Jehovah Witnesses

A Brief History:
The Founder and first leader of the sect, now known as Jehovah's Witnesses, was a man by the name of Charles Taze Russell. He was born in 1852, just outside Pittsburg in Pennsylvania, USA. In 1870, he organized a Bible Study group and in 1876, was elected to be the pastor.
It was sometime during the period 1870 and 1876 that he came to reject practically every cardinal doctrine of the historic Christian faith. He was noted for his conceit and thought there had no truth on the earth until Pastor Russell himself had arrived! He was wont, at public meetings, to advise people to read his books and the Bible, and his devotees have strictly adhered to his counsel by completely abandoning the Bible for books.
It is also known that Russell was a prolific writer. During the years from 1886 to 1904, he wrote and published no less than six fairly large books. The system, so far as the six basic doctrines are concerned remains to this day unchanged.
Russell is dead but he still speakes through The Watchtower Press today, as he did in the past. Contrary to the claim of Rutherford, his immediate successor, that their beliefs are directly taken from the Bible, it is by the Bible their views are most strongly opposed and condemned.
The minds of the simple and unwary are in danger of being seduced. People who know their Bible will not be in the least affected. with an earnest desire to protect you from the terrible effects of this soul-destroying system, we urge you to begin at once to build up a strong resistance against it.
The best safeguard we know, is the one that worked so effectively for the arly Bereans. About them it is written, "These were more noble than those in Thessalonica, in that they received the word with all readiness of mind, and searched the Scriptures daily, whether those things were so." (Acts 17:11).

Jehovah Witnesses' Teachings Compared with the Bible

J.W.'s teachings

The Bible's Teachings

* Trinity: This is a doctrine well suited to the dark ages. Trinitarian nonsense. God is a solitary being from eternity, unrevealed and unknown. No one has existed as his equal to reveal him.

* Lord Jesus Christ: Christ is nothing more than a creature. Never at any time did He possess two natures.In His pre-incarnation state, He was a spirit-being, probably the chief of the angels; known as the highest archangel, whose name was Michael.In His incarnation state, He had one nature only; hence he was not both human and Divine. He was a perfect human being and nothing more. They further state that it was not until after His resurrection, (not bodily resurrection) that He was Divine. They deny His bodily resurrection, in spite of so many appearances and evidences in the gospels and acts of Apostles.
So far as the Lord's second coming is concerned, since His personal bodily appearance is ruled out, it is rejected. To them, spiritually, this event has already taken place. Russell was sure that Christ came in 1844.
* (Read the excerpt from Russell's Studies in the Scriptures, Volume 1, Page 180. And from his book, "The Harp of God", Page 98ff).

* Sin & Retribution: "Death, the extinction of being, is the wages of sin." Each person does not die now for his own sin, but for Adam's sin-"in Adam all die"; The day in which every man shall die for his own sin only is the millennial or restitution day.
All who have died without Christ will have another chance. A gospel, they claim, will be preached in the millennium, and under more favorable circumstances, many will accept Christ. And, of course, there is no future punishment.
Those who do not wish to accept the invitation will be annihilated (wiped out). The "second Death" is extinction.

* Salvation: The ransom given by Jesus Christ does not guarantee everlasting life, to any man, but it does guarantee to every man a second trial for life everlasting.
Man, by reason of his present experience with sin, and its bitter penalty, will be fully forewarned, and when, as a result of the ransom, he is granted another trial, we may be sure that only the wilfully disobedient will receive the penalty of the second trial.

* There are Three Persons in the Godhead: the father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. These three are One God, the same in essence, equal in power and glory. Equality of Divine attributes to each is precisely taught.
Our Lord affirms the fact in His Divine Commission:"Go ye therefore, and disciple all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost..." Matthew 28:19.
Paul states it when he pronounces his benediction upon the church at Corinth. 2Cor.13:14. Apostle John also speaks of the three in 1John 5:7.
On the person of the Holy SPirit, J.Ws are almost silent. To them He may be an influence of some kind, but certainly not a person. See also: Trinity in creation: Gen.1:26, 11:7. In Jesus's baptism: Matt.3:16-17.

* That when He, the Eternal Son of God, became man, He was and will continue to be both God and Man in two distinct natures and One Person forever. The Revelation of the Apostle John puts the truth of the Deity of our Lord beyond all doubt. "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God...And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, as of the only begotten of the Father full of grace and truth." John 1:1-3,14.
Christ is "God manifest in the flesh." (1Tim. 3:16) See also: Rom.1:3-4; Col. 2:9; Matt.3:16-17; Jn.10:30.
Christ's resurrection was in His physical body. he was seen by many. He was "declared to be the Son of God with power, according to the spirit of holiness, by the resurrection from the dead" (Rom.1:4). See Matt.28; Mark 16; Luke 24, and John 20; Acts 1; 1Cor.15:4-8, 1Cor. 15:12-23.
The Lord shall personally and physically return from Heaven, to catch up His believers, and also to judge the world. (Acts 1:9-11, John 14:3; 1Thess.4:13-18; Matt.26:63-64).

* "The soul that sinneth it shall die." Exek. 18:20. After death, the judgement (Heb.9:27). Punishment is eternal (Mark 9:43; 2Thess.1:7-10; Matt.25:41; Rev.14:11. The rich man in hell was certainly not extinguished- Luke 16:23.

* "Now is the day of salvation" 2Cor.6:2. Believers are redeemed through the blood of Christ. 1 Peter 1:18-19; Eph. 1:7; Matt.26:28; 1John 1:7; Col. 1:20; John 1:12; Eph.2:8,9; Rom.3:24.
A believer is assured of everlasting life, NOW. John 3:36, 20:31; 1John 5:11-13.