This content critically analyzes Jehovah's Witness beliefs, focusing on their unique interpretations of Jesus's deity, resurrection, salvation, and the authority of their governing body, contrasting these with traditional Christian doctrines.
Mind Map
クリックして展開
クリックしてインタラクティブなマインドマップを確認
This is Jehovah's Witness beliefs. One
day when judgment comes, your survival
is going to depend on following the
instructions of these eight guys in New
York. Like your literal earthly survival
will depend on it. Judgment will come
and you have to be ready at the drop of
All right, group number two. I've spent
many, many hours dealing with Jehovah's
Witnesses um individually from the time
I was like a teenager and they're
witnessing to me and I even
[clears throat] struck up kind of a
friendship with the JW as he was coming
back to my house like not even when he
was officially out witnessing in his
street clothes even, you know, um to
even producing lots of video content,
many hours of content. But let me just
do this like quick drink from the fire
hydrant drive by just shooting of
information about Jehovah's Witnesses.
That's probably a horrible analogy to
use, but um their attitude towards
Jesus. We'll start with that. Jehovah's
Witnesses are taught that Jesus is not
God, right, from all eternity, who's God
with us. Like the Mormons, they think
that he's a created being, but a
different being than the Mormons would
say. They think that Jesus is Michael
the Archangel. So, when the Bible talks
about Michael, that is Jesus. And now
there are some Christians who real
Christians who legitimately they they
think that Jesus is Michael the
Archangel, but they don't think he's
just Michael. They think Michael is like
a christophony. Okay? And I disagree
with that theology. I think it's I think
it's incorrect personally, but it
doesn't deny the deity of Christ the way
Jehovah's Witnesses do. They actually
teach that Jesus is a created being. He
didn't always exist. He was created by
God and he was the first created being
and then everything else was made
through him in some fashion. They also
would teach say that Jesus died on a on
not a cross but on a torture stake. And
that's how their translation puts it.
And that he was not bodily resurrected.
Did you hear that? Jesus was not bodily
resurrected. That's really key. So Jesus
isn't God. He's a created being. He's
Michael the Archangel uh who became a
man. And there's just tons in scripture
that talks about this. Hebrews 1 totally
refutes the idea that Jesus is an
angelic being. Colossians 1, it says
that everything was made through Jesus.
Everything. Not just some things, but
everything was made through Jesus, which
would mean he couldn't he wasn't made,
right? Because everything that was made
was made through him. In John 1, it says
everything again, everything that was
made was made through him. And apart
from him, nothing was made that was
made. Which is a pretty strong case for
Jesus is not the first created being.
Which is why in the Jehovah's Witness
New World Translation, which I got I
have like five versions of it, but
here's one of them. [laughter] And in
their own version of the Bible, they
changed the Bible in exactly the places
that teach the truth about the deity of
Christ and him as creator. They
literally have made a a bad and it's
universally known as scholars. They know
this is not a good translation. Um but
they've made this translation to try to
support their theology. So they think
Michael became Jesus. Um and one of the
verses, I'll give you an example for you
guys might be interested. One of the
verses they'll quote for this is 1
Thessalonians 4:16. This is a passage of
scripture that talks about the the the
return of Christ, the second coming. And
it says, "The Lord himself, Jesus, will
descend from heaven with a cry of
command, with the voice of an archangel,
and with the sound of the trumpet of
God, and the dead in Christ will rise
first." They say, "Well, it's speaking
of Jesus." I agree. And they say, "Well,
if Jesus comes with the voice of an
archangel, as 1 Thessalonians 4:16 says,
then he must be an archangel." Um, there
are a few problems with this. Uh, one of
them is that if Jesus is Michael the
Archangel and he's a unique being, which
Jehovah's Witnesses would teach, why is
it just the voice of an archangel, like
he's one of many if he's the if he's
supposed to be singular? But also, it
also says he comes not just with the
voice of an archangel. But the scripture
says he comes with the sound of a
trumpet in the very next phrase of that
sentence. Does that make Jesus a trumpet?
trumpet?
No. [laughter] But by by their logic,
Jesus have to be he's archangel. He's
also a giant trumpet. And that doesn't
make any sense. Um, then of course
there's the clear teachings that Jesus
is not an angel in Hebrews 1 and in the
other places in scripture where he is
the creator of all. They say Jesus did
not rise bodily. Instead, you might ask,
well, what happened to the body of
Jesus? Well, in Jehovah's Witness
teaching, the body of Jesus, it went
into the tomb and then dissolved and
that's why the tomb was empty. They went
to find it and God had like
disintegrated the body of Jesus. Then
when Jesus was resurrected, he was
resurrected with a spirit body. It's
difficult to ask people to explain what
a spirit body is. This is similar to
Mormonism, though they do have a
something called a spirit body, but they
won't define it very well, so it's a
little tough to talk about. But in
studies in the scriptures, this
[clears throat] is a Jehovah's Witness
source. In volume 5, page 454 of studies
in the scriptures, they say, "The man
Jesus is dead forever dead." You cannot
consider yourself Christian if you can
make a statement like that. That's a
denial of the central belief in the
resurrection of Christ. 1 Corinthians 15
talks about that. The gospels even show
that Jesus he this is kind of cool. It
it's like God knows every false
religious way of twisting Christianity
and he put in the scriptures all the
reputations we would ever need. So in
the gospels when Jesus appears to Thomas
he specifically tells them look it's I
flesh and blood and then he says touch
your hand and put it in the nail marks
in my hand and in my side. What Jesus
calls those marks is the nail marks.
Meaning that the body that was on the
cross that got nailed, these are the
marks from that body, which means
scriptures teaching us Jesus rose with
the same body that he died with. That's
pretty significant. Um, however,
they would say, and this is on jw.org.
I'm going to quote them here. Jesus was
resurrected with a spirit body. So, he
comes as a spirit creature, not in the
flesh. And that would direct
contradiction with scripture, an
essential Christian truth. There's other
things about Jesus they would teach. Um,
for instance, we we look forward to the
second coming of Christ. They teach that
Jesus already did show up. His coming
already came and he had an invisible
return in 1914. Now, historically, the
the reason they got to this is
interesting. They were predicting this
sort of like Armageddon to happen in
1914. Um, you know, the end of the
world. It didn't happen. So, then they
kind of backtracked and said, well,
Jesus returned invisibly. So, his rule
on earth began, but it's invisible. And
it's really now he's ruling from the
Watchtower organization secretly. But
Matthew 24, Jesus specifically warns if
anybody tells you that the Christ has
returned and he's in some secret room,
don't believe them because every eye
will see him. Everyone. So again,
scripture was refuting Jehovah's Witness
teaching before it had been invented.
It's it's kind of amazing when the
fornowledge of God there. Let's talk
about salvation. Um, so Jehovah's
Witness teaching about salvation, the
things that these people are taught, and
I and my heart goes out to Jehovah's
Witnesses. I care for them, but I I I
hate the things they're taught because
they're not true. There are four
requirements for salvation, and it's not
just Jesus. Let me give you a quote.
This is from studies in the scriptures.
This is an authoritative source for
them. Page 150, volume 1. The ransom for
all given by the man Christ Jesus does
not give or guarantee everlasting life
or blessing to any man. See, Jesus is
not enough. This is a really important
teaching for them. So there's four
requirements. You have to number one
take in the knowledge of God and of
Jesus Christ. But what they mean is the
knowledge that Jesus is a created being
whose body dissolved in the grave who
did not physically rise.
That's the false. So you have to take in
a false Christ as part of their
salvation rules. Number two, you have to
obey God's laws, which means you have
works you have to perform to earn your
salvation. This is when you reach out to
Jehovah's Witnesses, you can realize
they're laboring under a work system.
And the freedom and the peace and the
the salve for our weary souls comes
through realizing the gospel of grace.
And that that's the number one thing we
want to present to them. Number three,
you have to belong to Jehovah's
Witnesses organ organization. You have
to become a JW. If you're not officially
part of the JWS, you don't have
salvation. Now, imagine if you're So,
I'm part of Calvary Chapel churches.
Imagine if I was teaching guys. If
you're not part of Calvary Chapel,
you're going to hell. [laughter]
That alone is enough of a red flag to
know that you don't want to be part of
Calvary Chapel at that point. Um, yeah,
you have to actually belong to their
organization. And they use various
scriptures to try to support this, but
they're all radically out of context.
So, um, number four, I'll give you
number four now. Loyalty. Loyalty is
required. Now, loyalty is a pretty
generic thing to say. You got to be
loyal. But what they mean and where they
measure loyalty, one of the number one
ways they measure it is that you're
promoting the JW organization by going
doortodoor or in some way giving out
magazines and JW material.
This is why Jehovah's Witnesses are
going doortodoor. It's part of the
salvation deal for them. You're required
to go at least an hour a month to be
considered an active publisher. And if
you're not an active publisher, if
you're an inactive publisher, you're in
danger that when Armageddon comes around
the corner, you may you may suffer as a
result. You might be outside. So, this
this is um very much a workspace thing.
Very much a workspace thing. And you can
kind of see this when you see them go
door to door. And in my neighborhood, I
noticed this where they would um
everywhere I've lived, I've noticed this
that Jehovah's Witnesses would often
walk really slow doortodoor. And I
always thought that was so weird because
I've witnessed I'm not witnessing door
to door. I've got tracks and I'm
thinking I got two hours, right? And I I
hit like probably 20 times as many
houses as they do because I'm in a hurry.
hurry. Huh?
Huh?
They got to get through that hour.
Yeah. And and I and so when I actually
interviewed some former JWS, they told
me that this was this wasn't just my
observation. This was like a well-known
fact. And they call it the pioneer plot.
That's like the nickname they have for
it because they're considered pioneers
going out. They call it the pioneer plot
where you just like walk real nice and
slow so you don't have to because it's
uncomfortable to encounter people on
their door and and and the JWs get all
kinds of mistreatment and rude behavior
from people um that is wrong and I
understand why they would have a hard
time with it. All right, let's talk
about authority. That's salvation. [clears throat]
