The Watchtower has trained Jehovah’s Witnesses in how to respond to accusations that it is a false prophet. Here are its defenses, along with my suggested responses.

Defense #1: The Watchtower doesn’t claim to be inspired or infallible. (p. 288)

Response: “The Watchtower does claim to be Jehovah’s sole channel of communication. Do its prophecies come from God or from men?”

Defense #2: Proverbs 4:18 says the light is getting brighter and brighter. (pp. 288-289)

Response: “If any person or organization uses that, my thought would be, ‘If you don’t have enough light so that you are frequently having to change your teachings, why are you saying that I have to believe and obey everything you tell me? Why are you claiming to be acting as God’s spokesman? Is God responsible for your errors or are you?’”

Clearly, these are confrontational questions, but make clear that you would apply this same standard to any person or organization that claims to be God’s exclusive spokesman.

Defense #3: The Watchtower humbly admits its mistakes. (p. 289)

Response: “If I had been a Jehovah’s Witness and really had faith that the Watchtower writers weren’t just speaking their own opinions but were communicating truth from God, then I would have oriented my entire life around their predictions. I wouldn’t have set aside any money for my retirement because I would never be growing old in the present system. I wouldn’t have gone to college because there would be no point preparing for a career that I would never have. I would have oriented my entire life around someone else’s mistake. I think of all the sincere Jehovah’s Witnesses who must have done that. Do you see why this issue troubles me so greatly?”

Defense #4: Jesus’ apostles had wrong expectations also. (p. 289)

Response: Can you show me an example in the Bible where the apostles taught their misunderstandings as truths from Jehovah?

Defense #5: God’s prophet Jonah told the Ninevites their city would be destroyed in 40 days, but it didn’t happen (Jonah 1, Jonah 4). (p. 290)

Response: Both Jonah and the Ninevites clearly understood that if they repented of their sins, God would not bring that judgment.

Defense #6: Jehovah corrects his prophets, as he did when Nathan told King David he should build the temple (2 Samuel 7:1-13). (p. 290)

Response: The very night Nathan made the statement, God corrected him and sent him to David so that David wouldn’t act on a false message that supposedly came from Jehovah. However, many of the Watchtower’s errors seem to have gone uncorrected for years. Do you see why this troubles me?

 Conclusion (pp. 290-291)

You can tell the Witnesses that you are concerned that claiming to speak for God while erroneously predicting a specific date or time frame for Armageddon or the resurrection brings discredit on God and on his Word. That certainly happened when Harold Camping’s highly publicized prophecies came to nothing.

You can point out that if you had been a Jehovah’s Witness back when its predictions were published, you would have oriented your whole life around them as being truth revealed by Jehovah to his organization. You might have decided to forego a career, marriage, or children only to find out that the predictions were wrong.

Ask, “Do you see why this concerns me so greatly? Given this track record, please help me understand why you believe the Watchtower has demonstrated any greater claim to speak for God regarding the chronology of the end times than the late Harold Camping, whose predictions also failed.”

Study Questions

Please read Deuteronomy 18:22 regarding identifying false prophets. How would you respond to each of the following defenses by Jehovah’s Witnesses?

  • “The Watchtower has never claimed to be a prophet of Jehovah.” (p. 284)
  • “The Watchtower doesn’t claim to be inspired or infallible.” (p. 288)
  • “Proverbs 4:18 says that the light is getting brighter and brighter.” (pp. 288-289)
  • “The Watchtower humbly admits its mistakes.” (p. 289)
  • “Jesus’ apostles had wrong expectations about Jesus’ return also, but that doesn’t prove they weren’t chosen to take the lead in Jehovah’s organization.” (p. 289)
  • “If these statements make the Watchtower a false prophet, then Jonah was a false prophet because he predicted Jehovah would overthrow Nineveh in 40 days and that didn’t happen. Do you believe Jonah was a false prophet?” (p. 290)
  • “If these statements make the Watchtower a false prophet, then Nathan was a false prophet because he told King David to build the temple, and Jehovah later corrected him. Do you believe Nathan was a false prophet?” (p. 290)