Posted on 11/24/2004 7:56:32 AM PST by hawkaw
Jehovah's Witness policy: Address issues internally
By ANNMARIE TIMMINS
Monitor staff
November 22. 2004 8:15AM
When Sara Poission suspected her husband was abusing their daughters 20 years ago, she took her fears to the leaders of her Jehovah's Witness congregation in Wilton. Poisson regrets deeply that she followed the advice she says she received: Pray more, be a better wife and keep quiet.
"I was a puppet," said Poisson, now of Claremont. "It was 'God says you are a screw-up, so fix yourself and it will stop.'"
The church never reported Poisson's former husband, Paul Berry, to state officials. A school teacher did, after noticing one child's injuries, and Berry is serving 56 to 112 years in state prison for physical and sexual abuse. The church publicly supported Berry during his trial. Poission said she was kicked out of the church for cooperating with investigators.
Her daughters, now in their 20s, are suing the church in a case that is pending before the state Supreme Court.
Poisson's story contradicts the church's written policy for dealing with child abuse. But her allegation that the church ignored her complaint has been repeated by nearly 60 other former members nationwide in lawsuits against the church over similar accusations. And critics say the church's official policy, even when followed, puts children at risk because it allows molesters back into the congregation with a guarantee that their crime will not be reported to the congregation.
Those critics say it's time the Jehovah's Witness church, which counts about 4,000 members in New Hampshire and 1 million in the United States, faces the same scrutiny the Catholic Church endured for harboring abusive priests.
"This has not captured the public's attention because (the Jehovah's Witnesses) are a small church," said Jeff Anderson, a lawyer from Minnesota who has represented victims of abuse within the Catholic, Mormon and Jehovah's Witness churches. "But anytime anyone learns of (how the church handles abuse), they are as alarmed by it as they are by the Catholic church cases."
The Jehovah's Witness policy requires two eyewitnesses to abuse - or a molester's confession -before the church sanctions a molester. A young child cannot be his own witness. When someone is found guilty by the elders, the rest of the congregation cannot be told because doing so would be a sin, according to the church's interpretation of the Bible. A molester may be allowed to remain an active member, if he repents. In some cases, molesters have been appointed as church leaders again.
"These people make the Catholics look like saints," said Bill Bowen of Kentucky, a former Jehovah's Witness leader who started a Web site in 2001 to monitor child abuse inside the church after he says he caught the church in a cover-up. "I think the Catholic Church has made great strides in publicly apologizing and establishing polices to prevent molestation in the future.
"I think (the Jehovah's Witness church) is living in total denial and refusing to admit what they've done in order to protect themselves legally," Bowen said. He has been excommunicated from the church for his public statements and "disfellowshipped"- a total shunning by even his own parents.
Members of the local congregations in Concord, Franklin and Laconia either could not be reached or referred calls to the church's national office in New York. J.R. Brown, a spokesman there, said church leaders are told to report all abuse allegations if their state requires them to do so (New Hampshire and about 40 others do). But they are also advised to take advantage of clerical exemptions, which excuse clergy in New Hampshire and about 30 other states from reporting abuse if it's revealed in a spiritual setting.
Brown could not say how many cases the church has reported to the authorities.
"As a spiritual shepherd, your main goal is to save a sinner from eternal destruction at God's hands,"said Brown, who explained that the policy and all the church's beliefs are based on a literal reading of the Bible. "You want people to turn around and go the right way. When you have that point of view, you can see why confidentiality of the confession is important. If the person knows it's going to be out (publicly), they may be very reluctant to come."
As for what that could mean for the safety of potential victims, Brown said the church expects parents, teachers and others to report the abuse to the state authorities. He said it is against church policy to discourage parents or others from reporting the abuse and added that if a church elder had done that, it was a mistake.
Advice posted on the church's official Web site, however, questions the wisdom of going outside the church. "Some legal experts advise reporting the abuse to the authorities as soon as possible," read an article titled "Protect your children!""In some lands the legal system may require this. But in other places the legal system may offer little hope of successful prosecution."
Thousands of allegations
It's difficult to know how widespread the sexual and physical abuse of children is in the Jehovah's Witness church. Or how often the church has neglected to report assaults or has protected abusive members.
Brown confirmed that the national church keeps a database of Witnesses who have been accused or found guilty of child abuse, but he declined to comment on newspaper reports that the list is 23,000 names long. On his "silentlambs" Web site, which monitors abuse, Bowen has collected stories of abuse from nearly 1,000 Witnesses who are allowed to remain anonymous. He said 5,000 others have contacted him but have not published accounts of their alleged assaults.
Prosecutors across the country and world have convicted church members for abuse, but it's unknown how great that number is. In New Hampshire, Berry and another Witness from Hollis are serving prison time for sexual abuse of children. Meanwhile, nearly 60 Witnesses nationwide are suing the church for allegedly protecting abusive members, according to Bowen.
In Massachusetts, a 14-year-old girl and her parents filed a lawsuit against the church in 2002 alleging that leaders covered up the girl's sexual abuse by a Bible study leader and discouraged the girl's parents from contacting authorities. Like Poission, the mother in that case alleges she was told to "pray more."
A Minnesota woman had similar allegations in a lawsuit she filed last year. When she complained of abuse by a church member, the elders told her to keep quiet and not "drag" the man and the church through the mud, according to her lawsuit. Another lawsuit by a Texas woman alleges the church transferred a man it knew had abused her without telling his new congregation of the complaints. He was later convicted of indecency with a child.
"If you take just the two-eyewitness principle, that alone is enough to say, 'Oh my God, what are they doing?'" Bowen said. Through his Web site, he's been invited to speak at meetings of activist Catholics, and he said the reaction is always the same.
"They are absolutely stunned," Bowen said. "I've had those Catholics tell me that this is 10 times worse than what their leaders do."
An internal policy
Two years ago, with the help of several child abuse experts (and under the watch of state officials), the Catholic Church in New Hampshire rewrote its policy for handling sexual abuse in the church. The document runs 67 pages and spells out the obligation to report abuse and the training requirements for every church volunteer or employee.
The policy governing the Jehovah's Witnesses is just over one page and cites only the Bible as its source of inspiration. For example, the church takes its two-eyewitness rule from Deuteronomy 19:15: "No single witness should rise up against a man respecting any error or any sin."
The policy begins with the church's belief that child abuse is "abhorrent." It goes on to advocate balancing the protection of children with the church's faith in repentance and forgiveness.
According to the policy, reports of abuse are reported inside the church to the congregation's elders, who are male and chosen for their ability to lead proper lives and teach the Bible. Together, the body of elders appoints two or three of its members to investigate the allegations, which involves the elders interviewing the accuser and the accused.
Brown, the church's spokesman, said the church does not teach its elders how to interview victims or investigate claims of abuse. They earn their livings outside the church and often do not even know their state's reporting requirements, Brown said. They are expected to call church headquarters in New York for advice on that.
The policy requires two eyewitnesses or a confession from the accused to take action, a standard victim advocates say is practically impossible to meet especially if the child cannot be his or her own witness. Brown said a victim can be a witness only if he is mature enough. The church allows local leaders to decide whether the child is mature enough to be considered credible, Brown said.
"Locally, our elders know the children best," Brown said.
If the alleged molester does not confess, the elders can require the accuser to restate his or her claim directly to the accused in case that prompts a confession, the policy says. Without two eyewitnesses or a confession, the policy requires the elders to drop the matter.
If the complaint is confirmed, an abuser is invited to repent, Brown said. (The same procedure is followed for other serious sins, including smoking, drinking and stealing, Brown said.) With a heartfelt repentance, the abuser may remain in the congregation but with restricted duties, Brown said. But he said it's more likely that the elders would disfellowship or remove an abuser.
Brown couldn't say how often abusers have been allowed to remain in the church. Unlike the policy governing the Catholic Church, there is no stated plan for caring for the victims. Those familiar with the church said counseling is not offered.
Whether or not someone is found guilty, the rest of the congregation is not told why the member was questioned, sanctioned or removed. Members hear only that he or she has been "reproved," Brown said. He disagreed with critics who complain that that silence puts other children at risk.
The church is a family, Brown said, and families don't need to be told of another member's sins.
"We can't tell them, but it will be known informally," Brown said. "In a family, everyone knows of the weaknesses of Aunt Suzie or Uncle John. Things are just known."
The policy contradicts itself on abusers being returned to positions of authority. At one point, it says a molester may not return to a position of authority. Elsewhere, it says that has been allowed when the abuser demonstrated years of exemplary behavior.
Other material posted on the church's Web site either further confuses the church's policy on child abuse or goes against the thinking of professionals who work with abuse victims.
In an article titled "Child Molesting, You can protect your child," the church advises parents to be watchful of potential abusers. It advises that a child's simple "No" can be enough to deter a molester. But it does not alert parents that molesters often spend months grooming their victims into submission.
Brown stood by the church's policy and said if abuse has been ignored or badly handled, the policy wasn't to blame.
"Do I believe elders have made mistakes?" Brown asked. "Yes, elders have made mistakes. Elders are imperfect. We are dealing with humans."
(Annmarie Timmins can be reached at 224-5301, ext. 323, or by e-mail at
atimmins@cmonitor.com.)
------ End of article
By ANNMARIE TIMMINS
Monitor staff
I pray for the members of this cult. I think it's outrageous that children get admonished for reporting sexual abuse allegations. It almost makes it seem like the "church" ok's it, at that point.
So Christ, the Apostles, St. Paul, et al were all comedians, huh?
Got any explanation for the actions of all of these noncelibate Protestants?
If she stayed in a situation where her children were abused then she needs to be prosecuted for it. For her to say she kept her children in that environment because someone else told her to is total BS.
You are living in a fantasy world. You are spreading disinformation about something you know nothing about. I am a Witness and do not think that I am superior to anyone else and no other Witnesses that I know have that attitude.
The BS part is her saying that they told her to keep quiet about it. That is absolute BS. She let her daughters be abused and did nothing about it. Now she wants to blame other people for it.
You must be paranoid! Sleeping in your tin foil hat or what?
Thanks for the clarification.
The police did a thorough investigation of the matter. In fact the police were even interviewed by Dateline and the Fifth Estate TV shows on their investigation (shown at Slinetlambs.org).
The mother did not commit offences. She was living in fear. Fear of her former husband and fear of a high control organization that prescribes shunning and closing the family out of God's organization, if she disobeyed the Organization's rules. If the elders concluded that Berry was not guilty (which they did) then she could not go after him without serious punishment from the organization. The police figured that out pretty quickly and it's not BS as you supposedly think.
The Police believed it was Mr. Berry who controlled and abused these young ladies. This all came out in Court and in the end it was Mr. Paul Berry who was found guilty well beyond a reasonable doubt. And even though he was found guilty, the Jehovah's Witnesses organization still hold him as a Jehovah's Witness in good standing.
One final point. The mother is devasted with what happened and she does blame herself a lot for what has happened.
bump
Jerri, it is a stock tecknique of the JW organization to blame the victim for the disastrous consequences of their policies and doctrines, as you are doing now.
Let's take an example. Back in the 60's the JW organization decided that Armageddon would come in 1975. Members throughout the world were encouraged to devote their lives to the organization because "Satan's wicked system of things" wasn't going to be around very long. Congregations proudly exhibited members who had quit their jobs, sold all their possessions and given the money to the JW organization, deferred marriage and school. Well 1975 came and went. The organization quickly denied that it had ever said that Armageddon would come in 1975 and pretended that some overenthusiastic members had started the thing on their own (which of course contradicted the obvious fact that in the JW organization NOBODY starts anything from below. Anyone who tried would be stepped on hard.). As for devout members who had bet everything on 1975 and lost, well, sucks to be them. They brought it on themselves.
In an ethically run organization, a bad decision has consequences for the leadership. A surgeon who committed malpractice, a stockbroker who blew a widows insurance settlement in penny stocks and commodity futures, a lawyer who blabbed his clients secrets, a teacher who molests a student cannot shrug, "Hey, the customer should have known better. They are to blame because it was their mistake." That won't wash. But the JW organization swept the entire thing under the rug as if it didn't happen because it operates on a lower ethical standard.
Now, you are using that with the mother of the abused child. In the JW organization, ALL internal conflicts are to be brought to the congregational elders on pain of disfellowhipping (i.e., expulsion. Her JW family would be commanded to disown her precisely when she needed them most.). Had she gone to the police she would have been disfellowshipped. Those are your rules. She was commanded to go to committe which demanded an impossible standard of proof (two witnesses to child abuse ?) and whose agenda was to restore the husband's "scriptural headship" over his family and encourage her to see how if she had been a better wife this would not have happenned.
The wife feels guilt because she trusted and believed in your church a lot longer than she should have. She made the mistake of equating your church with the voice of God. She should have seen that it was just smug, vain men who did not want to believe that evil could exist in their perfect, perfect world and not the voice of God at all.
Bump
Isn't the infamous child molester Michael Jackson a JW?
Well stated Sam and thanks for your input.
However, Jackson was a JW in the past. He is now considered "disassociated" - meaning left the on this own - from the group some years back.
I am not defending Berry, he is receiving what he deserves. I am defending the Witnesses. Contrary to what you believe they are not a high control organization that puts fear into its members. I guess since the MSM says something about Witnesses that you want to believe it must be true. Why wasn't the mother devastated when she was letting it happen?
I would not keep my children around a child molester period. I don't believe she was afraid of the organization at all, she used them as scape goat.
I know that you want it to be true so you believe it. Like I just said, I would not keep my children around a man that I knew was molesting them. I don't know anyone that would either. The mother was not the victim here, her children were and I am not blaming those children for what happened to them. The mother should have done the right thing and called the police when she found out but she didn't.
And as far as our perfect little world, please. We are all sinners in an imperfect world trying to get by.
A crime is not an internal conflict as you are stating. We are not told to keep quiet about crimes against us or our children. You or I don't know why she was disfellowshipped. I do know that it wasn't because she turned in her husband.
I don't know where you get your information about us but it is clearly lacking all the facts. If you want to know the truth, answer the door the next time one of us knocks.
thank you.
A crime is not a crime unless the committee says it is. And they would only say it is if there were "two witnesses to the abuse". And since they said no "crime" took place, she had two choices; recant her accusation or be disfellowshipped for disobedience.
You have a doctrine called "theocratic warfare". That means that the truth can freely be bent if it means presenting the JW organization in the best possible light. Since the internet has come into existence, all your dirty linen is aired in public and all your secrets shouted from the rooftops. The internet is the enemy of all high control organizations. So refuting this requires some "theocratic warfare" on your part (like feigning ignorance about that whole 1975 embarrasment).
it just staggers me to think that the burden of proof is two adult witnesses.
whoever heard of a child molester puting his hand in the knickers of a 8 year-old girl while in a crowded room?
its shocking, utterly shocking.
anyone who defends this rubbish should be severely ashamed of themselves.
Jehovah's Witnesses Christian or Cult?*
Jehovah's Witnesses, also known as the Watch Tower Bible and Tract Society (with headquarters in Brooklyn, New York), was officially founded in 1884 [as the Zion's Watch Tower and Tract Society (originally the Zion's Watch Tower in 1879), officially adopting the name of Jehovah's Witnesses in 1931], by Charles Taze Russell (1852-1916). In 1870, Russell was exposed to the teachings of William Miller, one of the founders of the Second Adventist Movement and acquired an interest in end time prophecies. Russell originally denied the doctrine of Hell, and would go on to reject nearly every other Christian doctrine, as well as add many physically and spiritually dangerous doctrines of his own making. Many of these unique and bizarre teachings were to be found in his six volume series titled, Studies in the Scriptures.
For the year 2000, the Watchtower Society claims a worldwide membership of over six million (about one million U.S.) in more than 91,000 congregations in 235 countries speaking 340 languages, and takes in approximately 300,000 new members each year (288,907 in 2000). According to JW statistics, yearly proselytizing is accomplished via 4.8 million home Bible studies and 1.2 billion hours of witnessing. The JWs field over 500,000 full and part-time missionaries. Instruction and training are provided for all JWs at five meetings a week, held primarily in "Kingdom Halls." Every week, an average of 45 new JW congregations are formed. [In the year 2000 in the United States alone, it was reported that 988,000 Jehovah's Witnesses spent more than 181 million hours in field service (i.e., door-to-door witnessing and Bible studies).]
JW leadership claims its victims by asserting itself to be the sole Christian religion and authority on the earth today, as well as God's mouthpiece or prophet. The Watchtower further disrupts families through its harsh and unbiblical interpretation of "disfellowshipping" and the practice of "shunning." Family members who are former JWs are labeled by Watchtower adherents as "apostates" and prevented from even social contact. Disfellowshipped or disassociated children, parents, and grandparents are kept from any type of communication with active members of the organization. Divorces are common within the sect when one member becomes disillusioned with Watchtower teaching and mind-control.
Not only has the name of this cult been changed time and again, but they also change their doctrines regularly -- between 1917 and 1928, they changed their doctrines 148 times! (Prior to 1931, Jehovah's Witnesses had also gone by the names of Millennial Dawn, People's Pulpit Association, The Brooklyn Tabernacle, and the International Bible Students Association.) Russell died in 1916 and was replaced by the second president, Joseph F. Rutherford. "A process of replacing Russell's writings with Rutherford's began in 1921 with the publication of Rutherford's Harp of God. Between 1921 and 1941, Rutherford was to write twenty books and numerous pamphlets, which would slowly revise the doctrine and structure left him by Russell" (Encyclopedia of American Religions, G. Melton, Vol. 1, p. 485). One of Rutherford's books that caused a great amount of controversy was the seventh volume of the Studies in the Scriptures.
Russell adopted many of his doctrines from the Seventh-Day Adventists, but the JWs began to emphasize door-to-door evangelism and literature distribution after Russell's death and subsequent leadership assumption by Joseph Franklin Rutherford. The JWs have published over ten billion pieces of literature since 1928. Its main periodicals are The Watchtower magazine (circulation of over 20 million in more than 130 languages) and Awake! (about 16 million copies in more than 80 languages), both published semi-monthly.
Historically, the JWs are best known for their practices of refusing: (1) to serve in the military; (2) to salute the flag; (3) to celebrate Christmas, birthdays, or other holidays; and (4) to give or to accept blood transfusions. [Rejecting the medical practices of vaccinations, organ transplants, and blood transfusions, the Watchtower has caused the deaths of many of its members throughout its history. Interestingly, vaccinations and organ transplants have now been acknowledged by the Watchtower as acceptable practices, contradicting their previous doctrinal position.] (Although some of these practices are neither Biblical nor unbiblical in and of themselves, depending upon one's motives and the exact nature of the practice, the reasons the JWs give for them often are unbiblical.)
Below are the highlights of what JWs believe concerning their source of authority, the Godhead, Christ, sin, salvation, heaven and hell, etc.:
1. Source of Authority. JWs claim the Bible as their final authority, but Russell's writings, especially Studies in the Scriptures, are considered "the light of the Scriptures." JWs have their own translation of the Scriptures (New World Translation, published in 1961), which reflects the binding interpretations of the group's leaders. The JWs' New World Translation greatly perverts the Scriptures to avoid placing themselves under the judgment of God (cf. Jn. 1:1; 8:58; I Tim. 2:6; Ac. 10:36; Col. 1:16-17; 2:9-10; etc.). Hence, the leader's interpretation of the Bible, not the Bible itself, is the final authority of JWs. The Watchtower magazine is one of the JWs main sources of doctrine, and is considered authoritative by its members.
2. Trinity. JWs believe that God is not a triune God, but only "Jehovah God" (Let God Be True, pp. 100-101); they teach that Trinitarianism is a belief in three gods, and thereby, Satan-inspired polytheism. Rutherford wrote: "... sincere persons who want to know the true God and serve him find it a bit difficult to love and worship a complicated, freakish-looking, three-headed God. The clergy who inject such ideas will contradict themselves in the very next breath by stating that God made man in his own image; for certainly no one has ever seen a three-headed human creature" (Let God Be True, 2nd ed., pp. 101-102).
3. God the Father. Known as Jehovah, the Watchtower considers Him to be the only true eternal God, the Almighty. They write, "There was, therefore, a time when Jehovah was all alone in universal space" (Let God Be True, p. 25). Being alone, the first creative act of Jehovah was to create His Son.
4. Jesus Christ. Since JWs do not believe in the Trinity, they also do not believe that Jesus is God in the flesh. They add the word "other" four times to Colossians 1:16,17, teaching that Christ was God's first creation, i.e., the reincarnation of Michael the archangel created by Jehovah, rather than the Creator. [The "Watchtower" teaches that Jehovah God created Michael the Archangel before the foundation of the world; Michael was His only begotten son by virtue of the fact that he was the only creature directly created by Jehovah. It was this created Michael who became the JW Jesus (i.e., a denial of the eternality of Christ). JWs say that "Since actual conception took place, it appears that Jehovah God caused an ovum or egg in Mary's womb to become fertile, accomplishing this by the transfer of the life of his first born son (Michael) from the spirit realm to the earth" (Aid to Bible Understanding, p. 920). "Marvelously, Jehovah transferred the life-force and the personality pattern of his first born heavenly son (Michael) to the womb of Mary. God's own active force, his holy spirit, safeguarded the development of the child in Mary's womb so that what was born was a perfect human" (Reasoning, p. 255).] JWs also add an "a" in John 1:1, making the verse read, "the Word was a god" (which in essence, makes the JWs guilty of the same polytheism of which they accuse Trinitarians).
5. Use of Name Jehovah. JWs use the name "Jehovah" only for God (in order to distinguish between God and Jesus Christ), while failing to recognize that Jesus is the fulfillment of "Jehovah" in Isaiah 40:3 and Matthew 3:3. [HJB]
6. Resurrection of Christ . JWs deny the bodily resurrection of Christ through their teaching that the body of Christ was annihilated by God -- not risen -- but rather a new one was created three days after His death. This they call the "resurrection" of Christ. Thus, Jesus was "resurrected" as a "glorious spirit creature" and does not now have a glorified physical body. Instead, they claim Jesus arose spiritually and only "materialized" at various times after His resurrection so He could be seen alive. (Awake!, 7/22/73, p. 4)
7. The Holy Spirit. JWs deny the deity of the third person of the Trinity, as either God or as a person; they claim that the Holy Spirit is only an impersonal "active force of Almighty God which moves His servants to do His will" (Reasoning From the Scriptures, pp. 406-407; The Watchtower, 6/1/54, p. 24). They have written, "But the holy spirit has no personal name. The reason for this is that the holy spirit is not an intelligent person. It is the impersonal, invisible active force that finds its source and reservoir in Jehovah God and that he uses to accomplish his will even at great distances, over light years of space" (Let Your Name Be Sanctified, p. 269).
8. Sin. JWs believe that the first man, Adam, disobeyed Jehovah when tempted by the angel Lucifer, who was jealous of man. As a result of disobedience, Adam and all his descendants lost the right to life and so became liable to death. This liability is applied to temporal death only.
9. Salvation . JWs claim everlasting life is a reward for doing the will of God and carrying out one's dedication -- in other words, salvation is a reward for good works. (JWs are expected to spend five hours per week in door-to-door visitation and witnessing, are responsible for selling twelve subscriptions to The Watchtower magazine each month, and are responsible for conducting a "Bible study" each month in the homes of their converts.) According to JW theology, a person has one of three possible destinies. The Anointed (144,000) will be in heaven to reign with Jehovah God. The rest of the faithful Jehovah's Witnesses (not of the 144,000) will live forever on a paradise Earth. Both of these classifications are determined to a great extent on membership in the Watchtower organization as well as going door-to-door spreading the message of the Watchtower. Those people who are not members of the Watchtower organization will be destroyed by Jehovah God and cease to exist. There is no concept of eternal punishment or hell in Watchtower theology (Let God Be True, pp. 90-95, 289). They also believe that men will have a second chance, after death, to be saved.
10. The Body of Christ. JWs believe that the members of the spiritual Body of Christ, or "Christian Congregation," number only 144,000 (Rev. 7:4-8). Most of those members of Christ's Body are now deceased and are reigning with Jesus in heaven since 1918. (Anybody born after 1936 cannot be in that number.) The remaining members still on earth, approximately 8,000 (out of whom are selected the "Governing Body"), are known as the "Remnant." They are collectively known as Jehovah God's "channel of communication" to men. They are the only ones "born again" and are the only ones who have a hope of going to Heaven. The rest of Jehovah's faithful witnesses only hope to be worthy enough to inherit the Earth, and will never see "Jesus/Michael," nor will they ever go to Heaven. All "so called Christendom" will be destroyed at Armageddon.
11. Soul Sleep. JWs deny the immortality of the soul. They do not believe the soul can exist apart from the body, but that a corpse remains in an unconscious state in the grave waiting for the resurrection. [HJB]
12. Annihilation of the Wicked. JWs teach that the "second death" is annihilation and extinction -- the wicked will cease to exist and will not suffer everlasting torment. They claim that a "doctrine of a burning hell" is "wholly unscriptural," "unreasonable," "contrary to God's love," and "repugnant to justice." [HJB] They claim that "hell" is the grave.
13. Prophecy . The Bible lists six identifying marks of false prophets, any one of which is sufficient for identification: (1) through signs and wonders they lead astray after false gods (Dt. 13:1-4); (2) their prophecies don't come to pass (Dt. 18:20-22); (3) they contradict God's Word (Isa. 8:20); (4) they bear bad fruit (Mt. 7:18-20); (5) men speak well of them (Lk. 6:26); and (6) they deny that Jesus, the one and only Christ, has come once and for all in the flesh (1 Jn. 4:3), thereby denying His sufficiency in all matters of life and godliness (2 Pe. 1:3). Most cults are founded upon false prophecies, which, if pointed out, offer an effective way to open blind eyes and rescue cultists. Russell's false prophecies formed the basis for what became The Watchtower Bible and Tract Society and the Jehovah's Witnesses. Russell declared that the Second Coming had taken place invisibly in October 1874, and the Lord was truly present, and that in 1914 the faithful (the 144,000) would be translated to heaven and the wicked destroyed. Armageddon (which began in 1874) would culminate in 1914 with the complete overthrow of earth's rulers and the end of the world. C.T. Russell, still on earth, died in 1916.
In the early 1920s, JWs zealously distributed on the streets and from door to door a book titled Millions Now Living Will Never Die. It was prophesied, "The year 1925 is a date definitely and clearly marked in the Scriptures, even more clearly than that of 1914 ... we may confidently expect that 1925 will mark the return of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob and the faithful prophets of old ... to the condition of human perfection" ("Millions Now Living Will Never Die," The Watchtower, 7/15/24, p. 89). The JWs even built a house in San Diego where the patriarchs were to live and tried to deed it to King David. (The house was quietly sold in 1954.) In the early 1940s, JWs were declaring that Armageddon, only months away, would end World War II and the defeat of the Nazis would usher in God's rule on earth (The Watchtower, 12/41). Their book, Children, suggested that plans to marry and have children be postponed until after Armageddon. It's been a long wait! Not giving up, they later prophesied that God's millennial kingdom would commence in 1975. Again JWs were told not to engage in any plans for this world, including marriage and having children. Many quit their jobs, sold their homes, and dedicated themselves to going door to door. (Source: 3/97, The Berean Call.) All in all, the Watchtower has predicted the end of the world for 1914, 1918, 1925, 1975, and 1989.
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