Apologetic Tracts Catholic beliefs vs Jehovah Witnesses beliefs
Catholic beliefs vs.
Jehovah Witness beliefs
What do Jehovah Witnesses believe?
Many people have had Jehovah Witnesses come to their homes to pass out
their publication “The Watch Tower” and then to share their beliefs. Many Catholics are sometimes confused because
their own faith formation may have been limited. I will attempt to briefly identify some of
the major differences between our beliefs as Catholics and those held by those
professed to be Jehovah Witnesses. These
are the significant ones.
God
As Catholics we believe that there is One God who is triune in person:
Father, Son and Holy Spirit, each a distinct person, but equal. While we believe in the Trinity, we do not
believe in three gods.
A Jehovah Witness believes in One God whom they identify as Jehovah,
(which is a mistranslation of the Hebrew word Yahweh). God, for them, is not all-knowing or present
everywhere as we believe.
They believe that God created Michael the Archangel (inferior to God)
and, through him, later created the rest of creation. At a point in time, Michael became man and
was named Jesus. He was sinless and obedient to God. He died for the sins of mankind. When he was
raised from the dead, only his spirit rose, not his body. As such, he resumed his identity as Michael
the Archangel.
In contrast, we believe as Catholics that Jesus is True God and True
Man. We believe that the Eternal Son of
the Father, the Word, who is equal to the Father and the Spirit, was incarnate
and became man, who is named Jesus. In
so far as He is God, Jesus is equal to the Father. “The Father and I are one” (Jn 10:30) In so
far as He is man and a creature, He is inferior to the Father.” The Father is greater than I.” (Jn
14:28). We further profess that Jesus
rose from the dead in a glorified body and is in heaven as such.
They hold that the Holy Spirit is God’s active force in the world rather
than God, equal to the Father and the Son.
We believe that he is a person, not a force or power.
Bible
Their bible is called The New World Translation (NWT). It contains 66 books in the Old Testament and
the New Testament. It follows the same
list found in Protestant Bibles. As
Catholics, we have seven additional books which we hold as part of Divine Revelation.
A comparison of the NWT and the New American Bible (NAB) (Catholic) shows
that their scholars transliterated and altered passages that were problematic
to their beliefs. It would be a
revisionist version of the Scriptures.
(Four of the five revisionists never studied the biblical languages and
the fifth had a limited knowledge of non-biblical Greek. Hardly credentials for a scholarly
effort). For instance, in the Gospel of
John 1:1 the NAB reads: “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with
God and the Word was God.” The same
verse in the NWT says:”…the Word was a god.”
This fits their belief that Jesus is a god but not God.
Some
of the ways a Witness uses the Bible texts is to quote verses that support
their beliefs, without seeing the citation in its context or in relationship to
other verses in the Scriptures which contradict their beliefs. One’s use or interpretation may be wrong but
the Word of God cannot contradict itself.
Sacraments
As Catholics, we believe that there are seven sacraments instituted by
Christ as signs of God’s love for us. In
the words of the Catechism of the Catholic Church, “The sacraments are
efficacious signs of grace, instituted by Christ and entrusted to the Church,
by which divine life is dispensed to us.” (CCC 1131) The seven sacraments are Baptism,
Confirmation, Eucharist, Penance, Anointing of the Sick, Matrimony and Holy
Orders.
The Jehovah Witnesses believe that there are two sacraments: Baptism and
the Lord’s Supper. These are symbolic
acts. A person is baptized at a
reasonable age, after making a conscious decision to become a Witness and be
devoted to God. Only full immersion is
considered to be a true baptism.
As Catholics, we believe that a person should be baptized as soon as
possible after birth so as to be free of Original Sin (separation from God) and
brought into the full life of God as an adopted son or daughter. Something radically happens to the person who
is baptized. We also believe that a person can be baptized by immersion,
sprinkling or pouring of the water over the head. We believe that a person is to be baptized in
the name of the Father, and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.
The Lord’s Supper is celebrated by Witnesses only once each year at the
time of the Passover. The bread and wine
are symbols of Christ, which only those who claim to be the “anointed” eat and
drink.
We
celebrate the Lord’s Supper daily and are called to participate in it every
Sunday. We believe that bread and wine,
by the power of the Holy Spirit and the words of Jesus, become Jesus’ true body
and blood. It is not a symbol for us but
the real body, blood, soul and divinity of Jesus our Lord and God. Our faith is
not in a symbol but in the reality of the person, now present.
The Priesthood
All Witnesses are priests. They
have no separate class, except their elders and those who are anointed. They refer to the passage in Matthew’s
Gospel: “As for you, do not be called 'Rabbi.'
You have but one teacher, and you are all brothers. Call no one on earth
your father; you have but one Father in heaven.” (Mt 23: 8-10) If they are true to this, then they cannot
call even their own human begetter, father.
Yet, the Fourth Commandment of God states we are to honor one’s father
and mother. If one can’t call them
father, how can they fully honor them as such?
While
citing the passage from Matthew’s Gospel, they fail to reconcile it with other
passages in the Scriptures. “Even if you
should have countless guides to Christ, yet you do not have many fathers, for I
became your father in Christ Jesus through the gospel.” (1 Cor 4:15) In other passages Paul refers to Timothy as
his son. Would Timothy be at fault if he called Paul, my father, in the
spiritual sense?
Salvation
Both Catholics and Jehovah Witnesses believe that salvation comes through
faith in Jesus Christ. Both believe that
salvation is a gift from God. At the
same time we believe that we are to respond to the gift of God by our lives and
works. They believe that preaching to
others and becoming part of the Witnesses is the way to salvation.
They believe that the souls of the wicked when they die will be totally
destroyed. For them, the soul is not
immortal (will live forever). Of those
who will be saved, a select few (the little flock), numbering 144,000 will go
to heaven and be with God as gods. The
rest of the witnesses (the great crowd or the other sheep) will enjoy full
happiness on earth for eternity.
Hell is not a place for those who died in sin. Rather it is the place of
the dead. It is not a place of
punishment. Finally, they believe that
men will have a second chance after death to be saved.
As Catholics we believe that at death, if we are in union with God but
not fully perfected in love, we will go to a state of purification (Purgatory)
before entering the full life with God.
Heaven is not limited to only 144,000, but is enjoyed by the countless
saints who died in Christ and now reign with Christ eternally. We also believe in Hell as an everlasting
place of damnation and punishment for those who die in the state of alienation
from God.
“Then he will say to those on his left, 'Depart from me, you accursed,
into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels…And these will go
off to eternal punishment, but the righteous to eternal life." (Mt 25:41, 46) The wicked are obviously not annihilated if
they go to eternal punishment.
Return of Christ
Jehovah Witnesses teach that Jesus came back invisibly in 1914 prior to
the start of WW I and has already established his kingdom. They believe that
the end of the world is imminent.
As
Catholics, we believe in the second coming of Jesus, but we don’t know the
exact time or place. People have predicted that coming from the first century
till now, actually naming the exact date and year. Each of these predictions has proven
false. As a result our focus is not to
know what is only known to the Father but to live in such a way that if Jesus
came today, we would be ready.
About the Author
0 comments