We would not fault someone singing hymns of praise. We would not fault someone petitioning God in prayer. We would not fault someone leaving a sacrificial offering in the collection plate, but all of that religious stuff is for naught if the worshipper has the wrong Jesus!

Each Sunday, millions of Jehovah's Witnesses around the world gather in Kingdom Halls to worship in the name of a false Jesus. Please understand that the Jesus of the Watchtower is a counterfeit. The Jesus of the Watchtower bears only a superficial resemblance to the true Jesus of Scripture. The Jesus of the Watchtower is a phony and a fake. He is a mere figment of collective imaginations conjured by the misguided thinking of misguided men heading a misguided organization in Brooklyn, New York. And each Sunday, millions of faithful Jehovah's Witnesses remain lost in their sins and stand condemned before God because a false Jesus equals a false salvation. A counterfeit Jesus is capable of saving no one.

The Watchtower teaches that Jesus is a creature, a mere created being, in fact, the Jesus of the Watchtower is none other than Michael the Archangel. They have no valid Scripture for this, of course, but the organization maintains this false doctrine in spite of the plain teachings of Scripture. For the sake of the recent convert, please know that the Bible is crystal clear in teaching that Jesus is fully divine, eternal in nature, and of the same essence as the Father. Jesus is God. Jesus is God who came to earth clothed in human flesh. Again, the newcomer to the faith must understand that the Bible is replete with Scripture that affirms His deity (John 1: 1; Philippians 2: 5-11). Jesus declared Himself as God (John 8: 58; Revelation 1: 8). His disciples declared Him to be God (John 20: 28). The Old Testament prophets, though the divine inspiration of the Holy Sprit, declared the coming Messiah as being God (Isaiah 9: 6). Even our Father in Heaven declared His Son as being God (Hebrews 1: 8)! How much more proof could any reasonable person ask? Indeed, one may very well then ask, "If Scripture is so absolutely conclusive as to the divine nature of Jesus, how does the Watchtower organization present this lesser, inferior Jesus to their followers and to the pubic? The Watchtower's solution was quite simple: In order to pass off this counterfeit Jesus, the organization found it expedient to rewrite the Bible so as to seemingly make Holy Scripture behave according to their own peculiar brand of beliefs and teachings. This is to say the Watchtower employs a counterfeit Bible so as to bolster their counterfeit Jesus and their counterfeit gospel.

The Watchtower's New World Translation (NWT) is, in fact, no translation at all! The NWT is nothing but a cleverly designed propaganda tool used in furthering their strange religious doctrines. Even a perfunctory reading of Scripture reveals great lapses in Watchtower logic and thinking, so around fifty years ago, the governing body of the organization commissioned the writing of a counterfeit Bible; this move was entirely necessary if followers were to adhere to the organization's officially sanctioned teachings and beliefs.

Frederick Franz, a former member of the Watchtower's powerful board of governors, admitted that the organization did not employ a single language scholar when preparing the NWT. This admission of biblical fraud is well documented in Franz' revealing autobiography Crisis of Conscience. Again, in their supposed rendering of the Holy Scriptures, the Watchtower did not have a single Greek or Hebrew scholar seated on their translating committee. Why? No legitimate Greek or Hebrew scholar would have allowed his or her name to be attached to such a sham of a project! The NWT is a farce. It is not a legitimate translation. The NWT is not a legitimate translation and you will be pressed in finding a single reputable biblical scholar who supports the Watchtower's shameful perversion of the Bible.

Besides their sham teachings about Jesus, the Watchtower is notorious for their false prophecies. Their own writings provide the organization's most damning indictments, for the Watchtower Bible and Tract Society has gone on record saying the end of the world would take place in 1914, 1915, 1916, 1918, 1925, 1941, and 1975. In a Watchtower article published in the 1960's, the writer heartily condemned those religious groups that set dates for end time events, yet the irony is that no other religious group in America has so many instances of false date setting to their discredit as the Watchtower!

Among other memorable prophetic bloopers, the Watchtower predicted that World War II would end with no decisive victor (wonder what Germany and Japan thought about that?) and believing that Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, King David, and other Old Testament heroes would soon be resurrected from their graves, the organization built a lovely mansion dubbed Beth Serim (House of Princes) in San Diego as their future headquarters. A deed of conveyance was thoughtfully recorded at the San Diego courthouse, unfortunately, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, King David, and the other heroes of old never arrived to take occupancy of this beautiful dwelling, so the organization quietly and discreetly sold Beth Serim to a Christian physician in 1953.

All this predictive blundering sounds humorous, and, indeed, a California mansion built for ancient Bible heroes and theses ridiculous examples of "end of the world" date setting come across as a bit comical, but God sees nothing funny about false prophets and their lying predictions. As evidence, I would direct your attention to Jeremiah 28. In this passage, a lying prophet named Hananiah spoke falsely in the name of the Lord. His lying prophecy gave a vain, empty hope to the Hebrew captives in Babylon. So serious was this sin in God's eye, the Lord pronounced a death sentence though His prophet Jeremiah upon the false prophet Hananiah: "Hear now, Hananiah the prophet, the LORD hath not sent thee; but thou makest this people to trust in a lie. Therefore thus saith the LORD; Behold, I will cast thee from off the face of the earth; this year thou shalt die, because thou hast taught rebellion against the LORD. So Hananiah the prophet died the same year in the seveth month (Jeremiah 28: 15-17)."

As one might very well imagine, the Watchtower's history of failed predictions is a source of tremendous embarrassment, therefore, the organization does not make these older publications available to their members. In truth, a goodly majority of Jehovah's Witnesses have never heard of Beth Serim or the numerous "end of the world" dates. All this has been carefully hidden from their eyes. Thankfully, we find a sufficient number of older Watchtower books and magazines in the hands of Christian counter-cult ministries that provide us with plenty of hard evidence proving that God does not speak through these deceitful men in Brooklyn. Too, there are numerous websites founded by former members and Christian apologists that openly expose the Watchtower's long string of false prophecies and the evidence these websites offer is impossible to ignore. For this and other reasons, the Watchtower's membership efforts in America have suffered severely; at present, most of the organization's growth takes place outside of the U.S. borders.

Finally, we have already discussed the fate of those who follow false prophets. Those who lend their ears to lying prophets shall suffer the same fate as the lying prophets themselvesthat is, eternal death in the Lake of Fire. This is too horrible a prospect to even consider, therefore, you and I are obligated in equipping ourselves as dutiful ambassadors of Christ when Jehovah's Witnesses call upon us. By doing so, we may very well be the instruments of God's peace that spare lost souls from the eternal miseries and torments of damnation. God takes no pleasure in the death of a lost sinner, therefore, the Jehovah's Witness standing at our door is precious to our Savior Jesus!

According to Scripture, our good works are as filthy rags. No one, then, should be so misled as to think they can approach the Throne of God clothed in their own self-righteousness. Such thinking is nonsense of the worst kind. Any man or woman garbed in his or her own righteousness is much too shabbily attired for Heaven! Talk about being underdressed for the occasion! To be certain, there is a strict dress code in Heaven and filthy rags are most definitely out of vogue! Thankfully, God clothes our shameful nakedness in the righteousness of His Son Jesus. Any form of self-righteousness we might conjure though our own good works and deeds is wholly incapable of saving us from the lost condition common to all of our fallen race, but the impeccable righteousness of Jesus, a perfect, holy, and pure righteousness that is most pleasing to God, is credited to our account! What we lack, Jesus provides! What God demands of us, He gives to us! This is the beauty of the grace!

Christianity is unique, then, in its teaching that salvation is based upon faith rather than upon one's own merit. The Apostle Paul declared salvation is a free gift that cannot be earned (Ephesians 2: 8, 9). To say otherwise is to pervert the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

When Jesus taught His disciples to pray, He instructed them to address God as their Father. Unfortunately, Jehovah's Witnesses know nothing of the fatherhood of God. The organization teaches its members that God's favor must be earned by their own efforts. Works, they say, is the necessary ingredient for salvation. The message of grace has been eradicated from Scripture. Jehovah's Witnesses, then, are pressed into service out of fear. They are warned that slovenly members will face certain destruction at Armageddon. Jehovah's Witnesses who fail to meet their quota are void of any hope.

Do you see the folly of this? When the Gospel is perverted, God becomes a taskmaster instead of a Father. Likewise, salvation is no longer a giftit becomes a paycheck to be earned. This kind of vulgar thinking makes a mockery of God's mercy and is tantamount to a cold slap to Jesus' face! He died for our sins. He spent every drop of His precious blood so that we might be spared the terrible wrath that awaits every unregenerate sinner! Instead of demonstrating any measure of gratitude for the great sacrificial work Jesus performed upon that cruel Roman cross, however, Jehovah's Witnesses go door to door peddling cheaply printed magazines as a means of appeasing God. It is the Blood of the Lamb, not ink from a printing press, that has the power to cleanse us from the filthy stain of sin. The works-oriented salvation taught by the Watchtower Bible and Tract Society has the devilish order of smoke and brimstone.

For the sake of this study, we shall refer to a pseudo-Christian cult as being any group or organization that is gathered around a particular heretical interpretation of Scripture. In the case of the Watchtower, their strange teachings originated with their founder Charles Taze Russell and have been since modified by a string of successors beginning with "Judge" Rutherford.

Using four common mathematical terms, we may identify aberrant groups who, outwardly, appear to be Christian, yet deny the historic essential doctrines of Christianity:

Addition: Cults add to the Word of God. In the case of the Watchtower, the organization openly touts their own publications as being equal or even superior to the canon of Holy Scripture. How they can make such a claim in light of their long history of bungled teachings and false prophecies defies all logic and reasoning.

Subtraction: Cults subtract from the personage of Jesus. Again, the Watchtower attempts to reduce Jesus to the rank of a mere created being. God did not send an angel to die for our sinsHe sent His Son!

Multiplication: Cults multiply the requirements for salvation. The Watchtower maintains that works are a necessary and vital ingredient for salvation. The Apostle Paul, however, plainly stated that anyone who distorted the purity of the Gospel was accursed by God!

Division: Cults divide one's loyalty between God and a manmade organization. The Watchtower insists that one must pledge allegiance to the organization if one hopes to find favor with God. One might do well by asking if God so loved the world by sending His Son or an organization?

The Watchtower stands guilty of adding to God's Word, subtracting from the divine nature of Christ Jesus, multiplying God's requirements for salvation, and dividing members' loyalty between Heaven and Brooklyn. For this and many others reasons, Kingdom Halls should post a warning: Welcome to the Watchtower. Please check your brain in at the gate.

The late Dr. Walter Martin, founder of the Christian Research Institute and author of the best selling Kingdom of the Cults, once stated the average Jehovah's Witness could make the average Christian into a doctrinal pretzel. This is a pretty grim indictment of the Church. Likewise, it has been said that cults are an unpaid bill of the Church. It is high time, then, that we, members of Christ's Church, begin settling this old debt!

Jehovah's Witnesses may wish to debate such emotionally charged matters as patriotism, the participating in elections, the celebrating of holidays, and military service with non-Jehovah's Witnesses, however, these are but mere peripheral issues and are of little consequence in the determining of one's eternal destiny. Do not allow the Jehovah's Witness who comes knocking at your door to engage you in such vain debating. If you permit the discussion to be controlled by their side-stepping techniques, I can almost guarantee that you will make absolutely no headway in leading your lost visitor to a saving relationship with Jesus Christ. Jehovah's Witnesses are trained in debating Christians and can prove to be quite slippery when pressed for an answer. Do not fall victim to this game. In truth, the mailing of Christmas cards or saluting the American flag mean nothing if one has a distorted understanding of the finished work and nature of our Savior Jesus. Please understand that if the dialogue is to be meaningful, the Christian must keep the visitor's attention focused on Jesus. Avoid arguing over secondary matters, make a difference for eternity by introducing your new friend to your best friend!

Dr. Michael Blunk is the director of the Christian Paranormal Research Project and a staff writer for Got Questions Ministries.

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