====[ The Christian BBS - Vic., B.C. - 604-478-2789, 8,N,1 - 24 Hrs. ]====

FIFTEEN REASONS WHY I CANNOT BE A JEHOVAH'S WITNESS

by Rev. Robert B. Mignard

The crystal clear teachings of the Word of God will not allow a

thorough going Bible Student to embrace the doctrines set forth by the

Jehovah's Witnesses. The basic teachings of this sect are in conflict

with the Scriptures. Fifteen of their unique doctrinal errors are

listed here and constitute sound reasons why no one may unite with the

Witnesses and still hold to the truth of God.

1. THE JEHOVAH'S WITNESSES DENY THE ABSOLUTE, UNIQUE DIVINITY OF

JESUS CHRIST

Scripture demonstrates that the Lord Jesus Christ is Jehovah, Isaiah 41:4,

44:6 and 48:12 declare that the attribute of being the "first and last"

belongs to Jehovah alone. **************In Revelation 1:7, 8, 11, 17 and

22"23, 14************ Jesus Christ is shown possessing this very attribute,

thereby making Him the Jehovah of these Isaiah passages, and indeed of the

entire Old Testament. Isaiah 45:22-25 speaks of a universal worship, which

one day all mankind will render unto Jehovah. Phil. 2:9-11 applies this

Isaiah passage to Jesus Christ.

Isaiah 44:22, 23 sets forth Jehovah as the redeemer. Eph. 1:7

establishes Jesus Christ as this redeemer.

In Isaiah 45:24 and 54:17 Jehovah is our righteousness. In 1 Cor.

1:30 Jesus Christ is our righteousness.

Isaiah 43:11 reserves for Jehovah alone the work of saving man.

"Besides Me there is no Saviour." Titus 2:13 teaches that Jesus Christ

is the Saviour, thereby establishing Him as the Jehovah of Isaiah

chapter 43.

An honest student of the Scripture will read and compare the verses

used above.

2. THE JEHOVAH'S WITNESSES TEACH THAT JESUS CHRIST IS A CREATED

BEING - SIMPLY ANOTHER GOD.

This doctrinal error is achieved through a spurious translation in

their New World Translation of the Christian Greek Scripture which

renders John 1:1, "And the Word was a god." Isaiah emphatically

denies this error in 43:10, 44:6 and 45:5, 21, and shows their

translation of John 1:1 to be illegitimate. Four times Jehovah

declares the impossibility of there being "another god" or "a god"

beside Himself. Every honest student of Scripture must acknowledge

the solitary aloneness of Jehovah.

3. THE JEHOVAH'S WITNESSES DENY THE PERSONALITY AND DIVINITY OF THE

HOLY SPIRIT.

Of the many Scripture references which demonstrate this to be false

John 16:13, 14 is representative. Eight times the Lord Jesus refers

to the Holy Spirit by the personal masculine pronoun. The Greek word

"Spirit" is neuter but the pronoun employed is not "it" but rather

"he" or "himself". Christ was grammatically incorrect, for the

pronoun must agree with the noun in gender, but theologically correct

in this recognizing the Spirit's personality. Were the Holy Spirit

not a person, the pronoun "it" would have been used and the grammar of

the passage kept intact. Even the Witnesses' own New World

Translation acknowledges the Spirit's personality in the translation of

these two verses. The divinity of the Holy Spirit is clearly

demonstrated in the following references which the honest student will

carefully study: Acts 5:3, 4; 1 Cor. 3:16; 2 Cor. 13:14. In 1 Cor.

12:4-6 the Holy Spirit is called Lord (v.5) and God (v.6). In placing

Isaiah 6:8-10 along side of Acts 28:25-27 it becomes evident that the

God of Isaiah 6 is the Holy Spirit.

4. THE JEHOVAH'S WITNESSES DENY THE BIBLICAL DOCTRINE OF THE TRINITY

Though the truth of the Trinity is amusing to the Witnesses,

nevertheless it constitutes part of the revelation of God. The Bible

student discovers there is a Person in Scripture known as the Father,

who is God (Eph. 1:2). There is another Person in Scripture called

the Son, Jesus, Jesus Christ who is God (Titus 2:13). There is still

another Person called the Holy Spirit, Holy Ghost, Spirit of God who

is God (Acts 5:3,4). The one Greek word theos, "God," is used of all

three Persons, thus ascribing the same divinity of each. The careful

student also notes the fact of the Trinity in Isaiah 48:16, 17; 28:19

and 2 Cor. 13:14. The conclusion is simply that there is one God

manifest in three Persons known as Father, Son and Holy Spirit, and

since each Person is God, the persons are equal.

5. THE JEHOVAH'S WITNESSES DENY THE BODY, CORPOREAL RESURRECTION OF

JESUS CHRIST FROM THE DEAD

False doctrine declares "The man Jesus is dead, only His spirit

arose." The witness of Jesus Christ is quite different (Luke

24:36-45). Even a casual glance at v. 39 dispels any doubt concerning

the bodily resurrection. Thomas met the physically resurrected Christ

(John 20:24-29), as did the other disciples who ate fish with Him

(John 21:12-14). Paul testifies to the corporeal resurrection of

Jesus Christ in 1 Cor. 15:3-19. The guards at the tomb, the chief

priests and Sanhedrin would never have become excited, Matt. 28:11, 15

if "only His spirit arose."

6. THE JEHOVAH'S WITNESSES DENY THE BODILY VISIBLE RETURN OF JESUS

CHRIST

They say, "We must not expect Him to come again as a human being"

"Coming is properly translated presence and refers to the invisible

presence of the Lord." In contrast, a Bible student discovers the

truth that Jesus Christ IS coming back again physically, literally.

In Revelation 1:7 "every eye shall see Him"; in Thess. 4:16, 17 "the

Lord Himself shall descend from Heaven"; and in Acts 1:10, 11 He

"shall so come in like manner as we have seen Him go into heaven."

The testimony of these passages is irrefutable.

7. THE JEHOVAH'S WITNESSES DENY PRESENCE OF THE BELIEVER WITH CHRIST

UPON DEATH

According to 2 Cor. 5:8, Phil. 1:21-24 and Luke 16:20-22, the

believer, immediately upon death, passes into the presence of Christ.

The body sleeps in the ground (John 11:11-14), awaiting the

resurrection (1 Cor. 15:20-23), while the soul and spirit now

separated from the body (Jas. 2:26), pass into heaven.

8. THE JEHOVAH'S WITNESSES CHIDE THE BELIEVERS' HOPE OF HEAVEN

John 14:1-3; Phil. 3:20, 21; Pet. 1:3-5; and Rev. 3:21 are but a

few of the many passages in Scripture which speak of the "living hope"

of being with Christ forever.

9. THE JEHOVAH'S WITNESSES DENY THE REALITY AND ETERNITY OF FUTURE

PUNISHMENT

Scripture teaches that reality of hell. The Lord Jesus Christ

spoke more of hell than heaven and informs us that hell is a furnace

of fire, (Matt. 13:49-50); a place for Satan and his emissaries,

(Matt. 25:41); and unquenchable fire, (Mark 9:42-48); Furthermore, He

insisted upon the fact that hell is eternal. The Greek word aionios,

which is defined as that which is without end, and which is used to

describe the everlasting life mentioned in John 3:16 and the

eternity of God in Rom. 16:26 is delibertly used by Christ to

describe the duration of hell (Matt. 18:8), and by John in Rev. 14:11.

Aionios does not have a double meaning. If it means that God is

eternal and the life which the believer receives is eternal, then it

must mean that hell is also eternal.

10. THE JEHOVAH'S WITNESSES DENY THE PERFECT SALVATION OF CHRIST'S

CROSS

Without any warrant from Scripture, the Witnesses teach that the

Millennium, the thousand year reign of Christ upon the earth, will

afford all mankind from Adam onward conditions, to earn salvation.

Where is there a single Bible verse supporting this? The Lord Jesus

Christ has purchased our salvation on the Cross, Rom. 3:21-26, and it

remains for man to believe and be saved (Eph. 2:8-0 and Acts 16:30,

31). Salvation is wholly apart from human effort (Rom. 3:27, 28).

11. THE JEHOVAH'S WITNESSES DENY PATRIOTISM AND SALUTE TO THE FLAG

Scripture enjoins all believers to be loyal citizens. The careful

student will see this in Rom. 13:1-7; 1 Peter 2:13-15 and Matt. 22:21.

12. THE JEHOVAH'S WITNESSES ARE CONFUSED ABOUT THE 144,000

Through good works and sincere effort it is the hope of Jehovah's

Witness to become the of the 144,00. In the two chapters in which the

144,000 are mentioned, Revelation 7 & 14, the student of Scripture

notes that 144,000 are literal Jews of the ancient tribes with no

Gentiles among them (7:4-8); are all males (14:4); are virgins (14:4);

will minister during the Great Tribulation (14:6-13); and do not earn

their office by works but are imagination can sound Biblical

interpretation allow a Gentile sect to claim for its devotees a place

among the 144,000.

13. THE JEHOVAH'S WITNESSES USE A PERVERTED TRANSLATION OF THE BIBLE

The New World Translation of the Christian Greek Scripture is a

fumbling translation of the New Testament which no reputable Greek

scholar will endorse. The Translation has been altered to fit the

heresy. For instance, the Greek word for "other," "allos," does not

appear in the Greek text of Col. 1:16,17 but is inserted four times in

their translation to make Christ appear as part of the creation, and

hence fit their doctrine that He is a created son, another god.

"...because by means of Him all other things were created." This and

dozens of other passages make the New World Translation a travesty of

God's Word.

14. THE JEHOVAH'S WITNESS DOCTRINAL SYSTEM IS BASED UPON THE

INTERPRETATIONS OF CHARLES TAZE RUSSELL

In 1874 a Brooklyn haberdasher, Charles Taze Russell, announced that

he possessed all the truth. In his many volumes Russell "left

scarcely one great truth of fundamental doctrine untouched with his

unholy and unwarranted conclusions," (Dr. Wm. E. Biederwolf). As a

careful study will reveal, Russell's writings serve as a broad base

upon which the Jehovah's Witness structure is erected. Presently the

Jehovah's Witnesses are following the fallen conclusions of a rascal

who was divorced by his wife, was in trouble in the courts and who

fleeced his followers with "miracle wheat" sold at an exorbitant

price, which he claimed would produce 15 times as much wheat as an

ordinary bushel.

15. THE JEHOVAH'S WITNESSES NEGLECT A VAST AREA OF SCRIPTURE TRUTH

A careful analysis of numerous books, pamphlets and magazines

turned out by the Watch Tower Publishers, reveals that only a small

percentage of the Bible is used. A mere 6 1/2% of the Scripture is

quoted, leaving untouched the rest of the Word of God.

Evangel Missionary Fellowship, Inc.

P.O. Box 25, Largo, Florida, U.S.A.