In December of 2018, The Globe and Mail published an article outlining the new trend of “church planting” stating:

“Yu insists he isn’t trying to hide Mercy City’s affiliation with the Evangelical Free Church of Canada, but says there’s no need to advertise it because the people who attend the church aren’t particularly concerned with denomination.

Graham Singh, executive director of Church Planting Canada and a church planter himself, says sometimes leaving out the denomination in the name of a church is done to avoid alienating would-be congregants. “In certain cases, people will say, ‘I haven’t gone to church, my parents didn’t go to church, but I’m a Catholic,” Singh said. “Sometimes those brand loyalties are surprising.””

Church Planting Canada represents 26 different denominations and church planting networks. However, Jehovah’s Witnesses (JW) is not a member.

But one can’t help but superimpose a similar branding strategy in the JW pamphlet I found at the laundromat a couple months ago. The name “Jehovah” is only mentioned on the last page while “God” was used elsewhere. And the “New World Translation” is mentioned in finer print on only one of the bible verses quoted in the pamphlet. In all other instances the word “Bible” is used.

So what’s the difference? Well, according to the JW website, the New World Translation is extrapolated from texts that are the oldest known therefore remaining true to the original message of god. The translation was done in 1950 though there was a major revision in 2013. Before 1950, the church used the King James Version of the bible.

Additionally, while Jehovah’s Witnesses believe Jesus Christ was sent by god as a redemptive figure, they do not acknowledge him as a part of a holy trinity or synonymous with god (Jehovah). This is, of course, a major difference from other denominations. References to trinitarianism were removed from the New World Translation. Admittedly, the JW pamphlet made no emphasis or even mention of Jesus Christ.

HARMONY

As for being “harmonious”, the New World Translation has seen the aforementioned revisions and is dependent on interpretive readings. For example, on evolution, the New World Translation records that Jehovah “created all the basic kinds of plant and animal life, as well as a perfect man and woman who were capable of self-awareness, love, wisdom, and justice”. But JWs claim the New World Translation is compatible with science. You can interpret for harmony with known scientific realities, but there are also internal contradictions.

If one were to look at Genesis 1:1-19, it is unclear how there was light without the sun or the stars and in which order these acts of creation came. Light seems to have been forged on the first day while the “luminaries” came on the fourth. The word “day” is also used ambiguously on the JW website with no reference to any specific amount of time as measured in modern day or through any solar progression.

Another inconsistency shows itself in a quoted verse in the JW pamphlet, 2 Timothy 3:16, “All Scripture is inspired of God and beneficial for teaching, for reproving, for setting things straight, for disciplining in righteousness.” Conversely, in 1950, the producers of the New World Translation claimed that the Author of scripture is God. Could an omnipotent god not have eliminated the spread of various versions of the bible to begin with? On further reading, one also encounters the “infallibility” of the governing body of Jehovah’s Witnesses. In 1981 Watchtower stated that, “We all need help to understand the Bible, and we cannot find the Scriptural guidance we need outside the “faithful and discreet slave” organization”. What does “all scripture” mean but truncated material produced by just the JW Governing Body? This same verse shows up in other versions of the bible, incidentally.

“Harmony” seems elusive if not interpreting text that is not at all consistent with other versions of the bible or even statements made about the bible in other Jehovah’s Witnesses publications.

More to come…