The Protestant Way

Growing up protestant, I have been inundated with the fact that the group known as Jehovah's Witnesses have disregarded some very long held Christian beliefs, most notably the divinity of Christ. They deny the doctrine of the Trinity openly and are not ashamed to teach this ad nauseam. From a traditional Christian perspective we disagree with this position, which is why  Jehovah's Witnesses are not thought of as "Christians" in the traditional sense by Christians around the world.

Now, when one asks a JW, why they go against two thousand years of Christian history and deny such a basic fact of the faith, they respond with: "Well, the scriptures don't teach it." And they will proceed to quote verse after verse that they claim proves that Christ was not divine, that he was a created, lesser god, and it is love to argue their point with others to exhaustion.
wicked to worship him. In fact, they say, a belief in the Trinity is characteristic of the beast of Revelation - that is, the false religious systems of this world. They are very solid in their convictions, and usually, I have found,

I have spoken to quite a few JW's - young, old, in this hemisphere and the other one - and they all respond in the same way when posed with this doctrine. "Oh," they say, "you should stop believing that lie because here are ten verses why it's wrong." What they never seem to combat, though, is the thousands of years of Christian tradition. It doesn't matter in their minds that millions of Christians since the very beginning have believed and cherished the doctrine of the Trinity. They put more weight on the shoulders of one man in the late nineteenth century, then the entirety of Christian experience since Christ's assumption. When asked about this, they will say that one need only read the letters to the seven churches in the book of Revelation to find out that quite quickly after Christ ascended into heaven, the churches of the world apostatized and the truth was obscured until Charles T. Russell's eyes were illuminated almost nineteen hundred years later.

Unlike other cults, who get their doctrine from both the Bible and some supernatural message given to a "prophet" (i.e. Mormons - Joseph Smith, Christian Science - Mary Baker Eddy, etc), JW's do not claim a supernatural revelation. They claim the truths they know can be found simply by studying the text of the scriptures, and, if you interpret it correctly, you will come to the same conclusions they do, that is, the doctrine of the Trinity is a doctrine of devils.

So, what's my point? Roman Catholics don't need to contend with JW's because they differ in their epistemology (that is, their source of knowledge). The Catholics have both the Bible and Holy Tradition. The doctrine of the Trinity is part of Holy Tradition, and so it is true. This is the same with Eastern Orthodoxy as well. They both need not be threatened by JW doctrine.

JW's are reminiscent of another group of people, who also threw out Holy Tradition, and claimed the church had been understanding incorrectly all along. Another group who claimed the church had apostatized very early on, and the truth had only been rediscovered by them. I speak, of course, about us - Protestants. At the time of the reformation, the reformers disregarded the Holy Tradition of the Catholic Church and most denied the real presence of our Lord Jesus Christ in the Eucharist, baptismal regeneration, praying to saints, iconography, etc. When asked why they did this, the reformers responded "Sola Scriptura! The Bible Alone! These things are not found in the scriptures, therefore we reject them!"

As protestants, we have removed ourselves from historical Christianity, and have denied not only important historical Christian doctrines, but in the case of the Eucharist,  integral Christian doctrines. This might not sit well with some, but the evidence is freely available. It takes only a brief reflection on this to convince me that our view of other groups, like the JW's, is unfounded, for they are simply carrying our philosophies to their logical conclusion. The question I ask myself is, if they are wrong, then why aren't we?