The scene is a common one in most American cities and towns. You go to your door after hearing that persistent knock and find two, well-dressed people standing there. They offer you some literature and if you're interested, they can come in and study the Bible with you. Well, more often than not, those people are Jehovah's Witnesses and no matter what they might say to the contrary, they're not Christians. Just who are these people, the Jehovah's Witnesses? Their story begins at the turn of the century with a man named Charles Taze Russell.

Charles Taze Russell was born in Allegheny, Pennsylvania in 1852 and raised in the Congregational Church. As an adult, he became involved in Seventh-Day Adventism. In his younger years, he had a strong fear of hell but later, he denied the Christian doctrine of eternal punishment for the wicked. Russell began teaching Bible classes, and eventually abandoned Adventism as his beliefs departed even farther from Christian orthodoxy.

In 1884, Russell founded "Zion's Watchtower Tract Society", which would later become today's "Watchtower Bible and Tract Society". He moved the Watchtower headquarters to Brooklyn, New York in 1908. The early devotees of his doctrine were known as The Dawn Bible Students and continued with that appellation to this day. They refused to go along with changes they perceived in Russell's organization and teaching and chose to continue in the original name though never gaining the stature and numbers of the Watchtower Bible and Tract Society or Jehovah's Witnesses

Russell wrote a large volume of material, and his basic doctrinal beliefs were set forth in his seven-volume "Studies in the Scriptures". Although modern day Jehovah's Witnesses may try to distance themselves from Russell, the historic facts speak for themselves. Russell was their founder, and his doctrinal teachings remain the core of Jehovah's Witness belief. Though it is improper to call modern Jehovah's Witnesses "Russellites" as they reject it for themselves and have a right to name their group, this is what many called them at their inception with good reason to do so. With his death in 1916 the organization was taken into the hands of a man known as "Judge" Rutherford who used the name Jehovah's Witnesses.

Russell, Rutherford and today's Jehovah's Witnesses deny almost every core truth of the Christian faith. They deny the Triune nature of God, the deity of Christ, the deity and personality of the Holy Spirit, and the virgin birth of Christ. They also reject the historic Christian positions on salvation, the Second Coming of Christ, Jesus' atonement for our sins on the cross, the nature of man and the certainty of hell for the wicked.

Judged by the weight of evidence, Christian history, and the clear testimony of Scripture, Jehovah's Witnesses' teachings are weighed in the balance and found wanting. These will be covered in other messages in greater detail. Believing their false, unbiblical teachings will only lead a person away from a right relationship with God, and away from any hope of heaven.

SPEAKING THE TRUTH IN LOVE

Jesus said that where "two or more are gathered together" in His name He would be in their midst. The reverse of this is found in our definition of a cult which is: Two or more people who have a real or imaginary need they are trying to meet or fulfill by believing that which is false about the Person and Work of the Biblical Jesus Christ.

THE DESIRE: To eternally exist in a consciously joyful and pleasant state after death. This necessitates the avoidance of any deserved punishment for one's individual sins against a personal, perfectly righteous and just Creator.

THE NEED: All men have sinned, and therefore, all are in danger of this judgment. Romans 3:23:"All have sinned and come short of the Glory of God."

THE SOLUTION: Jesus, our Creator, the Second Person of the Triune God, allowed Himself to be crucified in payment for all the sins of mankind. By rising physically from the dead He showed us that God was satisfied with His' sacrificial payment for our sins. An individual becomes right with God by trusting in Christ and His sacrifice. You can show this trust by asking Him to save you from the tyranny of sin and The Lord's just punishment of our sins. Since He exists everywhere you can simply talk to Him. "For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved " -Romans 10:13.

God's way is always through trusting Him to bring salvation to us freely with no strings attached that would imply we have to earn His favor!

"You have been saved by grace through faith, and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God, not of works lest any man should boast."-Ephesians 2:8,9