All Jehovah's Witnesses Are Apostates

Up until I met wife (an ex-Jehovah's Witness) my only contact with the Jehovah's Witnesses growing up was my father, a non-practicing Catholic, telling them to "Bugger off!" As I grew up I kept my father's attitude but was more polite and merely said "No thanks" as I shut the door again. My mother did a stint of 'studying' with a neighbor who was a Jehovah's Witness. But in all the times I interrupted the so-called 'studying' they were discussing knitting and sewing. My mother gave up studying.

But until I met my wife I'd never really heard the term 'apostate' being used by anyone. On the occasions I was dragged to Church by my father I can't recall the priest calling anyone an apostate; although he did jokingly once call my father a 'heathen bastard that'd burn in Hell'.

As I said I was never really aware of the word 'apostate'. But in looking at the Jehovah's Witnesses it seems that the word is used frequently; perhaps only second to disfellowship, which is concerning when you look at the history of the Jehovah's Witnesses.

The definition, according to the Oxford Dictionaries website, is:

Apostate:

• Noun - A person who renounces a religious or political belief or principle.
• Adjective - Abandoning a religious or political belief or principle.
• Origin -  Middle English: from ecclesiastical Latin apostata, from Greek apostates 'apostate, runaway slave'.

Charles Taze Russell, the founder of the Jehovah's Witnesses was an apostate based on the definition. As a child he was originally a Presbyterian, then at the age of 13 he joined the Congregational Church (Protestant based). At 16 years old he investigated other religions before finally establishing a group, with his father, to undertake an analytical study of the Bible.

He gave up being a Presbyterian, became a Protestant, and eventually became the founder of the Jehovah's Witnesses. So, by the very definition he abandoned two religions. Even after abandoning the Presbyterians to become a Protestant he was already an apostate.

This means all the Jehovah's Witnesses, no matter how they became part of the organization, are following the teachings of an apostate Which in turn means that all Jehovah's Witnesses are in fact practicing in apostasy.

And this doesn't even include Charles Taze Russell's affairs, the fact he got divorced unscripturally, the 'Miracle Wheat' scandal of 1912, or the fraudulent selling of property to himself to avoid paying his ex-wife alimony.

There is no two ways about it - Charles Taze Russell was about as much a Christian as Tesco Value Lager is a good beer. Yet the Jehovah's Witnesses to this day continue with his teachings and his numerical prophecies which failed.