Jehovah’s Witness Doctrinal Differences With Catholicism With Biblical Citations

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Jehovah’s Witness Doctrinal Differences With Catholicism With Biblical Citations

Discussing Jehovah’s Witness tactics and traditions over here.

I asked a Jehovah’s Witness adherent to discuss our differences here.

Remember to be good to these folks. It is a huge risk for them even to be discussing this with us without “spies” or accompaniment. That was my point here about being recused from “Reindeer Games” here.

So let’s lay out our doctrinal differences with Biblical support (which is WHY I put this up here. Because the Catholic Apologists are very adept at this).
 
The one word that ought to finish it all is this: POLYTHEISM!

But no, it doesn’t bother everybody that the Jehovah’s Witness are polytheists,
rewrote the Bible to fit their doctrine, ignore the original Greek/Hebrew, oy vey.

When the Bible says “Cross”, JWs like “No no, should be ‘stake’.”

No resurrection, even though the Bible says.

:banghead:
 
Jude Thaddeus. You stated:

Quote:
When the Bible says “Cross”, JWs like “No no, should be ‘stake’.”

Good point.

I once was given the Greek “stake” routine by the JWs before I had studied the issue.

My response was just:

"If this does NOT signify a cross, why when you drive by GREEK Orthodox Churches, do they not have a mere “stake” upon their Church but a Cross?

Am I to assume it is a good thing that CTR (I had studied enough to know about CTR or Charles Taze Russell) came along to help the Greeks with their own Greek language?"

They did not attempt to answer that, but rather changed the subject.

I guess at that point they decided to “stake out” other doctrinal territory.
 
Point of fact: The JWs are actually considered to be a form of heretics by the original Charles Taze Russell group, the “Bible Students.” You can’t make this up, but there is a Bible Student member here at CAF. As I remember, Wiki states that 50,000 or so of them still exist.

The JW “Bible” is available online so that Christians may compare and contrast the differences that they have introduced.
 
Judas_Thaddeus said:
The one word that ought to finish it all is this: POLYTHEISM!

But no, it doesn’t bother everybody that the Jehovah’s Witness are polytheists,
rewrote the Bible to fit their doctrine, ignore the original Greek/Hebrew, oy vey.

When the Bible says “Cross”, JWs like “No no, should be ‘stake’.”

No resurrection, even though the Bible says.

:banghead:
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HI Could you kindly tell me how JWs are considered to be polytheists?
 
eamonnroma said:
HI Could you kindly tell me how JWs are considered to be polytheists?
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Well in the JW twisting of John 1:1, The Word was A god~!

JW may, or may not, describe themselves as
henotheists (belief in many gods, but worship
only one), but that is just a cover up word.

JW believe Jesus is A god, named Michael,
created by the Father, the only true God,
but JW don’t exclude “lesser divinities”.
 
An ex-Jehovah’s Witness (Mary Kochan) goes through a typical discussion that she
or you might have with Jehovah’s Witnesses stating (among other things):

Quote:

. . . . Jehovah’s Witnesses are convinced that we are living in the “last days”. We need to let them know that this is hardly an understanding that is unique to them:

I don’t have a problem believing that we are living in the last days. Every generation of Christians has believed this. As long as we don’t make the fatal mistake of setting dates for the end of the world, it is in harmony with Jesus’ instructions to his disciples to be living in eager expectation of his return. And I do!

Be kind and gracious to the JWs. If you have the time, invite them in and offer them refreshment. Try to get to know them. There are as many ex-JWs in the United States as there are current members. When they have become disillusioned from the Watchtower’s false prophecies and exhausted by the organization’s demands, they will be badly in need of genuine friends. Perhaps God will grant to you to be that friend!

(Italics original in second paragraph above, bold and italics mine in third paragraph.)

You can read all of what she says in this article concerning the JWs here.

Everything I have ever read or listened to from Mary Kochan on these issues has been insightful.
 
I no longer fear them when they approach. Since the JW org has never had a good prophecy, and 100% of them have failed, that is one seed to plant. The “authority” of founder Russell to privately interpret scriptural prophecy is another. They keep coming back - I keep chipping away. I’m hoping to find the Nicodemus among them :ehh:
 
Cathoholic said:
Jehovah’s Witness Doctrinal Differences With Catholicism With Biblical Citations

Discussing Jehovah’s Witness tactics and traditions over here.

I asked a Jehovah’s Witness adherent to discuss our differences here.

Remember to be good to these folks. It is a huge risk for them even to be discussing this with us without “spies” or accompaniment. That was my point here about being recused from “Reindeer Games” here.

So let’s lay out our doctrinal differences with Biblical support (which is WHY I put this up here. Because the Catholic Apologists are very adept at this).
Click to expand...
The bottom line is that JW’s are not Christians. They don’t believe Jesus is God and they don’t believe in the Holy Trinity.
 
As a former Jehovah’s Witness elder and regular pioneer (as well as formerly one of their 144,000), I am happy that you reminded people to be good to any Jehovah’s Witness who may visit this and other threads or site(s).

But as you might have noticed, the invitation to participate in such a discussion is not readily being accepted, at least not on this thread.

The Witnesses are trained weekly not to participate in a conversation that they do not initiate, will not and cannot have control over, and that has not been previously approved by direction from the Governing Body. This means no public, Internet, or otherwise media-published discussions between believers and non-believers allowed, and Witnesses are strongly warned that they risk God’s disfavor and possible imminent destruction (let alone excommunication) if this direction is ignored.

While your intentions are surely good, this invitation to act contrary to the direction from the Governing Body can be viewed as tantamount to act with outright disloyalty to their leadership as well as personally asking them to commit sin. I know this from experience because this is the way we viewed such “invitations” when I was among their number.

These types of challenges can make Catholicism look bad in their eyes because to them it looks as if we are taunting the Witnesses: “Come on and sin! Go against your Governing Body and talk to us.” They then come to see us as “agents of Satan” because we are “tempting” them to do what is “bad” in their eyes. Would you follow the direction of someone who invited you to outright sin against your Church and God?

There is no panacea for effective communication with the Jehovah’s Witnesses. Currently their official stand is that any open dialogue with other religions will mark them as being disloyal to God, so even the most purely motivated attempts at discussion on our behalf are anathema to them.

This does not mean that we should not continue to try to engage them, but we might want to put more emphasis on caring for the Witnesses we can have direct contact with. More than ever they need to see love in action from us. It is generally unknown to the public, but because higher education is practically forbidden among them most Witness are materially poor. Without any charity system in their organization, most suffer below the poverty level because the only usual sources of help for them are religious organizations that they naturally avoid.

Instead of judging them on the basis of their doctrines, convictions, and beliefs, we need to find and see Christ in them and spread the Gospel in practical ways. This may be a far more effective testimony to the Truth in the Church than we realize.–Matthew 25:31-40.
 
When a JW asks me if we are living in the last days? I always answer with an emphatic yes! When they then ask me why I think this? I then answer because St Peter told us so Act2:17. And that this is not news discovered by CT Russell but a Christian truth revealed by the Holy Spirit and first communicated to the world from the steps of the Temple in Jerusalem by St Peter almost 2000 years ago.
I also point out to them that CT Russell is not the first person to try and exploit this truth amongst the naïve for his own gain 2Thess2 : 1-3a.
I then invite them to abandon this charlatan teaching a religion of angels Col2:18, and join us in full communion with Christ in the Church he started Mat16:18, so that they may come to a true understanding of the eternal life which was with the Father and has been made manifest to us, so that our joy may be complete. 1Jon 1-4.
 
I would have thought JW members would get the hint that their cult is on the wrong track by the number of end of days predictions that they got wrong.
 
DelsonJacobs. You mentioned:
As a former Jehovah’s Witness elder and regular pioneer (as well as formerly one of their 144,000), I am happy that you reminded people to be good to any Jehovah’s Witness who may visit this and other threads or site(s).
Click to expand...
But as you might have noticed, the invitation to participate in such a discussion is not readily being accepted, at least not on this thread.
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First of all welcome home DelsonJacobs. It always absolutely amazes me when someone has a long distance journey to the Church and makes it here. What a grace from God!

I realize the “the invitation to participate in such a discussion is not readily being accepted”. Yes you are correct.

Yet the JWs internally know from reading Awake! and Watchtower periodicals, that Catholic literature is frequently being quoted by their own elders . . . . so evidently SOMEBODY at Bethel is reading Catholic Literature (no doubt they count themselves in some sense, as exceptions to reading Catholic Literature being equivalent to eating off the table of Satan).

Thanks for your (name removed by moderator)ut and please continue.

To our JW friends:

I do hope there are JWs here that are “lurking”. I invite you to continue to do so, and if you feel compelled, please offer a rebuttal from a JW perspective.

To the JWs that may be reading, here is one quick contrast:

Catholic view: Jesus is true God and True man.

JW view: Jesus is a mere man (who was really in all actuality merely St. Michael the Archangel).

Some analysis: I once asked a JW to read me Colossians 2:9 from the New World Translation.

(To readers that may not know. BEWARE! The New World Translation is loaded with translational errors and should not be considered by anyone “a Bible”. I will quote it below but ask you to keep this in mind—it is not a “Bible” translation).

**COLOSSIANS 2:9 (New World Translation of the Jehovah’s Witnesses) **9 because it is in him that all the fullness of the divine quality dwells bodily.

And I just asked him to repeat this a couple of times. I reminded him that this is talking about Jesus.

Then I asked him: "Do you affirm in Jesus ‘the fullness of the divine quality dwells bodily’”?

He quickly retorted: No!

I said: “Isn’t that interesting. I am having you quote from your own New World translation a verse and you say you deny it?”

I say this not to crow about how the JWs have no answers to Christianity or to the questions that I posed to them over the years (although they have had no answers—even when they brought out an elder with several underlings on one occasion). I could have put this up years ago if it were a bragging rights game. But this is no “game” at all. This is very serious dialogue.

Rather I feel compelled to talk about these actual discussions for the sake of learning.

The JWs and I have discussed issues such as sola Scriptura, divorce and re-marriage, the Divinity of Jesus, and many other issues. They have sent out many to our home (but as I have pointed out elsewhere, they have not came back out for about two years now).

I have also tried to be kind and tell them I affirm the commitment they make (but attenuating that praise with the challenge to commit to truth).

Many years ago, I told one JW man who I enjoyed his company at my home, to call me and I would take him out fishing (I know it must be absolutely “hades” for these people to go through the “disfellowshipping” process so I wanted him to know I would be his friend). He looked at his colleague sort of embarrassed that he and I were having an enjoyable discussion and they quickly left. Regrettably he never called nor did he come back.
 
The main problem with JWs is that they are based off of one man’s unsatisfaction with Calvin’s double predestination that he was taught as a child. This led Charles Taze to create his own religion in which he chose to believe whatever he thought sounded best in his own mind. Under the guise of Christianity, he really invented a religion that is based on self, not Christ. Christianity is not open for discussion in reality, it is merely the Logos, the Word of God. It is simply Truth.

Charles decided that he would treat the Bible that belongs to the Church of Christ as a DIY manual and felt no harm in condemning all of his ancestors as heretics and apostates. He also knew that this would make him a prophet of God, since he solely would be the means by which God would re-establish his Church. He was worshipped by his peers and created something that has hidden much of its past. The followers today that know of the very strange beginnings of the Bible Students have been brainwashed so severely that they accept the false predictions and lies because they see the so called “beauty” of the worldwide organization today.

It is depressing to even think about this evil empire that has tricked about 7 million people into believing a fairy tale. My parents and siblings are still in, so I can not forget about this religion as much as I want to. On my journey out, I had plenty of conversations with my Mom where she began to question things, but always retorted, “Maybe they will change that in the future.” Since becoming Catholic, I feel 100 times more qualified to discuss and expose JW doctrine, but she simply is afraid to. She has built a life in the Organization and does not have the humility to admit she has been wrong for 25 years. I pray everyday that she sees it, and leaves. Please pray for us.
 
pacloc said:
It is depressing to even think about this evil empire that has tricked about 7 million people into believing a fairy tale. My parents and siblings are still in, so I can not forget about this religion as much as I want to. On my journey out, I had plenty of conversations with my Mom where she began to question things, but always retorted, “Maybe they will change that in the future.” Since becoming Catholic, I feel 100 times more qualified to discuss and expose JW doctrine, but she simply is afraid to. She has built a life in the Organization and does not have the humility to admit she has been wrong for 25 years. I pray everyday that she sees it, and leaves. Please pray for us.
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My situation is similar and I do feel for you. Prayers are mounting for you and your family! :highprayer:
 
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