The Watchtower’s
Deadly Distortion
of John 17:3
Dan Corner
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but only without additions, alterations or omissions of any kind,
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A very important Scripture to a Jehovah’s Witness regarding salvation is John 17:3, that is, as it reads from their strange so-called “Bible,” The New World Translation. According to their customized translation, John 17:3 reads:
This means everlasting life, their taking in knowledge of you, the only true God, and of the one whom you sent forth, Jesus Christ (bold emphasis mine).
Please know there are no reputable translations that render that verse taking in knowledge like the NWT does. So why did the Watchtower Society change the way this verse should be read and understood? Because it is perfectly consistent with what they are trying to declare to others, that is, only the Watchtower Society located in Brooklyn, New York has the spiritual ability to correctly understand the Scriptures and teach them accurately, and all of this is connected with getting everlasting life. This is how they can also print that one must be a Jehovah’s Witness for everlasting life:
You must be part of Jehovah’s organization, doing God’s will, in order to receive his blessing of everlasting life. (You Can Live Forever in Paradise on Earth, 1982, p. 255).
Five Problems
By declaring this false rendering of John 17:3 we notice the following problems for the Jehovah’s Witness:
1. It contradicts their own Greek-English word for word translation—The Kingdom Interlinear (1969 edition)—which reads they may be knowing you thereby accurately suggesting a personal relationship with God instead of just mere academic learning about him. Click here to view.
Jesus spoke the following to religious unsaved people:
You diligently study the Scriptures because you think that by them you possess eternal life. These are the Scriptures that testify about me, yet you refuse to come to me to have life. (John 5:39, 40)
Similarly, Jehovah’s Witnesses are never told to trust in Jesus 100% for their salvation and ask him [Jesus] in sincere prayer for the living water as he promises to give:
Jesus answered her, “If you knew the gift of God and who it is that asks you for a drink, you would have asked him and he would have given you living water” (John 4:10).
2. Their history of changing their own doctrines refutes the concept that Jehovah’s Witness of the past have taken in accurate knowledge. C. T. Russell taught Jesus is almighty since his resurrection (The Finished Mystery, Peoples Pulpit Association, 1917, p. 15, comments under Revelation 1:8) which is flatly opposed by JWs of our hour. Many other doctrinal changes have likewise occurred since its beginning.
3. Inaccuracies among their teachings are still clearly going on today by their own admittance and show accurate knowledge is not being disseminated or practiced. One glaring example is their emphasis on the name Jehovah, which contradicts their own teaching that Yah-weh is more correct than Jehovah:
While inclining to view the pronunciation “Yah-weh” as the more correct way, we have retained the form “Jehovah” because of people’s familiarity with it since the 14th century (The Kingdom Interlinear Translation of the Greek Scriptures, 1969 ed., p. 23).
Every time a Jehovah’s Witness uses the word Jehovah he, therefore, shows he is blindly following the Watchtower Society’s exaltation of familiarity over accuracy. If their bizarre NWT rendering of John 17:3 was true, they would be condemning themselves each time they speak the word Jehovah, especially since they also know and even admit the word Jehovah was an invention of a Catholic monk in 1270:
By combining the vowel signs of 'Adho.nay and 'Elo.him' with the four consonants of the Tetragrammaton the pronunciations Yeho.wah' and Yehowih' were formed. The first of these provided the basis for the Latinized form “Jehova(h).” The first recorded use of this form dates from the thirteenth century C.E. Raymundus Martini, a Spanish monk of the Dominican Order, used it in his book Pugeo Fidei of the year 1270. Hebrew scholars generally favor “Yahweh” as the most likely pronunciation (Aid to Bible Understanding, Watchtower Bible And Tract Society, 1971, pp. 884, 885).
4. The Greek word ginosko in John 17:3 means know. By the Watchtower Society using knowledge instead and inserting the words take in, they are able to come up with their NWT rendering of that verse.
If one would compare Matt. 1:25 with John 17:3 and note that ginosko is found in both verses he could easily notice that this term carries a meaning of intimacy and relationship with it. That fact is suggested by ginosko.
5. How much knowledge does a sinner need to have before he can find forgiven of sins and eternal life? Answer: not very much. To answer in a different way—how much knowledge did the Philippian jailer have before he got saved in Acts 16:30-34? Again the answer is the same. That is how much we need today. (Not to stray too far off on a tangent, also notice how quickly the Philippian jailer got water baptized after his salvation.) Other examples of how little knowledge one needs to have are shown by the conversion of Zacchaeus (Lk.19:1-9), the tax collector who sincerely prayed God have mercy on me a sinner (Lk. 18:9-14), the unnamed ones along with Cornelius who got saved from the actual salvation sermon cited in Acts 10:34-43, etc.
The Watchtower Society is ensnaring sincere people to a lifelong study of their own literature by twisting the meaning of John 17:3. The worst part of all of this for those that do get deceived by them is, they have missed the true understanding of salvation shown in the Bible and, therefore, remain unsaved and spiritually dead in their sins.
True Biblical Salvation
True Biblical salvation and forgiveness of sins comes instantly for all who turn from their sins and place a trusting-submitting faith in the Lord Jesus for their soul’s salvation. This is instant salvation and the same point which eternal life is received by the repentant, who are now willing to turn from their idols to faithfully serve God to the end (1 Thess. 1:9). Final salvation (or an actual entrance into God’s kingdom) comes for all who endure to the end (Mt. 10:22), hold firmly to the end the confidence they had at first (Heb. 3:14), and remain faithful to the point of death (Rev. 2:10,11). Many who find salvation afterwards lose that precious gift through certain sins, believing/teaching a false gospel and/or disowning the Lord Jesus during a time of persecution. Some regain their salvation again and others never do. One major hindrance for salvation is false prophets, which is what the Watchtower headquarters of the Jehovah’s Witnesses are.
Eternal life, besides being a hope (Titus 1:2), yet to be reaped (Gal. 6:8,9) in the age to come (Mk. 10:30), is a gift of God (Rom. 6:23) and present tense possession for those who have the Lord Jesus (1 John 5:12,13). Hence, though eternal life is received here and now this side of the grave, there is also an aspect that isn’t received unless we faithfully endure to the end. (For more information about salvation consult our 801 page book, The Believer’s Conditional Security. This book is the most exhaustive and comprehensive refutation to eternal security ever written. It has never been refuted and never will be.)
Other relevant materials for Jehovah’s Witnesses can be found at http://www.evangelicaloutreach.org/jehovah.htm
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