The short answer is—someone becomes an expert in WT doctrine and thinks it is what the Bible teaches. This is what happened to my wife and to many other Witnesses that I know.
If you could rewind the life of a typical JW and take them back to before they were a Witness, they would probably say that they were looking to answer the question that the crowd asked of Jesus in John 6:28, "What must we do to do the works God requires?" They were a sincere person looking to do the will of God. Unfortunately, a JW crossed their path and they entered into a Witness “Bible” study. However, they ended up not studying the Bible but studying a WT book and using the Bible as a reference book. The WTBTS doesn’t believe that you even need to use the Bible in such a study. You only need to use their materials—skip the Bible—and you will have the truth.
Consider this quote from “The Watchtower Magazine,” August 15, 1981:
"From time to time, there have arisen from among the ranks of Jehovah's people those, who, like the original Satan, have adopted an independent, faultfinding attitude...They say that it is sufficient to read the Bible exclusively, either alone or in small groups at home. But, strangely, through such ‘Bible reading,' they have reverted right back to the apostate doctrines that commentaries by Christendom's clergy were teaching 100 years ago..."
In other words, if you read the Bible alone, you will not arrive at Watchtower doctrines. This is an amazing admission by the Watchtower organization. It is clear; Jehovah's Witnesses do not get their teachings from the Bible, but from Watchtower literature.
This idea about not needing the Bible in a Bible study goes back to the WTBTS’s first president Charles Taze Russell who wrote a series called “Studies in Scriptures.” About these “Studies” the Watchtower states, “Furthermore, not only do we find that people cannot see the divine plan in studying the Bible by itself, but we see, also, that if anyone lays the 'Scripture Studies' aside, even after he has used them, after he has become familiar with them, after he has read them for ten years - if he then lays them aside and ignores them and goes to the Bible alone, though he has understood his Bible for ten years, our experience shows that within two years he goes into darkness. On the other hand, if he had merely read the 'Scripture Studies' with their references, and had not read a page of the Bible, as such, he would be in the light at the end of the two years, because he would have the light of the Scriptures." (Zion’s Watchtower—later renamed The Watchtower, Sep 15, 1910, p. 298.)
What arrogance! "The arrogance of your heart has deceived you . . ." Obadiah 1:3. The WT says that you cannot know the divine plan without their “Studies in Scriptures”—and they say if you study their ‘Scripture Studies’ and not ONE page of the Bible, you will have the truth, but if you read the BIBLE ALONE you will be in darkness (error).
How does someone become a JW? Part 2, here, will look at how a typical JW “Bible” study is conducted and why it leads to ‘Watchtower truth’ and not Biblical truth.
If you could rewind the life of a typical JW and take them back to before they were a Witness, they would probably say that they were looking to answer the question that the crowd asked of Jesus in John 6:28, "What must we do to do the works God requires?" They were a sincere person looking to do the will of God. Unfortunately, a JW crossed their path and they entered into a Witness “Bible” study. However, they ended up not studying the Bible but studying a WT book and using the Bible as a reference book. The WTBTS doesn’t believe that you even need to use the Bible in such a study. You only need to use their materials—skip the Bible—and you will have the truth.
Consider this quote from “The Watchtower Magazine,” August 15, 1981:
"From time to time, there have arisen from among the ranks of Jehovah's people those, who, like the original Satan, have adopted an independent, faultfinding attitude...They say that it is sufficient to read the Bible exclusively, either alone or in small groups at home. But, strangely, through such ‘Bible reading,' they have reverted right back to the apostate doctrines that commentaries by Christendom's clergy were teaching 100 years ago..."
In other words, if you read the Bible alone, you will not arrive at Watchtower doctrines. This is an amazing admission by the Watchtower organization. It is clear; Jehovah's Witnesses do not get their teachings from the Bible, but from Watchtower literature.
This idea about not needing the Bible in a Bible study goes back to the WTBTS’s first president Charles Taze Russell who wrote a series called “Studies in Scriptures.” About these “Studies” the Watchtower states, “Furthermore, not only do we find that people cannot see the divine plan in studying the Bible by itself, but we see, also, that if anyone lays the 'Scripture Studies' aside, even after he has used them, after he has become familiar with them, after he has read them for ten years - if he then lays them aside and ignores them and goes to the Bible alone, though he has understood his Bible for ten years, our experience shows that within two years he goes into darkness. On the other hand, if he had merely read the 'Scripture Studies' with their references, and had not read a page of the Bible, as such, he would be in the light at the end of the two years, because he would have the light of the Scriptures." (Zion’s Watchtower—later renamed The Watchtower, Sep 15, 1910, p. 298.)
What arrogance! "The arrogance of your heart has deceived you . . ." Obadiah 1:3. The WT says that you cannot know the divine plan without their “Studies in Scriptures”—and they say if you study their ‘Scripture Studies’ and not ONE page of the Bible, you will have the truth, but if you read the BIBLE ALONE you will be in darkness (error).
How does someone become a JW? Part 2, here, will look at how a typical JW “Bible” study is conducted and why it leads to ‘Watchtower truth’ and not Biblical truth.
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