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The Jehovah's Witnesses Religion Quickly Explained and Refuted | Mike Winger | YouTubeToText
YouTube Transcript: The Jehovah's Witnesses Religion Quickly Explained and Refuted
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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.
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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]
[clears throat]
Jehovah's Witness beliefs about
authority. They say the Bible's their
authority, but there's a big problem and
that is that they have a butchered Bible
translation and they become
conspiratorial that all other Bible
translations are not trustworthy. So
when you show them a verse that refutes
their theology, the immediate thought
is, "Oh, but that's been changed because
they trust the organization." They
instead of having the Bible ultimately
as their authority, the real authority
is what's called the governing body. And
what you have to understand about the
Jehovah's Witnesses is not just a name
given to people who have shared beliefs,
but rather it's actually a governmental
group. And they're run by the governing
body, which is eight men who live in New
York City. They they to quote them, they
formulate doctrine. They oversee
publishing and they send out these two
magazines. You've seen them on your
doorstep. The Watchtower and the Awake
magazine. And one day, 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 a hat to just go
do whatever they say. Let me quote some
sources on this because I want people to
know this is this is not me making I'm
not trying to rip on JWS. I wish the
theology was better than this. Right.
So, from Watchtower 2013, July 15th,
page 20, the faithful slave, and that's
a nickname they have for their own
organization, and they're really
referring to the to the eight men in New
York. The faithful slave is the channel
through which Jesus is feeding his true
followers in this time of the end. It is
vital that we recognize the faithful
slave. Our spiritual health and our
relationship with God depend on this
channel. Obedience to these men
determines your salvation.
Then we have um from jw.org on the 10th
of November 2012 which says the faithful
and discrete slave was appointed over
Jesus's domestics in 1919. That means
the church. The slave is the small
composite group of anointed brothers
serving at world headquarters. That's
eight guys in New York during Christ's
presence. That's because they believe
Jesus is invisibly present somehow with
them who are directly involved in
preparing and dispensing spiritual food.
When this group work together as the
governing body, they act as the faithful
and discrete slave. Now, this has been
an evolution over time. Originally, the
faithful and discreet slave was all the
Jehovah's Witnesses. Then it became the
leadership, just the general leadership
organization. Then it became the eight
guys, which is why in 2012 it's eight
guys in New York. you go back 60 years,
it's more of a group thing. So, they've
um slowly amassed more power and control
over time. Let me give you a couple
other things. Um, miscellaneous other
stuff. This organ, this organization,
this religion's only existed since about
the 1870s. That was when it was first
founded. So, it's pretty new. Kind of
like LDS church. It's actually not just
a religious belief. It's an insulated,
and this is key. It's an insulated
social community. This is the biggest
thing with dealing with JWS is realizing
they're part of an insulated social
community. They're told, "Never Google
Jehovah's Witnesses." They're told this
from their leaders. Don't ever Google
our group. That's I mean, from our
perspective, oh, you think, well, that's
creepy. But I want you to understand the
suspicion this creates because they're
going to look at you guys as you try to
witness to them with all this suspicion.
I' I've got JW telling me on my videos,
Mike, you're you're an apostate. I'm
sure you're a secretly an apostate JW
and so I so I can just ignore you and
not listen to you and and you're you're
a liar. Um but that's it's not that
they're trying to be mean. It's that
they've been paranoia has been created
in them towards everybody. So here's
some conspiratorial things that they're
being told. Um if you do have to
research only use jw.org,
right? Or other watchtower websites for
research. That's I mean that's not
really research, right? Research which
means always check our source. what we
say. That's your research. [laughter]
That's not really research. Um there
they believe that all Christianity has
been apostate since the 2n century. They
believe that the Bible has been been
butchered and that they've fixed it with
their New World Translation. All other
translations are suspect. They believe
the Holy Spirit is God's active force.
He's impersonal. That's just a random
thing. They believe the Trinity is
pagan. They believe that you need to
call God Jehovah or else. They believe
that birthday celebrations are pagan.
Military service is pagan. Christmas is
pagan. Easter is pagan. You all are
pagan and that's why we can't trust you.
So it creates this insulated social
community. So that breaking through that
has to do with a lot of trying to create
goodwill between you and a Jehovah's
Witness person where they realize like
I'm not here to attack you, right? I'm
trying to share what I think is good and
wonderful truth with you. And a lot of
reaching them, how to approach them is
going to be like getting them to
question the governing body because so
much of what they believe is depending
on just trusting those guys. So, I would
recommend a few things. Use JW sources.
What I've held up earlier, this is a
kingdom interlinear. I know a little bit
of Greek. And so, I'm able to actually
use this. It has the Greek alongside
with their translation. And I can show
in their own works where they've
mistransated the Bible. And then I can
pull up to the front and I can say, and
I've done this before. I, you know, I
share this with the with Jehovah's
Witnesses. They go, "Well, that's not
that's not Watchtower literature." So,
they were going to ignore everything I
said. And I said, "Oh, no, but it is.
Look, this is Watchtower. published by
you guys. And now he was like, "Oh, you
see the this the suspect attitude
towards everyone other than the
Watchtower means that you even if it
looks like this proves Jehovah's Witness
teaching wrong, we can ignore it because
it's not from our own sources." So I say
use their own sources whenever possible.
If you want to prove the deity of Jesus,
prove it from their New World
Translation. There are still passages
that do that. If you want to talk about
weird beliefs or problems, go to go to
Watchtower literature. And now it's
easier than ever. They actually have a a
phone app. I got my phone over here
somewhere. Uh that it's it's JW um
library. That's the name of the app. And
you can access the inner linear for
free. This thing used to be hard to get.
I had to like hunt for it, you know. So
yeah. Um I'd also recommend you guys
stick to one issue, study it well, be
ready, and do not let them change the
subject when you start nailing them down
on a problem with the theology. Don't
just say, "Hey, can we come back to that
later? I I want to finish this talk
first." And for this, I have hours and
hours of free content on my on my
YouTube channel. Like, I'm not trying to
get anything out of you. I've spent a
lot of time prepping this. I have a
whole video on how to reach Jehovah's
Witnesses with strategies and stuff. But
number one is going to be like like what
you said, Alan. Show them love. They're
used to being mistreated. They're
suspicious of outsiders. You got to
break through that with not fake love,
right? Genuine compassion and care for
them as human beings. Yeah.
Yeah. Yeah.
Yeah.
What do you think, Alan? You got
anything to add or or take away, maybe?
No. First of all, thank you for that
thorough reply, guys. And um also, I'm
going to ask Mike to send me some links,
uh or I'll try to snag them from his
YouTube channel. Um you know, just the
work that he's done because like I said,
we're not going to be able to cover
everything here. But if you're really
serious about really trying to reach
these six groups, and that was the
second group that we talked about. If
you're just coming in, we already talked
about the Mormon uh well, the Mormon
Church, which uh the Latter Church of
Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. And
now, uh, Mike gave us a good thorough,
um, explanation on Jehovah's Witnesses,
but if you're really wanting to go
deeper, then both of us have some
resources. I'm going to try to link all
the videos that we have, both of our
channels below um, in the description.
Uh, but also, Mike, uh, if you want to
quickly comment on this one, and I
actually have a video on my channel
about this specific topic, but what are
your thoughts on their idea that only
144,000 people are going to go to heaven?
heaven?
Yeah. So, this is really, really
involved, but I'll give the super short
summary, right? Originally, they teach
in Revelation 144,000. These are like
the only saved people, period.
But as their numbers grew, you know,
they're going to go to heaven. They're
like, "Well, we got more than 144,000,
so we got to explain what happens to the
rest of our followers." So, then they
said, "Okay, the 144,000, they're the
ones that go to heaven, and the rest of
us live on paradise earth." So, they
separate our eternal future destinies in
two locations. One is heaven and you're
kind of without a body. You're bodyless
in heaven. And the rest of them, most of
the Jehovah's Witnesses, think they'll
live on paradise earth. And now they're
told like, "You don't want to be one of
the 144. You get no body. You want to
live on paradise earth." Now, in
Revelation, the 144,000 are just 144,000
Jewish people, all right, that are
they're not the only people saved.
They're not the only ones who experience
heaven or something. And then heaven,
when it does come, it comes to earth,
right? The new heavens and new earth
meet. There isn't paradise, earth, and
then heaven a different location. Like
heaven and earth meet, man, Jerusalem
comes down, man. That's the whole
consummation of glorious relationship
with God and each other. So yeah, those
are the um I guess that's the short
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