Dr Paul Allen

Japanese Jehovah's Witnesses. (Photo credit: kc7fys ) Jehovah ’s Witnesses ( JWs ) claim to regard the Bible as the absolute Word of God and to base all their beliefs on it. In fact, the teachings of JWs are contrary to the Bible. The Bible. JWs use a doctored version of the Bible called the New World Translation (NWT). The JW leaders who produced the NWT were not biblical scholars, and it shows. The most obvious difference between the NWT and other Bibles is its use of “Jehovah” in the NT. JWs claim that the NT originally used the Hebrew name YHWH (translated “Jehovah” or “Yahweh”) and that apostate scribes put “Lord” (Gk kurios) in its place. There is no historical or manuscript evidence for this claim. The Father, Son, and Holy Spirit . JWs teach that the Father alone is Jehovah, the almighty God ; that the Son, Jesus Christ , is “a god” (their translation of Jn 1:1) inferior to the Father; and that the “holy spirit” is an impersonal force emanating from God. The Bible,...

Gabriel making the Annunciation to the Virgin Mary. Painting by El Greco, 1575 (Museo del Prado, Madrid). (Photo credit: Wikipedia ) The angel Gabriel is one of the prominent characters in the Nativity narrative. He’s remembered as the angel who told Mary she would give birth to the Son of God . But what else can we know about him from the Bible ? Gabriel is mentioned in the Old and New Testaments . Only three angels are mentioned by name in the Bible: Gabriel, Michael and Lucifer (who became Satan). What does the Bible tell us about Gabriel? God used Gabriel to explain end-time prophecies to Daniel. He’s known for bearing good news of Jesus’ coming birth, but his first biblical appearance was in  Daniel 8:16 , when he is told to explain a vision to the prophet. The Jehovah Witnesses use this verse to somehow say that not only is Jesus not God but Jesus is the Gabriel.  "And I heard a man's voice between the banks of the Ulai, who called, and said, 'Gabriel, ma...

Cripplegate: What do you do when a couple of smiling Jehovah’s Witnesses unleash a series of propositions that momentarily rattle you?  You might say: “In your faith, would I get to go to Heaven to be with Jesus?” No, they admitted. Only 144,000 go to heaven and the chances one of them would be me were on par with the chances of winning the lotto. But as a consolation prize I’d get to live in the New Earth, which sounded appealing, except for one thing…no Jesus. I don’t care how idyllic their pamphlet’s pictures of the Utopian New Earth are, if I don’t get to be with Jesus, it’s got nothing to offer me.  You may ask them if they believed they were part of the privileged 144,000? They admitted somberly that they didn’t believe they would be included. What a hopeless faith. According to their belief, the worst that can happen to the ungodly is an eternal rest of annihilation, and the best is an eternity on an upgraded earth, without Jesus. You can then share the good ne...

Latter-day Saints believe in the resurrected Jesus Christ, as depicted in the Christus Statue in the North Visitors' Center on Temple Square in Salt Lake City (Photo credit: Wikipedia ) As I write about the theological characteristics of cults, I think of my own ten-year involvement in the Jehovah's Witnesses . Deliverance from the organization and salvation came when I acknowledged my spiritual condition (Rom. 3:23; Eph. 2:1) and placed my faith in the Christ of the Bible ( John 20:28 ). Assurance of eternal life was found in Him alone (1 John 5:10–13). I also am reminded of many friends who have been delivered from the Jehovah's Witnesses and other cults. How many cults there are today cannot be stated precisely. It has been estimated that there could be as many as five thousand worldwide, with 150 million adherents ( The Encyclopedia of Cults and New Religions , Harvest House Publishers, 1999, p. xvii). With these statistics, Christians certainly cannot ig...

In [the] beginning the Word was, and the Word was with God, and the Word was a god.  The New World Translation This is one of the most common verses of contention between the  Jehovah's Witnesses  and Christians. Their false assumption is that Jesus is not God in flesh, but Michael the archangel who became a man.  Therefore, since they deny that  Jesus is divine , they have altered the Bible in  John 1:1  so that Jesus is not divine in nature.  The New World Translation has added the word "a" to the verse so it says, "...and the Word was a  god."  The correct translation for this verse is " In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God and the Word was God."  This is how it is rendered in the NASB, NIV, KJV, NKJV, ASV, RSV, etc. The New World translation is incorrect in its translation of this verse for several reasons.  First of all, the Bible teaches a strict monotheism.  To say that Jesus is "a god" i...