The Jehovah's Witnesses: True Prophet or False Prophet? (3)

Fred Holthouser
Leitchfield, Kentucky

The wrath of God will be poured out on all false religious organizations, which includes the Jehovah's Witnesses and all others that do not obey His word in all its revealed truth. Man often seeks a way to escape God's judgment and this is why Witness doctrine denies the eternal torment of hell. If any one knows how we can miss the judgment of God, I wish they would tell me what the Scripture is that says we can. I will show it to others so they may also miss this judgment as no one likes to think that he or she is going to be judged for what we have done in this body. But I am afraid that the Scripture is missing that teaches this. In John 12:48 Jesus said, "He who rejects me, and does not receive my words, has one which judges him, the words that I have spoken will judge him in the last day."

Witnesses vs Scripture On The Soul

In Revelation 6:9 John saw the souls of the saints. This would be enough to prove that the Witnesses are false teachers as they teach that man does not have a soul and that there is nothing inside man that goes on living after death. Now how could John tell us that he saw souls if they were not therefor him to see? Paul tells us in 1 Corinthians 15:50 that flesh and blood cannot enter into the kingdom of heaven. So there must be an inner man that goes on living after the body dies. This inner man is what John saw by revelation. Paul. also says in 2 Corinthians 4:16 that though his outer man is perishing his inward man was renewed day by day. How can something be renewed unless it is in existence?

In Matthew 10:28 Jesus says, "And fear not them which kill the body, but are not able to kill the soul, but rather fear him which is able to destroy both soul and body in hell." Notice that the word "and" in this passage is a coordinating conjunction that connects two things of equal rank. So as long as we are in this life, one cannot exist without the other - that is, both inner man and outer man. As we find by looking as James 2:26, the point is that the body and soul are separate parts of man and as long as we are in this life they must go together. Or else, why did Jesus separate them? Why did James do the same thing? Why did Paul in writing the Thessalonians pray for their body, soul, and spirit (1 Thess. 5:23)? If the inner man cannot be separated from the body, why did Paul separate them as he did?

Jesus said in Matthew 25:41 to those on the left hand, "Depart from me into the lake of fire prepared for the devil and his angels." Now does that sound like what is taught by the Witnesses - that hell is just annihilation? This lake of fire is for all false teachers and false prophets, the Jehovah's Witnesses notwithstanding. Death is a separation, whether we speak of physical or spiritual death. One who lives a life of deceit and false teaching will deserve a fate as described in Revelation 20:10, that is to be separated from God throughout all of eternity. This spiritual death is a complete removal from light back into darkness with no rest or comfort. What a fate awaits the false teachers and false prophets who will not repent and come back to God on his terms before it is too late. Now is the time to obey God. Do not wait, for we know not when we will die (Heb. 9:27).

Just like the pope in Rome, the Witnesses claim that as soon as any and all of their literature leaves the sixth floor of the Bethel headquarters (where the printing plant is located), then that is what the Witnesses are to believe and teach regardless of what the Bible says. In other words, as one of the presidents of the Society said, it is to be believed as soon as it leaves the printing plant whether it be right or wrong as to the teachings of God's word. This can be done because they hold such control over their people. Whatever the president and the editorial staff says is the truth, all loyal Witnesses are to believe that it is the truth without question. Most Witnesses go along with this because of the club that is held over their heads; if you create any trouble for them by asking too many questions, you will be disfellowshipped and put out of the organization. John 17:17 tells us that God's word is truth and that is what we are to be judged by, not a group of men in the Witness organization. In this passage, Jesus prayed to the Father for His disciples, "Sanctify them through thy truth." "Sanctify" means "to set apart or to call out of." We are called out of a life of sin and that includes slavery to all the false, Satanic religious organizations of the world such as the Watchtower Society. We are to serve the Lord, not men.

This alone should be enough to prove to all honest hearts that the so-called New World Society is a false religious organization and that its slaves should come out of it just as I did and just the way God says from his word in Revelation 18:4.

Dismal Record of Broken Prophecies

In the next few paragraphs I would like to give you a list of the false predictions and the year in which they were predicted to let you see that there has not been even the first one to come true. That proves beyond any doubt that this organization is one that is false and should be avoided like one would avoid the plague.

  • 1877 "The end of the world is nearer than most men suppose." See Three Worlds and The Harvest of This World, by Russell and Barbour, p. 17.
  • 1886 "Marshaling of the host for the battle of the great day of God the Almighty, is in progress while the skirmishing is commencing." See Zion's Watchtower Reprints, Volume One, p. 817.
  • 1889 "The battle of the great day of God Almighty, which will end in A.D. 1914, is already commenced." See Time Is At Hand (Watchtower Bible and Tract Society), p. 101.
  • 1894 "The skirmishing is already beginning all along the line. The end of 1914 is not the date for the beginning, but for the end of the time of trouble." See Zion's Watchtower Reprints, Volume Two (Jan. 1, 1894), p. 1605.
  • 1904 "The stress of the great time of trouble will be on us soon, somewhere between 1910 and 1912 culminating in October of 1914." See Studies of the Scriptures, by C.T. Russell (Watchtower Bible and Tract Society), Volume 6, p. 579.
  • 1914 "The great crisis, the great clash is very near. Armageddon may begin next spring." See Watchtower Reprints, Volume Two, p. 1677.
  • 1915 "The battle of Armageddon, to which this war is leading." See Watchtower Reprints, Volume 6 (Sept 1, 1914), p. 5450.
  • 1915 "The present great war in Europe is the beginning of the Armageddon of the Scriptures." See Watchtower Reprints, Volume 6 (April 1, 1915), p. 5659.
  • 1917 "We anticipate that the earthquake will occur early in 1918, and that the fire will come int eh fall of 1920." See The Finished Mystery (Watchtower Bible and Tract Society), p. 178.
  • 1917 "Emphasis is on 1925, the old world is ending, we are standing at the very portals of that blessed time (golden age of the kingdom) deliverance." See Millions Now Living Will Never Die, by J.F. Rutherford (Watchtower Bible and Tract Society, 1920), p. 105.
  • 1929 "God's purpose must shortly dash to pieces the devil's organization, Satan knows that shortly he must fight the Lord." See Prophecy, by J.F. Rutherford (Watchtower Bible and Tract Society, 1929), p. 266.
  • 1930 "The Climax is at hand." See Light, by J.F. Rutherford (Watchtower Bible and Tract Society, 1930), Volume Two, p. 327.
  • 1931 "His day of vengeance is here, and Armageddon is at hand. God's judgment must shortly be executed." See Vindication, by J.F. Rutherford (Watchtower Bible and Tract Society, 1931), Volume One, p. 147.
  • 1932 "The end is only a short time away." See The Jehovah's Witnesses, (Columbia University Press, 1945), p. 55.
  • 1939 "The time for the battle of the great day of God Almighty is very near, the disaster of Armageddon is just ahead." See Salvation, by J.F. Rutherford (Watchtower Bible and Tract Society, 1939), pp. 310, 361.
  • 1940 "The day for the final settlement is near at hand, the Witness work for the Theocracy appears to be about done." See Watchtower Magazine of Sept. 1, 1940, p. 265.
  • 1941 "Armageddon is surely near, soon within a few years." See Children, by J.F. Rutherford (Watchtower Bible and Tract Society, 1941), p. 366.
  • 1942 "The new world is at the door, the time is short." See The New World, (Watchtower Bible and Tract Society, 1942), p. 10.
  • 1943 "The beginning of the final war is dangerously near." See The Truth Shall Make You Free, (Watchtower Bible and Tract Society, 1943), p. 341.
  • 1944 "The end o' the world arrangement is now near." See The Kingdom Is At Hand, (Watchtower Bible and Tract Society, 1944), p. 342.
  • 1946 "Armageddon should come sometime before 1971." See They Have Found a Faith (Bobbs-Merrill Co., 1946), p. 34.
  • 1946 "The final and draws near." See They Have Found a Faith. (Bobbs-Merrill Co., 1946), p. 44.
  • 1950 "Jehovah's time has come to settle definitely the issue." See This Means Everlasting Life, (Watchtower Bible and Tract Society, 1950), p. 307.
  • 1953 "1954 could well be the year." See Jehovah's Witnesses and What They Believe (Zondervan Publishing Co., 1967), p. 307.
  • 1955 "The war of Armageddon is nearing its breaking-out point." See You May Survive Armageddon into God's New World, (Watchtower Bible and Tract Society, 1955), p. 331.
  • 1966 "A climax of man's history is at the door." See Awake Magazine, of October 8, 1966, p. 20.
  • 1969 "There is only a short time left." See Watchtower Magazine, of Jan. 15, 1969, p. 39.
  • 1966 In their book Life Everlasting in the Freedom of the Sons of God, (pp. 29-33), they claim that the year of 1975 was to be the end of the world and to see the New World Society being established some time in the fall of the year.

This makes twenty-eight different predictions on the same Bible prophecy. Not one of them has come true. Just like the boy that cried wold once too often, they have missed the prophecies that they have made so often that I do not see how they can expect anyone to believe them about anything they do or teach.

Let me beg anyone that is connected with any false religious organization to take their Bibles and study the word of God by itself and then obey what it says for us to do. If you take the Baptist creed book plus the Bible, you will make one a Baptist. Take the Catholic Catechism plus the Bible, and you will make one a Catholic. The same could be said about any other false religious organization. But if you take the Bible by itself without these creed books, it will make one a Christian, a child of God. That is what we all should want to be, nothing else.

Guardian of Truth XXVII: 4, pp. 120-121
February 17, 1983