I have about 2 and a half weeks left until school resumes. I can thankfully say I've finished reading the Old Testament over the summer!!! It's been a busy summer. I get to teach the youth this Sunday about Jehovah's Witnesses. Here are my notes...
Jehovah’s Witnesses Week 1
Using Kingdom of the Cults by Walter Martin
-What do you remember from last time? What is the crowning heresy of the JW’s?
-Pg.48 summary points and…
-They will never salute the flag, will never recite the Pledge of Allegiance, and will never serve in the army. They don’t celebrate Christmas because they deny the incarnation of Jesus Christ. They don’t celebrate Easter because they deny the bodily resurrection of Jesus Christ. They believe Jesus died on a stake… not a cross.
-pg.49-59 (C.T. Russell and Judge Rutherford)
-pg.50-51: the Finished Mystery and Russell’s divorce
-pg.54-55: Russell doesn’t know Greek
-pg.57: The Bible is not enough
-Excerpt from pg.68-69
-Discuss how they “study” the Bible vs an exegetical commentary
-No Bibles at Jonestown and Catholics murdering early translators
-Early in ministry, Russell said Christ would return in the flesh in the year 1874.
-(False prophecy) He changed his calculations to the year 1914.
-(False Prophecy) Russell then redefined the 2nd Coming to mean that Jesus returned in 1914 as an invisible spirit to help set up the organization.
-pg.104: Awake magazine mission statement changed?
-Russell died on Oct. 31st, 1916 (Halloween night)
-In 1917, Joseph Franklin Rutherford took over the organization.
-To increase membership, he said that only 144,000 people would be able to enter heaven.
-In 1935 it went over 144,000.
-Rutherford saved the day with a new revelation that said all the people who joined before 1935 would go to heaven and everyone who joined after 1935, would stay on earth to live in a “new paradise.”
-He said Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob would return in the flesh between 1925 and 1929.
-He built a large mansion in San Deigo, California for them to live when they returned.
- (False prophecy) Rutherford lived in the mansion himself until he died in 1942.
-In 1942, Nathan H. Knorr
-In 1966, he said Armageddon and the end of the age would occur in 1975.
-(False prophecy) Fast Facts on False Teachings: “In 1976 and 77 over a million JW left the Watchtower deeply disillusioned with the organization that claimed to be the voice of God on earth, but had proven again and again to be a false prophet.”
-Knorr died in 1977.
-Biblical test for foretelling prophets? Deut. 18:20-22
-Now the leadership is a group called the “Governing Body” presided over by the president
-Read pg. 67 *highlighted*
-In 2001, only one-sixth of total membership was in the U.S.
-Titles:
-Heavenly/Spiritual/Anointed class (only ones who can partake of annual communion and includes those born in 1914)
-Publishers (1200 yearly hours in “studying” or witnessing with others)
-Pioneers (next step up)
-Congregation (a group of witnesses meeting)
-Kingdom hall (not a church – they will correct you)
-Weekly meetings (5 expected of them):
-Public Talk (Sunday service-singing, discussion of watchtower material)
-Watchtower study (immediate follow-up Q&A)
-Theocratic Ministry School (evangelism training – Thursday nights)
-Service meeting (follows ministry training)
-Book Study (not sure what “book” means)
-New World Translation
-It was completed in 1961. There have been 4 revisions… last in 1984.
-Describe… purple cover one is better (“God is giving us new revelation all the time”)
-Disfellowshipping/Excommunication
-Read pg.67 (bottom)-68
-story of the guy on sixscreensofthewatchtower.com
-his daughter refused to see him
-In Christianity the goal is what? Restoration, not guilt
-Scripture Distortions
-Col. 1:15? (“firstborn of all creation”)
-Preeminence… Christ is superior to all of creation (compare Jeremiah 31:9)
-v.16 = He is Creator (also John 1:3), v.17 = He is Sustainer (Hebrews 1:3)
-1 Cor. 11:3?, prayer of John 17? John 5:19? (see… Jesus and God are not the same)
-John 5:23 = They’re worthy of the same honor
-What is the doctrine of the Trinity? 3 distinct persons, one SUBSTANCE
-Father wills, Son carries out, Spirit provides the power
-Heb. 1:5-6? (they translate it “obeisance” respect?)
-Heb. 1:8 = The Father calls Christ God
-Hebrews 1 teaches the supremecy and sufficiency of Christ
-Rev. 7:4? (The 144,000) -duh
-Lev. 17:10? (No blood transfusions?)
-John 1:1 (the infamous “a god” translation)
-Word order is different in Greek: “and God was the Word (the subject).” We know that "the Word" is the subject because it has the definite article, and we translate it accordingly: "and the Word was God." The word order tells us that Jesus Christ has all the divine attributes that the Father has; lack of the article tells us that Jesus Christ is not the Father. As Martin Luther said, the lack of the article is against Sabellianism; the word order is against Arianism.
-To state this another way, look at how the different Greek constructions would be rendered:
"and the Word was the God" (i.e., the Father; Sabellianism).
"and the Word was a god"
(Arianism), "and the Word was God" (Orthodoxy). (Bill Mounce, teknia.com)
-Any comments from Matthew on this verse?
8 comments:
-Publishers (1200 yearly hours in “studying” or witnessing with others)
This statement is not correct. Publishers do not have a required quota. However, they are encouraged to monthly report their activities.
The minimum time spent is 15 minutes (esp for disabled/old publishers), normally 1 h is minimum.
Most countries report a monthlt average of 7,5-12 hours per publishers.
Publishers who skip a month are called irregular publishers. If you do not report for six months, you are no longer counted as a publisher.
meant monthly ;-) (have been a witness)....
Are you teaching "ABOUT JW "or"AGAINST JW"?
Please do not forget to mention the "good things" about Jehovah's Witnesses.
There has to be some reasons why it is the fastest growing religion in the U.S.
Jehovah's Witnesses imitate the "faithful and true witness" Jesus Christ (Rev 1:5; 19:11) by following his command at Matthew 28:19,20 to make disciples by preaching the good news to all peoples of the earth, and then teaching them to obey both Jesus Christ and his father, Jehovah.
The reasons you state for Witnesses not celebrating certain religious holidays are not true. Without going into elaborate detail here, I will just point out that the 2 days you mention are derived from pagan customs and were not celebrated by the apostles and early Christians. (Almost any encyclopedia will acknowledge this fact.) And think about this - what do Santa Claus, the Easter bunny, and mandatory gift giving have to do with respect for our Lord and Savior anyway?
However, Jehovah's Witnesses do celebrate (and hold as very holy) the one & only holiday that is commanded for all true Christians to keep, the memorial commemoration of the death of Jesus Christ, held annually on the date corresponding to Nisan 14 (on the Jewish calendar). See: Luke 22:19 and 1 Cor 11:24 Indeed, it is Jesus' DEATH which saves us.
If you really want to know what Jehovah's Witnesses teach isn't it best to go to the source? Speak to us next time we visit, ask questions, call your local Kingdom Hall, or go to www.watchtower.org. The internet abounds with numerous misconceptions about us, as do people in general.
[[Early in ministry, Russell said Christ would return in the flesh in the year 1874.]]
Russell never said such as this. Before 1874, Russell said nothing about Christ returning in 1874 in the flesh or otherwise.
[[(False prophecy) He changed his calculations to the year 1914.]]
Russell never changed his calculations to the year 1914. Russell never made any prophecies.
[[-(False Prophecy) Russell then redefined the 2nd Coming to mean that Jesus returned in 1914 as an invisible spirit to help set up the organization.]]
Until 1876, Russell had no interest in prophetic dates. In 1876, two years after 1874, Russell came to accept Barbour's teaching that Christ had returned in 1874. He never changed that. He held to the belief that Jesus had returned invisibly in 1874 until the day he died. He never changed it to 1914.
Russell never taught that Jesus returned in 1914 at all, much less to that Jesus returned in 1914 to help set up an organization that Russell did not believe in.
For more information about Charles Taze Russell, see:
http://ctr.reslight.net
wow, what a response... thanks for the publisher information.
Yes I am teaching about JWs, however the information lends itself to it being "against" JWs. I'm informing young people about the facts and dangers of a cult. Cults have skeletons in their closets. It's important to open the doors of those closets whenever possible.
Holidays: Yes I realize those reasons for not celebrating holidays aren't the correct position taken by the Watchtower. I corrected that before I presented the lesson. I was reading through a Watchtower publication and found that out in time to make the correction. thanks though. I had copied and pasted that line from another source.
I won't make a case for why I celebrate certain holidays, because that discussion pales in comparison to your thoguhts on the Scripture passage I mentioned and how you work Ephesians 2:8-10 into your method of salvation. Please share that if you would. I'm interested.
"They don’t celebrate Christmas because they deny the incarnation of Jesus Christ."
Not true.
The not celebrating of Christmas is because Christmas is not a Christian celebration.
"They don’t celebrate Easter because they deny the bodily resurrection of Jesus Christ."
Not true.
The not celebrating of Easter is because the resurrection is nothing to be celebrated.
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