Month: January 2017

Jehovah’s Witnesses’ Organizational Mindset: The Only Way to Salvation

mindset-4-only-wayIn this series, we are examining four specific Watchtower claims which all sincere Jehovah’s Witnesses believe.  

 Watchtower Claim #3: The Watchtower organization is the only way to salvation

On its website, the Watchtower denies that it believes that only Jehovah’s Witnesses will be saved.[1] In one sense this is true, because Watchtower teaching is that people who die before God’s impending judgment day of Armageddon without an adequate opportunity to learn “the truth” will be resurrected and given a chance to learn it during the coming 1000-year reign of Christ. However, that statement is misleading in three ways. Continue reading

Jehovah’s Witnesses’ Organizational Mindset: The Only Reliable Bible Interpreter

mindset-3-only-true-interpretersIn this series, we are examining four specific Watchtower claims which all sincere Jehovah’s Witnesses believe.

Watchtower Claim #2: Only the Watchtower can properly interpret the Bible

Because Jehovah’s Witnesses believe that the Watchtower is God’s sole channel of communication, it follows that you and I cannot properly interpret the Bible without them to explain it to us. They cite the situation of the Ethiopian in Acts 8, who needed Philip to explain to him what he was reading. Of course, this ignores the fact that the reason he needed help understanding an Old Testament prophecy about the Messiah was because the New Testament hadn’t been written yet!
Continue reading

Jehovah’s Witnesses’ Organizational Mindset: God’s Sole Channel

mindset-2-gods-sole-channelHaving convinced Jehovah’s Witnesses that it is the only organization on earth that God is using, the Watchtower makes 4 specific claims. Unless they are harboring secret doubts, the Jehovah’s Witnesses who come to your door are convinced that they are true:

  1. The Watchtower Society is God’s sole channel of communication to mankind.
  2. Only the Watchtower can properly interpret the Bible.
  3. The Watchtower organization is the only path to salvation.
  4. All other religious organizations are false and satanic.

I will devote one post to each of these claims.

Watchtower Claim #1: The Watchtower Society is God’s sole channel of communication to mankind.

Continue reading

Jehovah’s Witnesses Organizational Mindset: How It’s Fostered

mindset-1-one-organizationJehovah God works through one and only one organization today—the Watchtower Society. Devotion to that concept is what makes a person a Jehovah’s Witness. This organizational mindset dominates every aspect of their minds, hearts, and lives.

If you are to be effective in sharing the gospel with Jehovah’s Witnesses, it is critical that you understand this mindset and its implications thoroughly. It explains why standard gospel presentations with which you may be familiar have no impact whatever on them.

In future posts, I will be sharing with you questions to ask that take the reality of this mindset into account. In this post, though, I just want to show you how this organizational mindset is created and maintained.

How does the Watchtower instill this organizational mindset in the first place? Essentially, there are four steps: Continue reading

Were the Apostles a “Governing Body”?

Apostles=governing body?In the February, 2017 issue, the Watchtower article, “Who Is Leading God’s People Today?” teaches that after Jesus ascended to heaven the apostles constituted “a visible body under an invisible Leader.”

It states: “As a governing body, they gave direction to all the congregations. – Acts 15:2.”

But was the early church structured as a top down organization headed by a governing body, as the Watchtower is? Continue reading

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