Article by: Kenneth J. Ester
The Jehovah's Witness and Why It is Not the One True Religion
Jehovah’s Witness (JW)
There are several problems with this religion. I will hit on the biggest ones here.
Their Bible, the New World Translation (NWT), has had changes made to it in an attempt to make God’s word fit their beliefs, rather than changing their beliefs to fit God’s word.
Now to be clear, I am not talking about different versions because they are trying to make it easier for people to read in today’s language. Changing “thou” to “you” or just wording it in a way that fits our common speech today. I am talking about literal words being translated one way for many years and suddenly the JW changes it to mean something else. For instance the Greek word “proskuneo”. In every version of the Bible out there, this word has been translated as “worship” ever since we have been translating these ancient scripts to English. Even the NWT had translated this as “Worship” since its first translation, all the way up until around 1980. Suddenly it changes every use of the Greek word “proskuneo” from “worship”, to “obeisance”. The reason for this change was because JW do not believe Jesus is God and therefore cannot have him being worshiped as God. But that brings up the real question here. Is the Watch Tower changing their religion to fit the truth of what God’s Word says, or is the Watch Tower translating the Bible to make God’s Word fit what their religion believes? Think about that. Every translation of the Word, poured over by Christians, non-Christians, and atheist scholars alike, all used the word “Worship”. Even the Watch Tower used the word "Worship". Then suddenly in just the last few decades, the JW (who doesn’t accept Jesus as God) is the only ones to change their translation to “Obeisance” rather than “Worship”. Something definitely doesn’t sit right with that. If only that was the only place they made changes to God's Word.
Genisis 1:1-2
the Spirit of God was moving over the surface of the waters,
Became
and God's active force was moving to and fro over the surface of the waters.
Zechariah 12:10
so that they will look on Me whom they have pierced
Became
and they will look to the one whom they pierced
This doesnt seem like much, but they changed it because this was God referring to himself as the one who was pierced (meaning God and Jesus were one), to Jesus being a different being. Yet again, they are the only ones to translate it this way.
Colossians 1:15-17
15 He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation; 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,
The word “other” was inserted four times to these verses, even though the word does not appear in the original text nor is it implied. Since the JW cannot accept Jesus is God, they added the words to the verses to make it sound as if Jesus was just the first thing created and not the Creator himself.
Hebrews 1:1-6
6 But when he again brings his Firstborn into the inhabited earth, he says: “And let all of God’s angels worship.”
Became
6 But when he again brings his Firstborn into the inhabited earth, he says: “And let all of God’s angels do obeisance to him.”
Again, due to their belief that Jesus and God are not One, they changed this verse, which is quite significant because throughout the Bible, angels always tell men "not" to worship them, as only God should be worshiped. So they cannot have the angels worshiping Jesus if Jesus is not God. Their only choice was to change the scripture to match their beliefs instead of believing what the scripture actually says.
Hebrews 1:8
"But about the Son he says, 'Your throne, O God, will last for ever and ever, and righteousness will be the scepter of your kingdom.'”
Became
But about the Son, he says: “God is your throne forever and ever, and the scepter of your Kingdom is the scepter of uprightness
Once again, the JW cannot have Jesus being called God, so they had to change how this was worded. The worst part of this one is that this verse happens to be a quote from Psalms in the Old Testament. Which has been around and translated for a long time. So they changed this verse in the Old Testament as well.
All of this trouble lies in the fact they had misinterpreted other verses to believe that Jesus is not God, and instead of admitting they were wrong and changing their beliefs to the truth, they would rather change Gods Word and make their beliefs correct. What they don’t understand is that no matter how much they change the text in their translation, or teach others the wrong translation, they cannot change God’s words! God knows what He said. God knows what was originally written. When we die and face God, they will be held to God's actual words and not what they want them to mean.
Instead of believing Jesus was in fact God, the JW believe Jesus was Michael the archangel. The problem with this is that this belief is not even close to being supported. Not by any Bible out there and not even by their own translation. Even using the NWT, the archangel Michael, is mentioned 5 times in the entire Bible. If you read all five of these places, you will notice one amazing thing. Not one of them ever says Jesus is Michael the archangel or even implies it. The one verse that somewhat comes near to supporting their theory the most, and is a reach even if you don’t know what you are talking about is
1 Thessalonians 4:16 NWT
because the Lord himself will descend from heaven with a commanding call, with an archangel’s voice and with God’s trumpet, and those who are dead in union with Christ will rise first.
First lets be clear here. Even if you want to interpret this as Jesus' voice being that of an archangel, 1) It does not mention Michael. 2) It doesnt say Jesus is an archangel, only that his voice is like one. Still, the truth is, this verse isnt even saying Jesus' voice is that of an arch angel. It only describes what is announcing Jesus coming. When He comes, He will be announced by an archangel and God's trumpet. Let me ask a question. If he will be blowing God’s trumpet, how will he use his voice that will sound like an archangel? He cant really do both and actually he wont be doing either. As I said, this is not saying Jesus will have the trumpet and it is not saying Jesus’ voice will be that of an archangel. It is saying God’s trumpet and the voice of an archangel will be announcing His coming.
Lets put this in a very simple way. Think of movies you have seen where a king is entering a ballroom. There is usually a servant blowing a trumpet and another servant with a loud voice announcing the entrance of the king. Try to imagine if you will, that king entering the ballroom, blowing his own trumpet and shouting out to everyone that he was coming in. That wouldn't look very Royalty like of him would it? It would make him look like a pompous spoiled brat who needs attention. When Jesus, the King of kings descends, do you think God would have him blowing his own trumpet and calling out his own arrival? Of course not. What will happen, is exactly what this verse is saying will happen. When Jesus comes back, there will be an archangel announcing his coming and another angel blowing God’s trumpet.
Now here is where it gets real fun. We have seen where they misinterpreted a verse and mistakenly believe Jesus is Michael. We have seen where the JW has actually changed God’s Word to adapt to their beliefs. Now what if I told you there is proof still in their own translation that Jesus is in fact God?
Isaiah 44:6 NWT
6 This is what Jehovah says, The King of Israel and his Repurchaser, Jehovah of armies: ‘I am the first and I am the last. There is no God but me.
Note two things here. 1) God says He is the First and the Last. 2) God says there is no God but me.
Revelations 1:8 NWT
8 “I am the Alʹpha and the O·meʹga,” says Jehovah God, “the One who is and who was and who is coming, the Almighty.”
Notice that this time God said He is the Alpha and Omega (which means the Beginning and the End).
Now look at Revelations 1:17-18 where Jesus describes himself….
Revelations 1:17-18 NWT
17 When I saw him, I fell as dead at his feet. And he laid his right hand on me and said: “Do not be afraid. I am the First and the Last, 18 and the living one, and I became dead, but look! I am living forever and ever, and I have the keys of death and of the Grave.
So in Isaiah 44:6 God says he is the First and the Last. Then in Revelations 1:17-18, it is Jesus saying he is the First and the Last. But as we saw, God says there is no God but Him! So we cannot have two Gods, but both God and Jesus say they are the First and the Last. The ONLY possible outcome for this is that Jesus is God!
If that’s not good enough, let’s look at one more real good one…
Revelations 22:12-13
12 “‘Look! I am coming quickly, and the reward I give is with me, to repay each one according to his work. 13 I am the Alʹpha and the O·meʹga, the first and the last, the beginning and the end.
So now we have Jesus stating straight out that he is the Alpha and Omega (Which God said He was in Rev 1:8) and he also says he is the First and the Last again, and this time he adds he is the Beginning and the End all in one verse.
This is no trickery with words or deception. This is using the JW's own translation of the Bible and proving that it contradicts their own beliefs. It’s one thing for the Bible to not support your beliefs if you don’t support the Bible, but to translate the Bible yourself and say this is the right translation when you are the only one who translate it that way, and then for it to still contradict your beliefs?
With your very soul on the line here, can you truly sit there and read this and say the Jehovah’s Witness have the right of it? It is a hard thing to do for one to accept he/she is wrong. It can even be harder to accept the religion they so dearly believe in is wrong. You have a serious choice to make.
One last verse to leave you with....
Revelation 22:18 NWT
18 “I am bearing witness to everyone who hears the words of the prophecy of this scroll: If anyone makes an addition to these things, God will add to him the plagues that are written in this scroll; 19 and if anyone takes anything away from the words of the scroll of this prophecy, God will take his portion away from the trees of life and out of the holy city, things that are written about in this scroll.
Return to Religions and their Fatal Flaws
Return to One God Logic Articles
There are several problems with this religion. I will hit on the biggest ones here.
Their Bible, the New World Translation (NWT), has had changes made to it in an attempt to make God’s word fit their beliefs, rather than changing their beliefs to fit God’s word.
Now to be clear, I am not talking about different versions because they are trying to make it easier for people to read in today’s language. Changing “thou” to “you” or just wording it in a way that fits our common speech today. I am talking about literal words being translated one way for many years and suddenly the JW changes it to mean something else. For instance the Greek word “proskuneo”. In every version of the Bible out there, this word has been translated as “worship” ever since we have been translating these ancient scripts to English. Even the NWT had translated this as “Worship” since its first translation, all the way up until around 1980. Suddenly it changes every use of the Greek word “proskuneo” from “worship”, to “obeisance”. The reason for this change was because JW do not believe Jesus is God and therefore cannot have him being worshiped as God. But that brings up the real question here. Is the Watch Tower changing their religion to fit the truth of what God’s Word says, or is the Watch Tower translating the Bible to make God’s Word fit what their religion believes? Think about that. Every translation of the Word, poured over by Christians, non-Christians, and atheist scholars alike, all used the word “Worship”. Even the Watch Tower used the word "Worship". Then suddenly in just the last few decades, the JW (who doesn’t accept Jesus as God) is the only ones to change their translation to “Obeisance” rather than “Worship”. Something definitely doesn’t sit right with that. If only that was the only place they made changes to God's Word.
Genisis 1:1-2
the Spirit of God was moving over the surface of the waters,
Became
and God's active force was moving to and fro over the surface of the waters.
Zechariah 12:10
so that they will look on Me whom they have pierced
Became
and they will look to the one whom they pierced
This doesnt seem like much, but they changed it because this was God referring to himself as the one who was pierced (meaning God and Jesus were one), to Jesus being a different being. Yet again, they are the only ones to translate it this way.
Colossians 1:15-17
15 He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation; 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,
The word “other” was inserted four times to these verses, even though the word does not appear in the original text nor is it implied. Since the JW cannot accept Jesus is God, they added the words to the verses to make it sound as if Jesus was just the first thing created and not the Creator himself.
Hebrews 1:1-6
6 But when he again brings his Firstborn into the inhabited earth, he says: “And let all of God’s angels worship.”
Became
6 But when he again brings his Firstborn into the inhabited earth, he says: “And let all of God’s angels do obeisance to him.”
Again, due to their belief that Jesus and God are not One, they changed this verse, which is quite significant because throughout the Bible, angels always tell men "not" to worship them, as only God should be worshiped. So they cannot have the angels worshiping Jesus if Jesus is not God. Their only choice was to change the scripture to match their beliefs instead of believing what the scripture actually says.
Hebrews 1:8
"But about the Son he says, 'Your throne, O God, will last for ever and ever, and righteousness will be the scepter of your kingdom.'”
Became
But about the Son, he says: “God is your throne forever and ever, and the scepter of your Kingdom is the scepter of uprightness
Once again, the JW cannot have Jesus being called God, so they had to change how this was worded. The worst part of this one is that this verse happens to be a quote from Psalms in the Old Testament. Which has been around and translated for a long time. So they changed this verse in the Old Testament as well.
All of this trouble lies in the fact they had misinterpreted other verses to believe that Jesus is not God, and instead of admitting they were wrong and changing their beliefs to the truth, they would rather change Gods Word and make their beliefs correct. What they don’t understand is that no matter how much they change the text in their translation, or teach others the wrong translation, they cannot change God’s words! God knows what He said. God knows what was originally written. When we die and face God, they will be held to God's actual words and not what they want them to mean.
Instead of believing Jesus was in fact God, the JW believe Jesus was Michael the archangel. The problem with this is that this belief is not even close to being supported. Not by any Bible out there and not even by their own translation. Even using the NWT, the archangel Michael, is mentioned 5 times in the entire Bible. If you read all five of these places, you will notice one amazing thing. Not one of them ever says Jesus is Michael the archangel or even implies it. The one verse that somewhat comes near to supporting their theory the most, and is a reach even if you don’t know what you are talking about is
1 Thessalonians 4:16 NWT
because the Lord himself will descend from heaven with a commanding call, with an archangel’s voice and with God’s trumpet, and those who are dead in union with Christ will rise first.
First lets be clear here. Even if you want to interpret this as Jesus' voice being that of an archangel, 1) It does not mention Michael. 2) It doesnt say Jesus is an archangel, only that his voice is like one. Still, the truth is, this verse isnt even saying Jesus' voice is that of an arch angel. It only describes what is announcing Jesus coming. When He comes, He will be announced by an archangel and God's trumpet. Let me ask a question. If he will be blowing God’s trumpet, how will he use his voice that will sound like an archangel? He cant really do both and actually he wont be doing either. As I said, this is not saying Jesus will have the trumpet and it is not saying Jesus’ voice will be that of an archangel. It is saying God’s trumpet and the voice of an archangel will be announcing His coming.
Lets put this in a very simple way. Think of movies you have seen where a king is entering a ballroom. There is usually a servant blowing a trumpet and another servant with a loud voice announcing the entrance of the king. Try to imagine if you will, that king entering the ballroom, blowing his own trumpet and shouting out to everyone that he was coming in. That wouldn't look very Royalty like of him would it? It would make him look like a pompous spoiled brat who needs attention. When Jesus, the King of kings descends, do you think God would have him blowing his own trumpet and calling out his own arrival? Of course not. What will happen, is exactly what this verse is saying will happen. When Jesus comes back, there will be an archangel announcing his coming and another angel blowing God’s trumpet.
Now here is where it gets real fun. We have seen where they misinterpreted a verse and mistakenly believe Jesus is Michael. We have seen where the JW has actually changed God’s Word to adapt to their beliefs. Now what if I told you there is proof still in their own translation that Jesus is in fact God?
Isaiah 44:6 NWT
6 This is what Jehovah says, The King of Israel and his Repurchaser, Jehovah of armies: ‘I am the first and I am the last. There is no God but me.
Note two things here. 1) God says He is the First and the Last. 2) God says there is no God but me.
Revelations 1:8 NWT
8 “I am the Alʹpha and the O·meʹga,” says Jehovah God, “the One who is and who was and who is coming, the Almighty.”
Notice that this time God said He is the Alpha and Omega (which means the Beginning and the End).
Now look at Revelations 1:17-18 where Jesus describes himself….
Revelations 1:17-18 NWT
17 When I saw him, I fell as dead at his feet. And he laid his right hand on me and said: “Do not be afraid. I am the First and the Last, 18 and the living one, and I became dead, but look! I am living forever and ever, and I have the keys of death and of the Grave.
So in Isaiah 44:6 God says he is the First and the Last. Then in Revelations 1:17-18, it is Jesus saying he is the First and the Last. But as we saw, God says there is no God but Him! So we cannot have two Gods, but both God and Jesus say they are the First and the Last. The ONLY possible outcome for this is that Jesus is God!
If that’s not good enough, let’s look at one more real good one…
Revelations 22:12-13
12 “‘Look! I am coming quickly, and the reward I give is with me, to repay each one according to his work. 13 I am the Alʹpha and the O·meʹga, the first and the last, the beginning and the end.
So now we have Jesus stating straight out that he is the Alpha and Omega (Which God said He was in Rev 1:8) and he also says he is the First and the Last again, and this time he adds he is the Beginning and the End all in one verse.
This is no trickery with words or deception. This is using the JW's own translation of the Bible and proving that it contradicts their own beliefs. It’s one thing for the Bible to not support your beliefs if you don’t support the Bible, but to translate the Bible yourself and say this is the right translation when you are the only one who translate it that way, and then for it to still contradict your beliefs?
With your very soul on the line here, can you truly sit there and read this and say the Jehovah’s Witness have the right of it? It is a hard thing to do for one to accept he/she is wrong. It can even be harder to accept the religion they so dearly believe in is wrong. You have a serious choice to make.
- Recognize Jehovah’s Witness is not the right religion and get yourself right with God and go to Heaven.
- Refuse to admit JW is wrong, keep believing they are right, and face God when you pass away and know you followed a religion that changed his Word.
One last verse to leave you with....
Revelation 22:18 NWT
18 “I am bearing witness to everyone who hears the words of the prophecy of this scroll: If anyone makes an addition to these things, God will add to him the plagues that are written in this scroll; 19 and if anyone takes anything away from the words of the scroll of this prophecy, God will take his portion away from the trees of life and out of the holy city, things that are written about in this scroll.
Return to Religions and their Fatal Flaws
Return to One God Logic Articles
