Nepaug Bible Church - http://www.nepaugchurch.org - Pastor's Evening Sermon Notes - http://www.nepaugchurch.org/ev/ev20060521.htm

PROFITABLY LEARNING FROM THE ERRORS OF THE CULTS
Part II: Profitably Learning From The Errors Of Jehovah's Witnesses
  1. Introduction
    1. In having no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather even exposing them as Ephesians 5:11 NIV directs, we like Solomon can learn from the errant ways of the cults, cf. Proverbs 24:30-34.
    2. In the case of the Jehovah's Witnesses, we find a startling illustration of the need to apply Paul's words in 2 Timothy 4:2 with 4:3-4 to avoid apostasy and stay right in our beliefs (as follows):
  2. Profitably Learning From The Errors Of Jehovah's Witnesses. (I am indebted to Jan Karel Van Baalen's book, The Chaos of Cults (1973), p. 257-276, to notes from a seminar on "Witnessing to Jehovah's Witnesses" held at the Valley Community Baptist Church in Avon, CT. and to notes from a Christian Apologetics research center called CARIS out of Santa Anna, CA. for this information.)
    1. The founder of the Jehovah's Witnesses, Charles Taze Russell, began as a Presbyterian, but came to resist its Biblical doctrine of an eternal hell, Jan Karel Van Baalen, The Chaos of Cults (1973), p. 257.
    2. He switched to Seventh-Day Adventism in 1878 but then came into conflict with Ellen G. White's clearly errant view that Christ's work on the cross had produced a partial atonement, Ibid., p. 257, 232-234.
    3. Accordingly, in 1879, he formed his "Zion's Watchtower and Herald of Christ's Presence" organization, adding ideas for his theology from other cults like Swedenborganism and Unitarianism, Ibid., p. 257.
    4. When he died, Judge Joseph Franklin Rutherford succeeded him, a man who with Russell had been at frequent odds with the U. S. courts, and Rutherford even spent some time in a penitentiary, Ibid., p. 259f.
    5. The Watchtower organization (Jehovah's Witnesses) changed major theological stands it had taken 148 times between 1917 and 1928, cf. former Witness W. J. Schnell, Into the Light of Christianity , p. 13.
    6. Accordingly, there is a great breadth of errant belief that has risen in this cultic group (as follows):
      1. Jehovah's Witnesses hold God the Father alone is God, that He is properly called "Jehovah."
      2. Jesus is said to be Michael the Archangel in human form. On earth, Jesus was only perfect humanity.
      3. They deny He bodily arose, saying His body dissolved or was stolen or was hidden by God the Father.
      4. Jehovah's Witnesses deny the personality of the Holy Spirit, claiming He is but an active force.
      5. The Witnesses say only the 144,000 go to heaven, a number completed by 1935 so that all subsequent disciples hope for an escape from Armageddon and being re-created in the end after they die.
      6. They changed the date of Christ's return often from 1914 to 1972 to explain why He had not come!
      7. Salvation is thus posed to be achieved in part by door-to-door witnessing for the Witness movement.
      8. Jehovah's Witnesses think blood transfusions violate Leviticus 17:11 as they hold the blood contains the soul! They do not salute the American flag (considered idolatry) and are conscientious objectors.
    7. The major beliefs of Jehovah's Witnesses violate Scripture in various ways, and we detail key ones here:
      1. Versus Witness beliefs, God is Three in Persons and One in essence, Ps. 110:1; Acts 5:3-4; Jn. 10:30.
      2. Opposite Witness beliefs, Jesus is the Creator God of all that was made, John 1:1-3; Col. 2:9!
      3. Jesus bodily arose from the dead and will bodily return, cf. 1 Cor. 15:1-22; Luke 24:36-43; Zech. 14:4.
      4. Contrary to Witness beliefs, the name "Jehovah" is not God's actual name: it combines the Hebrew consonants of Jahweh [the "I AM"] with the Hebrew vowels of Adonai ["Master"] to follow the Jewish practice of honoring God's name by not accidentally taking the true name of Jahweh in vain!
      5. In Revelation 7:9-14, the same chapter with the 144,000 (7:1-8), an innumerable company of believers from around the world are seen in heaven contrary to Witness teaching!
      6. Salvation is by faith alone in Christ alone according to Ephesians 2:8-9 opposite Witness teachings!
      7. The Witnesses are (a) false prophets as they have repeatedly failed to predict aright Christ's return (Deut. 18:20-22) and (b) its leaders were lawless, meaning they were false teachers, Matthew 7:15-20!
Lesson: Jehovah's Witnesses were formed by one man's failing to endure sound doctrine on hell due to his own lusts (cf. 2 Thess. 1:9), only to turn to non-biblical Seventh-Day Adventist errors without fully checking Scripture with adequate Bible study tools and the Bible context; that led him in time to turn to all sorts of unbiblical, cultic ideas that stoutly contradict the Bible's teaching in many verses.

Application: May we be truly saved and walk by the Spirit that we not turn from Bible truth to please our sin nature, and then go from that error to adopting worse errors to our harm! (2 Timothy 4:2, 3-4)