“You must not mention the names of other gods; they should not be heard on your lips.”

(Exodus 23:13)

The Bible’s command is clear: Worshippers of Jehovah “must not mention the names of other gods,” yes, “not even speak their names.” (NLT) Evidently, Christians must avoid all writings in which the names of false gods are mentioned. To which writings does this apply?

“Molech, Ashtoreth, Baal, Dagon, Merodach, Zeus, Hermes, and Artemis are some of the gods and goddesses mentioned by name in the Bible.” (Awake!, February 2006, page 28) Elsewhere it mentions Chemosh and Tammuz (Judges 11:24, Ezekiel 8:14) And, in a subtle way, the Bible requests its readers to ‘read it aloud,’ so that they must speak the names of these false gods in any case. (Revelation 1:3) So it is totally out of the question that worshippers of Jehovah must give the Bible a wide berth.

What about the publications of Jehovah’s Witnesses which are read by millions of people worldwide? These do not only mention all of the false gods named in the Bible, but, in addition, also Marduk, Anu, Enlil, Ea, Sin, Shamash, Ishtar, Nergal, Nebo, Osiris, Isis, Horus, Geb, Nut, Anath, Asherah, Ashtoreth, Ahura Mazda, Yamm, Mot, Apollo, Cronus, Uranus, Jupiter, Juno, Minerva, Mithras, Cybele and many more. (Insight on the Scriptures, volume I, pages 974 – 979) Therefore, let us avoid the Watchtower publications like the plague, since anyone ‘mentioning the names of other gods’ is “something detestable to Jehovah.” – Deuteronomy 7:25.

“The righteous have enough to eat.”

(Proverbs 13:25, GNT)

“The UN’s Food and Agriculture Organization … estimated that 842 million people are undernourished … Malnutrition is a cause of death for more than 3.1 million children under 5 every year.” (Wikipedia) Who is to blame for that? Tyrannical rulers who exploit their population? The western industrial nations? The climate change?

No. According to the Bible, this is not the case, since “the Lord will not allow the righteous to hunger.” (Proverbs 10:3, NASB) “Those seeking Jehovah will lack nothing.” (Psalm 34:10) The Bible’s conclusion is clear: When someone starves, it’s his own fault, because only “the stomach of the wicked is empty.” (Proverbs 13:25, HCSB) Accordingly, true Christians do not share in efforts to alleviate world hunger.

“Husbands, continue loving your wives, just as the Christ also loved the congregation.”

(Ephesians 5:25)

The apostle Peter instructed Christian men: “Husbands … live with your wives with understanding since they are weaker than you are. Honor your wives.” (1 Peter 3:7, GWT) “Indeed, God’s Word plainly says that wives should be assigned ‘honor.’” (Awake!, February 8, 1993, page 13) But how should that look like in practice? Should a husband open the door for his wife, adjust her chair, or in any other way behave like a “gentleman?” One might think so, but the famous judge Joseph F. Rutherford stated with regard to the men of his day: “The men have become effeminate, soft and easily influenced, and have lost their real manhood … For instance, when men are sitting at a table and a woman approaches,
all the men arise and pay her homage … The men remove their hats upon entering an elevator, if a woman is present; and these things are said to be acts of respect and to show that a man is a gentleman. But it is subtle, and the real meaning is much different from that. It is a scheme of Satan to turn men away from God and from his announced rule of the proper position of man and woman … The scheme or habit of paying homage to women is not of God, but from the great enemy of God. It is a veneer of being a proper thing, and therefore it is more subtle than otherwise.” – Vindication, volume I, page 156.

Thus the obeisance to women that is common in the world is not acceptable to God, but was introduced by Satan, the Devil. So, what kind of “honor” that husbands should show to their wives did the apostle Paul think of? In Ephesians 5:25 he instructed men to ‘love their wives just as the Christ loved the congregation.’ And “Jesus perfectly imitated his beloved heavenly Father.” (Come Be My Follower, page 144) How does Jehovah show his love for his worshippers? Again Paul provides the answer: “The Lord punishes everyone He loves. He whips every … [person] He receives.” (Proverbs 3:11-12, NLV) Since Jehovah wants all his male worshippers to “become imitators of God,” he has wisely made sure that “women are weaker than men.” – Ephesians 5:1; 1 Peter 3:7, NLV.

According to the Bible, every husband “must love his wife,” and consequently “from time to time he will beat his wife.” (Ephesians 5:33; Awake!, November 22, 1988, page 8) In this context, “remember the words … by one wife beater: ‘If we stop beating, we lose control. And that’s unthinkable.’” (Awake!, November 22, 1988, page 6) The same magazine also explained how to recognize a a good husband: “Does … [he] freely tell others – outside family members, friends, other Christians – that from time to time he will beat his wife, inflict bodily harm on her, because he loves her so much?” – page 8.

“Asa got a foot disease that became progressively worse. Instead of asking the Lord for help, he went to doctors.”

(2 Chronicles 16:12, GWT)

The Bible condemns King Asa because when he was sick, he did not turn to Jehovah but rather to physicians. “Jehovah’s Witnesses often turn to doctors or surgeons,” too. (The Watchtower, November 15, 1977, page 686) Why is this wrong?

Turning to doctors during illness is futile because “the germ theory has never been proven” and is only “a leftover superstition of a past age … Germs do not cause disease.” (The Golden Age, March 18, 1931, page 404) But also “we do not attribute … our diseases and ailments to direct intervention of the Devil.” (The Watchtower, August 1, 1973, page 476) No, diseases have a different reason.

King Asa should have known where diseases really come from, since Moses had told his ancestors: “Jehovah will cause the disease to cling to you … Jehovah will strike you with tuberculosis, burning fever, inflammation, feverish heat … Jehovah will strike you with the boils of Egypt, piles, eczema, and skin lesions … Jehovah will strike you with madness and blindness … Jehovah will strike you with painful and incurable boils on your knees and legs.” – Deuteronomy 28:21, 22, 27, 28, 35.

So, neither germs nor the devil are causing diseases, but Jehovah God. He even promised: “I … shall certainly make you sick.” (Micah 6:13) This is the real reason why turning to a doctor in case of diseases is futile. Diseases are part of God’s purpose; if we would try to heal them we would walk “in opposition to Jehovah” like Nimrod. (Genesis 10:9) And since God causes them, no one besides him can heal them.

“Moab is my washbasin.”

(Psalm 60:8)

Jehovah God called Moab ‘his washbasin.’ Does that mean that God has a wash from time to time? Should we, as “imitators of God,” also wash ourselves? (Ephesians 5:1) No, that is not the case. According to the reference work Insight on the Scriptures, the reference to the “washbasin” rather “indicated contempt.” (volume II, page 861) After all, it was David who attributed these words to God. How is David connected to Moab?

God foretold through his prophet Balaam: “He [a future king] will certainly break apart the forehead of Moab.” (Numbers 24:17) This was fulfilled when “David … conquered the land of Moab. He made the people lie down on the ground in a row, and he measured them off in groups with a length of rope. He measured off two groups to be executed for every one group to be spared. The Moabites who were spared became David’s servants.” – 2 Samuel 8:2, NLT.

So God did not have a wash in his washbasin; rather he ‘broke it apart.’ Thereby he gave us an example, since washbasins are a real danger for all true Christians. Jesus pointed out that hand washing is a “tradition of the men of former times,” thus a pagan custom. (Mark 7:3) “The proud religious law-keepers and all the [apostate] Jews never eat until they wash their hands.” – Mark 7:3, NLV.

In actual fact, the custom of hand washing – and of washing in general – comes from the pagan goddess Hygieia. Even the word “hygiene” is derived from her name. No wonder that God despises ‘washbasins’ and uses this term as a swearword! May we never get enmeshed in any ritual acts in honor of Hygieia!

“Really, during the nights my kidneys have corrected me.”

(Psalm 16:7, NWT 1984)

“Those whom Jehovah loves he reproves.” (Proverbs 3:12) And “at … times correction from God may be … painful.” (The Watchtower, September 1, 1981, page 17) This is obviously what David experienced. Jehovah caused him to feel pain in his kidneys, so that he was “reproved by pain on his bed.” (Job 33:19) Hence, if we have nephralgia next time, we should not see a physician (2 Chronicles 16:12) We must rather endure “the pain of correction” and ask ourselves, ‘What sin have I committed?’” – The Watchtower, December 1, 1977, page 721.

“You brought us into a hunting net; you put a crushing burden upon us.”

(Psalm 66:11)

How has Jehovah “brought us into a hunting net?” By using “fishers of men” who are “catching men alive.” (Mark 1:17; Luke 5:10) “Jehovah has put a deceptive spirit in the mouth of all … [his] prophets,” and “we have entered … into water” and were baptized as Jehovah’s Witnesses. (1 Kings 22:23; Psalm 66:12, YLT) “Through his ‘faithful and discreet slave’” God “put a crushing burden” in form of field service, meetings, Watchtower volumes, incompetent elders and countless commands of men “upon us.” – Our Kingdom Ministry, May 1985, page 3.

Then, however, Jesus words were fulfilled toward us: “You will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.” (John 8:32) Through personal experiences in the congregation, by own research, of due to loving care from apostates we came to “know the truth” about God, his word, and his witnesses. Our new knowledge “brought us to a place of relief.” (Psalm 66:12) “For such freedom Christ set us free.” – Galatians 5:1.

“Carry on as men.”

(1 Corinthians 16:13, NWT 1984)

”Those charged with oversight of a congregation are described in the Bible as being males. The 12 apostles of Jesus Christ were all males, and those later appointed to be overseers and ministerial servants in Christian congregations were males.” (Reasoning From the Scriptures, page 432) But unfortunately, “men think,” hence they are less prone to the pseudo-religious moronism spread by Jehovah’s Witnesses. (Making Your Family Life Happy, page 52) That is why “fewer men than women are embracing the Kingdom message” and there are more women than men in the congregations of Jehovah’s Witnesses.

Are these congregations lacking leadership? True, “since ancient times qualified ‘older men’ have been used to take the lead in the affairs of Jehovah’s people.” (The Watchtower, September 1, 1983, page 18) But according to the Bible, “Christian women [are] to carry on as men.” (The Watchtower, October 1, 1982, page 25) Some women even “act with more understanding than older men.” (Psalm 119:100) And “the time left is reduced,” hence it is appropriate that Jehovah now also uses women as “men to take the lead in spiritual matters.” – 1 Corinthians 7:29; The Watchtower, November 15, 2011, page 28.

“So now we can tell who are children of God and who are children of the devil.”

(1 John 3:10, NLT)

Since “Satan often pretends to be “an angel of light,” it is not always easy to distinct the worship of Jehovah from the worship of Satan. (The Watchtower, August 1, 1991, page 9) However, the well-known Awake! magazine named a unique feature that helps us unequivocally identify worshippers of Satan, that is: “It is the belief of Satan worshipers that the Devil rules the world.” (Awake!, October 22, 1989, page 6) To whom does this apply today?

Jehovah’s Witnesses make no secret of their opinion “that Satan is the ruler of this world.” (What Does the Bible Really Teach?, page 31) They confess outright: “Satan the Devil is the ruler of this wicked world.” (The Watchtower, February 1, 2009, page 8) Yes, it is Jehovah’s Witnesses who believe that “the Devil rules this world.” (The Watchtower, October 15, 2005, page 29) Thus it is evident that they are “Satan worshippers.”

“See, you have become well. Do not sin anymore, so that something worse does not happen to you.”

(John 5:14)

Jesus said these words to a former lame man whom he just had healed. We can learn two deep truths from his simple statement. First: “Sickness can be a direct result of sin” (though “each sickness is not necessarily a result of a specific sin”). (The Watchtower, October 15, 1981, page 5; August 15, 1982, page 31) Second: It is possible to sin no more. If the man would have been fated to sin, Jesus would not have instructed him to “not sin anymore.” But obviously Jesus expected that the healed man would heed his previous command: “You must … be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect.” (Matthew 5:48) Thus true Christians are perfect, as perfect as God. They can easily stop sinning. Only because of this they have “the prospect of living forever,” because “the person who sins will die.” – Awake!, October 8, 1988, page 25; Ezekiel 18:4, GWT.