Are Jehovah’s Witnesses Saved or Is It Okay to Join Them If You Are a Genuine Christian?

Mar 28, 2025

Before we go any further in discussing false doctrines among different religions, we ask our friends participating in these religions to understand that our intention is not to offend them but to expose the lies and suggest corrections because this is worthy of us as Christians (James 5:19-20). We realize that there may be genuine participants everywhere, motivated by the love of God, and we love you. However, we would like you to know the Truth that saves (John 8:31-32). Before we can address the questions above, let's briefly understand who Jehovah's Witnesses are.

The founding of Jehovah's Witnesses dates back to 1870 as a Bible class led by Charles Taze Russell in Pennsylvania (USA). Charles Russell was the son of a businessman and allegedly one of the 13 bloodline families of Illuminati (Fritz, 1995). He was initially raised as a Presbyterian, but when he became disconcerted by a friend's skeptical question at age 16, he began to question his religious upbringing and later found the Adventism more appealing. As a teenager aged 18 years old, with little knowledge of Scripture, he attracted like-minded people to form a Bible study group that held to certain ideas that deeply contradicted biblical Christianity. Their main differentiating elements included their rejection of the Trinity, rejection of bodily resurrection and eternal hell, belief that Jesus is not God but Michael the archangel, and that the Holy Spirit is not God but a force of God, to name a few. With his obsession with the return of Christ (Adventism), Russell predicted that Christ would return in 1878 and he sold all his business interests in preparation for the Second Coming. When Russell's prophecy failed, there was little disagreement with Barbour (his former publisher), but this did not affect his most loyal followers (Bible students). A broken relationship with his publisher (Barbour) motivated Russell to found the Watch Towel Society in 1881 to organize the printing and distribution of his writings, a series of books he called "The Millennial Dawns." He would later claim that Christ had returned – spiritually – in 1874 and that the end of the world would occur in 1914. Of course, 1914 passed without anything happening, but the year became a high-profile one, marked ever since by increasingly convoluted explanations from Jehovah's Witnesses. Russell's students have begun to claim that he was the prophetic faithful and wise servant, spoken of in Matthew 24:45. When Russell died in 1916, six volumes of his work “The Millennial Dawn” had already been published, containing much of the current theology of Jehovah's Witnesses. However, around this time a seventh book, supposedly written by Russell, was published. In fact, the book was written by associates of Russell and heavily edited by Judge Joseph Franklin Rutherford, his successor. Controversy over this volume, combined with disillusionment over the debacle of 1914, led to a schism, which resulted in Rutherford leading a group later renamed the Jehovah's Witnesses.

So, what do Jehovah’s Witnesses believe? Well, in general, Jehovah's Witnesses describe themselves as Christians, but their beliefs and practices set them far apart from biblical Christians. We may not be able to address their beliefs in this short article, but we can try to highlight the most differentiating elements.

First things, Jehovah's Witnesses have rejected the authority of the Bible by attempting to invent their own Bible translation in favor of their fundamental beliefs. They claim that the Church has corrupted the Bible over the centuries; thus, they retranslated the Bible to reflect their unique doctrines – the result is the New World Translation. Even this translation, done by an anonymous committee of so-called anointed witnesses of Jehovah, went through many editions each time they noticed passages that contracted their own beliefs! They justify the anonymity of the translators by their supposed intention to attribute the work to God, although this seems to be a way of protecting and relieving the translators of any accountability for their errors. In fact, the New World Translation consists of intentional and systematic efforts to edit and revise the entire Bible with the specific goal of making it consistent with the doctrine of a group. Realizing that their beliefs contradicted the Scriptures, Jehovah's Witnesses chose to modify the Scriptures to align with their beliefs, rather than conforming their beliefs to the Scriptures. Their beliefs therefore remain very far from those of biblical Christians.

The first fundamental belief that differentiates Jehovah's Witnesses from Christians is their rejection of the Trinity. In fact, they fail to understand how the three Persons constitute the One Being of God, which is why they view the concept of the Trinity as a pagan belief (three gods). They say that Jesus was created (Arianism), that He was the archangel, Michael. This already contradicts many passages of Scripture that clearly declare Jesus to be God (e.g. John 1:1, 14; 8:58; 10:30). They also believe that Jesus was not crucified on the cross and His body was not resurrected; but that He was crucified at the stake and His body disappeared before He was resurrected as a spiritual creature. For this claim to stand, many Bible verses would be omitted or at least altered, including but not limited to Matthew 28:5-6; Mark 16:5-7; 1 Corinthians 15:20. Unfortunately, this appears as an intentional error because as biblical Christians continued to emphasize scriptures that clearly argued for the deity of Christ, the Watchtower Society would issue new editions of the New World Translation with these Scriptures modified. Likewise, they reject the divinity of the Holy Spirit, Whom they regard as the Jehovah’s active force or energy; thus, relegating Him to a commodity status, like electricity. However, they believe that salvation is possible only through Christ's ransom sacrifice and that individuals cannot be saved until they repent of their sins and call on the name of Jehovah. Truth be told, the inability to grasp God's three-person Being leads them to believe in one Big God and two subordinate lesser gods, which is becomes a blatant idolatry.

Moreover, from the perspective of Jehovah's Witnesses, salvation is achieved through a combination of faith, good works, and obedience. This contradicts Scripture, which states that salvation is a free gift from God and cannot be earned by good works but received through faith alone in Jesus Christ alone (Ephesians 2:8-9; Titus 3:5). In fact, the Christian's good works are the results of the Holy Spirit's work in a believer's life and not a requirement for salvation. These works being the natural result of a transformed life, they demonstrate authentic faith, and they are not produced by human effort, but by the work of the Holy Spirit in the life of the believer. Therefore, good works are not a means to salvation, but rather the result of the work of the Holy Spirit in a believer's life.

With their mistaken belief about Jesus (as perfect man or a demi-god), they believe that Jesus died only to atone for Adam's sin and that when we die, our death pays the penalty for our own sin. This contradicts many biblical verses, including but not limited to Galatians 1:4, for example.

Regarding eschatology, they believe that Christ Jesus will never return to earth but will remain in heaven, there to rule with the 144,000 over the earth. According to them, only 144,000 God’s remnants (from them alone) will go to heaven, while the rest will live on paradise earth. If you are caught in conversation with many Jehovah's Witnesses, you would be surprised that they do not want to go to heaven to live with the Lord. In the concrete, they have been deceived to believe in another gospel (Galatians 1:8). They completely disagree with 2 Peter 3:13 and Isaiah 65:17 and many other Bible passages that this earth will pass away and be replaced by a new heaven and a new earth. They also interpret the Battle of Armageddon as the moment when the religious and political elements of this world (under Satan's control) will turn against them alone because they refuse to submit to the Antichrist. According to them, only those who remain obedient to their leaders (the Watchtower Society and its Governing Body) will survive Armageddon.

In fact, Jehovah's Witnesses believe that God speaks through their organization and that Jehovah's servants belong to their organization alone. Therefore, to disagree with what their Governing Body says is to disagree with Jehovah because He uses them as His only channel of communication to dispense "the truth." The governing body of the Watchtower Bible and Tract Society itself claims exclusive authority to interpret the Scriptures. Independent thinking is strongly discouraged among Jehovah's Witnesses, to provide their governing body with the final word regarding any scriptural passage. In so doing, they contradict Scriptures such as Acts 17:11; 2 Timothy 2:15.

The Jehovah’s Witnesses further believe, in contradiction to Hebrews 9:27, that some people (not all) who died before Armageddon will be resurrected and given a second chance to repent. Concerning the eternal state, Jehovah's Witnesses believe that at the end of Christ's reign from heaven over the millennial kingdom, all those who are resurrected for a second chance and who remain faithful to the end will live forever on a paradise earth. To be very brief, the eschatological beliefs of Jehovah's Witnesses completely fall at odd with what the Bible teaches.

So, are the Jehovah’s Witness saved? The strictest answer to this question is “no”. Jehovah's Witnesses do not believe that Jesus is God, which means they do not have faith in Christ as their Savior and Lord. Since they do not have faith in Jesus, they are not saved. Are they Christians? Sticking to what it means to be a Christian, the answer is also a resounding “no.” They call themselves Christians, but they disagree with the Bible on many elements of the Christianity, including the deity of Jesus Christ and how to obtain salvation. So, is it okay to join them if you are a genuine Christian? After answering the previous questions and considering the discussion above, this question may not be valid. If the question could be changed, it would instead read as: “How can we evangelize the Jehovah’s Witnesses to become Christians?” Well, you can explore possible ways to discuss spiritual matters with them, but first be aware of their beliefs. It is important to note that they are unlikely to agree to read non-Watchtower publications or attend a church service. If they say they accept what the Bible says, be careful not to refer to their New World Translation which has been changed to reflect their false doctrine. It is therefore not a valid Christian translation of the Bible but the preconceived heretical beliefs of the Watchtower. Please consider all of this in prayer that God may open the eyes of Jehovah’s Witnesses to the Truth of the gospel and the true teaching of God’s Word.

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Are Jehovah’s Witnesses Saved or Is It Okay to Join Them If You Are a Genuine Christian?

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