Week 3

JEHOVAH’S WITNESS-ISM

Good morning Scullville.

PRAYER SHEET SIGN UP – it’s been suggested that we get individuals to sign up to pray (and fast) for 1 meal/1 day a month for our pastor, our church, our witness, our future.

So…we’re continuing on in our ISMS series for the fall.  And, the purpose of our apologetics study (which is really a theological study) is  so that we can not only understand what it is that other religions/other religious people (our neighbors and coworkers and fellow students) think &believe…so that we can talk, pray, and witness more effectively.  BUT also…so that we can compare those beliefs to what the Judeo-Christians Scriptures teach (what we believe).  And so far, we’ve discovered that while we do share a few things in common…the majority of what they and we believe (about the Bible, about God, about Jesus, about Salvation, about Eternity) is quite different.

The world wants us to think that all religions are basically the same…that they all (eventually) get us to “the top of the mountain”…that it’s not terribly important which religion you practice (if any), rather, it’s that you practice it (whatever it is) sincerely. 

But, #1 you can believe something quite sincerely…and…be sincerely wrong. (materializing through the wall).  And, #2 even our short and rather simplistic Sunday morning studies of these comparative faiths reveals that they are not the same, that they can’t all be equal or equally valid/equally true, and that it’s eternally important that we get it right. 

Because…whether or not someone believes in a false god(s)…or…in some sort of false gospel/false version of Christianity…even some form of a religion or cult…the truth is…LIFE and ETERNITY hang in the balance. 

PRAY

Ok.  So let’s take a quick look at today’s ISM – Johovah’s Witness-ISM.  Or, you could actually call it, “Russel-ISM” as it (and his followers, the Russelites) was originally named after its founder, Charles Taze Russel. 

Russel was the son of a businessman and was raised in Pennsylvania as a Presbyterian.  According to my research, in 1868 (as a 16 year old) he was asked a bunch of hard questions by a skeptical friend and he couldn’t answer them.  So, rather than finding the answers within the Christian faith, he felt his Christian faith had failed him so he began exploring and felt led towards “Adventism” (which is another ISM we can study someday).  Eventually (in 1870…at age 18) he started a Bible study with a group of like-minded Bible students (who called themselves the “Millennial Dawn Bible Study) which eventually became the foundations for the movement that became the Watchtower Tract Society or Jehovah’s Witnesses in 1881.

According to statistics I read…there are somewhere north of 8.8 million witnesses active in the world today.

Let me just stop for a second and make an observation. 

It strikes me that both Charles Taze Russel and Joseph Smith were raised in Christian homes or around the Christian Church.  But both of them (as young teenagers) felt the need to pursue God (pursue the answers to their questions) OUTSIDE of their church/their faith.  Both of them, during their mid to late teen years…had great interest in spiritual things and found (within themselves and in their culture) voices/counterfeits/cults who were more than willing to lead them (and the millions that still follow their teachings today) astray.  This is even more true today!!

THIS IS ONE MORE REASON WHY WE ARE COMMITTED TO DOING WHATEVER WE CAN IN THIS COMING YEAR (including hiring someone to oversee and equip our ministry to families and teens…partnering with other churches…purchasing curriculum and equipment) to improve our ministry to kids and to increase our outreach to young people and their families!!  Our church (as much as we love everybody) MUST NOT/CANNOT just concern itself with the older and the already convinced.  We have to pay more attention to our kids…and…to the next generation of kids/young adults in our communities.  And we need help to do it.

I promise you…Satan, the cults, false religions, gangs, secular and sports organizations, schools, new age groups, social media influencers, and the overall anti-Christian culture are literally spending billions and billions of dollars…and pouring hours and hours and hours of effort and energy…all trying to lead and guide the next generations of youth away from Christ, away from the teachings and the morality of the Scriptures, and away from the Christian Church. 

That just won’t do!  Loving and discipling kids and teenagers…reaching and raising them up in the way of Christ…being and becoming a church that appeals to and ministers to them as we serve and worship the Lord…HAS to be a big part of our future.  We can’t go backwards!  We have to take the risks and make the efforts to grow forward.

PRAY/CONFESS/ASK GOD TO PROVIDE A LEADER AND THE RESOURCES AND A WILL TO DO IT!

Anyway, when Taze was a teenager…he and a bunch of other teenagers who agreed with him….got together to study the Bible by themselves, they eventually self-published and sold a bunch (millions) of their Bible Study books/materials, and they invented a “Christian-like” religion that deeply contradicted Biblical Christianity as they:

• Rejected the Trinity
• Came to believe that Jesus was a created being – namely the Archangel Michael
• Saw the Holy Spirit as an impersonal force and not part of the God-head
• Rejected the idea of an eternal hell (preferring instead a type of annihilation)
• Rejected the bodily resurrection of Jesus
• (without any training and only a few years after being unable to even give any biblical answer to their friends, they)…wrote their own inaccurate translation of the Bible that they considered the ONLY right translation – the New World Translation
• Adopted a works-based salvation (very much tied to their witnessing strategies)
• And, focused/obsessed on the return of Christ.

In fact, Russell and his friends (now in their mid 20’s) were so convinced that Jesus was going to return in 1878 (even though Jesus told us that no one could know the day or the hour) that they sold all of their businesses, prepared themselves, and witnessed passionately to others so that they too could be prepared for that day.

While I admire their passion for the lost and their sense of urgency regarding the return of Jesus (something many of us miss today – we are indeed called to be Christ’s watchmen and His witnesses) the truth is Russell’s predictions/prophetic words were 100% wrong.  Jesus didn’t come.  But that didn’t stop Russell and the Russellites from predicting & preaching Christ’s return again in 1914.  And, it didn’t prevent Russell (and his eventual successors) from seeing themselves as the “Faithful and wise” servants (of Matthew 24:45) that watched and waited for the return of Christ.

But, of course, 1914 also came and went.  And, for a second time, Taze Russel’s prophecies (among many others) failed to come true (which, as we learned last week) would put him squarely in the camp of a false prophet.  But still…people passionately followed him and his writings. 

What’s incredibly humbling and convicting is that many of these dear people (til this very day) are more willing to sacrifice and serve for a lie…than many of us are for the truth!!  They are willing to give tons of time, talent, and treasure for what they believe.  I guess…in some ways we are the same.  We are willing to give everything to our work, our children, our leisure, our hobbies, our favorite teams…none of which can save us (or them).  But, when it comes to our passion for God, for God’s Word, for God’s Lost and Saved people, for God’s Commandment and Commission, for God’s Family…we so often limit it to an hour on Sunday (if that)…or…to whatever else is needed that won’t disrupt or interrupt our other lives too terribly much.  Again, I’m humbled and convicted by their passion and commitment.  And, by my own idolatry.  I hope you are too.  Don’t move too quickly past this moment.  I hope you are too.

PRAY/CONFESS OUR LAZINESS, IDOLATRY, ADULTERY, DISTRACTION, DECEPTION

Anyway…Russel (worn out for all of his frantic and misplaced efforts) died at the age of 64.

And then, he stood (as all of us will) before the very Jesus that he (and those he’s led astray) rejected AS God and Lord.  And sadly, he is likely spending an eternity apart from the very God that he rejected in the very hell he did not truly believe in. 

Hell, it seems, doesn’t care whether you believe in it or not. 

So.  We’ll trust God to be the just and gracious judge for Charles Taze Russell and his mistaken heart.  The truth is…Russell died…and then he faced the judgement.  But sadly, Russell-ism/Jehovah’s Witness-ISM (as it was rebranded by a guy named Rutherford) did not.  It still lives.

And, if you are anything like me and my family…we tended to ignore them (and the Kingdom Hall they meet in on Bargaintown Road).  As a kid I even remember us “hiding” from them when they came knocking on our doors (1-2 times a year).  But, they are fellow sinners in desperate need of a Savior.  And, we need not be afraid – (I John 4:18-19) perfect love casts out all fear.  So, maybe we should try and understand them and their beliefs…love them…so we can better share our hearts and God’s heart with them.

So…let’s go over a few of the things they believe.  JW’s have some interesting (and ancillary) beliefs about celebrating birthdays and religious/secular “holidays”, receiving blood transfusions, wearing crosses, etc…  And, they are worth taking a look at.  But, it’s really their core beliefs that are the issue. 

Not surprisingly (if you have been paying attention) they differ from Biblical Christianity…on their sources of authority, who God and Jesus and the Spirit Are, how one gets saved, and what happens after we die.

Let’s start with the sources of authority.  For the Christian…that is the 66 books of the Old and New Testaments.  Genesis to Revelation.  We believe in what theologians call a “closed canon.”  That we don’t add to or subtract from what God has already given/already revealed to us through His Law, His prophets, His eye witnesses to His interactions with His people/the Jews, the teachings of His Son/Our Savior, Jesus the Christ, and those eyewitnesses who gave testimony to what He did and said and taught. 

Lots of people and religious groups have made claims of having a new, a different, an improved or expanded revelation from God.  But, orthodox Christians rightly tend to view those writings as inferior/not on par with the Scriptures, potentially/partially historical or helpful, but mostly as deceptive distraction (at best) & demonic and deadly (at worst).  Especially, when they teach or proclaim a different God, Jesus, Gospel.

So…be like the Bereans (Acts 17:11)…who rigorously compared whatever text/testimony/gospel they received against that which had already been taught and passed down to them…that which had been delivered to the Saints through reliable eyewitnesses…and which had passed the tests of historicity, prophecy, accuracy, and early church acceptance (not something written/translated by a bunch of unlearned teens/young adults 1900 years after and far removed from the time of Christ).  

Most of the additional/later writings (and many of the ones that were rejected by those that assembled the accepted Old and New Testament writings of the early Church) were rejected for a reason and most included false, inaccurate, conflicting, or additional revelations of truth that were neither.  They were not revelations from God and they were not true. 

And, the only way you can truly know that…is to be so studied and familiar with the truth…that you aren’t fooled by the counterfeits.

I’m a twin. My brother and I look very much alike.  We even come from the same genetic material.  But, if you know us.  If you even know just one of us.  Especially if you know either of us well…you can always tell that something (even if it is only slight…like I am left handed and he is right handed, like I wear glasses and he usually doesn’t, like he’s thinner and plays golf WAAAAAAY better than I do, or just the mannerisms and words we choose…you can always tell that something) is different/off. 

That’s the goal for you and me.  To know God…to know Jesus…to know His Spirit and His Word so well…to know our shepherd’s voice so well…that when we read, hear, learn, discover something “new” or “different” or “improved” we can quickly spot/biblically discern that which is true or not!!  Jesus said…

“I tell you the truth, anyone who sneaks over the wall of a sheepfold, rather than going through the gate, must surely be a thief and a robber! ² But the one who enters through the gate is the shepherd of the sheep . ³ The gatekeeper opens the gate for him, and the sheep recognize his voice and come to him. He calls his own sheep by name and leads them out. ⁴ After he has gathered his own flock, he walks ahead of them, and they follow him because they know his voice.  ⁵ They won’t follow a stranger; they will run from him because they don’t know his voice.”

 John 10:1–5 (NLT)

So…for example…when Jehovah’s Witnesses talk about the nature of God it sounds different.  Their voice doesn’t sound right/seem right (and it isn’t) to orthodox, biblical believers. 

For one, they insist that the only divine name of God is Jehovah.  In the Hebrew Bible (since there are no vowels) the name of God is usually written as the tetragrammaton – YHWH.   Many translators translate it as Yahweh (especially since the Y in Hebrew has more of a Y sound than a J sound – think Yeshua – more than Jesus).  And, most Bible translations capitalize and write the YHWH as “LORD” in our Scriptures.  But, Jehovah’s Witnesses…as it is in their very name…insist that God is always and only to be called Jehovah.

I have no problem with calling God, Jehovah, but the truth is…biblically, God (in the OT) is identified by many names, including:

• God (Hb. ‘elohim; Gen. 1:1),
• God Almighty (Hb. ‘El Shadday; Gen. 17:1),
• Lord (Hb. ‘Adonay; Ps. 8:1), and
• Lord of hosts (Hb. yhwh tseba’oth; 1 Sam. 1:3).

And, in the NT times, Jesus referred to God as “Father” (Gk. Patēr; Matt. 6:9), and Abba “daddy”…as did the apostles (1 Cor. 1:3).  So…I think we have liberty.  Not to call God whatever we want.  But, to call God what He is called in the Scriptures/what Jesus called Him.

Now…if you listen carefully to the voices of the Jehovah’s Witnesses, it also very quickly becomes very clear that they don’t believe in God the Father, God the Son, God the Holy Spirit.  They don’t believe in the Trinity.  They don’t believe in the Creator God who has revealed himself as One God in Three Persons.  That should (as sheep) set your wool on edge.

Now.  It’s true that the word Trinity is not used in the Bible.  But, as we have studied before, the concept of the Trinity is throughout.  We see the plurality of the Trinity in the Creation (when God says, let us make man in our image), in the affirmation of Christ (by the Father and the  Spirit) at His Baptism, in the teachings of Jesus (that He and the Father are one), and in the witness of the early church (going out and baptizing people in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit).  The early church leaders and writers (in the gospels and the Epistles) confirmed and codified this belief in the Scriptures and in the early Creeds of the Church.

But, Jehovah’s Witnesses believe that the Father (Jehovah) is the only God, Jesus (God’s Son) is not divine, but rather a created being…originally an angel (the archangel, Michael, to be exact), and that the Spirit is more of an impersonal “force” of God rather than the indwelling presence (the 3^rd part of divinity) of God within us.

That (especially the part about Jesus) should sound/seem “off” to Biblical believers. 

Not only because the Father, the Son, and the Spirit are all called God in the New Testament (I Peter 1:2. Hebrews 1:8, Acts 5:3-4).  And, each are said to possess personally and individually all of the attributes of deity – omnipresence, omniscience, omnipotence, eternality.    But, (in the case of Jesus) specifically because over and over again Jesus taught that he and the Father were one…that He was the eternal Creator, that He was God in the flesh.

In John’s Gospel we are taught that…

“In the beginning the Word already existed. The Word was with God, and the Word was God.

² He existed in the beginning with God. ³ God created everything through him, and nothing was created except through him. ⁴ The Word gave life to everything that was created, and his life brought light to everyone.”

 John 1:1–4 (NLT)

And…throughout His lifetime, Jesus did things, said things, taught things that the leaders of the Jews clearly equated with “blasphemy” (which would have been blasphemy if he wasn’t who he said he was) and they eventually crucified him over it.  John Chapter 5 is a good chapter to read regarding this (and Jesus’s sense of identity and equality with the Father), but in John 5:17-18 we read…

“My Father is always working, and so am I.” ¹⁸ So the Jewish leaders tried all the harder to find a way to kill him. For he not only broke the Sabbath, he called God his Father, thereby making himself equal with God.”

 John 5:17–18 (NLT)

Again…what Jesus said, taught, and did…proved that He was who he said he was.  God with us.  Not merely a man.  Not a creation of God or an angel…but the co-creator.  Not some sort of secondary God.  But rather…the only begotten and eternal Son of God (begotten, born into the body of a baby)…eternal God the Son who emptied himself (for a season and a reason) of His eternal glory, who voluntarily submitted Himself to the Father’s will, who lovingly came to rescue and redeem His creation from the curse of Sin, and who suffered, bled, and died to save us.

That’s what Christians believe.  But, the Jehovah’s Witnesses (taking their cues from their misunderstanding of some of the language of the Scriptures) believe that Jesus was not God the Son, but only an angel (if even an archangel) sent to share Jehovah’s message of light and love.

But…as the writer of Hebrews wrote…Jesus was certainly not an angel.  I’m no angel either!!  And, contrary to popular opinion, we never will be.  But, according to the writer of Hebrews (unlike me or you or anyone else) Jesus was higher than Angels.  No angel has ever been called God’s Son/God the Son.

“Long ago God spoke many times and in many ways to our ancestors through the prophets. ² And now in these final days, he has spoken to us through his Son. God promised everything to the Son as an inheritance, and through the Son he created the universe.  ³ The Son radiates God’s own glory and expresses the very character of God, and he sustains everything by the mighty power of his command. When he had cleansed us from our sins, he sat down in the place of honor at the right hand of the majestic God in heaven. ⁴ This shows that the Son is far greater than the angels, just as the name God gave him is greater than their names.”

Hebrews 1:1–4 (NLT)

Now again, Jehovah’s Witnesses will say that Jesus was the first-born of Creation…an archangel…and…that God did create everything through Him.  But still…they would see Him as secondary/lesser than God…the first created being.  But…unlike an angel…Jesus is God the Son…God eternal…the second part of divinity.  Worthy of worship…worthy of being seated on the Heavenly Throne.  No angel has that calling.  In verse 6 of Hebrews 1  it says…

“And when he brought his supreme Son [many translations say “first born” – which is where the confusion comes from] into the world, God said, “Let all of God’s angels worship him.” Regarding the angels, he says, “He sends his angels like the winds, his servants like flames of fire.” ⁸ But to the Son he says, “Your throne, O God, endures forever and ever.”

Hebrews 1:6–8 (NLT)

Only God the Son is worthy of worship.  Angels don’t/won’t receive worship.  Only God the Son (who is God from eternity past to eternity future) can receive worship and sit on the Throne. 

Angels aren’t Gods.  Aren’t Saviors.  They are powerful creations/messengers/servants of God.  But not God. 

“…only servants—spirits sent to care for people who will inherit salvation.”  Hebrews 1:14 (NLT)

But, I honestly get the confusion that Jehovah’s Witnesses and others have.  It sounds like Jesus had a beginning.  Even if he was the first and the highest.   It sounds like He had a beginning.  And, of course, the Human-Born Jesus did…in the womb of Mary…eventually born in a stable in Bethlehem. 

But, long before that day…and…long before the first Adam…and…before any angels (who are indeed collectively called sons of God in Genesis 6:2-4; Job 1:6, 2:1, 38:7) were created…JESUS, GOD THE SON, the one and only Son of God, the Great I AM…existed.  And, along with the God the Father and God the Spirit, He created all that is or ever will be (including the angels, even Michael, the one called the Archangel in Jude 9). 

So, the Scriptures teach us that Jesus was eternal God…that while he had a human birth…he was not just a mere human but was actually eternal God the Son, come in the flesh (Immanuel, God with us).  He was not a creation, but the Creator.  So…

“⁸ Don’t let anyone capture you with empty philosophies and high-sounding nonsense that come from human thinking and from the spiritual powers of this world, rather than from Christ. ⁹ For in Christ lives all the fullness of God in a human body.”

 Colossians 2:8–9 (NLT)

And…as that great hymn of the faith teaches in Phillipians 2

“^“Though he was God, he did not think of equality with God as something to cling to.

⁷ Instead, he gave up his divine privileges; he took the humble position of a slave and was born as a human being. When he appeared in human form,  ⁸ he humbled himself in obedience to God and died a criminal’s death on a cross. ⁹ Therefore, God elevated him to the place of highest honor and gave him the name above all other names,  ¹⁰ that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, ¹¹ and every tongue declare that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.”

                                                                                                                     Philippians 2:6–11 (NLT)

We worship Jesus because He was and is and evermore shall be…gracious, victorious, and Holy GOD.  And, because…on that Cross He paid the unpayable price (the price that only God could pay) for our sins.

Now…Jehovah’s witnesses might believe that their angelic version of Jesus died.  And, they may even believe that Jesus rose from the grave.  However, they don’t believe that his resurrection was bodily.  Only spiritually.  Even though scripture teaches us that the resurrected Jesus was touched by people (skeptics/doubters even), that he ate literal food with people, that he physically spent time (over 30 days) with his disciples and hundreds of witnesses after He rose.

I’ve run out of time, but let me just close with this.  It’s important for us to be able to discern what other people believe about God the Father & God the Son.   But, connected to that…how/why all of that matters.  How we will be saved.  Like most of the ISMS we’ve looked at…JW’s believe that Salvation comes by FAITH (in their particular view of things) PLUS (plus obedience, plus works, plus following a bunch of rules, plus jumping through a bunch of religion-specific hoops, etc…).

Unlike Christians who believe that we are saved by grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone…and…who believe that works are the fruit or the result of salvation not the basis for it…Jehovah’s witnesses are desperately trying to work/earn/witness their way into eternity.  It’s why they are so passionate about it.

JW’s believe that the souls of the unfaithful will go to hell (as do we…however our Biblical understanding of Hell is quite different from theirs).  Christians believe (Jesus taught) that hell is a real and inescapable place of conscious, eternal, and bodily punishment/suffering.  I hate that doctrine (which is one of the reasons I should be sharing my faith at least as passionately and as much as the JW’s), but hate it or not…it is biblical. 

JW’s believe that the souls of the unfaithful dead will not suffer eternally, but will simply be annihilated – snuffed out of conscious existence forever.  I kind of wish that was true.  But, it’s not what the Scriptures teach. 

The book of Revelation (in Revelation 20:10-15) says that an everlasting hell…a place/a lake of fiery torment day and night for ever and ever…will be the place that the Devil, the Beast, the False prophet, all whose names – by grace through faith in Jesus – whose names are not written in the Lamb’s Book of Life, and death itself will be cast into. 

“Then the devil, who had deceived them, was thrown into the fiery lake of burning sulfur, joining the beast and the false prophet. There they will be tormented day and night forever and ever. ¹¹ And I saw a great white throne and the one sitting on it. The earth and sky fled from his presence, but they found no place to hide.  ¹² I saw the dead, both great and small, standing before God’s throne. And the books were opened, including the Book of Life. And the dead were judged according to what they had done, as recorded in the books. ¹³ The sea gave up its dead, and death and the grave gave up their dead. And all were judged according to their deeds.  ¹⁴ Then death and the grave were thrown into the lake of fire. This lake of fire is the second death. ¹⁵ And anyone whose name was not found recorded in the Book of Life was thrown into the lake of fire.”          

 Revelation 20:10–15 (NLT)

And, when it comes to Heaven, JW’s also have some unique ideas. 

JW’s believe that there are two eternal peoples of God:  1) The Anointed Class (the literal 144,000 of Revelation 7:4 & 14:1-3) which they are all striving to be (but obviously all can’t be and only God will choose) who will get to (because of their faith and works in the name of Jehovah) skip the tribulation,  go to heaven, and rule/reign.  And then, 2) there are the ‘other sheep’ (the vast multitude of all other believers who have not rejected Jehovah and their way of believing in him) who will have to endure the tribulation and get to live forever in a paradise on a “renewed” (but not destroyed/not new) Earth. 

Now…they key thing…isn’t who the 144,000 are…or… who gets to rule and reign in heaven (ultimately only Jesus does that).  And, it isn’t where Heaven is (in the Heavens or on the Earth).  We can debate those things all we want.  And good Christians have and do. 

The key is…how do you get there. 

And Biblical Christians believe that Heaven is the eternal dwelling place for all who have BELIEVED in the One, True God of Creation and who have been saved, by grace, through the faith we have in the God of the Bible…all who have RECEIVED God the Son who (on the Cross) reversed the curse of sin for us…so that through Him we can have everlasting life…be reunited with the God who made us and the faithful who have gone before us…and…be without the dreadful effects of sin…for all eternity!! 

“Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the old heaven and the old earth had disappeared. And the sea was also gone. ² And I saw the holy city, the new Jerusalem, coming down from God out of heaven like a bride beautifully dressed for her husband.

³ I heard a loud shout from the throne, saying, “Look, God’s home is now among his people! He will live with them, and they will be his people. God himself will be with them. ⁴ He will wipe every tear from their eyes, and there will be no more death or sorrow or crying or pain. All these things are gone forever.”

Revelation 21:1–4 (NLT)