Isaiah chapter 43 is where we are beginning our study tonight. We are looking at the Jehovah's Witnesses as you can see on our screen. This is the fourth and final cult group that we're dealing with in this series. So we are going to consider a little bit of their history tonight. And then, Lord willing, next Tuesday evening we will consider their heresy. And I just said to Jeff on the way in, I'm not sure if one Tuesday evening is sufficient. to deal with the heresies of the Jehovah's Witnesses. But we will do our best next Tuesday evening and one night to touch on the major areas of disagreement and to give you simple biblical answers to those particular beliefs. So Isaiah chapter 43 verse 10 it says, 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. Shall we pray? Father, we thank Thee tonight for Your Word. We thank You, O God, for this series of studies that we have learned from, that we have engaged in. And we pray, Father, that as we open the Scriptures tonight, as we think about this particular group, that You would help us, that You would give us an understanding of their background and of their history, of their roots. And, Father, I pray that you would help us tonight just to realize that it is so easy for anyone to go astray and anyone to follow another into apostasy. And so, Father, we just pray tonight that you would bless us, that you would encourage us, that you would help us to stay focused, and that all that is said and done might bring glory and honor to the Lord Jesus, in whose name we pray. Amen. Now we've all experienced it probably at some point in our lives. You know how it goes. It's an early Saturday morning, or it's a lazy Sunday afternoon. You're sitting at home, and there is that unexpected knock at the door. And you wonder, who can that be? Maybe you're in the middle of dinner, or maybe you've been busy doing some housework on Saturday morning, or preparing to go out for the day, or whatever it is. And you open the door, and there stands two very nicely dressed people, usually with a briefcase or two in hand, and they greet you very friendly and very pleasantly, and they ask you if you've ever considered the possibility of God's kingdom upon the earth, and what you think that kingdom might be like. And so you, obviously, being a Christian, would answer that you had thought about that, and you might even suggest some things that you might expect from God's Kingdom. For example, you might expect it to do away with famine, or crime, or death, or some of these things. And the Jehovah's Witness will very kindly smile and I commend you on your knowledge and they will then produce a magazine and in the magazine usually they have a very nice double page picture with all the various aspects and benefits of God's kingdom detailed, portrayed on it and they will go through all of those things and they'll have you in agreement with them and then they will begin to talk about how we get into the kingdom and they will start to talk about God's name and the importance of knowing God's name and using God's name. And they'll use some logic, some human logic, like everybody likes to be called by their name, nobody likes to be called by their office alone, and so on. And before you know it, they're twisting you and turning you, and you don't know which end of you is up. Eventually at the end they will give you a magazine, perhaps The Watchtower, perhaps Awake, or perhaps some other magazine specific to the conversation that you have just had. And they will then rearrange to come back and visit you perhaps the following week. if you've got some questions, if they think they've had a very good time, or another time when they're calling through the neighborhood. And then they'll leave you. Well, we've all been there, haven't we? Pretty much, I should think, we've all experienced that to some degree. And so the subject matter of our study tonight really needs very little introduction. It's unlikely that you have met a Christian science practitioner, but it's very likely, at some point in your life, that you have met a Jehovah's Witness, either on your doorstep, or in the community, or in your workplace, or at college, or school, or some other place. And though they are the youngest of the religious groups that we're looking at in this series, we have to say they are the most prolific. They certainly are the most numerous, and one of the most insidious of the cults that you can possibly come across. They have around 7 million active members worldwide, and they actually have also 7 million inactive members. Worldwide people who are just not engaged in the door-to-door ministry but who attend the meetings or who have been disfellowshipped from their number. They have a growth rate that runs at 3.2% per year. And there are more than 100,000 congregations of Jehovah's Witnesses in 235 countries worldwide. So it's quite a huge operation, as you can appreciate. Now I know you all enjoy the famous people section of these studies. And so here we're going to look at some famous Jehovah's Witnesses. And we found out all kinds of things about you at this point, don't worry. This chap was a Jehovah's Witness. Dwight Eisenhower. He was an inactive Jehovah's Witness. He hid the fact that he was a Jehovah's Witness, but he was at one point a Jehovah's Witness. This fellow is a very well-known Jehovah's Witness, Hank Marvin from the Shadows, world-famous guitar player. And of course, he makes no secret of the fact that he has long time been a Jehovah's Witness and is yet a Jehovah's Witness. We're interested here in the lady on the right of the picture. Does anybody know who that is? She won Fiv Nicholson. Given away your age now, she won what was considered a huge amount of money at the time, I think it was about £152,000. I think it was back in the 1960s, 50s, 60s, anything around there. She was considered, you know, it was like winning the lottery today. And of course she coined the phrase, spend, spend, spend. And she spent, spent, spent and she became bankrupt in no time at all, living a fast lifestyle. And in 1979 she converted to being a Jehovah's Witness and has been a Jehovah's Witness ever since. So you never know, she might pop up on your doorstep one day. Or better no, one's dead and the other one just looks like she's dead. One's dead, the Jacksons, alright. Michael Jackson and Janet Jackson. Michael Jackson and Janet Jackson both are inactive Jehovah's Witnesses. Michael Jackson was disfellowshipped from the Jehovah's Witnesses after he made the Thriller video which was very occultic in its content. And of course it tarnished the image of the Jehovah's Witnesses. And Janet Jackson is known for quite raunchy dances and all the rest of it. So naturally the Jehovah's Witnesses have released them a little bit. This woman is from a Jehovah's Witness home. Does anyone know who this is? Naomi Campbell. Who said Leona Lewis? Alright. Leona Lewis? Anyway. Anyway, it is not Leona Lewis, it is Naomi Campbell, the supermodel. And you might be surprised to find she's a Jehovah's Witness, given that she's normally associated with foul-mouthed tirades and dabbling with drugs. And I think even now she's encased in a legal battle over a diamond, a blood diamond of some kind, I think. But anyway, so obviously she's not an active Jehovah's Witness. It's unlikely that she's going to arrive on your doorstep any time soon. But you never know, she may become active again and one day... She could sing. Okay, moving swiftly on. This chap is a famous celebrity, Peter Andre. Yep, Peter Andre is also an active Jehovah's Witness. As this chap, Prince. Prince is an active Jehovah's Witness. He was a Seventh-day Adventist. We've already had him in this series. We saw him as someone who was at one point Adventist. But he subsequently converted, he and his wife, both after they lost a child, became Jehovah's Witnesses. And although he's not in our neighborhood, he does do door-to-door visitation with the Jehovah's Witnesses in America. How weird would that be? And of course, perhaps the most famous Jehovah's Witnesses, the Williams sisters, Venus and Serena Williams, multiple Wimbledon champions. And they are both active Jehovah's Witnesses, which again means that they would be involved in door-to-door visitation. And they do go knocking on doors in the United States of America. And I dare say, you know, if you don't see them in their tennis outfits, you probably don't even realize who they are when they come and knock your door. But anyway, those are some of the famous Jehovah's Witnesses that we have. Not all of them are active, but they are in some way or have been in some way connected or are still connected with the Jehovah's Witnesses. So, just who are the Jehovah's Witnesses and where did they come from? That's the question we want to pursue tonight. And to understand something about the beginning of the Jehovah's Witnesses, we kind of have to backtrack a little bit in our studies. And we have to go back to a man whose name has already come up in one of our studies, a man by the name of William Miller. Okay, if you don't remember that name. William Miller was a Baptist layman who predicted the coming of Christ. He said that that would happen in 1844. And he was one whose teachings heavily influenced Ellen G. White and the Seventh-day Adventist movement. And they, of course, were born out of William Miller's erroneous teachings, which he himself He acknowledged that he was wrong to set a date and he admitted his mistake and his error. But, you say, what's this got to do with the Jehovah's Witness movement? Well, living around this same period in time, there was this young man, Charles Taze Russell, born in 1852, and he was born in Pennsylvania. He was the son of Joseph and Anna Elisa Russell, and he was raised in a Presbyterian home. He wasn't happy with Presbyterianism, particularly he wasn't happy with the doctrine of hell, and later on, of course, he would reject the Trinity, and the deity of Christ, and the person of the Holy Ghost, and so on. In that regard he has some commonality with Mary Baker Eddy. Remember she was brought up in a Congregationalist home and she struggled with some of the doctrines that her father, who was a strict Calvinist, taught. In particular the doctrine of predestination as well as the doctrine of eternal damnation. Well, as a teenager, a young boy in his late teens, mid to late teens, Charles Russell became enamored with the teachings of William Miller and of the Adventist movement and he himself became a Millerite or Adventist for a while. And along with others, he formed an independent study group to look into the Bible. And also along with a man named Nelson Barber, he co-wrote a book called The Three Worlds, in which they taught that Christ had returned in 1874. Now remember, the Adventists were flagging up the coming of Christ. He's coming, he's coming, he's coming. He didn't come. So what did they do? They said, well, we have to figure this out somehow. And so they had this idea of a spiritual coming. He didn't physically come, but he spiritually came. And so they recalculated and they said, actually it was not 1844, it was 1874. Christ came spiritually. And he bought into this, he wrote this book, The Three Worlds, and they taught that Christ had returned in 1874, and that 1914 would mark the end of a 2,520 year period called in scripture, the times of the Gentiles. Now the Bible does talk about the times of the Gentiles, but certainly there's no means or method for calculating that particular time period. So, we should think about and mark that date in your mind, 1914, because that was the first prediction made by the Jehovah's Witnesses, one of many false prophecies that they would make pertaining to the Battle of Armageddon. And they acknowledged that this was part of their past, if you really pin them down on it. And they say, well, you know, we're always learning, we're always trying to grow, and all the rest of it. But the point is that they very clearly, and we'll see some of the statements, prophesied and predicted this would happen and if it didn't happen, what does that make you? A false prophet. So the thing was built upon false prophecy from day one. By July of 1879 he had forsaken his friend Barber and he began publishing a magazine called Zion's Watchtower and Herald of Christ's Presence. And he used this vehicle to highlight his own personal beliefs and interpretations of the Bible and the chronology of the Bible. And in particular, his belief that the world was in the last days and that there was a new age imminent. Now, we've got to understand the term last days. Whilst it may in our minds conjure up the end of the era, Actually, the last days have been going on since the times of the apostles. So we've always been in the last days. So we shouldn't think of it, you know, sometimes in Northern Ireland they have this wonderful prayer where they say, Lord, we know we're in the last of the last days. Well, actually, we don't know that we're in the last of the last days, if the truth be told. But we do know that we are in the last days. And so he held that idea that the term intimated the very end of time, and all of that meant the Battle of Armageddon and so forth. In 1881, he formed Zion, or he renamed this as the Zion Watchtower Track Society. That was formed in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. And it was a society that engaged in the publication of Bibles and other literature. And then in 1884, he became the first president of this particular society when it was legally incorporated in Pennsylvania. By 1884, the society was renamed the Watchtower Tract and Bible Society, which is what you may have heard today. That's the name you may have heard today. It's often on their publications. In 1887, he published a book called The Millennial Dawn. It was the first of six books, really seven books, entitled The Studies of Scriptures. And that series of seven books was finished by his successor. The seventh was completed by his successor, The Final Mystery. But the first six were written by Charles T.S. Russell. And the first of those was entitled The Millennial Dawn. And so, Jehovah's Witnesses were initially known as teaching Millennial Dawnism, or the Millennial Dawn Movement. And that's what they would have been known as in the late 1800s, even into the early 1900s. In 1889, he taught that the Battle of the Great Day of God Almighty will end in A.D. 1914 with the complete overthrow of Earth's present rulership. And he said that battle is already commenced. So he specifically targeted this date, 1914, as being the date of the Battle of Armageddon and the overthrow of human government. a very specific prophecy. It wasn't just him, you know, speculating. He wasn't speculating about this. He was saying that this was a clear event based upon his study of scripture and his understanding of the times and the chronology of events and that this would happen in 1914. Well, you can imagine what that does for your numbers If you're the only group who's tuned in to when Armageddon's going to happen, and you have to be part of that group to avoid Armageddon, well, people who would be weak-minded souls would, of course, rush to get in, wouldn't they? And so this is often a technique used by the Jehovah's Witnesses. When their numbers begin to fall, they flag up the nearness of Armageddon, and people then, particularly Those who are inactive become active again because they fear that they're going to be destroyed in this particular battle. So, by this stage, the Watchtower movement was gathering quite a few congregations. They were autonomous congregations. They were gathering to study the Bible, to study the writings of Charles T.S. Russell, including his books, the studies in scripture. And he considered the idea of a formalization of this religious movement to be wholly unnecessary. And he declared that the group had no record of its members, of their names, no creeds, and no sectarian name. So they just kind of moseyed along there for a while like that. And he became ever more popular. In 1903, up to 4,000 newspapers worldwide were actually publishing the sermons of Charles T.S. Russell. Can you imagine a newspaper today publishing anybody's sermons? It just would be unheard of. But of course back then, unlike now, you know, now we've got more pictures than writing. Then they had more writing than pictures. And people did actually have to read the newspaper and not just look at the pictures. And so they would use sermons sometimes to fill up the space. 4,000 newspapers worldwide carried his message and eventually that readership extended to some 15 million people in the United States and Canada. That's how many people were reading Charles Russell's thoughts. In 1910 he announced that the group would now identify itself under the name the International Bible Students Association. So they're no longer the Millennial Dawnists, or teaching Millennial Dawnism, or being known by that rather, but now they have this official title, International Bible Students Association. In January 1914, the Bible Students began public showings of a photo drama of creation. And it was a presentation of Charles Russell's teachings that synchronized motion pictures with phonographic records containing recorded talks by Russell and music. So when you think about that, from the very earliest days of this organization, they have used the visual. to draw people in. And that's what they do now. You know, you look at their magazines and they use a lot of pictures and graphics and you think that what they're showing you has merit, that it has substance, because after all, the camera never lies, right? A picture's worth a thousand words, and so on. And so they, right from the earliest days, they were using that kind of technology to promote their cause. And worldwide, attendance in 1914 exceeded 9 million. Now, of course, what happened in 1914 is that Armageddon didn't happen. I'm sure when the World War I broke out, they were pretty excited. They probably thought, well, here it is. Here is Armageddon, 1914. All the armies of the world are starting to amass, and you can see how people were filled with fear. That being the case, World War I undoubtedly was a terrible event, the war to end all wars until World War II came. You can well see how people would be filled with fear and would think that there was something to Charles Russell's chronology and to his understanding of the times. But 1914 came, 1914 went, Russell was revealed as a false prophet and a false teacher, and as with all Adventist-based cults who date-set and get the date wrong, well, it's not that your doctrine is wrong, it's just that your date is wrong, and so what you have to do is find another date. And so they chose another date, in fact they chose several other dates, 1918 and then 1925 became very popular. Charles Russell died in 1916. By that stage he had been convicted in court of perjury and fraud. He was asked in court in a particular trial if he could read Greek. He said yes. The lawyer then presented him with the Greek alphabet and asked him if he would identify certain Greek letters. He couldn't identify any of those letters and so the lawyer asked again, can you read Greek? And he said no. evidently perjuring himself in the court of law. He was convicted of perjury. He was convicted of fraud. And three years before he died, his wife divorced him. And he then died, I think in Kansas, if I remember correctly. I may be wrong about that. But he died on this preaching circuit, teaching his particular view of scripture. And I think that's kind of interesting because we've seen a little bit of that in all of these cults. Of course, Joseph Smith, he wound up in prison, didn't he? Mary Baker Eddy, she was divorced and others were done for fraud. And you see all of these same repetitious events occurring in all of these cults and cult leaders around that time. Well, he died and after his death he was replaced by this chap. Joseph Franklin Rutherford. He became the second president of the Watchtower Bible and Tract Society. And Rutherford was a man who was accredited with a fair degree of organizational skill. He was one who, when he assumed leadership, began restructuring the organization. He also began to change some of its doctrines. A matter that caused the group to split. Now you need to remember that. They split under Rutherford, Joseph Rutherford. And I'll tell you why that's important a little bit later on. So what happened was, when Rutherford began tampering with the whole organization, The Board of Directors got upset. They used to have this Board of Directors and they contested with him. There was a power struggle went on and he being a very powerful figure managed to dismiss four of the Board of Directors and effectively he ascended to a position where he monopolized the organization and where he effectively became almost a people figure with it. His word was law. He was going to direct things from the top. And so that's what he did. On the same day that he dismissed all of these board directors, he also produced this, The Finished Mystery, the seventh in the series of studies in the scriptures, which he described as being the posthumous work of Charles T.S. Russell. In fact, he wrote a large portion of it. And in writing this particular manual, he very strongly criticized Roman Catholicism and Protestantism, the churches, that is the Roman Catholic Church and the Protestant churches, because of their involvement in World War I. So they were very strongly pacifistic, he was anyway, and he condemned Outright, the involvement of other church groups in these wars, or in this war. And because of his stance, he was imprisoned in America. He was done for draft evasion. And that even made him more angry and more determined against the state. He now began to see the state as a tool of the devil. In that regard, even to this day, Jehovah's Witnesses still refuse to be involved in the military and they refuse to vote in elections because they still regard the government as being an instrument of Satan, which is exactly the opposite to what the Bible says. Romans 13 says that the government is the minister of God to thee, not the minister of Satan to thee. That the government is there for good and not for evil. So, you know, this is really contrary to the scriptures. Anyway, Rutherford, as I've put up here, he predicted Armageddon for 1925. He made the organisation a lot less democratic than it had been. In fact, he introduced the idea of a theocratic government. Now that's a wonderful term, but it basically means that this organization represents God and to disobey the government of the organization is to disobey God. So in other words, to be right with God, you have to do what the Jehovah's Witnesses tell you to do. And this is a good point. When they're talking with you and they always make this point that the word Trinity isn't in the Bible, I would challenge them to find the word theocratic in the Bible. It's not there. So they're quite happy to use these terms when they want to and then make moot points when it suits them. But nevertheless, that was his doing. He came up with this idea. He centralized the control of the organization and he made obedience to the movement mandatory as being obedience to God himself. He was also responsible for making missionary endeavor a condition of the Jehovah's Witnesses. In other words, when you join the Jehovah's Witnesses, it's not like our church where we say, we're going to go out leafleting or knocking on doors this weekend. Who would like to come? Why don't you join us? It's not like that. When you join, it's mandatory to knock on doors. And Rutherford made it so. And then in 1931, he changed the name to the Jehovah's Witnesses. And that's what they've been known as ever since. He also coined the phrase Kingdom So we've all passed by the Kingdom Hall of Jehovah's Witnesses. If you haven't passed by them, there's one right next door virtually to Emanuel Church. You can't miss it. It's just up the road a little bit. In fact, what's quite humorous is there's a warehouse between those two buildings and the warehouse used to be run by a man called Mr. Bible. And so the thing that came between the Jehovah's Witnesses and the Emanuel Church was the Bible. I always liked that. But nevertheless, he made this name change in 1931. And he based it on Isaiah 43.10, where we began our text, our time together tonight. "'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.' So they say, well, you see, we are God's witnesses. We are Jehovah's witnesses. Jehovah saith, You are my witnesses, and my servant, whom I have chosen. We are God's chosen vessel, His organization upon the earth. And of course, if you get to debate with them, they will tell you that the world was created by Jesus, that God created Jesus, and that Jesus created the world, and Jesus is not God, but He's an a-God, which is kind of interesting when you consider that their theme text here in Isaiah 43.10 says, Before me there was no God formed, Neither shall there be after me. So right there, they defeat one of their own doctrines right on their theme verse. So, it's a curious thing. Anyway, World War II eventually followed on from World War I, and Jehovah's Witnesses continued to find themselves in trouble with government. In Germany, they refused to make the Nazi salute, nor indeed to salute the swastika, which we might say is fair enough. But nevertheless, because of that, half of their number were incarcerated in concentration camps, and a quarter of all German Jehovah's Witnesses were murdered by the Nazis in World War II. Well, how did they get along with the Allies? Well, unfortunately, they wouldn't join the Allied side either. And they resisted conscription and being drafted into the army. And in the United States, 75% of imprisoned conscientious objectors were Jehovah's Witness. Now, this no doubt, you know, again strengthened their resolve against government, strengthened the notion that they were God's organization on earth. And you can't doubt their commitment, you know. Here are people who were quite prepared to go to concentration camps, to go to prison, even to go to death. in order to uphold the things that they believed. So there's no question about their commitment to these things. They're absolutely rock solid as far as their convictions. Rutherford died then in 1942. And like his predecessor, he also lived long enough to see the failure of his 1925 false prophecy. So, what happens if your prophecy fails? Here's what he taught. He said, "...therefore we may confidently expect that 1925 will mark the return of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and the faithful prophets of old, particularly those named by the Apostle in Hebrews 11, to the condition of human perfection." And that's in a booklet called, Millions Now Living Will Never Die. So, obviously, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob didn't make an appearance. The world is not, sadly, in that perfect condition. And Mr. Rutherford, sadly for him, not only lived long enough to see his prophecy failed, he lived long enough to see the start of World War II and realized that the world was not a perfect place and people were not in the perfect condition. Now, what do you do when your prophecy failed in 1914, and your prophecy failed in 1918, and your prophecy failed in 1925? Make another date. Hey, it's not our doctrine that's wrong. It's our dating system that's wrong. Obviously, we have miscalculated somewhere. Well, Rutherford passed away. And he was replaced by a fellow called Nathan Knorr. He was the third president. As you can see, he picked up in 1942. And he instituted the Theocratic Ministry School for Training of All Members and the Gilead School for Missionaries. He was very much into the education of members. He also initiated large-scale conventions at which Jehovah's Witnesses would gather once a year. And we do have one of those in our city. Every year, around Easter time, at the Passover period, they have this big memorial thing, which they say is a memorial of the death of Christ, and they meet in the Britannia Stadium. And they come en masse. Now, how many people Well that's not the same convention, they have another one back in Easter. But they do have regular conventions. So they do come into the Britannia Stadium and they make a big deal about, I guess they must fill the place out or come close to filling it out or fill a stand or something. 7 or 8,000, well that wouldn't fill the whole place but it would certainly take up a stand maybe. But, you know, the idea there is, you know, they're all, look how many of us there are, you know. And security and numbers and all of that. But anyway, he initiated these large scale conventions. He also began to buy property in Brooklyn, New York. And of course, if you look at any publication we receive from the Jehovah's Witnesses, they are all published in Brooklyn, New York. And then under his guidance, they also released the New World Translation. And he was one of the translators. Now what's interesting was they wouldn't tell you who translated the New World Translation. That's when he came to light later on, when they were again investigated concerning this. And he was one of the mysterious translators. Anyway, he'd come up with a new date. He predicted Armageddon for 1975. Cool, okay. So now we've got another date. He was followed then in 1977. He was replaced by Frederick William Franz. Notice, he too died just shortly after his prophecy failed, okay. Now at this stage the Jehovah's Witnesses are thinking, you know, we really shouldn't make so many of these predictions. This is not a good idea. And so they're now sort of, they're trying to cover the tracks of some of their predecessors here, and they're saying, well, you know, people were just, they weren't adamant about it, and they were just guessing at it, and, you know, they were, it was the best they knew, and were ever learning, and so on and so forth. But here is my prediction, not a prophecy, based on past form, at some point, they will probably again come back and say, Armageddon will be on this date. May not be in my lifetime, but it may well be. I don't know. 1975 was in my lifetime, as it was for most of you. But nevertheless, I can well see them coming back at a later date and saying, actually, we think Armageddon. Particularly if they see numbers dipping. Alright, they'll come right back at it. Anyway, Frederick William Franz came along. He too was one of the New World Translation translators. He was the predecessor, sorry, he was the face president to Nathan Knorr. And, you know, he was then himself succeeded. He was considered the greatest theologian they ever had. And he was succeeded by this fellow, Milton George Henschel in 1992. Under his presidential reign, he changed the organizational structure and went back to a more democratic type structure. And then he himself retired in the year 2000. And now we have the final president, the one at least who's in charge now, a fellow by the name of Don A. Adams. And he hasn't done a whole lot because they changed the system. He's not like a king, as the previous guys were. And so he's more of an administrator and an overseer than anything else. So that's something of their past. Now let's think about their progress. You know, the Jehovah's Witnesses are a major player among the cults. 7 million active members. Think about that. It has really blossomed since the time of Charles T. Russell. It has 100,000 congregations worldwide. They make 4,000 converts every week. They have five kingdom halls built somewhere in the world every week. 16 million copies of the Watchtower are published every fortnight. I thought that was big figure. I thought you would have went, oh, at least. Yeah, that's a lot. The insincerity of this group sometimes, honestly. Yeah, I'll do it again. Sixteen million copies of the Watchtower published every fortnight. That's better. I hope people aren't listening to that on the internet. Anyway. Seriously, that's a lot of publications. And 600,000 of those come in the United Kingdom. So they're allocated to us. And they go around. Members, get this, spend two hours a week visiting and five hours in meetings. And get this, they have to call on approximately 740 homes per convert. That's a lot of homes, isn't it? That's their average. For every 740 homes they knock, they get one convert. Now, well, they do put us to shame in some ways. And yet with all, you've got to remember too that they do this not for the love of Christ. but out of fear. They do it because it's part and parcel of their religious system and not to do it is to no longer be deemed an active member of the organization. Not to be an active member of the organization means that you fall foul of Armageddon should it happen. So, those people that are polite and pleasant and well-dressed on your doorstep, they're actually there because they're under the cush of this organization, not because they want to be there. It's not a choice that they have. Again, it's not like in our church where you're doing something like that, we say, we're doing this, would you like to come? And we expect some folks to show up and other folks will not come for whatever reason. In their case, you have to come. But it tells you something about their doggedness. 740 homes, that's a lot of homes to knock to get just one convert. Anyway, we can't doubt their zeal, but it is a zeal that's not according to knowledge. And as I said, it's driven by a fear of falling foul of the organization. All right, let's think about their publications. They have a number of publications. Here they are, some of them anyway. Their two main publications are the Watchtower Magazine and the Awake Magazine, but they publish a host of others. Some of those I've brought with me tonight, a few that I have. The one that's third along there is here, What Does the Bible Really Teach? And they have really italicized, as though other people are not really teaching the Bible. This one, Should You Believe in the Trinity, they like to give this one out a lot. I've had this, I have dozens of copies of this over the years. And you know, I've gone through it, you can see all my little notes here that I keep for such a time as this, you know. And this one, The Divine Name That Will Endure Forever. And again, you can see, look, you've got all kinds of little nice pictures in there. It's very nice. It's all laid out and all kinds of things. Can you see all my little scribbles and notes when I've been studying it? But anyway, you're welcome to take a look at those. Don't believe a word of what they say. Most of it is nonsense. But anyway, that's their publications. And they're very prolific in producing these publications. Any Jehovah's Witness that you speak to, they usually have a little case there, a briefcase. They give you the magazine, the Watchtower, or the Awake. And if you debate with them about anything, you know, pretty soon they're rustling in that briefcase and they've got another magazine to give you. And they very rarely actually just debate you from the Bible. I'm happy to say the fellow I'm speaking to has long since gave up giving me magazines. But it's very rare that they do that. It's usually the case. In fact, Hazel and I, years ago, had a couple of Scandinavian girls who were Jehovah's Witnesses come to our home. And every time I asked them a question, they reached into their briefcase, brought out another booklet, brought out another magazine. And by the time we ended the conversation, they were sitting on RSAT, and there was a big pile of books beside them. And I finished the conversation this way, and I said, now look, before you go, I want you to notice something. I said, every time I've asked you a question, you've answered me from one of these books. I said, but we've only used one book, the Word of God. And I encouraged them to read the Bible and stop reading these books about the Bible. And, you know, they took the point, I think. I think they sort of glanced and they realized, these people actually haven't made reference to one single book outside of the Bible. And it was quite a contrast with their own approach. Anyway, that's some of their publications. Let's think about some of their prophecies. As we've mentioned, the Watchtower Society has been guilty of making numerous false prophecies. These false prophecies have been well documented. For example, Charles Russell's and his studies in the scripture, volume 2, pages 98 to 99, published 1889, in case you want to get a copy. It said, in the coming 26 years, all present governments will be overthrown and dissolved. That's a false prophecy. He also said, or they also said in another booklet called The Time is at Hand in 1902, in view of this strong Bible evidence concerning the times of the Gentiles, we consider it an established truth that the final end of the kingdoms of this world and the full establishment of the kingdom of God will be accomplished by the end of A.D. 1914. So they seem pretty adamant about that. And then the quotation that's on the screen, when Uranus and Jupiter meet in the humane sign of Aquarius in 1914. Now that sounds not like a lot of Bible to me. It sounds more like the stars. Astrology. But that's what they wrote. In the Watchtower of May 1st, 1903, when Uranus and Jupiter meet in the humane sign of Aquarius in 1914, the long-promised era will have made a fair start in the work of settling man free to work out his own salvation and will ensure the ultimate realization of dreams and ideals of all poets and sages in history. Sadly, 1914 didn't quite turn out that way. Then in the spring of 1918 they wrote that it would bring upon Christendom a spasm of anguish greater even than that experienced in the fall of 1914. So now they're making a 1918 prophecy that's revealed that it's coming is to be upon nominal Zion Christendom, Babylon. And it will be a great and sore affliction, a time of trouble such as was not since there was a nation. So, that's another prophecy, 1918. Then we have this year, the year 1925. Here's what they said in regards to that, and this is Rutherford's publication, The Finnish Mystery. He said, and I love this, no doubt Satan believed the Millennial Kingdom was due to be set up in 1915. Wasn't that what the Jehovah's Witnesses believed? Now he says Satan believed it. Be that as it may, there is evidence that the establishment of the Kingdom in Palestine will probably be in 1925, ten years later than we once calculated. Then they wrote, we have no doubt whatever in regard to the chronology relating to the dates of 1874, 1914, 1918 and 1925, it was in this line of reckoning that the dates 1874, 1914 and 1918 were located and the Lord placed a stamp of his seal upon 1914 and 1918 beyond any possibility of erasure. What further evidence do we need? Armageddon would have helped. That would have been a lot of evidence, but sadly that didn't materialise. Using the same measuring line, he says, in the Watchtower of 1922, May 15th, he says, using the same measuring line, it's an easy matter to locate 1925, probably in the fall, for the beginning of the anti-typical jubilee. There could be no more question about 1925 than there was about 1914. and then the one that's on the screen. The year 1925 is a date definitely and clearly marked in scriptures, even more clearly than that of 1914. You've read that there, haven't you? Every time you open your Bible, it just shouts at you, 1925, 1925. No, it's not there, okay? Again, Rutherford writing in 1941 this time, having failed in his previous efforts, wrote, Armageddon is surely near. Now, he is in the middle of World War II, so it might have felt that way. And during that time, the Lord will clean off the earth everything that offends and is disagreeable. From now on, we shall have our heart devotion fixed on the theocracy, knowing that soon we shall journey forever together in the earth. Our hope is that within a few years, our marriage may be consummated, and by the Lord's grace, we shall have sweet children that will be an honor to the Lord. We can well defer our marriage until lasting peace comes to the earth. Alright 1975 is the next date that they got to thinking about. There's what they said in a publication entitled Kingdom Ministry. Just think brothers there are only about 90 months left before 6000 years of man's existence on earth is completed. The majority of people living today will probably be alive when Armageddon breaks out. And there are no resurrection hopes for those who are destroyed then. So now, more than ever, it is vital not to ignore that spirit of wanting to do more. That was written in 1968. He said it would be 90 months. 90 months on the 1968 brings you to 1975. 1975 came. If I remember correctly, it was a very exotic, hot summer. Not a good summer, 1975. I remember it well, but I don't remember Armageddon. But anyway, so on and on it goes. And they're still at it, even in 1989. This is what they said in the Watchtower, January 1st, 1989, page 12. They said, the Apostle Paul was spearheading the Christian missionary activity. He was also laying a foundation for work that would be completed in our 20th century. You would think so. Anyway, you can see, they're failed prophecies. And, you know, I could have kept you here all night reading prophecy after prophecy after prophecy after prophecy after prophecy. I mean, a list that you could put on a piece of toilet roll and just roll it out, you know, I mean, just go on and on and on and on ad nauseam. Indifference to my wife, we'll move on. Let's think about their pride. In the spirit of all cause, the Jehovah's Witnesses believe theirs is the sole source of truth and God's organization upon the earth. They tell us that no other group may lay claim to being the Witnesses of Jehovah and that through their organization alone that God now teaches the Bible to humanity. Here's what they said in the Watchtower of 1972. It asks the question, so does Jehovah have a prophet to help them, to warn them of the dangers and to declare things to come? These questions can be answered in the affirmative. Who is this prophet? The prophet was not one man, but was a body of men and women. It was the small group of footstep followers of Jesus Christ, known at the time as International Bible Students. Today they are known as Jehovah's Christian Witnesses. So what are they saying to you? They're saying that their organization is the prophet of God for this hour. Now that's quite a claim, isn't it? It's quite a claim. And of course, you marry that to the notion that they have this theocratic government and that to disobey them is equated to disobeying God, you start to see what an authoritarian group they are. And actually, people who go into this system find out that they're almost institutionalized by it. They end up depending upon it. They feel that you can't possibly have life outside of it. And they're fearful of leaving it. And it's all because of this very theocratic, very top-heavy system of government and of overseeing the whole organization. They claim to be Bible-believing. And you'll often hear people say, well, those Jehovah's Witnesses really know their Bible. No, they don't. They don't know their Bible. But listen carefully to Pastor Russell's words, their founder, comparing his work with the Bible. He said this, If the six volumes of Scripture studies are practically the Bible, topically arranged with Bible-proof text given, we might not improperly name the volumes the Bible in an arranged form. So he's saying, you might call his 6-6 volumes, this is the Bible. You can call that the Bible now. He says, that is to say, they are not mere comments on the Bible, but they are practically the Bible itself. Furthermore, not only do we find that people cannot see the divine plan in studying the Bible by itself, But we see also that if anyone lays the Scripture studies aside, even after he has used them, and goes to the Bible alone, though he has understood his Bible for ten years, our experience shows that within two years, he goes into darkness. Now, what did you get what he says? He says if you put aside his studies, and you study the Bible alone, after two years, you'll go into darkness. And then he says, on the other hand, if he had merely read the scripture studies with their references and not read a page of the Bible as such, he would be in the light at the end of two years because he would have the light of the scriptures. That's quite a damning statement, isn't it? Now, you talk to Jehovah's Witnesses, and again, what are they doing? They're putting out their little magazines. Have you read this one? Have you read that one? Have you got this little booklet? Can I show you this? Will you take this Watchtower magazine? Do they ever give you a Bible? Not to study on your own they don't. They'll give you a New World Translation, but I guarantee you they're going to sit down and take you through it with these little booklets. It's like Catholicism. In that regard, Catholicism says, traditionally, that God's word can only be understood in the light of the church's interpretation. That you have to have the interpretation of Catholic theologians. There's no private interpretation of the scripture. And Jehovah's Witnesses teach much the same thing. They often tell people that one of the proofs that they are God's organization, now pay attention because this is very important because they'll throw this up at you. One of the proofs that they are God's organization on earth is that they do not have schisms like other groups. So they'll say to you, so you're a born-again Christian? And you'll say, yes. They'll say, what church do you go to? Well, I go to the Baptist Church. Well, are Pentecostals born again? Well, yes they would be. Oh, I see, so Pentecostals are born again, and Baptists are born again. Well, what about Presbyterians? Are there born again Presbyterians? And you go, yes, there's born again. And they say, see, how could that be God's work? You know, God's, you know, the work of God is not divided like that. We, on the other hand, are one united body, all teaching the same thing worldwide at the same time. We are God's. Now, stop. First of all, they are a schism. They broke away from the Adventists to begin with. That's their roots. So for them to stand and tell you that they are not a schism or have no schism is an absolute lie. They're a schism from day one. They broke away from the Millerites. Secondly, they experienced a split under Rutherford. Remember that? They split under Rutherford. Remember that, okay? Then there are many breakaway groups, including names such as Jehovah's Witnesses Theocratic Organization, Jehovah's Witness Association, the True Faith Jehovah's Witnesses, the Real Church of the Worshippers of Jehovah, and so on. So there are all kinds of Jehovah's Witnesses all over the world that they choose to be blinkered about. In fact, when I pastored in Dublin, there was a breakaway from the Jehovah's Witnesses, and there was a very clear and distinct group of people who believed many of the same things that met separately from the main Jehovah's Witness body. So it really is a lie to say that they have not experienced schism. This is the mark of a cult. For any cult to operate, it has to convey to you that it is somehow the true manifestation of Christ's Church. that they have the truth. You know, you think about the Mormons, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. They say they rediscovered the gospel that was lost. You come to the Seventh-day Adventist, what do they do? Oh, we've rediscovered the Sabbath day. You come to the Christian scientists, what do they do? Oh, we've rediscovered Christ's healing methods. You come to the Jehovah's Witnesses, we've rediscovered God's organization. And whether it's the organization, the healing, the gospel, or whatever it is, it's essentially the same thing. What they are saying is that we have a monopoly on the truth, and unless you're with us, you're not with God. Then finally, you want to think about some of their well-known practices. These are things that you'll be familiar with. Obviously, pacifism, we've talked about. They refuse to join the army or any of the military forces. They refuse to engage in government or with government. No, they obey the laws insofar as the laws, you know, parallel with their understanding of scripture. And with that, we don't necessarily disagree because we do the same thing. We obey the government as long as the government is teaching and as long as the government is acting in accord with God's standards. But where we differ from them is that we do believe that the government is a minister of God for good. And they consider the government as essentially a tool of Satan. No Christmas. That doesn't bother me a whole lot because Christmas isn't a biblical holiday anyway. But it's a big deal with the Jehovah's Witnesses. And one of the things they'll try to get you on is the fact that they do not celebrate Christmas. That Christmas is a pagan holiday. Blah de blah de blah. It's all part of Babylon. Blah de blah de blah. And you know the best thing you can do at that point is just yawn and say, well so what? It's not important. I don't really care about Christmas one way or the other. Which is true. It's not in the Bible. I mean, you may enjoy Christmas as a cultural festival and that's fine, but it's not a biblical obligation to observe Christmas. No birthdays. And the reason for not worshiping or not recognizing birthdays is because Pharaoh beheaded the The baker, wasn't it? The baker, he beheaded on his birthday. And Herod beheaded John the Baptist on his birthday. And so they say, look at all the terrible pagan things that happen on people's birthdays. And you're like, what? They only had one birthday each. All the other birthdays that, you know. And there weren't any other days of the week when they beheaded people. You think that Pharaoh just waited for his birthday. Oh, it's my birthday, I'll behead everybody today. No, no, no. They were always beheading people. So it's a nonsense. And so they say, well, you know, it's associated, the very idea. They've got a whole rigmarole about why birthdays are pagan. The interesting thing is they worship on Sundays. Sundays are named after the sun god and are pagan in their name. No Easter obviously. Easter relates to Ishtar and worship of false gods and all the rest of it. And certainly there is a case for that in that regard. But certainly the early church celebrated the risen Lord. They celebrated the resurrected Christ. And that's right throughout scripture. Paul over and over again talks about the risen Lord. So we celebrate the Risen Lord. We're not celebrating Ishtar. We're not worshipping false gods, Ashtoreth and all these kinds of things. We just celebrate the Risen Lord. But again, it's no skin of our nose. Like I said to this Jehovah's Witness, look, listen, you can tell me there's no Easter. It makes no difference. We celebrate the Risen Christ every Sunday. Every Sunday. Every day is the first day of the week and He rose on the first day and that's what we celebrate. And then, of course, you do have to go door to door. That's what they're known for. And again, it's a matter of pride for them. We're the only ones who go door to door. One of them told me that. I said, no, you're not. I said, I've knocked on hundreds, thousands of doors in my time. He said, well, it's not usual for Baptists to knock on doors. I said, I think you'll go someplace and find it is. So you go to the southern United States, there's a lot of Baptists knocking on doors. Well, they're not known for that. Well, yes, they are. But they make this big deal. We're the only ones that are evangelizing Jehovah's Word and Jehovah's Kingdom. We're the only ones who go door to door. Look how happy we are. No birthday, no Easter, no Christmas. Sometimes, sometimes they even come out on Christmas Day to make a point. They may knock your door on Christmas Day and they're trying to make a point. Look, we're not celebrating Christmas. And of course, no blood transfusions, or no blood products. They're known for that. And sadly, many of them have died in surgery, in childbirth, and through accidents where their lives could have been saved, had they been willing to accept a blood transfusion. The reason for not accepting blood is on the basis that blood is sacred, which it is, and it's not to be eaten, which is true, but as far as I know, the hospitals don't feed it to you, and they do transfuse it into your veins. And they use it for the purpose that God give it, i.e. to give life. The life is in the blood and that's its purpose. And so there's nothing contradictory with scripture and the use of blood transfusion. In fact, my own mother, as you know, has received numerous blood transfusions in recent weeks and certainly would have died had she been a Jehovah's Witness. So that's some of their practices. Well, we'll leave it there for this evening and we'll get into more scripture next week and look at some of the beliefs of the Jehovah's Witnesses.