In this article we will show how the sect of Jehovah’s Witnesses, over its less than two centuries of existence, has had the particular feature of possessing a set of doctrines with dynamic characteristics as the years have advanced since its foundation in 1879. In light of this, we present below some of its contradictory positions over time, drawing on its own history as a movement, primary historical sources (the Watchtower magazines), its own publications, and some representative images.
For a better understanding of what is to be demonstrated, the most controversial topics used by its preachers have been listed in order:
1-The famous claim that “Jesus did not die on a cross but on a stake.”
-On pages 204 and 205 of the text What Does the Bible Really Teach?, the sect states the following:
“First, a fundamental fact must be kept in mind: Jesus Christ did not die on a cross. The Greek word usually translated ‘cross’ is staurós, which basically means ‘an upright stake or pole.’ Furthermore, this Greek term ‘never means two pieces of timber crossing each other at any angle […]. In the Greek of the [New Testament] there is nothing even to imply two pieces of timber’… It is the Greek word xýlon, which simply means ‘wood’ and ‘timber, club, or stick’ (Acts 5:30; 10:39; 13:29; Galatians 3:13; 1 Peter 2:24)… During the next three hundred years, people who claimed to be Christians did not use the cross in worship. However, in the fourth century, Emperor Constantine converted from paganism to a form of apostate Christianity. From that point on he promoted the cross as a symbol of his religion… the cross had nothing to do with Jesus Christ.”
Members of the Watchtower, when they meet a Christian, cite the following biblical texts that literally use the word “tree” or “stake.” Among them are Acts 5:30; 10:39; 13:29; Galatians 3:13 and 1 Peter 2:24. In those passages it is true that the word “tree” or “wood” appears, but the emphasis of those writings is not related to the shape of the object but to the material on which Jesus was crucified. Let us dismantle, step by step, this outlandish historical thesis of the Witnesses. Two nails in the hands or only one? They propose the presence of only one nail through both wrists at the moment of crucifixion. On the contrary, the Bible indicates that there were two nails, one in each hand. This is explicitly confirmed in John 20:25 when Saint Thomas speaks of putting his fingers in his hands and two nails are mentioned, one for each hand. The Greek used in this text says Tain Xepov, meaning “his hands”, and Tón Élon, meaning “the nails”, not Tou Élou, which means “of the nail.” A crucifixion with two nails through both wrists at the same time would be impossible, since it would make no sense.
Christ’s death according to the sect.
Christ’s death according to Christians.
If you look carefully at the image above, two nails appear, holding each hand separately. This is what John 20:25 alludes to when it refers to “the nails” in “the hands”, that is, in both hands, and not to “one nail” in both hands. We take this as established from the earlier explanation of the Greek word used by Saint John in the account known as “Doubting Thomas.” Moreover, Matthew 27:37 stresses that above Jesus’ head there was a sign with the inscription “the king of the Jews,” and not above his hands (see the previous image).
Christ died on a cross (the intersection of two pieces of wood). The Latin word is crux. It was used by the Romans to refer to crucifixion, not to execution on a vertical stake. In Greek, staurós literally means crossbeam and at the same time is used to translate cross, just as the English word like means both “to be fond of” and “as” in comparison. Staurós is used according to context, like like in English, to designate different things while using the same word in both cases. In Latin, a pole or stake is called palus or adminiculum, while when the Romans referred to a “torture stake,” in records of trials with death sentences, they used the terms ad palum, alligare, or in palum figere. For them crux is simply an ordinary cross, not a stake. Therefore, although the Romans impaled some people, others were also crucified on a crux, which is what happened to Christ.
Roman crucifixion was a structure made up of two pieces: a post called stipites and a crossbeam called patibulum. The feet of the condemned person went on the post and the arms on the crossbeam. Thus a crux was formed.
Post (Stipites) Crossbeam (Patibulum) Union of the two parts: a Cross
The historical Roman tradition of humiliating the one who was to be crucified was directly related to the patibulum, the wooden element carried by the very person who was to be executed until he reached the place where the stipites was located. If Christ carried the crux, there are two options: he carried only the crossbeam and was nailed to it after reaching the place where the post stood, then was lifted up so that both pieces could be joined and form a cross; or he carried the whole cross, without the pieces being separated, crossbeam and post already joined.
Carrying only the Patibulum
Carrying the complete Cross
If Jesus carried something, whether the pieces were separate or joined, he was definitely crucified on a cross and not on a stake. That is the fundamental evidence the Bible gives us to know the manner of execution by crucifixion.
Finally, it should be noted that Saint Andrew the Apostle was crucified in Greece on a cross in the shape of an “X”. This was a staurós (stake) in the shape of an X, that is, a cross. Jesus and Saint Andrew were nailed to crosses of different shapes, not to stakes as the sect claims. There are also medical studies that emphasize that if Jesus had been “hung” as the Witnesses say, he could not have lasted so long nailed and agonizing as the Bible states. It would have been immediate asphyxiation, which did not occur.
The word “tree” or “wood” appears four times in the Bible in comparison with cross, which appears more than twenty times. In 1937, Jehovah’s Witnesses determined that Christ died on a stake and not on the cross, twisting Greek grammatical forms to justify their thesis. Sadly, the sect has serious contradictions, since they used the cross for a long time. The later argument about the stake is only to consider themselves exclusive and to oppose the Catholic Church.
The doctrinal inconsistency of Jehovah’s Witnesses.
Jehovah’s Witnesses have contradicted their own founder with this claim that rejects the cross, considering it a pagan symbol and associating it with demonic forces.
In this nineteenth-century image Jehovah’s Witnesses used the Cross
Cross used by Jehovah’s Witnesses before 1930
In the Jehovah’s Witness book called “The Divine Plan of the Ages”, the cross was used. It was also present on the cover of their Bibles before 1930.
Was Constantine the one who imposed the cross in the sixth century? This is false. Centuries before this emperor was born, the primitive Church already used the cross and its sign when making the sign of the cross. Let us look at the following historical sources:
1-Saint John the Apostle, before his death, drew a cross over his head with his hand. Saint John died peacefully in the city of Ephesus around the third year of Trajan’s reign, that is, around the year one hundred of the Christian era, when he was ninety-four years old, according to Saint Epiphanius.
2-Tertullian, around the year 200, pointed out the importance of the cross in the life of Christians, more than 100 years before Constantine came to the imperial throne.
3-In the acts of Saint Afri it is related that around the year 300 a pagan said to Saint Narcissus of Girona and to his deacon Saint Felix, martyrs executed during the persecution of Emperor Diocletian: “I know that you are Christians because you frequently sign your forehead with the cross.”
Diocletian was an emperor who ruled the Roman Empire years before Constantine, and there we already find the presence of the sign of the cross. In the face of this historical evidence, the Watchtower and its members adopt denialist positions, just like those used to deny events such as the Nazi Holocaust, the Ukrainian genocide, and the existence of disappeared detainees.
2-The mistaken dates for the End Times and their later denial.
-On pages 73 to 85 of the text What Does the Bible Really Teach?, the sect says two things. First, it emphasizes that there are two resurrections: one heavenly and another on Earth; and second, that in the year 1914 Jesus was crowned to rule invisibly from the heavens.
Point one: There are not two resurrections; there is only one. The resurrection on the last day will be the same for all, whether saved or condemned (John 5:28-29; Daniel 12:2). For Catholics there is a first resurrection, which is baptism (Romans 6:1-11; Revelation 20:5), where “we are buried and die” to our life of sin and enter into the grace of the Holy Church. In the Epistle of Barnabas, written around the year 70, baptism is used as burial and resurrection. The sect interprets this first resurrection as if it were on the last day, even though Saint Paul in Romans says exactly the opposite.
Point two: Where did they get the idea that Jesus has been ruling since 1914? This comes from a Baptist named William Miller, who made failed calculations about the day when the Second Coming of Christ to the world would occur. Since none of what was predicted happened, Miller repented of his deduction and died as a Baptist. But the Witnesses were the ones who took up his positions again, besides adapting them in order to validate their theological positions on the subject. It should be noted that the Bible never speaks of the year 1914 literally, as sects like to do when it suits them, but says, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me” (Matthew 28:18), and also says that the Kingdom of God is already among us (Luke 17:20-21), not that we had to wait until 1914.
What did the Witnesses think about 1914? At one time they said it would be the End Times. That end never came and, as a consequence, they changed their position. How do we know they contradicted these things? Let us see what the Watchtower stated in its propaganda:
The Watchtower, March 1, 1923, page 67. Since 1874 the presence of the Lord has begun.
The Watchtower, January 1, 1924. Jesus is present reigning since 1874. (Later they said this occurred in 1914).
1914: Charles T. Russell, founder of the sect, said that in 1914 the world would end. That year the First World War broke out, but it was not the end.
In the 1908 book “The Time Is at Hand”, on pages 76 and 78, Russell, leader of the sect, states: in this chapter the biblical proofs are presented demonstrating that the full end of the times of the Gentiles will be reached, that is, the complete end of the occupying dominion, in the year 1914; and that that date will see the disintegration of the rule of imperfect men… it is demonstrated in the Scriptures… Jesus will establish his earthly kingdom upon the ruins. The long-awaited date arrived and absolutely nothing happened.
Millions Now Living Will Never Die, page 97. Joseph Rutherford, the second leader of the sect after Russell’s death, stated: Moses, Abraham and other prophets would be resurrected and the end of the world would come by 1925. That year arrived and no such resurrection took place.
Life Everlasting in Freedom of the Sons of God (1966), pages 29 and 30, says: The six thousand years of man’s creation would end in 1975. Absolutely nothing happened in 1975.
What do Jehovah’s Witnesses do when someone tells them this? They deny it. Fortunately, all these files are available in the national libraries of the respective countries where copies of the original exist. The proofs are there. In Matthew 24:36 Christ states that no one knows the day or the hour of the end.
3-On blood transfusion.
-On pages 129 to 133 of the text What Does the Bible Really Teach?, the sect says that blood transfusions should not be performed and cites Genesis 1:29; 9:3, Leviticus 17:13-14, Acts 15:28, among others. The error here is that the Witnesses confuse, like other evangelical sects, the fact that the history of salvation is divided into two covenants: the Old Covenant, made with the People of God who are the Jews, and the New Eternal Covenant, which corresponds to the New People of God embodied through the Church.
The sect takes citations from things established under the Old Covenant, such as the matter of the blood of animals and others. Now, why are they not circumcised if this appears in the Bible in Genesis 17:1-14? It is in the Bible! As they would say when they correct one of their erroneous doctrines.
On page 132 of the cited text, it is stated that the Mosaic Law clearly showed what the only proper use of blood is. The Mosaic Law is not valid for Christians, but the law in Christ is (John 15:12-14). Moreover, Saint Paul constantly points out that the “works of the Jewish Law” are no longer of any use (Galatians 2:16). Works in Christ are valid for Christians, but not the works of the Law. These were the “shadow of what was to come” (Colossians 2:16-17). Christians do not have to obey the Mosaic Law but the Law in Christ.
What have Jehovah’s Witnesses thought about blood transfusions in their past, which the sect now hides?
It was not until 1952 that the former president of Jehovah’s Witnesses, Nathan H. Knorr, decreed that blood transfusions were not correct. The founder of the sect did not believe in this doctrine because he died decades earlier. What is happening with the sect? Question it.
4-When Jehovah’s Witnesses celebrated Christmas.
-The Witnesses teach that the feast of Christmas should not be celebrated, because its origin would be pagan and diabolical. What happened with the sect at one time? They celebrated Christmas for years.
Charles T. Russell, the founder of the sect, celebrated Christmas with the Witnesses. Here we present a 1916 invitation in which Jehovah’s Witnesses wish a merry Christmas. (Notice that the signature of the creator of the sect appears).
Watchtower, February 15, 1919, Number 23, pages 63 and 93. Our brothers… we wish you a merry Christmas… they brought them gifts that were merchandise.
Photo of Jehovah’s Witnesses celebrating Christmas in 1926.
In Watchtower, December 1, 1904, page 364, the sect declared that Christmas was a great event for Christians and that it was necessary to keep that date in mind as Jesus’ birthday. Later, as we have constantly seen in this writing, they changed their doctrine, saying in Watchtower, December 15, 1983, page 7, that Christmas is a “horror” and that this celebration comes from Satan himself. That is why today the sect does not celebrate Christmas.
Did the creator of the sect celebrate Christmas and forty years later they contradict him? False prophets, my brothers.
In this brief article we have presented the main doctrinal contradictions held by Jehovah’s Witnesses. Topics such as Christmas or the claim that “Jesus did not die on a cross” were not part of their positions for years. It is enough to look at the historical evidence to realize that this is a group that lives in contradictions, whose doctrines are part of a “cause-error-denial” dynamic. The sad thing is that when someone presents these arguments to them, they do nothing but deny their past even though the historical sources are there, setting aside study, debate, and intellectual honesty.
I ask: did Napoleon cross the Alps or not? One need only look at the writings of the time to know.
Blessings.
May 21, 2011
Author: Andrés Morasso. Licentiate in History
