Jehovah's Witnesses are an interesting Christian denomination.
There's much about them that is commendable.
They have a strong focus on evangelism and reaching people they believe to be lost.
They also have an emphasis on personal Bible study.
All very good things.
So why am I not a Jehovah's Witness?
For one, they teach some unique doctrines not found in the Bible.
When this is pointed out, instead of changing what they teach,
they simply change the Bible instead.
In fact, they have their own unique version of the Bible called the "New World Translation."
Parts of it are translated fine, but it regularly mistranslates things,
adding or changing words to support Jehovah's Witness doctrine.
For example, in John 1, John clearly teaches that Jesus is God.
They don't believe this, of course, so they changed the Bible by adding the little word 'a.'
Jesus was a god-- small 'g.'
They point to a variety of experts to support their position.
The short story is that their own experts they cite in support of this translation
refute their teachings outright.
If you'd like to dive deeper into the translation and grammar--
or if you have trouble sleeping at night--
one expert they cite is Philip Harner in an article on anathrous predicate nominatives.
Also in Colossians 1:16-17, Paul teaches that Jesus made everything.
Jehovah's Witnesses again don't believe this since they think Jesus to be a created being--
Michael the archangel.
So they changed the word of God four times in a short passage by adding the word 'other.'
In these and many more passages, their translation used to at least give indication
that these words were added by including them in brackets.
But now it doesn't even do that.
Millions of people around the world read these mistranslations,
take them at face value, and are unfortunately misled.
Let's take a look at one more passage where instead of adding words,
they just change what's there.
In John 8, Jesus identifies Himself as God by calling back to Exodus.
There, Moses is asking God-- who is speaking through the burning bush--
Back to John 8:58 Jesus said to them:
The Jews clearly recognized what He was saying
because they immediately attempted to kill Him for blasphemy.
Jehovah's Witnesses recognize the importance of this passage as well
because they intentionally mistranslate it to hide what it teaches.
Their Bible says:
"Before Abraham came into existence, I have been."
The phrase 'I am' in Greek is a very simple, present tense verb.
Their own "Kingdom Interlinear" correctly identifies it as such.
Their Bible translates it correctly dozens of times in the book of John.
Every single time, in fact, except for right here.
They know how to translate the phrase, but they simply choose to mistranslate it
when the Bible would contradict their doctrine.
It's not difficult to show that Jesus is God--
specifically Jehovah-- even from their own translation.
For instance, let's take a look at Psalm 102. Verse 1 says that this is a prayer to Jehovah:
Jumping down to verse 25, the psalmist continues:
All of this is attributed to Jehovah.
Okay let's compare that to Hebrews 1 where the writer directly quotes Psalm 102
and applies this description of Jehovah to Jesus.
According to the Bible, Jesus is Jehovah. There are many other passages like this too.
Finally one of the central pillars of the Jehovah's Witnesses is their various predictions.
They've proudly made dozens of predictions about the end of the world
that are publicly available in their official writings,
notably 1878, 1881, 1914, 1918, 1925, and 1975 all of which have, of course, failed
and many of which were later retroactively revised.
For just one instance, one of their founders J.F. Rutherford
wrote an entire book "Millions Now Living Will Never Die."
The book was published over 100 years ago.
The saddest part of all of this is that Jehovah's Witnesses
are instructed to not question what they're taught.
They're told not to read things by people who disagree with them
and are sadly unaware of their own history,
oftentimes in the weaknesses of the various things that they teach.
The Bible on the other hand, encourages us to:
"Test [or prove] all things; hold fast to that which is good."
1 Thessalonians 5:21.
Whether or not you are a Jehovah's Witness, if you'd like to ask difficult questions,
if you'd like to see for yourself what the Bible says,
please reach out to us. We'd love to chat with you.