What You Need to Know When Jehovahās Witnesses Come Knocking at Your Door
By: Joan Cetnar, Bill Cetnar; ©1991 |
What does the Bible say about Jehovah? When Jehovahās Witnesses use the name Jehovah, do they mean the same thing? What about Jesus? What are JWs taught about blood transfusions? |
What You Need to Know When Jehovahās Witnesses Come Knocking at Your Door ā Who Is Jehovah?
Introduction
Dr. John Ankerberg: The information in this program was taped live at the Ankerberg Theological Research Institute Apologetics Conference in Orlando, Florida. Each year we invite laymen, students and pastors to attend this conference and hear seven or eight of the best professors and apologists in Christianity teach on topics of vital interest to all of us.
Our two instructors for this session are Bill and Joan Cetnar. Bill and Joan were both once devout Jehovahās Witnesses. Bill had a responsible position as a correspondent in the Watchtower Headquarters right in Brooklyn, NY. Joan was raised in the Watchtower Society and was an heir to the S. S. Kresge fortune. But Joan was disinherited when she put her trust in the real Jesus. They are now Christian authors and apologists. The Cetnarsā special interest is examining the Watchtower Societyās publications and witnessing to its followers.
Bill and Joan have been program guests on The John Ankerberg Show, and they have also sponsored apologetics conferences and written numerous books and tracts designed to win Jehovahās Witnesses to Jesus Christ.
Bill and Joan Cetnarās topic for this session is: āWhat You Need to Know When Jehovahās Witnesses Come Knocking at Your Door.ā As you listen to this information, it is my prayer that God will increase your faith and draw you closer to our Lord Jesus Christ.
Bill Cetnar: Jehovahās Witnesses are genuine false prophets! Do you agree with that? Just raise your hand. Fine. Jehovahās Witnesses have a peculiar name. It originated in the fifteenth century. That name is Jehovah. They call themselves āJehovahās Witnesses.ā Jehovah is a very bad name. It has no origin. Here is when they came up with it and they made a book entitled, Jehovah, and in it are many misquotations. In 1934 Judge Rutherford came up with this work and he entitled it Jehovah and no one knew what it meant. When this book came out in 1934, if you would go from house to house and start talking about Jehovah, no one would know what youāre talking about. I did. And no one knew what I was talking about. I had to explain to them what Jehovah meant.
Judge Rutherford liked the name Jehovah so much that he took the word Jehovah and put it into the Rotherham translation of the Bible. I personally refuse to use the Rotherham translation because they had āJehovahā in it every time. And every time this book mentions a quote from the Rotherham translationāthatās a big Bible!āhe uses Jehovah in that quote. And you look in the Rotherham translation and the Rotherham translation uses the correct word āYahweh.ā Yahweh is the correct translation. āLo, unto Jehovah thy God belong the heavens and the earthāāRotherham translation. Brothers, thatās diabolical! And sisters. Anytime I say ābrothers,ā that includes the sisters.
How many have ever had a Jehovahās Witness knock on their door? How many ever had Mormons with their white shirts and holy underwear and they have white shirts and holy underwear and itās holy and I donāt say anything to make you smileāI tell you the truth!
How many have ever gone to a doctorās office and while sitting there see those blue books with golden letters entitled, Bible Stories? Seventh-day Adventists. Thatās the beginning of Jehovahās Witnesses. Seventh-day Adventists began Jehovahās Witnesses with a false prophecy in 1840 and in 1844. Jesus was not a God to them. Jesus became a God to Seventh-day Adventists recently, but they still call him āMichael the Archangel.ā So theyāre false prophets yet. And they are thinking about turning back and having Jesus not God now.
Do you realize that you had a prophecy made by Jesus fulfilled on you? Letās turn to Matthew 7:15. Look what it says. āBeware of false prophets!ā If we ābewareā of something, weāre afraid of it; weāre on the alert; we want to watch out that he doesnāt hurt us. And thatās exactly the way we should feel about Jehovahās Witnesses. Jehovahās Witnesses are the most dangerous people on earth! I better say that again because it didnāt shock anybody and no one fainted. Jehovahās Witnesses are the most dangerous people on earth. They kill more people in this country that anyone else!
A few years ago there was a man, Jim Jones. He killed 701 or something. Jehovahās Witnesses kill that many people every week! There are over seven million Jehovahās Witnesses. Over a thousand of these need a blood transfusion every week. That means that potentially a thousand people a week have this killing instinct to let them die. Thatās why this is the most important subject spoken of here and you folks are the ones that are to take it out. Thatās really dangerous.
So look what it says, āBeware!ā āBeware of false prophets.ā Who is speaking here? Itās Jesus. Thatās God. He is telling me to beware. He is the Creator, the Maker of this universe. I think I should listen. Thatās an important warning.
Did He tell us to beware of those who make mistakes? No. I make so many. We all make mistakes. He said, āBeware of false prophets.ā Why should we beware? Because false prophets are coming to youāat the front door, the back door, the side door, the doctorās office, everywhere. Have you ever had anyone come to you and say, āGood morning. Iām a false prophetā? Never have I heard that expression from a Jehovahās Witness.
For Jesus said, āBeware of false prophets who come to you in sheepās clothing.ā Oh? Theyāre going to come like sheep. Every Jehovahās Witness that you see will come to you as a sheep. What is a sheep? Thatās a follower of the Great Shepherd Christ Jesus. Heās a Christian. Jehovahās Witnesses try to talk like Christians and a Christian is a āChrist In,ā one that looks to Christ for everything. So they [the Jehovahās Witnesses] are not Christians because they donāt look to Christ for anything. They try to look like Christians. They try to talk like Christians. They even carry a Bible like Christians when they come to your door.
But what did Jesus say is under the sheepskin? āBut inwardly are ravenous wolves.ā Theyāre hungry; rib cage showing; fangs hanging out: wolves.
āOh, not the Jehovahās Witnesses I know. Youāve got the wrong idea of Jehovahās Witnesses.ā
Yes, I have the right idea of Jehovahās Witnesses. I used to be oneāfrom 1930 to 1962. My wife was a fourth generation Jehovahās Witness. She was in the Kresge family. Kresgeās mother and father were Jehovahās Witnesses; their daughters were Jehovahās Witnesses; and she could have been a Jehovahās Witness also.
They can take this life right now by teaching no blood transfusions. A thousand people a week put their life on the line because they need a blood transfusion but they canāt get it. They can take the life to come by teaching that Jesus is not the I AM.
In John 8:24 we get the answer from the Bible. I would like you to look at this first. In John 8:24 it says, āI told youāāthatās Jesus speakingāāI told you that you would die in your sins.ā Thatās horrifying when God says that to me. Today Christians, they donāt think of dying because of what they believe. And 500 years ago the man who translated the King James Version was killed. He was killed just for being a translator 500 years ago. And today, we read the Bible. We have it lying around. We pass it on to others, never thinking of killing that person. But to kill an individual who translates a Bible!
Well, hereās what it says: āI told you that you would die in your sins for you will die in your sins unless you believeāāwhat?āāthat I Am.ā Now, if there is a āheā in your Bible, blot it out. Thatās an old-fashioned translation. āHeā is not in the Greek. Itāll mess you up! We donāt need to be messed up. We have our lives to save for āwe will die in our sins unless we believe that Jesus is the I Amā! Man, I donāt want to die for that reason. I believe that He is the āI Am.ā
Jehovahās Witnesses do not believe that Jesus is the I Am. Neither do they believe that He is God.
Back to Matthew 7 and this important prophecy made by Jesus. If they are so dangerous, how will we know them? Jesus said, āYou will know themāānot maybe know themāāYou will know them.ā You can be sure. How? āBy their fruit.ā What are they going to do? Raise trees? Produce fruit? Be farmers? What kind of a fruit do we look for? Whose fruits? Not the fruits of the Holy Spirit. The false prophets try to change the tree on you by saying, āWe have love, joy, peace,ā and so forth, the fruits of the Holy Spirit. But we are not talking about the fruits of the Holy Spirit. Weāre not talking about that. Whose fruits are we talking about when we say, āYou will know them by their fruitsā?
Letās take this illustration. How many have ever walked up to a tree and there were apples hanging all over it? A few of you. What kind of a tree was it? An apple tree. Right. How many ever walked up to a tree and there were peaches all over it? Thatās good. Iām glad a couple walked up to a tree. What kind of a tree was it? A peach tree. Apples produce apples. Peaches produce peaches. Jesus said we would recognize a false prophet by their fruit.
What is the fruit of a false prophet? False prophecies. What is the fruit of a false prophet? False prophecies. Thatās important that we recognize and pick out the false prophecies.
God also gave us a golden touchstone in Deuteronomy 18:21. He said, āIf you should say in your heartā¦.ā Now, how can you talk to your heart? You can do it silently or you can do it out loud in any way you want to do it, as long as you really mean what you say. Thatās a very serious question.
How may we know the word which Yahweh has not spoken? Thatās the question, isnāt it? āWhen a prophet speaksā¦.ā Walk up to any Jehovahās Witness and ask him, āAre you a prophet?ā
āYes.ā
The wife, she says, āIām a prophet.ā
A little boy or a little girl, āI am a prophet.ā
And some of them are ashamed to say it. Tell me, are you a prophet?
When a prophet speaks, he must claim to be a prophet. What is a prophet? A prophet is one who speaks for another. Thatās what it means. A prophet is one who speaks for another.
In Exodus 7:1 Aaron is spoken of as a prophet of Moses. He spoke for Moses. Also, a prophet is not necessarily one who predicts, although his message may be about the future. When a prophet speaks āin the name.ā Now, we frequently see that word name in the Bible and we say, āIn the name of Jesus.ā That seems so foolish. What does it mean?
Well, we look at Acts 4:7 to get a definition for the word name. In Acts 4:7 it says, āBy what power or by what name did you do this?ā So āpowerā is synonymous with the word āname.ā And when you come across the word ānameā you substitute the word āpower,ā thatās the meaning of it.
When a prophet speaks in the power, in the authority, what does it mean? Name? Acts 4:7 definitely tells us āpower or authority.ā So a prophet must take on the authority of speaking for God.
āIf the word does not come to passā or ācome true,ā that is a word which Yahweh has not spoken.ā The prophet has spoken it. How? āPresumptuously.ā Thatās not authoritative. He spoke it presumptuously. When a prophet has spoken it presumptuously, āyou need not be afraid of him.ā And brothers and sisters, if you think I and my wifeāwe were so happy when we read this verse that we cried because that lifted the authority of the Watchtower off of our shoulders!
āYou need not be afraid of him.ā He is a false prophet. He has no connection with God and therefore has no authority from God. And that was such a wonderful revelation given to us. He has no connection with God and therefore has no authority.
Now, going back to Jesus at Matthew 7. How many prophecies does it take to become a false prophet? Just one. Absolutely right. As soon as a prophet speaks one false prophecy, heās a false prophet and you never look to them again. Jesus said, āAre grapes gathered from thorns?ā Anybody ever get any grapes from a thorn bush? I never did. I couldnāt imagine grapes growing on thorns. Obviously no. Grapes are good food. They come from the true vine that produces true prophecies. āEvery sound tree bears good fruit.ā Every good prophet bears true prophecies. A sound tree cannot bear evil fruit nor can a bad tree bear good fruit. Boy, this is just what I needed. A prophet of God must have a thousand percent batting average. He cannot have one false prophecy. If he has one false prophecy, he is a false prophet. And a false prophet cannot come up with a true prophecy. Jesus made it so simple. Itās wonderful to understand it. Jesus made it simple for me.
How about Jehovahās Witnesses? Did they ever claim to be a prophet? Well, you were given a sheet on your way in and on this sheet are the false prophecies of Jehovahās Witnesses. These are their authoritative claims, they said, identifying the prophet. So does Jehovah have a prophet to warn them of dangers and to declare things to come. These questions can be answered in the affirmative. Who is this prophet? This prophet was not one manāwellābut was a body of men and women. It was a small group of footstep followers of Jesus Christ known at that time as International Bible Students. Thatās a lot of men and women. Today they are known as Jehovahās Christian Witnesses. See how they always try to stick that word Christian in? Thatās the last time they did itāhere. But anyway, they did it here.
Of course, itās easy to say this group acts as a prophet of Godāitās another thing to prove it! Amen! Thatās from the April 1 Watchtower in 1972. In 1986 they said, āYouāll be interested to learn that God has on earth a people all of whom are prophets.ā Well? āOr witnesses for God in that they are known throughout the world as Jehovahās Witnesses.ā Is there any doubt that they claim to be Godās prophets?
Well, letās see what they say as a prophet. 1889 Edition. Here is the book, The Time Is at Hand. Have you ever heard of this expression before? Have you ever heard this expression before, āThe time is at handā? Itās on the cover, on this side; itās on this side; itās printed on every page of this book: āThe time is at hand.ā Now, I hope you will remember it because Iāll show you to whom it belongs.
On page 101 they said, āThe Battle of Armageddon of the great day of God Almighty which will end in A.D. 1914 with complete overthrow is already commenced.ā Thatās it. 1914. I wasnāt even here. I donāt imagine some of you were here. But Charles Taze Russell was here, on both sides of 1914, and he became a false prophet.
And he says in 1914, āThe present great war in Europe is the beginning of Armageddon in the Scriptures.ā Thatās in Pastor Russellās sermons.
In 1916 it says, āThe Bible chronology herein presented shows the six great thousand day years beginning with Adam are endedā and that the āgreat seventh day of the thousand years of Christās reign began in 1873.ā
In 1918 they saidāthey were getting ready for another thrustāāTherefore, we may confidently expect that 1925 will mark the return of Abrahamāāthatās wonderful. Has anyone ever seen Abraham?āāIsaac,āāOh, his son, tooāāand Jacob, and the faithful prophets of old, particularly those named by the apostles in Hebrews 11 to the condition of human perfection.ā This is in writing to this day in the book, Billions Now Living Will Never Die.
In 1922, āThe date 1925 is even more distinctly indicated in the Scriptures than 1914.ā Thatās a good thing . āOur thought is that 1925 is definitely settled by the Scriptures as to know the Christian has much more upon which to base his faith than Noah had upon which to base his faith in the coming deluge.ā That already happened. Noah already had the Flood. And theyāre surer of 1925 than Noah was of the Flood!
And 1925 came, January 1, right on the dot. āThe year 1925 is here.ā Now, thatās a good way to begin an article. āWith great expectation Christians have looked forward to this year. Many have confidently expected the members of the body of Christ to be changed into heavenly glory during this year. This may be accomplished.ā After all, itās only January 1. āThis may not be.ā It may NOT be! āIn his own due time God will accomplish his purpose concerning this. Christians should not be so deeply concerned about what may transpire this year.ā
Most Jehovahās Witnesses were looking forward. They sold their cars, sold their houses, ready for a new worldāand it didnāt come!
In September 1925, now, brothers, these are not just sentences, these are actual happenings. We can find the sentences today, but they really believed them. There were thousands of Jehovahās Witnesses in 1925 that read this. Thousands of them. In September of that same year they said, āIt is to be expected that Satan will try to inject into the minds contrary to the thought that 1925 you would see the end of the world.ā What do you expect me to think? What will end in 1925 if Iām going to live forever?
In 1926, āSome anticipated the work would end in 1925 but the Lord did not state so.ā
āThe difficulty was that the friends inflated their imaginations beyond reason and that when their imaginations burstinā they were inclined to throw everything away.ā They were the smart ones.
In 1931 they said, āThere was a measure of disappointment on the part of Jehovahās faithful ones on earth concerning the years 1914, 1918 and 1925, which disappointment lasted for a time.ā Just a short time. And they also learned to quit fixing dates.
Iām glad that they learned to quit fixing dates, but they didnāt remember it because they said 1975 once again. āThere was a measure of disappointment among Jehovahās faithful ones.ā They had preached that in an early time God would overthrow Christendom. Many had emphasized the year 1925 as that date and then when that date did not materialize, that date was moved up to 1932. Again, 1932 came and Christendom was not destroyed. And now, it is discovered that Christendom would be spared for a while longer for the sake of the Jonadabs Class. Now, how did they get in here? And who are they? Who are the Jonadab Class? Well, whoever it is. And this made the proud elective elders very mad. The crowd was very mad.
In 1941 I was a little boy and this was the first Watchtower and I was there. āReceiving the Gift, the Marching Children.ā I was one of them and so was my wife. āThe marching children clasped unto them not a toy or play thing.ā Of course not. Idle pleasure. āBut the Lordās provided instrument for the most effective work in the remaining months before Armageddon, The Children Book.ā
Now, this is a 1968 quote that I think I know who wrote it. Weāre never sure because when the Watchtower writes an article, theyāre not allowed to put their name on it. But this man seemed so honest. Well, I wonāt say it.
āTrue,ā he said. āThere have been those in times past who predicted the end of the world.ā
I wonder who can that be?
āEven announcing a specific date.ā
I wonder who can that be?
āYet nothing happened.ā
I wonder who that could be?
āThe end did not come.ā
They were guilty of false prophesying. Why? What was missing?
āMissing from such people were Godās truths and the evidence that He was using and guiding them.ā
He got that written in the Awake! Magazine and then left.
1968. āWhy are you looking forward to 1975?ā
Now, 1975 was built up since 1968 and the people were just looking forward to 1975. Many of them sold their homes, their cars. They went to other towns and places to preach to the local people that the world was going to end in 1975. How about 1975? Did you all live through 1975? Made it all right. Did Jehovahās Witnesses predict what would happen?
In the May 1, 1968 Watchtower magazine they finally decided that they knew when Eve was created. Therefore, they calculated that in the autumn of 1975 they would see the end of all wickedness with the Battle of Armageddon. They knew when Eve was created. Hum. And they just added on a few years and thatās when the world was going to end. Thatās according to the book, Godās Kingdom of a Thousand Years Has Approached.
In 1975 the Millennium or Thousand-Year Reign of Christ would immediately follow. Now, Jehovahās Witnesses were saying that the organization never said anything about 1975. And yet there are magazinesāand I have them with meāthat have 1975 written all over them.
What should the wise person do when he realizes when he has been following a false prophet? Brothers, when you pull these things out, itās really heartrending. It makes you want to cry. It doesnāt make you want to laugh. It makes you want to cry. Men gave up their homes; they gave up marriage. They gave up their work in order to live by these things and the minute they donāt happen, it just destroys them and they leave all productive work.
Letās look at what Jesusā words were in Matthew 7:19: āEvery tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire.ā Thatās whatās going to happen to the Watchtower, to their presidents. That is definitely whatās going to happen to them. We must heed Jesusā words and get rid of everything we have ever learned from a false prophet. That doesnāt mean we keep the word āJehovah.ā Thatās a false translation of Godās name.
Here I have a publication. Itās called Questions for Jehovahās Witnesses. I put it together myself and on page 39 it says, āJehovahāāand I grabbed hold of Websterās Collegiate Dictionary. Thatās the closest one I had and I read it. Do you know what it said? āIt is a false reading of the Hebrew Yahweh.ā Is that so? Jehovah is a false reading of anything?
Letās go to a Jewish encyclopedia. If anybody should know, the Jews should know. I mean, when Christians scholars first began to study Hebrew, they did not understand what this really meant. And so they introduced a hybrid name, āJehovah.ā The true pronunciation of the name āYahwehā was never lost. Today we hear all kinds of stories about you just add a few words or subtract a few syllables and somehow Jehovah is used there. The whole word doesnāt mean a thing!
āSeveral early Greek writers in the Christian church testified that the name was pronounced Yahweh. This is confirmed at least for the vowel of the first syllable of the name by the shorter form Yah which is sometimes used in poetry. The personal name of God of Israel is written in Hebrew Bible with the four consonants YHWH and is referred to as a tetragrammaton. At least until the destruction of the first temple in 586 B.C.E. this name was regularly pronounced with the proper vowels as is clear from the Lachish letters.ā
Weāve heard that before this week hereā¦written shortly before that date. Thatās the Jewish Bible. If anybody should know about Yahweh, the Jewish encyclopedia should know. It has Jehovah God written there. And you know what it says? Who Jehovah God really is? āJehovah God is a supreme deity recognized and the only deity worshiped by Jehovahās Witnesses.ā Websterās Third New International Dictionary. Brothers, itās up to them to worship their God and it was found in the fifteenth century. Thatās only 500 years ago. Only 500 years old. Before that it wasnāt even written.
Well, that takes care of āJehovah,ā I think. We must heed Jesusā words and get rid of everything we ever learned from a false prophet. If we donāt, we become candidates for the psychiatristās office. Jehovahās Witnesses supply so many psychiatrists with employment that itās a sad thing. So many Jehovahās Witnesses commit suicide. They really do, brothers. Because this is the important thing for anyone to know about. Itās really an integral part of our being. If we donāt, we become candidates for a psychiatristās office. According to the American and British Journals of Psychiatry, Jehovahās Witnesses have a higher incidence of mental illness and suicide than the average public. Of all the wickedness and killing in the world, Jehovahās Witnesses are number one.
We should take Jesusā counsel and get rid of all the teachings of a false prophet. Jesus is the true Prophet and He gave us another warning in Luke 21:8. Iād like you to look at Luke 21:8. It says there, āTake heed that you are not led astray, for many will come in my name.ā What does that mean? Authority. They will come because God said so. āSaying,ā now, this is a touchstone, āSaying, I am.ā The āheā is not written in the Greek. You cannot find a āheā in the Greek translation. They say, āI am.ā They call them āJehovah.ā And they say āthe time is at hand.ā Did I tell you to remember that expression? āThe time is at hand. The time is at hand. The time is at hand.ā Every page of this book it says āthe time is at handā right on top. And I believe it is there to fulfill what Jesus said. And what did He say? āDo not go after them.ā Thatās what the Bible says. DO NOT GO AFTER THEM. I wonder if we should? I wonder if we should go against Godās law? That to me is a fantastic fulfillment of what God said.
What did Jesus say then? āDo not go after them.ā I wonder if we should. Are Jehovahās Witnesses false prophets? Yes. I love Jehovahās Witnesses. I donāt hate Jehovahās Witnesses. My father and mother were Jehovahās Witnesses. My father-in-law and mother-in-law havenāt spoken to us since 1962. They are Jehovahās Witnesses. All of our relatives are Jehovahās Witnesses. We want them to live. We want them to learn these things but they have a binding in their heart and mind against it. And if they made the claim that they are Godās prophet in their magazineāand they did; and they made all the false predictions for Jesusā Second Coming and Jesus said that one false prophecy makes them false prophets, there can only be one answer: Yes, Jehovahās Witnesses are genuine false prophets.
Iām wondering how many here have a question they would like to ask about Jehovahās Witnesses.
- Q.1: I asked a Witness, āWhat about the Holy Spirit and Jehovahās Witnesses and is everybody assured of salvation?ā She was telling me that there are a few people that they just know that they have the filling of the Holy Spirit and will go to Heaven and everybody else will live on earth. And I said, āDonāt you want to get to Heaven, too?ā She said, āWeāre not jealous. Weāre happy for them because theyāre Godās elect.ā And I said, āWell, what makes that person better than you since the Bible says there is neither Jew nor Gentile. How many people are going to Heaven?
- Bill Cetnar: No Jehovahās Witness has the Holy Spirit. They donāt believe in having the Holy Spirit and they donāt believe inā¦we have the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. They donāt believeā¦they believe there is a Father, there is a Son, and the Holy Spirit is Godās power. Wait, Iām not finished. I forgot what I was going to say. Now, the 144,000 are not assured of everlasting life. Theyāre not assured that theyāre going to live in Heaven forever. The 144,000 lived before 1935 and they had to be in the organization before 1935. Now they donāt argue about it. The others have no life either. No Jehovahās Witness, even on his deathbed, can say that God is going to let him live. They have no assurance of any life. And the Bible tells us in John that we do.
- Q.2: I had a conversation with two Jehovahās Witnesses and we spoke about the Holy Spirit and if I understood them right, their concept of the Holy Spirit is like a power or agency.
- Bill Cetnar: Itās Godās power.
- Q.2: Are there any other New Testament references you can use besides Ananias and Sapphira where it says, āYou have not lied to men but to Godā¦that youāve lied to the Holy Spirit.ā Are there any others to use?
- Bill Cetnar: Yes, there are quite a few Holy Spirit expressions where the Holy Spirit says thus and so. He is giving direction as God. Okay?
- Q.3: If we only have a short time to answer Jehovahās Witnesses, what key thing should we say?
- Bill Cetnar: Iām going to pretend youāre a Jehovahās Witness and you came up to my door. āOh, Mr. Jehovahās Witness, am I happy that you came by! Iām excited that you came by because I have a question to ask you.ā I take over all the conversation. āI want to know, Do Jehovahās Witnesses claim to be Godās prophets?ā I go exactly for that touchstone. Thatās what God said. āBeware of false prophets.ā Here is someone who is a prophet. I have to find out first if he is a prophet. And about 60 percent will say, āYes, weāre prophets. You can depend on us.ā All right, for the 40 percent I have on the first page of my book, āthat they shall know a prophet is among them.ā It says that they are prophets. And here it says on the Awake! June 8, 1986, āYou will be interested to learn that God has on earth a prophet.ā Youāre genuine prophets? āYes, my daughter is. Sheās a little prophet and my wife. Theyāre prophets.ā
- āProphets? Did you ever preach any false prophecies?ā
- āOh, no. We wouldnāt do that. We wouldnāt preach false prophecies.ā
- And in the back of the book, the last page, I turn to them and I begin the page that I have passed out that you have. āI would like you to tell me if this is a true or false statement: āThe battle of the great day of God Almighty which will end in 1914 with the complete overthrow of earthās present rulership is already commenced.ā Is that true or is that false?ā That has to be false. And they say, āWell, thatās not really false.ā
- āI would like to repeat that sentence and you tell me again if itās true or if it is false. I want to know if that sentence is true because when it was written in 1889 until 1914, they didnāt change it and thatās enough time to change a sentence if itās not stated properly.ā
- You insist that they come and tell you whether itās true or itās false.
- āThank you, Mr. Jehovahās Witness. Thatās all I wanted to say to you. You get off of my porch. Iām not allowed to have any false prophets on my porch. I donāt want to talk to you until, if you want to, say that you are a false prophet and leave that organization.ā
- Now, some will back off the porch. They have been shocked. They should be. And the way you present it is the way that God wants you to do it. Then, the others, they say, āOh, we never read that! I never saw that in this book, The Time Is at Hand that we said those things.ā
- Then they start showing them the other things they did wrong. They didnāt do just one thing wrong. They did thousands of things wrong.
- And for instance, Mr. Jehovahās Witness, in 1956 you told us very plainly the spirits in which ex-priest Greber believes helps him in his translation. Thatās Greber. Hereās his translation. It said, āHave nothing to do with that Greber translation.ā And then in 1962 they started to quote him. They started to quote Greber. The Watchtower started to publish him. In the book, Aid to Bible Understanding. Itās a big, thick book, page 196, they quoted Greber again. Why did the Watchtower resort to a false prophet?
- āLate in the summer of 1923 Godās Holy Spirits contacted Pastor Greber. In his spare time he started to work on his communications with the spirit world. Later he translated a New Testament with help of Godās spirit world.ā Not Godās spirits, His spirit world. āAt times he was given the correct answers in large illuminated letters and words passing before his eyes.ā
- There is a man who was a Catholic priest and he became demon possessed and translated a Bible with his eyes closed!
- And then I found where Greber was in the United States and I went to a demonized place and we started to write to the Watchtower and in many letters I got from himāhereās two of themāthat they say, āWeāre sorry; we never had anything to do with it.ā And then in the Watchtower they said, āWhy in recent years has the Watchtower not made use of the translation by the former Catholic priest Johannes Greber?ā Thatās not the real question. But they said that from now on, āweāre never going to quote Greber again.ā But in Spanish they still quote him. Itās not wrong to quote him in Spanish, itās just in English. Thatās the kind of outfit weāre working with.
- Does anybody else have any questions?
- Q.4: Would you tell us a little bit about Beth-Sarim?
- Bill Cetnar: Well, Beth-Sarimāthatās where Judge Rutherford built a home in 1929. Itās a beautiful place. I just visited there last February. I like to travel like that. And he gave it to David and to all the faithful men of old. And theyāre going to be sorry when they come in it because he sold it to a Jewish man. Itās not a Christian thing. He didnāt do a Christian thing there. All right?
- Q.5: Should we even bother to get involved with a Jehovahās Witness?
- Bill Cetnar: I would at the first time prove to a Witness that he is a false prophet, thatās heās representing a false prophet. Make that perfectly clear. I donāt care what they believe about the Trinityātheyāre false prophets! And then, after that, if he gives youā¦heāll come with a different spirit and then explaining the Trinity will be a lot easier. I would really recommend that.
- Q.6: Donāt they answer, āJesus was a Spiritā?
- Bill Cetnar: They have all kinds of goofy sentences that it would take a longāIād have to study all afternoon and part of tomorrow to answer. I wouldnāt even have the answers for some of them. Like John 1:1: āIn the beginning was the Word, the Word was with God and the Word was God.ā And they say, āHe was a God.ā There is no way you can put an āaā there. But you canāt explain it to them. There is no need. Heās a false prophet and I think thatās essential. Before that, nothing.
- Q.7: The Jehovahās Witnesses go on Saturdays from home to home. What is their Gospel?
- Bill Cetnar: Yes. They go every day of the week. They do not have the Gospel. The Witnesses preach one thing: āThis gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in all the world.ā And they preach they were going to take over in 1975 and that theyāre going to rule and everybody else is going to be destroyed just because youāre not a Jehovahās Witness. And the Kingdom was established in 1914. Thatās their Gospel.
- Q.7: Well, whatās the good news about that?
- Bill Cetnar: Itās not very good news? I am certainly happy I left the Watchtower.
- Q.8: How do you explain certain Scriptures to a Jehovahās Witness?
- Bill Cetnar: I donāt see why a person would want to explain to a Jehovahās WitnessāRomansāwhatever until he has realized that he is a false prophet! I would first see that. āYouāre a false prophet. Your Watchtower is a false prophet. I canāt have anything to do with false prophets.ā I donāt see any reason why.
- Q.9: How can you obtain articles that you have that are in your book. Because if we come back with these things, theyāre going to say, āWell, we never learned about that stuff.ā How can you find the actual articles?
- Bill Cetnar: Tell him that he should get the April 1, 1972 Watchtower and read it for himself if he doesnāt believe this material. Everything here is documented. The Awake! June 8, 1986. Itās right there. All the dates are documented in the book and if he canāt believe a photostatic copy, I canāt help him. Heāll have to dig it up himself. Thatās as reasonable as I can get.
- Q.10: What first alerted you that they were not Godās prophet?
- Bill Cetnar: Well, I had many experiences, such as vaccinations. After all the years of telling how people are going to die by having a small pox vaccination and then the small pox vaccination doesnāt even have blood in it, what am I to think? After explaining to the people the Bible in Leviticus and in Acts tells us that weāre not supposed to drink blood. It doesnāt say anything about putting it in our veins. And theyāre trying to tell meā¦.there is not a Scriptureā¦the word ātransfusionā isnāt even in the Bible. And I left the Watchtower Society on the basis of the blood transfusion. That was the first thing I learned.
Brothers, Jehovahās Witnesses are genuine false prophets. This book is available to you. Itās entitled, Questions for Jehovahās Witnesses, and I hope that every one of you get a copy and have it by your door so that when they come, youāll be ready for them. Thank you very much.