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#12 The Facts on Jehovah's Witnesses
Analysis and Critique: Does God Speak
Only Through the Watchtower Society?
Four Tests Examining This Claim
No question is more vital to
the Jehovah's Witness than whether the Watchtower Society really is God's sole
channel for communicating His will to mankind today. When we listen to the
Society, are we listening to God? If we are, then we should listen carefully.
But if we're not, then we should reject what it says.
There are four key tests by which we may discover whether or
not the Watchtower Society is God's only channel for communicating His
will to mankind today. If God does communicate to all of mankind through the
Watchtower Society, then every test question below should be answered in a
manner consistent with its claims.
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TEST ONE: If God speaks only through the Watchtower Society, then the New
World Translation (or NWT) must be accurate. But is it? (The next
three questions examine their translation of the Bible.)
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12. Do Jehovah's Witnesses claim that their Bible (the New World
Translation, or NWT) is accurate?
The Watchtower claims that its
translation of the Bible is highly accurate. It claims the New World
Translation is the most accurate or one of the most accurate translation yet
produced, and it states: "The translation must be appraised on its own merits."
(From these words the Jehovah's Witnesses clearly challenge outsiders to examine
the accuracy of their translation.) In All Scripture Is Inspired by God and
Beneficial, it claims precise grammatical accuracy in translation and adds,
". . . the New World Translation . . . is accurate and reliable . . .
a faithful translation of God's word."
In the New World Translation itself, the
Watchtower claims it has translated the Scriptures "as accurately as possible,"
with both a fear of and love for God - indeed with a great "sense of solemn
responsibility."
In The Kingdom Interlinear Translation of the Greek
Scriptures, showing the Greek text and the English translation below, it
claims that its New Testament translation accurately renders "what the original
language says and means" and that it does so unbiasedly, "without and sectarian
religious coloration."
The Watchtower Society has even gone so far as to say that
God Himself has supervised its translation of the Bible by "angels of various
ranks who controlled" the translators.
Society president E. W. Franz, along with then-president
Nathan Knorr, headed the secret committee of seven translators. Franz testified
in a court case in Edinborough, Scotland, November 23, 1954. The Scottish
Daily Express on November 24, 1954, recorded his testimony word for word. In
Franz' testimony he stated under oath: 1) that he and Knorr had the final word
in translation, 2) that he (Franz) was head of the Society's publicity
department, and 3) that translations and interpretations came from God,
invisibly communicated to the publicity department by "angels of various ranks
who control[ed]" the translators. These statements by the leaders and
translators concerning the accuracy of the New World Translation is
evidence that they are in agreement with the Watchtower's claim to be God's sole
channel on earth.
John Ankerberg & John Weldon
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