Watch Tower Bible and Tract Society of Pennsylvania

You know, Christians are viewed as spiritually deceived to the truth, blind, spiritually blinded by the devil almost.

All Christian denominations are grouped together by the Watchtower Society as part of what they call Christendom.

And that Christendom is the primary part of the great harlot of Revelation, Babylon the Great, what they will call the world empire of false religion.

So we were taught to believe that Christendom christian pastors were agents of satan peddling pagan doctrines like the trinity and the immortality of the soul and eternal punishment in hell and that everyone who was in a christian denomination was slated for destruction at armageddon unless they left their churches and joined the watchtower society so there's definitely this sense of superiority that comes Oh, you're a Christian.

Well, we know our Bible better than you.

You're deceived.

those cracks.

And those beginning cracks are, well, they're not always right.

Paths to Lutheranism series concludes Friday on Issues Etc.

We'll discuss Pastor Matthew Fenn's journey from the Watchtower Bible and Tract Society, the Jehovah's Witnesses, and we'll talk with Pastor Suhar Savlotsky about confessional Lutheran mission work in Israel.

The comfort of the gospel, well, it can be occasionally found in American evangelicalism, but it can always be found in confessional Lutheranism.

I'm Todd Wilkin.

Our Paths to Lutheranism series continues Thursday on Issues Etc.

We'll discuss Pastor Matthew Fenn's journey from the Watchtower Bible and Tract Society and Pastor Kevin Parviz's journey from Judaism.

I'm Todd Wilkin.

Thanks for listening.

And as I like to do for the brave Jehovah's Witnesses who may be sitting at this table this week, Just a reminder that everything, everything presented at the annual meeting comes directly from Jesus Christ himself up there in the heavens, allegedly.

How about a reminder from those 11 chefs in the kitchen, otherwise known as the governing body? From the July 2022 Watchtower, page 10, paragraph 9, they remind us about where and who is serving up this delicious spiritual food.

It says, quote, Jesus foretold that during the time of the end he would appoint a faithful and discreet slave to provide spiritual food.

So, we would expect that slave to be hard at work in our day.

Our father, Jehovah.

He's trying to pass it off on the fact that he didn't have confidence in us to preach unless we turned in a field service report.

I mean, what? Is he serious? Because even at this hour, you can access the Watchtower library and find things like this for those who don't believe it used to be true.

The Watchtower of June 1st, 2005, paragraph 12 tells us, quote, such reports provide a realistic picture of what is done in the world field.

And the first question that I would have about any dialogue with the Jehovah's Witnesses, why concede... a major premise of the Jehovah's Witnesses from the outset.

And what is that premise? Well, the Jehovah's Witness begins with the assumption that the way we're going to settle theological arguments is we're going to look at Scripture, and from their side, informed by the Watchtower Society.

Why do I want to do that? I don't think that appeals to the Bible, as interpreted by the Watchtower Society, have anything to do with authoritatively determining the content of the Christian faith.

at all, even if you take the Watchtower Society out of the consideration.

Why should I concede something that I don't believe, namely, that the way you and I need to settle our theological differences is by direct appeal to Holy Scripture and our own interpretive lights? That's a premise of the Watchtower Society, not of the Catholic Church, nor one that I think can be reasonably maintained.

So before I do that, I want to start with a completely different question.

The question I want to start with is, did Jesus Christ make any authoritative arrangements for the transmission of the Christian faith? Did he arrange for the authoritative transmission, make any provisions for the authoritative transmission of the Christian faith down through the centuries? That's a very simple question.

It's one of those three.

This would be a whole other thing.

I've done videos on this in the past, but go to your Watchtower library and find out, when does Watchtower say that the king of Babylon was punished? They're going to tell you 539.

So, when the 70 years are fulfilled, then in 539, I will punish the king of Babylon.

That's Watchtower's own reasoning.

But no, they say the seven years ends in 537.

The math doesn't math.

But Jehovah's modern-day servants did need to understand that.

And they did.

and demoted from the creator of all things to a mere creature who created all other things.

According to the translation committee of the Watchtower Society, Jesus was created by God as the Archangel Michael.

During his earthly sojourn, he was merely human.

And after his crucifixion, he was recreated as an immaterial spirit creature.

And so in Matthew 10.38, they've altered the text to read, And whoever does not accept his torture stake and follow after me is not worthy of me.

Because in Watchtower lore, the cross is a pagan symbol adopted by an apostate Christianity when Satan took control of the early church.

The Watchtower Society claims that the Christian scriptures have been tempered with Why? In order to eliminate the name Jehovah from the text.

In truth, however, it's the translation committee of the New World Translation that can rightly be accused of tampering.