“The JWs deny the doctrine of the Trinity. They insist it is an invention of Satan that originated in ancient Babylon, sometime around 2200 b.c. JWs are, strictly speaking, unitarian in their view of the Godhead. They also believe that the Holy Spirit is not a person but a force of God.”

I read in the local newspaper today (5-18-18) that an annual Jehovah’s Witnesses convention is scheduled to convene here in OKC this weekend. It got me thinking once again about this unusual religious organization. Some demographic details are enlightening. In his article at the website of the Gospel Coalition, Joe Carter cites the Pew Research indicating that “no more than 4 in 10 members of the group belong to any one racial and ethnic background: 36 percent are white, 32 percent are Hispanic, 27 percent are black, and 6 percent are another race or mixed race. Roughly two-thirds (65 percent) are women, while only 35 percent are men. They also tend to be less educated, with a solid majority of adult Jehovah’s Witnesses (63 percent) having no more than a high school diploma (compared with, for example, 43 percent of evangelical Protestants).”

Here are some ten things that may prove helpful for you to know, especially as they likely will come knocking at your door sometime soon.

(1) Two men in particular are generally recognized as giving theological shape to the Jehovah’s Witnesses. The first, Charles Taze Russell (1852-1916), was raised in Scotch-Irish Presbyterianism but soon abandoned his heritage due to his objections to the doctrines of predestination, eternal punishment, and the physical/visible return of Christ. Russell secured a legal charter in 1884, the year generally recognized as the official launch of the Jehovah’s Witnesses (hereafter JWs). His wife divorced him in 1913 on grounds of adultery.

Joseph Franklin “Judge” Rutherford (1869-1942) succeeded Russell in 1917. He wrote a book insisting that both the Roman Catholic Church and all Protestant denominations constitute present day Babylon. He was arrested in 1918, together with seven others, on charges of sedition for refusing induction into the U.S. military. It was during Rutherford’s presidency in 1931 that the name of the movement was changed to “Jehovah’s Witnesses,” largely based on Isaiah 43:10 – “You are my witnesses,’ declares the Lord [i.e., Jehovah], “and my servant whom I have chosen.” The name change was largely chosen to distance the movement from the reputation of Russell.

(2) The JWs claim the Bible as their final authority in all matters of faith and practice. However, this is misleading insofar as the group has produced its own translation into which they have subtly smuggled their own unique heretical innovations. Joe Carter notes that “In 1961 a JW corporation, The Watch Tower Bible and Tract Society, published its own formal equivalence translation of the Bible: the New World Translation of the Holy Scriptures (NWT).”

(3) The JWs deny the doctrine of the Trinity. They insist it is an invention of Satan that originated in ancient Babylon, sometime around 2200 b.c. JWs are, strictly speaking, unitarian in their view of the Godhead. They also believe that the Holy Spirit is not a person but a force of God.

(4) In his pre-human state Jesus was known as Michael, the archangel. He is a creature, the first product of Jehovah God’s creative work. He never has been and never will be equal with Jehovah. Thus, in the Watchtower translation of John 1:1, Jesus is “a” god but not the God. Technically speaking, JWs are therefore polytheists.

(5) JWs affirm the doctrine of the virgin birth but deny the Incarnation. When he became human flesh, Jesus was wholly divested of his spirit existence. In other words, at the point of conception in Mary’s womb he ceased to exist as a spirit and became a man, to the exclusion of any other mode of being. He became “a human Son of God, a perfect man, no longer a spirit.” Thus, Jesus did not have two natures (one divine and one human) but only one: the nature of man.

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