A Knock at the Door
Few people work harder at their faith than Jehovah's Witnesses. They knock on doors, stand beside literature carts, study week after week, and accept the scorn of strangers. Many have been told that the world will mock them and that the churches will have no answers. A kind word and an open Bible may surprise them.
Jehovah's Witnesses number more than nine million active members worldwide, directed by a Governing Body at their headquarters in Warwick, New York. They meet in Kingdom Halls, read their own translation of the Bible, and see themselves as restoring the faith of the first Christians. They are often honest, disciplined, and devoted to their families.
Two questions matter most in any conversation with a Witness: who Jesus is, and whether eternal life is a gift. Everything else can wait.
We regard the Watch Tower system as a cult in the sense defined in What Is a Cult?: it teaches another Jesus, another spirit, and another gospel. We weigh the system from its own publications, and we leave every Witness's heart to God. Labels do not save, and we cannot see what a particular person is trusting. For the full profile, see Jehovah's Witnesses.
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For Deeper Study
- Reasoning from the Scriptures with the Jehovah's WitnessesAmazon Ron RhodesA verse-by-verse guide to the passages Witnesses use, with questions for conversation. Evangelical and dispensational.
- Why You Should Believe in the Trinity: An Answer to Jehovah's WitnessesAmazon Robert M. Bowman Jr.A point-by-point reply to the Watch Tower booklet Should You Believe in the Trinity? Evangelical.
- Crisis of ConscienceAmazon Raymond FranzA former member of the Governing Body tells how its decisions were made. Read it as history of the organization, not as a guide to doctrine.
- The Four Major CultsAmazon Anthony A. HoekemaIts chapter on Jehovah's Witnesses works from primary sources. Hoekema was Reformed, and we differ on his theology of salvation.
- Foxe's Book of MartyrsAmazon John FoxeThe classic Protestant record of those who died for the faith, from the early church to the English Reformation.
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What Is a Cult?
A cult, as this section uses the word, is a group that uses Christian words while denying the Gospel or the God it reveals, preaching another Jesus, another spirit, or another gospel.
Open Doctrine