Page 4: This great apostasy began after the death of the apostles. (Acts 20:29, 30)
Correction: The great apostasy will not occur until the next world ruler is revealed.
2 Thessalonians 2:3-4 Let no one deceive you by any means; for that Day will not come unless the falling away comes first, and the man of sin is revealed, the son of perdition, who opposes and exalts himself above all that is called God or that is worshipped, so that he sits as God in the temple of God, showing himself that he is God.
Page 5: How true Paul's words proved to be! It was as if genuine Christianity were being gobbled up by pagan corruption. And nowhere was this contamination more apparent than in the celebration of holidays.
Note: The Watchtower should not be judging people in regards to holidays.
Colossians 2:16-17 So let no one judge you in food or in drink, or regarding a festival or a new moon or sabbaths, which are a shadow of things to come, but the substance is of Christ.
Page 5: Actually, the only celebration that Christians are commanded to observe is the Lord's Evening Meal. (1 Corinthians 11:23-26)
Note: According to Watchtower doctrine, this celebration should have stopped in 1914.
1 Corinthians 11:26 For as often as you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord's death till He comes.
Page 6: Millions of people celebrate Christmas in honor of Jesus' birth. They attend special church services, put up Nativity scenes at home, or offer prayers of thanks to Jesus himself. But how does God view the matter? Do these things meet with his approval? Consider what the Bible has to say.
Note: The Father wanted the angels to sing and celebrate the birth of Jesus Christ!
Luke 2:13-14 And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God and saying: "Glory to God in the highest, And on earth peace, goodwill toward men!"
Page 6: While Jesus was on earth, he told his followers: "God is a Spirit, and those worshipping him must worship with spirit and truth." (John 4:24) Jesus lived by those words. He always spoke the truth. He perfectly imitated his Father, "Jehovah the God of truth." - John 14:9
Note: Jesus Christ must be God (elohim) since He was in the Father and the Father was in Him.
John 14:10-11 "Do you not believe that I am in the Father, and the Father in Me? The words that I speak to you I do not speak on My own authority; but the Father who dwells in Me does the works. Believe Me that I am in the Father and the Father in Me, or else believe Me for the sake of the works themselves."
Page 7: While on earth Jesus did not encourage men to worship him, Jesus himself said: "It is Jehovah your God you must worship, and it is to him alone you must render sacred service."
Note: Jesus never rebuked people for worshipping Him.
Matthew 8:2 And behold, a leper came and worshipped Him, saying, "Lord, if You are willing, You can make me clean."
Matthew 9:18 While He spoke these things to them, behold, a ruler came and worshipped Him, saying, "My daughter has just died, but come and lay Your hand on her and she will live."
Page 7: This leads to the question, Would Jesus approve of all the worshipful devotion that is directed to him, not his Father, at Christmastime?
Note: The answer would be yes according to the Holy Bible.
Matthew 2:11 And when they had come into the house, they saw the young Child with Mary His mother, and fell down and worshipped Him. And when they had opened their treasures, they presented gifts to Him: gold, frankincense, and myrrh.
Note: The Father honored their worship by warning them about the plotting of Herod.
Matthew 2:12 Then, being divinely warned in a dream that they should not return to Herod, they departed for their own country another way.
Page 8: "I raised questions on such subjects as the Trinity, hellfire, immortality of the soul, and especially faith healing. I strongly believed that these doctrines were from the Bible. But the Witnesses helped me to see that such was not the case."
Note: The Witnesses misrepresented the Word of God to this gentleman.
John 15:26 "But when the Helper comes, whom I shall send to you from the Father, the Spirit of truth who proceeds from the Father, He will testify of Me.
Rev. 20:10 The devil, who deceived them, was cast into the lake of fire and brimstone where the beast and the false prophet are. And they will be tormented day and night forever and ever.
Revelation 6:9-10 When He opened the fifth seal, I saw under the altar the souls of those who had been slain for the word of God and for the testimony which they held. And they cried with a loud voice, saying, "How long, O Lord, holy and true, until You judge and avenge our blood on those who dwell on the earth?"
James 5:14-15 Is anyone among you sick? Let him call for the elders of the church, and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord. And the prayer of faith will save the sick, and the Lord will raise him up. And if he has committed sins, he will be forgiven.
Page 9: "Next, I wanted to find out which religious organization teaches and practices the truths taught in the Bible. Most religions teach hellfire, the Trinity, and an immortal soul surviving death. But these doctrines did not make sense to me."
Note: Sad but true, this gentleman is perishing for "lack of knowledge." Hosea 4:6.
Luke 16:23-24 "And being in torments in Hades, he lifted up his eyes and saw Abraham afar off, and Lazarus in his bosom. Then he cried and said, 'Father Abraham, have mercy on me, and send Lazarus that he may dip the tip of his finger in water and cool my tongue; for I am tormented in this flame.'"
John 14:26 "But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My name, He will teach you all things, and bring to your remembrance all things that I said to you."
Genesis 35:18 And so it was, as her soul was departing (for she died), that she called his name Ben-Oni; but his father called him Benjamin.
Page 9: How, then, could a God of love put his children in a fiery hell and let them suffer?
Correction: Not everyone is a child of God.
John 17:12 "While I was with them in the world, I kept them in Your name. Those whom You gave Me I have kept; and none of them is lost except the son of perdition, that the Scripture might be fulfilled.
Galatians 3:26 For you are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus.
Page 11: Jehovah's fear-inspiring day is not to be confused with "the Lord's day" of Revelation 1:10.
Correction: It is the same "day" with Revelation providing many specific details.
Joel 2:10 The earth quakes before them, The heavens tremble; The sun and moon grow dark, And the stars diminish their brightness.
Revelation 6:12-14 I looked when He opened the sixth seal, and behold, there was a great earthquake; and the sun became black as sackcloth of hair, and the moon became like blood. And the stars of heaven fell to the earth, as a fig tree drops its late figs when it is shaken by a mighty wind. Then the sky receded as a scroll when it is rolled up, and every mountain and island was moved out of its place.
Page 13: In 607 B.C.E., following a bitter siege, the city fell before the mighty army of Nebuchadnezzar.
Page 16: History describes several 'days of Jehovah.' The Flood of Noah's day, the annihilation of Sodom and Gomorrah, and the destructions of Jerusalem in 607 B.C.E. and 70 C.E. were great and fear-inspiring days of Jehovah.
Correction: Jerusalem was destroyed in 586 B.C. by Nebuchadnezzar.
In 588 BC Zedekiah led a revolt against Chaldea, and two years later (586 BC) Nebuchadnezzar's army destroyed Judah and razed Jerusalem. Funk & Wagnalls Encyclopedia, Volume 15, page 57.
Page 14: Jesus preached throughout the land of Israel, saying: "Repent, you people, for the kingdom of the heavens has drawn near." (Matthew 4:17) Further, he gathered and trained disciples to share with him in proclaiming the good news of the Kingdom.
Note: The good news of the Kingdom is Jesus Christ!
Matthew 3:1-2 In those days John the Baptist came preaching in the wilderness of Judea, and saying, "Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand!"
John 1:29 The next day John saw Jesus coming toward him, and said, "Behold! The Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!"
John 14:6 Jesus said to him, " I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me."
Page 14: How did the rulers of the Jews respond? They vilified Jesus and finally committed the heinous crime of having him put to an agonizing death on a torture stake. Jehovah cast off the Jews as his people. Now the rejection of that nation was permanent.
Correction: God still has a plan for the nation of Israel.
Romans 11:1 I say then, has God cast away His people? Certainly not! For I also am an Israelite, of the seed of Abraham, of the tribe of Benjamin.
Page 14: The Kingdom preaching accelerated, and within 30 years it had been extended to "all creation that is under heaven." - Colossians 1:23.
Correction: The preaching had been extended to the entire Roman world.
Luke 2:1 And it came to pass in those days that a decree went out from Caesar Augustus that all the world should be registered.
Note: The Chinese never went to get registered.
Page 14: Many thousands, out of nations throughout the then known world, had flocked to the Christian congregation and had been anointed as the spiritual "Israel of God." (Galatians 6:16)
Correction: The "Israel of God" represents the believing Jews.
Galatians 6:16 And as many as walk according to this rule, peace and mercy be upon them (Gentiles), and upon the Israel of God. (Jews)
Page 16: The destruction of Jerusalem in 70 C.E. is an outstanding example of this. Foretelling that event almost 900 years in advance, the prophet Joel wrote: "I will give portents in the heavens and on the earth, blood and fire and columns of smoke. The sun itself will be turned into darkness, and the moon into blood, before the coming of the great and fear-inspiring day of Jehovah."
Correction: This prophecy is yet future as none of these signs occurred in 70 A.D.
Revelation 8:12 Then the fourth angel sounded: And a third of the sun was struck, a third of the moon, and a third of the stars, so that a third of them were darkened. A third of the day did not shine, and likewise the night.
Page 17: From Petecost on, Christians spread the word about the resurrected Jesus.
Note: The Watchtower contradicts itself on the same page!
Page 17: Moreover, these Christians were to proclaim the coming of the great and fear-inspiring day of Jehovah. They had to warn the Jewish world that it would experience a tribulation eclipsing anything that had struck Jerusalem and God's professed people up to that time.
Page 17: They made known that humans could be adopted as spiritual sons of Jehovah God and become part of a new "Israel of God," a spiritual nation that would 'declare abroad Jehovah's excellencies.' (Galatians 6:16; 1 Peter 2:9)
Correction: The "Israel of God" Jews and Gentiles have become heirs of the same promises.
Ephesians 3:6 ...that the Gentiles should be fellow heirs, of the same body, and partakers of His promise in Christ through the gospel,
Page 17: Since 1914, mankind has been living in a special time period referred to in the Bible as "the time of the end," "the conclusion of the system of things," and "the last days."
Note: 1914 is based on the bogus date of 607 B.C. for the destruction of Jerusalem.
Page 17: During this "time of the end," he has gathered the last ones of the spiritual Israel of God and turned the attention of his earthly servants, from the 1930's onward, to gathering "a great crowd, which no man (is) able to number, out of all nations and tribes and peoples and tongues." As a group, these "come out of the great tribulation" alive. (Revelation 7:9, 14)
Note: This "great crowd" is in heaven!
Revelation 7:9-10 After these things I looked, and behold, a great multitude which no one could number, of all nations, tribes, peoples, and tongues, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed with white robes, with palm branches in their hands, and crying out with a loud voice, saying, "Salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb!"
Revelation 4:2 Immediately I was in the Spirit; and behold, a throne set in heaven, and One sat on the throne.
Page 17-18: When Paul wrote the book of Romans, Jehovah had already cast off Israel as a nation.
Correction: God still has a plan for the nation of Israel.
Romans 11:25 For I do not desire, brethren, that you should be ignorant of this mystery, lest you should be wise in your own opinion, that blindness in part has happened to Israel until the fullness of the Gentiles has come in.
Page 19: Such truth focuses on the precious name of the Sovereign Lord Jehovah; on our Messianic King and Ransomer, the Lord Jesus Christ; and on the magnificent Kingdom promises
Correction: Paul was focusing on Jesus Christ!
Philippians 3:8-9 Yet indeed I also count all things loss for the excellence of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them as rubbish, that I may gain Christ and be found in Him, not having my own righteousness, which is from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which is from God by faith;
Page 19: Quoting Joel 2:32, Paul declares: "Everyone who calls on the name of Jehovah will be saved." (Romans 10:13)
Note: In context, Paul identifies Jesus Christ as being Jehovah!
Romans 10:8-10 But what does it say? "The word is near you, in your mouth and in your heart" (that is, the word of faith which we preach): that if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart one believes unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.
Page 20: How much better, though, if they would trust in the greatest Rock of all, Jehovah God!
Note: Paul identifies Jesus Christ as being Jehovah!
1 Corinthians 10:4 and all drank the same spiritual drink. For they drank of that spiritual Rock that followed them, and that Rock was Christ.
Page 20: Hence, it is vital that as many as possible of the almost six billion humans alive today be taught to call upon Jehovah's name in faithfulness and sincerity.
Correction: People must be told to call upon the name of Jesus to be saved.
Acts 4:12 "Nor is there salvation in any other, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved."
Page 20: Even in Christendom the majority do nothing to honor God's precious name. Many have Jehovah hopelessly confused with two other identities in an unexplainable Trinity dogma.
Correction: The "corporate" name of God is Jehovah! Please notice that the name is singular.
Matthew 28:19 baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit,
Page 21: It is our prayer that multitudes more will respond with urgency to the good news, flocking to Jehovah's organization.
Correction: Jesus Christ is not an organization.
Romans 1:16 For I am not ashamed of the good news of Christ, for it is the power of God to salvation for everyone who believes, for the Jew first and also for the Greek.