ACCEPT TRUTH NO MATTER WHERE YOU FIND IT, NO MATTER WHAT IT CONTRADICTS
ZIONS WATCHTOWER - JULY 1879
My friend recently joined Jehovah's Witnesses. Does anyone know where to find information? was the question. By all means find out all that you can about the Jehovah's Witnesses and their tons of false prophecies. Their two main leaders were Charles Taze Russel and Joseph Rutherford, who used occult methods of channeling their > "messages" from angles (spirit medium). That is why they call their organization "God's Channel of Communication". In reality, these are fallen angels (demons) that these men were dealing with. Rutherford was heavily into "automatic writing", and if you don't know what that is, it is satanic and straight out of the occult. That is why all their prophecies have failed. They are one of the false prophets that Jesus warned would come.I have studied this cult for a couple of years and have been evangelizing to JW's since I was born again. They use mind control techniques to blind the minds of the members.
Their main beliefs are that Jesus Christ is Michael the archangel, who came into "kingdom power" in 1914 and chose a guy named Charles Taze Russell as his "faithful and discreet slave" to send the end time message to the world that God's kingdom has come. Earlier they taught that this "event" happened in 1874 and earlier yet in 1799. In fact, in the year 1914 itself (when Christ was supposed to have invisibly returned to earth according to them), they were saying he returned in 1874. So if one is awaiting the Second Coming like all of the Christians, then one will be told by the JW's that Jesus (or "Michael") already returned in 1914, but that it's invisible and only they know about it. Of course we all know that "every eye shall see him" (rev. 1:7-8).
They also believe you have to earn your salvation through obedience to the Watchtower Society and it's dictates. You are not allowed to think for yourself, as it is against their official rules ("Reasoning >From the Scriptures" is like their "Catechism" and if you look at p. 328 and p. 205, it explains that you are to literally submit your mind to the Society and it's leaders). Likewise independent bible reading is not allowed. You may only "study the bible" with an elder of the Society. The main reason for this (as hopefully your friend and you won't find out too late), is so that you don't start to figure out that they are teaching false doctrines, taking things out of context, and the old cult trick of re-defining words. Also they have their own version of the bible, called The New World Translation, in which they removed every reference to the Deity of Jesus Christ and altered [ hundreds ] of verses to suit their doctrine. It was discovered in 1980 that the translators of their bible didn't have Greek or Hebrew knowledge at all (nor much education for that matter). The head person of this committee was/is a [ man ] named Fred Franz who was found to have lied under oath that he was a Rhodes scholar. They all justify their lying and teach their members to do likewise in order to "protect the organization".
They teach that the Holy Spirit is not a Person of the Godhead (oh how they hate the trinity!) but that it is "God's active force" and that it's an impersonal "force" like electricity (I am quite serious!) They say that Jesus' atonement is not enough to be "saved" (even though they have no concept of what that really means). They teach that the soul is annihilated at death and that there is no consciousness after death of the body. They teach that "hell" only means the grave. They say that only 144,000 of the "anointed remnant" will go to heaven (and that this was closed by "God" in 1935). The rest of the members hope to live on earth as a Paradise. In fact, they usually start the new recruit off with a home "bible study". They don't really actually study the bible at all. They use a book called "Live Forever in Paradise on Earth". They will read a chapter or so at a time and then look up Scriptures from their false bible, out of context, to 'prove' some point brought up in the book.
They deny the bodily resurrection of Christ, claiming that "Christ" arose as a spiritual being. They say that the man who was Jesus Christ died and is "forever dead" but that he returned to the Father as Michael the archangel again. So, they also don't have a risen saviour.
They also teach that Jesus is a god (and an angel at the same time) because they changed John 1:1 to read "and the Word was a god" to fit in with their theology. So they have Jesus as a second god and Jehovah as the main God..so they believe in two "Gods" though if you ask them if they believe in more than one God they will say no. Then if you ask them about this, they won't be able to answer or think it through for themselves. They will tell you they have to ask the elders. The elders will tell the member (or the new recruit) not to associate with this person who is asking you these annoying questions. This is one of the hundreds of ways they control the members. They tell them that their friends are "bad" because they are not JW's and you can't trust them because they of "of Satan" (all while they being nice about it of course).
They employ all kinds of circular reasoning, appeals to emotion, elitist pride mentality (you are in the one "true" religion), and fear of everything outside the Watchtower to keep the folks dependent upon them. In a short time, they will usually ask the new recruit not to associate with anyone outside of the organization. They are very confused people, even though some are very sincere.
Links of interest for research:
This is one from an ex-Bethel member, Paul Blizzard, who is now a born again Christian. He also is involved in an outreach to JW's. Please read his testimony. You may also order a video that takes a "behind the scenes" look into the Watchtower Society. From personal experience the video tells it like it is.
http://www.geocities.com/Heartland/2919/index.html
Here you will find a bunch of actual scans of the sects history and false predictions as well as their doctrinal abberations. (Look at "WT says they are not false prophets" to see a fascinating look at how they justify sins when they are caught.... they say 'well we meant well!") <http://www.jwfiles.com/>http://www.jwfiles.com/
Another site by ex-Bethel member Randy Watters. http://www.freeminds.org
This is another outreach ministry (Personal Freedom Outreach) that was started by another ex-JW named Bill Cetnar. They have materials to demonstrate the Watchtower's false prophecies and the lies they cover up about their history. You can get a booklet form of all the copies of original publications of the Watchtower magazine and other things. There are also taped lectures that show that they did indeed do and say the things that they now say they didn't. (Booklet #104). and many more excellent resources. http://www.pfo.org
Watchtower occult connections: http://www.premier1.net/~raines/medium.html
There was a book written by Raymond Franz, who served on the Governing Body for over 50 years, and then "woke up" after a series of events brought to his awareness of the evil of this group. The book is called "Crisis of Conscience" and can be ordered online at Amazon or at a Christian bookstore.
For now I will just leave you with a quote from their founder (Rusell): "A truth presented by satan himself is just as true as a truth presented by God. Accept truth no matter where you find it, no matter what it contradicts" Zion's Watchtower, July, 1879, pp. 8-9. [Source: Lorraine danellal@home.com ]
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