Category: Watchtower Signature Issues (page 12 of 12)

Jehovah’s Witnesses and the Flag

American FlagThe Watchtower teaches that it is wrong for a Christian to salute any nation’s flag. The 4th of July is a good occasion on which to examine this dogma. Continue reading

Are Holidays Evil?

christmas-tree-clip-art-LTKdEy5TaThe Watchtower prohibits Jehovah’s Witnesses from celebrating holidays because of their supposed pagan origins and because Jesus said that his followers are no part of the world (John 15:19).

Want specifics? Here’s what the Watchtower book Reasoning from the Scriptures has to say: Continue reading

Is It Wrong to Celebrate Birthdays?

birthday-1008396_1280The Watchtower prohibits Jehovah’s Witnesses from celebrating birthdays. Witness children are not allowed to attend birthday parties of non-Witness friends, nor are they allowed to give or receive birthday presents or cards.

I wouldn’t raise this issue for discussion because it’s not a salvation matter. However, if Witnesses insist on talking about it, I recommend that you show them from the Scriptures that what days a Christian does or does not celebrate is a matter for the individual’s conscience, not for organizational rule-making. Continue reading

Tampering with the New Testament Text

Papyrus 46, one of the oldest New Testament papyri

Papyrus 46, one of the oldest New Testament papyri

The name “Jehovah” comes from an English rendering of the Tetragrammaton—a name consisting of 4 letters (YHWH). This name appears more than 6000 times in the Hebrew Old Testament text. The Septuagint, a Greek version of the Old Testament, also contains the name.

However, no New Testament manuscript contains this name at all, not even when the writers quoted Old Testament passages where the Tetragrammaton appeared. Instead, the Greek text substitutes the words kyrios (Lord) or theos (God).

The Watchtower admits that no existing New Testament Greek manuscript contains the Tetragrammaton. On page 11 of its Kingdom Interlinear Translation of the Greek Scriptures, it states, “One of the remarkable facts, not only about the extant manuscripts of the original Greek text, but of many versions, ancient and modern, is the absence of the divine name.”

Despite this, the Watchtower’s New World Translation inserts the name “Jehovah” into the New Testament 237 times. How do they justify this? Continue reading

Must We Call God “Jehovah”?

Graphic of the names Jehovah, Yaweh, Lord, God, YHWHI never try to talk Jehovah’s Witnesses out of calling God “Jehovah.” The problem is that the Watchtower claims that we must use that name and address him as “Jehovah” whenever we pray to him.

But is that really true? Continue reading

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