In this blog, I have addressed many false teachings and cults, including the Mormons, the Oneness Christology heresy, the prosperity gospel, cessationism, the false eternal security gospel, those who deny the Deity of Christ, and the Roman Catholic Church. Today I would like to touch briefly upon a very active group that is constantly trying to make converts to their religion, which is the Jehovah's Witnesses.
I know a precious sister in Christ, who once made the mistake of welcoming these people into her home. They became friends, and she was away from the Lord for several years, while she was caught up in this cult.
She says of those nine years of her life as a JW, "I never once felt the presence of the Holy Spirit. My time there was absent from the presence of God. The reason I stayed in the cult for so long was because they skillfully use scripture out of context to support their claims, and they keep people using their intellectual, natural thinking, and don't allow room whatsoever for the person to experience the confirming, spiritual presence of God. They 'reason' everything with their natural minds and give no room for the life-giving presence of Jesus to abide in their hearts. Those who worship Him must worship Him in Spirit and Truth, not just head knowledge."
Thank the Lord that eventually, through prayer and the power of the Holy Spirit, she came out of it, and is once again walking with Jesus as her Lord and Savior. But it all began with allowing them into her home, which the Scripture teaches us not to do so. It says:
Please allow me to explain why true believers are against the JW cult. It's because we love the truth, and we hate the devil's lies; that's why. JW's deny the doctrine of the Trinity — one of the essential doctrines of the Christian faith. They claim that Jesus is not God. Rather, they say he was the Archangel Michael. And they don't believe in the bodily resurrection of Christ, but that He was resurrected as a spirit. John 1:1 clearly says He “was God.” They changed it in their own New World Translation (NWT) to say he was “a god,” and teach that He is something less -- not truly God. But there is no Greek word for “a” (the indefinite article) in this verse, nor does Greek grammar allow one to be inserted1, as they have done. This is just one of the perverted verses in their NWT Bible translation, produced by their Watchtower Society, which is not a valid translation of the Bible, but rather one that is dishonest, inconsistent, and has been changed in order to agree with their false doctrine, since the true Scriptures do not support it2.
Lastly, they are into using occult symbols. For example, the early Watchtower publications prominently displayed on the upper left-hand corner the cross and crown symbol of the Knights Templar, which is actually a Masonic symbol. The same symbol can be found at the Masonic Temple in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Pictured here to the left is the Jehovah's Witness headquarters in Denmark as seen from the sky using Google Earth. Notice the obvious pyramid with the all-seeing eye at the top like the one on the US currency.
Do You Want to Know Him?
If you want to know Jesus personally, you can. It all begins when you repent and believe in Jesus. Do you know what God's Word, the Bible says?
“Jesus came into Galilee, preaching the gospel of God, and saying, ‘The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand; repent and believe in the gospel.’” (Mar 1:14b-15). He preached that we must repent and believe.
Please see my explanation of this in my post called "Do You Want to Know Jesus?"
Len Lacroix is the founder of Doulos Missions International. He was based in Eastern Europe for four years, making disciples, as well as helping leaders to be more effective at making disciples who multiply, developing leaders who multiply, with the ultimate goal of planting churches that multiply. His ministry is now based in the United States with the same goal of helping fulfill the Great Commission. www.dmiworld.org.
"Anyone who runs ahead and does not continue in the teaching of Christ does not have God; whoever continues in the teaching has both the Father and the Son. If anyone comes to you and does not bring this teaching, do not take them into your house or welcome them. Anyone who welcomes them shares in their wicked work." (2Jn 1:9-11)
I saw an excellent video recently about a lovely Amish couple that got saved. The Amish couple mentioned that after they were excommunicated from the Amish, they were approached by people from four of five different religious groups, including the Jehovah's Witnesses, the Church of Christ (probably he was referring to Latter Day Saints/Mormons), and another was an Apostolic guy (Oneness Pentecostal). That last one has something in common with the first ones, as both the JW's and Apostolic people deny the essential doctrine of the Holy Trinity. A person made a comment on the video asking what was wrong with the Jehovah's Witnesses (JWs), since he apparently has noticed that a large part of society seems to dislike them. Here is the person's comment:
"Why is everyone so anti- JW? I had them visit me every week, and they were absolutely lovely. I'd love to understand why they are considered cultists, as they were open, friendly, and welcoming. They love God and family. Those are two things that are undervalued so much."
Please allow me to explain why true believers are against the JW cult. It's because we love the truth, and we hate the devil's lies; that's why. JW's deny the doctrine of the Trinity — one of the essential doctrines of the Christian faith. They claim that Jesus is not God. Rather, they say he was the Archangel Michael. And they don't believe in the bodily resurrection of Christ, but that He was resurrected as a spirit. John 1:1 clearly says He “was God.” They changed it in their own New World Translation (NWT) to say he was “a god,” and teach that He is something less -- not truly God. But there is no Greek word for “a” (the indefinite article) in this verse, nor does Greek grammar allow one to be inserted1, as they have done. This is just one of the perverted verses in their NWT Bible translation, produced by their Watchtower Society, which is not a valid translation of the Bible, but rather one that is dishonest, inconsistent, and has been changed in order to agree with their false doctrine, since the true Scriptures do not support it2.
Not only do they deny Christ's deity, which is clearly taught all throughout Scripture (see here), they also deny the existence of a literal hell as described in the Bible. Watch Tower publications teach that hell (Hades or Sheol) is not an actual place of fiery torment, as Scripture clearly teaches, but rather the "common grave of mankind", a place of unconscious non-existence. Therefore, the JWs deny that hell even exists, in clear contradiction of the Holy Scriptures, which explicitly teach that hell is real (Mt 5:22, 29-30; 8:12; 10:28; 13:42, 50; 18:8-9; 22:13; 23:33; 24:51; 25:30, 41; Mk 9:43-47; Lk 12:5; 13:28; Jn 5:29; 2 Pet 3:7; Rev 14:9-11; 20:10-15; 21:8; Dan 12:2).
In fact, they even teach that there is no general (universal) resurrection of all the dead, although the Scripture explicitly says the exact opposite (Mt 22:30-32; Lk 14:14; 20:35-36; Jn 5:28-29; 11:25; Ac 4:2. 33; 17:32; 23:6; 24:15, 21; Ro 6:5; 1 Cor 15:12-13, 21, 29, 42; Heb 6:2; 11:35). The Bible teaches that there will be a resurrection of all the dead, the righteous to eternal life and the wicked to eternal punishment. But the JWs believe that at the time of death, a person's existence completely stops, since they believe that human beings do not have an immortal soul that survives when the body dies. For more proof that this belief of theirs is false, please see eternaldestinations.info where I have posted many testimonies of many people who have been shown heaven and hell either through near-death experiences, after-death experiences, or through dreams and visions.
To be sure, while the JWs do not believe in a general, bodily resurrection of all mankind, they do believe that a spiritual resurrection is possible for certain people. They teach that in 1878 Jesus resurrected as spirit beings to heavenly life those among the 144,000 (known as the "anointed") who had already died at that time. And they believe that since 1878, any "anointed" (i.e., members of the 144,000) are individually resurrected as spirit beings to heavenly life at the time of their death. They teach that the 144,000 anointed ones, which are all Jehovah's Witnesses, of course, shall serve as kings alongside Christ in his heavenly government. They say that the 144,000 are the only ones who are born again and who experience heavenly life. Finally, they falsely claim that all other JW's who have died and don't go to heaven will one day get resurrected and will live on a paradise earth (not heaven). Therefore, to summarize, they only believe in a resurrection (as spirit beings) of the 144,000 to heaven, and an ultimate resurrection of all other JWs to an earthly paradise, but they do not believe in a general, bodily resurrection of all mankind.
Furthermore, the Jehovah's Witnesses deny the power of God and believe that the gifts of the Holy Spirit ceased during the first century. They do not believe these gifts are still in operation today, and in teaching this, they directly contradict Scripture (Mk 16:17-18; Jn 14:12; Ac 1:8; 2:17-18; Joel 2:28-29), as well as the experience of billions of people like me, who have and still are experiencing the spiritual gifts in operation in their lives today. For more on this, please see Have the Spiritual Gifts Ceased?
They also deny the Holy Spirit, and say that He is not a Person but just a force. They like to use head knowledge, natural, intellectual, and human reasoning to explain God's Word, instead of being led by the Holy Spirit.
Closing Words
The Jehovah's Witness religion meets the basic criteria of a cult, which is any group that claims to be Christian, as this group does, yet does not adhere to the basic, essential tenets of the true Christian faith as taught in Scripture and embraced by the Church for thousands of years. They do not hold to the true doctrines of the Holy Trinity, the Deity of Christ, or His bodily resurrection, nor do they believe in the general resurrection of the dead, or a literal hell, where the wicked are forever separated from God in a fiery place of eternal, conscious torment. They claim that theirs is the only true religion. They have a form of godliness, but they deny the power of God (2 Tim 3:5). They deny the Person of the Holy Spirit, and teach that the gifts of the Spirit have ceased. They have their own erroneous Bible translation, and they use it, as well as any Bible version, to deceive people, as Peter the apostle spoke of, distorting the Scriptures to their own destruction (2 Pet 3:16). They follow deceiving spirits and things taught by demons (1 Tim 4:1). The Bible tells us to have nothing to do with such people. Do not take them into your house or welcome them (2Jn 1:9-11).
If you do a Google search on whether this is a cult, one of the first results that you will get will be an article written by the JWs defending their false religion. Anyone can pay to have search engine optimization (SEO), so that their article will be one of the top results in a search. They don't want you to find other results from Christian authors that will show you the truth about their cult from Scripture. But one article you may find helpful that is buried in the search results is called Using the New World Translation to refute the New World Translation: John 1:1. If you know what's best for you, I urge you to stay away from this cult, even though they claim to be the only true Christians.
Footnotes: 1 Ancient (koine) Greek does not have an indefinite article like the English word a, and nominatives without articles also have a range of meanings that require context to interpret. The noun theos (meaning "God" in John 1:1) is anarthrous (meaning it lacks an article), which often is how indefinite nouns are expressed in Greek. The construction in John 1:1 is that of an anarthrous nominative singular in a preverbal position; so in this verse, theos (1) lacks an article, (2) it occurs before the verb, and (3) it is a nominative singular. Therefore, an indefinite article "a" cannot be inserted before the word "God" in this verse, as the JWs have done. Also see here.
2 Dr. Julius Mantey, author of A Manual Grammar of the Greek New Testament, and a first rate scholar who studied Greek for more than 65 years, calls the NWT "a shocking mistranslation." "Obsolete and incorrect." "It is neither scholarly nor reasonable to translate John 1:1 'The Word was a god.'" "I have never read any New Testament so badly translated as The Kingdom Interlinear Translation of The Greek Scriptures.... it is a distortion of the New Testament. The translators used what J.B. Rotherham had translated in 1893, in modern speech, and changed the readings in scores of passages to state what Jehovah's Witnesses believe and teach. That is a distortion not a translation." (Julius Mantey, Depth Exploration in The New Testament (N.Y.: Vantage Pres, 1980), pp.136-137). The translators of the NWT are "diabolical deceivers." (Julius Mantey in discussion with Walter Martin). Also see here.
Attribution notice: Most Scriptures takes from the NIV Holy Bible, copyright Zondervan, used by permission. Image may be subject to copyright, used per the Fair Use Act for educational and commentary purposes only. Special thanks to my son Christopher Lacroix for proofreading this article.
Author's note: If you enjoyed this post, I recommend Charles Taze Russell -- JW Founder in Hell, Refuting the Oneness Christology Heresy, Is Jesus God?, The Place of Weeping and Gnashing of Teeth, The Holy Trinity, Have the Spiritual Gifts Ceased?, The Person of the Holy Spirit, The False Gospel of Eternal Security. The False Gospel Without Repentance. You may access more of my articles on the Main Directory of this blog, as well as my complete blog directory at "Writing for the Master."
Do You Want to Know Him?
If you want to know Jesus personally, you can. It all begins when you repent and believe in Jesus. Do you know what God's Word, the Bible says?
“Jesus came into Galilee, preaching the gospel of God, and saying, ‘The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand; repent and believe in the gospel.’” (Mar 1:14b-15). He preached that we must repent and believe.
Please see my explanation of this in my post called "Do You Want to Know Jesus?"
_________________________________________________
Len Lacroix is the founder of Doulos Missions International. He was based in Eastern Europe for four years, making disciples, as well as helping leaders to be more effective at making disciples who multiply, developing leaders who multiply, with the ultimate goal of planting churches that multiply. His ministry is now based in the United States with the same goal of helping fulfill the Great Commission. www.dmiworld.org.
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