On the other side was Christian Science, Mormonism, and the catalyst of the future Watch Tower, Adventism.

SATAN

Of course, the history of the Jehovah’s Witness lies must begin in the mind of the Enemy of our soul. From day one in the Garden he was questioning the Word of God. Israel’s story is one of enticement to other gods, by which that nation fell into the hands of the empires of their day.

Jesus was surrounded by those who challenged His truths. And after His return to Heaven, the attacks continued. The apostle John was already responding to groups of philosophers and even supposed believers who were getting it wrong about who Jesus is. Notice the use of the word “know” in his epistles. The knowledge given by God is juxtaposed in his mind to the so-called knowing of the Gnostics.

Many false prophets and antichrists had gone out into John’s world. And after the days of John. The church fathers slowly took into their fellowships and minds the teachings of men unworthy the name of Jesus. As they do to this day.

ARIUS

And decades before one Arius of Libya, a presbyter in the Egyptian Church, would intensify the attack on the person of Jesus in the early 4th century, the awful idea had been floated and discussed and argued, namely , that Jesus is not really God after all.

Paul of Samasota would say in the third century that Jesus was born a mere man, and “became” (a) God later. Lucian of Antioch, mentor of Arius, would espouse similar notions.

The final formation of that doctrine, intensified and passed on by Arius, though condemned soundly by the church of that day, was that Jesus was no more than a creation of the Father, therefore distinct from the Father, therefore subordinate to the Father.

The Nicean Council of 325 and the first Council of Constantinople, soundly and forever rejected this blasphemous notion…

…from the church, that is. But not from the world. Satan’s lies continue. In the Germanic tribes coming to Christ from the 5th to the 7th centuries, this particular lie continued to be spread. After the Protestant Reformation allowed free thought in the world, without martyrdom attached, it surfaced again. Among some Unitarians, it was also present.

And most famously, and to the point of our study, it came alive once more in the Watch Tower Bible and Tract Society.

The Witnesses do not claim to be Arians, and indeed their version of the lie, though very similar in parts, actually takes Arius to a new level: they even deny the person of the Holy Spirit!

Anyway, the lie is not new. From the garden until now, the person and character and word of the Creator is under attack. I speak here of only a more recent group to grab hold of this “wisdom” from below.

Be it known that the group we study is a human organization of human and Satanic derivation. Begun by and continued by some very strong and very organized, and now very rich, men.

William Miller/Adventism. 1830’s

Many things came out of the second “Great Awakening” of the United States. Not all of them were of the finest quality. William Miller appeared during this time and soon gathered a following because of the sincere attempt he had made to set dates for the coming of Jesus, that is, Jesus’ “advent.” The Millerites were the founding branch of this fairly sizeable Adventist movement, the main branch for some time. Between 50,000 and 100 ,0000 people got behind William Miller and his predictions.As with many groups that began in that era, the Adventists differed on a lot of smaller issues, but came together on some of the basics of the faith. They truly believed the Scriptures to be literally the Word of God. But their emphasis, their reason to be, was the coming again of Jesus to the Earth, and knowing the exact date thereof.

The Adventists, by the way, have survived to the present time, with the largest group being the Seventh-day branch, an evangelical group with a mixture of legalism in it that has caused some to stay away from it.

Early on, date-setters among this new denomination turned to the Witness trick of moving from literal to spiritual –as they called it – fulfillment of their prophecies. Jesus was supposed to return in 1844, for example (October 22 to be exact). His form did not fill the sky on that day. Many left the movement, but many swallowed hard and moved on. Others decided that it really had happened, but “spiritually,” by which they mean “invisibly, so you can’t prove us wrong.”

Famous Adventist Nelson Barbour caught the attention of one Charles Taze Russell around this time. Russell was fascinated by it all, and though he never officially joined the Adventists, there is no question that Adventism joined him.