In this article, we are discussing the odd and unusual beliefs of Jehovah’s Witnesses. These beliefs differ from the rest of the beliefs in the entirety of Christianity. We are talking about strange things such as they do not believe that you can have a blood transfusion because drinking blood is against God! Of course, drinking blood is against God, but one wonders how they equivocate drinking actual blood with receiving a blood transfusion to save a life. I mean there is a big difference between the two.
Now, we’re not making fun of the Jehovah’s Witnesses here. Some individuals do ridicule them saying, “Oh, look at how stupid they are! They believe only 144,000 people can go to heaven. How dumb are they?” People will tell me this, and I’ll say, “Actually, in Revelation 7 and in Revelation 14, it says that the 144,000 people are in heaven.” People typically respond with “Wait, really? That is in the Bible? Well, how do you refute that?” And I would say, “Well, you should not be making fun of other people’s religions unless you have studied it for yourself.” We should not be bashing other people’s religions because that is wrong.
The intent of this article is not to mock the Jehovah’s Witnesses, but rather to shed light on some of their false and erroneous teachings that lead many people astray. In fact, the refusal of blood transfusions is actually killing people because they do not receive them when they need them. In fact, there are actual reports of parents stealing their child from hospitals and getting arrested/sent to jail later for it because they prevented the patient from receiving a blood transfusion. Now, Jehovah’s Witnesses may argue that only God can give life. Since blood is the sign of life, it cannot be given to others. But in fact, we give life to others all the time. Every time you go into surgery, especially when you are on your death bed and the doctor saves your life, he is giving you life.
Jesus said that the greatest gift to give to others is to lay down your life for them. With a blood transfusion, you are essentially laying down your life to save someone else’s. You are not giving life because only God gives life. However, you are saving and preserving a life. There is nothing in the Bible that says you cannot do that. It is not the same as drinking blood. This is one of the bizarre teachings of Jehovah’s Witnesses, and to my knowledge, they are the only ones who believe it.
Sadly, while Jehovah’s Witnesses do believe in Jesus, they are not a Christian religion because they have a false interpretation of “who” Jesus is. The Jehovah’s Witnesses do not believe in the doctrine of the Trinity which is the core teaching of all Christianity. If you do not believe in the Trinity, you are not even a Christian. Christian doctrine asserts the belief in One God consisting of three distinct persons: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. This means that we believe Jesus is divine. He is the divine, eternal Son of God. Jehovah’s Witnesses don’t believe this. They believe that Jesus is just an archangel.
Yeah, that’s right. You heard me correctly. They believe that Jesus is Michael the archangel. You’ll see this in their own literature. If you ask them where it says that in the Bible, they’ll say, “Well, in the Bible it says that Jesus will be descending with the shout of an archangel.” You might ask them to show you where Jesus is Michael the archangel in the Bible. And, even if he is an archangel, why Michael? They will have to admit that it is not there. Even so, they make the inference from this passage that Jesus is Michael the archangel despite knowing it is nowhere in the Bible.
The reality is that symbolic and descriptive language is used everywhere in Scripture. Jesus is said to have white wooly hair and eyes of fire. But that doesn’t mean it is a literal description of his physical appearance. We also see other symbolic language like how a demon comes from fire. These descriptions are not meant to be literal. They are symbolic.
The reality is that Hebrews 1:6 states that all the angels worship Jesus. Of course, the New Word Translation (the Bible of the Jehovah’s Witnesses) has changed that passage so that it doesn’t use the word worship. They’ve changed countless passages that all talk about worshiping Jesus in some way, and there are plenty of passages that talk about worshiping Jesus in the Bible.
If you ever talk to a Jehovah’s Witness, a common central discussion that they’re going to have with you is on the Trinity because they believe that they are right and all the rest of Christianity is wrong (just as Mormons do and a few other little sects that don’t accept the Trinity). Even so, the majority of Christians have accepted the Trinity for the past 2,000 years.
They have a whole Watchtower magazine article titled “Should You Believe in a Trinity?” It stands out as one of the most misleading publications that I have ever encountered from them. They really have some of the worst research ever in the history of any religion. They clumsily try to prove their points even if they are not accurate or lack evidence.
In fact, we are having an interview very soon with an ex-Jehovah’s Witness. He once worked in the research history department of the Watchtower. And the more he researched, the more he realized that he could not prove the doctrines. Instead of just making up evidence or turning a blind eye, he actually ended up leaving the Watchtower and becoming a Christian. Eventually, he became a Catholic Christian.
If you read these articles, you will see that they quote the earliest Christians. They claim that the earliest Christians did not believe in the Trinity. But we have three volumes of the earliest Christians with all their actual writings. What I did was I went through their Watchtower articles. I used primary sources to look up the quotes of the early Christians cited in the articles. Then, I compared the quotes in the magazine to the quotes from the original texts. I found that they had changed the wording around and even added things that were not said. This just put their own interpretation on what was originally said. It’s mind boggling. We are not going to go too deeply into that here. We’re going to have a whole separate article for that. But the bottom line is that they don’t believe in the Trinity, and they believe that anyone who does is evil.
They believe that the Holy Spirit is God’s impersonal active force. He’s not God the Holy Spirit. He’s not a person in himself. He’s just an impersonal active force of God. Even though the Bible uses personal terms to describe the Holy Spirit (like he/his) and speaks about him as a person, they maintain this opinion.
Now, going back to their idea of Jesus. This is another belief of the Jehovah’s Witnesses that I really have a hard time understanding. They don’t believe that Jesus physically rose from the dead. They don’t believe he truly rose from the dead. They believe it was not his body. It was just a spirit like a phantom or a ghost. It wasn’t really Jesus. Even when Jesus went to the apostles, and they thought he was a ghost, Jesus told them to touch his body and asked if a ghost has flesh and bones. He asked for fish to eat proving his physical form. And, it says he ate it in their presence. He went through many things to show that this was a physical resurrection.
I bring these things up to Jehovah’s Witnesses all the time when I speak to them. They will often say, “Well, Jesus didn’t actually mean that. He was just telling them that because he needed to increase their faith. They had a hard time believing, and so he was just telling them that he had a body, but he actually didn’t.”
That’s when I tell the Jehovah’s Witnesses, “So, Jesus was lying to the apostles in order to help their faith. Jesus can lie?” And, they have a hard time answering this. The reality is that they don’t believe that Jesus had a physical body. Of course, this is a Gnostic heresy. If you want to see the passages where Jesus has a physical body, then start with John 20, 26, 27 and Luke 24, 36, 43. Jesus actually says that he has a physical body.
Now, coming back to the 144,000. This is one of the peculiar and unique interpretations of Scripture that only Jehovah’s Witnesses believe. They’re the only religion (that I know of) that believes only 144,000 people can go to heaven. As for the rest of the people, only the good and faithful Jehovah’s Witness will come back down to a paradise on earth. Otherwise, they will be destroyed in the ground forever because Jehovah’s Witnesses do not believe in hell. There is no eternal hell. They do not adhere to the traditional belief in eternal hell. They believe that you simply cease to exist, and your body goes to the grave, decomposes, and you’re just gone forever. You can go to part one if you’re interested, and see how Charles Taz Russell, the religion’s founder, had a hard time with hell. Even as a little boy, he had a hard time believing in hell. Once he found someone who didn’t believe in hell, he latched onto the idea and brought it into his own religion that he started.
It is fascinating when I ask Jehovah’s Witnesses, whether on the streets or at my door, “Are you one of the 144,000?” Each person always has a different answer. Nobody seems to believe the same thing. This is interesting too because it is congruent with the diverse teachings that the Watchtower itself has promoted.
If you do not know, the Watchtower serves as the governing body of Jehovah’s Witnesses, who believe themselves to be the sole true religion on earth. They believe that this governing body is God’s mouthpiece in a sense. According to the past claims of the Watchtower, up until 1920, those born after 1920 could not be part of the 144,000. It was considered impossible to be one of them because they were all in heaven by that time.
However, their second president, Joseph Rutherford, said that it was actually 1935. If you were born after 1935, then you could not go to heaven. Even at around the turn of the century (the year 2000), about 9,000 people, including some of the hierarchy of the Jehovah’s Witnesses, claimed to be part of the 144,000. So, this claim is literally all over the map, and there isn’t any sense of uniformity of belief on this. I always meet Jehovah’s Witnesses who are so excited to come back to the paradise on earth. And if you read their magazines, you’ll see that all of their magazines covers depict people running through fields, petting lions, eating grapes and even cuddling jaguars. All of these pictures show them having the perfect paradise on earth.
This is what they are so excited to come back to. It is like what Adam and Eve had in the Garden of Eden before they fell. It was a perfect paradise. Personally, I am not excited for that. I would not want to come back to this earth and live here for billions upon billions and trillions upon trillions of years.
I want to go to heaven with God. I want to see my God face to face. When I asked some Jehovah’s Witnesses, “Don’t you want a relationship with God? Don’t you want to go to heaven with him?” They expressed their preference for returning to an earthly paradise instead. I respect their choice, but I personally yearn for the opportunity to see God face to face in heaven. I am going to heaven. I want to see Jesus. I want to jump in his arms, run through the fields of heaven with him, have an eternal relationship, and experience that beatific vision with him. You can pat as many lions as you want or eat as many grapes as you want, but you are going to get bored.
Eating your favorite food for 60,000 years might sound appealing at first, but eventually, everything fades. Only God can fulfill that hole in our hearts, and eternal happiness can be found in heaven. So, I feel bad for Jehovah’s Witnesses that they do not even know that they can go to heaven.
This is why I believe Jehovah’s Witnesses do not truly know the real God. They don’t even know the real Jesus. They don’t even have the right set of doctrines. That’s why when Mormons and other religions say, “Oh, all you need to do is believe in Jesus to be a Christian.” It is absolutely, 100 percent false because many people believe in Jesus, but they believe in a false version of Jesus.
For instance, Muslims believe in Jesus, but it is the wrong Jesus. Similarly, Jehovah’s Witnesses and Mormons have the wrong Jesus. In order to get to heaven, you have to know Jesus, the real Jesus, the right Jesus, the one who lived 2,000 years ago and claimed to be the divine Son of God.
Consequently, Jehovah’s Witnesses have a whole host of odd beliefs that nobody else believes. They arrive at some bizarre conclusions of things like you can’t celebrate birthdays. When you ask them why, they say, “Well, two birthdays were celebrated in the Bible and both of them were by evil people.” By extension, they consider all birthdays to be evil. Now, the Bible never makes that conclusion. The Bible never actually says that. They’re the ones drawing these false conclusions. The Bible doesn’t actually draw it for them.
Birthdays aren’t the only celebration that is rejected. They don’t even celebrate Mother’s Day. They argue that Mother’s Day has pagan origins. But nobody who celebrates Mother’s Day is actually celebrating anything pagan nor worshiping any god. They are celebrating their mother. They are thanking her for life. Now, Jehovah’s Witnesses will say that you can have Mother’s and Father’s Day on every day of the week. You should be honoring your father and mother every day of the week. Of course you should, but we have special occasions to honor people who deserve to be honored in this world. There is nothing wrong with that. I feel so bad for Jehovah’s Witnesses who have been so brainwashed into thinking that general holidays are evil.
On their website, they also attempt to portray St. Valentine’s Day as evil. In fact, it is celebration of a Catholic Saint rather than a pagan god. Now, I can understand if you are a Jehovah’s Witness, and you do not want to celebrate a Catholic Saint – okay, fine! But we are celebrating the life of someone who gave up his life for Jesus, who died out of love for Jesus, who was martyred for Jesus, and that is worth celebrating. We are not celebrating anything pagan. It is all about a Christian who loved Jesus. Of course, most people know that.
Jehovah’s Witnesses don’t stop there. They also refrain from celebrating Christmas and Easter. They do not salute the flag because they reject the worship of flags, nations, and similar symbols. They continually just draw these bizarre conclusions that have no basis in reality. I mean, all of these things that they claim about these celebrations and customs are not actually true. We are not worshiping a flag when we salute the flag. They say you should have allegiance to God alone. Well, of course God should be our ultimate allegiance. However, does that mean that we can’t have an allegiance to other things? Does that mean we can’t be devoted to other things, such as your spouse, your country, your children, and many other things? Just because they are on a lesser level doesn’t mean that God is not an almighty, supreme, and eternal Lord and God. He is. Being faithful to other things doesn’t take anything away from God.
A salute or showing allegiance isn’t worship. I mean, this is just silly. I don’t know how else to say it. When they say that certain holidays are idol worship because you’re celebrating your mother or your father or a good Christian, what do you say to that?
Jehovah’s Witnesses are not supposed to go into the military. Even though I do know some who are in the military, it is the belief of Jehovah’s Witnesses that you can’t go to war. This is because war is bad, there is no good reason for war whatsoever, and any good Christian should not participate in war.
Of course, Jehovah’s Witnesses are not allowed to read books from other religions. They’re generally not allowed to read websites. They are probably not even allowed to watch this video. They are not allowed to watch or read things from other religions because they are going to be led astray. The Watchtower keeps a tight grip on their people through fear tactics, guilt, control and many other things. Of course, if you only read your own religion’s books, you are going to think that you have the truth and everybody else is wrong.
If you have never actually read something from another perspective, then you can’t know any different. It is literally just brainwashing like Scientology. Some Jehovah’s Witnesses will say, “Well, we already know we have the truth, so why read anything else?” However, not every religion is correct. 99.9 percent of religions are not correct because there’s only one true religion. So, you better actually have a little bit of deeper intellectual honesty and start researching things.
In fact, my Catholic faith was challenged by Jehovah’s Witnesses. I went and looked up my Catholic faith and found out that it was true. But I also, just in case, looked up Protestant religions, Mormons, Jehovah’s Witnesses, and all of these other religions because I wanted to go wherever the truth was. Even if it was a different religion than the one I was brought up with, I just wanted to follow Jesus and the church that he truly started.
Jehovah’s Witnesses are known for their brainwashing techniques, mind control and fear. In fact, the Jehovah’s Witnesses, who have finally been able to break free of the guilt and get out, say that they need sometimes years of counseling just to undo all the damage that has been done to them. This is because when someone leaves, or even wants to leave, that person is disfellowshipped. This is unlike the Catholic Church. Someone can be excommunicated for something very grave and serious, but the community doesn’t shun an excommunicated person. If you are disfellowshipped in the Jehovah’s Witness, then your family won’t talk to you, your friends won’t talk to you, and everyone will treat you like the enemy. You will be considered dead to everyone and literally lose everything. So, it is very difficult. I know Jehovah’s Witnesses who have been disfellowshipped from their families. Their families don’t even know who they are anymore. It’s really sad.
In fact, I heard that the Jehovah’s Witnesses have the highest dropout rate of any religion for those who are born into it because there’s a lot of abuse in the religion. If you’d like to see more on this, Leah Remini made a whole Scientology series on Netflix. While she exposes Scientology for the cult that it is, she also did at least one episode on Jehovah’s Witnesses that exposes it as a cult. She has a myriad of former Jehovah’s Witnesses who left share their stories. It’s heartbreaking.
So many of them, all at once, are all crying their eyes out because they have been so hurt. They struggled so much because their families don’t talk to them anymore. They were told that they were going to die, rot in the grave forever and that no one will ever love them.
The burden of guilt and fear is very difficult for Jehovah’s Witnesses. Most people don’t understand that unless they are in that position. Then, when you leave, you literally are skeptical of everything because Jehovah’s Witnesses have conditioned you to think that you’re right and everyone else is all wrong. They claim that other religions are all from the devil and are all evil. And, all other churches are from Satan, “except ours.” In fact, Mormons say the same thing. You’ll learn that in lesson one when the missionaries come to your door. This is a very difficult thing. It’s tempting to think something like “Well, if everything’s evil, and I’ve left this because I think it’s wrong, then everything’s wrong.”
So as a result, many become atheists or agnostics. We need to pray for them. This is also true for so many religions, such as Mormons, Church of God and cults like that. They don’t even know what they’re born into. They don’t even know better. Most of the time, they haven’t even researched these things.
For those who do have their eyes open and have come to Christianity, as countless Jehovah’s Witnesses have, they say they have an air of freedom. In fact, I met a Jehovah’s Witnesses couple recently who said, “If you ever talk to any Jehovah’s Witnesses, please tell them that our leaving has been the best thing ever. Coming to the Catholic Church has literally been the best decision of our life.” That’s a hard message to accept for many because the Jehovah’s Witnesses teach that the Catholic Church is evil, that it’s from the devil, and that it’s the harlot Mother Church mentioned in Revelation. There’s a lot of un-brainwashing to do. Hopefully, many will accept the truth because these people said they’ve never, ever been happier.
The person we’re going to interview soon, an ex-Witness that worked in the Watchtower, has brought hundreds of Jehovah’s Witnesses out of the Watchtower. He has helped thousands of people by answering their questions, and he’s brought dozens into the Catholic Church and many more dozens into other Christian denominations.
The fact is that there are people to help. If you are a Jehovah’s Witness and you happen to be watching this, know that there are people who can help you with doubts. It’s normal if you’re struggling, you’re doubting, you know you’re not allowed to doubt, you know you’re not supposed to doubt, you feel like you’re a bad person, or that your faith isn’t as good as other people’s because you’re doubting. Doubting is good, and it leads to finding the truth. If the Jehovah’s Witnesses have the truth, then doubting should not be a problem because you will find the truth, and it will be reinforced. But if you keep looking and it’s not being reinforced and bigger problems keep coming up, there’s a good reason for that.
Run away screaming into the night. The reality is, there is only one truth. It didn’t start in 1800 with the Jehovah’s Witnesses, the Mormons, the Church of God, the Seventh Day Adventists, the Church of Christ, the Pentecostals in the 1900s, or any of the thousands of religions that have literally started in the last 200 years. Those are not the church of Jesus. Jesus lived and started a church 2,000 years ago. If you do the history and research, you will find a church that goes back 2000 years. That is the true Church of Jesus Christ.
So, there you have it. A short, condensed understanding of what the Jehovah’s Witnesses believe. If you would like more information, a nephew of the president of the Jehovah’s Witnesses, who was one of the highest-ranking people in the Jehovah’s Witnesses, exposed the whole organization. He wrote a book exposing all their doctrines, false theology, sketchy history, and so much more. It’s called Crisis of Conscience, The Struggle Between Loyalty to God and Loyalty to One’s Religion.
Also, The Gentile Times Reconsidered, is a great book if you want to go really in depth and see why the Jehovah’s Witnesses have predicted the world would end in 1914, 1918, 1925, 1975, and literally many more times. You want to know why they cannot get it right? Their whole chronology is off, and this book shows why all their chronology is off.
So many Watchtower people left the Jehovah’s Witnesses after reading these books because they expose the truth. And the truth is what sets you free.
