Personal
Evangelism Handbook
CHAPTER XV
Jehovah's Witnesses
HISTORICAL BACKGROUND
(As a soulwinner, you should be
familiar with the history of the various religions and
cults even though you would seldom use this information
during your presentation of the gospel itself.)
CHARLES TAZE RUSSELL, born
February 16, 1852, was the founder of the Jehovah's
Witnesses although the group was not called by that name
during his lifetime.
As a young teenager, Russell
belonged to the Congregational Church. He believed in
and had a great fear of hell, but when he was only
seventeen, a skeptic persuaded him that hell was not
real. From then on, Russell fought the doctrine with all
his might.
He conducted a Bible class at
the age of eighteen, and when he was twenty, was made
"pastor" of the group. This was the beginning
of the cult. Russell set the date for the Lord's return
as 1874, and he published his first piece of literature
that year, entitled The Object and Manner of the Lord's
Return.
Russell had some trouble in
court . . . He was sued for divorce in 1903 . . . His
sale of "miracle wheat" which was supposed to
be specially blessed was exposed in court . . . He
committed perjury on the witness stand when a pastor, J.
J. Ross, and he were in court over a pamphlet Ross wrote
exposing Russell.
Russell died of cystitis in
1916.
"JUDGE"
RUTHERFORD-Joseph Franklin Rutherford, born in 1869, was
a lawyer member of the cult and defended Russell in his
many legal suits. In January, 1917, he was chosen to
succeed Russell.
During the twenty years he
controlled the cult, he wrote approximately 100 books
and pamphlets, which were translated into nearly 80
languages with a total distribution of over three
hundred million copies.
Rutherford let Russell's books
go out of print, so that today some members of the
Jehovah's Witnesses do not even know of Russell and the
facts regarding him.
After being called "Russellism,"
"Millennial Dawnism," and "International
Bible Students," the cult took on its permanent
name in 1931, "Jehovah's Witnesses."
Rutherford claimed divine sanction of the name from
Isaiah 43:10.
NATHAN H. KNORR was chosen as
the new leader of the Jehovah's Witnesses at the death
of Rutherford in 1942. Knorr was born in 1905 and had
become a Witness at the age of sixteen.
Knorr has seen to it that all
literature coming from the Watchtower Society ( name of
the cult's publishing headquarters) is anonymous.
Rutherford's name, too, has faded, so that devotion in
today's Jehovah's Witnesses movement is to the
"Divine Organization" rather than to a
personality.
At this writing Knorr continues
as head of the cult.
The main issue in witnessing to
the Jehovah's Witnesses is "grace and works."
They do not believe that Jesus was God in the flesh, and
they do not believe His death on the cross made a
payment for all sin of those who would accept that
payment by faith. They do not believe a person can KNOW
he will go to heaven when he dies. They believe their
life hereafter is determined by their actions on earth
now.
Verses like Ephesians 2:8, 9
and Romans 4:5 are foreign to their system of theology.
Making the plan of salvation understandable to them will
be very difficult for you . . . not because you will not
present it properly, but because they are often
willfully blind to the gospel of God's saving grace. You
can show them a clear verse of Scripture, and if they
don't want to believe what it is obviously saying, they
can somehow just ignore it and turn to some other verse
they like better.
Jehovah's Witnesses do possess
a reputation for having a great knowledge of the Bible.
They certainly appear to, to the average layman. They DO
know the verses in the Bible they have been TAUGHT, but
very few Jehovah's Witnesses actually know the Bible
very well at all from the standpoint of context or
literal interpretation of clear doctrine.
The test of any group that
claims to be "Christian" is its doctrines and
how its doctrines compare with the clear teaching of
Scripture. On some points the Jehovah's Witnesses
miserably fail. Below are some of their teachings (taken
from their own writings) and Scriptures showing the
difference between truth and error.
SALVATION ACCORDING TO THE
JEHOVAH'S WITNESSES
"The ransom does not
guarantee everlasting life to any man, but only a second
chance" (Truth Shall Make You Free, pp. 176, 177).
Men will be given a second
chance for salvation during the millennium (Studies in
the Scriptures, Vol. 1, pp. 106, 107) .
"One forfeited life could
redeem one forfeited life, but no more. The man Christ
Jesus redeemed Adam" (ibid., p. 133).
"The second trial will
decide whether we may, or may not have everlasting
life" ( The Watchtower, February 15, 1960, p. 143).
SALVATION ACCORDING TO THE
BIBLE
"He that believeth on Him
is not condemned: but he that believeth not is condemned
already, because he hath not believed in the Name of the
only begotten Son of God" (John 3:18).
"He that believeth on the
Son hath everlasting life: and he that believeth not the
Son shall not see life; but the wrath of God abideth on
him" (John 3:36).
"Believe on the Lord Jesus
Christ and thou shalt be saved" (Acts 16:31).
"Verily, verily, I say
unto you, He that believeth on Me hath everlasting
life" (John 6:47). Christ's own guarantee to
believers.
"And as it is appointed
unto men once to die, but after this the judgment"
( Hebrews 9: 27) . There is no second chance after
death.
"For there is one God, and
one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus;
Who gave-Himself a ransom for all . . ." (I Tim.
2:5, 6). Christ was not just a ransom for Adam, but a
ransom for ALL!
THE CHRIST OF JEHOVAH'S
WITNESSES
"He is a 'mighty God' but
not the 'Almighty God who is Jehovah' " (Truth
Shall Make You Free, p. 47).
"He was the first and
direct creation of Jehovah God . . . He was the start of
God's creative work" (The Kingdom Is at Hand, pp.
46-49).
JESUS CHRIST is JEHOVAH GOD
1. Isaiah 43:10, 11-The LORD,
Jehovah, says, ". . . before Me there was no God
formed, neither shall there be after Me." The LORD,
Jehovah, says, ". . . beside Me there is no Saviour."
(See Isa. 44:6, 8; Deut. 4:39.)
Therefore, if Christ is God in
any way, if Christ is the Saviour in any way, then
according to the LORD God Jehovah, Christ is GOD.
Luke 2: 11 says, "For unto
you is born this day in the city of David a Saviour,
which is Christ the Lord."
Since Christ is the Saviour,
then Christ is GOD.
2. Isaiah 42:8-"I am the
LORD: that is My Name: and My glory will I not give to
another...."
Only Jehovah God is the LORD of
glory. If Christ is the Lord of glory, then He must be
Jehovah God.
I Cor. 2:8 says the crucified
Christ is the "Lord of glory." Since Christ is
the Lord of glory, then Christ is GOD.
3. Zechariah 12:1-10-The LORD,
Jehovah, says, " . . . and they shall look upon Me
whom they have pierced...."
When was the Lord, Jehovah,
pierced?
"But when they came to
Jesus, and saw that He was dead already, they brake not
His legs: But one of the soldiers with a spear pierced
His side, and forthwith came there out blood and water.
And he that saw it bare record, and his record is true:
and he knoweth that he saith true, that ye might
believe. For these things were done, that the Scripture
should be fulfilled, A bone of Him shall not be broken,
and again another Scripture saith, They shall look on
Him whom they pierced" (John 19:33-37).
Since Christ was pierced, and
Jehovah God said He would be pierced, then Christ is
God.
4. Isaiah 7:14-"Therefore
the Lord Himself shall give you a sign; Behold, a virgin
shall conceive, and bear a son, and shall call His Name
Immanuel."
Read Matt. 1:18-25. Notice in
v. 18, the child was "OF the Holy Ghost . . ."
and Mary was with child "BEFORE they (Mary and
Joseph) came together." Again, in v. 20 the angel
of the Lord confirms the child is "OF the Holy
Ghost." In v. 21 the child shall be named JESUS
because He shall save His people from their sins. The
very name Jesus means "God who saves," etc.
And in vv. 22, 23, we learn that "all this was done
that it might be fulfilled which was spoken OF THE LORD
by the prophet, saying, Behold, a virgin shall be with
child, and shall bring forth a son, and they shall call
His Name Emmanuel, which being interpreted is, GOD WITH
US."
So God Himself says the child
Jesus is actually GOD HIMSELF dwelling with man. This is
again clearly confirmed in John 1:1-14. "The Word
was God . . . And the Word was made flesh and dwelt
among us...."
5. Mark 2:5 records that Jesus
forgave people's sins. The scribes heard Christ doing
this and said (v. 7), "Why doth this man thus speak
blasphemies? Who can forgive sins but GOD ONLY?"
They failed to realize that Christ wasn't doing anything
blasphemous at all. HE WAS GOD!
6. Luke 1:68 records at the
time of the birth of Christ, "Blessed be the LORD
GOD of Israel; for He hath visited and redeemed His
people."
7. Luke 8: 39-Christ had just
cast out demons and told the person, "Return to
thine own house and shew how great things GOD hath done
unto thee. And he went his way, and published throughout
the whole city how great things JESUS had done unto
him."
This is not a contradiction.
Christ did it and said God did it. Christ told the man
to say God did it and the man said Christ did it. It is
not a contradiction because Christ is GOD.
8. In John 9:33-38 is recorded
Christ's conversation with a man who wanted to know who
Christ was. Christ said He was the Son of God and the
man (v. 38) "worshiped Him." Christ did not
reprove this man for worshipping Him, and yet Christ
knew the clear commands of the Old Testament not to
worship any God but Jehovah God. Exodus 34: 14,
"For thou shalt worship no other god; for the LORD,
whose name is Jealous, is a jealous God."
If Christ were not truly God
and accepted the worship from a man without even
rebuking the man, then Christ would not even have been
an honest man.
Christ did accept worship. For
Christ is GOD. ( See John 5:23.)
9. John 14: 7-Christ says,
"If ye had known Me, ye should have known My Father
also: and from henceforth ye know Him and have seen
Him," and vv. 8, 9, "Philip saith unto Him,
Lord, shew us the Father, and it sufficeth us. Jesus
saith unto him, Have I been so long time with you, and
yet hast thou not known Me, Philip? He that hath seen ME
HATH SEEN THE FATHER: and how sayest thou then, Shew us
the Father?" (See John 12:45.)
In John 15:24 Christ again says
people have "both seen and hated both Me and My
Father."
The reason Christ can say that
when someone has seen Him he has also seen the Father is
that Christ is GOD, one and the same as the Father.
10. John 10:30-33 tells us the
same thing. Christ said in v. 30, "I and My Father
are ONE." And "Then the Jews took up stones
again to stone Him" (v. 31). In answer to Christ's
questions of why they were stoning Him they replied in
verse 33, ". . . for blasphemy; and because that
thou, being a man, makest thyself God."
The Jews KNEW Christ was
claiming to be God. They were so sure of His claims that
they wanted to stone Him for what they SUPPOSED to be
blasphemy.
But Christ didn't commit
blasphemy. Even a good, godly human being would know
better than to commit blasphemy, time after time,
especially when he was constantly being accused of it.
Christ could say "I and My
Father are One" because it is true. Christ is GOD.
11. Acts 20:28 says, ". .
. to feed the church of God, which He hath purchased
with His own blood."
When did God shed His blood?
God shed His blood when He took on flesh in the person
of Jesus Christ and shed His blood for our sins. Christ
said in Luke 22:20, ". . . This cup is the new
testament in My blood, which is shed for you."
Revelation 1:5 says, "And from Jesus Christ, who is
the faithful witness, and the first begotten of the
dead, and the prince of the kings of the earth. Unto Him
that loved us, and washed us from our sins in His own
blood."
God shed His blood when Jesus
shed His blood because Jesus is GOD.
12. Ezekiel 44:2-"Then
said the LORD unto me; This gate shall be shut, it shall
not be opened, and no man shall enter in by it; because
the LORD, the God of Israel, hath entered in by it,
therefore it shall be shut."
This is the gate that the LORD
God, the LORD JESUS CHRIST, entered at His
"triumphal entry" spoken of in John 12: 12-16
and each of the other Gospels. The Mohammedans closed
the gate soon after the destruction of the Temple in 70
A.D., and it shall remain shut.
13. In John 12:26 Christ says,
". . . if any man serve Me (Christ), him will My
Father honour." And yet in Matt. 4:10 Christ
affirms the Old Testament command, "Thou shalt
worship the Lord thy God and HIM ONLY shalt thou
serve."
Christ, knowing and upholding
the Old Testament teaching, would not tell people to
serve Him, and would not tell people God the Father
would honor their lives when they do serve Him . . . in
direct contradiction to the command in the Old Testament
to serve only the LORD THY GOD.
Man is honored by God the
Father when man serves Christ because Christ is GOD.
14. Rev. 15:3, 4-". . .
Great and marvellous are Thy works, LORD GOD ALMIGHTY;
just and true are Thy ways, Thou King of saints. Who
shall not fear Thee, O Lord, and glorify Thy Name? For
Thou ONLY art holy."
But Luke 1:35 records the words
of the angel Gabriel, who was sent from God, saying,
". . . that HOLY thing which shall be born of thee
shall be called the Son of God."
Only the Lord God Almighty is
holy . . . but the Son of God is holy because He lS the
Lord God Almighty.
15. Genesis 1:1 says, "God
created the heaven and the earth." Hebrews 1:2 and
Colossians 1:15-17 say Christ created it.
16. Titus 3: 4 says "God
our Saviour." Titus 3: 6 says "Jesus Christ
our Saviour." Isaiah 43: 11 says the LORD (Jehovah)
is the ONLY Saviour.
Do these three verses
contradict? No! But they WOULD contradict if Jesus
Christ and Jehovah God weren't one and the same.
17. I John 5: 20 calls Christ
"the true God." Hebrews 1: 8 refers to the Son
of God as "O God." In Rev. 1: 8 Christ is
speaking ( see v. 5) and says He is the "Alpha and
Omega, the beginning and the ending, saith the Lord,
which is, and which was, and which is to come, the
ALMIGHTY."
18. Colossians 2:9-"For in
Him (Christ, v. 8) dwelleth all the fullness of the
Godhead bodily." Everything that is in the Godhead,
everything that is God, was in Christ in a bodily form.
"For it pleased the Father that IN HIM ( Christ )
should all fulness dwell" ( Col. 1: 19) .
19. I Timothy 3:16-"And
without controversy great is the mystery of godliness:
God was manifest in the flesh, (GOD was) justified in
the Spirit, (GOD was) seen of angels, (GOD was) preached
unto the Gentiles, (GOD was) believed on in the world,
(GOD was) received up into glory."
When did this happen? When
Jesus Christ was manifest in the flesh, justified in the
Spirit, seen of angels, preached unto the Gentiles,
believed on in the world, and received up into glory.
The Bible says, "God was
manifest in the flesh," etc., because Christ is
GOD.
20. In Romans 10: 9 and 13 the
Apostle Paul quoted from an Old Testament prophet
saying, "For whosoever shall call upon the Name of
the Lord shall be saved." Of course, Paul was
speaking of Jesus as Lord (Rom. 10:9) . But the verse he
was quoting in the Old Testament is Joel 2:32 which
says, ". . . whosoever shall call on the Name of
the LORD (Jehovah) shall be delivered (saved) ."
Why did the Holy Spirit give
the Apostle Paul the liberty to use an Old Testament
verse which speaks of JEHOVAH and apply it to the LORD
JESUS CHRIST? Because the Lord Jesus Christ is Jehovah.
21. Isaiah 9:6 prophesies of
the Messiah to come, "For unto us a child is born,
unto us a son is given: and the government shall be upon
His shoulder: and His Name shall be called Wonderful,
Counsellor, the Mighty God, the EVERLASTING FATHER, The
Prince of Peace."
Our Messiah, the Lord Jesus
Christ, is the Everlasting Father.
22. Micah 5:2, also prophesying
of the coming Messiah, says, "whose goings forth
have been from of old, FROM EVERLASTING."
But Psalm 90:2 says,
"Before the mountains were brought forth, or ever
thou hadst formed the earth and the world, even from
EVERLASTING to everlasting, thou art GOD."
Christ was from everlasting,
was in existence and one with God before the world was
formed (John 17:5) because Christ is GOD.
23. When Moses asked God,
"Behold, when I come unto the children of Israel,
and shall say unto them, The God of your fathers hath
sent me unto you; and they shall say to me, What is His
name? What shall I say unto them?" (Exod. 3:13) God
answered unto Moses (v. 14), "I AM THAT I AM: and
He said, Thus shalt thou say unto the children of
Israel, I AM hath sent me unto you."
Christ, revealing Himself unto
the Jewish people, made this life and death statement
unto them in John 8: 24, "I said therefore unto
you, that ye shall die in your sins: for if ye believe
not that I AM (he), ye shall die in your sins."
To be saved, a person must
believe that the Lord Jesus Christ was truly God
Himself, who gave His life to make a death and blood
payment for his sin, which He did. "For the wages
of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life
through Jesus Christ OUR LORD" (Romans 6:23).
(Reprinted from booklet, Jesus Christ Is Jehovah God,
distributed by Soul Winning Seminars, 6/67.)
THE TRINITY DISBELIEVED BY
WITNESSES
"There is no authority in
the Word of God for the doctrine of the Trinity of the
Godhead" (Studies in the Scriptures, Vol. 5, pp.
54-60). ". . . Satan is the originator of the
'trinity' doctrine" (Let God Be True, 1946 ed., p.
82).
THE TRINITY TAUGHT IN
SCRIPTURE
The Father is God: II Timothy
1:2; I Thessalonians 1:1.
The Holy Spirit is God: Acts
5:1-4; Isa. 48:16; Job 33:4; Isa. 63:7-10.
The Son, Jesus Christ, is God:
See list on preceding pages.
Matthew 28:19 says, "Go ye
therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the
NAME (singular in the Greek) of the Father, and of the
Son, and of the Holy Ghost." If there were three
gods, or if one were God, and one were a created being,
and the other were just God's "power" ( as the
J. W.'s say), then the verse would have to say to
baptize in the "names" of the Father, Son, and
Holy Ghost.
God is very exact and lets us
know in this verse that though there is only one God, He
is a triune God.
Even in Deuteronomy 6:4, where
it says that "Our God is one LORD (Jehovah),"
the Trinity is proven. In Hebrew there are at least two
words translated "one." The word
"one" in this verse is "echod" and
means "a unity." The Hebrew word "yachid"
is the word meaning "an absolute one." The
word translated "God" in the Hebrew is "Elohim"
and means three or more. God says precisely what He
means.
MAN ACCORDING TO THE
WITNESSES
Man is a soul, but does not
have a soul (Let God Be True, p. 60).
". . . the serpent (the
Devil) is the one who originated the doctrine of the
inherent immortality of the soul" (ibid., p. 66).
MAN ACCORDING TO GOD
"I pray God your whole
spirit AND SOUL and body be preserved blameless unto the
coming of our Lord Jesus Christ" (I Thess. 5:23).
"Beloved, I wish above all
things that thou mayest prosper and be in health, even
as thy soul prospereth" (III John, v. 2).
Man was created in God's image
(Genesis 1:26), a triune being, having body, soul, and
spirit. And the Bible says, "The Word of God is
quick, and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged
sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of SOUL,
and SPIRIT, and of the JOINTS and MARROW (body) . .
." (Heb. 4:12).
DEATH AND HELL as taught by the
WATCHTOWER SOCIETY
The penalty of the second
chance for life will be the second death, which is
annihilation (Studies in the Scriptures, Vol. 1, p.
151).
God is too good to sustain an
everlasting hell (ibid., p. 127).
"The grave and physical
death are the only hell" (Reconciliation, p. 289).
"The doctrine of eternal
torment is as false as its author, the devil"
(Creation, p. 341 ) .
"It is so plain that the
Bible hell is the tomb, the grave, that even an honest
little child can understand it, but not the religious
theologians" (Let God Be True, p. 72).
DEATH AND HELL as taught by
the BIBLE
"And these shall go away
into EVERLASTlNG PUNISHMENT ( not annihilation ): but
the righteous into life eternal" (Matt. 25:46).
"Even as Sodom and
Gomorrah, and the cities about them in like manner,
giving themselves over to fornication, and going after
strange flesh, are set forth for an example, suffering
the vengeance of ETERNAL FIRE" (Jude, v. 7).
Obviously, it is the PEOPLE in these cities that will
suffer. (Cities do not "commit fornication,"
but the people IN the cities. )
"And the smoke of their
torment ascendeth up FOR EVER AND EVER; and they have no
rest day nor night, who worship the beast and his image,
and whosoever receiveth the mark of his name" (Rev.
14:11).
Luke 16:24, ". . . for I
am tormented in this flame."
Luke 16:26, ". . . there
is a great gulf fixed, so that they which would pass
from hence to you cannot; neither can they pass to us,
that would come from thence.?"
Luke 16:28, ". . . lest
they also come into this place of torment."
Daniel 12:2, "And many of
them that sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake,
some to everlasting life, and some to shame and
everlasting contempt."
SUGGESTIONS FOR YOUR
WITNESSING
(1) Be courteous and patient.
One of the things Jehovah's Witnesses seem to delight in
is being persecuted. It is supposed to be some kind of
proof that they are God's true servants. When you are
rude or abrupt with them it confirms in their minds that
they really must be the "true sheep" of the
Lord. This makes it that much harder for the next
Christian to witness to them. Don't argue. Firmly point
out the truth in the Scriptures.
(2) Somewhere in the beginning
of your conversation get the Witness to agree to talk
only about what is important . . . like salvation. You
might say, "Being human, we are bound to disagree
on some small points. So why don't we confine our talk
to really important subjects like how to be saved?"
He will almost always agree to this.
This will help you
tremendously. Every time he tries to go off on some side
issue, you can politely remind him of the agreement and
bring the conversation back to the gospel. In this way
you will have a much greater chance of leading him to
Christ.
(3) Be an attentive listener.
The best soulwinners listen carefully to what the other
person is saying so they can catch things they will want
to utilize in their witnessing.
(4) Ask questions. It is
important to ask the Witness what he means by certain
phrases. For instance, what he means by "ransom
sacrifice," Christ being the "Son of
God," and "death," etc., is often
completely different from what you mean.
Often his words sound Biblical,
but what he means is unscriptural. In order to combat
the error you must know what the error is, and many
times the error is not apparent on the surface.
(5) Perhaps even more than with
other people, you need to USE THE BIBLE to win them. The
Witnesses are under the impression that they are the
only ones who really know the Bible. The truth is, they
usually do not know the Bible very well . . . only
certain "proof texts" which they can readily
produce. However, most Protestants ( and many born-again
believers) don't usually know as much of God's Word as
the Jehovah's Witnesses do. Therefore, when they are
speaking to someone they always speak as the teacher,
assuming that the listener knows nothing of the Bible.
They are shocked to find
someone who knows as much or more than they. However,
although it is extremely important to use God's Word as
you witness to them, be careful of trying to show them
how much you know by using TOO MANY verses. It is almost
always best to use as few verses as possible . . . clear
ones . . . and stay with them.
(6) Keep in mind that the
average Jehovah's Witness is like
"quicksilver." When you show him a verse he
doesn't like or doesn't have an answer for, he will want
to jump over to some other passage. Often that passage
will be off the subject of salvation. DON'T LET HIM DO
THIS. Stay on the passage you are showing him until he
either admits what the verse is saying, or he admits he
does not believe the verse. This is almost impossible
for you to do, but strive for it.
(7) If, after all your best
efforts to get him to understand the plan of salvation,
he still refuses to accept Christ as his Saviour, DON'T
LET HIM LEAVE FEELING COMFORTABLE. This advice goes for
any lost person you speak with but especially the
Witness, who is so sure that there is no hell to worry
about.
(8) A closing remark to an
unbelieving Witness might be, "If what you believe
is true, and I don't believe it, all I must face is
being annihilated. But if what the Bible says about hell
is true, and you don't believe it and accept Christ as
your Saviour, you face an eternity in the lake of
fire." Let him know that neither you nor God wants
him to go to hell. Speak the truth in love.
