Topic
Jehovah's Witness Teaching
Close readings of the Bible you already trust, including the New World Translation, for anyone who studies with Jehovah's Witnesses.
Claims
- “Blood transfusions are forbidden”The Bible's blood commands forbid eating blood out of reverence for life; a transfusion given to save a life is a different act with the opposite purpose.Read the answer
- “God's Kingdom began ruling in 1914”The 1914 date needs links the Bible does not supply, and Jesus warned against hidden comings and against fixing times the Father keeps to himself.Read the answer
- “Jesus did not know the day or hour”Mark 13:32 is real and hard, but it targets a belief Christians reject. They teach Jesus was fully human too, and the same passage ranks the Son above the angels.Read the answer
- “Jesus died on a stake, not a cross”The New Testament never settles the shape of the stauros, hints at a crossbeam, and puts all its weight on Jesus' death rather than on the wood.Read the answer
- “Jesus is Michael the archangel”The verses used to link Jesus and Michael never identify them, and Hebrews 1 sets the Son apart from every angel, including the archangel.Read the answer
- “Jesus rose as a spirit creature”Jesus showed his crucifixion wounds, ate, and said a spirit has no flesh and bones; Scripture describes his risen body as changed, not as left behind.Read the answer
- “John 1:1 says "a god"”The missing article in John 1:1 marks what the Word is, not a lesser god; John separates the Word from all created things and ends with Thomas calling Jesus 'my God.'Read the answer
- “Only the 144,000 are born again”Jesus makes being born again the way into God's Kingdom for anyone, and the New Testament describes one body with one hope, not two classes of Christians.Read the answer
- “The Holy Spirit is not a person”The Bible's spirit teaches, speaks for itself, chooses, forbids, and can be lied to and grieved, and it is named with the Father and the Son. A force does not do those things.Read the answer
- “The New World Translation restores the truth”Judged by its own standard of following the text, the New World Translation bends the verses about Jesus' identity in one direction, while much of it reads fairly.Read the answer
- “The Trinity is pagan”The word and formula are later, but pagan triads were three gods, and Christians worshiped Jesus two centuries before the councils that defined the Trinity.Read the answer
- “The Trinity was invented at Nicaea”Nicaea met to answer Arius about the Son. The threefold name, the worship of Jesus, and the word Trinity were all in Christian use long before 325.Read the answer
- “The Watch Tower organization must be trusted”Scripture commends testing every teacher by God's word, and an organization that calls itself fallible cannot make questioning its teaching a test of loyalty.Read the answer
Reasons
- Jesus is GodThe New Testament places Jesus inside the identity of Israel's one God, the Creator, while still distinguishing him from the Father.
- Public revelation and prophetic testsThe Torah and the apostles give public tests for anyone who claims to speak for God: agreement with earlier revelation, loyalty to the one God, and predictions that come true.
- The bodily resurrection of JesusLuke, John, Paul, and Acts all tie the risen Jesus to the body that died. Paul's "spiritual body" describes a body made new, not a body left behind.
- The Holy Spirit is a personWhat the Spirit does, and how he can be treated, are things only a person does or suffers. A single pronoun carries little of the weight.
- The Trinity is monotheismThe Bible says there is one God, distinguishes the Father, Son, and Spirit from one another, and treats each as that one God. The Trinity is the summary that keeps all three.