Comments and Observations on "Jehovah's Witnesses"

	Comments JW theology is a superficial concoction of Bible verses that simply cannot correlate to the entire revelation of God in the Old and New Testaments. JWs have about 5 pet doctrines that they rehearse and hammer over and over again. Adherents have little or no devotional life in terms of prayer, worship, and an internal motivation for godliness. They color all of the Bible with their joyless brand of 'survival-oriented' eschatology, whose blessed hope is the aftermath of Armageddon rather than the Return and presence of the Lord Jesus Christ. One noteworthy characteristic of their religion is the depression and often despair it causes among its followers. It not only leads to an absence of true spiritual joy, it actually robs people of joy. They pretend that theirs is the only religion that has no divisions or denominations, but in actuality there are numerous offshoots of their organization. Additionally, people who have worked at their worldwide headquarters have documented some of the infighting and dissension that has gone on there. No one who simply reads or studies the Bible with an open mind will come up with their doctrines. Their adherents are "conditioned" to read JW teachings into Bible verses. They superimpose their strata of JW doctrines onto the pages of Holy Writ so that their members can't imagine Scripture teaching anything else. Furthermore, their religion is more negative than positive. In this sense it is "reactionary." It is more "anti-Christian" (and anti-other things) than pro-God. Thus, people who turn away from their group sometimes convert to Judaism or lapse into agnosticism rather than join a Bible-believing church. Their religion produces angry, negative people who do not exhibit real devotional warmth. Their organization and adherents are characterized by hypocrisy and religious pride. One thing they take pride in is the fact that they do not celebrate birthdays or other holidays. I have known of JWs who shun holidays as being "too worldly" but then go drinking and dancing at discos on weekends. They have a great deal of religious pride in the fact that 'they alone do not do evil things like celebrate Thanksgiving or Christmas'. But they neglect the pure and proper attitudes of the heart that Christ requires of true believers. Other sources of religious pride include: their manner of door-to-door witnessing, their simple church buildings, and their general "differentness." Theirs is a tragic road to negativism, despair, and inoculation to the truths of Scripture.
					Conclusion In support of Biblical truth and in opposition to the teachings of JWs we should: (1) Rejoice in our participation in the New Covenant with all its responsibilities and privileges (JWs who don't regard themselves as part of the 144,000 assert that they are NOT in the New Covenant. But then why is the New Covenant better than the Old, since the Old included all believers? ) (2) Rejoice in our Christian liberty (3) Rejoice in our position in the family of God and in our ability to fellowship one day with the visible Lord Jesus Christ (Witnesses mistakenly believe that the unless you are in the 144,000 you will never see Christ or other New Covenant "saints"). There is "one hope of your calling" and the "heavenly hope" can in no way be construed to be a sort of 'deluxe' salvation as opposed to a 'lower-class' salvation. (4) Rejoice in the certainty of our salvation and the full assurance of faith (5) Testify to JWs of the greater hope of the true gospel, the hope that the Watchtower cheats people of and demeans (6) Rejoice because of the indwelling Spirit (Romans 8, Galatians 5)
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