# Only Jehovah's Witnesses Have the True Religion

## Watchtower Teaching

> JWs teach that after the death of the apostles, a 'Great Apostasy' corrupted Christianity and true worship disappeared from the earth for nearly 1,800 years. In 1919, Jesus inspected all religious groups and selected the Bible Students (now JWs) as his 'faithful and discreet slave.' All other religions — Catholic, Protestant, Orthodox, and non- Christian — are part of 'Babylon the Great,' a world empire of false religion under Satan's control. Babylon the Great will be destroyed by the United Nations as the first phase of the Great Tribulation. No interfaith dialogue or ecumenical cooperation is permitted.

## Key Implication

Jesus promised, 'I will build my church, and the gates of Hades will not prevail against it' (Matthew 16:18). If a Great Apostasy eliminated true Christianity for 1,800 years, the gates of Hades DID prevail — and Jesus' promise failed. The 1919 'inspection' claim is unfalsifiable and self-serving: the Watchtower claims Jesus chose them but provides no external evidence. At the time of the supposed inspection (1918–1919), the Bible Students were teaching that Christ had returned in 1874, that Armageddon would come in 1914, and that the ancient patriarchs would be resurrected in 1925 — all false. If Jesus inspected their teachings and approved them, he approved error. The historical record shows an unbroken chain of Christian witness from the apostles through the patristic period to today — there was no gap requiring a 19th-century restoration.

## Watchtower Sources

- What Does the Bible Really Teach?, ch. 15
- Reasoning From the Scriptures, pp. 323–328
- The Watchtower, February 15, 2012, p. 22

## Also Known As

only true religion, Babylon the Great, great apostasy, true worship, true religion, false religion, apostate Christianity, Christendom, world empire of false religion, 1919 inspection, chosen in 1919, restoration of true worship, only JWs true, all other religions false, interfaith forbidden, ecumenism, exclusive religion, no salvation outside org, one true religion JW, Jehovah's Witnesses only true religion, JW exclusivity claim, is JW the only true faith, only true faith

## Counter-Arguments (11)

- [JW Claim to the Early Church — A Traceable, Recent Origin](/arguments/jw-early-church-claim.md) — Acts 11:26 / Isaiah 43:10 / Matthew 16:18 [Authority]
- [The Berean Test — Scripture Is Sufficient Without an Organisation](/arguments/berean-test-scripture-sufficiency.md) — Acts 17:11 / 2 Timothy 3:16-17 / Matthew 15:9 / 1 Corinthians 4:6 [Authority]
- [Babylon the Great Is a City, Not a Religion](/arguments/babylon-the-great-city.md) — Revelation 17:18 / Revelation 17:9 / Revelation 18:11-13 [Eschatology]
- [Watchtower History Undermines Its Own Authority Claims](/arguments/watchtower-history-origins.md) — Russell, Rutherford, Failed Predictions, and Organisational Evolution [Authority]
- [Canon Circularity — Who Gave You the Bible?](/arguments/canon-borrowed-capital.md) — Distributed convergence, not top-down decree, gave the church its 66 books [Authority]
- [The Apostasia Watchtower Thesis](/arguments/apostasia-watchtower-thesis.md) — 2 Thessalonians 2:3 / 2:15 — The Antidote Was Tradition, Not a Future Restorer [Authority]
- ['Satan Also Blesses' — Common Grace vs Demonic Conspiracy](/arguments/satan-blesses-worldly-success.md) — Matthew 5:45 — He sends rain on the just and the unjust [Epistemology]
- [You Can't Cite a Bible You Say Is Corrupted](/arguments/consistency-corrupt-bible-self-defeat.md) — The Selective-Appeal Inconsistency [Authority]
- ['The Truth' Is A Person, Not An Organisation](/arguments/truth-claim-john14-6.md) — John 14:6 / John 14:17 / 1 John 5:20 [Authority]
- [High View of Scripture, Low View in Practice](/arguments/jw-bible-authority-lip-service.md) — The Governing Body claims sola Scriptura while operating as the gate to it [Authority]
- [The Books That Didn't Make It](/arguments/canon-books-excluded.md) — Why Jude can quote Enoch without Enoch being Scripture — and what that says about the canon [Authority]