I'm quoting Hazard from www.Biblevoice.co.uk
"And no marvel; for Satan himself is transformed into an angel of light." "Therefore it is no great thing if his ministers also be transformed as the ministers of righteousness; whos end shall be according to their works" (2 Cor. 11:14-15).
This is how it all began and this is the Man, and men, who's actions, and who's writings, upon which The Faith of the Jehovah's Witnesses is based upon.
["For every tree is known by his fruit . . . "] (Luke 6:44).
The Jehovah's Witnesses were founded by Charles Taze Russell, who had left formal education at the age eleven. Brought up as a Congregationalist, he joined the Seventh-day Adventists before coming under the influence of Jonas Wendel, who believed that the Second Coming would occur in 1874.
When nothing happened in that year, Russell claimed that Christ had indeed returned, but as an invisible presence. He first expounded this view in the booklet "The Object and Manner of the Lord's Return in 1873, claiming that he had known about Wendels mistake in advance.
He also said that believers would be "called away bodily" in 1878. When nothing occurred in that year either, he explained that he meant that believers would go directly to paradise from 1878 onwards, rather than waiting in the grave for the Second Coming like those who had been buried before that year.
Russell had already started publishing Zion's Watch Tower and Herald of Christ's Presence in 1871. In 1881 he established the Watch Tower Bible and Tract Society, which is still the publisher of Watchtower and Awake, the two magazines that sold door to door by believers.
Over the next three decades Russell wrote six volumes of Studies in the Scriptures. Although he maintained the Bible was the fount of all truth, unassisted study was of no use, he said. Even if a student did not study the Bible at all, but instead only read "Studies in the Scriptures" which he wrote, they would still attain enlightenment within two years. The council of Trent, held in the year 1545 AD., declared that tradition is of equal authority with the Bible. By tradition is meant human teachings. Russell's books were purely "Human teachings." The Pharisees believed the same way, and Jesus bitterly condemned them, for by human traditions or teachings they nullified the commandments of God (Mark 7:7-13; Col. 2:8; Rev. 22:18).
Jehovah's Witnesses have conveniently forgotten some of Russell's other claims, however. In 1911, for example he sold "Miracle Wheat" through the pages of Watchtower at 60 times the price of ordinary wheat. He said that he had produced a similarly inflated yield although it was shown in Court to be slightly LESS FERTILE than Unmiraculous Wheat. He also Swore Under Oath that he understood Greek, but it was again proved in Court that he did not even know the Greek Alphabet. And his messy divorce revealed him to have been a rather less moral man than his followers would have wished.
Russlell also claimed that the end of the world would occur in 1914. This prediction was based on the dimensions of the Greta Pyramid at Giza, which were not precisely known at the time. As 1914 approached, Jehovah's Witnesses postponed the end of the world to 1915 and then 19-16. The end was then expected in 1920, 1925, 1940, 1975 and 1984. Because the world was about to end, Russell thought that there was little point appointing a successor, so when he died in 1916 it was inevitable that infighting would begin.
This Cult was eventually taken over by the New York attorney Joseph Rutherford, who called himself "The Judge." He was almost immediately arrested and sentenced to 25 years imprisonment for opposing the USA's involvement in WW1.
Jehovah's Witnesses are pacifists, not because they are against killing, but because they do not think they need obey any Earthly government to take up arms. After all, Russell had preached it would be they who would fight at Armageddon, in which everyone would be wiped out EXCEPT for his followers--144,000 places in paradise has been set aside for them. They had no idea where the rest would end up?
This precise limit Russell had put on the capacity of heaven began to cause problems during the 1930's when the cumulative total of the cults following began to approach that figure. Rutherford promptly wrote a seventh volume of "Studies in the Scriptures," announcing that once heaven was full new Witnesses would populate the freshly cleansed Earth.
Rutherford also made another "Great Leap Forward in Theological Doctrine:" from his luxury home in San Diego he pronounced that Christ had not died on the cross at all, but rather at the stake. The word for stake, he claimed, had been mistranslated.
When Rutherford died in 1942 he was succeeded by Nathan Homer Knorr, who commissioned an New Translation of the Bible--The New Translation-- in which to incorporate their doctrinal departures. He was also responsible for the cult's systematic door-to-door sales pitch which goes against Scripture (Go not from house to house Luke 10:7).
Even though Jehovah's Witnesses repeated prophecies regarding the imminent end of the world have been proved wrong and they have lost many followers, the Witnesses' publications continue to offer "evidence that the earth is in its final hours. Any religious sect's leaders who write their own books which guarantees enlightenment without any study of the Bible, (God's Word) at all, and makes changes to the Bible, who's leaders are liars, who brain wash their followers as this cult has, deserves all Revelation 22:18-19 states.
(I think I made it clear that I was quoting a user named "Hazard" from the above subject line.
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