HERESIES OF THE RUSSELITES
WHO CALL THEMSELVES "JEHOVAH’S WITNESSES"
A SHORT HISTORY
Those who call themselves “Jehovah´s Witnesses” are based on human theories started by their founder, an American called Charles Taze Russell, who published seven books before his death in 1916. Soon after, there was a division and the larger group followed the leadership of J.F. Rutherford.
The current name of this sect was first assumed by it in Columbus, Ohio, in 1931. In 1981 the Watch Tower Society, established in 1896 and which is the focus of the organization, had branch offices in more than 100 countries, and developed its propaganda in 250 more. Its literature was distributed in 110 languages and it became a great disseminator of propaganda and a challenge to the zeal of all Christians.
Using a distorted interpretation of certain Biblical texts to accommodate their theories, they proselytised by means of door to door visits, using to advantage the confusion that they cause to those who are less firm in their faith. They avoid identifying themselves as promoters of the sect until they have their victim “secure”.
An important member of the sect who left after perceiving its falseness (W.J.Schnell - Thirty Years a Watchtower Slave) declares: the leadership of the Watch Tower perceived that within Christianity there were millions of professing Christians who were not firmly founded on the truths delivered to the saints and that they could easily be extracted from the churches and led to an organization of the new and revitalized Watch Tower. The Society calculated, correctly, that this lack of adequate knowledge of God and the ample acceptance of half-truths in Christianity would yield great masses of men and women, if the subject were presented in a clever way, the attack maintained, the results contained, then later used again in an always increasing circle.
To fight these enemies of the truth, we must be firm in defence of the faith that once was given to the saints (Jude 3), and take the sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God (Ephesians 6:17).
We now give a list of the main deceits taught by this sect:
DISTORTION OF THE BIBLICAL TEXT
Although they have not gone as far as introducing additions to the Bible, their doctrine demands that they make more or less subtle distortions of the meaning of the Biblical text. To accommodate their theories, they produced their own translation of the Bible (2 Corinthians 4:2, 2 Peter 3:16). The authenticity of this translation of the original texts in Hebrew and Greek is vehemently denied by expert philologists.
DENIAL OF THE DEITY DE CHRIST
The founder of this sect, Russell, argued that the Lord Jesus was originally a heavenly creature, the first one to be created by God Jehovah, and was His agent in the creation of all things (Isaiah 7:14; 9:6; Micah 5:2; Mark 1:24, John 10:30, 38, 14:9, Hebrews 1:3).
They teach that before coming to the world He was a perfect spiritual being; here He became a perfect human being (but see Luke 1:43, John 10:38, 14:10, Colossians 2:9); on the occasion of His consecration, when he was baptized by John the Baptist, He received the guarantee of inheritance of a divine nature, when the Holy Spirit came over Him; when He died, He abandoned His humanity - in a supernatural way, His body was removed from the tomb and nobody knows what happened to it, and Christ is again exclusively a spiritual being (but see Luke 24:39, John 2:19 - 22, Acts 2:31,32, l Corinthians 15:17, 1 Timothy 2:5); therefore He is not going to return with a human body (but see Acts 1:11).
DENIAL OF THE PERSON OF THE HOLY SPIRIT
According to them, the Holy Spirit is not a person, but only the power of God (but see John 16:7 to 14; Acts 5:3,4; 13:2 and 4). This denial, and that of the Lord Jesus, results in the denial of the Holy Trinity, whose reality appears abundantly in the Bible (see Genesis 1:26; 11:7; Isaiah 6:8; Matthew 28:19; Luke 1:35).
INEXISTENCE OF HELL
They declare that hell, as a place of fiery torment where sinners remain after death, does not exist; it is only the tomb where the deceased ones sleep until the resurrection by God Jehovah (but see Matthew 5:22,29; 10:28; 18:9; 23:15,33; Mark 9:43; Luke 12:5; James 3:6).
EXTINCTION OF THE HUMAN BEING
According to them, the human being, like animals and plants, disappears when dying: although created in the likeness of God, all humanity is born as sinners and is of the earth (but see Genesis 35:8; Ecclesiastes 12:7; Matthew 10:28, 26:24, Luke 9:60, 16:23, Ephesians 2:1). Those who faithfully follow Christ unto death will inherit a heavenly kingdom with Him, and the people of goodwill who accept Jehovah and submit to His autocratic authority will enjoy a new earth: these two categories will return to conscience in the final resurrection, and they call the interval between death and resurrection “sleep of the soul”.
DENIAL OF ETERNAL PUNISHMENT
This theory was created by them, again distorting the Biblical text.
But death in the Bible, as much in the Greek as in the Hebrew, always means separation, never extinction or destruction, as they want. For example, when Adam sinned, he immediately died, as God had warned, therefore his soul was separated from communion with God. Thus humanity is dead (separate from God), and anyone can become alive (reconciled to God) by means of repentance and faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. When the Bible speaks about eternal death this means perpetual separation from God, just as eternal life means perpetual communion with God (Isaiah 33:14, 66:24; Matthew 3:12; 13:42; 18:8; 25:41; Revelation 14:10; 20:10,15; 21:8).
EXTINCTION OF SATAN
They understand that the destiny of Satan is destruction, with all his followers (Revelation 20:10).
DISTORTION OF THE PROPHECIES
They say that Jesus Christ has already returned to the world in spirit, invisible and unknown to all except for the faithful in the year 1914, that He expelled Satan from heaven, and He is now dismantling the organization of Satan and establishing His theocratic millenarian kingdom with headquarters in Brooklyn, New York. (Matthew 24:30; 26:64; Luke 21:27; Acts 1:11; Jude 14,15; Revelation 1:7)
INFIDELITY TO SECULAR GOVERNMENT
They assume that, as the kingdom of Jehovah is supreme, it is not compatible with any current human government, which, according to them, is the visible organization of the devil, and any allegiance to this violates the allegiance due to Jehovah, disobeying to the Holy Scriptures (Ezra 7:26; Matthew 22:21; Romans 13:1; Titus 3:1; I Peter 2:13 - 14).
R David Jones