Wilson: Jehovah's Witnesses deny the Christian teaching of the Trinity.
In addition to denying the divinity of Jesus, Jehovah's Witnesses also deny the personhood of the Holy Spirit. ....While the Bible does not use the term "Trinity," the idea is clearly there. For example, Jesus directed that people be baptized "in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit."

Wilson: Jehovah's Witnesses predicted the date of Jesus' return several times. When they were proved wrong, they covered it up.

We do not object to changing our opinions on any subject, or discarding
former applications of prophecy, or any other scripture, when we see a good
reason for the change,-in fact, it is important that we should be willing to
unlearn errors and mere traditions, as to learn truth. . . . It is our duty
to "prove all things."-by the unerring Word,-"and hold fast to that which is
good." -- "The Ten Virgins," Zion's Watch Tower and Herald of Christ's
Presence, October 1879, reprint, 38.

"Apocalyptic thinking has been highly adaptable,and, as a result, it has persisted through two thousand years of Western history. These two characteristics - elasticity and persistence- have marked end-time thinking in the West for nearly two millenia. Both the great minds and the rank and file of the Christian church have thought
about how the world will end - often with strikingly different conclusions. Such apocalyptic expressions show no sign of abating; they are alive and well as we approach 2000." p. 185 The Last Days Are Here Again- A History of the End Times by Richard Kyle

The most famous one was actually a Baptist....William Miller who predicted 1843.
Wait...there's more

• In the 5th century, the Council of Ephesus decided the millenium had already begun.
• Pope Gregory I,  590-604 C.E., predicted the imminent end of the world.
• Spanish Monk Beatus predicts it for 800 A.D.
• Aelfric, the Abbott of Eynsham predicts it for the year 1000.
• Abbo of Fleury, the French Abbott predicts it for predicts it for 994/996.
• Richard of St. Vaast leads a pilgrimage for the predicted end in 1033.
• 1184 is the target date for the return of the Antichrist according to many...
• and again in 1345-1385
• Joachim of Fiore(1135-1202) used the New Testament and the Trinity to proclaim the coming of the anti-christ in 1260 A.D.
• Speaking of the Trinity, the Church Father who first coined the term, Tertullian was a Montanist(a deeply apocalyptical sect).
• Jean de Roquetaillade announced it for 1366
• Roman Catholic, Arnald of Villanova, predicted the appearance of the Antichrist in 1378
• The Taborites predict it for 1420.
• Hans Hut announced the end for1528
• Cardinal Nicholas of Cusa announced it for 1533
• Melchior Hoffman announced it for 1593
• The Fifth Monarchists predicted between 1655-57
• A Lutheran named Adam Nachenmoser announced it for 1635
• Lutheran leader, Andreas Osiander announced it for 1672
• Jan Matthys announced for 1534
• Archbishop of York and Primate of England, Edwin Sandys (1519-1588) proclaimed the imminent end
• John Wycliffe announced it for 1379
• One of the first Baptist groups, The Anabaptists believed that the Millenium would occur in 1533
• Reformer John Foxe believed the last days would start in 1600. He was shared in this view by Robert Pont
• New England Minister Jonathan Edwards predicts 1866
• The Puritans predict it for 1700
• Emanuel Swedenborg predicts the end for 1757
• Anglican rector Thomas Beverly predict 1697
• Anglican rector John Mason for 1694
• Pierre Jurie predicts the end for 1689
• Sir Walter Raleigh, Hugh Broughton and Thomas Brightman thought it would not be until 1700
• Christopher Columbus said the world was going to end in 1656
• Deacon  William Aspinwall (General Court) predicts the end for 1673
• Cardinal Pierre d'Ailly announced it for 1789
• The Shakers announced it for 1792
• Lavater announced it for 1795
• Some Christian believers in Russia thought that Peter the Great was the Anti-Christ in the 1660's.
• Historic Jews in the 17th century believed that the Messiah would come in the year 1648.
• John Napier announced it for 1688 or 1700
• John Cummings of the Scottish National Church, predicted Jesus would return in 1865.
• Isaac Newton announced it for about another 90 years in his day
• Richard Brothers announced it for 1795
• Reverend M. Baxter (Church of England) predicts it for 1868
• Scottish National Church official, the "Reverend" John Cumming (1807-1881) proclaimed "Redemption draweth Nigh" in 1867
• In 1832 Pope Gregory XVI indicated that the time of the "plague of locusts

(Revelation 9:3)" had arrived in his Encyclical "Mirari vos arbitramur."
• Pat Robertson announced it for 2007(in a novel)
• Chuck Smith, Pastor of Calvary Chapel of Costa Mesa proclaimed it for 1981
• Tommy Hicks, a noted evangelist, received visions of the end in 1961
• Joseph Smith, founder of the Mormons, predicted the world's end in the 19th. Century.
• Elizabeth Claire Prophet announced it for 1989
• Pastor Chuck Smith of Calvary Chapel in Costa Mesa, California predicted the Rapture in 1981.
• Hon-Ming Chen predicted Christ's return on March 31, 1998.
• Methodist Joanna Southcott(1750-1814 announced she was the Bride of the Lamb and began to seal the 144,000
• Early in the 20th century, Dr. Isaac M. Haldeman, Pastor of the First Baptist Church in New York City, predicted that the Antichrist would appear before the Jews return to Palestine
• Assemblies of God official, Thomas M. Chalmers, announced it for the early 1920's
• Pentecostal leader, Lester Sumrall predicts 1985
• Hal Lindsey, author of The Late Great Planet Earth, predicted the Rapture would occur in 1988.
• Nationally syndicated TV show host (Prophecy in the News), J.R. Church predicted the rapture for 1988.
• David Webber and Noah Hutchings of the Southwest Radio Church (SRC) announced it for "1981 or '88"
• Salem Kirban - Bible prognosticator, predicted "the Rapture" would take place in 1989.
• Benny Hinn predicted the Rapture would occur in 1993.
• Dr. Jack van Impe has speculated that the end will come between September 1999 and 2000.
• Grant Jeffrey predicts it for October 9, 2000
• Texe Marrs predicts it for 2000 (Storming toward Armageddon, 1992)
• Philip B. Brown has stated that the millennial reign of Christ will begin April 6, 2008.

Dr. Harold Camping, president of Family Radio, expected the end of the world in 1994.

cult \kelt\ n 1 : formal religious veneration 2 : a religious system; also : its adherents 3 : faddish devotion; also : a group of persons showing such devotion  cultist n
(C) 1995 Zane Publishing, Inc.  The Merriam-Webster Dictionary (C) 1994 by Merriam-Webster, Incorporated

Wilson: Jehovah's Witnesses deny Jesus' teaching about hell.
Nobody likes to think about hell. But to twist Jesus' words to pretend he didn't teach it is dishonest. Jesus described hell (both hades and gehenna) as a place of "torment," of "agony" in the fire,[Luke 16:23 (NIV), describing the rich man in hades. ] where "the fire never goes out," and where "their worm does not die, and the fire is not quenched."[Mark 9:48 (NIV), describing gehenna. ] What does it matter that Jesus taught it? Jehovah's Witnesses pronounce that it is unloving and unjust for God to punish the wicked forever. Are they going to correct Jesus?

"The worm is an agent of destruction which often appears in metaphors describing the corruptibility and the mortality of the flesh....The worm which does not die (Is 66:24; Mk 9:48) is a metaphor of *eternal death* rather than of some eternal punishment." Dictionary of the Bible by John L. McKenzie, p. 944

Wilson: Jehovah's Witnesses deny that a human being has an immortal soul at all. "If ... man does not have a soul but is a soul," they teach, "then there is no conscious existence after death. There is no bliss, and there is no suffering. All the illogical complications of the `hereafter' disappear." When a person dies, they believe, he (i.e., soul) goes to the grave. Those who are righteous will rise at the resurrection; the evil not will not return but be annihilated. Convenient, but certainly not what Jesus taught.

"The word *soul* is used in English Bibles to translate the Hb nepes. The translation is unfortunate; soul in common speech reflects a complex of ideas which go back to Gk philosophy as refined by madieval scholasticism...[and in the NT] the Greek concept of psyche as a distinct spiritual principle is usually read into the term, and thus the concept of salvation and eternal life may become Platonic rather than biblical." Dictionary of the Bible by John L. McKenzie pp 836-839

Wilson: Jehovah's Witnesses distort the Bible's true meaning. Jehovah's Witnesses practice "proof-texting," plucking out and isolating individual Bible verses from their context. Then they use them to prove some point which may have nothing whatsoever to do with the verse's original meaning. The Bible was not written to be understood by quoting little snippets, but by reading the whole context.

"The New Testament does not actually speak of tri-unity. We seek this in vain in the triadic formulae of the N.T."—Kittles Theological Dictionary of the N.T.

 St Paul has the highest view of Jesus' role and person, but nowhere does he call him God. Nor does Jesus himself explicitly claim to be the second person of the Trinity, wholly equal to his heavenly Father." -- For Christ's Sake by Tom Harpur (Anglican Priest).

D.R.G. Owen, "Body and Soul in the New Testament," In Readings and Christian Theology, ed. M.J. Erickson (Baker Book House, 1967), 86: "In Hebrew thought, as we have seen, the word translated 'Soul' regularly stands simply for the personal pronoun and means the self, and the phrase 'body and soul'...stands for the Hebrew idea that man is an 'animated body' and not for the Greek view that he is an 'incarnated soul.'"

U.S. Catholic magazine: "There are in fact so many strong biblical, doctrinal, and logical arguments against the existence of a literal hell that this question naturally arises: Why do the churches teach it and why do people often believe it?"

Wilson: Another concern is the Jehovah's Witness' New World Translation of the Holy Scriptures. Translated by a committee of five, none of whom were trained in Hebrew and Greek,  it changes the meaning of the Greek and Hebrew texts in order to support spurious Jehovah's Witness doctrines. For example, their translation of Colossians 1:16 reads, "By means of him all [other] things were created...." The word "other" is added so that Jesus would be seen as a created being, and not as the divine, uncreated Creator.

Luke 11:42
"and every herb." Revised Version(RV)
"and all the other herbs." TEV
"and all other kinds of garden herbs." New International Version

In both these instances the word "other" was not in the original text, but the translators felt a need to put it in there. Can they do that even without brackets?
"A Greek Grammar of the New Testament and Other early Christian Literature" by F. Blass and A. Debrunner states that it is not uncommon for the greek to omit the word "other".
The book Theology and Bias in Bible Translations by Professor Rolf Furuli when talking about the word "other" in the Col. 1:16 in the NWT says, "This means that the brackets that NWT uses around OTHER may be removed, because the word OTHER is no addition or interpolation, but in a given context it is a legitimate part of PAS."
Even the NIV has been strongly criticized for adding the word *other* at 1Cor 6:18, as this changes the meaning and adds the translators theology on the matter.
The NIV has been criticized thusly in other Scriptures also:

"It is surprising that translators who profess to have 'a high view of Scripture' should take liberties with the text by omitting words or, more often, by adding words that are not in the manuscripts."
Chapter 12, The New International Version, The Bible in Translation by Bruce M. Metzger [Baker Academic, 2001]

Wilson: Philippians 1:22 in their translation reads "what I do desire is the releasing and the being with Christ," rather than "I desire to depart and be with Christ." Their strange, awkward rendering is intended to support a belief in "soul sleep," since this verse in its true form tells believers that they will be with Christ in heaven the very moment they die.

Wilson: In their translation, Matthew 24:3 reads "What will be the sign of your presence" rather than "What will be the sign of your coming," to support their teaching that Christ's coming is an "invisible presence."

Wilson: John 1:1 reads "the Word was a god," rather than "the Word was God," in an attempt to hide the full divinity of Christ. The New World Translation twists scripture to make it say what the Jehovah's Witnesses want it to say.

Wilson seems to like the New International Version (NIV), and yet many questions are raised by others concerning this version, and its translators:

"Once the committee got at its task, one discovered that his preparation was far too scanty. If one had written a PhD dissertation on each verse that was to be considered, he might have been qualified to deal with all the questions that could be raised. The individual traits of each committee member quickly surfaced. One had a special
talent for recalling where a particular form had occurred before. Another could offer his training in Akkadian and Ugaritic; another in Latin and Greek. The Old Testament specialists were sometimes not aware that a passage was also used in the New Testament." Jack Lewis, The New International Version, Restoration Quarterly 24, p. 3

"Our conclusion is that the goal of accuracy frequently has been badly missed. In terms of style the NIV manifests many weaknesses, although very often it is extremely readable. But the number of stylistic problems is large, and the overall style seems to lack a certain cohesiveness. The lack of consistency in the NIV is also a major problem." The NIV Reconsidered by Radmacher/Hodges, p. 131

"The NIV is not worthy of becoming the standard version of the English-speaking world. Its accuracy is suspect in too many ways." P. 70, Accuracy of Translation-The Primary Criterion of Evaluating Bible Versions with Special Reference to the New International Version
Why? This same author goes on to say, "The dynamic equivalence translator tends to be relatively unrestrained in his theologizing. What a formal equivalence [Literal] translator generally does only as a matter of necessity, the dynamic equivalence translator often does as a matter of choice."

"No scholar today employs this text for any scholarly purpose except as he may use it in writing the history of the Greek New Testament. The King James version is undoubtably the most inaccurate English New Testament in common use today...The King James stands at the bottom of the list also in regard to three spurious passages selected as tests (Mk 16:9-20; Jn 7:53-8:11 and 1 John 5:7-8)." pp. 99, 100 see colwell.htm

Wilson: In a rather well-known distortion of scripture, Jehovah's Witnesses refuse blood transfusions on the basis that the ancient Jews were forbidden to eat the blood of animals (Genesis 9:4; Leviticus 7:26-27; Acts 15:29; etc.). It should be obvious to any reasonable person that eating blood (a pagan practice) has nothing to do with receiving someone's blood donated to save your life. Unfortunately, from this kind of scripture twisting, many lives have been lost.

"It ought to be observed, that this prohibition of eating blood, given to Noah and all his posterity, and repeated to the Israelites, in a most solemn manner, under the Mosaic dispensation, has never been revoked, but, on the contrary, has been confirmed under the New Testament, Acts xv.; and thereby made of perpetual obligation."-Benson's Notes, 1839, Vol. I, p. 43.
What of early Christians?

"Let your error blush before the Christians, for we do not include even animals' blood in our natural diet. We abstain on that account from things strangled or that die of themselves, that we may not in any way be polluted by blood, even if it is buried in the meat. Finally, when you are testing Christians, you offer them sausages full of blood; you are thoroughly well aware, of course, that among them it is forbidden; but you want to make them transgress."

Clement of Alexandria on Blood (Instructor 3.56.2ff)

"To the nomad the horse is at once conveyance and sustenance; and the warlike youth of the Arabians (these are other nomads) are mounted on camels. They sit on breeding camels; and these feed and run at the same time, carrying their masters the whilst, and bear the house with them. And if drink fail the barbarians, they milk them; and after that their food is spent, they do not spare even their blood, as is reported of furious wolves. And these, gentler than the barbarians, when injured, bear
no remembrance of the wrong, but sweep bravely over the desert, carrying and nourishing their masters at the same time.

Perish, then, the savage beasts whose food is blood! For it is unlawful for men, whose body is nothing but flesh elaborated of blood, to touch blood. For human blood has become a partaker of the Word: it is a participant of grace by the Spirit; and if any one injure him, he will not escape unnoticed. Man may, though naked in body, address the Lord. But I approve the simplicity of the barbarians: loving an unencumbered life, the barbarians have abandoned luxury. Such the Lord calls us to be--naked of finery, naked of vanity, wrenched from our sins, bearing only the wood of life, aiming only at salvation" (Clment of Alexandria,
Instructor 3.56.2ff).

"For the apostle says, 'All other things buy out of the shambles, asking no questions,' with the exception of the things mentioned in the Catholic epistle of all the apostles, 'with the consent of the Holy Ghost,' which is written in the Acts of the Apostles, and conveyed to the faithful by the hands of Paul himself. For they intimated 'that they must of necessity abstain from things offered to idols, and from blood, and from things strangled, and from fornication, from which keeping themselves, they should do well' " (Clement of Alexandria, Miscellanies 4.97.3ff).

            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

Wilson: Jehovah's Witnesses are taught that true religion remains "untainted by worldly politics and conflicts. It is neutral in time of war." As a result, they do not participate or serve in our government. Nor do they help defend our country and freedoms when threatened. Perhaps they forget faithful Daniel, who was prime minister of the Babylonian empire under several pagan kings, and the military leaders who followed Jehovah, such as David, Gideon, and Joshua in the Old Testament, and the centurions and soldiers who were believers in the New Testament.

"A careful review of all the information available goes to show that, until the time of Marcus Aurelius [Roman emperor from 161 to 180 C.E.], no Christian became a soldier; and no soldier, after becoming a Christian, remained in military service."-The Rise of Christianity (London, 1947), E. W. Barnes, p. 333.

"We who were filled with war, and mutual slaughter, and every wickedness, have each through the whole earth changed our warlike weapons,-our swords into ploughshares, and our spears into implements of tillage,-and we cultivate piety, righteousness, philanthropy, faith, and hope, which we have from the Father Himself through Him who was crucified."-Justin Martyr in "Dialogue With Trypho, a Jew" (2nd century C.E.), The Ante-Nicene Fathers (Grand Rapids, Mich.; reprint of 1885 Edinburgh edition), edited by A. Roberts and J. Donaldson, Vol. I, p. 254.

"They refused to take any active part in the civil administration or the military defence of the empire. . . . it was impossible that the Christians, without renouncing a more sacred duty, could assume the character of soldiers, of magistrates, or of princes."-History of Christianity (New York, 1891), Edward Gibbon, pp. 162, 163.

Wilson: Jehovah's Witness teaching denies full Christian privileges to present-day believers.
When the Jehovah's Witnesses began in the 1880s, they believed that a literal 144,000 people, and only a total of 144,000, would go to heaven (the "heavenly Kingdom class," they call it). That worked when they were a small sect. But as the movement grew, their cumulative numbers swelled to more than 144,000. In 1965 we are told that less than 12,000 of this original 144,000 still remained alive. What about the next generation of Jehovah's Witnesses? They think of themselves as the "great crowd" of Revelation 7:9 who will rule with Christ on the earth.
The problem is that the wonderful promises of the Bible--being born again by the Holy Spirit, the comfort of partaking of the Lord's Supper, and the joy of heaven--these promises are "already taken." Present-day Jehovah's Witnesses believe they will never experience them.
How sad to have the most precious promises of the Bible be reserved for someone else. How sad to believe in a Jesus stripped of his deity, his physical resurrection, and his visible return. How sad to believe that you were born a generation too late to go to heaven when you die. How sad to read, "No one can see the kingdom of God unless he is born again," and know that doesn't mean you. To ponder "If anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he does not belong to Christ" and wonder if you are excluded. How sad.

Wilson has quoted John 3:3, "Except one be born anew [again], he cannot see the kingdom of God." But, 10 verses later it says, "And no one hath ascended into heaven" In fact, we are told that King David never went to heaven, "For David ascended not into the heavens." Acts 2:34
Jesus even alluded to John the Baptist as not being in heaven after his death, "Among them that are born of women there hath not arisen a greater than John the Baptist: yet he that is but little in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he."
It seems like anyone who was born a generation too early was born too early to go to heaven. Is this sad though? Absolutely not. Only a few are really needed to go to heaven. Their purpose as "kings and priests for God, to rule the world." Anyone who is to "rule over the earth" (Williams NT) will undoubtably need someone to rule over. That is why the Bible differentiates between the limited 144,000 and the great crowd (multitude) in Revelations 7, as Bible scholar E. W. Bullinger says of it: "It is the simple statement of fact: a definite number in contrast with the indefinite number in this very chapter." It only makes sense that the majority would stay on earth, the place that God has given unto men (Ps 115:16).  [Notice that Wilson wrongly attributes this ruling to the great crowd...it is obvious that he does not really know much of what JW's believe.] Commenting on Psalm 115:16, the Zondervan NASB Study Bible says, "The one [heavens] the exclusive realm of the exalted, all-sovereign God; the other [earth] the divinely appointed place for man, where he lives under God's rule and care, enjoys His abundant blessings and celebrates His praise."
Jehovah's Witnesses have indeed changed their viewpoints on these matters, and others, "for it is not possible the Christian world should come so lately out of such thick anti-Christian and that perfection of knowledge should break forth at once." John Robinson, 1620 A.D. as quoted in the Pilgrim Church, by E.H. Broadbent, p.257
Wilson, however, is promoting the same doctrines that were believed during the dark ages. It is his "orthodoxy" that has led to the darkest, most evil and bloodthirsty period in the history of man. We should embrace new light, because the time is now ready for it. The apocalyptic book Daniel backs me up on this, "But thou, O Daniel, shut up the words, and seal the book, even to the time of the end: many shall run to and fro, and knowledge shall be increased." Dan 12:4
"But the path of the righteous is as the dawning light, That shineth more and more unto the perfect day." Prov 4:18
Wilson's Christianity is the Christianity of the great apostasy foretold in Scripture. What is truly sad is the hold it has on the world. (1 Tim. 4:1; 2 Thess 2:3; Jude 8-11, 17-19; Acts 20:29, 30; 1 John 2:18; 2 John 9, 10; 2 Timothy 2:16-19; 1 Corinthians 5:9-11; 2 Peter 2:1, 3, 20-22 etc).