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FAQ
Answers to common questions about Jehovah’s Witnesses
Frequently Asked Questions
The name Jehovah results from a misunderstanding: ” … the Hebrew name of God was most likely Yahweh.
Secured are only the consonants YHWH (the final H is mute). Since the Jewish scholars, who provided the Hebrew text with vowels, no longer pronounced the name of God out of timidity, instead of the original vowels, they used the vowels of the Hebrew word for Lord which should be spoken at this point (adonaj; the initial a in the spelling shortened to e). Due to a misunderstanding, it later became the artificial word JeHoVaH. The original form of the name of God can be inferred from the short form Jah which is contained for example in HalleluJah (do praise Yahweh), as well as from ancient Greek texts.”
(Quotation from “Die Bibel — die gute Nachricht”, page 372, revidierte Fassung 2000, Deutsche Bibelgesellschaft Stuttgart)
Jehovah’s Witnesses are a Christian denomination. They refer to the Old and the New Testaments but misinterpret these Scriptures in hair-raising ways. For example, they claim that the Bible contains predictions for our time today and God’s kingdom is a real government in heaven (presided over by Jesus), established in 1914 AD and prophesied 2520 years earlier in the Old Testament. This heavenly government will very soon, they claim, replace all present-day governments on earth and create an earthly paradise. However, they do not provide biblical evidence. All of their Bible quotes on this are misquotes. All their biblical quotations have nothing to do with modern times, but refer exclusively to antiquity.
(see The 7 Times and Résumé)
Yes, they do. They condemn all other Christian and non-Christian religions as ‘false religion’:
“Like counterfeit money, false religion has no real value … True religion leads to everlasting life. False religion leads to destruction … the way we worship God means either life or death for us.” (Quotation from “What Does the Bible Really Teach?” page 145, Watch Tower Bible and Tract Society, 2008, PDF)
(see God’s New People, Satan, Armageddon and the False Religions and Résumé)
“Like every individual Witness today, he knows he has the truth, he has to tell people around him. … This (the Watch Tower Society) is not a work of man, this is a work of Jehovah God. It’s evident, that Jehovah had already chosen this Organisation.” (Quotation from “Faith in Action” Part 1, DVD of Jehovah’s Witnesses)
Yes, they do.
“During that thousand-year period, Jesus Christ will ‘judge the living and the dead’. (2 Timothy 4:1) ‘The living’ will be the ‘great crowd’ * (= Jehovah’s Witnesses) that survives Armageddon. (Revelation 7:9-17)” “True religion leads to everlasting life. False religion leads to destruction.” (Quotations from “What Does the Bible Really Teach?”, pages 214 and 145, Watch Tower Bible and Tract Society, 2005, PDF)
* “Pay Attention to Daniel’s Prophecy!” page 292, Watch Tower Bible and Tract Society, 1999 (PDF) (see Satan, Armageddon and the False Religions)
No, they are not.
Jehovah’s Witnesses call all other religions “false religion”, the members of all other Christian denominations “counterfeit Christians” and their rites “poisonous waste”.
“Suppose you found out that your whole neighbourhood has been contaminated. Someone has secretly been dumping poisonous waste in the area, and now the situation is life threatening. What would you do? No doubt, you would move away if you could. But after doing that, you would still face this serious question, ‘Have I been poisoned?’
A similar situation arises with regard to false religion. The Bible teaches that such worship is contaminated with unclean teachings and practices. (2 Corinthians 6:17) That is why it is important for you to get out of ‘Babylon the Great’, the world empire of false religion. (Revelation 18:2,4)”
(Quotation from “What Does the Bible Really Teach?” page 154, Watch Tower Bible and Tract Society, 2005, PDF)
(see God’s New People, Satan, Armageddon and the False Religions)
Because they have not understood the Bible. A ban on blood transfusion cannot be deduced from the Bible.
Yes, they do.
They believe in God’s creation of Adam and Eve in 4026 BC and reject Darwin’s theory of evolution.
Yes, but they don’t really understand it.
They believe the Old Testament contains prophecies for modern times. But in fact the prophecies of the Old Testament only refer to antiquity. They have nothing to do with modern times.
(see The 7 Times, The Wicked Little Horn and The Two Kings Change Identities)
Yes, they did. Examples include the verse Daniel 9:26, the replacement of the word hell with Gehenna and the word crucify with impale in many verses in the Bible.
“Bible forgery, ‘New World Translation’: The ‘New World Translation’ of Jehovah’s Witnesses cannot really be called ‘Translation’, as the Holy Scripture has been adapted to special teachings of Jehovah’s Witnesses” (bibelstudium.de)
(see The Judgment)
Because their predictions did not come true, such as Armageddon in 1914, 1925 and 1935. Therefore, they invented a heavenly government, which is said to have been established in 1914 AD under the presidency of Jesus.
(see God’s Kingdom)
Because they believe Jesus died on a stake. But they do not provide credible evidence for this thesis.
No, because for them other religions are Satan’s work, a “religious empire”, “the world empire of false religion”, “demon-inspired”, “Babylon the Great” who “misleads all the nations by means of her spiritistic practices” and fights the only true religion – that of Jehovah’s Witnesses.
(“What Does the Bible Really Teach?” page 220, Watch Tower Bible and Tract Society, 2005, PDF)
(see God’s New People, Satan, Armageddon and the False Religions, Résumé)
Yes and no.
On the one hand, they claim that there is no immortal soul, that after their death humans are kept in so-called “memorial tombs” until the day of their resurrection. On the other hand, they claim that their deceased elite members would live on in heaven as “immortal spirits”. But if there are no immortal souls – then what are these “immortal spirits”?
(What Does the Bible Really Teach?” page 72; “Pay Attention to Daniel’s Prophecy!” page 146, Watch Tower Bible and Tract Society)
(see The Wicked Little Horn)
Basically, the “memorial tombs” of Jehovah’s Witnesses are freezers for souls and the “immortal spirits” are active, non-frozen souls in heaven.
But this is something that Jehovah’s Witnesses have not yet realized.
Yes and no.
On the one hand they deny the existence of a hell and have replaced the word “hell” with the term “Gehenna” in their own Bible (“New World Translation of the Holy Scriptures”, 1984). On the other hand, however, there is talk of a “fiery Gehenna” (Matthew 5:22) and of a “Gehenna … where … the fire is not put out” (Mark 9:47-48).
(see The Judgment)
“Satan … has promoted false religion, effectively filling the world with counterfeit Christians. As a result, many people have been misled.”
(Quotation from “Pay Attention to Daniel’s Prophecy!” page 288, Watchtower Bible- and Tract Society, 1999)
(see God’s New People, Satan, Armageddon and the False Religions, Résumé)
Satan
“The real ruler of this world is Satan the Devil.”
(Quotation from “What Does the Bible Really Teach?”, page 108. Watch Tower Bible and Tract Society, 2005, PDF)
There are several reasons for this. One essential reason is their condemnation of all other religions as “false religion” and their rites and customs as “poisonous waste”.
They also misinterpret the Bible in a hair-raising way.
(see God’s New People, Satan, Armageddon and the False Religions, The 70 Weeks, Nebuchadnezzar’s Dream, Résumé)
Jehovah’s Witnesses are a typical fundamentalist end-time sect, which considers a theocracy to be the ideal form of government. Tolerance of faith is a foreign word for them.
Their credo is:
‘Think like us or die at the Battle of Armageddon!’
(see God’s New People, The Dent and the Paradise, The Judgment, The Revelation, Satan, Armageddon and the False Religions, Résumé)
No, but this book proves in an impressive way that Jehovah’s Witnesses have not understood the Bible.
(see Résumé)
We cannot offer any advice or help here on how to leave the cult of the Jehovah’s Witness community.
However, for Jehovah’s Witnesses who want to take this step, there are various offers of help.
A good overview and starting point for further research is provided, for example, by the website and link list of Netzwerk Sektenausstieg e. V. (mainly in German): https://www.sektenausstieg.net/links.