Tactics used by Opposers
These are actual tactics opposers try to use on the Witnesses in print and at seminars in order to sway them. Afterward, there will be answers to these probes. Many of theses will make their way into your email box. Just don't reply. That is why the delete button is so handy:) If you can think of any other,  email me please.

"Protocols of the Elders of J.W.'s?!
In about 1895 a document was fabricated to incite hatred against the Jews. This document eventually fell into the hands of one Adolf Hitler, and the rest, as they say, is history. Since I tend to get alot of email from so-called "Christians," I have been finding a disturbing trend lately. Old Watchtower (and other WTS publications) quotations are floating around wherein the words quoted simply do not exist. These of course, are written in a way to make Jehovah's Witnesses look bad. It is sad, and ultimately frightening, that people are resorting to these kinds of tactics.
I always ask these people for a hard-copy, to date, I have never received one. I usually get the same answer, "I lost mine," or, most often, "I got it from a web-site, but I lost the URL."
Warning! Any document posted on a web-site AGAINST JW's that makes Witnesses look real bad, has an extremely high probability of being fabricated. People, this is not "Christian," this is evil.

E-mail Mimics
If you get e-mail from me telling you something horrible, it isn't me. It is an apostate or an opposer, the latest coming from the Watchtower Observer goon Kent Steinhaug at kent@observer.org or kent@mail.n1l.net. Please delete these e-mails and don't answer them.
To read more about this unsavory character click here.
Kent's reply to this:
To:
                     <heinzschmitz@canoemail.com>
               Subject:
                     Opposer Tactics
               From:
                     "Kent Steinhaug" <kent@observer.org>  Add to Contacts
               Date:
                     Thu, Sep 14 2000 11:44:27 PM +0200
 

               Hi there, moron!

               Did anyone tell you how pathetic you are?

               Laughing my ass off!

               Yakki Da

               kent

As of the middle of May 2001, Kent Steinhaug has written back, but this time his language has gotten considerably worse. Such seething anger, as we know, is indicative of fear and ignorance. The subject is devoid of any intelligent response, and must resort to primal/ Darwinian grunts/groans. For more, click here.
Read the latest email from Kent here (Profanity Warning!).

Also avoid email from sunshineconcern@netscape.net, Labufy@aol.com, mshilmer, and jpipenburg@tcsn.net

The Blood Issue
"Ask....would you really allow your baby to die because of instructions by the Watchtower Society."-Ron Rhodes
Anyone who thinks that is grossly misinformed. Read Dr. Laura's letter about JW's and Blood here....or here.
Here is the comment:
            Subject: Non-Blood Transfusions
            Date: 1999-03-04
 

RE: Your Caller Concerned About Father's Refusal of Blood
Transfusion

            "I'm a long-time listener, fan, supporter and defender of all
that you teach, preach (& nag). Today a man called you and voiced
concern over his father, a JW who is facing surgery and will refuse a blood
transfusion. After some personal chat with the man, you said you
understood his feelings: he'd lost his wife and now stood to lose his father.

            The assumption his father was as good as dead without blood transfusion is a common one, but there's almost no truth to that anymore. At  our hospitals, we have a Transfusion-Free Medicine & Surgery Program and the results are phenomenal. Outcomes are better and the hospital stays are shorter. We've eliminated the risks associated with blood transfusions (and there are many, ranging from the best known, AIDS, to Hepatitis C and other infections and complications).

            Our Palm Springs-area hospitals, part of the Tenet Healthcare Corp., are part of a network of Southern California facilities with this program. Included among them are our prestigious USC University Hospital and  the USC/Norris Cancer Hospital. Hospitals and doctors all over the country are climbing aboard this bandwagon; I could introduce you to surgeons who haven't transfused blood in years.

            We're doing open heart, cancer, neuro, ortho (including total hip and knee replacement) neonatal and pediatric, gynecological and urological, transplant, and vascular surgeries successfully without blood transfusions. Much of this is due to advances in equipment and technology, and credit also goes to the JW population for their stand on blood which brought about these changes. Today, about 25% of tranfusion-free procedures are on people who are not Jehovah's Witnesses, but who choose the option for health or personal reasons.

              This is emerging medicine. Your caller would have benefited  from this
knowledge (his father probably already knows about it). The day may
come when blood transfusions are a thing of the past.

            So, let's put this canard to rest."

            Tom Wixon
            Manager, Marketing & Public Relations
            Desert Regional Medical Center
            John F. Kennedy Memorial Hospital
            Phone: (760) 323-6690
            Fax: (760) 323-6580

            Or Call:
            Bradford Ray
            Transfusion Free Medical & Surgery Coordinator
            Desert Regional Medical Center
            John F. Kennedy Memorial Hospital
            Phone: (760) 323-6311

"Barna noted that substantial numbers of Christians believe that activities such as abortion, gay sex, sexual fantasies, cohabitation, drunkenness and viewing pornography are morally acceptable."
http://www.barna.org/cgi-bin/PagePressRelease.asp?PressReleaseID=106&Reference=E&Key=abortion

"About 1,350,000 newborn American males are circumcised annually, and about 230 of them die as a result of this operation." (Sex by Prescription, by Thomas S. Szasz, MD, Syracuse University Press, 1990)
http://www.sexuallymutilatedchild.org/deathsdo.htm

"...Mainstream organized religions often have the same problems (e.g. child abuse, misused funds) as some new religious sects, yet the former get off the hook. Although there may be some outcry about the specific incidents, no one in the mainstream uses these occcurences to smear organized religions as a whole....generally, if (say) a rabbi sins, he is seen as a bad rabbi, not as proofs of the evils of Judaism; if a 'cult leader' sins, that is proof of the evils of cults. Jews (and other mainstream believers) buy newspapers and will complain if their religion is abused; whereas cults are not seen as a serious constituency."
You Are Being Lied To/Russ Kick editor, p. 288

Dream Conversation
You will often find several versions of this conversation floating around different web-sites and publications (like the often erroneous one by Ron Rhodes)...
Householder: In the New World Translation it says at John 17:3,"This means everlasting life, their taking in knowledge of you, the only true God, and of the one whom you sent forth, Jesus Christ."
Witness:That's right.
Householder:So your God is the one true God?
Witness:That's right.
Householder:So other gods are false gods?The opposite of true is false right?
Witness:Yes
Householder:What does it say at John 1:1?
Witness:In [the] beginning the Word was, and the Word was with God, and the Word was a god.
Householder:The Word was A GOD?
Witness:Yes
Householder:So he must be a false god?
Witness:Well,...no.
Householder:Well, he isn't a false god is he?
Witness:No.
Householder:Then he must be the True God Jehovah.
Witness:Trinity isn't in the Bible.
Householder:Of course it isn't, it is Latin.Theocratic Kingdom isn't in the bible either. When you stop using that I will stop using Trinity.
What is wrong with this situation?
First, "god" is a very relative term. Angels were referred to as God, even Jehovah.You will find that when God first communicated with Moses he appeared in a burning bush.  And an angel spoke from the bush.  (Exodus 3:2)  and the "angel" said to Moses:  "And he went on to say:  'I am the God of your father, the God of  Abraham, the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob.'  Then Moses concealed his face, because he was afraid to look at the [true] God."  (Exodus 3:5,6)   Jehovah was still invisible in  the heavens,  but, he sent an angel to represent him.  The angel was God to Moses.
  Again, at Psalm 82:1  it reads:  "God is stationing himself in the assembly of the Divine One;  (or "God"- Hebrew Masoretic text;  or "gods"- LXX; or "angels" - Syriac Peshitta Version)  In the middle of the gods  (godlike ones- Hebrew;  "elohim"  or "theoi- LXX  or "angels"- Syriac (see Psalm 8:5, footnote b)  Or according to the Targums-  "judges.")  he judges:"  (Psalm 82:1)
  Even Satan is a god.(2 Corinthians 4:4)
  Jehovah made Moses a god to pharoah(Exodus 7:1) Moses was not a false god. He was a messenger of God, or the word of God, much the same way Jesus was.
  1 Corinthians 8:5 says:  For though there be that are called gods, whether in heaven or on earth; as there are gods many, and lords many;  yet to us there is one God, the Father, of whom are all things, and we unto him; and one Lord, Jesus Christ, through whom are all things, and we through him.
How others have viewed angels and men as gods:
"The pre-Arian discussion of the Angel-Christology did not turn simply on the question whether Christ was an angel, but on another issue, namely, in what sense could he, as an angel, rank as God. The explanation which was offered by the supporters of the Angel-Christology was that Christ, according to his nature, was a high angel, but that he was named 'God'; for the designation 'God' was ambiguous. The word 'God' did mean, in the first place, the absolute divine omnipotence but it was also used for the beings who served this deus verus [Latin, 'god true'= (the) true God]. That these were designated 'gods' implies reverence and recognition of Him who sent them and whom they thus represented. Consequently in the Scriptures (Exod. xxii, 28),  not only angels,  but even men could be called 'gods' [cf. Ps. 8:5; Heb. 2:7, 9; Ps. 82:6, 7; John 10:34, 35] without  according  them the status in the strict sense. Even Latantius [260-330 C.E.] had thought in this way2 ... 2 Latantius, inst. Epitome [The Epitome Of The Divine Institutes], 37."-Martin Werner, The Formation Of Christian Dogma, p. 140.

"I said you are gods. Scripture gives the name of gods to those on whom God has conferred an honourable office. He whom God has separated, to be distinguished above all others [His Son] is far more worthy of this honourable title ... The passage which Christ quotes [at John 10:34] is in Psalm lxxxii [82], 6, I have said, You are gods, and all of you are children of the Most High; where God expostulates with the kings and judges of the earth, who tyrannically abuse the authority and power for their own sinful passions, for oppressing the poor, and for every evil action ... Christ applies this to the case in hand, that they receive the name of gods, be- cause they are God's ministers for governing the world. For the same reason Scripture calls the angels gods, because by them the glory of God beams forth on the world ... In short, let us know that magistrates are called gods, because God has given them authority."-John Calvin, Commentary on the Gospel According to John, p. 419, 20.

"We have learned that those only are deified who have lived near to God in holiness and virtue."-Justin Martyr, The First Apology Of Justin, chapter XXI (21); ANF, Vol. I, p. 170.

"For we cast blame upon Him, because we have not been made gods from the beginning, but at first merely men, then at length gods;"-Irenaeus, Irenaeus Against Heresies, Book IV (4), chapter XXXVIII (38), § 4; ANF, Vol. I, p. 52

"[the Son] having bestowed on us the truly great, divine, and inalienable inheritance of the Father, deifying man by heavenly teaching,"-Clement of Alexandria, Exhortation To The Heathen (or, The Greeks, or, The Gentiles), chapter XI (11); ANF, Vol. II, p. 203.

"But let us, O children of the Father-nurslings of the good Instructor [Christ]-fulfil the Father's will ... and meditating on the heavenly mode of life according to which we have been deified, let us anoint ourselves with the perennial, immortal bloom of gladness."-Clement of Alexandria, The Instructor (Peadagogus), Book I, chapter XII (12); ANF, Vol. II, p. 234.

"The Creator did not wish to make him [mankind] a god, and failed in His aim; nor an angel-be not deceived-but a man. For if He had wished to make thee a god, He could have done so. Thou hast the example of the Logos [the Word, the Son]"-Hippolytus, The Refutation Of All Heresies, Book X (10), chapter XXIX (29); ANF, Vol. V (5), p. 151.

"And thou shalt be a companion of the Deity, and a co-heir with Christ, no longer enslaved by lusts or passions, and never again wasted by disease. For thou hast become God ... For the Deity, (by condescension,) does not diminish aught of the dignity of His divine perfection; having made thee even God unto His glory!"-ibid., chapter XXX (30); ibid., p. 153.

"If, therefore, man has become immortal, he will also be God. And if he is made God by water and by the Holy Spirit after the regeneration of the laver he is found to be also joint-heir with Christ after the resurrection of the dead."-Hippolytus, Discourse On The Holy Theophany, § 8; ANF, Vol. V, p. 237.

"For He [the Son of God] was made man that we might be made God."-Athanasisus, Incarnation Of The Word, (De Incarnatione Verbi Dei), The Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Edinburgh, T&T Clark; Grand Rapids, William B. Eerdmans Publishing Co.; Second Series, Vol. IV (4), p. 65,  reprinting of October,  1987.  "For He has become Man, that He might deify us in  Himself,  and  He has been  born  of a  woman,  and  begotten  of  a Virgin in order to transfer to Himself our erring generation, and that we may become henceforth a holy race, and 'partakers of the Divine Nature,' as blessed Peter  wrote. (2 Peter 1:4)-Athanasius, Letters of Athanasius, (Lx. Ad Adelphiun), 60.4; ibid., p. 576.
True as Opposed to False
  In John 1:9 Jesus is called the "True Light". But yet his disciples are also called "Light"(Matt 5:14). Does that mean that they are false lights?
Jesus is called the "Faithful and TRUE witness" at Rev 3:14. But at Acts 1:8 Christians are said to be "witnesses". Are they false witnesses. Of course not. All these uses of the TRUE are used archetypically, as opposed to a copy of something. That is the way we should be looking at this.
Trinity is Latin?!
Actually, trinity is an english translation of the latin word trinitas, WHICH COMES FROM THE GREEK WORK TRIAS. Maybe we could ask why trias isn't in the bible.
Theocratic Kingdom!?
This actually is in the Bible. Theocratic means "god-rule". Theos and God are certainly in the bible....as is rule...as is God's Kingdom and the Kingdom of God(Daniel 2:44;Matthew 6:33; 12:28 etc. The trinity, or even the idea of a Triune God IS NOT in the bible.

Are Quotations Used Erroneous?
Julius R. Mantey and Philip B. Harner both complained that their works were used to support the NWT rendition of John 1:1.  Of course they were, they are trinitarians. They were embarrased and ambushed by people like Dr. Walter Martin, in public yet. They had to backtrack to save face. P.B. Harner says he never claimed that John 1:1 could say, "the Word was a god(well, only if we jumble the words around). What he actually said in our literature and what they don't tell is, "Perhaps the clause could be translated, 'the Word had the same nature as God." Elaborating on this point, Philip B. Harner brought out that the grammatical construction in John 1:1 involves an anarthrous predicate, that is, a predicate noun without the definite article "the," preceding the verb, which construction is primarily qualitative in meaning and indicates that "the logos has the nature of theos." He further stated: "In John 1:1 I think that the qualitative force of the predicate is so prominent that the noun [the·os'] cannot be regarded as definite." (Journal of Biblical Literature, 1973, pp. 85, 87)

I have a copy of the Journal of Biblical Literature/Vol.92  1973. If you want a copy let me know.

For further conversations with Julius R. Mantey click here.
Much is made also of our quotation of Jesuit John L. McKenzie wrote in his Dictionary of the Bible: "Jn 1:1 should rigorously be translated . . . 'the word was a divine being.' The complaint is that we use the quote out of context and that he believes in a trinity. That makes it even better. If avid trinitarians feel we should translate John 1:1 differently, that makes the argument more powerful. What they don't tell you is what he said further:
John L. McKenzie, S.J., in his Dictionary of the Bible, says: "The trinity of persons within the unity of nature is defined in terms of 'person' and 'nature' which are G[ree]k philosophical terms; actually the terms do not appear in the Bible. The trinitarian definitions arose as the result of long controversies in which these terms and others such as 'essence' and 'substance' were erroneously applied to God by some theologians."-(New York, 1965), p. 899
Then there is the matter of Johannes Greber, and there are books and web-sites devoted to this man and his rendition of John 1:1 which we have used in the past as support for it. We have stopped using his 1932 translation when it was learnt of his involvement in spiritualism. But we don't need him anymore for that because we have enough proof of the literal renderings we use. I guess someone out there thinks we are infallible. Of the thousands of quotes that we have used over the years, they found one that they could use against us. But what they don't tell you is the thousands of other scriptures that closely resemble other scriptures found in more mainstream Bibles. And no one ever mentions that Greber's Bible was distinctive because of  the gold-leaf cross on its stiff front cover. It would be unfair for me to say that because of Greber's involvement in spiritualism, that the cross must be occultish. The NWT does not need Greber's version to buttress its position anyways. Take note of the following:
In a beginning was the Word, and the Word was with the God, and a god was the Word. (Interlineary Word for Word English Translation-Emphatic Diaglott)
Harwood, 1768, "and was himself a divine person"
Newcome, 1808, "and the word was a god"
Thompson, 1829, "the Logos was a god
Goodspeed, 1939, "the Word was divine
Torrey, 1947, "the Word was god
New English, 1961, "what God was,the Word was"
Moffatt, 1972, "the Logos was divine
Reijnier Rooleeuw, 1694, "and the Word was a god"
Simple English Bible, "and the Message was Deity"
Hermann Heinfetter, 1863, [A]s a god the Command was"
Abner Kneeland, 1822, "The Word was a God"
Robert Young, 1885, (Concise Commentary) "[A]nd a God (i.e. a Divine Being) was the Word"
Leicester Ambrose, 1879, "And the logos was a god"
Charles A.L. Totten, 1900, "the Word was Deistic [=The Word was Godly]
J.N. Jannaris, 1901, [A]nd was a god"
George William Horner, 1911, [A]nd (a) God was the word"
Ernest Findlay Scott, 1932, "[A]nd the Word was of divine nature"
James L. Tomanec, 1958, [T]he Word was a God"
Philip Harner, 1974, "The Word had the same nature as God"
Maximilian Zerwich S.J./Mary Grosvenor, 1974, "The Word was divine"
Siegfried Schulz, 1975, "And a god (or, of a divine kind) was the Word"
Translator's NT, 1973, "The Word was with God and shared his nature
Barclay, 1976, "the nature of the Word was the same as the nature of God"
Schneider, 1978, "and godlike sort was the Logos
Schonfield, 1985, "the Word was divine
Revised English, 1989, "what God was, the Word was
Cotton Parch Version, 1970, and the Idea and God were One
Scholar's Version, 1993, "The Divine word and wisdom was there with God, and it was what God was
Madsen, 1994, "the Word was <EM>a divine Being"
Becker, 1979, "ein Gott war das Logos" [a God/god was the Logos/logos]
Stage, 1907, "Das Wort war selbst gttlichen Wesens" [The Word/word was itself a divine Being/being].
Bhmer, 1910, "Es war fest mit Gott verbunden, ja selbst gttlichen Wesens" [It was strongly linked to God, yes itself divine Being/being]
Thimme, 1919, "Gott von Art war das Wort" [God of Kind/kind was the Word/word]
Baumgarten et al, 1920, "Gott (von Art) war der Logos" [God (of Kind/kind) was the Logos/logos]
Holzmann, 1926, "ein Gott war der Gedanke" [a God/god was the Thought/thought]
Rittenlmeyer, 1938, "selbst ein Gott war das Wort" [itself a God/god was the Word/word]
Lyder Brun (Norw. professor of NT theology), 1945, "Ordet var av guddomsart" [the Word was of divine kind]
Pfaefflin, 1949, "war von gttlicher Wucht [was of divine Kind/kind]
Albrecht, 1957, "gttlichen Wesen hatte das Wort" [godlike Being/being had the Word/word]
Smit, 1960, "verdensordet var et guddommelig vesen" [the word of the world was a divine being]
Menge, 1961, "Gott (= gttlichen Wesens) war das Wort"[God(=godlike Being/being) was the Word/word)
Haenchen, 1980, "Gott (von Art) war der Logos" [God (of Kind/kind) was the Logos/logos]
Die Bibel in heutigem Deutsch, 1982, "r war bei Gott und in allem Gott gleich"[He was with God and in all like God]
Haenchen (tr. By R. Funk), 1984, "divine (of the category divinity)was the Logos"
Schultz, 1987, "ein Gott (oder: Gott von Art) war das Wort" [a God/god (or: God/god of Kind/kind) was the Word/word].
William Temple, Archbishop of York, 1933, "And the Word was divine."
John Crellius, Latin form of German, 1631, "The Word of Speech was a God"
Greek Orthodox /Arabic translation, 1983, "the word was with Allah[God] and the word was a god"
Ervin Edward Stringfellow (Prof. of NT Language and Literature/Drake University, 1943, "And the Word was Divine"
Robert Harvey, D.D., 1931 "and the Logos was divine (a divine being)"
For more on John 1:1 click here.
For more on Johannes Greber click here.