Jehovah’s Witnesses Beliefs

by Jefferson David Tant

Jehovah's Witnesses Believe Jesus Is Michael the Archangel.

The Bible teaches that God has never said to any of his angels, "You Are My Son... today have I begotten Thee."

The Bible teaches that Jesus is not an angel. Hebrews 1:5 and 2:5 state, “For to which of the angels did he ever say, ‘Thou art my son, today I have begotten thee’? ...For He did not subject to angels the world to come...” Yet, the Jehovah's Witnesses teach, “…the evidence indicates that the Son of God was known as Michael before he came to earth and is known also by that name since his return to heaven where he resides as the glorified spirit Son of God.” [Reasoning from the Scriptures, 1985, Watchtower Bible and Tract Society, p. 218].

Jesus Is Not the Mediator for All Jehovah's Witnesses

The Bible teaches that every Christian must believe Jesus is his or her own personal Mediator to get to God.

The Bible proclaims: “For there is one God, and one mediator also between God and men, the man Christ Jesus, who gave Himself as a ransom for all…” (I Timothy 2:5-6). Yet, the Watchtower Society of Jehovah’s Witnesses tells them that: “Jesus Christ is not the Mediator between Jehovah God and all mankind. He is the Mediator between his heavenly Father, Jehovah God, and the nation of spiritual Israel, which is limited to only 144,000 members.” [Worldwide Security Under the “Prince of Peace,” 1986, Watchtower Bible and Tract Society, p. 10].

Many Jehovah's Witnesses Do Not Believe They Can Go to Heaven

The Bible teaches that Heaven is made up of a "great multitude" of people that no one can number.

Nowhere in the Bible does it say that only 144,000 people will be in Heaven. In fact, Revelation 7:9 and 19:1 claim: “After this I looked, and behold, a great multitude that no one could number...standing before the throne and before the Lamb... I heard something like a loud voice of a great multitude in heaven, saying, ‘Hallelujah! Salvation and glory and power belong to our God.’” Yet, Jehovah’s Witnesses claim: “How many will God take to heaven to rule with Christ? According to the Bible, only 144,000 (Revelation 7:4; 14:1)….By far the vast majority of those who have died will be resurrected to a paradise earth.” [Knowledge that Leads to Everlasting Life, p. 88]. The only verses Jehovah's Witnesses appeal to in order to claim that Heaven is limited to 144,000 (Revelation 7:4; 14:1) never say these are the only people in Heaven. In fact, the context speaks of people who are sealed on earth during the Great Tribulation, which Jehovah's Witnesses believe is yet to come.

Jehovah's Witnesses Do Not Believe They Can Be Spiritually Adopted by God

The Bible teaches that all Christian believers must be spiritually "adopted" to "please God" and "born again" to see God's Kingdom.

The Watchtower teaching that only 144,000 are worthy enough to be spiritually adopted out of Satan’s family into God’s family causes Jehovah’s Witnesses to displease God, prevents them from belonging to Christ, and blocks their ability to understand the spiritual things of God (see Romans 8:8-9, 14; Galatians 4:5-6; I Corinthians 2:14-15).

By Refusing to Partake in the New Covenant, Jehovah's Witnesses Are Excluding Themselves from Eternal Life

The Bible teaches that anyone who excludes himself from partaking in Jesus' New Covenant Bread and Cup excludes himself from receiving Eternal Life.

When Jesus gave His Memorial Meal right before He died, He said: “I am the living bread …if anyone eats of this bread he will live forever…” Although Jesus said, “…the bread…anyone may eat of it” (John 6:50-51 NWT), most Jehovah's Witnesses pass the New Covenant bread and cup, claiming it is only for a select group of 144,000 people. (See The Watchtower, February 1, 1998, p. 19). Thus, when Jesus said, “Most truly I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of man and drink his blood, you have no life in yourselves” (John 6:53 NWT), He proved that all Jehovah's Witnesses who refuse to partake of His Memorial Meal are excluded from Eternal life.

The Watchtower Bible Translation of Jehovah’s Witnesses Distorts the Deity of Jesus Christ

The Bible calls Jesus Christ "Lord of Lords" (Revelation 14:14), the "Almighty" One who is Coming (Revelation 1:7-8), and "God over all" (Romans 9:5 ESV).

While the Bible teaches that there is only one true God (John 17:3) and that the "same" God performs all spiritual activities in the life of the believer (I Corinthians 12:3-6), the Jehovah's Witness Bible promotes a two "God" belief system where Jesus operates as a lesser "god" under the Father God (John 1:1). Yet, as the ESV version of the Bible states, Jesus is "the Christ, who is God over all" (Romans 9:5).

The Jehovah's Witness Belief in Resurrection Resembles Reincarnation

Jehovah's Witnesses teach that Jesus' human body ceased to exist and that he was recreated as a spirit creature after death, but the Bible teaches that Jesus resurrected the same human body that died.

At John 2:18 Jesus prophesied: “Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up.” When the Jews misunderstood Jesus' words and thought He was speaking of the temple building of Jewish worship, John clarified by saying that Jesus was “...speaking of the temple of His body. So when He was raised from the dead, His disciples remembered that He said this; and they believed the Scripture and the word which Jesus had spoken” (John 2:21-22). In so doing, Scripture affirms the biblical definition of the word translated "resurrection," which means to raise up what died. Yet, Jehovah's Witnesses redefine the term when they claim Jesus rose as a spirit creature and disposed of his human body. Thus, they state: “…in his resurrection he ‘became a life-giving spirit.’ That was why for most of the time he was invisible to his faithful apostles… He needs no human body any longer… The human body of flesh, which Jesus Christ laid down forever as a ransom sacrifice, was disposed of by God’s power.” [“Things in Which it is Impossible for God to Lie,” pp. 332, 354]. Since reincarnation means that someone is reborn in a different body, their view that Jesus' human body was disposed of by God and that he was changed into some sort of spirit creature resembles more the view of reincarnation than it does the Biblical definition of Resurrection.

The Jehovah's Witness Shunning Policy Leaves No Honorable Way Out

Jesus taught that true Christians will be known by the "love" they show among themselves (John 13:35), yet the Watchtower enforces a strict shunning policy for anyone who leaves the group.

When an outsider asks about the shunning policy, Jehovah's Witnesses often deny that the policy exists. Yet multiple statements from the Watchtower and testimonies from ex-Jehovah's Witnesses attest that this policy is still strictly enforced among Jehovah's Witnesses. They are instructed to avoid all unnecessary contact with loved ones who either are expelled from the organization or formally admit that they want nothing to do with Jehovah's Witnesses. Regardless of how long they have been involved, their family members are told to shun them, even to the point of refusing to acknowledge them in public. Yet, nowhere in the Bible did anyone get expelled from the Christian congregation for many of the sins Jehovah's Witnesses disfellowship people for, and nowhere in the Bible does it instruct Christian friends and family members to completely shun those who leave as well. Rather, the biblical account of the Prodigal Son in Luke 15, who was greeted with open arms upon his initial signs of repentance, strongly testifies to the biblical love Jesus instructed his followers to embrace among themselves.

Jehovah's Witnesses Are False Prophets According to the Biblical Standards

The warning of Jesus at Matthew 24:23-24 that false prophets would claim that His presence began when He had not yet come invalidates the Jehovah’s Witnesses' claim to be the only true religion because for 50 years they falsely proclaimed Christ’s presence began in 1874.

The biblical standard for prophets is 100% accuracy. The Bible states: “However, the prophet who presumes to speak in my name a word that I have not commanded him to speak or who speaks in the name of other gods, that prophet must die. And in case you should say in your heart: ‘How shall we know the word that Jehovah has not spoken?’ when the prophet speaks in the name of Jehovah and the word does not occur or come true, that is the word that Jehovah did not speak. With presumptuousness the prophet spoke it. You must not get frightened at him’” (Deuteronomy 18:20-22 New World Translation).

The Watchtower’s Ban on Blood Transfusions Disagrees with God’s Law on Blood and Has Cost Countless Unnecessary Deaths in the Name of God

The biblical prohibition against eating blood does not refer to receiving blood transfusions, which is "nothing less than an organ transplant".

The Bible explains God's blood law at Leviticus 17:11-12, saying: "For the life of the flesh is in the blood, and I have given it for you on the altar to make atonement for your souls, for it is the blood that makes atonement by the life. Therefore I have said to the people of Israel, No person among you shall eat blood, neither shall any stranger who sojourns among you eat blood." Nothing in Scripture prohibits the transfusion of blood into the veins of a dying person. In fact, the medical community and even the Watchtower Society admits that “Blood is an organ of the body, and a blood transfusion is nothing less that an organ transplant.” [Awake!, August 22, 1999, p. 31]. Given the Watchtower Society's history of disallowing organ transplants under the same claim that a person who was receiving the transplant was "eating" or "cannibalizing" body parts, it is inconsistent for the Watchtower to change their policy regarding organ and tissue transplants by allowing them and yet continue to disallow blood tissue transplants under the same twisted argument that they have rejected for transplants of other body parts.