WATCH TOWER
WITNESSES
(Falsely called "Jehovah's Witnesses")
BELITTLE CHRIST
AND
DENY THE GOSPEL!

By Berl Chism

"

YE COMPASS SEA AND LAND TO MAKE ONE PROSELYTE, AND WHEN HE IS MADE, YE MAKE HIM TWOFOLD MORE THE CHILD OF HELL THAN YOURSELVES." MATT. 23:15.

These words were spoken by the Lord Jesus Christ as He pronounced woes upon the proud, self-righteous scribes and Pharisees. We are re­minded of them when we consider the zealous cult of Watch Tower Society representatives who falsely claim to be "Jehovah's Witnesses." "Jehovah" is one of the names of Almighty God the Creator. Exodus 6:3. We are sure that these Watch Tower propagandists are false witnesses who take His name in vain.

"Qualified To Be Ministers" is the title of one of their books. It is an instructional and organiza­tional manual containing a section entitled "Modern History of Jehovah's Witnesses." In it they un­blushingly set forth that their visible governing body is under the direct supervision of Christ Jesus, and that Christ "flashes" spiritual food through the Watch Tower Society publications: their books, their Watchtower, Awake and Informant maga­zines, and their letters. According to this book, total submission to and absolute dependence upon their officials for teaching and direction is required of every "witness." TALK ABOUT POPERY AND PRIESTCRAFT!

They have enslaved hundreds of thousands who spend millions of hours on the streets and going door-to-door "placing" their books and magazines and teaching people out of them.

What "explains their "success"? Is it that they possess and hold forth wonderful spiritual riches and blessings? Is it that they have indisputable truth to offer? No! They do not claim to possess eternal life and salvation from sin. They THINK they are on the road to eternal life, but they have no assurance that they will ever reach their desti­nation.

As to what they put forth as truth: they catch unwary souls by pointing to the confusion in re­ligion, corruption in churchanity, and the clearly pagan character of Christmas, Easter, and other religious observances and beliefs. But as to posi­tive truth, they are utterly unscriptural and anti­christ.

  The Watch Tower Society's Antichrist Doctrine

They have an inverted pyramid of false doctrine which cannot stand as truth in the minds of unprejudiced, God-fearing Bible students. THEY BEGIN WITH THE DETERMINATION TO BELIEVE THAT THERE IS NO CONSCIOUS, EVERLASTING PUNISHMENT FOR WILLFUL CHRIST-REJECTORS. Then in order to hold to this preconceived and prejudicial assumption, they contend for the following misconceptions:

1. That death is annihilation, or cessation of being;

2. That man is only physical;

3. That man's death is therefore only physical, like an animal's;
 
4. That Christ died; therefore He was only human, for God could not cease to be;

5. That Christ was not bodily raised. They say He laid down a human life ONLY and that to take back the life He laid down would be to take back the ransom price for sin.

6. They conclude that prophecies of Christ's coming are not therefore of a physical appearing, but of an invisible "presence";

7. That Christ is already INVISIBLY present, according to world conditions similar to those described in Matt. 24 and to calculations based on Watch Tower interpretations of Biblical time-prophecies.

8. Their ultimate conclusion is that the invisibly present Christ has a servant on earth which rules over all God's household and goods. Matt. 24:45-47. They say that this "faithful and discreet slave" is a "visible governing body .. . closely identified with the Board of Directors of the Watch Tower Bible and Tract Society." ("Qualified To Be Ministers," page 354). They say that "All are subject to the visible governing body." Thus the Watch Tower leaders, by their satanically subtle method of indoctrination, use these Christ-belittling teachings to make multitudes of slaves who in turn zealously "witness" to others to bring them into the same bondage.

The Ultimate Test For Doctrinal Beliefs

Bible-taught truth about the person of Christ and the gospel of our salvation is the ultimate test for doctrinal beliefs. A Christ who cannot make it possible for sinful men to be at one with God comes short of being the Savior we need. A Christ whose work for sinful men provides less than full salvation from sin and its penalty is clearly inadequate.

The Lord Jesus Christ came to earth as the second man. He lived a sinless life for us, then died for our sins according to the scriptures, was buried and rose again the third day according to scriptures. His life FOR US, His sufferings FOR us and resurrection have opened wide the way for us to come boldly to God. ALL ATTACKS UPON CHRIST'S PERSON AND WORK, THEREFORE, ARE SATANICALLY CALCULATED TO ROB US OF ANY BASIS FOR SALVATION AND ETERNAL LIFE.

Watch Tower Witnesses Attack Jesus Christ

THE CHRIST OF THE WATCH TOWER SOCIETY IS NOT THE CHRIST OF THE BIBLE. Their christ is an invisible spirit creature who never died for sinners; he was never buried, and he was never raised from the dead. They teach that God originally created a powerful, invisible spirit person by whom He afterward made the heavens and earth. They hold that this spirit person CEASED TO BE when Jesus was conceived in the womb of Mary. They say that Jesus was merely a man, the equivalent of the first man, Adam, and he was in no sense a spirit creature. To quote them: "He was not a spirit-human hybrid, a man and at the same time… a spirit person. He was not clothed upon with flesh over an invisible spirit person, but he WAS flesh." ("What Has Religion Done For Mankind?" — page 231).

They teach that at Golgotha Jesus' human life was laid down in death, NEVER TO BE TAKEN UP AGAIN. Their human Jesus, according to their teaching, died like a bullock, or goat, or poisoned rat, AND PASSED OUT OF EXISTENCE. But three days after his annihilation, a spirit creature appeared on the scene who was Christ. This spirit creature, say they, materialized at different times in a body with nail prints, spear wound and thorn imprinted brow.

Though they try to deny it, we must conclude that they believe that Christ thus appeared to DECEIVE the disciples of Jesus into thinking that He had actually told the truth when He said He would be killed AND BE RAISED from the dead the third day. Matt. 16:21. ACCORDING TO THEM JESUS WAS NOT ACTUALLY RAISED AT ALL.

These "witnesses" further hold that this spirit Christ ascended to heaven where he remained until he invisibly returned in 1914 or 1918 to appoint Watch Tower leaders rulers over his household and goods.

It amazes some of us that they have been able with such devilish drivel to make submissive slaves out of hundreds of thousands of people who in turn are ensnaring thousands more into zealous servitude. We are sure that 2 Cor. 4:4 explains it: "In whom the god of this world (Satan) hath blinded the minds Of THEM WHICH BELIEVE NOT, lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine unto them."

Bible Truth Exalts Christ

The Bible teaches that Jesus Christ is God —eternal and untreated. He is the Word who was in the beginning with God and was Himself God (not "a god" as Watch Tower Witnesses falsely claim. The indefinite article "a" does not appear in the original Greek scriptures ). He made all things. John 1:1-3. Christ was "Immanuel . . . God with us" when on earth. Matt. 1:23. He is the One "whose goings forth have been from old, FROM EVERLASTING." Micah 5:2. Many are the scriptural proofs of His deity. See Exodus 3:14 with John 8:56-58; Isaiah 6:1-10 with John 12:37-41; Isaiah 8:13-15 with 1 Peter 2:3-8; Isaiah 9:6,7; Hebrews 1:6-13; Isaiah 44:6 with Rev. 1:8,18; 21:6; 22:12,13,16.
It is true that Christ said while He was on earth, "for my Father is greater than I" ( John 14:28). But this was because He had voluntarily "humbled himself." He was "MADE a little lower than the angels for the suffering of death," but before He came to earth He "thought it not robbery (a thing to be grasped after) to be equal with God," because HE WAS IN THE FORM OF GOD AND WAS EQUAL WITH GOD. Heb. 2:9 with Philippians 2:6-8.

Consciousness After Death

In order to get away from the Bible teaching of conscious punishment for willful Christ rejecters after physical death, Watch Tower witnesses teach that death is annihilation, cessation of being. (In contrast see Hebrews 10:26-31; Revelation 14:9-11; and Revelation 20:10-15 ). They deny that man has a soul and spirit which leave the body at death and are conscious. The Bible teaches otherwise, as can be seen from Genesis 35:18; 1 Kings 17:1724; Matt. 10:28; Luke 8:52-56; 23:46; Acts 5:5,10; 12:23 ("ghost" means "spirit"). For proof of consciousness after death, see Luke 16:19-31; Philippians 1:21-24; 2 Corinthians 4:16-5:9.

Ecclesiastes

Watch Tower witnesses misuse Solomon's words found in Ecclesiastes 3:18-21: "I SAID IN MINE HEART concerning the estate of the sons of men, that God might manifest them, and that they might see that they themselves are beasts. For that which befalleth the sons of men befalleth beasts; even one thing befalleth them: as one dieth, so dieth the other; yea, they have all one breath; so that a man hath no preeminence above a beast: for all is vanity. All go unto one place; all are of dust, and all turn to dust again. Who knoweth the spirit of man that goeth upward, and the spirit of the beast that goeth downward to the earth?" They fail to note that THESE WORDS ARE WHAT SOLOMON SPOKE IN HIS HEART. THEY ARE NOT GOD'S WORDS ABOUT THE DEATH OF MEN. They are Solomon's OBSERVATIONS about the death of men and beasts rather than God's REVELATION on the subject, though God's Spirit moved Solomon to write.

Men Have Preeminence Above Beasts In Death

IF, as these "witnesses" teach, death is cessation of being and the same for men and beasts:

1. The Lord Jesus Christ had no preeminence above a beast in His death;

2. Christ became non-existent at His death;


3. He could not have been God, for God could not cease to be;


4. His blood could not take away our sins, for "it is not possible that the blood of bulls and of goats ( beasts ) should take away sins" (Heb. 10:4).


WATCH TOWERITES, let US plead with you to squarely face these conclusions and see where you are led by belittling the Christ of the Bible and God's just wrath against sin. Repent while there is grace for you rather than judgment ( Rom. 5:21).

Further Proof of Christ's Deity

How could their human Jesus "taste death for every man" (Heb. 2:9 )? If Christ were only a finite man, the equivalent of ONLY one other man, how could he suffer the punishment for sin as the equivalent substitute for the multiplied BILLIONS of mankind? ANSWER THAT PLEASE!

We who accept that the Lord Jesus is the INFINITE God have no difficulty here, for we know that Christ was more than the equivalent of any number of us FINITE men.

We have no intellectual difficulty with God's revelation that Con THE SON died on the tree and was dead for three days and nights, for we know that DEATH IS NOT CESSATION OF BEING - CHRIST DID NOT CEASE TO BE IN HIS DEATH. (Try to substitute "annihilated," "ceased to be," or "became non­existent" for "dead" or "death" in these verses —Rev. 14:13; Psa. 116:15; 1 Tim. 5:6; Rom. 14:9; Phil. 1:21; Luke 9:60; Rom. 6:8.) The Lord Jesus "gave up the ghost (spirit)," and His body was placed in Joseph's sepulchre. Luke 23:46,53. Peter preached after His resurrection that "his soul was not left in hell." Acts 2:31. In other words, Christ's death was SEPARATION: separation from God the Father as He bore our sins in His own body on the tree, and separation of His soul and spirit from His body. During those three days and nights, He was held by the pains of death; the sorrows of hell gat hold of Him; He was in hell, in the heart of the earth. Acts 2:24; Psa.. 18:5; 86:13; 116:3; Matt. 12:40; Eph. 4:9,10. Do non-existent persons have pains and sorrows? And was Joseph of Arimathea's tomb in the HEART of the earth?

 Christ Was Bodily Raised

 The Lord Jesus Christ suffered death in the place of us sinners, though He was Himself inno­cent. Isaiah had prophesied that "He (God the Father) shall see the travail of his soul and be satisfied." Isa. 53:11. Christ's sufferings on the cross and in hell for three days and nights satisfied the justice of God which required our death. Once this was accomplished, God raised Christ up, "hav­ing loosed the pains of death: because it was not possible that he should be holden of it." Acts 2:24.

Watch Tower witnesses deny Christ's bodily resurrection. They say that to take back the life he laid down would be to take back his ransom sacrifice. They are forced into this position by their teaching about death and by their denials of Christ's deity.

The truth is that CHRIST NEVER HAS NOR EVER WILL TAKE BACK THE SUFFERINGS WHICH HE ENDURED FOR US. His death and suffering for those three days and nights have satisfied Divine justice. May it satisfy us and fill our hearts with gratitude to God for His great love to us!

The Lord Jesus was BODILY raised from the dead. "The SAME Jesus" that walked on earth came forth from the grave with the keys of hell and death. The One who died is the One who now lives. SEE LUKE 24:36-40; JOHN 2:19-22; 20:19-28; ACTS 2:22­32; EPH. 4:9,10; REV. 1:18.

His Visible Return


Christ will also return to earth one day IN THE SAME BODY, NOT INVISIBLE, BUT SEEN BY
EVERY EYE.

Christ warned, as recorded in Matt. 24:26, "Wherefore, if they shall say unto you, Behold, he is in the desert; go not forth: behold, he is in the secret chambers; BELIEVE IT NOT." (The Watch Tower witnesses say He is in the secret chambers ). The reason we are not to believe it, as the Lord Jesus went on to explain, is that, " . . . as the lightning cometh out of the east, and shineth even unto the west, so shall also the coming of the Son of man be. . . . Immediately after the tribu­lation of those days shall the sun be darkened, and the moon shall not give its light, and the stars shall fall from heaven, and the powers of heaven shall be shaken. And then shall appear the sign of the Son of man in heaven; and then shall all the tribes of the earth mourn, and THEY SHALL SEE THE SON OF MAN COMING IN THE CLOUDS OF HEAVEN WITH POWER AND GREAT GLORY." Matt. 24:27-30. See also Rev. 1:7; Zech. 12:10; 14:3,4; Acts 1:9-11.

Watch Towerites Deny The Gospel

THE GOSPEL BY WHICH WE ARE SAVED is that "CHRIST died for our sins according to the scrip­tures; and that HE was buried, and that HE rose again the third day according to the scriptures." 1 Cor. 15:1-5. WATCH TOWER WITNESSES DENY THAT JESUS WHO DIED AND WAS BURIED IS THE SAME AS CHRIST WHO WAS RAISED. Theirs is "another gospel" which brings God's curse upon them and those who receive it. By inspiration Paul the apostle wrote, "But though we, or an angel from, preach any other gospel unto you than that which we have preached unto you, let him be accursed." Gal. 1:8.

They also come under the indictment of 1 John 4:3: "Every spirit that confesseth not that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is not of God: and this is that ANTICHRIST, whereof ye have heard that it should come; and even now already is in the world." THEIR FLESH-MAN JESUS WAS NOT CHRIST COME IN THE FLESH. THEIR CHRIST IS A SPIRIT PER­SON WHO CAME INTO BEING AFTER THEIR JESUS HAD CEASED TO BE.

"WHOSOEVER TRANSGRESSETH, AND ABIDETH NOT IN THE DOCTRINE OF CHRIST, HATH NOT GOD. HE THAT ABIDETH IN THE DOCTRINE OF CHRIST, HE HATH BOTH THE FATHER AND THE SON. IF THERE COME ANY UNTO YOU, AND BRING NOT THIS DOCTRINE, RECEIVE HIM NOT INTO YOUR HOUSE, NEITHER BID HIM GOD SPEED; FOR HE THAT BIDDETH HIM GOD SPEED IS PARTAKER OF HIS EVIL DEEDS." 2 JOHN 9-11.

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