Jehovah Witnesses is the Watch Tower society reliable or not?

Answer 1

Reliability is usually considered to be dependant on expectations being realised. People can be infinitely patient and amazingly forgiving when the object of their hopes maintains their expectations. So, if a religious organization such as the Watch Tower Bible & Tract Society (and its variants) provides plausible reasons for why certain expectations seemed to be postponed and why they are still viable, then it will keep its members' hopes going. As long as this hope remains on track, then the members will say their society is reliable.

So, this society has certainly been found reliable from most of its members' point of view. However, millions of members who have left might disagree. Huge numbers left in three major waves due to realising certain predicted events did not take place as and when predicted, and they were not prepared to accept the Society's explanations for this. Current JWs have been told the majority of those ones left because they had wrong, selfish motives, or because they were immoral. Plausible? Yes. Factual? No.

Statements here about the Governing Body having good motives, dying penniless, there being no paid clergy etc. are all girst for the mill. They have no bearing whatsoever on the question of reliability. They simply prove my point about members being wonderfully forgiving and trusting just as long as their expectations are maintained. As Armageddon and a paradise earth are still being held out as about to happen, any day now (and who could prove otherwise?) those who long to see such a vision realised will cling on, for however long it takes. The longer JWs stay with the faith, the less able they are to break free because they build up more and more negative spiritual equity. The more they invest in such hopes (and the cost is immense - all their time, energy and lives) the more frightened they are at cutting their losses (because Armageddon just might happen the day after they do that).

I'm not a JW. I'm a Christian whose entire hope and trust is founded in and on the person of Jesus Christ. "I know WHOM I have beleived, and am convinced that HE is able to guard what I have entrusted to him for that day." (2 Tim 1:12) Jesus is 100% reliable. The Watch Tower Society is not.

Answer 2

To answer this question one would have to have some knowledge of what the Watchtower Society is and teaches?
The first thing one should notice is what their message is?
They publish Bibles and Bible literature in 400 different languages.
The Watchtower magazine promotes Almighty God. The cover says Watchtower Announcing Jehovah’s Kingdom.
If a person is not familiar with who he is then it would be best to read Psalms 83:17,18 in the King James translation. It seems that many modern translations fail to use that name, However Jesus stated at Mathew 6:9 that Christians should.
Jesus’ command to “make disciples of people of all the nations” is being carried out! (Matthew 28:19)
Eagerly embracing that commission, people who have become Jehovah’s Witnesses are active in 235 lands, distributing literature in more than 400 languages and people can see how reliable The Watchtower Society is by its fruits. The growth of it's people since it started has reached almost 7 million earth wide, and all are ministers of The Holy word. All are in total agreement.
They take seriously the commission given them at Mathew 28:18-20. They know the difference between false teachings and bible truths.
(Matthew 7:15-20) . . .“Be on the watch for the false prophets that come to YOU in sheep’s covering, but inside they are ravenous wolves. 16 By their fruits YOU will recognize them. Never do people gather grapes from thorns or figs from thistles, do they? 17 Likewise every good tree produces fine fruit, but every rotten tree produces worthless fruit; 18 a good tree cannot bear worthless fruit, neither can a rotten tree produce fine fruit. 19 Every tree not producing fine fruit gets cut down and thrown into the fire. 20 Really, then, by their fruits YOU will recognize those [men].
Right now because of the Watchtower Society's Literature the word of God is reaching 235 lands and helping people come to an accurate knowledge of The Holy Scriptures.
You must make the decision for yourself to judge whether The watchtower Society is reliable?
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Answer 3

The Watchtower Society can be relied upon to continue to insist that Armageddon is imminent (it has been doing so since the end of the 1800's and throughout the 1900's and they're still at it).

The Watchtower Society can also be relied upon to continue to insist that Jehovah's Witnesses are the only true religion and that a mere 144,000 persons will go to heaven.

Oh, and they can also be relied upon to refuse to acknowledge they have ever been wrong.

APOLOGY - I retract the last statement. They DID humbly apologise for making errors - see the question gone into voting today, Saturday 16 June 'Jehovah's Witnesses, is it true that the Watchtower predicted the end in 1975?' where this is discussed (Watchtower of March 15, 1980).

Answer 4

The record speaks for itself...

Before 1914 they thought - insisted is more like it - that 1914 would bring the end of the Gentile nations ruling the earth

After 1914, they thought that God would destroy all Christendom's religions - except them, of course - in 1918

After 1918, they expected to see Abraham and the other prophets raised from the dead in 1925. Even after 1925, they kept waiting for them to show up at any minute - they were even encouraged to build on a room to their house, so they might have the privilege of helping to house them. The president of the WT went so far as to have a house built in San Diego for them, and deeded it to them. I'm NOT making this up. Anyone with internet access can read the deed online

Then there was some other stuff after that, but that should answer the question

Even though I've spoken the absolute and honest truth, I'll be surprised if I don't get some thumbs down....some people just don't like to hear the truth.

Answer 5

The Watchtower Society is like any institution, its primary motivator is to survive. For this reason it has constantly made changes to keep relevant.

Due to their original insistence on saying God had revealed to the leaders the date for Armageddon they have had numerous failures, proving Jehovah does not direct their doctrine. The unreliability of the Watchtower can be seen by the dishonest statements they now make when describing these predictions. See http://jehovah.net.au/datedoctrine.html for many quotes in this regard.

Up until 1995 the Watchtower said the end would come whilst people born prior to 1914 were still alive. This doctrine changed in 1995 to say the Generation could continue for an unspecified period of time, showing the leadership are not confident that the Armageddon is really about to come. See http://jwfacts.com/index_files/generation.htm

Answer 6

Yes.

They teach about the kingdom of God all over the planet as outlined in the scriptures. Do you teach publicly as Jesus instructed?

“This good news of the kingdom will be preached in all the inhabited earth for the purpose of a witness to all the nations, and then the accomplished end will come.” (Matt. 24:14, NW)

Answer 7

They are the only organization that admits when they were wrong.

That has been one of the 'proofs' you have use to say we can't have the truth.

Nathan an inspired prophet of Jehovah told King David that Jehovah would allow David to build the temple.

Yet Jehovah corrected both Nathan and David (another inspired Prophet)

Jonah prophecied that Ninevah would be destroyed and then turned around and prophecied it wasn't.

When you were shown to be in error, did you change your teaching?

Are you still insisting on what 'others' have said is true?

How do you know they are reliable?

How do you know the NT dictionary / study program you are using is reliable?

When I started going door to door, most Christians told me that the earth was to be destroyed.

Now most Christians are telling me that God will be with mankind during the 1000 yr reign of Christ. and the earth will be like heaven. (Rev 21:3,4)

When did they change this teaching?

Answer 8

Will,
the watchtower society is very reliable,instead of paid administration, its all volunteer, nobody is paid any salary, and the main witness at HQ goes out in service and knocks on doors just like all the others,It's a non-profit org. being run by a group of elders.all on a volunteer basis, some of the ministers have an expense account to help with fuel and lodging, in missionary work, some chose to pay their own way, some circuit overseers go from congregation to congregation and offer spiritual up building, from time to time, they are not paid a salary. some money goes towards buildings, some towards, disasters, some towards printing.
none of the workers at any of the faculty's are paid, they have a farm and are self sufficient, non of the persons at the school of Gilead or Bethel in new york are getting paid, its all volunteer work for God.All this relys on simple donations from the box at the hall and from donations in the field.nobody is making anything off of this work.It is all for Jehovah, to pass along his message of the good news around the world . because the time is short, soon, satan will be gone, and those who love God will be at peace. amen

Answer 9

You can rely on them to be trying to share their religion to someone.

Edit - Looking at the posts here, it is obvious that Jehovah's Witnesses will view their organization as perfect, while opponents will insist that they cannot be trusted to teach the truth. I recommend that you look at both sides of the issue with an open mind. Look at their website, http://www.watchtower.org and look at those of their opponents. Don't take ANYONE'S word for it, mine included. Look at the evidence and make up your own mind. After all, you are the one who must live with the results.
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Answer 10

Jehovah's Witnesses use dozens of legal entities and corporations, but in the United States the two primary ones are Watch Tower Society of Pennsylvania and Watchtower Society of New York (the original headquarters was in Pittsburgh but soon moved to Brooklyn).

The corporate officers of these "Societies" have demonstrated outstanding stewardship and selflessness. These facts about Jehovah's Witnesses are perhaps relevant to this question. The more one compares this Christian religion with others, the more remarkable it is shown to be.

1. Jehovah's Witnesses have no paid clergy. Yet they remain tightly organized with more than 6.5 million active Jehovah's Witness preachers (about 16 million associate themselves with the religion). Even fulltime preachers and workers at their branch offices are unpaid volunteers.

2. There is no elite class among Jehovah's Witnesses. Even the few 'anointed' among them enjoy no special privileges in their congregations on earth. An anointed person (one of those relative few with a heavenly hope) is not elevated above his fellow congregants in any way, and he may not even qualify for appointment as a simple 'deacon' or elder. There are no titles; EVERYONE is addressed as 'brother' or 'sister'.

3. No person benefits economically from the Christian Congregation of Jehovah's Witnesses. Even the 8 to 20 men who serve on their Governing Body receive simply room, board, medical care, and reimbursement for certain personal expenses according to the exact same provision as every other branch volunteer.

4. About a hundred men have served on Jehovah's Witnesses' Governing Body committee during the past 125 years or so. The vast majority of them have spent the vast majority of their adult lives volunteering for their organization's purposes, and the vast majority have died faithfully and near-pennilessly while still under their legal 'vow of poverty'.

Learn more:
http://watchtower.org/e/jt/index.htm?article=article_07.htm
http://watchtower.org/e/20040601/article_02.htm
http://jw-media.org/people/who.htm
http://jw-media.org/people/statistics.htm