Jehovah’s Witness are the modern counterpart of the Arians, who lived in the fourth century. The Arian heresy was revived by C.T. Russell in the last century in the name ‘The Watch Tower Bible and Tract Society’ and later called as ‘Jehovah’s Witnesses’.
Heresy is a teaching contrary to the truth revealed in the Bible. It is commonly a false belief or a false teaching against the orthodox teaching of the Church. The word heresy occurs only once in the New Testament (2 Peter 2:1).
The Creeds were formulated by the early Church fathers to preserve and guard ‘the faith which was’ once for all delivered to the saints’ Jude 3, when the Church was attacked by various heretical teachings. The apostles of Jesus Christ, did not draft any Creed but their beliefs were found in various writings in the written form.
Most of the basic heresies present today on the person of Jesus Christ, were also present during the time of the early Church. The Bible also deals with some of them. The heresies in the early Church led the Church fathers to formulate doctrinal statements and Creeds for the Church, to defend the truth. Here are few major heresies of the early Church.
Jehovah’s Witnesses:
Founded in 1884 by C.T. Russell at Pittsburgh.
F.W. Franz is the present President.
Headquarters at Brooklyn, New York.
Periodicals are Awake and Watch Tower.
Their Bible is The New World Translation and other books by the leaders.
Jehovah’s Witnesses deny the deity of Jesus Christ. They say that the Bible does not teach that Jesus Christ is God. They consider Him only as a mighty God and not the ‘Almighty God’
“I was baptized as a Jehovah’s Witness in 1960 at age 26 with my wife, Marjorie. We had studied together with the Witnesses and were converts. As a member in good standing I served as an appointed congregation Elder since the mid-1970.
“There will be false teachers among you, who will secretly bring in destructive heresies, even denying the Lord who bought them, and bring on themselves swift destruction
Even from the first century, the early Church was attacked by various heretical teachings. To counter these heresies, many Church Councils gathered again and again, to finalise and guard the biblical truth. Here are the four major councils of the early Church and their outcome.