Jehovah's Witnesses: origins, beliefs, and doctrinal contradictions

Jehovah Witness

An Overview of the Jehovah's Witnesses Beliefs

Jehovah's Witnesses is a sect that originated from America. In the same way, Mormonism, Islam, and several other religious beliefs have America as their birth place also. This makes the nation unrivalled in the accommodation of multiple religious sects.

Though the Jehovah Witness claim to have been in existence for over 6,000 years, history has it that the sect came into existence in 1872, in Pittsburgh Pennsylvania. This religious mind set has its root in Adventism and the founder was Charles Taze Russell. Charles Taze Russell was a Congregationalist layman popularly known as Pastor Russell. He wrote Studies in the Scriptures, a series that contained the conclusions Russell propounded, and which came to form the basis of the Jehovah Witnesses doctrine. The Watchtower publication which was also his brain-child came into publication for the first time in 1879. And with this, he gained a very large reading public and a great number of devout followers. During his days, the Adventist spirit was sweeping through the nation in full force, and it was on Adventism that Russell set the foundations of his doctrine (Chryssides, 2009).

This offshoot of the Adventist movement agrees that God created the earth in six days. But they argue that each day is equal to many thousands of years. As a matter of discipline, they maintain an active witnessing or sharing of faith with other people. They preach that everyone should stay away from everything that displeases God, such as observing birthdays, holidays, and other ceremonies which they judge to have originated from false religions (Chryssides, 2009).

It is obvious that the doctrine of Jehovah's Witnesses is set against the Scriptures which they claim to preach. Even though the Gospel of Mark 13:32 states clearly that no one knows the time of the second coming of Jesus, Russell has predicted the time of the second coming at different times. His 1891 prediction speculated that the second coming took place in 1874. He also said the millennium would begin before the end of 1914, and that would be after a period of 40 years of preparation of the chosen of God by him. For him, general resurrection and judgment would succeed the millennium after which the wicked will be destroyed. Russell does not believe in eternal punishment. Rather, he has taught his followers to argue that the wicked will only die a second death after they have been judged guilty. However, he agrees that the saints will be granted everlasting life, either in heaven or on a new earth (Chryssides, 2009).

Creation and the Nature of God

The Jehovah's Witnesses draw inferences from foundational principles and historic truths. Though they derive elements of their beliefs from these, they change the meanings of some to correspond to their belief system. This sect is a cult as a matter of fact. One of such very unhealthy distortions they have made is the rejection of the Trinity. They believe there is only one God -- Jehovah. For them, Jesus is not God, and therefore, there is no Trinity. Jesus to them is only a servant of God, inferior to God but a perfect human who became the ransom for the sin of man. After his death and resurrection, he was raised to a higher level than the angels. This view they hold of Christ goes against the gospel which states that Christ did not count his equality with God, but accepted death on the cross. If the scriptures maintain that Christ is equal to God, it means that the Jehovah Witnesses default in considering Him inferior to the Godhead (Sin, 2000).

The Separation of Man from God

Jehovah Witnesses believe that sin is the problem facing humanity. Adam and Eve's disobedience brought man the fate he is suffering presently. And they say that it is so because God wants to make the whole earth a paradise. In their doctrine, there is the existence of sin and death, and the final end of the world. In fact, they focus so much on the end time than any other Christian religious sect. And they also expect Armageddon (Sin, 2000).

Re-Uniting with God

Jehovah Witnesses believe that God has the solution to death and all the evil in the entire world. They expect Christ's return and the kingdom of God to be established. However, when Russell's predictions of 1914 did not take place, they maintained it happened spiritually. And they said that Satan and his demons were thrown down from heaven to the earth in 1914. And so, for them, the increase in evil, wars, and suffering are as a result of the expulsion of Satan and his cohorts. In their view, the last days have begun since 1914 (Sin, 2000).

Section 3: Using Christianity to Correct the Jehovah's Witnesses

The Jehovah's Witnesses translated the bible to suit their own ideology of God, man, salvation, and all the other concepts therein reflected. It is not really their translation that creates some difficulty. What actually makes matters worse is their misuse of the translations they have brought into the bible. Even though some parts of their publication are devoted to educative programmes, the majority of their writings are nonsense, and therefore, worthless (Ryken, 2005).

Though they claim to be Christians, they deny the physical resurrection of Christ, and the concept of salvation by grace. By this alone, they are not supposed to be considered as a Christian group. Even though they preach about Christ, the Savior, they do not believe everything Christ says about himself. Going further, the Watchtower theology interprets the bible to accommodate their ever changing perceptions of the scriptures, thus they qualify as a non-Christian body (Ryken, 2005).

The Jehovah Witnesses showcase the most primitive kind of fundamentalism. Their view of the bible is so distorted and inconsistent with the rational of service to God. They usually quote contemporary principles and opinions and go along with it as long as they support their claims. However, they will quickly dump that particular ideology the moment it does not tally with their beliefs. They usually dwell on things people would otherwise not bother about. What they are only interested in is gathering materials that support their dogmas that actually do no one any good (Ryken, 2005).

Every generation has actually produced people like Charles Russell and Judge Rutherford. These two have interpreted the bible as a book containing great-code which serves as the blueprint of the future. Every coincidence in reality gets traced to some portion of the bible, and this forms the foundation to a series of discussion on the topic. And by so doing, the message in that portion of the bible will eventually be lost to their propaganda. The doctrine which Russell has put in place for his witnessing followers does not preach the gospel as it is recorded in the scriptures. Rather, they twist and thwart it to suit their purposes. In general, they distort the totality of the Christian doctrine. A sect whose theology is in strict opposition to Christianity in many ways cannot be truly Christian, even though they claim to be so (Ryken, 2005).

The Witnesses have actually followed in the footsteps of their founders. And most of their literatures devote extra time trying to explain contemporary issues, especially in the polity, and trying to link those to the books of the bible. They like to trace physical occurrences back to the bible. And from the book of Revelation, they extracted one other unfounded article of faith -- Millenarianism. This is the belief in a literal meaning of the thousand year reign of saints in the world. And from the same book, they calculated the exact population of the inhabitants of heaven (Ryken, 2005).

Worthy of note is the attitude of Orthodox Christianity to the discovery of truth. It does not evade evidence by merely claiming that it is only a thing of faith and feeling. Christianity tries to verify every aspect of its teachings, and that is why it always stands tall in the midst of a fierce competition from other worldviews. Its competitive power is immense (Ryken, 2005).

As an offshoot of Adventism, it builds on the misunderstanding of the Biblical prophecy and revelation which their root source adheres to. Even though many of their claims have failed, they still hold their ground in ignorance. And devout people keep following obediently. For example, when they started, they said that millions of people now living now will never die. After so many years of witnessing the death of people around them, they still say millions that millions of people living now will never die. Even as they witness how nature and time falsify their claims, they continue to sing the same old songs (Ryken, 2005).

They favor the apocalyptic part of the bible and there are so many inconsistencies in their claims here. For example, they see the 144,000 in heaven in the literal while the 12,000 from each tribe is symbolic. They do not explain the parameters they used to arrive at which number is symbolic and which is literal. They merely explain biblical incidents away as they deemed fit without regard to the essence of the message in the story. It gives one the feeling that they are more interested in the medium with which the message is conveyed, than in the message itself (Ryken, 2005).

In Defense of Christianity

Christianity explores and verifies reality. It encourages verification of incidents to ascertain their exactness. Just as we see in 1 Corinth. 15:17, the truth of Christianity is that Jesus Christ rose from the dead. If not, Saint Paul says, the faith of Christians is useless. The founding fathers of Christianity openly proclaimed that it is founded on a given set of claims which are true. If they are found to be false, Christianity is then faulty and worthless. And Christianity's scope and the power of explanation is excellent and gives an in-depth account of life and existence: persons, life, consciousness, contingent objects, and so on. It indeed satisfies all the measurements for test (Ryken, 2005).

The claims worldviews make about reality can be true or false. And so they must be supported by reality in many ways in order to be certified as true. The Orthodox Christianity strictly maintains the rules of the test, and encourages them also. They only certify those elements of faith they know to have passed through a rigorous test, such as the Grotius evaluation criteria (Ryken, 2005).

The judgment made here about Jehovah's Witnesses may have sounded a bit harsh. But we can argue that there was no intention to ridicule an honest belief such as this. It is good to be sincere in matters of belief. But respect for sincerity should not blindfold us to the requirement of standing for the truth at all times. What may be the offence here, it will never be a match for the great propagandizing for which this sect is known. If this is able to help any of those under captivity of their propaganda, it would be a good job well done to the glory of God (Ryken, 2005).

Section 4: Arguing for Christianity with a Jehovah Witness

There is one issue of very grave consequence which came as a result of Russell's misinterpretations of the bible, and this has also formed part of the Jehovah Witnesses' belief system. They have denied the immortality of the human soul. And this goes in the same direction as their interpretation of eternal punishment and the wrong interpretations they associate with the apocalyptic book (Enns, 2008).

The appendix to the New World Translation of the 1950 edition of the Christian Greek Scriptures, about five pages were centered on the translations of the word 'soul' (Enns, 2008).

The Bible authors wrote the revealed messages with the knowledge they had of the world during their own time. They did not understand the world then as we do now. Now, even though the bible does not say anything on the immortality of the human soul, it does talk about the immortality of the human person. All of these are purely linguistic features which the bible authors tried to use to properly pass the message they received across in such a way that it will be both powerfully expressed and properly understood (Enns, 2008).

The descriptions with which the bible authors relayed the messages they received -- like the firmament -- are only their own mental framework and not part of the revelation they received (Enns, 2008).

A good example of how the bible authors used their own knowledge as a wrapper for the messages they received from God is found in the description of the firmament in Gen 1:2, Job 28:14. They saw the firmament as shard and shiny as a material made of bronze. But we have a better knowledge of the physical properties of the sky now, including the world in its entirety. Our concentration, therefore, should not be on the medium through which God's message is brought to us. Rather, we should pay more attention to the message itself. In the case of Genesis, the more important thing is the revealed truth that God is the maker of the universe. So in order to understand the teachings of the bible, we need to go beyond the particular presentation of the authors, and understand it in other ways than the medium expresses (Enns, 2008).

To address the issue of the immortality of the human person, the bible does say that the human soul is immortal. The book of Matthew 25:31-46 has it that when Christ arrives in his glory, the angels will be with him, and he will sit on his throne of judgment. And all the peoples will be gathered before the Son of Man and he will separate people from one another, the way goats are separated from sheep. And finally, the king will tell the ones on his right hand to enter into His father's blessings, while the ones on His left hand will be asked to depart into the everlasting fire (Enns, 2008).