According to the Jehovah Witnesses website – JW.org God’s kingdom was established in 1914 and Jesus is the king of that kingdom. Witnesses like to use Matthew 24 and their website refers the reader to verses 3 to 24. Verse 4b says “Tell us, when will these things be, and what will be the sign of your presence and of the conclusion of the system of things?”
This is taken from their own translation of the Bible. So we see from this that we are talking about the return of Jesus and the conclusion of all things. The problem with the Witness position is that because Jesus hasn’t returned to rule on earth visibly then they have to say He is reigning invisibly from heaven.
Now if we look further into Matthew 24 at verses 24 to 27, this position not only collapses but it also calls into question the leaders of the JW Organisation and indicates that they are actually false Messiahs or false prophets.
It says:
“For false messiahs and false prophets will appear and perform great signs and wonders to deceive, if possible, even the elect. See, I have told you ahead of time.”
“So if anyone tells you, ‘There he is, out in the wilderness,’ do not go out; or, ‘Here he is, in the inner rooms,’ do not believe it. For as lightning that comes from the east is visible even in the west, so will be the coming of the Son of Man.”
May I draw your attention to the word visible. Visible like the lightning that is in the east but can be seen in the west. Then “so will be the coming of the Son of Man.” The clear message is that it is not an act done in secret, but rather in plain view of the whole world.
And if that isn’t bad enough for the Witnesses, it also makes it plain that if anyone says otherwise they are being deceptive and should not be listened to – they are called false by Jesus himself. Keep in mind that Matthew 24 says that the signs mentioned will occur in the last days (famines, wars, and rumours of wars are birth pangs so a little before the last days), and Witnesses are taught we are in the last days; therefore the prophecy of the kingdom of God coming in 1914 is in the last days.
In other words if the leaders of the Jehovah Witnesses say the kingdom has come invisibly then they are fulfilling Jesus’ prophecy about performing great signs and wonders to deceive in the last times.
So now you know my Witness friend. Your leaders are false prophets and you should not listen to them any further and you should not be afraid of them. See Deuteronomy 18:22.
One of the JW’s doctrines is that only the anointed are considered to be the true sons of God. These are the 144,000 that will go into heaven. The rest of the 8.8 million Witnesses that are alive today and those that died in the past will remain on the earth to live in the restored Eden like environment. This group are not considered children of God so will not answer the question with a yes.
The problem is that the Bible states that there are only two types of people. Those that are the children of God and those that are not, but this group that are not are called either children of the slave woman or children of the Devil. Take for example Galatians 4:31 and 5:1 which states “Therefore, brothers and sisters, we are not children of the slave woman, but of the free woman.” and “It is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Stand firm, then, and do not let yourselves be burdened again by a yoke of slavery.” In fact the whole chapters of 4 and 5 have a lot to say on this subject of being either a child of the free or a child of the slave.
In 1 John 3 we find even stronger evidence against the JW claim about not being a child of God. For example we read in the first two verses “See what great love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are! The reason the world does not know us is that it did not know him. Dear friends, now we are children of God, and what we will be has not yet been made known. But we know that when Christ appears, a we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is.”
This is clearly stating that someone is a child of God. If we move to verses 8 down to 10, we read “The one who does what is sinful is of the devil, because the devil has been sinning from the beginning. The reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the devil’s work. No one who is born of God will continue to sin, because God’s seed remains in them; they cannot go on sinning, because they have been born of God. This is how we know who the children of God are and who the children of the devil are: Anyone who does not do what is right is not God’s child, nor is anyone who does not love their brother and sister.” Emphasis added.
It is impossible to separate these two parts of 1 John 3 from each other – don’t take my word for it – go and read the whole chapter.
So the question remains. Are you a child of God? If your answer is no then you are saying you are a child of the Devil and of the slave woman. There is no middle ground allowed.
The JW’s position on this is a no. To quote a Watchtower publication:
“But Jehovah God has also provided his visible organization, his “faithful and discreet slave,” made up of spirit-anointed ones, [1] to help Christians in all nations to understand and apply properly the Bible in their lives. Unless we are in touch with this channel of communication that God is using, we will not progress along the road to life, no matter how much Bible reading we do.—Compare Acts 8:30-40.” [2]
We see from this that regardless of how much Bible reading you do, you will not progress along the road to arrive at life. What a thing to say. To say apart from these “faithful and discreet slaves,” we can not understand God’s own word smacks of a cult practice and is a common habit amongst all false religions and sects. It was used by the Roman Catholic church before the Reformation where the followers had to listen to the Priest solely. They weren’t even allowed to have the Bible translated into their own language and some who tried were burnt to death at the stake. I suppose JWs should be glad that they are allowed an English (plus other languages) version of the Bible.
Well that is my opinion but what does God’s word say, because that is the important opinion here.
The classic passage about trusting God’s word totally is found in 2 Timothy 3:15-17 “and how from infancy you have known the Holy Scriptures, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus. All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the servant of God a may be thoroughly equipped for every good work.” Emphasis added. No mention of a special “spirit-anointed one” here.
There are a lot of other verses I can give that speak of the truth of God’s word – such as the whole of Psalm 119, but that is not the issue here. The issue is can some other person or organisation either usurp or mediate between man and God. The answer is a clear no and one of the ultimate verses for that point is John 14:6 which says “Jesus answered “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.” By having to resort to the spirit-anointed ones or the Watchtower or JW.org to get to God is a very old lie and God will judge anyone who thinks they can be that mediator.
[1] To help understand what is meant by ““faithful and discreet slave,” made up of spirit-anointed ones,” see question two.
[2] https://wol.jw.org/en/wol/d/r1/lp-e/1981889? Last accessed May 2025.
This is taken from section 4 but it is worth reading the previous sections to see how the JW organisation justifies its changes in doctrines from its beginning to what it is today. This is a very important issue because if the doctrines of the JW organisation have changed over the years then why should we believe they have it right today?