If you are a Jehovah's Witness,
please read this first.
If you are a Jehovah's Witness please understand that I am not against you as an individual. I am not an apostate from the Watchtower organization and, of course, I was never baptized as a Jehovah's Witness. However, when I was 17, I studied with the Jehovah's Witnesses for a couple of months, but quit. Unfortunately, they used the Watchtower Magazine equally, and sometime more than the Bible and they couldn't answer all my questions. All I wanted to study was the Bible since that is God's word.
As a Jehovah's Witness you have been taught from the Bible and the Watchtower organization. You’ve attended numerous meetings, and are convinced that what you believe is the truth. You also believe the Trinity is a demonic doctrine and that Christendom is an apostate group preaching a false gospel. Additionally, you are taught the Watchtower organization is the true channel of God’s revelation to His church on earth. You are taught that you are in "The Truth."
But believing it does not make it so. I am sure you agree with this and respond by saying that your beliefs are in agreement with the Bible. After all, you study it deeply and often and have validated your beliefs with the word of God. I don’t deny that you study. But when you study, you study under the Watchtower's guidance and allow it to shape your understanding and thinking of the Bible and its doctrines.
Please consider these quotes from the Watchtower Magazine that verify what I am saying:
"All who want to understand the Bible should appreciate that the "greatly diversified wisdom of God" can become known only through Jehovah's channel of communication, the faithful and discreet slave." (The Watchtower; 10/1/1994; p. 8.)
"Thus the Bible is an organizational book and belongs to the Christian congregation as an organization, not to individuals, regardless of how sincerely they may believe that they can interpret the Bible." The Watchtower, Oct. 1, 1967. p. 587.
In short, you are led by what the Watchtower says the Bible says. But if the Watchtower Bible and Tract Society is from God, then...
- Why has it made false prophecies?
- Why has it altered the translation of the Bible?
- Why does the Watchtower say you will fall into apostasy if you read the Bible without the Watchtower? See their quotes
- Why are you not allowed to examine your own organization and its problems?
- Why does it tell you what to think and do?
Have you checked the documentation from the Watchtower Magazine? How do you know that the Watchtower is correct? Because it says it is?
Please don’t be offended by this. But when a group claims to be the prophet of God, yet mistranslates the Bible, takes verses out of context, makes false prophecies, and misquotes authorities all to make its position valid, its credibility is lost. It cannot be from God.
But you will never know that unless you "examine ALL things." Unfortunately, as a Jehovah's Witness, you are only encouraged to study what the Watchtower and Awake magazines tell you to study. That means you can't really check up on its false prophecies on your own. Instead, you must trust what it tells you about its own false prophecies. In addition, you are instructed to not take any literature from "apostate Christendom." This way, you will have far less opportunity to be challenged, something the Watchtower organization doesn't want to happen. The Watchtower Magazine teaches by asking the questions and giving the answers. Sometimes it even uses a Bible reference (often times out of context) to back up what it says. It all looks good and sounds good from your perspective. But it is a false method of study. The Watchtower organization tells you what to think and what to do. If you say that is not true and that the Watchtower Organization is God's organization on earth, then you are simply repeating what the Watchtower tells you.
The Bible alone is sufficient. But the Watchtower denies this:
"From time to time, there have arisen from among the ranks of Jehovah's people those, who, like the original Satan, have adopted an independent, faultfinding attitude...They say that it is sufficient to read the Bible exclusively, either alone or in small groups at home. But, strangely, through such 'Bible reading,' they have reverted right back to the apostate doctrines that commentaries by Christendom's clergy were teaching 100 years ago..." The Watchtower, August 15, 1981. (Emphasis added)
What are the apostate doctrines: Trinity? Hell? Jesus is God? Funny thing is that, according to the Watchtower, if you study the Bible by itself, you will come to believe these things! Could it be that apart from the selected questions, answers, scripture quotes, and direction of the Watchtower teaching, that the Bible actually does teach these "apostate doctrines"? If you don't check for yourself, and only believe the Watchtower, you'll never know.
Do you want to trust your eternal soul to the teachings of several men headquartered in Brooklyn, New York who claim to be the directors of God's organization on earth? Do you? Eternity is a long time to be wrong.