Understanding and Answering

95 Pages·2014·2.41 MB·English

by  Ron Rhodes

Class Schedule
• Week one:
• History / Beginnings
• One Achilles’ heel / how they respond
• JW changes since inception

• Week two:
• Their theocratic organization
• Their Bible – NWT
• Jehovah vs Jesus

• Week three:
• Michael vs Jesus – trinity
• Salvation / Resurrection - Assurance

• Week four:
• End times
• Birthday’s, blood transfusions and crosses
• Witnessing
Understanding and Answering
Jehovah’s Witnesses
Characteristics or Marks of a Cult
• Monopoly on truth

• God only speaks through them

• They make additions / changes to the Bible

• Teach works based salvation

• Tainted view of Christ and His finished work on the cross
Current Statistics on the Jehovah’s
Witnesses
• Over a billion man-hours – per yr
• Bible courses: millions / month
• Watchtower & Awake magazine -
most widely distributed magazines
in world
• Published in 200 / 85 languages
• 7.8 mil members world wide
• 1.3 mil members in US and Canada
• Train 5 hrs a wk / witness 10 hrs Mo
• New Kingdom Halls – 4-6 /month.
Jehovah Witness Facts
• Jehovah’s Witness can make a “doctrinal pretzel” out of the
average Christian in about 30 seconds

• God’s only organization on earth

• Only the Watchtower Society has the absolute truth

• Join and escape imminent battle of Armageddon

• Each JW is called a publisher = announcing the Bible’s message

• You Can Live Forever in Paradise on Earth (This is Plan B)

• 144,000 go to heaven, but that filled up in 1935, so those who join
now will reside on a paradise earth (had to add plan B after 144,000)
Key Issues
• No hell – Annihilation - cease to exist
• Invisible second coming of Christ
• No one spoke for God for 1,900 years – Stopped after apostles until Russell in 1872
• No Trinity
• False prophecy
• Works based salvation, no assurance
• Jesus is not God
– Jesus did not create the world
– Jesus was created as an angel, any angel could have come down and been a perfect man
– Jesus only died for Adam’s sin, so now we can earn our eternal life
– Jesus had no physical resurrection – only spiritual
• No Holy Spirit – just a force
• God is not omnipresent or omniscient – angels are his eyes and ears
• Created own Bible translation – no manuscript support, no credentials to translate
• Inserted “a” before god in the New Testament when referring to Jesus
• Inserted the name Jehovah over 200 times in NT
• Only 144,000 go to heaven – filled up in 1935
• Remaining JW’s live on paradise earth
History
• Charles Taze Russell
- founder – president 1872 – 1916
• Grew up in Presbyterian church, left at 17 because of hell doctrine
• 1872 - Began the International Bible Students Association - Purpose was
to 1) disprove Hell and 2) teach the invisible second coming of Christ.
• Man does not have a soul, he is a soul, therefore nothing is left after death
to send to hell. - Cease to exist (resurrection problem)
• 1879 - Established the Zion Publishing Company “Zion’s Watch Tower”
• 1884 - Zion’s Watch Tower and Tract Society was organized as a
corporation renamed the “Watchtower Bible and Tract Society’ (WS)
• 1909 - Established headquarters in Brooklyn NY, remains today.
• He taught that the invisible second coming of Christ took place in 1874.
• Measured the corridors of the Great Pyramid of Giza to arrive at 1874 as
the second coming date. Pyramidology abandoned by Rutherford.

Changing location
• In the next few years, Brooklyn could see one of the largest turnovers in
real estate, all thanks to one seller. The Jehovah's Witnesses are planning
to sell all 34 of its buildings as they move their operations upstate.

• The scope of the church's holdings is massive, 3.2 million square feet,
more than the Empire State Building. It's being valued at more than $1
billion, and once the properties are turned over to private owners, the tax
dollars will be flowing. (They are tax exempt – non profit)

• The Watchtower buildings in DUMBO and Brooklyn Heights have been a
fixture since 1909, when the Jehovah's Witnesses began buying up
properties, one by one. Church members have quietly lived and worked
there for decades. But now, the church has outgrown its facilities and is
planning to move upstate, leaving prime real estate up for grabs.