult to love and worship a complicated, freakish looking, three-headed God."
Such a remark is entirely uncalled for and is a blank misrepresentation of what Christians really believe about the Trinity. The JW's cannot UNDERSTAND the Trinity, so they CONDEMN the Trinity. They fail to realize that it is not our job to tell God WHAT HE IS or to even FULLY UNDERSTAND how He can exist. Our responsibility is to BELIEVE WHAT HE SAYS, AS HE SAYS IT, WHERE HE SAYS IT, WITHOUT CHANGING A SINGLE WORD! The Scriptures already presented in this study clearly show that God is a Trinity. Your responsibility is NOT to attempt reasoning out the eternal decrees of God in your small finite mind. Your responsibility is to BELIEVE WHAT GOD SAYS. Now either you DO, or you DON'T. The JW's DON'T.
The JW's believe that Jehovah is God the Father, and that Jesus Christ and the Holy Ghost are not God. They're wrong. The Bible tells us that Jesus Christ and the Holy Ghost are both Deity.
Jesus Christ Is Deity
As the Second Member of the Trinity, Jesus Christ stands co-existent in Eternity with God the Father and God the Holy Spirit. There are many proofs in the scriptures for the Deity of Christ. We shall now list several of them.
(1) In Zechariah 12:10, Jehovah speaks of the future return of Christ and says, ". . . They shall look upon me whom they have pierced, and they shall mourne for him, as one mourneth for his only son . . . ." This is spoken again in Revelation 1:7, which is clearly a reference to Christ Himself, but in Zechariah 12:10 GOD said, ". . . They shall look upon me whom they have pierced . . . ." The One that they pierced was Jesus Christ! So, in Zechariah 12:10, God is saying that He is Jesus Christ.
(2) In John 1:1, John 1:14, 1 John 1:1, and in 1 John 5:7, Jesus is called "the Word," and John 1:1 says that "the Word was God."
(3) Thomas referred to Jesus as "My Lord and my God" in John 20:28, and Jesus did not see the need to correct him.
(4) Isaiah 7:14 gives us the prophecy of the Virgin Birth of Christ and states that His name would be "Immanuel." Matthew 1:23 tells us that this word means "God with us."
(5) In Isaiah 9:6, Jesus is called "Wonderful, Counsellor, The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace." The Bible certainly would not say this about anyone less than God.
(6) In John 10:30, Jesus says, "I and my Father are one." Jesus is not a lesser god; He is ONE with the Father.
(7) Micah 5:2 tells us that Jesus is "from everlasting."
(8) In John 8:58, Jesus tells the Pharisees, "Before Abraham was, I am." He claimed to be the "I AM" of Exodus 3:14, which is God Almighty.
(9) Jesus allowed others to worship Him (John 9:38; Matt. 14:33; and Luke 24:52), which was forbidden, unless He was God (Rev. 22:9).
(10) Jesus forgave sins (Mark 2:5), which only God can do (Mark 2:7).
(11) The Lord Jesus Christ is omnipresent (Matt. 18:20; 28:20; II Cor. 13:14; I John 5:7). We know He is God because He is capable of being everywhere at once.
(12) Jesus is omniscient (Mark 11:2-6; Matt. 12:40). He is God because He knows all things.
(13) The Lord Jesus is also omnipotent (Rev. 19:6; Matt. 28:18). He has all power.
(14) According to John 1, 1 John 1, Colossians 1, and Hebrews 1, Jesus Christ is the Creator of Genesis 1!
(15) Jesus never sinned! Romans 3:23 says that ALL HAVE SINNED and come short of the glory of God, but Jesus did not sin (2 Cor. 5:21; 1 Peter 3:18). So Jesus had to be God.
Now, if you've taken time to check these references, then the Holy Spirit has attempted to show you one great truth: The LORD JESUS CHRIST IS GOD. That much is clear to any honest Bible student. The Jehovah's Witnesses are not honest Bible students. One only has to pick up a copy of their "New World Translation of the Holy Scriptures" to see how dishonest and unfaithful they are with God's word. We shall list a few examples of how the New World Translation ATTACKS the Deity of the Lord Jesus Christ:
(1) It changes Zechariah 12:10 to read, ". . . they will certainly look to the one whom they pierced. . . ."
(2) John 1:1 in the N.W.T. says that "the Word was a god," instead of "the Word was God." The definite article "the" is replaced with "a," and the capital "G" is replaced with a lower case "g." The last half of 1 John 5:7 is omitted in the N.W.T., because it says that the Father, the Word (which is Christ in John 1:14), and the Holy Ghost "are one."
(3) The Virgin Birth is attacked in Isaiah 7:14 of the N.W.T. by translating "maiden," instead of "virgin," even though Matthew 1:23 TOLD THEM that it should read "virgin!" The JW's will attack anyone or anything associated with the Lord Jesus Christ.
(4) They change "from everlasting" in Micah 5:2 to read, "time indefinite," which is not the same at all.
(5) John 8:58 is where Christ said, "Before Abraham was, I am." This matches God's statement to Moses in Exodus 3:14, meaning that Christ is God. However, the N.W.T. says, "Before Abraham came into existence, I have been." This destroys the valuable cross reference to Exodus 3:14. The JW's believe that Jesus was "a god" before the time of Abraham, but that He was NOT the "I AM" of Exodus 3:14.
(6) In John 9:38, Matthew 14:33, and Luke 24:52, the JW's have replaced the word "worshipped" with the words "did obeisance," which is not the same (See Gen. 37:7, 43:28; Exodus 18:7; 2 Sam. 1:2; 2 Chr. 24:17).
The matter is clear: the JW's will attack the Lord Jesus Christ every time they have a chance. Their "bible" proves it. Their WRITINGS also prove it. Here are a few blasphemous remarks made by the JW's over the years concerning the Lord Jesus Christ:
". . . he was the first and direct creation of Jehovah God" (The Kingdom is at Hand, p. 46, 47, 49).
"If Jesus were God, then during Jesus' death, God was dead in the grave" (Let God Be True, p. 91).
". . . the true Scriptures speak of God's Son, the Word, as 'a god'." He is a "mighty god," but not the Almighty God, who is Jehovah" (The Truth Shall Make You Free, p. 47).
"The very fact that he was sent proves he was not equal with God, but was less than God his father" (The Word: Who is He, p. 41).
This is how a cult deals with the written word of God. HUMAN REASONING is the final authority of all cults. Rather than to take God at His word BY FAITH, a cultist will always REJECT God's word and attempt to reason things out for himself. All cults will ADD TO, SUBTRACT FROM, OR IGNORE the written revelation of God.
For those of us who BELIEVE the scriptures, we are now well aware of the fact that Jesus Christ is God. Those who believe otherwise will have to CHANGE or IGNORE the Bible, because the Bible testifies of none other than the Lord Jesus Christ Himself (John 5:39).
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