13 - Jehovah Witnesses, Part 3

Well, welcome to the Striving for Eternity Academy's School of World Religions. We're glad to have you with us. We are in our class on an introduction to the major Western religions. Specifically, this lesson will be lesson number three.

Jehovah Witnesses, Authority, and Christology

We will discuss Jehovah Witnesses. This is a ministry of striving for eternity. You can go to the website, strivingforeternity .org, get lots of information. One of the things you could get there is the syllabus.

We have a syllabus that goes along with these classes. That's one of the things you can pick up there. That is available for $25. Another thing that would help you with this lesson is, well, my book. Pick up a copy of my book, What Do They Believe? which is a systematic theology of the major Western religions.

You could grab that and read much more than you'll get in the syllabus and maybe even some more than you're going to get in class. I'm not going to give you everything that's in the book because otherwise who would buy the book?

Put you to sleep anyway. But anyway, we've been going through the major Western religions. We're looking at Jehovah Witnesses this week. This will be the last before we start looking at what Christianity says and then we're going to give a Christian defense.

We're going to answer each of these six theological doctrines that we've been looking at with each of these religions and we're going to look at them in more detail. That's what we have to look to go.

We've looked at the Jehovah Witnesses, what's their authority. We mentioned that they use the New World Translation and that their authority is going to be in the Watchtower in Brooklyn and their magazines and things like that.

We talked about their view of God, specifically the Trinity and that they do not believe in the Trinity. They have a wrong definition of the Trinity. They believe that it's three gods in one God, problem.

And we also looked at their view of Jesus Christ. We mentioned how they believe that Jesus is not God. In fact, they believe that Jesus was Michael the Archangel, that Michael the Archangel was created, that in that creation is basically that he was the first creation and through him God created all things and then he became a man and when he died he returned to being an angel.

We then looked, and I want to pick up again if we could, on sin. Sin. Why do I want to pick up on this? Because when we look into the view of salvation that we're going to look at in a moment, it becomes essential to understand their view of sin.

So let's recap a little bit, if we could. And that is that the Jehovah Witnesses, and I may say JWs by the way as a short note for this, but the Jehovah Witnesses believe that Adam's sin in the garden caused death and condemnation to pass to his offspring.

They would hold to a view of original sin that is imputed to all people, but the Jehovah Witnesses teach that all people have a sin nature. So that's different than we looked at with the Mormons who didn't believe in this.

But it's important to note that their view ends up having an issue that would be different when it comes to an everlasting soul, an immortal soul. They don't believe in that. Now the reason this becomes important is because as we look at the doctrine of salvation, if you're looking in your syllabus, this is number 5 under Jehovah Witnesses for salvation.

Jehovah Witnesses believe that Jesus Christ's death on the cross was to pay the penalty of Adam's sin. That's your blank there. Adam's sin, not for all people. So again, the Jehovah Witnesses believe that Christ's death when He was on that cross.

Now I know some people argue over the issue of when Christ was on the cross, did He die just for the elect? Did He die for all people? Well, in Jehovah Witness land, they believe that Christ on the cross died only for Adam's sin and not for all people.

Once Adam's original sin was taken care of, it makes the opportunity for all people to be rewarded with eternal life for their faith in good works. Now I know that to the Christian sounds a little bit off.

You're getting used to this by now, I think. By this many classes, we're what, in lesson number 13 already? You've heard many different religions and you're hearing they're a little bit off from what the Bible teaches.

We're going to get into that. Faith is necessary in the sense that a person cannot or will not change their lives to obey God's God without faith. So, the basis on which God grants salvation is not simply believing or trusting in God but exercising faith.

That's how they would argue that. We need to exercise faith. That is doing good works motivated by faith. Let's look at a couple verses that we can examine this. This is the Life 1929. Now, I can quote from 1929 because, remember, they believe that when the Watchtower says something, it's authoritative.

So, the year doesn't matter. It came from the Watchtower. It came from their organization that cannot be wrong. So, that becomes the problem. But, it says here, Life 1929, To redeem or ransom man from the grave means that God will provide a means of satisfaction of the judgment against Who's that?

Adam. That's right. To redeem or ransom man from the grave means that God will provide a means of satisfaction of the judgment against Adam. Now, if we could look at Let God Be True in 1946, page 74. It says, Immortality is a reward for faithfulness.

It does not come automatically to a human at birth. So, what you see there is that they believe that we have to exercise faith. Now, this again, when we talk to someone, we have to be aware of terminology.

Okay? The reason is that if you have, just like remember when we talked to Roman Catholicism, where they said that they believe in works, in salvation by faith. But, just not faith alone. It's faith plus works.

Same thing here. It's faith plus works, but as we're going to see, it's kind of reversed. See, good works, if you look in your syllabus, good works do not earn salvation. But, they are the prerequisite for it.

That's your blank there. Good works do not earn salvation. They are the prerequisite for it. They're required works. Okay? And, this is where it's kind of the reverse of Roman Catholicism. Roman Catholicism says you have faith.

That comes first, and that's the prerequisite for the works that will actually save you. Here, they would argue, no, you have works, and those good works are what brings about faith. They have it reversed of Roman Catholicism.

But, note that both have an element of faith plus works or works plus faith. Either way, both are tied to salvation. Okay? Now, they're saying that we first have to do the good works before we can get that faith.

The required works fall into four categories. According to Watchtower, February 15, 1983, pages 12 and 13. Here are the four categories. Ready? Number one, they say taking knowledge of God and Christ by studying the Bible.

Of course, through the guidance of the Watchtower because, remember, they would argue that we can't interpret Scripture on our own. So, when it's taking knowledge of God and Christ by studying the Bible, we still need the Watchtower to tell us how to think and what to think and what the Bible actually says.

Number two, second category, obeying God's law. Meaning, all the rules laid out by the Watchtower. Yeah, not the Bible, the Watchtower. But, again, do you notice it's God's law? It's obedience. Anytime you see obedience is necessary for salvation, it's a works-based system.

Why? Because if works are needed, then works are required. If works are required, it's a works-based system. Because works, by definition, are required, making it that. Number three, associating with God's channel.

What's God's channel on earth? Well, of course, the Watchtower organization. So, you see how everything's focused around so far? Everything's focused around the Watchtower. Not Christ, not God. And when they reference Christ or God, it's only in relation to the Watchtower.

That's the real thing that they're worshiping, just saying. Number four, participating in the Jehovah Witnesses' preaching work. What's their preaching work? Going door-to-door. That's why they go door-to-door.

You say, why do they spend so much of their time going door-to-door? Earning salvation. That's why. Now, the Jehovah Witnesses believe that Jesus Christ making a payment for Adam's sin is good works that count toward the reward.

However, as we end up looking, if you are not saved, you will not know. You won't know it because of the death of man in non-existence. We're going to look at that in a little bit when we look at the end times.

You just go non-existent. How would you know? But let's look at some of the references. I don't have slides on this, so I'm just going to give some quotes from my book. They say in Watchtower, August 15, 1972, page 492.

And I give you the references so you can look it up. I do have all these quotes in my book, so you can just grab it from there. Quote,. It is for the reward of eternal life that every last person on earth should be working.

Are you? Unquote. Watchtower, July 1, 1947, page 204. Quote,. To get one man's name written in the book of life will depend upon one's works, whether they are fulfilled by God's will and approved by His judge and king.

Unquote. So, what you see there is that works are an essential part when it comes to salvation. Why do I bring that up? Well, for a very simple reason. If works are necessary, as we're saying, works are necessary for salvation, again, if it's necessary, necessary means it's a works-based system.

And so we always have to keep that in mind. A works-based system is always going to require works. Now, I say this because this is one of the things that I found interesting as I studied all the different world religions, was that every single world religion except for Christianity is based in one way or another on human effort.

And that's why I say there's only two religions in the world. A religion of divine effort, Christianity. A religion of human effort, all others. When you look at it, that's simply every religion. And you've seen this now.

We saw it with Judaism. We saw it with Catholicism. We saw it with Islam. We saw it with Mormonism. We see it with Jehovah Witnesses. You could see it in Hinduism and Buddhism as well, because how do they get to a better state when they're reincarnated?

From works. Excuse me. If they do good works, they're rewarded in a better life in reincarnation. So, with that said, let us look at the last one. The Eternal State. The Eternal State. With this, we want to realize, and this is where many people end up going when they discuss with a Jehovah Witness the differences.

The two areas most people, when a Jehovah Witness comes to their door, most Christians at least, are going to argue, is either going to be in the Eternal State or in the deity of Christ. The deity of Christ is very important, because if you have the wrong Jesus, you don't have salvation.

If you don't believe Jesus is God, I would argue you can't be saved. So, that would be the thing. Now, when it comes to salvation, that's the important thing that we express to them. That they're not saved by their works, but by grace through faith alone.

Now, why is a study of the End Times important? Well, because in a study of the End Times, we need to help to enforce upon them the seriousness of this, that eternal death is actually eternal. It lasts forever.

So, let's look at this a little bit. Jehovah Witnesses believe that there are three classes of people. The, quote, little flock, unquote, which after death will reside in heaven. That's your first blank.

So, the little flock is going to be residing in heaven. I'm going to explain why it's a little flock as compared to the great crowd. They're going to reside on earth. That's your next blank, earth. And the rest will be non-existent.

That's your third one. So, heaven, earth, and non-existence. Little crowd, heaven. The great crowd, earth. Everyone else, poof, non-existence. And this is the thing. If they don't believe that hell gets cast into an eternal lake of fire, then they're not understanding why Jesus had to be God.

Because if our sin is so serious, it takes an eternal consequence. Not because our sin is so bad, but because we've sinned against an infinitely holy, just God. And because of who God is, that is why the consequence is eternal.

Because of God's nature, not ours. This is the problem. Most people focus on man and then build a theology with man as the center. We want to focus on God because theology is the study of God. Theo, God.

Ology, study of. Study of God. And therefore, what we're looking to do is study about God. And so, God is the necessary starting place of our theology. But most people end up starting with man. And so, I think that this is what happened with Russell when he started this organization.

He did not like the idea of hell. And so, he just didn't... Now, are there people who use this idea of hell or eternal lake of fire to scare people into obedience or maybe even scare people into making a profession of faith?

Yes. Does it mean that there isn't an eternal hell? Or eternal lake of fire, I should say. Being specific, there is a difference between hell and the eternal lake of fire. We'll get to that as we get into the Christian defense.

But the point being is yes, there is an issue there that has to be recognized. Okay? And just because we don't like the idea of hell doesn't mean it doesn't exist. Okay? So, let's start with the view of heaven.

The Little Flock, the Great Crowd, and Non-Existence

What is the Jehovah Witness's view of heaven? Jehovah Witnesses believe that only 144 ,000 which are called the little flock will populate heaven. And many believe that 144 ,000 are already filled. In other words, nobody that's alive today has a hope of seeing heaven.

They can only hope to see well, the next stage being the great crowd on earth. But let's take a look at this. I have here these 144 ,000 are the Jehovah Witnesses are what the Jehovah Witnesses say are the truly born again children of God.

They will be God's spiritual sons. I don't think they mean it though the way that Mormons do. So let's not be guilty of just because Mormons have a view of what God's Son of God means we attribute it here.

They will be God like Jesus is God. Now, I say that because remember, they don't think of Jesus as being God in the same way that Christians would refer to it. They think of Jesus being God lowercase g Mighty God but not Almighty God.

Remember we discussed that in the lesson on God. Their view of God. So there's this distinction. So we're going to be like Jesus. So when he's the firstborn that's what it means. That we would be like him.

That he's the first fruits of what we would become like. So don't get into thinking that because they say we'd be sons of God that they mean that we would be deity, that we would be like the Almighty God.

It's this idea of a lesser God. Let's put up some verses if we could. This is from Watchtower February 15th 1984 page 9. The Bible shows that only a limited number of persons a quote little flock unquote will go to heaven.

We have another. This is from Watchtower March 15th 1983 page 9 quote. At the celebration of the memorial of Christ's death only those that make up quote the Israel of God unquote should partake of the emblems of bread and wine unquote.

So do we think we have one more? There we go, yeah. This is from the Watchtower. Now this one's from Watchtower a reprint. This is from the 1881 page 3 Watchtower that was reprinted in 1919 and this is page 301.

It says quote. We are begotten of the divine nature. Jehovah is our true father. We are divine beings hence all such are gods. Now we appear like men and we all die naturally as men but in the resurrection we will rise in our true characters as gods unquote.

By the way before you take that off note gods is capitalized in the Watchtower, yeah. Just saying. That becomes an issue I think because they've capitalized gods there in other words that one's where you could start to think they're getting confused and almost teaching Mormonism maybe but notice that the reward for is really for the few, the 144.

Where do we see the 144 ,000? That's in Revelation and by the way that's 144 ,000 Jews, 12 ,000 from the 12 tribes of Israel. So that gets into thinking are they saying that Jehovah Witnesses are really from the tribes of Israel or are they arguing for a spiritual argument that the 144 ,000 or the 12 tribes is really spiritual in its interpretation that I'm not really sure it's not.

I don't think they have the view that Mormons would have where it's really that they've become the new Israel in that sense don't think that's what they're arguing but they think that the 144 ,000 they will be like gods like Jesus Christ in their definition of how Jesus Christ is God but the great crowd will serve them.

Okay so we end up seeing that this is almost a return to Genesis 3 5 isn't it? Remember Genesis 3 5 where when Satan said for God knows that in the day that you eat of it your eyes will be opened and you will be like God knowing good from evil.

I mean this is what we saw in Mormonism that Mormonism teaches you could be like God so we could be like God. The Jehovah Witnesses hope to be part of the little flock that will be gods sounds very similar to what Satan promised Eve in the garden you know just because it's a note that it's little g gods um pointed out that they kind of capitalize it in the watchtower there that we saw also in that same watchtower that I just referenced on page 297 298 it says the titles mighty god and everlasting father are very appropriate to our Lord Jesus Christ.

The same titles are applicable to the church and his body. Now we would think that's blasphemous. But again they have a different view when they say it's like Jesus. They don't think of Jesus as being equal with the father.

Yes yes I know John 10 says that Jesus is equal with the father. But that's not what they think. Yes it says I know. Philippians 2 says Jesus is equal with God. I know. But that's not what they think.

You see remember it's the watchtower that tells them the only right way to interpret scripture. So when you read those in a plain understanding and you say well this clearly says Jesus is equal to God the father.

They say no no no no no that's not right. The watchtower says different. And that's where the problem is anytime you have an organization that does the interpreting for you that organization is never going to interpret opposite to what they are trying to teach.

So who gets to go on earth. I mean most people want to go to heaven. Who wants to stay on earth. Well that's the great crowd. Those that make up the quote great crowd unquote will live in the paradise earth.

So it's not the earth that we see today. It's a paradise earth. And they will serve the 144 ,000 in heaven that make up the little flock. So it's like yay we get to be servants. That's what we get to look forward to.

So let's put up the couple verses that we have here. So we see here. This is from their book the holy spirit 1976 page 157. Those dedicated baptized other sheep of the great crowd have not been begotten to be God's spiritual sons with a heavenly inheritance.

Next verse or next passage I should say is from the watchtower February 15th 1984 page 9. Quote. The rest of the faithful humankind will live on earth as subjects of these rulers. Unquote. And the last one that we have from here is from watchtower March 15th 1983 page 9.

The vast international company of other sheep who do not partake will enjoy everlasting life on the paradise earth. So you get the idea those 144 ,000 that have already lived and died those are some of the first or more spiritual like Jehovah Witnesses.

They get to go to heaven. The rest of those who don't perish get to serve them. That's your reward. Your reward. Now if you become a Jehovah Witness is that you get to live on a paradise earth serving these little g-gods.

Wow. Really. So you see right off the bat. This is not equality. You do not see that there being equality within mankind certain people there becomes a status level. Okay that's gonna be a little different than what we see in the bible.

You know where there's there's rewards. But everyone's saved the same way as Galatians said whether male, female, slave, free, we all come to Christ the same way. So what about the most sticky issue that we have with the Jehovah Witnesses.

Annihilationism and the Denial of Eternal Punishment

This last stage non-existence or what is called theologically annihilationism. You're annihilated. You just kind of poof off into non-existence. Jehovah Witnesses believe that when a person dies they completely cease to exist.

This is speaking of those who aren't in those first two categories by the way. So you have those that are in the little flock the great crowd. And then you have those who die and they go into non-existence.

There is no consciousness at all after death. That's your blank there consciousness. So they would argue that for the person who is not a Jehovah Witness the non-believer there is no consciousness at all after death.

Therefore there cannot be a conscious eternal punishment for the unbelievers. Why? Because they can't know if there is no consciousness there can't be a conscious eternal punishment. Therefore they believe that the wicked will be consumed in a judgment and annihilationism.

They teach that hell is something that satan made up. Let's look at this. This is from reasoning the scriptures. Reasoning from the scriptures 1985 page 175. Remember this little book. Reasoning the scriptures is that book that responds to how to answer Christians.

And it says. Quote the real roots of this God dishonoring doctrine goes much deeper. The fiendish concepts associated with a hell of torment slander God and originate with the chief slanderer of God the devil.

Unquote. So what you end up seeing here is that they believe that there is no eternal punishment. Daniel 12 2 would tend to differ. Why do I bring up Daniel 12 2. Because in that passage you have both the reference to eternal life in direct relation to the eternal contempt that becomes the thing you have them both side by side.

So just if eternal life is going to be forever then so is this eternal contempt. And they would say oh but the contempt is that you burn out. Now this is one of the arguments they'll make logically is they'll say can you name a fire that doesn't consume and burn out.

And well I'm going to give you the response that I got from my three year old. Well when he was three year old when I had Jehovah Witnesses that were meeting in my home regularly we were meeting for several months and I was meeting with them to try to well get them to come to the truth.

And basically my sons we were talking about this idea that they have that hell can't exist forever. Or lake of fire can't exist forever because it's a fire and fires consume and therefore it would burn out.

And my son said dad what about the sun. That's a fire that doesn't burn out. And I understand many argue that yeah. But it will one day how do we know could God create a fire that doesn't burn out. Yes he can he can do that.

Is it a literal fire. I don't know it's descriptive of a fire but the idea of that is being in torment. That's the idea. To what purpose would Satan gain by creating a doctrine of hell. If you think about that that would do nothing but scare people into looking for salvation.

Wouldn't it. What benefit does Satan get by creating this doctrine. That would scare people to run to God. Satan would not create a doctrine of hell if a place of torment did not exist. Hell is the most popular reason people have for seeking salvation.

And I understand that it's not a good one. The right reason to seek salvation is to be right with God. Many people are false converts because they came to Christ to avoid hell and not because they want to be reconciled with Christ.

And there are many false converts many people that will find themselves in that very hell. They wanted to avoid because they tried to come to Christ on their terms and not his think about this. Why would Satan do that.

Satan would be more likely to deny such a place exists kind of like the Jehovah Witnesses do than to create one note that the Jehovah Witnesses do not provide much incentive to becoming a Jehovah Witness.

If they are right and we don't believe them we go into non-consciousness. We don't lose anything at all however the best they can offer us is to live on earth as servants of those in heaven. Since like I said 144 ,000 are all filled up.

And that's not sounding like something that I'm really looking forward to you know. And this becomes a thing that we have to take into account now when we talk to Jehovah Witnesses and we have them come to our door this is going to be the thing that we have to keep in mind the idea that they have when it comes to eternal life.

Why is this such an important thing. Because again as I mentioned if we do not have an eternal consequence then Christ didn't need to be God. Now you'd say well see they avoid the eternal consequence.

Therefore Christ is not God and they don't have a problem in their system. Yes I know in their system they don't have a problem but it's only a problem when you compare it to the Bible and that's what we're going to look at in the next several classes.

We're going to examine what the Bible says now first we're going to start off with what does Christianity believe. That's going to be the next class and after that we're going to look at basically what each of these doctrines what the Bible says about the authority.

We're going to look at what the Bible says about God specifically the Trinity. We're going to look at what the Bible says about Jesus Christ and his deity. We're going to look at what the Bible says about sin and man's nature his sinful nature.

We're going to look at what the Bible says about salvation. And we're going to look at what the Bible says about the eternal state. So those six doctrines we're now going to give what does the Bible say on these.

I've kind of been filtering throughout and as we do that we're going to look at how that's different again than some of these different beliefs. So we're kind of going to go into a mini systematic theology in the next several classes.

Transition to Christianity and Closing Announcements

Alright, so if you have questions about this or any of the other things we've taught you can feel free to email us at academy at striving for eternity org. Academy at striving for eternity org again you could pick up the syllabus at our store store dot striving for eternity org and you could pick up the syllabus.

Another thing you could pick up at the store is my book that this these classes are based on what do they believe which is a systematic theology of the major Western religions also want to encourage you if you would like to have us come and teach your people how to interpret the Bible.

We have a Bible interpretation made easy seminar. The advantage of having a seminar like this is it will help teach people in your church how to interpret the Bible. This becomes important so that people realize to avoid the traps that these Jehovah's Witnesses and others to have that entrap people into believing what they teach.

We want to try to avoid that we want to avoid the things that they're teaching. Best way to help to avoid that is by teaching people how to rightly divide God's Word this lesson we're a little bit short.

I debated on whether we want to start the lesson on Christianity. I chose not to gonna give you guys a little bit of a break maybe and do one short class or shorter class I should say so we will put this out there as well.

We don't have any list of people to encourage right now you have someone you think needs some encouragement. You can contact us also way you can follow us is on our Facebook Facebook. What's that Facebook page we have to actually we have the striving for eternity ministries.

You can join there. That is a more of a one-way conversation. It's us talking to you. We post there and we put information out there about the ministry and things for you. That's a page I encourage you to go and like and maybe you can rate us there.

The other is the striving for eternity group. That's more of an interaction that is for you guys to bring up questions discussion and we go back and forth and discuss it. So that is what we have for this week until next class just remember to strive to make today an eternal day for the glory of God.