As a baptized member of Jehovah’s Witnesses, I knew I had the “truth.”

   I was baptized as a Jehovah’s Witness in 1960 at age 26 with my wife, Marjorie. I served as an appointed congregation Elder during the mid-1970’s and did all the Watchtower Society requires. Marjorie and I even raised our child as a Witness and looked forward to surviving “Armageddon” into endless life on paradise earth.

   From the mid-1960’s the Watchtower publications, studies, and teachings clearly predicted that Armageddon would occur in 1975—the conclusion of the present world system.

   Understandably, many Witnesses were disappointed and disillusioned when there was no Armageddon in 1975. Surprisingly, Watchtower leaders denied responsibility for the Armageddon predictions, and instead they blamed “overenthusiastic members.”

LOOKING DEEPER

   My suspicions about the Watchtower denials led me to study the Society’s history. Amazed, I discovered other times when the organization had falsely prophesied the end of the world. Needing more time for research, I resigned as Presiding Overseer of my Jehovah’s Witnesses congregation. In my odyssey of study into past prophecies and teachings, my wife and I discovered some incredible Watchtower claims.

   The founder and first President of theJehovah’s Witnesses, Charles Taze Russell, was born in 1852. Troubled by various Christian church doctrines, such as teachings on hell, he became a skeptic at age 17.

   In 1870 Russell heard the teachings of William Miller, who originally taught that Christ would return in October, 1843. When this event failed, Miller’s followers continued to set new dates, each a failed prophecy of “things to come.” But the Millerites did provide Russell with (1) a religious denial of hell, and (2) stimulating studies in end-of-the-age prophecies. These became foundations for the new religious organization that Russell would later establish.

   Russell gradually popularized his end-time studies and founded the International Bible Students Association. On December 18, 1884, Zion’s Watchtower Tract Society became a publishing subsidiary of the Association. By 1886 Russell had published The Divine Plan of the Ages, projecting that in 1914 Armageddon would occur along with the dawn of Christ’s thousand year rule on earth. When 1914 came and went without event, Russell changed the date of his prediction to 1915, which also proved false.

ANOTHER PRESIDENT, ANOTHER PROPHECY

   After his failed prophecies, Russell died on October 31, 1916. Joseph (“Judge”) Rutherford then emerged as the new head of the Watchtower. Reworking Russell’s chronologies, he predicted Armageddon would be in 1918. When that failed, he predicted that in 1925 Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and other “ancient worthies” would be resurrected to usher in the new world.

   By 1929, Rutherford was still convinced of that resurrection of “ancient worthies” and built a mansion for them in San Diego, calling the house Beth Sarim, “House of the Princes.” He died in the house in 1942, shortly after proclaiming that the end of the world was only months away.

   The 1914 prophecy is a good example of how The Watchtower has covered its failures by modifying its predictions afterward. After the first failed prophecy in 1914, it taught that the world only entered its time of the end in that year. Later it said that the “generation” that saw the events of 1914 would see the end of the world. By 1995, time for Armageddon was running out. So the Witness leadership changed the meaning of the word “generation,” stripping it of any reference to a set number of years. Thus the “end” could be postponed indefinitely...and the Watchtower could avoid embarrassment.

   The failed 1975 Watchtower prophecy that Marjorie and I experienced was just one of many it had predicted. All of this made us realize that the Watchtower Society fits the biblical definition of a false prophet in Deuteronomy 18:21-22:

You may say to yourselves, “How can we know when a message has not been spoken by the Lord?” If what a prophet proclaims in the name of the Lord does not take place or come true, that is a message the Lord has not spoken. That prophet has spoken presumptuously. Do not be afraid of him.

ANOTHER CHRIST, ANOTHER GOSPEL

   In addition to the Watchtower’s failed prophecies, I learned that many of their basic teachings disagree with the Bible. For instance, according to Watchtower teachings Christ the Son was originally the first created being of Jehovah God and He was the incarnation of Michael the archangel.¹ According to them, Christ resumed the name Michael when He ascended to heaven after His resurrection.²

   However, the Bible clearly teaches that Christ the Son is eternal, creator, God.³ Nowhere does it say that Michael became Christ or vice versa. In fact, the Bible sharply distinguishes between created angels and the eternal Christ.⁴

   Jehovah’s Witnesses also teach that one’s soul is inseparable from one’s body, so when a person dies there is no continued existence of the soul.⁵ In contrast, Christ taught that there is life after death.⁶ In fact, Christ promised continuing life the same day after death.⁷ Other Bible passages confirm the soul’s continuing existance after physical death.⁸

   Jehovah’s Witness teachings about spiritual salvation and peace with God differ from the Bible also. The Witnesses teach that Christ’s death only provides an opportunity for a person to attain eternal life through obeying God’s laws. There is no assurance of eternal life.⁹ They believe that one can live in God’s paradise only through (1) studying the Bible, (2) associating with Jehovah’s Witnesses, (3) changing living habits from the former way to God’s way (requiring baptism as a Jehovah’s Witness), and (4) being a preacher and a witness of God’s kingdom.¹⁰

   However, the Bible clearly teaches that Christ’s death alone provides salvation from sin for all who trust in His sacrifice alone on their behalf.¹¹ In fact, God grants salvation only when one trusts Jesus Christ as Savior.¹² The eternal life given by grace to believers is also preserved forever by God Himself.¹³

   Following Charles Russell’s original teachings, Jehovah’s Witnesses do not believe in a hell where those who reject Christ go after death.¹⁴ However, Jesus Himself taught about the reality of hell for those who reject Him as Savior.¹⁵

FINDING PEACE

   After our research, Marjorie and I turned in our formal letter of disassociation from the “Watchtower Bible and Tract Society.” Afterwards, I experienced a peace of mind and freedom that I had never known in my 22 years as a Jehovah’s Witness. Jesus Christ had personally come into my life, and I knew for certain that my salvation did not rest on my worthless works. God had given it to me as a free gift of His grace.

   The Watchtower organization taught us that we had to go through them to get to God the Father, but we are witnesses to the truth in Jesus Christ. He said “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me.”¹⁶ Jesus Christ alone is the “one mediator between God and men...who gave Himself as a ransom for all men.”¹⁷

   Marjorie and I are witnesses of the marvelous salvation Jehovah freely offers in Christ. I invite you to stop trusting in your good works and ask the Lord Jesus alone to save you. “Whoever believes in the Son [Jesus Christ] has eternal life, but whoever rejects the Son will not see life, for God’s wrath remains on him.”¹⁸

   Yes, the living Lord extends this invitation to Jehovah’s Witnesses today: “Come to Me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest.”¹⁹

Leonard A. Chretien

If you have any questions about what you have read, you can contact Leonard Chretien at P.O. Box 8007, La Jolla, CA 92038.

I have trusted Christ as my Savior after reading this tract. Please send me free information about my new life as a Christian.

END NOTES
¹Let God Be True, p. 32; ²Your Will Be Done on Earth, p. 316-7; New Heavens and a New Earth, p. 30; ³John 8:58; cf. Revelation 1:17-18 and Isaiah 44:6; ⁴Hebrews 1:1-14; ⁵Make Sure of All Things, 1953 ed., pp. 349, 352; ⁶Luke 16:19-31; ⁷Luke 23:39-43; ⁸2 Corinthians 5:5-8; Philippians 1:19-24; ⁹Studies in the Scriptures, V.1, pp.150,152; ¹⁰From Paradise Lost to Paradise Regained, pp. 242-249; ¹¹1 Peter 3:18, Ephesians 2:8-9; ¹²Acts 4:10-12, 10:42-43; Romans 3:21-24; ¹³1 John 5:11-13; John 6:39, 10:28-29; ¹⁴Make Sure of All Things, 1953 ed., pp. 154-155; ¹⁵Matthew 13:41-42, 49-50; Mark 9:47-48; see also Revelation 20:11-15; ¹⁶John 14:6; ¹⁷1 Timothy 2:5-6; ¹⁸John 3:36; ¹⁹Matthew 11:28.

RESOURCES

Books

• Reed, David. Jehovah’s Witnesses Answered Verse by Verse. Baker Book House.
• Lingie, Wilbur. Approaching Jehovah’s Witnesses in Love. Christian Literature Crusade

Organizations

• Watchman Fellowship, Inc., PO Box 13340, Arlington, TX 76094, 817-277-0023, www.watchman.org
• Free Minds, Inc., P.O. Box 3818, Manhattan Beach, CA 90266
• Comments from the Friends, P.O. Box 819, Assonet, MA 02702

Film

• Witnesses of Jehovah, distributed by Good News Defenders, P. O. Box 8007, La Jolla, CA 92038.