Who are the Jehovah's Witnesses, and what do they believe? w/ Melissa Dougherty - Podcast Episode 96

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00:00

Welcome to the God Questions podcast. We're going to be discussing this a little bit later in the episode, but this time of year, around Easter, we get so many people who are emailing us, contacting us, in a sense complaining, why are you even talking about Easter?

00:18

Easter is not a Christian holiday. Same thing happens around Christmas. Same thing happens around any holiday.

00:24

And when we engage in a conversation, people often find out that they are Jehovah's Witnesses.

00:30

And that is going to be our topic of conversation today. On the podcast with me today,

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I have Melissa Doherty. She is an apologist, a writer, a Christian YouTuber extraordinaire.

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You may remember we had her several episodes ago talking about the New Age movement. But she has a background in the

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Jehovah's Witnesses, so she's going to join me for the conversation today. So Melissa, welcome to the program. Yeah, thanks for having me.

01:15

It's good to be here again. So Melissa, just briefly, what is your background experience with the

01:22

Jehovah's Witnesses? Yeah, well, first I want to say that I've never been a Jehovah's Witness, but to tell the story of how

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I got involved with the Jehovah's Witness religion is really to tell about my story of how I left the

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New Age, because they played a very pivotal role in me leaving.

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And for people that don't know, I am an ex -New Ager. And I had my first child in 2010, and it was around this time, while I was still entrenched, mixing my

01:51

Christianity with New Age, and not knowing it, by the way. It's very important. I didn't even know there was a word for what

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I believed until I left it. I'm like, oh, this is New Age. This is not Christianity. There's a difference. I was on a pursuit of wanting to learn about religions, and lo and behold, two nice Jehovah's Witnesses show up at my door.

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And I was under the impression that if you called yourself a Christian, you were saved. You were good to go.

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It didn't matter what your beliefs were, as long as you had some sort of belief in Jesus and God, and you could kind of worship him in the way that you chose.

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And they call themselves Christians. So for me, I'm like, oh, that's just the way they choose to worship

02:31

God. Most of what I thought they believed was rumors, if I'm going to be honest.

02:37

I did not believe that they actually believed in some of the things that people said they believed. Like one, for example, the big one was

02:44

Jesus being Michael the archangel. I mean, I was biblically illiterate, but even I knew that is not true.

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Like what kind of theological hoops do you have to jump through to get that? It would be kind of the equivalent to saying

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Jesus would... I mean, I would believe that Jesus would be more of like the reincarnated Buddha than like Michael the archangel, you know?

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But it would be more of like the equivalent, for example, of calling Jesus like, you know, if he was an angel in that aspect, it would be like that he was

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Joseph the carpenter or something. It's like there's two different characters in the

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Bible that are fundamentally different from each other. How does that make sense? So I didn't think that was true, but I was wrong.

03:32

Lo and behold, about our third visit, I was very interested just to know what they believed. I wasn't going to convert or anything.

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I was just very curious. I've always been that way. I'm still that way. And it was around the fourth visit, third or fourth visit that the lady gets up and she's like, next week, we'll go over how

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Jesus is Michael the archangel. And I'm like, say what? What now? And I felt this urgency to just research their religion and people that know about the

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JW religion, you know, that their worst enemy is the internet. They are told to stay off the internet.

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Do not look at information that's critical of the watchtower society. You are not supposed to do that.

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So me being how I am, I'm like, oh, that's exactly where I'm going to go. I'm going to go research this and research.

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I did. And I went down the rabbit hole. I discovered the ins and outs of this religion.

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And the next two weeks that followed after that, I dedicated so much time to researching this religion that it was more than a hobby.

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I couldn't stop thinking about it. I became very interested in how this religion works. And at the same time, simultaneously, my reliefs at the time were being challenged.

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Because if here's the Bible, and it's disagreeing with what the Jehovah's Witnesses say, and here's my beliefs.

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And if this is true, then both of these are wrong. And so it was kind of how

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God used my research of the Jehovah's Witness religion to know my Bible, and to get out of the new age, but also to bring me into ministering to the

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Jehovah's Witnesses. I realized they are a cult. And there's a way that you can actually define what a cult is and why they are a cult, which is very important.

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And once you understand that concept, I think it's easier to understand them. Because they're very tough to get through to.

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But it was through wonderful ministries. Evidence Ministries is one I'm going to give a shout out to.

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ForJehovah .org is another. Those two were very pivotal in my understanding of this religion.

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And Ron Rhodes' book, Reasoning with the Jehovah's Witnesses was wonderful. So those three, at the tip top,

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I'm going to give credit to for anything that I share in today's podcast as resources that helped me understand these doctrinal things that we're going to talk about today.

05:50

Yeah. So in addition to Jesus being Michael the Archangel, according to Jehovah's Witnesses, what are some other key things that Christians need to be aware of?

06:00

I mean, some of these things over the years of doing questions and receiving some of these questions, I had a similar reaction to you in that like, no, they don't actually, oh, they actually do believe that.

06:11

So what are some of the other big eye -opening beliefs that people need to be aware of about the Jehovah's Witnesses?

06:17

Yes, this can be nuanced, if I'm going to be honest. So I'm going to focus on the basics. And I know there might be people listening that know probably a lot more than me about this religion that are like, oh, you missed something.

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And there's a lot I'm going to miss. So I'm going to refer you again to the resources I mentioned before.

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But also I did an entire series. It's a five to six video series.

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There's a lot on this religion to know that I did on my channel. And I go way more in depth about so many things about what they believe, why they believe it, how to get through to them, how to witness, all those things.

06:53

So today it really is just going to be CliffsNotes 101 doctrinal things that they believe.

06:59

Yeah. And we will gladly include links to where people can find those videos so they can learn more. But yeah, we're aiming for 25 to 30 minutes for this episode.

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So there's not even close to enough time for us to cover the topics in depth. So we'll gladly share those links with the show notes.

07:16

Yeah. And even the videos themselves. It's like a few hours. It's a lot. Yeah. And another thing to emphasize about this is that sometimes with a

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Jehovah's Witness, it's more about understanding this thing called mind control.

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And it sounds like a sci -fi thing, but it's really not. This is an actual study.

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And there's a cult expert named Stephen Hassan, which some of you I'm sure have heard of, who is a, he wrote a book called releasing the bonds.

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And he used to be a Mooney, which was a cult. And he came out of the cult and realized,

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Oh, there's a formed to this. There's almost rules to follow. And he has something called the bite model.

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And the bite model is a behavior information thought in emotional control. And these four aspects, the

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Jehovah's Witness organization has, has so much control over.

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They are, in other words, they are a textbook cult. And once you read this book and you understand how mind control works, you will see why they are so difficult to reach.

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And so the first thing that I start with in the series is mind control. And if you can understand that, uh, you will understand why it's, it's hard to get through to them.

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Uh, but that's one thing I want to emphasize before we go over doctrine. Cause sometimes I believe that it's, it's more about that, the, the spiritual and mental holdup than it is about the actual doctrine.

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Cause once you understand this, you'll understand why this funky doctrine exists, because once you can control somebody's behavior, thoughts, emotions, and the information they receive, you can control their entire worldview and you can say whatever you want.

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So with that, I'm going to start first with number one, the Watchtower society itself. This is the core of everything that undergirds the

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Jehovah's Witnesses life. Um, this is believed to be the one true religion on earth, uh, restored on earth, uh, the

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Jehovah's Witnesses. So the Watchtower organization is God's visible, visible representation on earth. And what this means it to a

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Jehovah's Witness is if the organization is, uh, organized by Jehovah himself, that's equal basically to Jehovah God.

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All right. So you have Jehovah God, you have Jesus Christ, then you have the organization. And, uh, because this is, this is how we get our information.

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Then it's directly from Jehovah God, you see? So if you're talking against the organization, you're talking about against the organization that God, uh, reinstated on earth.

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Uh, so to go against the organization, uh, is to go against Jehovah God. And according to them, it's through the organization, this only organization that God teaches us about the

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Bible. Um, and this can also be very frustrating because their doctrine changes literally every year.

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So people that are in this ministry, they do a really good job. Um, and this is all they do. This is all their ministry is dedicated towards our

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Jehovah's Witnesses and Mormons. And they keep up with the Jehovah's Witness doctrine every year. They announce it every year at the convention, they call it new light.

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And to them, this is not a bad thing to them. This is a great thing. It means we're getting closer and closer to the truth, which

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I find to be a little ironic because the organization calls themselves the truth.

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Um, second thing is the divine name. Okay. This is important. This is why they call themselves Jehovah's Witnesses.

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Uh, they say it through their watchtower publications and that's how most people know them is their magazines and going door to door.

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Uh, but you will know a Jehovah's Witness because they bear the name Jehovah. Uh, they are taught that there were a superstitious

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Jewish scribes that removed the divine name, uh, a long time ago.

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Okay. And they credit themselves with restoring in the old Testament where the

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Tetragrammaton, which is a Y H W H, uh, they give themselves credit for restoring that in the old

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Testament. And what's really interesting. And they've, they've gotten themselves into some trouble for this. A lot of trouble actually.

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Um, which I'll get into with their Bible version, uh, next, but they have restored the divine name to the new

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Testament as well, but it's demonstrably shown that it never ever occurs in the new

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Testament. So they kind of go overkill in the old Testament, but they have to add it.

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In other words, to the new Testament to kind of make up for the complete and total utter absence of it in the new

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Testament. And my whole belief behind that is, I believe it's in John 16, uh,

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Jehovah gave Jesus his name. And I thought that was beautiful when

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I, at one time pointed that out to a Jehovah's witness and uh, it was, it was a stone in her shoe. It was a great conversation.

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Yeah. Um, so I think that's all in that aspect. Uh, the other thing also is to the biblically illiterate person on the other side of the door.

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This is a very important, uh, the Jehovah's witness can easily convince them that the proper use of God's name

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Jehovah, which really it should be Yahweh. Jehovah isn't even close, but they will convince the person that saying the name

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Jehovah and, and, and bearing that name is proof that you are part of the true religion and that you can truly be saved.

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In other words, knowing Jehovah's name is essential to your salvation, being a part of the organization is essential to your salvation.

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Uh, number three is the new world translation. I mentioned this before. This is a completely unique Bible translation made by Jehovah's witnesses for Jehovah's witness theology.

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Uh, the Bible on your shelf is very different than the Jehovah's witness version. They have changed many things and very, very shoddy reasons for why they would change it.

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If there's any sort of excuse or reason to change a Bible verse that will give them any reason to agree with their theology, they'll do it.

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Even though virtually no scholars agree with or endorse the new world translation, uh, the translators are anonymous, uh, which

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I find interesting. However, if you've read a crisis of conscience, it is a book written by a former governing body member.

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He kind of outs the translators as being the governing bodies. Um, they, there was no biblical scholars, uh, there for the making of the new world translation.

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Number four is the anointed class and other sheep. This is very crucial for the average Christian to understand that Jehovah's witnesses divide themselves into two classes, the anointed 144 ,000 and what they call the other sheep, which is by far the majority of Jehovah's witnesses.

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Uh, the anointed class, uh, is the only ones that can be born again.

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That's a whole, whole other topic on itself. Uh, this whole top, this anointed sheep or this, uh, other sheep and anointed is a, is a whole topic.

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Cause it can be very confusing for people. Uh, but again, I have to stick with basics, uh, but it's just important to understand that there's two classes.

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The 144 ,000 will go to heaven and the other sheep will stay here on paradise earth after Armageddon.

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Now to the average Christian, that sounds ludicrous. Like why? Cause our understanding of heaven is very different than theirs to them.

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The whole idea is that God will restore earth to paradise earth, like an Eden. And in some ways, that's not completely untrue, but they don't believe in like a new heavens and new earth.

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Like we do, uh, heaven is kind of pushing paper. You're, you're part of God's government, uh, basically.

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And so if you're anointed, it's kind of like, Oh, well, I guess I have to go do this while you guys go have fun in paradise earth.

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So it's very interesting, uh, to understand their perspective on this. Uh, fifth is the

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Trinity. This is very important. Jehovah's witnesses see the Trinity as evil man -made and pagan.

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Jesus is not God. He is a created being. We discussed this before. Uh, he is Jesus, uh, or he is

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Michael the archangel. He's the first creation of Jehovah God. Uh, Michael ceased to be

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Michael became Jesus, uh, to, to ransom us. And then when he died, he went back to be

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Michael the archangel. Uh, and also the Holy spirit is not a person. The Holy spirit, they equate more to like electricity, an impersonal force.

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They call it, uh, next is soul sleep in hell. They do not believe in hell, uh, at all.

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They believe in annihilation. Uh, so when someone dies, they interestingly believe what I would consider in my opinion, a belief that's closer to an atheistic belief where you just cease to exist.

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Um, then what would be considered Orthodox Christian belief. It's very interesting.

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And if you, uh, are worthy enough to be remembered by Jehovah God, after Armageddon comes and paradise earth is here, then you will be resurrected on paradise earth.

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Uh, it's very interesting how they see that next is shunning. If you are Jehovah's witness and you get disfellowshipped from the organization, you will be utterly shunned by everyone, you know, until you've done enough good graces to get back into the organization.

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And when I say shunned, I mean, they won't even look at you. Uh, they won't talk to you, nothing.

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And they believe this is loving. And, uh, there are tons of former Jehovah's witness testimonies about,

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Oh, the horrible damage that will do. It's absolutely awful. Uh, next is

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Armageddon. This is huge. Uh, this has a lot to do with their end times belief. This is the constant threat in the mind of the

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Jehovah's witness. Uh, I've heard Jehovah's witnesses, former Jehovah's witnesses, because an, a, a, uh, active faithful Jehovah's witness will never actually admit this.

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They can't say these things. Uh, it's only when they leave that they really have the freedom to express this stuff, but, uh, they, they have nightmares, panic attacks.

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Like the fear instilled in their mind over Armageddon is, is very real. Uh, this is the constant threat of the

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Jehovah's witness that Armageddon will come any day and you better find yourself working. You better find yourself going door to door and doing all the work of Jehovah's organization or else you might die at Armageddon.

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And if you die at Armageddon, you will not be resurrected to paradise earth. Um, Armageddon is the time where Jehovah God, according to their theology will destroy the whole earth, everything of Satan's system, everything that's worldly, uh, to accept the

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Jehovah's witnesses. Then they will rebuild the earth to paradise earth. And then

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God, I mean, there's a, there's a whole lot of me doing this that I'm leaving out, but that's when God will resurrect majority of mankind.

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If not all of mankind that's ever lived to hear the good news again, it's very, that's it's again, it's nuanced.

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Uh, next is a salvation. How are you saved? Right? It's salvation plus works. So in other words, you must join the

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Jehovah's witness religion and do the works of the Jehovah's witness religion in order to be saved. And even then you may not even know, you may not even know if you're ever going to be saved.

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You can lose your salvation at any point, lots of pressure. Uh, next I have two more, uh, next is a birthdays, politics, holidays, and crosses.

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The simplest way I'm going to put all of that in a package is it's all pagan and worldly, um, crosses everything.

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I have a theory that one of the reasons, especially with Mormons as well, one of the reasons why

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I believe that Jehovah's witnesses and Mormons hate the cross so much is because Satan hates the cross.

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I just have a theory about that. There's a hatred, a disgust that they have towards the cross.

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That's more similar to what Satan would, would view then than God. I think that's very interesting, but I think that's one reason why they hate it so much.

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Uh, they avoid all of these things, birthdays, holidays, politics, because they believe that they either have pagan origins or they're just worldly.

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And we need to be, we don't, we don't need to be like the world. Uh, next is what

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I find this to be very interesting. Uh, they don't baptize in the name of the father, son, and Holy spirit.

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Uh, I've been to many of their conventions and their assemblies and their memorials, which by the way, their memorial, uh, is coming up.

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They do it around this time around Easter. And, uh, I, I used to go to those every year and it's really sad that that whole, again, that whole thing could be a, another whole other conversation because they, uh, they don't partake in the, uh, the offering that they do, uh, in the supper, uh, the whole ceremony that we do.

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They don't partake in that. So it's, it's kind of sad, but these are the questions that you will be asked at a

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Jehovah's witness baptism. Uh, they, they do this at the convention at the end of the, uh, talk, the speaker will invite people up who want to be baptized.

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This is the first question. Have you been repented of your sins, dedicated yourself to Jehovah and accepted his way of salvation through Jesus Christ?

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Second question. This is interesting. Do you understand that your baptism identifies you as one of Jehovah's witnesses in association with Jehovah's organization?

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And this wording changed. It used to be God's spirit led organization. Um, but there is no father, son, and Holy spirit.

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They will say, Oh, it's it's father, Jehovah, God's son. They mentioned Christ and Holy spirit, um, you know, the organization and no.

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So I think it's interesting. You are giving your life to the organization, not to Christ. Very big difference.

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And I said, there's two more. There's actually one more very, uh, very brief, uh, to the average

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Christian. It must be understood that anything apart from the Jehovah's witness organization is considered part of Satan's system.

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Um, this is important to understand when interacting with them because they have the truth.

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You are the lost one. You are the one that's lost in Satan's system. And they ha they bear

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Jehovah's name. So they have the truth. So there's like this, uh, like a superiority, uh, complex spiritually, uh, that they have about the truth and you're the one that's insane,

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Satan's grasp. So, uh, those are 12 things that I think that would suffice to briefly mention the doctrine of the

21:16

Jehovah's witnesses for the average Christian to know. Yeah. No. And each of the points, each of those items that you brought up are things we've been asked about or by Christians or been confronted by with Jehovah's witness.

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So I know at the beginning, I mentioned the holiday things. That's just fresh because it's like they, they come out every

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Easter and Christmas, especially just like, how can you Christians be celebrating all these pagan things?

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And to be honest, this is one thing I actually do have a little bit of respect for Jehovah's witnesses because yes, there are some culturally pagan things attached with how most people celebrate

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Christmas and Easter, but at the same time, Jesus was crucified and resurrected around the time of Passover.

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Isn't that not worth celebrating? So it's so many fascinating conversations we can have, but like the 144 ,000, we have an article on it.

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I think maybe even two articles and almost every time someone asks us about it is something along the lines of, is it true that only 144 ,000 people go to heaven?

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And that's a doctrine straight out of the Jehovah's witnesses. So it's just, it's amazing how influential they are even far beyond their numbers in terms of spreading some false beliefs about some of these things.

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Some of them really important, obviously Jesus being Michael, the Archangel, the Trinity salvation by faith alone, denying those things.

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Those are core doctrines of the Christian faith. And then some of the end time stuff, I just view it as weird, but a lot of people have weird beliefs about the end time.

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So while I disagree with Jehovah's witnesses on the end times, it's far more important to discuss some of the, where they differ from us and the core doctrines of the faith.

22:55

Absolutely. Yeah. Yeah. And with the other thing too is blood transfusions.

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And they have been under scrutiny as well with their policies on child predators.

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That's a whole other topic, but it's pretty big. Leah Remini, she used to be a

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Scientologist and she has her series about Scientology. And she did a episode, which

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I would refer people to by the way, about the Jehovah's witness religion. There's been quite a few documentaries.

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There's been one on, there's a women's channel it was on, but talking about the pedophilia within the organization.

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They will protect the pedophiles and it's documented. And that's the thing with the

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Jehovah's witnesses is they write down everything. They keep rigid documentation, which for somebody like me, who's an apologist,

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I'm like, thank you. Cause there's a paper trail, a demonstrable paper trail to these things.

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And so I would encourage people to look into that as well. Cause they have something called the, and again, they bring the

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Bible into this, right? They say, Oh, it's biblical. It is not biblical to protect pedophiles.

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I don't care what scripture you're quoting. It's not okay. And then the blood transfusions, which is very nuanced and interesting, kind of weird double standards with that, but they don't, they're known for not accepting blood transfusions.

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So yeah, these are the things that define them in that sense. So yeah, just tacking on two more things to know about them.

24:25

Yeah, exactly. And again, like for every point you've mentioned, it's the stuff that we've been asked about many, many times.

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And I think we have articles dedicated to the topics, both from a purely biblical sense, but also in a, how to respond to Jehovah's witness type of sense.

24:42

So, so a Jehovah's witness knocks on your door or two of them, they always go in twos.

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I believe so. They always go in twos. Yes. Unless they're married and it's usually it's, it's married couples or it's two of the same genders.

24:57

Okay. So a Christian who is now confronted with Jehovah's witness at their door, aside from closing the door and telling them to go away, what is the, the key to one, knowing how to respond to their, the arguments that they make and two, how to point them to the true

25:16

Jesus Christ, God incarnate God in the flesh and salvation by grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone.

25:24

What are the keys? What are some of the things you've learned over the years and attempting to ministering to Jehovah's witnesses that could make our witness to them more effective?

25:35

Yes. So first I mentioned Ron Rhodes book. He has one of the best books on this, in my opinion, about that, you know, like how you can approach them effectively.

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And this is usually what happens with a lot of Christians is a, they either don't understand what a

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Jehovah's witness believes, uh, B, which I understand, man, you're and it, it takes dedication sometimes to really visit with a

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Jehovah's witness. Um, but if you do know something about them and you do have the time, uh, one thing, for example, a quick thing that you could probably do, uh,

26:09

Ray comfort, I believe I'm going to credit him with that because I'm pretty sure it was him said, uh, you know,

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Hey, there's a knife in my back. I have five minutes to live. What can you tell me about how can I be saved? Cause the

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Jehovah's witness doesn't believe that you cannot have a deathbed confession and be saved.

26:26

Um, it kind of like, well, you have to get baptized. You have to join the organization. You have to go door to door. You have to do, do, do, do, do, do.

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And, um, it can bring up a good conversation about grace, uh, because to them they're, they have to earn it.

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Uh, so I think that that's a good starting point to start that off. Um, but also my favorite thing to do, uh, I like to get them off the beaten path.

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This is fun. Um, I think it's fun because it's like, I like intellectual stimulating conversations, but you need to challenge them in ways that they basically not been drilled mindlessly in.

27:00

Right. Um, so I like to go for the jugular, which is the organization. Uh, this is not something they're taught to defend.

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The three things that the Jehovah's are taught to defend militantly, uh, as far as what they believe.

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And they hate more than anything when it comes to doctrine, soul sleep, hell in the Trinity, I would avoid those three things at first.

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Don't go there because those are the things that, I mean, go there eventually, but not at your door.

27:27

These are the things every week throughout the week for years on end, the Jehovah's witnesses taught over and over and over and over and over again that it's demonic, it's evil.

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It's pagan. I mean, you're talking about undoing something very, uh, uh, ironclad.

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So I go this way. I'm like, Oh, what haven't you researched? You probably don't know much about your organization because you're not allowed to research it.

27:51

So tell me about this. You know, um, again, I go over a lot more detail in my series, but I would take on the student role.

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Cause when you take on the student role and you're asking thought provoking questions, you have to provide those answers and you don't look like a jerk.

28:08

You look like you're curious, you know? And, um, once you, again, once you understand who and what you're talking to, you figure out these strategics, the strategy to talk to them.

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Uh, secondly, I would always say that, um, to understand the

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Jehovah's witness, there has to be an element of you understanding what they believe. So, you know, how you sound to them, you know?

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So I think this is just good. I think this is just being wise, uh, knowing your opponent's position so that whenever you say something, you automatically know how that's going to make it sound.

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So you can even change your verbiage. Uh, like for example, uh, instead of cross, they believe that Jesus died on a stake, right?

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They don't believe that Jesus died on a cross. They believe he died on a stake. So you might want to swallow your pride a little bit.

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And instead of using cross, say stake, you know, um, knowing their terminology instead of grace, it's undeserved kindness.

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You will buy by 10 times, in my opinion, uh, influence them more if you use their own language.

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Uh, there's a great advantage of this to this because it's like having the answers to the test before you take the test.

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You know, it's like you already know what they're going to say, you know, their strategies. Um, let's see, there was more here.

29:29

Oh yes. Uh, the other thing with Ron Rhodes book, he talks a lot about the do's and don'ts when coming, uh, to confront a

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Jehovah's witness. And, uh, he, Walter Martin, who's a cult expert, he has a list of do's and don'ts for not approaching a

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Jehovah's witness as well, which you can actually find online. I would say also never approach a

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Jehovah's witness with a spiritual chip on your shoulder. Um, I think that especially now in the days of the internet, uh, we, uh,

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I think we take the whole speaking the truth seriously. That's great.

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But in love, forget that. Who cares about that? I mean, telling them that they're in a cult isn't going to do anything.

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You know, a lot of people do have a spiritual chip on their shoulder, which I think interesting says a lot more about us than them.

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Uh, you will get much accomplished if you form a relationship with them first, in my opinion, it's always best to try to get an ongoing visit with them instead of a quick visit.

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If you can, uh, understanding their concept of sin is important as well, because they believe that Jesus died for what they call

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Adamic sin and not our personal sin. So if you can open up your Bible and show scriptures about how Jesus did indeed, like first Peter three, talking about how

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Jesus died for, uh, on the tree for our, our sins, like our transgressions, not just Adam's sin, uh, showing them scriptures that they haven't seen.

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Cause you have to understand because there's two categories of Jehovah's witnesses. Most Jehovah's witnesses believe half, most of the

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Bible doesn't apply to them. So how are you going to, how are you going to get the

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Jehovah's witness to think, and you can even use their own Bible by the way, doing this. Cause if they see it in their own Bible, it's hard to unsee.

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Um, and the, the, the Holy spirit does a lot of this work for you as well. Uh, I would say witnessing to a

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Jehovah's witness is not a presentation. It's a conversation. This is important. And at the end of the day, this is the most important thing.

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Uh, you cannot do the Holy spirit's work. No matter what you can do, you can be as prepared as you can.

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But at the end of the day, um, your success in bringing a Jehovah's witness to Christ depends on the

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Holy work in their life. Uh, so in this case, I would say never underestimate the power of prayer.

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Uh, that's probably the biggest thing I've seen, uh, in all these years in ministry is you will,

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I've never known of a Jehovah's witness being converted in someone's living room, but I have seen that it start there.

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And then the ongoing prayer for that Jehovah's witness. And, uh, they have someone to talk to once they start having doubts.

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So those are the basic things that I would, I would say also, um, one of my favorite things, scriptures, uh, real quickly to bring up to a

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Jehovah's witness is Romans eight. If I were to bring up a scripture to kind of get a, put a stone in the shoe of the

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Jehovah's witness, it would be Romans eight. And here's why, because they don't believe that, uh, they can be born again.

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Right. And for us as, as Christians, you know, our Bible, we know the repercussions of that. You know, that's, that's huge.

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They, they have a faulty understanding of born again, but Romans eight speaks about pleasing

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God and about how God's spirit dwells in you. And unless God's spirit dwells in you as a child of God, you it's impossible to please him.

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You cannot please God unless you have the spirit of God dwelling in you as a child of God. So I take them through these scriptures and I'm like, well, how do you please them?

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How is this possible for you? And I have never seen a Jehovah's witness know how to answer that question.

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Uh, it's a really great stone in their shoe and let them save face. I think that's important as well.

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Um, because I think a Jehovah's witness will, um, kind of want to make excuses for why they may not understand that.

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Let them save face and let the seed has been planted. The stone is there.

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And so, yeah, those are the basics of what I would say in regards to that question.

33:33

It's awesome. Melissa, thank you much for those points. You've taught me a lot about Jehovah's witnesses and I have quite a bit of experience, but I'm not so much in person, mostly in writing.

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So some things for me to definitely remember and put into practice the next time I have the opportunity. So, and again, as you described, this is just kind of a teaser about the

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Jehovah's witnesses. There's so many things we could discuss and we'll include links to where you can learn more about Melissa's ministry to Jehovah's witnesses through her videos in the show notes at podcast .questions

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.org and also in the description on YouTube when this video goes live. So Melissa, thank you for being on the show.

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We really appreciate your insight and your expertise. Great. Yeah. Thank you so much for having me.

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And thank you for talking about a very important topic. Yeah. Agreed. And again, the questions we receive, whether it's from Jehovah's witnesses or from people who've been exposed to Jehovah's witnesses or from people who've just heard about what

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Jehovah's witnesses believes are, some of these are really important questions that are really important topics. So definitely wanted our audience to be better informed about who the

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Jehovah's witnesses are and what they believe. You definitely accomplished that today. So thank you. This has been the

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Got Questions podcast. Got questions? Tribalize answers. And we'll be fine.