TRANSCRIPT:
Are Jehovah's Witnesses Christians?
Welcome to the American Faith and Freedom Podcast.
I'm Jim McCraigh.
The Jehovah's Witnesses, also known as the Watchtower Society, are well known for going door-to-door and distributing literature to recruit new members.
They are usually clean-cut, well-dressed, and very courteous people, and there are probably few among us who have not had a visit from them.
The Jehovah's Witnesses consider themselves to be Christians because they believe they are serving the true and living God.
They have strong convictions about Jesus and the Bible, and Jehovah's Witnesses say they're the only true church.
But are they?
To answer that question, consider these things.
The Jehovah's Witness organization denies that Jesus Christ is God.
Instead, they teach that Christ was a created angel.
Jehovah's Witnesses deny that salvation is God's free gift.
Instead, they teach that salvation must be earned or merited and to obtain salvation and escape judgment, a person must join and do the works prescribed by the Jehovah's Witnesses organization.
They claim Satan was entrusted with the obligation and charged with the duty of overseeing the creation of Earth.
They maintain all Bible translations are considered corrupt except for their own New World translation which has been changed to reflect their beliefs.
They believe the doctrine of the Trinity is a pagan teaching.
They say Jesus did not die on the cross and that the cross is a pagan symbol.
They deny the bodily resurrection of Christ and they teach that Jesus' body was dissolved into gases.
They teach that the soul ceases to exist after death and that there is no hell.
They believe that if they remain faithful and obedient to the end, they will earn the right to be declared righteous.
And that's why they have to keep on striving with no assurance of salvation.
Because according to their core doctrine, only 144,000 Jehovah's Witnesses will actually be saved.
The rest do not expect to go to heaven.
Rather, they believe themselves to become a part of the great crowd that will never die but reside here on earth forever.
They consider holidays like Christmas, Easter, and even birthdays to be paganistic and not to be celebrated.
Jehovah's Witnesses leaders have predicted that the end of the world would come in 1914, 1915, 1918, 1925, 1942,
In 1975, they claimed that Jesus would begin his invisible rule over the earth in 1914.
They also predicted that Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob would be resurrected and returned to Earth in 1925.
And of course, as we know, the Bible tells us that failed prophecy is a mark of a false prophet.
And that comes from Deuteronomy chapter 18, verses 21 and 22.
The Jehovah's Witness religion clearly distorts the fundamental doctrines of Christianity.
It denies the deity of Christ, his physical resurrection, and the essential truth of salvation by grace through faith.
This makes it decidedly non-Christian.
Sadly, it is a deceptive works-based system with no repentance for one's sins required.
If you do want to minister to them, it's very difficult to break through as they are often not willing to admit they've been deceived.
When someone disagrees with them, they are trained to promptly respond with shocking answers.
They are almost always not willing to listen to the truth because they are conditioned to avoid biblically knowledgeable people.
Jehovah's Witnesses are definitely not Christians.
What to do then?
Pray that God will show them the truth and they will not continue to be deceived.
Until next time, I'm Jim McCraigh.
(4 Min) PODCAST: Are Jehovah's Witnesses Christians?