Test All Things
Founder: Charles Taze Russell
Founded: 1879
1. "The Watch Tower" Magazine
2. "Awake" Magazine
3. "Studies in the Scriptures" (originally published as "The Millennial Dawn")
The Veil That Was Lifted
By David Maestas
A testimonial from a former Jehohah's Witness.
The man Jesus is forever dead" [1] - in reference to the resurrection of Jesus Christ, Charles Russell taught that Jesus did not bodily resurrect, but that He was resurrected as a spirit.
Jehovah's Witnesses do not believe in receiving blood transfusions. They also do not believe in celebrating holidays or birthdays.
In reference to the crucifixion of Jesus, Jehovah's Witnesses believe that Jesus did not die on a cross, but on an upright stake.
"A supreme being whose distinctive name is Jehovah" [2].
"A single person", not as a single being whom are united three persons. Not present everywhere and limited omniscience. [3]
Only Jehovah is from everlasting to everlasting. [4]
There was a time when Jehovah was alone in universal space. All life, energy and thought were contained in Him alone. [5]
Elohim is the plural of majesty. It does not mean that He is mysteriously a trinity. [6]
The obvious conclusion is that Satan is the originator of the trinity doctrine. [7]
"First create of God, the Archangel Michael." [8]
"In the beginning the Word was, and the Word was with God, and the Word was a god." [9]
"Jesus lived in heaven as a spirit person before He came to earth. He was God's first creation, and so He is called the "firstborn" Son of God (Colossians 1:15; Revelation 3:14). Jesus is the only Son that God created by Himself. Jehovah used the pre-human Jesus as His "master worker" in creating all other things in heaven and on earth (Proverbs 8:22-31; Colossians 1:16-17). God also used Jesus as His chief spokesman. That is why Jesus is called "the Word" (John 1:1-3; Revelation 19:13)." [10]
"God sent His Son to the earth by transferring His life to the womb of Mary. So Jesus did not have a human father. That is why He did no inherit any sin or imperfection. God sent Jesus to earth for three reasons: (1) To teach us the truth about God (John 18:37), (2) to maintain perfect integrity, providing a model for us to follow (1 Peter 2:21), and (3) to sacrifice His life to set us free from sin and death. Why was this needed? - Matthew 20:28." [11]
Jesus died and was resurrected by God as a spirit creature, and He returned to heaven (1 Peter 3:18). Since then, God has made Him a King. Soon Jesus will remove all wickedness and suffering from this earth (Psalm 37:9-11; Proverbs 2:21,22)." [12]
Jesus Christ is not One God with the Father. [13]
At baptism, Jesus was anointed to become the Messiah, or Jesus the Christ (Anointed). [14]
He showed His subjection to God by humbling himself to a most disgraceful death on a torture stake. [15]
"The Bible's us of "holy spirit" indicates that is is a controlled force that Jehovah God uses to accomplish a variety of His purposes. To a certain extent, it can be likened to electricity, a force that can be adapted to perform a great variety of operations.
At Genesis 1:2, the Bible states that "God's active force ["spirit" (Hebrew, ru'ach)] was moving to and fro over the surface of the waters." Here, God's spirit was His active force working to shape the earth." [16]
Holy Spirit is God's Active Force, not a person. [17]
Although giving lip service to salvation through faith in Christ, Witnesses actually believe that salvation is impossible apart from full obedience to the Watchtower Society and vigorous participation in its prescribed works program. Even individual JWs who are not sufficiently zealous for the organization may not survive Armageddon, and those who do make their way into the earthly paradise must maintain good works throughout Christ's thousand-year reign before they can be sealed for life.
Following the lead of its founder, Charles T. Russell, the Watchtower Society still teaches that Hades is merely the grave, that the fire of Gehenna instantly disintegrates its victims into nothingness, and that there is no conscious existence for the dead until the time of their bodily resurrection.
"God sent His son to the earth by transferring His life to the womb of Mary. So Jesus did not have a human father." [18]
God's test of man's obedience and devotion is notable for the respect it showed for man's dignity. By it God attributed nothing bad to Adam; He did not use it as the prohibition of, for example, bestiality, murder..., thereby implying that God felt Adam might have some despicable inclinations residing within him." [19]
"Anything not in harmony with, hence contrary to, God's personality, standards, ways, and will; marring ones relationship with God." [20]
The Holy Scriptures, the inspired Word of Jehovah, acknowledged as the greatest book of all times because of its antiquity, its total circulation, the number of languages into which it has been translated, its surprising greatness as a literary masterpiece, and its overwhelming importance to all mankind." [21]
"The lake of fire" into which death, Hades, the symbolic "wild beast" and the false prophet, Satan, his demons, and the persistent practicers of wickedness on earth are cast is shown to mean "second death". Initially, death resulted from and was passed on to mankind as a result of Adam's transgression; hence "the second death" must be distinct from this inherited death. [22]
The Lord returned invisibly in the year 1914 and has been present ever since, ruling as Kind on earth through the Watchtower Society. References to the second "coming" are rendered as "presence" in the Jehovah's Witness Bible. The generation of people who witnessed Christ's invisible return in 1914 will not pass away before Armageddon comes (see Matthew 24:34).
Concerning Christ, JWs believe that He became nonexistent when He died and that He was raised three days later as a "spirit" - an angel. They deny his bodily resurrection. Going along with their teaching that Christ returned invisibly in 1914, Witnesses believe that He raised dead Christians to spirit life shortly thereafter, and that the rest of the human dead will be raised bodily during the thousand-year reign of God's kingdom.