TRINITY: One God who is revealed in three persons—the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit; The Trinity is not Modalism—the view that the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are all one person; nor is it Tritheism—the view that the Father, Son and Holy Spirit are three separate Gods.

JESUS CHRIST has always existed and is the one true God.

HEBREWS 7:3: “...having neither beginning of days nor end of life, but made like the Son of God....”

JOHN 1:3: “All things came into being by Him, and apart from Him nothing came into being that has come into being.” 2.

1 JOHN 5:20-21; 1:2: “...we are in Him who is true, in His Son Jesus Christ. This the true God and eternal life....the eternal life, which was with the Father and was manifested to us.…”

1 TIMOTHY 1:17: “Now to the King eternal, immortal, invisible, the only God, be honor and glory forever and ever. Amen.”

JESUS CHRIST as a creature should not receive the same honor and worship that the Father receives.

“Do not erroneously conclude that Christians are to worship Christ; that is not what he taught. True, he is a god, a mighty one, but he did not worship himself and he did not teach his disciples to worship him.” —The Watchtower, July 15, 1959, p. 421

“Any who use Jesus’ name in their worship but fail to give the greater honor to Jehovah do not manifest a genuine love of the light.” —The Watchtower, August 1, 1991, p. 9

“Though some claim that prayer may properly be addressed to others, such as to God’s Son, the evidence is emphatically to the contrary.” —Insight on the Scriptures, vol. 2, 1988, p. 667

JESUS CHRIST as God receives the same honor and worship that the Father receives.

REVELATION 5:11-14: “...‘To Him who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb, be blessing and honor and glory and dominion forever and ever.’ And the four living creatures kept saying, ‘Amen.’ And the elders fell down and worshipped.”

HEBREWS 1:6: “And when He again brings the first-born into the world, He says, ‘And let all the angels of God worship Him.’ ”

JOHN 5:23: “in order that all may honor the Son, even as they honor the Father. He who does not honor the Son does not honor the Father who sent Him.”

JOHN 14:14: “If you ask Me anything in My name, I will do it.” 3.

1 CORINTHIANS 1:2, 9: “to those who have been sanctified in Christ Jesus, saints by calling, with all who in every place call upon the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, their Lord and ours....you were called into fellowship with His Son, Jesus Christ our Lord.”

JESUS CHRIST was the archangel Michael prior to coming to earth and becoming no more, no less than a perfect human who, when he died, left his humanity and returned back into the archangel Michael at his resurrection.

“So the evidence indicates that the Son of God was known as Michael before he came to earth and is known also by that name since his return to heaven where he resides as the glorified spirit Son of God.”—Reasoning, 1985, p. 218

“War broke out in heaven: Michael [who is the resurrected Jesus Christ] and his angels battled with the dragon....” —You Can Live Forever in Paradise on Earth, 1982, p. 21

“At death he laid aside the human organism in which he ministered as a new creature for three and a half years; and in his resurrection he was no more human.” —The Kingdom Is At Hand, 1944, p. 258

“...for the man Jesus is dead, forever dead....” —The At-one-ment Between God And Man, Studies vol. 5, p. 454

“The human body of flesh, which Jesus Christ laid down forever as a ransom sacrifice, was disposed of by God’s power....” —“Things In Which It Is Impossible For God To Lie,” 1965, p. 354

“...Jesus simply materialized or took on a fleshly body....In order to convince Thomas of who He was, He used a body with wound holes.” —You Can Live Forever in Paradise on Earth, 1982, pp. 144-145

JESUS CHRIST while continuing to exist as God, took on an additional nature at the incarnation; thus, becoming the God-man. He resurrected in a glorified human body. His believers eagerly await His second coming in the flesh.

PHILIPPIANS 2:5-11: “...Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped, but made himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness....” 4.

HEBREWS 1:5, 13; 2:5, 8: “For to which of the angels did He ever say, ‘Thou art My Son, Today I have begotten Thee’....But to which of the angels has He ever said, ‘Sit at My right hand, until I make thine enemies a footstool for thy feet’?...For He did not subject to angels the world to come, concerning which we are speaking....For in subjecting all things to him, He left nothing that is not subject to him....”

JOHN 2:18-22: “The Jews therefore answered and said to Him, ‘What sign do You show to us, seeing that You do these things?’ Jesus answered and said to them, ‘Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up.’...But He was speaking of the temple of His body. When therefore He was raised from the dead, His disciples remembered that He said this; and they believed the Scripture, and the word which Jesus had spoken.” 5.

1 TIMOTHY 2:5: “For there is one God, and one mediator also between God and men, the man Christ Jesus....”

ACTS 17:31: “because He has fixed a day in which He will judge the world in righteousness through a Man whom He has appointed, having furnished proof to all men by raising Him from the dead.”

HOLY SPIRIT: God’s “active force”

“The Bible’s use of ‘holy spirit’ indicates that it is a controlled force that Jehovah God uses to accomplish a variety of his purposes....it can be likened to electricity, a force that can be adapted to perform a great variety of operations.” —Should You Believe in the Trinity, p. 20

HOLY SPIRIT: Third person of the Trinity who is God, He has all the attributes of personhood.

GOSPEL: The Watchtower Society admits that their “gospel” is not the same gospel that has historically been preached by Christendom.

“...compare...the gospel of the Kingdom done by the religious systems of Christendom during all the centuries with that done by Jehovah’s Witnesses....They are not one and the same kind.” —The Watchtower, May 1, 1981, p. 17

The Society’s “gospel” is a gospel of faith + works. They teach that there are 4 requirements for salvation:

“And while now the witness yet includes the invitation to come to Jehovah’s organization for salvation.”—The Watchtower, November 15, 1981, p. 21

“It is for the reward of eternal life that every last person on earth should now be working. Are you?” —The Watchtower, Aug. 15, 1972, p. 492

“When we accept this invitation, we must be prepared to do so ‘continually,’ not because there is some special merit in self-denial, but because one moment’s indiscretion, one lapse in good judgment, may undo all that has been built up, even jeopardizing our eternal welfare. Spiritual progress is usually made at a rather slow pace, but how quickly it can be nullified if we are not on guard constantly!”—The Watchtower, August 1, 1992, p. 17

GOSPEL: The free “gift” of God is eternal life (Rom. 6:23) and is found in trusting Christ alone for salvation (Eph. 2:8-10). Works are merely a response to salvation and prove whether the person has a living faith which saves or a dead faith which does not save (James 2:14, 17). Romans 10:9 reveals that the only requirements for salvation are:

JOHN 6:28-29: “They said therefore to Him, ‘What shall we do, that we may work the works of God?’ Jesus answered and said to them, ‘This is the work of God, that you believe in Him whom He has sent.’ ”

ROMANS 4:4-6: “Now to the one who works, his wage is not reckoned as a favor, but as what is due. But to the one who does not work, but believes in Him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is reckoned as righteousness, just as David also speaks of the blessing upon the man to whom God reckons righteousness apart from works.” 6.

1 JOHN 5:11-13: “And the witness is this, that God has given us eternal life, and this life is in His Son. He who has the Son has the life; he who does not have the Son of God does not have the life. These things I have written to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, in order that you may know that you have eternal life.”

PHILIPPIANS 3:9: “and may be found in Him, not having a righteousness of my own derived from the Law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which comes from God on the basis of faith....”

COLOSSIANS 3:3: “For you have died and your life is hidden with Christ in God.” 7.

Paul warned about those who would preach another gospel (Gal. 1:6-9; 2 Cor. 11:3-4). Jesus prophesied that His church would not become apostate (Matt. 16:18), and therefore, the Gospel would not have to be restored (Jude 3). Ephesians 3:21 states, “to Him be the glory in the church…to all generations forever and ever. Amen.” How can an apostate church give glory to God throughout “all generations”?

SALVATION: The Watchtower defines salvation as “being saved from the destruction of this present wicked system of things and finally from death itself!” (WT, 8/15/97, p. 5) They teach that there are two classes of believers.

LITTLE FLOCK:
The “little flock” of 144,000 Christians (who will enjoy everlasting life in heaven) have a special anointing of holy spirit upon them which enables them to correctly interpret the Bible. The New Covenant privileges of having Christ as personal mediator, being born again, adopted as a child of God, and partaking of the Lord’s evening meal belong only to this group which was filled up in 1935.

OTHER SHEEP:
The “other sheep” (all believers prior to Jesus’ time on earth and all JW believers after 1935) make up the “great multitude” of other believers whose eternal hope is the “new system of things” on a “paradise earth”. They have no heavenly hope, and since they are not in the New Covenant, they cannot partake of the New Covenant privileges referred to in the Christian Greek Scriptures.

“How many will God take to heaven to rule with Christ? According to the Bible, only 144,000. (Revelation 7:4; 14:1)....By far the vast majority of those who have died will be resurrected to a paradise earth.” —Knowledge, p. 88

“...no man had gone to heaven for all those 4,000 years of human history down until his [Jesus’] day. David, Job and John the Baptizer will receive a resurrection to life on earth. In fact, all faithful men and women who died before Jesus died had the hope of living again on earth, not in heaven.” —You Can Live Forever in Paradise on Earth, p. 122

“In 1935...it was made known that the ‘great crowd’ of Revelation 7:9-17 was a group to be recognized ‘after’ the 144,000 and whose destiny is everlasting life in a paradise earth.” —The Watchtower, Jan. 1, 1997, p. 10

“Being born again involves…becoming a son of God with the prospect of sharing in the Kingdom of God. (John 3:3-5) Jesus had this experience, as do the 144,000 who are heirs with him of the heavenly Kingdom.” —Reasoning, p. 76

“...the sonship of these spirit-begotten Christians is a more intimate relationship with God than that enjoyed by fleshly Israel.” —Insight, vol. 2, p. 999

“Likewise, the Greater Moses, Jesus Christ, is not the Mediator between Jehovah God and all mankind. He is the Mediator between his heavenly Father, Jehovah God, and the nation of spiritual Israel, which is limited to only 144,000 members.” —Worldwide Security Under the ‘Prince of Peace,’ 1986, p. 10

“Such persons therefore would attend and observe the celebration of the Lord’s Evening Meal, but not being joint heirs with Christ and spiritual sons of God, they would not partake of the emblems as joint participants in the death of Christ, with hope of resurrection to a heavenly life with him.” —Insight, vol. 2. p. 270

SALVATION: Biblical salvation encompasses much more than merely being saved from physical destruction and death. John 17:3 states, “This is eternal life, that they may KNOW Thee, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom Thou hast sent.” True eternal life is found only in a relationship with Jesus Christ Himself! When a person places his total trust in Christ alone for his righteousness (1 John 1:7-9), Jesus actually comes to live within him, and it is Christ who changes that person from the inside out.

2 CORINTHIANS 13:5: “Test yourselves to see if you are in the faith, examine yourselves! Or do you not recognize this about yourselves, that Jesus Christ is in you—unless indeed you fail the test?”

2 CORINTHIANS 5:17: “Therefore if any man is in Christ, he is a new creature; the old things passed away; behold, new things have come.”

JEREMIAH 31:33-34: “ ‘But this is the covenant which I will make with the house of Israel after those days,’ declares the LORD, ‘I will put My law within them, and on their heart I will write it; and I will be their God, and they shall be My people. And they shall not teach again, each man his neighbor and each man his brother, saying, “Know the LORD,” for they shall all know Me, from the least of them to the greatest of them,’ declares the LORD, ‘for I will forgive their iniquity, and their sin I will remember no more.’ ” 8.

2 CORINTHIANS 3:3-6: “…you are a letter of Christ, cared for by us, written not with ink, but with the Spirit of the living God, not on tablets of stone, but on tablets of human hearts.…our adequacy is from God, who also made us adequate as servants of a new covenant, not of the letter, but of the Spirit; for the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life.”

WHO ARE THE “OTHER SHEEP” OF JOHN 10:16?
The two “flocks” of believers mentioned at John 10:16 are referring to the Jews and Gentiles. The Jews traditionally viewed the Gentiles (all those who were not Jews) as being a lower and an unclean class of people (Eph. 2:11-12). Jesus was showing that while He came to the “lost sheep of the house of Israel” (Matt. 10:6), He would soon bring the Gentiles into His flock and together they (the Jews and Gentiles) would “become one flock with one shepherd.”

ROMANS 1:16; 3:29: “For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek....Or is God the God of Jews only? Is He not the God of Gentiles also? Yes, of Gentiles also.”

EPHESIANS 2:11-14: “Therefore remember, that formerly you, the Gentiles in the flesh, who are called Uncircumcision by the so-called Circumcision, which is performed in the flesh by human hands—remember that you were at that time separate from Christ, excluded from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers to the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world. But now in Christ Jesus you who formerly were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ. For He Himself is our peace, who made both groups into one, and broke down the barrier of the dividing wall.”

ARE ONLY 144,000 IN THE NEW COVENANT?
With God, there is “NO DISTINCTION” between believers (Rom. 3:22; Col. 3:11). God does not play favorites for He “shows no partiality” (Gal. 2:6).

1 JOHN 5:1 states. “Whoever believes that Jesus is the Christ is born of God” (see John 1:12). Because mankind is born spiritually dead (Rom. 5:12, 1 Cor. 2:14), he (in his natural state) “cannot please God” (Rom. 8:8-9). Being born again is an act in which God cleanses us from all sin and implants His Spirit within us (Titus 3:5), thus, making us alive to see spiritual things. According to the Bible, everyone who desires to see God’s Kingdom come about, must be born again (John 3:3); otherwise, “he cannot please God” and he “does not belong to him” (Romans 8:8-9). Jesus states that everyone who excludes himself from the New Covenant, excludes himself from eternal life.

JOHN 6:53: “Jesus therefore said to them, ‘Truly, truly, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink His blood, you have no life in yourselves.”

DID JESUS HAVE TO BE “BORN AGAIN”?
Jesus (who is fully God and yet fully man) was born without a sinful nature (Heb. 4:15; 7:26). Thus, He was never spiritual dead, and therefore, He never needed to be made alive spiritually by being “born again.” Christ is the Redeemer who POSSESSES eternal life IN HIMSELF (John 5:26) and provides that life to everyone who comes to Him (John 10:28).

ARE ONLY THE 144,000 GOING TO HEAVEN?
A look at the context of Revelation 7:4-9 and 14:1-5 which discusses the 144,000, reveals that these people are Jewish men who have been sealed from all the tribes of Israel. A contextual study of Revelation 7:9-11 clearly shows that the “great multitude” of believers are also “in heaven” serving God “day and night” in His temple (verse 15). Therefore, they also have a heavenly hope. 9. Not only do the Scriptures reveal that all the believers who lived after Christ are in heaven, but also all the Old Testament believers are included in the kingdom of heaven as well. 10.

MATTHEW 8:11: “And I say to you, that many shall come from east and west, and recline at the table with Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob, in the kingdom of heaven....” 11.

HEBREWS 11:13-16: “All these [Old Testament saints] died in faith....But as it is, they desire a better country, that is a heavenly one....He has prepared a city for them.”

SOUL (LIFE FORCE) ceases to exist at death / HELL = annihilation.

“The Bible speaks of ‘the force of life’ that is active in earthly living creatures....The ‘spirit’ that departs from humans at death is the life force that originated with our Creator....This life force does not have any of the characteristics of the creature it animates....When the life force stops sustaining the human body, man—the soul—dies....Where do the dead go? To Sheol (Hebrew, she’ohl’), the common grave of mankind. Our dead ones are not conscious of anything. They are not suffering....

Surely, then, our almighty Creator can record the details of any individual and resurrect the same person, giving him or her a newly formed body....All those in Jehovah’s memory will be resurrected and instructed in his ways....

The apostle John received a thrilling vision of resurrected ones standing before God’s throne. John then wrote: ‘....And death and Hades were hurled into the lake of fire. This means the second death, the lake of fire.’ (Revelation 20:12-14) Think of that! All the dead who are in God’s memory have the prospect of release from Hades...mankind’s common grave....They will have an opportunity to demonstrate by their deeds whether they will serve God. Then ‘death and Hades’ will be hurled into what is called ‘the lake of fire,’ symbolizing complete destruction, as does the term ‘Gehenna.’...How comforting it is to learn from the Bible that God does not torture anyone!”—Knowledge, 1995, pp. 81-83, 85, 87-88

“At Revelation 14:9-11 (KJ) worshipers of the symbolic ‘beast and his image’ are said to be ‘tormented with fire and brimstone.’ This cannot refer to conscious torment after death....The smoke, associated with their fiery destruction, ascends forever because the destruction will be eternal and will never be forgotten.” —Reasoning, pp. 172-173

SOUL (SPIRIT) is the part of the man that continues to exist after death, residing either with God in heaven or with Satan in hell – the Lake of Fire (Revelation 20:13-15).

REVELATION 6:9-10: “...I saw underneath the alter the souls of those who had been slain because of the word of God...and they cried out with a loud voice, saying, ‘How long, O Lord, holy and true, wilt Thou refrain from judging and avenging our blood on those who dwell on the earth?’ ”

2 CORINTHIANS 5:6, 8: “Therefore, being always of good courage, and knowing that while we are at home in the body we are absent from the Lord...we are of good courage, I say, and prefer rather to be absent from the body and to be at home with the Lord.”

PHILIPPIANS 1:21-23: “For to me, to live is Christ, and to die is gain....But I am hard-pressed from both directions, having the desire to depart and be with Christ, for that is very much better.”

DEATH CANNOT SEPARATE US FROM THE LOVE OF GOD—ROMANS 8:38-39: “neither death…shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus….”

PSALM 116:15: “Precious in the sight of the LORD is the death of His godly ones.” 12.

1 THESSALONIANS 4:13-17: “ But we do not want you to be uninformed, brethren, about those who are asleep...even so God will bring with Him those who have fallen asleep in Jesus....and the dead in Christ shall rise first. Then we who are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them....”

THE SOUL = INNER PART OF A MAN:

2 CORINTHIANS 4:16: “Therefore we do not lose heart, but though our outer man is decaying, yet our inner man is being renewed day by day.”

MATTHEW 10:28: “And do not fear those who kill the body, but are unable to kill the soul; but rather fear Him who is able to destroy both soul and body in hell.” 13.

ECCLESIASTES 12:5, 7: “...For man goes to his eternal home while mourners go about in the street....then the dust will return to the earth as it was, and the spirit will return to God who gave it.” 14.

MATTHEW 25:41, 46: “Then He will also say to those on His left, Depart from Me, accursed ones, into the eternal fire….and these will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life.” 15.

MARK 9:43-44: “…it is better for you to enter life crippled, than having your two hands, to go into hell, into the unquenchable fire, where their worm does not die, and the fire is not quenched.”

MATTHEW 10:15; 11:21-24 INDICATES THAT THERE WILL BE DEGREES OF PUNISHMENT. HOW CAN THERE BE DEGREES OF ANNIHILATION?

HEBREWS 10:29: “How much severer punishment do you think he will deserve who has trampled under foot the Son of God....”