The Jehovah

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The Jehovahs Witness

• The Watchtower
• vs
• The Bible
• John Oakes, PhD

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Charles Taze Russsel
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Historical Background

• Influenced by Adventist movement
• William Miller, October, 1844
• Russel establishes The Watchtower, 1879
• Rejects the Trinity 1882
• Predicts the end of the world in October, 1914
• Dies 1916

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• Judge Rutherford takes the reigns
• Predicts the resurrection of Abraham, Isaac and
  Jacob to occur in 1925
• Changes name to Jehovahs Witness, 1931
• Began predicting Armageddon to occur in 1975
• Oops..!

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Fundamental Theology of JWs

• Jesus is not God
• The Holy Spirit is not Deity or a person, but a
  force of God.
• Gods only acceptable name is Jehovah.
• Only JWs will be in heaven.
• Hell is not a place of punishment.
• The Church became completely apostate until
  1870s

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Jehovahs Witness Theology (cont.)

• Emphasis on OT law
• No blood transfusions
• Miscelaneous (attempts to mark JWs as unique)
• Birthdays, etc.
• No Military Service
• No Wearing Crosses
• No pledging

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The Watchtower Society

• Gods faithful and discreet slave Matthew
  2445-47
• Gods sole channel of communication to His
  people.
• Avoid independent thinking or questioning the
  counsel that is provided by Gods invisible
  organization.
• We recognize not only Jehovah God as our
  father, but his organization (The Watchtower
  Society) as our mother and the wife of our
  Father, Jehovah God (The Watchtower, May 1,
  1957, p. 285)

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The New World Translation of the Bible

• Done by JW members only
• Designed to protect members from corrupted
  non-Christian translations (like NIV and so
  forth)
• John 11 The word was a god.

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The Deity of Christ

• Jesus is the first and highest of Jehovahs
  creation.
• Jesus is the archangel Michael.
• The Arian heresy (Arius, 3rd Century AD).
• Claim Jesus is never worshipped in the NT.

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Proof-texts

• John 11 . The Word was a god
• John 316 (NWT) Jehovahs first creation was
  his only begotten Son.
• Coll 115-17 The first-born of (vs over) all
  creation.
• Jn 1428 The Father is greater than I
• Jn 2017 My God
• 1 Cor 1528 the head of Christ is God

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Response

• Compare Coll 116 to Hebrews 210
• Hebrews 12
• John 858 (Exodus 314)
• John 1030 (see vs. 33)
• Coll 29
• John 2028
• Titus 213
• Phil 5,6
• Zech 1210
• Isaiah 96,7

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The Holy Spirit is not Deity

• The Holy Spirit is not a person, but is a
  powerful force that God causes to emanate from
  himself to accomplish his holy will (Reasoning
  From Scriptures, 1989, p. 381)
• Arguments
• The Holy Spirit is never given a name
• Mark 110, Acts 2, etc describe the Holy Spirit
  coming on or filling up people. A person cannot
  do this. (see Eph 319)
• Genesis 12 (NWT) Gods active force was
  working to shape the earth

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Response

• 1 Cor 210
• Eph 430
• Acts 166, 829
• Matthew 1232 (see Rev 136, Matt 2739)
• 1 Cor 1211
• Acts 132
• John 1415-17
• John 167-11
• Matthew 2818

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Jehovah is Gods Only Name

• Ezekiel 396
• Matthew 69
• Exodus 315
• Romans 1013
• Claim Jesus is never called JehovahTherefore
  he cannot be God.
• Claim The word Jehovah was removed from most of
  the OT by superstitious Jews.
• Claim The word Jehovah was removed from the NT
  by early apostate Christians.

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Response

• To the ancients, the name of a person stood for
  the person.
• YHWH ADONAIs vowels YAHOWAH ? Yiddish ?
  German as Jehovah.
• The word Jehovah is not found anywhere in NT or
  OT
• God has many names in the OT and the NT (Elohim,
  Adonai, Father, God, Lord, etc.)
• Jesus never called his Father Jehovah.
• Manuscript evidence (ex the Rylands Papyrus)
  absolutely rules out even the possibility of
  Jehovah being removed from the NT.

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Hell Not a Place of Punishment

• No conscious existence after death.
• There is no soul apart from a physical body
• Jesus himself ceased to exist when he died
• All go to a common hell called soul sleep when
  they die to await being recreated by God.
• If they are not re-embodied by God, they simply
  cease to existno punishment at all for sins.

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Soul Sleep

• 144,000 of Revelation 7 will be in spiritual
  heaven with Jesus (the little flock of Luke
  1232)
• The rest (my other sheep of John 1016) will
  live in physical bodies on a paradise earth.
• Proof-texts
• Matthew 610 NWT Let your will take place, as
  in heaven, also upon earth
• Ecclesiastes 95 The dead know nothing.
• Luke 2343 NWT I tell you today, you will be
  with me in Paradise.
• Matt 2546 NWT And these will depart into
  everlasting cutting-off.

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Response

• Rev 149-12 forever and ever
• Matthew 2546 everlasting comtempt
• Daniel 122 Can you have one without another?
• Mark 944 blessing and curses
• Luke 1246-48 degrees of punishment