Dealing With The
Jehovah's Witnesses
by Holger
W. Neubauer
Among the many
false religions that promulgate their man-made doctrines in the name of God,
none stand more in opposition to biblical doctrine and God's truth than do the
Jehovah's Witnesses. Paul's statement in Romans 10:2-3 well applies to these
religious zealots: "For I bear them record that they have a zeal of
God, but not according to knowledge.
For they being ignorant of God's righteousness, and going about to
establish their own righteousness, have not submitted themselves unto the
righteousness of God." There is, in my opinion, no religion which
better fits this description in modem times than the Jehovah's Witnesses. I can
speak on this movement with a great deal of firsthand knowledge because my
mother, before she was baptized into Christ, was a part of this denomination of
Christendom. I myself used to distribute the Watch Tower and Awake magazines
door-to-door as a small boy. Because of my personal involvement with this
movement I hope that this article might help some in dealing with the Jehovah's
Witnesses.
The Jehovah's
Witness denomination was founded by Charles Taze Russell (1852-1916) who was
elected "pastor" of his religious group in about 1870. He came to be
known as "Pastor Russell" and his first disciples were called
"Russellites." It was not until 1931 that the title "Jehovah's
Witnesses" was coined by their own denomination in Columbus, Ohio. If the truth about Russell was known, this
denomination would quickly dissolve, since the Jehovah's Witnesses claim
Russell as an outstanding Bible scholar and master of the Greek language.
Russell was found to be a charlatan and mountebank when he brought suit against
the Brooklyn Eagle, a newspaper that had charged that Russell was a hoax.
When the suit finally came to trial, Russell not only was unsuccessful in his
suit against the newspaper, but the newspaper's attorney exposed Russell for
what he really was. The Montague Street branch of the Brooklyn Public Library
has on record the entire trial exposing Russell. The following is an excerpt of
an exchange between the paper's attorney and Russell:
Question (Attorney Staunton): "Do you know the
Greek alphabet?"
Answer (Russell): "Oh yes."
Question (Staunton):
"Can you tell me the correct letters if you see them?"
Answer (Russell): "Some of them, I might make a
mistake on some of them."
Question (Staunton): "Would you tell me the
names of those on top of the page, page 447 I have got here?"
Answer (Russell): "Well, I don't know that I
would be able to."
Question (Staunton): "You can't tell what those
letters are, look at them and see if you know?"
Answer (Russell): "My way..."
He was interrupted at this point and not allowed to
explain.
Question (Staunton): "Are you familiar with the
Greek language?"
Answer (Russell): "No."
Not only did
Russell prove himself not to be a Greek scholar, but he also proved he did not
know the Greek alphabet! Russell was involved in many other farces which
demonstrate the chicanery of the beginnings of this movement. Russell made
thousands of dollars on "miracle wheat" that he claimed grew ten
times faster than normal wheat. Later, government tests showed his claims to be
patently false, and his wheat grew no faster than average wheat. He claimed to
make speeches worldwide which later was proven likewise to be false. Yet, this
is the man who is responsible for the Jehovah's Witnesses existence today.
After Russell died, Joseph Rutherford stepped in as the new leader, and many
doctrines of the Jehovah's Witnesses changed because of Rutherford's
leadership.
The present day Jehovah's Witnesses claim
only a correct knowledge of the Bible can lead to eternal life. To this
affirmation the Scriptures concur (John 8:32); yet, they themselves have no
knowledge of what time they became acceptable to God. When dealing with
Jehovah's Witnesses, one should press the point of salvation, for none of them
can answer at what time they became acceptable to God. The Jehovah's Witnesses stress a correct
knowledge and reject religious experience of romantic inclination, which they
ought to reject, yet, they teach that baptism does not wash away past sins.
Notice this quote from one of their publications: "…baptism is not a sacrament, it does not wash away sins,
but for Christians is a symbol of their having dedicated themselves to do God's
will." ("Why and How to Be Baptized," Awake, February 22,
1957, p.8). The Jehovah's Witnesses follow denominational dogma of baptism and
then deny that one can know about one's relationship with God by experience.
This doctrine can then be easily refuted, for if one cannot know when he was
saved, one cannot know he is saved presently. Of course, one can know he is
saved, and the point of salvation is baptism (Acts 2:38; 22:16; Rom. 6:3-4; Mark
16:16).
The Jehovah's Witnesses also affirm the Kingdom of
God was established in heaven in 1914. This wild theory was concocted after
Russell failed in his prediction of the Lord's coming in 1874. The year 1914
was first predicted as the time of the end and when that day came and passed,
they "spiritualized" the coming. Even then they were not opposed to
more predictions, for Rutherford (the JW's next leader) would try his hand at
predictions, and in the publication Millions Now Living Will Never Die on
page 89, Rutherford said, "Therefore we may confidently expect that 1925
will mark the return of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob and the faithful prophets of
old, particularly those named by the apostle in Hebrews chapter eleven, to the
condition of human perfection." 1925 has long since passed and this among
their many other prophecies has proven to be persiflage in the wind. The
Kingdom of God was established on the first Pentecost after the resurrection of
Jesus. Christians should press Witnesses with passages such as Mark 9:1,
Matthew 3:2; 4:17; 16:19, Colossians 1:13, and Revelation 1:5, 9 which
demonstrate the Kingdom was already in existence at the time of the New
Testament.
The JW's are most
proud of their denial of the trinity. They contend the trinity is merely a
Roman Catholic doctrine authorized by the Council of Nicea in 325 A.D. Although
it is true that the general Council of Nicea upheld the concept of the trinity
, it is false to suggest that if the council upheld it, then it must be wrong.
The same council believed in Sunday worship and guess what day the JW's set
aside for worship? The JW's teach that only the Father is eternal. Christ is
viewed by them as the first creation of God, and the Holy Spirit is simply the
force of God. Much of their argument is based on the descriptions of Jesus
being the "only begotten" of the Father (John 1:14) and being the
first born (Col. 1:18). Jesus was indeed born into the flesh (Matt. 1:18), but
his being has occupied eternity. Micah 5:2 states that Bethlehem would
be the birth place of a ruler "whose goings forth have been from of
old, from everlasting." In Psalm 89:27, at a time when Christ was
already in existence, the psalmist said, "Also I will make him my
first-born, higher than the kings of the earth." Clearly their
argument is false, for the connotation of "firstborn" from the Greek
prototokos emphasizes his position and not a beginning. Jesus described
Himself with the same terminology that God employed when He revealed Himself to
Moses as the great "I Am" (Exod. 3:14). In John 8:58, Jesus
said, "Before Abraham was, I am." This language implies that
Jesus' nature simply is to be, that is he always was and always will be.
Jesus is revealed in the Scripture as eternal and as
God our Savior; yet, He is a separate and distinct person from the Father and
the Spirit. This can be readily seen in Isaiah 43:10-11: "Ye are my
witnesses, saith the Lord, and my servant whom I have chosen; that ye may know
and believe me, and understand that I am he: before me there was no God formed,
neither shall there be after me. I, even I, am the Lord; and beside me there is
no savior." Since there is no
Savior besides God, and according to II Peter 2:20 Jesus is Lord and Savior, we
can know that Jesus is also God.
In Isaiah 42:8 the prophet said, "I
am the Lord: that is my name: and my
glory I will not give to another, neither my praise to graven images."
Yet, in John 17:5 Jesus prayed to the Father this poignant petition, "And
now, O Father, glorify thou me with thine own self with the glory which I had
with thee before the world was." Since God will not give His glory to
another, and Jesus had the Father's glory, it then follows that Jesus must have
been God, lest God Himself be found a liar. Only God can be rightfully worshiped
(Matt. 4:10) and yet Jesus is worshiped (Matt. 28:9). Jesus is called "Lord
and God" in John 20:28 by Thomas. Jesus is not merely "a
god" as the JW's affirm, but He is "the God" and the second
person in the Godhead.
As we continue to
review various tenets of the Jehovah's Witness denomination, we turn to the
Witness doctrine of denying eternal punishment. The JW's occupy a great amount
of their time in their personal discussions as well as space in their
periodicals in denying what the Bible absolutely affirms in this matter.
The Witnesses are
quick to point out that the Greek word gehenna is a transliteration (a
substitute of corresponding letters between languages) of the Hebrew ge
hinnom and means literally the "Valley of Hinnom." They also
point out that the "Valley of Hinnom" was a site used to offer human
sacrifices to the false god Molech, and then during the reforms of Josiah the
site was turned into a garbage dump in which the flames were kept going day and
night. With these comments we concur, but to suggest that the New Testament
references to gehenna simply refer to everlasting destruction or
extinction is to overturn what the Bible teaches on this subject. Since no one
will literally be tossed into that same garbage dump, for it no longer even
exists, gehenna must be a different place than the ancient garbage dump.
Jesus did not speak of casting anyone into the literal "Valley of Hinnom." Jesus employed the word to refer to a final place of punishment
for the wicked.
Jesus said, "And
I say unto you my friends, be not afraid of them that kill the body, and after
that have no more that they can do. But I will forewarn you whom ye shall fear;
Fear Him, which after He hath killed hath power to cast into hell; yea, I say
unto you, Fear Him" (Luke 12:4-5). Clearly, Jesus taught of a
place after death. This place is labeled "hell" or gehenna. If
gehenna is simply death or extinction, then Jesus' words amount to
nothing more than drivel. Jesus warned of a place after death that is more
terrible than any earthly, physical death could possibly be. The JW's doctrine
implies that man should be feared no more than God. The world's tyrants such as
Hitler and Mussolini had absolutely nothing to fear save death. No, the JW's
are wrong. The world's tyrants will all learn that God is to be feared.
The Greek word aionon means
"eternal" and is used in "eternal life" and "everlasting
punishment" in Matthew 25:46. If there is eternal reward then
there is eternal punishment. The JW's turn philosophical at this juncture of
their argument and contend that God would be unloving to punish anyone in an
eternal place of torment. They fail to recognize that God places the price tag
upon sin (Rom. 6:23). But consider: can God punish a tyrant like Saddam Hussein
(if he does not repent) for a minute in torment? What about an hour? A day? A
week or month? If one can rightly see that sin deserves punishment, who is man
to tell God how long He can punish sin? The consequences of sin must be
terrible indeed, for the God of heaven sent His only Son to die on a cruel
cross to free us from them.
Sometimes the JW's argue that the word "destroy"
as in Matthew 10:28 suggests annihilation of the soul. The word translated "destroy"
is from the Greek apollumi. It does, however, denote a sense of being lost and brought to ruin. Jesus used the same
word in Luke 15:4 when He spoke of "lost" sheep. The Bible
teaches that all those outside of Christ will be punished for ever and ever and
will be lost and separated from God for eternity. This is the terrible
consequence of sin, but this should make us all the more thankful for the
marvelous gift of God through Jesus Christ the propitiation for our sins.
The JW's contention that the soul is not
eternal, but simply refers to the "life" of an animal or human, will
not stand an honest scrutinizing of the Scriptures. Charles Russell, the main
mountebank and founder of the Witness denomination, asserted that "man
does not possess an immortal soul, but that he is a soul." Russell would
speak about "animal souls" and "human souls" and then argue
that the soul of man is but his life force. Like many doctrines promulgated by
the JW's, an obscure usage of a word is seized, and then they attempt to twist
every other passage in the Bible into their nefarious mold. Though the New
Testament teaches that man is a soul, as I Peter 3:20 refers to "eight
souls saved by water," the New Testament teaches likewise that man
possesses a soul. In Psalm 103:1, the psalmist declared, "Bless the
Lord, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits." Here David makes a
difference between himself and his soul by the phrase "all that is
within me." As Rachel died in the birth of Benjamin, the text tell us
in Genesis 35:18 that "her soul was in departing." As Rachel
died, her soul departed. James said, "The body without the spirit is
dead" (James 2:24). But where did her soul depart to? Ecclesiastes
3:21 says, "Who knoweth the spirit of man that goeth upward, and the
spirit of the beast that goeth downward to the earth?" Rachel's spirit
and soul departed upwardly as did Enoch's in Genesis 5:24: "And Enoch
walked with God: and he was not: for God took him." God took Enoch's
spirit for flesh and blood cannot go where God is (1 Cor. 15:50). Enoch's
spirit returned to God who gave it (Eccles. 12:7), unto the very "Father
of spirits" (Heb. 12:9). In both the deaths of Rachel and Enoch,
something died and something continued. The body died and the soul, the eternal
aspect of man, continued living.
The Hebrew word translated soul is the term nephesh.
The Greek word is psyche. These words often mean much more than
mortal breath or life. God himself has a soul (Heb. 10:38). Since God is spirit
He certainly has no physical breath and His soul must be the same as His
spirit. The soul is the eternal part of man that God created in His own image.
In Revelation 6:6-9, the Bible speaks of the "souls of them that had
been slain for the word of God." These souls were crying for judgment of the wicked on
the earth.
Long after Abraham
was buried, Jesus spoke in the present tense saying, "I am the God of
Abraham…God is not the God of the dead but of the living" (Matt.
22:32). Since the body of Abraham had long since died, there must have been a
part of Abraham still in existence, because God was still Abraham's God. The
only way to reconcile this passage with the fact that Abraham's body was in the
grave is to acknowledge that Abraham's soul had continued to live. Abraham's
soul never died as the JW's teach, but rather lived on as Jesus taught.
Abraham, Isaac, and
Jacob all continued to live after their physical death (Matt. 22:32). The rich
man and Lazarus continued to live as taught in Luke 16. The penitent thief met
Jesus in paradise in the very day he died.
The JW's are wrong
about the soul of man and my prayer is that they will be converted to the truth
before they discover their soul has lived on in eternity.
For more information contact:
Tennessee
Bible College
P.O. Box 865
Cookeville, TN 38503
