Have you ever heard somebody say, ’Whatever you think, Jehovah’s Witnesses know the Bible? Perhaps you’ve said it yourself.
The apparent ease with which they can turn to a Bible text, their ‘authoritative’ explanation of the Greek, how they confidently answer objections. Perhaps you’ve found yourself wishing you had that confidence, that firm a grasp of the Scripture. Perhaps this is what makes you apprehensive about those doorstep encounters we all experience.
Do Jehovah’s Witnesses ‘Know The Bible?’
The Fear of Jehovah’s Witnesses seems a common phenomenon. It is based on the mistaken idea that Jehovah’s Witnesses know their Bible.
Jehovah’s Witnesses don’t know the Bible, they know their Bible, and that selectively. They know what they have been taught, but they don’t know what the Bible teaches. Their grasp of the Greek is not learned, it’s rehearsed. They are able to turn to proof texts with ease, but they are not so good at freely navigating the Bible. They can answer ‘common’ objections, they are not so good at addressing questions that don’t fit their pattern of thinking.
Jehovah’s Witnesses
On their website the Watch Tower Society explains their beginnings:
‘The modern-day organization of Jehovah’s Witnesses began at the end of the 19th century. At that time, a small group of Bible students who lived near Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, in the United States, began a systematic analysis of the Bible. They compared the doctrines taught by the churches with what the Bible really teaches. They began publishing what they learned in books, newspapers, and the journal that is now called The Watchtower—Announcing Jehovah’s Kingdom.’
This was the Bible Student Movement that developed in the 1870s under the leadership of Charles Russell. It was an enterprise that pursued his growing interest in Adventism.
It was this association that would become the Jehovah’s Witnesses we know today. Joseph Rutherford, who succeeded Charles Russell, gave them this name in 1931, doubling down on being witnesses of Jehovah above everything else. Rutherford completely reinvented the Society in his own image, distancing it from Charles Russell.
With Rutherford they effectively stopped being Bible students and became purveyors of the Watch Tower’s ideas, which were Rutherford’s ideas. It has been this way ever since. What Jehovah’s Witnesses bring around the doors isn’t the product of careful, thoughtful Bible study, but the Watch Tower’s own ideas.
I imagine a conversation with an original Bible student would be significantly more interesting and challenging than anything we might encounter today.
Later, in 1945, Worship of Jesus became seen as Idolatry, further emphasising the name of God. Rutherford made many and significant changes to doctrine, a pattern already established by Russell, and many left the movement as a result. You can read of the changes here.
‘In the Bible Students Association/Watch Tower Society, God’s name has been Jehovah from the beginning.’ The Society explains:
‘Jehovah is the personal name of God, as found in the Bible. (Exodus 6:3;Psalm 83:18) A witness is a person who proclaims views or truths of which he is convinced. ‘Thus, our name Jehovah’s Witnesses designates us as a group of Christians who proclaim the truth about Jehovah, the Creator of all things. (Revelation 4:11) We witness to others by the way we live our lives and by sharing with them what we’ve learned from the Bible.—Isaiah 43:10-12;1 Peter 2:12.’
The Society’s founder, Charles Russell, died in 1916, and in January 1917 the Society’s legal adviser, Joseph Rutherford, was elected president, though not without controversy. It was Rutherford who introduced the teaching that there are two hopes, two classes of Christians, one heavenly, one earthly. You can read about the origins of this teaching here. For more on this and Rutherford’s disastrous publishing and teaching record go here.
It was Rutherford who, on July 26, 1931, at a convention in Columbus, Ohio, introduced the new name Jehovah’s witnesses, based on Isaiah 43:10: “Ye are my witnesses, saith the Lord, and my servant whom I have chosen: that ye may know and believe me, and understand that I am he: before me there was no God formed, neither shall there be after me” (KJV).
I’m a Christian
Tell a Jehovah’s Witness you’re a Christian and there is a good chance you will be challenged about God’s name. You may be regaled with dark tales of a determination on the part of the churches to erase the name of God from history. This despite the fact that, I for one, hear God’s name regularly in sermons, Bible study groups, and come across it in my regular reading.
They tell of meeting ‘Christians’ on the doorstep who are surprised to learn that God has a name. This despite the fact that many say they are Christian (often CofE) just to get Jehovah’s Witnesses off their doorstep. I have highlighted the importance of simply understanding the world around us elsewhere. Jehovah’s Witnesses fail on this score and end up fighting phantoms, tilting at windmills.
Making the Name Known?
You will be familiar with the apologetic Jehovah’s Witnesses bring to support their claim that God’s name is Jehovah and the primary purpose of Jehovah’s Witnesses is to make the name known. Going to John 17, Jesus’ high priestly prayer, they quote, ‘I have made your name manifest to the men whom you have given me out of the world.’ (John 17:6, NWT)
From this they reason ‘Jesus must have used God’s name’ in order to make it known. This is an inference they draw, not something the Bible teaches, but since they are Witnesses of Jehovah they have something to prove.
They also appeal to Matthew 6, the Lord’s Prayer, ‘Our Father in the heavens, let your name be sanctified.’ (Matthew 6:9, NWT) I have written at length about this flawed apologetic here. What is clear is that Jesus never used ‘Jehovah’ and instructs his disciples to call God ‘Father.’ You can read more here.
Learn This…
This where our lesson begins. Here we peel away the label ’Bible student’ and discover someone who simply doesn’t know the Bible.
I have faced the challenge of God’s name many times. One particular encounter, some years ago, involved JW lady who came to my house with her daughter. On learning I was a Christian, she raised the issue of God’s name and was immediately stumped when I simply asked, ‘Can you show me where Jesus used the name?’
She couldn’t, of course, but responded with John 17:6, ‘He must have used it to make it known,’ an inference drawn where the Bible is silent. She followed with an appeal to Matthew 6:9, insisting you can’t sanctify God’s name if you don’t use it. This time context is the answer. Jesus taught his disciples to call God ‘Father.’ Mt.6:9
Realising she had no answer for me, this lady promised to go to the elders at the Kingdom Hall and come back a week later. To her credit, she returned only to tell me there are no examples in the New Testament of Jesus, or anyone else, using the name. She didn’t want to stop and talk, so I replied, ‘I hope you remember this the next time the Society tells you to teach people he did.’
The first, and most striking thing about this conversation is that the name of God is the stock in trade of Jehovah’s Witnesses. The clue is in the name; Jehovah’s Witnesses. You might expect, then, that a Jehovah’s Witness would have an answer to my question at her fingertips. However, the confidence with which she spoke was founded, not on Bible knowledge, but on what the organisation had told her.
Secondly, having failed to answer a question for which she should have had a ready answer, she was still confident that what she had been taught would check out back at the Kingdom Hall. Surely, the fault must lie with her and not with the Society. it didn’t check out, and it wasn’t her fault.
Thirdly, her insistence on emphasising God’s name was simply and easily met by an appeal to context and basic Bible knowledge. I did nothing special, I simply read my Bible, took my time, and asked a question. I stood my ground because I knew what the Bible said, she lost her ground because she didn’t.
Before you credit Jehovah’s Witnesses with qualities they don’t have think about this:
They can only answer ‘common’ objections, they are not so good at addressing questions that don’t fit their pattern of thinking. Do you have a fuller, more comprehensive pattern of Bible thinking?
They are able to turn to proof texts easily enough, but they are not so good at freely navigating the Bible. Do you know your way around the Bible?
Their grasp of the Greek is not learned, it’s rehearsed. It’s good to carefully employ ideas you have picked up over the years, but don’t do what they do and pretend you know Greek. Instead, say, ‘Why don’t we look that up?’ There are plenty of good, reliable sources online, and their own Interlinear New Testament often trips them up.
They know what they have been taught, but they don’t know what the Bible teaches. Do you know what the Bible teaches? If you do then they are the ones who should be worried, not you.
Jehovah’s Witnesses don’t know the Bible, they know their Bible, and that selectively. Is your knowledge of the Bible better than simple proof-texting? Do you know you’re way around God’s Word? If so, be encouraged, be bold. Be prepared to ask questions. Have an objective in mind so you can guide the conversation. I always have the cross in view and try to move them a little closer to where this all matters.
Remember what Paul wrote to the church at Corinth, ‘What is Apollos? What is Paul? Servants through whom you believed, as the Lord assigned to each. I planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the growth. So neither he who plants or he who waters is anything, but only God who gives the growth.’
We are servants, called to plant and water. We are not called to make something happen, so stop trying to do God’s work for him. That’s where all the fear and frustration comes from, not understanding our role in all this; and the fiction that Jehovah’s Witnesses ‘know the Bible.’ Enjoy the conversation, plant seeds, water seeds, and leave the rest to the God.
That knock at the door may be inconvenient. It isn’t always possible to drop a busy life and stop to chat. However, for the typical Christian that knock should not be cause for fear, but should be seen as an opportunity to be a Witness for Jesus. Because we do know the Bible, and they don’t. Right?
