Well all of that is highly debatable, but the membership by and large have bought it lock, stock and barrel.
Several doctrines are bizarre and some are just plain wrong. Consider:
- Man doesn't have an immortal spirit, but at death ceases to exist. Granted, other Adventist movements buy into this doctrine, but it's highly controversial. When ancient Christian libraries were discovered circa 1947, this doctrine suffered some serious setbacks. Even though they're apocryphal, they indicate that the first century Christians believed that man has a spirit. In other words, this doctrine is by no means settled.
- Genesis 6:1-2: "And it came to pass, when men began to multiply on the face of the earth, and daughters were born unto them, that the sons of Elohim saw the daughters of men that they were fair; and they took them wives of all which they chose." JWs believe that angels "materialized" and had sexual intercouse with mortal women. This ridiculous exegesis came from a silly fictional apocryphal source.
- Armageddon: Previously mentioned. The JW exegesis interprets this as a worldwide conflagration where Satan stages his last great assault on Jehovah's people. Actually, it takes place in Jerusalem and is an assault against the sons of Judah. (Zechariah 12-14, Ezekiel 38-39)
- Faithful and Discreet Slave. We all know about this one, and the presumptuous interpretation that's been made, specifically, that it refers to a group of people who have not been called or ordained.
Well, the list could go on, but you get my drift. The question is how the Jehovah's Witnesses can possibly claim to be Jehovah's kingdom on Earth? We Latter-day Saints can point to angelic ministrations and the restoration of apostolic authority, all witnessed by at least one other person. LDS Apostle Orson Pratt wrote: "The Church has been organized, by divine revelation, angels have appeared, the apostolic authority has been restored by the ministration of angels, and the kingdom of God has been set up in fulfillment of the promise made to the ancient Prophet Daniel—a kingdom which shall never be destroyed, never again be rooted out of the earth and never be committed to another people, but it shall continue forever...."
The Seventh Day Adventists claimed that Ellen G. White received revelation regarding seventh-day worship. She also claimed miraculous occurrences. Her visions and revelations were something she could point to and claim authority. Her website states that " From the time she was 17 years old until she died 70 years later, God gave her approximately 2,000 visions and dreams. The visions varied in length from less than a minute to nearly four hours."
The Catholics and the Orthodox (Greek, Russian, etc.) claim apostolic authority in an unbroken chain going back to the apostles and Catholicism is now claiming many revelations from Fatima to others like Saint Malachy.
All the above cite their reasons for believing that they represent God's kingdom on Earth. But the JWs insist that all manmade religions are in error. Yet they can't produce any claims to apostolic authority, to bind in Heaven and Earth. No revelations, no visions, no dreams, no theophanies. So how would they know they were chosen by Jehovah in 1919?