More about Jehovah False Witnesses...

Dianetavegia...

While I fully support your decision to not allow any JW literature into your home, I keep a collection of it in order to "know the enemy" and as part of a kit I keep for when they come to the door. I have a copy of their NWT phony bible, and a written history of its translation and of its principal makers, Fred Franz & George Gangas(Many JFWs don't even know where the NWT came from!) as well as a written history of the cult itself, showing its entirely-MAN-MADE roots.

When they come to my home, I say, "Let's play 'let's make a deal'. I'll listen to YOU for as long as ya wanna talk "IF" ya promise to listen to ME for no more than 15 minutes unless you want me to continue." I have my "sales pitch" highly-honed so I can quickly say what I wanna, w/o going so fast that I gloss over something important. Here's a little of what I tell'em, always being careful not to mention "cult" at any time, as that turns off their "receptors" as quickly as if I'd simply shut up.

Here's some of what I tell'em:

"The roots of JW are traced to the 1840s when a NY farmer named William Miller did some math from the Book of Daniel and from some alleged dates of when certain historical events occurred. From his calculations, he predicted Jesus would return Oct.22, 1844. A large meteor shower that summer seemed to give credence to that prediction. NEVER MIND THAT JESUS SAID NNE BUT HIS FATHER KNOWS THE DATE OF HIS RETURN! Anyway, Oct.22 came & went w/o Jesus coming back, and Miller admitted his error & went back to watching the north end of a southbound horse. It's important to remember that Miller never tried to start a new church; he merely added his predictions to the doctrines of existing ones.

However, one Ellen Gould White, & her husband James, along with some other former Millerites,including Joseph Bates, preached that Miller had only gotten the EVENT wrong, and not the date. She said that on that date, Jesus entered into the heavenly sanctuary to complete His atonement and to begin His investigative judgment of all who'd ever lived. They added many new converts and in 1860 they adopted the name "Seventh Day Adventists".

The Jehovah's Witnesses was begun by Charles Taze Russell in 1872. He was born on February 16, 1852, the son of Joseph L. and Anna Eliza Russell. He was a SDA early on, but in 1869 he began to have great difficulty with several SDA doctrines. When Russell was 18, he organized a Bible class in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. A few years later, he bought into & co-published The Herald of the Morning magazine with its founder, N. H. Barbour and by 1884 Russell controlled the publication and renamed it The Watchtower Announcing Jehovah's Kingdom, and founded Zion's Watch Tower Tract Society (now known as the Watch Tower Bible and Tract Society).

Russell died in 1916, & was replaced as president by Joseph Rutherford, who in 1931 changed the org's name to "the Jehovah's Witnesses". the presidents since then were Nathan Knorr, chosen upon Rutherford's 1942 death, the above-mentioned Fred Franz in 1977, Milton Henschel 1n 1992, and Don Adams was named in 2000 to replace the then-still-living Henschel as President during the "Great Shake-Up" of 2000.(Henschel died in 2003.)

Please take time to study and see if any org even remotely resembling the JW existed before 1872. I also recommend you read Crisis of conscience by Raymond Franz, Fred's nephew and a former leader within the JW governing body."

While well-versed in defenses for their cult, many JFWs are quite surprised to hear the origins of their cult.

Diane, sometimes God places us in certain situations where we must rely upon HIM AND OURSELVES ALONE. If you hadn't been able to reach your hubby, your decision woulda been YOURS ALONE to have made, under God's guidance. I've made mine in accordance with the knowledge of pseudo-Christian cults the Holy Spirit has seen fit to reveal to me, believing He wants me to USE it to debunk the cults. BUT I SUPPORT YOURS 100%, and I KNOW you will continue to pray for those people involved, knowing that "the prayers of a righteous person avails much".

 

Again, I fully support your decision in that matter, and your decision to close the other thread as well. If ya think this'n's going overboard & ya close it, you'll hear nothing from me about it & I won't bring up the JFW cult again in the same context.

I believe small kids will listen to a teenager much more readily than they will an adult. That's another reason I support your stand.

As for your decision to not have any JFW literature in your home...GREAT! You prolly have more visitors inside your home than I do in mine, and a new visitor might see that lit & draw some conclusion from it.

I'm a big ugly dude with a loud mouth & my neighbors know my opinion of those pseudo-Christian cults. There's a large Kinky-Hall down the street from us, and they won't come near my door since two women who did so a coupla years left the JFW along w/their families. I give ALL credit for that to the HOLY SPIRIT who helped me place a seed of doubt about the Botchtower in their hearts, & then opened their eyes to the TRUTH. I still get an occasional JFW team or LSD..er..LDS team at my door, but no return calls. All I can do in my small way is lead them to the "water" of the Gospel, but I can't make'em DRINK. However, the HOLY SPIRIT can make'em EXTREMELY "thirsty" !

I hope no one gets discouraged in witnessing to cult members. Who knows; maybe the HOLY SPIRIT has given you this witness opportunity. Please continue to witness to them, praying for the HOLY SPIRIT to speak through you however He chooses.

 

Problem is, JFWs actually believe they ARE Christians. The New York Times called them "Christian" in April, 2003. They jumped all over that error by the reporter, saying, "See" We're even endorsed by the TIMES!"

ARE JFWs even CLOSE to being Christian? What do they believe?

1. They have accepted the Organization as the Prophet of God.

2. They have accepted the Organization as God's sole channel for His truth.

3. They believe that to reject the Organization is to reject God.

4. They believe that only the Organization can interpret the Bible; as individuals they are unable to do so.

5. They believe the Watchtower Magazine contains God's truth, directed by Him, through the Organization.

What do they believe that's against Christianity as we Baptists believe it?

1. That Jesus is a created being/a creature.

2. That Jesus is actually Michael the Archangel

3. That Jesus was not resurrected bodily, but as a spirit being.

4. That Jesus returned invisibly in 1914 (secretly to the Organization)

5. That Jesus was only a man when on earth, not the Word Become flesh.

6. That the Holy Spirit is only an active force, I.E. "The Force" in Star Wars, not the person of God.

7. That Hell is simply the grave.

7. That Heaven's doors is open to only 144,000.

8. That the majority of Witnesses must remain on earth.

9. That salvation is found only through the Organization.

10. That it must be maintained by energetic works for the Organization until the end when one may merit eternal life on a paradise earth.

11. That Satan is the author of the doctrine of the Trinity.

12. That Jesus cannot be given worship, but only honor as Jehovah's first creation.

When witnessing to them, I show them the lack of an indefinite article between "logos"(word) & "theos"(god) in their own Greek translation, the Kingdom Interlinear Translation(KIT) & ask them how "the word was "A" god" got into their NWT "bible". And I ask'em what they make of THESE verses in the NWT:

"For there has been a child born to us; and the princely rule will come to be upon his shoulder. And his name will be called Wonderful, Counselor, Mighty God, Eternal Father, Prince of Peace." (Isaiah 9:6, NWT)

"All this actually came about for that to be fulfilled which was spoken by Jehovah through his prophet, saying: 'Look! The virgin will become pregnant and will give birth to a son, and they will call his name Immanuel,' which means, when translated, 'With Us Is God'" (Matthew 1:22-23, NWT). (A Greek reader tells me that the KIT Greek actually reads literally, "With us is THEGod!")

...in answer Thomas said to him [to Jesus, risen in bodily, physical form according to Luke 24:37,43 NWT]: "My Lord (Kurios) and my God!" ( John 20:28 NWT).

"the righteousness of our God and Savior Jesus Christ." (2 Peter 1:1 NWT)(The first NWTs read this way, as does the KIT...but the NWT "translation committee" later added "the" before "Savior".)

As part of my evangelizing to a JFW, I show'wm these passages marked & highlighted in my copy of the NWT A ask'em who they believe...the Scriptures from their own BV, or the modern men who seek to change them?

I wouldn't DREAM of evangelizing a JFW or a Mor(m)on w/o asking the HOLY SPIRIT for a big dose of wordsmithing!

But...ARE THEY CHRISTIAN? I don't think so....

 

James, I believe the Greek uses its "stauros"(stake thing) in a metaphorical way, same as they said "xulon" for cross, a tree or something made from a tree, and WE cay "computer" when our machines are rarely used to compute or to do math. The largest component of the cross is the upright, which is a large stake; hence some people called it a "stauros".

It's well-known that the Romans of that time & place used the cross as is often depicted for crucifixion in that time & place. Usually, the crosspiece was fitted into the upright by a mortise, the vic having to have carried the crosspiece at least one "stadium" (about 600 feet)in distance for the purpose of disgrace.(Given the abuse Jesus took beforehand, He woulda needed to use His Divine power to have carried HIS cross.) The condemned was nailed hands & feet to the cross, which had been placed before the hole it was to rest in, often his wrists were tied so his hands wouldn't tear free of the nails, and he was then "lifted up" so the base of the cross dropped into the hole; it was then braced by wedges driven between cross and hole.

Another modern analogy of stake=cross is when we say "wheels" for "automobile".

BTW, James, how good will your area FOOTBALL TEAMS be? The U of C? The Mountain Lions? The Cougars? Nitro? St. Albans? (I live near Chesapeake, Ohio!)