A biblical case against the Jehovah's Witnesses

  • Thread starter Thread starter LeonardDeNoblac
  • Start date Start date
Status
Not open for further replies.
L

LeonardDeNoblac

Guest
What do you think are the best biblical arguments against the Jehovah’s Witnesses? I don’t think theological arguments would work.
 
It’s not the best case, but here are a few that I think would stump a Jehovah’s Witness.
  • The Jehovah’s Witnesses believe the apocalypse will come soon. As a counter, point out that God said nobody will know the hour or day.
  • The Jehovah’s WItnesses believe in annihilationism, the idea that evil-doers cease to exist after death instead of going to Hell. As a counter, point to the places where Jesus described “weeping and gnashing of teeth” as awaiting the evil-doers.
  • The Jehovah’s Witnesses are non-trinitarians. The common defense for the trinity is the line in the beginning of John which states " the Word was God" and goes on to talk about how the word became flesh and lived among us.
 
Last edited:
BornInMarch said:
The common defense for the trinity is the line in the beginning of Luke which states “The word was God” and goes on to talk about how the word became flesh and lived among us.
Click to expand...
Actually, that’s the beginning of the Gospel of John. And their version of the Bible renders “[…] and the Word was a god”. Yes, that’s it. They reject the Trinity, while being in fact polytheists.
 
Last edited:
Best to start at the foundation.
We have Saint Peter, the Rock, appointed by our Lord.
They have Charles Taze Russell, self-appointed, with an 8th grade education, zero theological training (ignorant), a huckster who was sued for business fraud and for divorce by his wife on the grounds of mental cruelty (unstable).

What was it that Saint Peter wrote in his second letter?

Oh yeah, the “ignorant and unstable twist the scriptures, to their swift destruction.” 2 Peter 3:16
 
Knowing what John 20:28 actually says in Greek.
 
Last edited:
The primary scriptural case against them is the various verses dealing with false prophets.

100% of the numerous JW “prophesies” have been absolutely false.
 
They are really good about changing their predictions, too.
 
BornInMarch said:
The Jehovah’s Witnesses believe the apocalypse will come soon. As a counter, point out that God said nobody will know the hour or day.
Click to expand...
The JW’s have been wrong 8 times already about the end of the world coming. You would think their followers would realise they should ditch this false religion.
 
There are 2 positions i have taken that seem to be problematic for all JWs i have come in contact with, that is at least from a logical perspective which does not necessarily have much bearing on most.

1- Authority of interpretation of scripture. The “what makes your interpretation more correct than others and how do you know” argument. This is the quintessential argument to ALL non-Catholics who believe the NT is the word of God.

2- Your personal worship. JWs do not and can not believe you worship what you say your worship, the one true God. They can only believe what appears to be what your worship is. This is a conundrum for them. Once they understand your personal worship is not what it seems by showing them worship comes from the heart and they cannot know what is in your heart, they become open to your personal worship being something not what they thought. The next hurdle is to point out your worship is in line with Catholic teaching which they have been taught to understand has wrong worship.

Looking at it from the opposite perspective, they have been taught that Catholic worship is wrong. This is what we typically are trying to address when we confront a JW and discuss different theologies or scriptures. And if Catholic worship is wrong why would they consider anything you have to offer “tricking them” to believe otherwise?

But your personal worship they cannot dispute and if your personal worship is in line with Catholic teaching then their understanding of what they have been wrongly taught about the Catholic church must be re-evaluated.

Peace!!!
 
The JWs believe Jesus and the Archangel Michael are the same. There are many Biblical passages that support that Jesus is God. No doubt JWs have their own spin on them, but their arguments are very illogical.
 
1). Thomas said to Jesus: “My Lord and My God” Jesus doesn’t say that he’s wrong, he confirms that he’s right (John 20: 28-29)

2).Jesus says, I am the Alpha and Omega. (Rev. 22:13) (Rev. 1: 8).

3). God explained to Moses that he appeared to Abraham, but Abraham did not know him as Yahweh or as JH’s say Jehovah (Exodus 6: 3)

Moses talked to God, God told Moses that his people who came from Abraham knew him as “I Am” (Exodus 3: 13-14)

Jesus tells the Jews “Before Abraham was, I Am" (John 8: 56-58)

4). Read all of(Hebrews 1)
 
I just want to point out, that I’ve actually been studying New Testament Greek for the last few days, let’s be serious I’m never going to learn it, anyway, but I’ve been using both Protestant and Catholic sources to read what the word say in Greek, and they are in large agreement with the translations of the text, although some versions of the Bible are really biased, including the ones the Jehovah’s Witness use, the New World Translation. They are taught, to mistranslate the Greek. A good example of this is the worst stauros, because they don’t believe Jesus was crucified on a cross, so they translate it to Torture stake. I looked it up, although it can mean that, apparently it usually means a cross.
 
“But the prophet who presumes to speak a word in my name that I have not commanded him to speak, or who speaks in the name of other gods, that same prophet shall die.’ And if you say in your heart, ‘How may we know the word that the Lord has not spoken?’— when a prophet speaks in the name of the Lord, if the word does not come to pass or come true, that is a word that the Lord has not spoken; the prophet has spoken it presumptuously. You need not be afraid of him.” Deuteronomy 18:20-22.

From their founder Russell to the more recent decades, they have “predicted” and failed again and again. And again.

And again.

By Old Testament Biblical principles, their leaders merit the death penalty. As it is, discrediting them is probably sufficient, i.e. you tell them, “by Biblical principles, you are not worth listening to.”
 
Last edited:
That’s why it’s worth pointing out to them that none of the “scholars” who translated the JW version of the Bible had actually ever studied biblical languages.
 
I am an ex-Jehovah’s Witness. And the best biblical arguments that led me out of the Watchtower were:
  1. The Deity of Jesus. Its not best to focus on John 1:1 since their bible mistranslated it. But if one reads the next two verses it becomes clear. Verse 3 says: “all things were made through him, and without him was not anything made that was made.” There are two categories here, one explicit and the other implicit. The first is the category of “all things made”. Verse 3 says that the Word, who is Jesus made all things that were made. The second category is implied as all things not made. Now if i were to ask a JW what was not made, they would say Jehovah/God. Now, ask again: Which category does Jesus belong to? Their first instinct is to place Jesus in the all things made category. But if they do so stop them saying: “Jesus made that category. Can Jesus make himself?” Obviously not. So that leaves only one category, the all things not made category. These two categories are all inclusive. All things that exist, exist in one of these two categories and cannot exist in both. Now a JW will try to come up with a different category but it doesn’t work because the passage doesn’t allow for a third category, and logic doesn’t either. When I understood this, I was stumped.
  2. Mistranslated Scripture. I saw that many passages were translated incorrectly, and purposely done so. The best case is Colossians 1:16-17. In their Bible the word “other” is added eight times. It reads as follows: " 16 because by means of him all other things were created in the heavens and on the earth, the things visible and the things invisible, whether they are thrones or lordships or governments or authorities. All other things have been created through him and for him. 17 Also, he is before all other things, and by means of him all other things were made to exist,". In a good translation, every time other is used is omitted, because no Greek manuscript contains that word. And the JW have to add that word in, because without that word the passage would be teaching that Jesus made all things everywhere. If Jesus made all things, He couldn’t be created, for then Jesus would have had to make Himself, which is impossible. This mistranslation really bothered me as a JW and was one more strike for the the Watchtower. There are many other errors in translation for the JW, like the name Jehovah is a made up word and such. But this one was very powerful to me.
 
  1. Another one was Hebrews 1:8-12. Jesus is called God here, and a Psalm originally about Yahweh is quoted and applied to Jesus. I read the Psalm first, and then read the passage in Hebrews, and the evidence was clear. The writer of Hebrews was applying a Creator passage about Yahweh to Jesus in a context in Hebrews proving that Jesus was and is not an angel but is above the angels, which would include the Arch-Angels since they are angels.
  2. Deut 18 says that we can identify a false prophet if they speak something in the Lord’s name and they are wrong. If they speak so, Moses says we are to not fear them or listen to them. The JW religion is full of false prophecies from their origin. Why would I want to be apart of a religion that is so rank in failed predictions, especially when the biblical mandate is to flee from false prophets?
And there was many more, but these were the start and really the biggest signs to me that the JW are wrong, that Jesus is the God-Man, and that the Catholic Church is true.

Thank you and God Bless
 
SeekerOfTruth7 said:
  1. Another one was Hebrews 1:8-12. Jesus is called God here, and a Psalm originally about Yahweh is quoted and applied to Jesus. I read the Psalm first, and then read the passage in Hebrews, and the evidence was clear. The writer of Hebrews was applying a Creator passage about Yahweh to Jesus in a context in Hebrews proving that Jesus was and is not an angel but is above the angels, which would include the Arch-Angels since they are angels.
Click to expand...
This is interesting, which Psalm are you referring to?
 
It is Psalm 102:24-27. The writer of Hebrews here is quoting this passage about Yahweh. If one was to ask a Jew in those days who was the Psalmist talking about, they would say without a doubt God.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top