Wolves in Sheep's Clothing (3)
Wolves in Sheep's Clothing • Sermon • Submitted • Presented
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15 “Beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep’s clothing but inwardly are ravenous wolves.
The Watchtower Bible & Tract Society
The Watchtower Bible & Tract Society
The History
The History
Founder: Charles Taze Russell.
They organization differs on who they claim as the founder.
Russell founded the Zion’s Watch Tower in 1879.
Zion’s Watch Tower Tract Society in 1884.
The second president of the organization was Judge Joseph F. Rutherfordin 1917.
Under his leadership, the name of Jehovah’s Witnesses was adopted.
The name change was based on belief change.
The founding date in 1879.
The name change came due to the belief that Jehovah was the true God and the Witnesses were His true people.
Publications: The Watchtower and Awake magazines. In addition one or tow doctrinal studies each year.
Unique Terms:
Kingdom Hall = local congregation
Theocratic Organization = the organization itself.
Why was the group founded?
Russell believed in annihilationism = no hell
He was influenced by the Seventh Day Adventists, Christadelphianism, and other millenarian groups.
Purpose: “discover the ‘truth’ of the Bible.”
Russell & Rutherford would go on to deny many other doctrines.
Doctrinal Variances
Doctrinal Variances
The Trinity
The Trinity
Rutherford — opposed to the Trinity
Rutherford believed this doctrine was a polytheistic concept.
“The origin of the trinity doctrine is traced back to the ancient Babylonians and Egyptians and other ancient mythologies. It will not be disputed by Jews and Christians that these ancient peoples worshiped demon gods and that God’s typical nation of Israel was not the author of this doctrine...The obvious conclusion is therefore, that Satan is the originator of the trinity doctrine.” — Joseph Rutherford
“Nevertheless, 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. The clergy who inject such ideas will contradict themselves in the very next breath by stating that God made man in his own image: for certainly no one has ever seen a three-headed human creature” (Let God Be True, 2nded., pp 101-102).
Answering With Scripture
Answering With Scripture
The word “Trinity” does not appear in the Bible, in this statement they are correct. Though the idea is taught ad nauseam throughout Scripture.
One God: Is. 43:10; 44:6-8; 45:5-6, 18; 1 Cor. 8:4.
26 Then God said, “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness. And let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over the livestock and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.”
27 So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them.
28 And God blessed them. And God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it, and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over every living thing that moves on the earth.”
30 I and the Father are one.”
31 The Jews picked up stones again to stone him.
32 Jesus answered them, “I have shown you many good works from the Father; for which of them are you going to stone me?”
33 The Jews answered him, “It is not for a good work that we are going to stone you but for blasphemy, because you, being a man, make yourself God.”
34 Jesus answered them, “Is it not written in your Law, ‘I said, you are gods’?
35 If he called them gods to whom the word of God came—and Scripture cannot be broken—
36 do you say of him whom the Father consecrated and sent into the world, ‘You are blaspheming,’ because I said, ‘I am the Son of God’?
37 If I am not doing the works of my Father, then do not believe me;
38 but if I do them, even though you do not believe me, believe the works, that you may know and understand that the Father is in me and I am in the Father.”
JW — God — The Father
JW — God — The Father
Name — Jehovah
The True God.
Eternal
The Almighty
Let’s read an exact quote:
“There was therefore, a time when Jehovah was all alone in universal space” (Let God Be True, p. 25)
Being alone, the first creative act of God was to create his son.
JW — God — The Son
JW — God — The Son
He was a created being.
He was not eternal.
He was not co-equal with the Father.
Michael the archangel is Jesus.
Let’s read an exact quote:
“Thus, for example, the Bible shows that there is only one God, the Most High, the Almighty. ...And as the First Born, the Only begotten and the creation by God, had a beginning. (From Paradise Lost to Paradise Regained, p. 164)
“It proves that Michael the archangel is no other than the only begotten Son of God, now Jesus Christ. The very name Michael his archangel is his great Champion and Vindicator.” (New Heavens and a New Earth, pp 30-31)
JW — God — The Spirit
JW — God — The Spirit
He is not actual
He is not an intelligent person
Let’s read an exact quote:
“But the holy spirit has no personal name. The reason for this is that the holy spirit is not an intelligent person. It is the impersonal, invisible active force that finds its source and reservoir in Jehovah God and that he uses to accomplish his will even at great distances, over light years of space. (Let Your Name Be Sanctified, p. 269.)
Answering With Scripture
Answering With Scripture
The Father is God
The Son (Jesus the Christ) is God
The Holy Spirit is God
17 For when he received honor and glory from God the Father, and the voice was borne to him by the Majestic Glory, “This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased,”
11 and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.
1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.
58 Jesus said to them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, before Abraham was, I am.”
3 But Peter said, “Ananias, why has Satan filled your heart to lie to the Holy Spirit and to keep back for yourself part of the proceeds of the land?
4 While it remained unsold, did it not remain your own? And after it was sold, was it not at your disposal? Why is it that you have contrived this deed in your heart? You have not lied to man but to God.”
Jesus is not a created being or an angel.
Jesus was and is the Creator.
2 He was in the beginning with God.
3 All things were made through him, and without him was not any thing made that was made.
15 He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation.
16 For by him all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities—all things were created through him and for him.
8 “I am the Alpha and the Omega,” says the Lord God, “who is and who was and who is to come, the Almighty.”
8 I, John, am the one who heard and saw these things. And when I heard and saw them, I fell down to worship at the feet of the angel who showed them to me,
9 but he said to me, “You must not do that! I am a fellow servant with you and your brothers the prophets, and with those who keep the words of this book. Worship God.”
The angle declares: “You must not do that!”
How about the Holy Spirit?
7 Nevertheless, I tell you the truth: it is to your advantage that I go away, for if I do not go away, the Helper will not come to you. But if I go, I will send him to you.
John 16:13-14 .
13 When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all the truth, for he will not speak on his own authority, but whatever he hears he will speak, and he will declare to you the things that are to come.
14 He will glorify me, for he will take what is mine and declare it to you.
29 And the Spirit said to Philip, “Go over and join this chariot.”
2 While they were worshiping the Lord and fasting, the Holy Spirit said, “Set apart for me Barnabas and Saul for the work to which I have called them.”
14 The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all.
19 Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit,
