Although the Watchtower doesn't teach hellfire, the fear tactics are similar to fire and brimstone preachers.
Repenting and accepting Christ is not enough. There is more you have to do. If you do not do the things the watchtower says you must, then God will destroy you eternally.
So, I googled fire and brimstone preachers to see if there were more similarties between the two than just my passing thought.
The fear preachers inspire is very powerful, but to put their fear in perspective, the sermon below was given in the early 1700s, all those people have been dead over 200 years. did they die in fear? I have no respect for any religion that uses FEAR as a means of control. The watchtower has it down to a fine art but it is a tool thats been used for centuries and realizing that its been used for centuries takes the power of it away. what DOES give it power is the gullability of people that DO believe the watchtower. they shun people who leave the religion, they give the lives of unbelievers NO value whatsoever .
from wikipedia: term used to describe a motif in Christian preaching which uses vivid descriptions of judgment, and the damnation to Hell of sinners forever to encourage repentance out of fear of divine wrath and punishment.........
During the Great Awakening of the 1730s and 1740s, preachers such as Jonathan Edwards and George Whitefield were referred to as "fire and brimstone preachers". Edwards' "Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God" remains among the best-known sermons from this period.once when Edwards preached it, many in his audience burst out weeping; some reports indicate that other attendees cried out in anguish or even fainted. One member of Edwards' congregation, Joseph Hawley, slit his throat after listening to it. [1]
a quote from the sermon above: dated 1741
And let every one that is yet out of Christ, and hanging over the pit of hell, whether they be old men and women, or middle aged, or young people, or little children, now hearken to the loud calls of God's word and providence. This acceptable year of the Lord, a day of such great favour to some, will doubtless be a day of as remarkable vengeance to others. Men's hearts harden, and their guilt increases apace at such a day as this, if they neglect their souls; and never was there so great danger of such persons being given up to hardness of heart and blindness of mind. God seems now to be hastily gathering in his elect in all parts of the land; and probably the greater part of adult persons that ever shall be saved, will be brought in now in a little time, and that it will be as it was on the great out-pouring of the Spirit upon the Jews in the apostles' days; the election will obtain, and the rest will be blinded.
God's haste seems to crawl at a snails pace. i know the watchtower doesnt teach of a burning hell but the way it uses FEAR to control the masses is very similar to fire and brimstone preaching of the past.