The Jehovah's Witness sect was born out of Charles Taze Russell's Bible Student movement of the late 1800s.i
The headquarters of the movement is in New York, where elders make up the Governing Body of Jehovah's Witnesses.ii This ruling council is in charge of policies and doctrines, publications and conventions, and administration of the staff worldwide.iii As of 2010, there are over 100,000 Jehovah's Witness congregations around the globe.iv
Jehovah's Witnesses are sincere, but because of certain doctrinal misunderstandings, cannot truly be called Christians. Here are some Jehovah's Witness doctrines, and how they differ from the truth of Scripture:
Jehovah's Witnesses deny any connection between occultism and the JW movement, but we can see the marks of Masonry and the occult throughout Jehovah's Witness documents and history.
One of Russell's books, The Divine Plan of the Ages, is a key resource for Jehovah's Witnesses. As we see from the photos below, it is also imprinted with occult symbolism, such as the symbol of the god Ra, and the occult pyramid.
Many believe that Charles Russell was a high Freemason. Watchtower magazine shows how Russell wanted to die a Masonic death, and a monument erected in his honor also bears Masonic symbolism.
This is an occult society pretending to represent Jehovah.
Russell and other Jehovah's Witness leaders have made more predictions about world events than most religions. However, their prophecies have not come true. Consider these failed predictions:
Concerning the Times of the Gentiles, we consider it an established truth that the final end of the kingdoms of the world and the full establishment of the Kingdom of God will be accomplished by the end of A.D. 1914.v
…some time before the end of A.D. 1914 the last member of…"the body of Christ" will be glorified.vi
Scripture tells us that many false prophets will come to deceive us:
And many false prophets shall rise, and shall deceive many (Matthew 24:11).
Beloved, believe not every spirit, but try the spirits whether they are of God: because many false prophets are gone out into the world (1 John 4:1).
The Bible also gives clear indications of how to test a prophet for truth. One of those indicators is whether the prophet's predictions come to pass:
...when a prophet speaks in the name of the Lord, if the thing does not happen or come to pass, that is the thing which the Lord has not spoken; the prophet has spoken it presumptuously; you shall not be afraid of him" (Deuteronomy 18:22 NKJV).
Clearly, Russell's predictions have not come to pass, so we cannot take his doctrine as truth.
The use of subliminal images in various Jehovah's Witness publications is another matter of concern. View examples of subliminals. What are these subliminals trying to convey, and why do the messages need to be hidden in the first place?
Read about spiritism in another unBiblical sect, the Christian Science movement