JUDGMENT AGAINST JEHOVAH'S WITNESSES (PART 1)
The Excellence of the Christian Faith • Sermon • Submitted • Presented
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-On Wednesday nights we are studying the excellencies of the biblical Christian faith by contrasting our doctrines and beliefs against those of other faiths so that we have a richer understanding of what it is that we believe and why we believe it. This also equips us to defend the faith and share the faith with others.
-Tonight I want to begin looking at a cult that we probably have all had some dealings with, and probably will again in the future, and that is the Jehovah’s Witnesses. They claim to be Christian. In fact, they believe that they are the true Christians, and the rest of us are pagans. But as we will see over time, their beliefs do not align with a proper translation and interpretation of Scripture, nor the teachings that have been handed down to us for the past 2000 years.
-I’ll begin with a little bit of their history to understand where they are coming from, and talk about their authority for their faith and practice.
-In 1870, in Pittsburgh Pennsylvania, an 18-year-old young man named Charles Russell began a Bible class that he called “the Millennial Dawn Bible Study.” This was not, however, your normal Sunday School lessons. Here, prompted by the fad of the day from Adventists and others who did a lot of speculative Bible prophecy studies, Russell began to preach his own beliefs and teachings of things, rejecting many of the biblical doctrines that he found problematic, and twisting teachings to his own liking.
-He twisted Scripture to match the imaginations of his own mind, and as we will see later, his followers would eventually twist the Scripture enough that they published their own Bible mis-translation that would deviate from the original languages and the wording just happened to match what it is that they believed, instead of aligning their beliefs with what Scripture says. That is what cults do.
-In 1876 Russell was voted in as “Pastor” of their group, and he began to have a significant following. Russell also began working as an assistant editor of a monthly magazine in Rochester, New York, and saw the power of publication in the day. Publishing was the blogging and social media posts of the day, and ideas and beliefs could easily be disseminated through books, magazines, and pamphlets.
-Being forced to leave the magazine because of some of his aberrant beliefs, he founded his own publications called The Herald of the Morning which would then develop into The Watchtower Announcing Jehovah’s Kingdom. And that is why even today you hear of their works that come from The Watchtower Bible and Tract Society. Through this publishing endeavor he was able to make a worldwide impact with his heresies.
-Although we don’t have time to go through much more of what he did, Russell was styled as your typical health and wealth preacher, following many get rich quick schemes and the like. When called out on these money making shams, he sued for defamation, only to be exposed as someone who does not have much pastoral training or knowledge.
-What you also find (as one author noted):
[He] proffered his writings as necessary for a clear understanding of the Scriptures and [he] once declared that it would be better to leave the Scriptures unread and read his books, rather than to read the Scriptures and neglect his books.
-We will see in a minute that this then lead to the authoritative structure that Jehovah’s Witnesses have, and the type of control that they wield over their members. It truly is what we would call a cult.
-After his death in 1916, Joseph Rutherford became president of the society, and it was under his tenure that they took on the name Jehovah’s Witnesses following their own translation of:
10 “You are My witnesses,” declares Yahweh [Jehovah], “And My servant whom I have chosen...
-And over time they would hone their beliefs, but based on the teachings of Russell. So, this leads to a discussion of their authority. While they claim to follow the Bible, they believe that the Bible can only be rightly interpreted and applied with the help of the publications by the faithful and discreet slave.
-If you have any interaction with Jehovah’s Witnesses or their literature, you might come across that term “faithful and discreet slave.” At first referring to Charles Russell and then referring to the Watchtower itself (the group of followers), it comes from their translation of:
45 “Who then is the faithful and prudent slave whom his master put in charge of his household to give them their food at the proper time?
46 “Blessed is that slave whom his master finds so doing when he comes.
47 “Truly I say to you that he will put him in charge of all his possessions.
-Well, they are claiming that they alone have been given charge of the household (so to speak). And that means that they alone can interpret Scripture rightly. (Just ignore that whole teaching about the Holy Spirit). But to better understand their beliefs about structure, let me read an extended passage from a book that looks at cults like this. They write:
~All of Scripture is filtered through the group’s corporate leaders, and no other interpretation is given the least consideration, so they rely on the fallible ideas of men as their true authority.
~Jehovah Witnesses also claim their authority comes from Jehovah God through Jesus, because Jesus appointed them as His sole channel of communication to the world. The Society is Jehovah’s one-and-only earthly organization, and it is only through a small group of men (the faithful and discreet slave) that spiritual food is dispensed from Jehovah to His people....
~Such is the power and authority of the men who make up the Governing Body {the highest place of authority in the organization} that no Witness dares challenge or question them. The Governing Body is perceived as Jehovah’s representative on earth. A Jehovah’s Witness cannot disagree with what he is told; he must accept the published literature and the word of the elders whose job it is to enforce loyalty. If he does disagree and makes his objections known, he will be disciplined. The ultimate punishment is to be disfellowshipped.
~A disfellowshipped member is shunned by all Witness friends and family, sometimes resulting in decades of estrangement.
-I mean, if you ever wanted a textbook description of a cult, I believe that is it right there. We make the decisions and the interpretations and we tell you what to do. And you cannot question us about anything. You believe and obey everything we say otherwise you will pay the price.
-That right there we know is unbiblical because neither Jesus nor the apostles ever asked for unquestioned loyalty. They answered the questions, and pointed people in the direction of the truth. Not under duress or threats, but just giving the truth.
-One cannot help but think about the Bereans that we so highly value in the book of Acts. We are told:
10 And the brothers immediately sent Paul and Silas away by night to Berea, and when they arrived, they went into the synagogue of the Jews.
11 Now these were more noble-minded than those in Thessalonica, for they received the word with great eagerness, examining the Scriptures daily to see whether these things were so.
12 Therefore many of them believed, along with not a few prominent Greek women and men.
-Paul and Silas preached the gospel, demonstrating how Jesus was the fulfillment of Old Testament prophecies. They shared the truth about Jesus with the Bereans. And they received the word with great eagerness, but they didn’t receive it with blinders over their eyes. It says that they searched the Scriptures daily to see whether these things were so.
-The Bereans didn’t just take Paul and Silas’ word on the matter, they looked into it themselves to see if Paul and Silas were telling the truth. And what did Paul and Silas do? Did they berate the Bereans for their inquiries? Did they threaten them saying something to the effect: YOU DON’T NEED TO EXAMINE THE SCRIPTURE! YOU MUST UNSWERVINGLY BELIEVE AND FOLLOW WHAT WE SAY OR ELSE PAY THE PRICE!
-No. The Bereans searched the Scripture to see if what they were saying is true, and Paul and Silas were perfectly fine with that. Because the truth doesn’t need to be hidden or coerced. Just let people find the truth and then it’s on them to make the decision about what to do with the truth. If some human demands you believe them without allowing you to actually look into the matter, then there’s a problem. That person is not giving you the truth because the truth doesn’t need some sort of firewall to protect it. The truth can protect itself and the truth will hold up to scrutiny. So, Paul and Silas were like: HAVE AT IT! SEARCH THE SCRIPTURES! And they found it to be exactly as Paul and Silas said.
-Now, the Governing Body says that the Bible itself teaches that individuals can’t be trusted to read and interpret the Bible correctly, and they use this passage:
20 Know this first of all, that no prophecy of Scripture comes by one’s own interpretation.
21 For no prophecy was ever made by the will of man, but men being moved by the Holy Spirit spoke from God.
-Based on that, they make these claims, which come from their own literature:
~God has not arranged for [His] Word to speak independently or to shine forth life-giving truths by itself. It is through his organization God provides this light.
~Avoid independent thinking...questioning the counsel that is provided by God’s visible organization.
~The Bible cannot be properly understood without Jehovah’s visible organization in mind.
-They are in essence saying: You can only understand the Bible through us. But, unfortunately for them, there’s these pesky Bible verses like:
13 “But when He, the Spirit of truth, comes, He will guide you into all the truth; for He will not speak from Himself, but whatever He hears, He will speak; and He will disclose to you what is to come.
27 And as for you, the anointing whom you received from Him abides in you, and you have no need for anyone to teach you. But as His anointing teaches you about all things, and is true and is not a lie, and just as He has taught you, abide in Him.
-A believer with the Holy Spirit is able to understand Scripture without an organization. But, to get back to those 2 Peter verses I mentioned, there is a flaw in their argument. The passage isn’t talking about how to interpret Scripture, but rather how Scripture came to be written. The prophets didn’t come up with these prophecies all on their little lonesome. Rather, they wrote what they wrote under God’s inspiration. So, ultimately, Scripture comes from God.
-But the Jehovah’s Witnesses ran into a pesky problem. All the modern translations of the Bible (which for the most part were in sync with one another) seemingly contradicted some of their major teachings. So, instead of aligning their teachings with Scripture, what they decided to do was create their own translation of the Bible, which strangely enough seemed to confirm all their major doctrines. Go figure. So, they aligned Scripture with their teaching.
-Known as the New World Translation, the New Testament was published in 1950 and the whole thing with Old Testament was completed in 1961. They made the claim that this was the only true translation of Scripture. All the other traditions were misled under the influence of religious traditions, which all have their roots in paganism. Of course, this begs the question: What you’re saying is that there has been no true Bible for the past 1960 years? There has been no Word from God for 1960 years?
-But the funny thing is that on the translation committee there were no known translators who had any recognized degree in Greek or Hebrew exegesis or translation. There was no one on the committee who could actually read the original languages.
-Several lawsuits were brought against the Jehovah’s Witnesses over this translation for various reasons. But in one lawsuit, the president of the Jehovah’s Witnesses, Frederick W. Franz, who was also on the translation committee, was brought before the court and eventually forced to admit he perjured himself. At one point he says that he can read and follow the Bible in Hebrew and Greek and some other languages. Later in the cross-examination, he was asked if he read Hebrew and he said he could not. He was asked to read Genesis 2:4 in the Hebrew and he could not.
-So, in essence, they made their translation based on the English and twisted things to fit their beliefs. We will see over time some of those twists, but just to give you an example, our translation:
16 For in Him all things were created, both in the heavens and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities—all things have been created through Him and for Him.
-But their translation says FOR IN HIM ALL OTHER THINGS WERE CREATED. They added the word OTHER to fit their belief Jesus is a created being. The problem is that in the Greek, the word OTHER isn’t there.
-That’s why I encourage people to study up on translations before choosing one.
-But, bottom line, is that they claim an authority for themselves that even supersedes Scripture. But that is not at all what God intended. Scripture itself, the revelation of God, is the final authority. And we want to pray that people are released from the clutches of such a cult...
