What My Neighbor Believes: Jehovah’s Witnesses
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By Dan King, Guest Blogger On the Horizon
I have recently had several visits from some very faithful people who came to share the hope of their salvation with me. But as a Ministry Leader, and an Instructor at a small Bible College, why would they be so interested in me? Well, according to them, I’ve got it all wrong! While I read the “same” Bible as them, we have very different interpretations about what we believe.
So I wanted to dig in a little bit and figure out what I should believe. And as a student of the Bible, I wanted to try to stay as objective as I could. I really wanted to discover the truth in the differences between what we believed. What I discovered is something that I hope helps you to understand these differences, but also gives you something practical to take with you when it comes to dealing with these differences.
I also have to say that my views have drawn praise and harsh criticism. But rather than taking my word for it, and judging what I have written, I simply challenge you to take it to the Word yourself. The best way to get to the truth is to find it on your own. Just ask the Holy Spirit to guide you in finding it. Here is a summary of what I learned, with links to the full posts on each of these topics.
The Translation Problem
Before I got into any fundamental beliefs, it was important for me to understand the difference in where we were getting our information. Technically, we read the “same” Bible, but different translations. The Jehovah’s Witness organization uses what it called the New World Translation, and they believe that it is the only correct version. While I was not able to get my hands on one while writing this series, I did read a bunch of their own material about this translation. Ultimately, this translation raises lots of red flags for me because of it’s secretive nature in who translated it, and how it was translated. Most other standard Bible versions document quite well who was involved, and what methods are used. Having transparency in translation allows people to see and question the methods. Keeping everything secret does not allow for the same level of criticism, and can bring the reliability of the translation into question.
Click here to read further.
Interpretation Flaws: Core Beliefs
One of the fundamental beliefs of the Jehovah’s Witnesses is that Jesus has already returned and has established His Kingdom here on earth. They even claim the date when this event happened. One of the biggest problems with this is that not only has the “date” moved several times, it is also based on flawed interpretation for dating specific events in the Scriptures. The time-frame was also determined by breaking one of the fundamental rules of exegesis. Basically, it seems that specific prophecy two different places regarding two very different events have been combined to help explain each other. One could easily shatter this whole idea simply by applying some basic interpretation standards.
Click here to read further.
Interpretation Flaws: Religious Practices
One of the practices I saw that I wanted to study was the separation from any government authority. Because the Jehovah’s Witnesses believe that Jesus has already returned and taken His place on the throne, establishing a new Kingdom here on earth, they do not recognize the authority of any other government system. Not only is the lack of submission to government authorities (there is no authority that God has not put into place, good or bad) not Biblical, it is also founded on flawed core beliefs (mentioned above). There also seems to be hypocrisy when they expect the protection of the government, but refuse to participate in it. They will even use the government’s justice system to fight for their right to not recognize the government . . . but don’t you have to recognize the authority of that justice system in order to use it to fight your case?
Click here to read further.
Interpretation Flaws: Diety of Jesus
While the Jehovah’s Witnesses accept Jesus as the prophesied Messiah, they deny His deity. The idea here is that they look at Him as a “created being” which means that, as a creation of God, He could not be God. As God’s first created being, He has been ordained as the coming king tasked with ruling over God’s Kingdom. While the theology of the Trinity is one of the most difficult things in Christianity to truly grasp, the Scriptures are very clear that Jesus, while separate from God the Father (and the Holy Spirit), is still fully God Himself.
Click here to read further.
The Role of Christians in Dealing with Jehovah’s Witnesses
While I believe that the entire fundamental belief system practiced by the Jehovah’s Witnesses is wrong, I am still quite convicted as a Christian to present an appropriate response. Jesus never called me to debate people into submission or fight someone until they say “uncle.” He did, however, call me to love people. It is important to understand the differences between our belief systems, but this is not a license to go pick a fight. I think that the next time my visitors come to my house, I want to do something nice for them without debating a single word. I will let my love for them as God’s created beings and my actions speak theological truths and points of doctrine that I could ever speak to them. The rest is up to the Holy Spirit.
Click here to read further.
Amen.
Invitation to Serve as a Guest Blogger
I invite you to contribute to an ongoing discussion On the Horizon about the various belief systems and, more particularly, what the many different churches believe and teach. The invitation extends to those who, like me, are spiritually walking beyond the walls of organized religion and persons of all different faiths, not just Christians, in order to further our knowledge and tolerance of each other’s understanding of and approach to spirituality and belief.
Send your contribution to admin at hopefulspirit dot com!
{ 4 comments… read them below or add one }
About JW Translation of The Bible… I dont think as you.
The New World Translation is a formal equivalence translation rather than a paraphrase.The translation does not contain any of the Apocryphal books, as Jehovah’s Witnesses believe that any claim for canonicity on the part of these writings is without solid foundation.
A 2004 book by Dr. Jason BeDuhn , (Ph.D. is an historian of religion and culture, currently Associate Professor of Religious Studies at Northern Arizona University) states,
“While it is difficult to quantify this sort of analysis, it can be said the NW emerges as the most accurate of the translations … judging by the passages we have looked at.”
Commentator Alexander Thomson wrote,
“We heartily recommend the New World Translation of the Christian Greek Scriptures, published in 1950 by the Watch Tower Bible and Tract Society.”
Thomas Winter considers the Kingdom Interlinear Translation of the Greek Scriptures (part of the NWT project) as
“highly useful” toward mastery of biblical Greek.Winter relates that the translation “is thoroughly up-to-date and consistently accurate.”
In addition, Charles Francis Potter has stated about NWT:
“Apart from a few semantic peculiarities like translating the Greek word stauros, as “stake” instead of “cross,” and the oftenstartling use of the colloquial and the vernacular, the anonymous translators have certainly rendered the best manuscript texts, both Greek and Hebrew, with scholarly ability and acumen.”
Rubens,
I recognize that some people have expressed opinions related to the relative accuracy of the NW translation, that is not really my point. I am simply basing my opinion off of JW writing that they themselves have given me regarding their Bible. The thing that I am questioning more than anything else is the level of secrecy that seems to surround the creation of this translation in the JW writing that I have been supplied with. The person or group is labeled as being “anonymous”, without explaination as to why. With any other modern tranlation, we can easily know exactly who was a part of translating that version and what credentials they have in doing this type of work. With the NW translation, the appearance implies that any Joe Schmoe that took a “Greek I” class could have been a part of this process. In looking for a solid translation, this simply does nothing to help build confidence in the translation for me.
However, I accept that your points may be absolutely right. I would love to better understand more about the people that have made the comments that you reference, and also accept that they could be very accurate comments.
Personally, for personal study, I like to use my interlinear which helps me study the actual Greek. This is a practice that I would love to see even more “average” Christians do, but I know that it starts requiring more education than most can take. I don’t think that there is any substitute for the “actual” message, and even comparing various modern tranlsations in order to get a better picture.
I also think that there are dangers in putting all of your confidence into one translation as the ONLY accurate translation considering the huge linguistic differences (primary vs. secondary languages, and eastern vs. western mindsets).
Very interesting subject matter here. I found myself thoroughly intrigued by both the post and the comments. Thanks!
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I went to mass once and “read” the book but like you said. Same thing. Different building. I don’t do religion though. It makes me ask to many questions. I’m all about science. *Trying not to rain on anyone’s parade*
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