Did/Does Jesus exist?
Seven Billion People today count time by this mans birth. He and his miraculous works are noted in works such as Josephus, The Koran, Tacitus and many more historical sources. Other evidence exists to establish his existence and resurrection as well.
But, just STOP and consider:
•More books have been written about Jesus than about any other person in history.
•Nations have used his words as the bedrock of their governments. According to Durant, "The triumph of Christ was the beginning of democracy."
•His Sermon on the Mount established a new paradigm in ethics and morals.
•Schools, hospitals, and humanitarian works have been founded in his name. Harvard, Yale, Princeton, and Oxford are but a few universities that have Christians to thank for their beginning.
•The elevated role of women in Western culture traces its roots back to Jesus. (Women in Jesus' day were considered inferior and virtual nonpersons until his teaching was followed.)
•Slavery was abolished in Britain and America due to Jesus' teaching that each human life is valuable.
•Former drug and alcohol dependents, prostitutes, and others seeking purpose in life claim him as the explanation for their changed lives.
•Two billion people call themselves Christians. While some are Christian in name only, others continue to impact our culture by teaching Jesus' principles that all life is valuable and we are to love one another.
Remarkably, Jesus made all of this impact as a result of just a three-year period of public ministry. If Jesus didn't exist, one must wonder how a myth could so alter history.
When world historian H. G. Wells was asked who has left the greatest legacy on history, he replied, "By this test Jesus stands first."
As for the question of whether or not his teachings were faithfully passed down to us: Fortunately, the early disciples of the Apostles were prolific writers and denounced many heresies. In the process, they inadvertently identified who, where and when those heresies were introduced.
The heretics of the first few centuries served another valuable purpose; because in the process of refuting their errors, all but a few sentences of the entire New Testament can be reconstructed from their writings. This allows us to easily determine not only what is sound doctrine, but also the canonicity of scripture.
An excellent collection of these writings can be found here.
While, I appreciate these alternate views being brought up, this thread is really about the Watchtower, and more specifically Fred Franz altering scripture to fit their particular heresies concerning being born again and judgment after death.
It is widely recognized the Fred Franz was the primary (if not sole) translator of the NWT, even though he was a college drop-out with only 2 college hours of Koine Greek and no Hebrew training at all.
Here are a few more related scripture comparisons:
Is. 26: 19
Thy dead men shall live, together with my dead body shall they arise. Awake and sing, ye that dwell in dust:
for thy dew is as the dew of herbs, and the earth shall cast out the dead.- KJV
Your dead will live. My corpses will rise up. Awake and shout joyfully, You residents in the dust!
For your dew is as the dew of the morning, And the earth will let those powerless in death come to life. - NWT
The addition of the adjective "powerless" limits who will be resurrected, when Jesus taught that all will have a bodily resurrection, even though not all will be a pleasant one.
Mt. 25: 46
And these shall go away into everlasting punishment: but the righteous into life eternal.- KJV
These will depart into everlasting cutting-off, but the righteous ones into everlasting life.- NWT
This phrase: "cutting-off" gives the impression that there are no future judicial proceedings as Jesus taught (and previously cited in the OP)
1 John 5: 12
He that hath the Son hath life; and he that hath not the Son of God hath not life. - KJV
The one who has the Son has this life; the one who does not have the Son of God does not have this life.- NWT
Again, the addition of the word "this" limits the eternal life that absolutely anyone can have by simply believing Jesus is their Savior.