While the notoriously cloistered JWs will not, like so many other things they are mum about, say when they are leaving, it is a fact that eventually, the estimated 3,000 followers currently residing in church properties throughout the neighborhood will soon be moving to new facilities, which cost the organization an estimated $11.5 million, in the Upstate town of Warwick, just next door to Walkill where, in addition to the internal agricultural and manufacturing industries, much of the printing operation is already re-based.
Stumpers for the Jehovah’s Witnesses
The sect known as Jehovah’s Witnesses (JWs) began with Charles Taze Russell in the 1870’s. Russell was raised a Presbyterian, then joined the Congregational church, and was finally influenced by Adventist teachings. By his own admission, he had a hard time accepting the existence of hell. He sought out the Bible, and as his “studies” continued, he systematically began to reject the major doctrines of historic Christianity. He ultimately established his own belief system, and in 1879 he started publishing a magazine to promote his beliefs. This magazine was the precursor to today’s Watchtower (WT) magazine, by which Jehovah’s Witnesses are typically known.
In this tract we will examine five topics relating to Russell, the JWs, and their parent organization, the Watch Tower Society (WTS). We will show that the beliefs of JWs are unscriptural, and that both Russell and the WTS are completely unreliable as spiritual guides.
1. Is the Watch Tower Society Reliable?
In 1910 Russell wrote, “If anyone lays the Scripture Studies [short for a 7-volume WTS publication entitled Studies in the Scriptures, hereafter abbreviated as Studies] aside, even after he has used them, after he has become familiar with them, after he has read them for ten years—if he lays them aside and ignores them and goes to the Bible alone, though he has understood the Bible for ten years, our experience shows that within two years he goes into darkness. On the other hand, if he had merely read the Scripture Studies with their references and had not read a page of the Bible, as such, he will be in the light at the end of two years . . . ” (WT Reprints, 9-15-1910, 4685). The WTS maintains that it is God’s reliable mouthpiece to the nations, and it claims to be God’s inspired prophet (WT, 4-1-1972, 197)—and yet its prophecies have repeatedly proven to be false. The only conclusion to be drawn is that the WTS is to be rejected as a false prophet.
Among other things, the WTS predicted the following:
| 1889 | “The ‘battle of the great day of God almighty’ (Rev 16:14) which will end in AD 1914 . . . ” (Studies, Vol. 2, 1908 edition, 101). |
| 1891 | “With the end of AD 1914, what God calls Babylon, and what men call Christendom, will have passed away, as already shown from prophecy” (Studies, Vol. 3, 153). |
| 1894 | “The end of 1914 is not the date for the beginning, but for the end of the time of trouble” (WT Reprints, 1-1-1894, 1605 and 1677). |
| 1897 | “Our Lord is now present, since October 1874 AD” (Studies, Vol. 4, 1897 edition, 621). |
| 1916 | “The six great 1000 year days beginning with Adam are ended, and that the great 7th day, the 1000 years of Christ’s reign began in 1873” (Studies, Vol. 2, p. 2 of foreword). |
| 1917 | “Scriptures . . . prove that the Lord’s Second Advent occurred in the fall of 1874” (Studies, Vol. 7, 68). |
| 1918 | “Therefore, we may confidently expect that 1925 will mark the return of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and the faithful prophets of old” (Millions Now Living Will Never Die, 89). |
| 1922 | “The date 1925 is even more distinctly indicated by the scriptures than 1914” (WT, 9-1-1922, 262). |
| 1923 | “1925 is definitely settled by the scriptures. As to Noah, the Christian now has much more upon which to base his faith than Noah had upon which to base his faith in a coming deluge” (WT, 4-1-1923, 106). |
| 1925 | “The year of 1925 is here. . . . Christians should not be so deeply concerned about what may transpire this year” (WT, 1-1-1925, 3). |
| 1931 | “There was a measure of disappointment on the part of Jehovah’s faithful ones on earth concerning the dates 1914, 1918, & 1925 . . . and they also learned to quit fixing dates” (Vindication, 388, 389). |
| 1939 | “The disaster of Armageddon is just ahead” (Salvation, 361). |
| 1941 | “Armageddon is surely near . . . soon . . . within a few years” (Children, 10). |
| 1946 | “Armageddon . . . should come sometime before 1972” (They Have Found a Faith, 44). |
| 1966 | “Six thousand years from man’s creation will end in 1975, and the seventh period of a thousand years of human history will begin in the fall of 1975 C.E” (Life Everlasting in Freedom of the Sons of God, 29). |
| 1968 | “The end of the six thousand years of man’s history in the fall of 1975 is not tentative, but is accepted as a certain date” (WT, 1-1-1968, 271). |
Submitted by Doria2
This Week’s Ask Alice: Jehovah’s Witnesses and the Nature of the Human Soul.
She’ll answer your Catholic questions
right here, every Thursday.
Email responses will also be provided, as time permits.
Tom Asks: Is there anywhere in the Bible that state’s specifically that the soul is immortal and will never die? I have Jehovah Witnesses come to the house. They say the soul dies with the body. i would like to rebut that claim with my own Catholic Bible.
Alice Answers: Yes, Jehovah’s Witnesses are very persistent in their rhetoric. However, we Catholics maintain a firm belief in our souls’ immortality based on numerous Scripture passages, many spoken by Our Lord himself.
Upon hearing that His dear friend, Lazarus, died, Jesus said,
“I am the resurrection and the life; whoever believes in Me, though he should die, will come to life; and whoever is alive and believes in me will never die.” (John 11:25-26)
Before he died, Jesus told his apostles, “Let not your heart be troubled. Have faith in God and faith in me. In my Father’s house there are many mansions…I am indeed going to prepare a place for you…..I will come again and receive you to myself; that where I am, there you may be also.” (John 14:1-3)
From John, the evangelist we read, “I write all these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God so that you may know that you have eternal life.” (1John 5:13-14)
Then there’s the often quoted (John 3:16) which states,
“God so loved the world that He gave His only Son, that whoever believes in Him may not die but may have eternal life.”
The promise of eternal life can be found in the Old Testament,
as well. “Your dead men shall live, together with my dead body shall they arise.” (Isaiah 26:19)
Rather than feeling defeated, I’m glad you’re seeking some strong Catholic apologetics, i.e., a defense and proof of our Catholic faith. Please keep these Bible verses handy, so you’ll be prepared the next time a zealous Jehovah’s Witness rings your doorbell!
*****
Doug Lawrence Adds: The Catholic Church’s teachings about the nature of the human soul are based on the Old Testament and on the teachings of Jesus and the apostles. They were further developed and refined by some of the world’s greatest saints, philosophers and scholars, over the last 2000 years.
Like the word “Trinity”, which is not found anywhere in scripture, much of what we understand about the soul, by faith and reason, never made it into the scriptures, either.
This shouldn’t be surprising though, since the Bible was never intended to be a catechism, and it is the Catholic Church … not the Bible … which was given power and authority by Jesus Christ. In fact, in his Great Commission, Jesus never specifically mentioned the written word, at all.
JW’s have no direct connection with the Christian Church, other than their rather unique, seriously flawed, self-serving “New World” translation of the Bible.
To paraphrase Virgil, the writer of the ancient (19 b.c.) Aeneid, “Beware of JW’s bearing Greek!”
Rather than attempting to trade Bible verses with people who believe that Jesus Christ is not the only begotten Son of God … is not divine … but merely Michael the Archangel … I suggest you ask the JW’s to first show you where in the scriptures their little group received ANY power and authority … any mandate from God … to do what they do.
If they manage to cobble together something, then ask them why their founder(s) and the secretive “Boys from Brooklyn” have been so wrong on so many of their predictions and claims, for so long … and based on that … why you should believe anything they say … since their teachings are relatively new, based on the opinions of only a few, whose fatally flawed understanding of the true nature and identity of Jesus Christ completely separates them from authentic Christianity … and whose teachings have been proved wrong, time and time again … by other JW’s … by history … and by the vast consensus of authentic Christian theological scholarship.
Finally Tom, there is absolutely no need for you to refute negative, spurious, unsupported claims by these people, or anyone.
I suggest that instead, when next they visit, you jointly attempt to determine precisely how many angels might be able to dance on the head of a pin!
This link to the Catholic Answers Forum should be useful.
“Therefore let no one pass judgment on you in questions of food and drink or with regard to a festival or a new moon or a sabbath.”
The Letter of St. Paul to the Colossians consists of only four short chapters, but it covers a lot of “ground”. In fact, there’s much that today’s Christians might learn from it.
For one thing, St. Paul makes it clear that Christians are no longer bound to the Old Covenant (Mosaic) system of things, which has been totally replaced by the New Covenant … which is a much, much better “deal”.
For those who still prefer to believe that the sabbath day observance is limited only to Saturday, and/or that Christians are somehow obligated to observe any of the Old Testament feast days (or other requirements, like circumcision) St. Paul teaches clearly to the contrary:
Colossians 2:16
“Therefore let no one pass judgment on you in questions of food and drink or with regard to a festival or a new moon or a sabbath.”
Seventh Day Adventists, Jehovah’s Witnesses (and many other Christian denominations) would be wise to consider the full impact of St. Paul’s clear teaching, which remains at odds with their beliefs and practices, while Catholics should understand what St. Paul obviously did … that Jesus wasn’t kidding when he gave the Catholic Church (alone) the awesome and virtually unrestricted power of binding and loosing, on Earth and in Heaven.
Read the referenced Bible text
Doug Lawrence's Catholic Site 