©2025 Victor R. Claveau, MJ
Spiritism consists in attempts to communicate with the spirits of the dead, or with other spirits, usually by the use of mediums and séances.
There is no positive proof that a spiritist or magician has been able to communicate with the spirits of the dead. Houdini, who was the greatest of all magicians, laid a public wager that he could reproduce any spiritistic manifestation by using purely natural means.
Johannes Greber (1876-1944) was a Catholic priest turned spiritist who translated the New Testament with “the help of God’s spirit world.” His experiences with spirits and their communications with him are related in his book, Communication with the Spirit World, published in 1932. Greber was a well-known spiritist and familiar to the Watchtower Society. The Society’s writers quoted favorably from Greber’s New Testament translation for nearly thirty years, knowing full well of his connection with the occult. Greber was heavily relied upon and they quoted him many times in their publications.
The Watchtower magazine, September 15, 1962 issue states in the article, The Word – Who Is He? According to John” in paragraph 5:
“But most controversial of all is the following reading of John 1:1, 2: “The Word was in the beginning, and the Word was with God, and the Word was a god. This Word was in the beginning with God.” This reading is found in The New Testament in an Improved Version, published in London, England, in 1808. Similar is the reading by a former Roman Catholic priest: “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was a god. This was with God in the beginning. Everything came into being through the Word, and without it nothing created sprang into existence” (John 1:1-3).[i]
A few of other Greber quotes can be found here:
Aid to Bible Understanding 1971, pp. 1134, 1669.
Make Sure of All Things 1965, p. 489.
Watchtower 9/15/62, p. 554.
Watchtower 10/15/75, p. 670.
Watchtower 4/15/76, p. 231.
Greber denied the divine inspiration of the Bible. He wrote, “Faulty translation is responsible, for instance, for the doctrine of eternal damnation, for the term “the Holy Ghost” as a divine personage, and for the whole doctrine of a Trinity.”[ii]
He further claimed, “The Bible, the Church Fathers, the writings of Jewish and pagan authors, all of them were altered, to support the religious doctrines which happened to be current at that time.”[iii]
The Johannes Greber Memorial Foundation readily admits to Greber’s involvement with the occult.
“The New Testament, as interpreted by the scholarly Pastor Johannes Greber, has as its source the oldest manuscripts in the world, made available to Pastor Greber for study and translation through the courtesy and cooperation of theological experts and museums the world over. This is an absolutely independent translation, without restriction to the dogma of any Church.
“The task was not simple. Many contradictions between what appears in the ancient scrolls and the New Testament, as we have grown to know it, arose and were the subject of his constant prayers for guidance – prayers that were answered, and the discrepancies clarified to him, by God’s Spirit World.
“At times he was given correct answers in large illuminated letters and words passing before his eyes. Other times he was given the correct answers during prayer meetings. His wife, a medium of God’s Spiritworld was often instrumental in conveying the correct answers from God’s Messengers to Pastor Greber.”[iv]
On February 3, 2003, the Catholic Church issued, “A Christian reflection on the “New Age”, which comments on the participation of the Evil One, “One of the most common elements in New Age ‘spirituality’ is a fascination with extraordinary manifestations, and in particular with paranormal entities. People recognized as “mediums” claim that their personality is taken over by another entity during trances in a New Age phenomenon known as “channeling”, during which the medium may lose control over his or her body and faculties.
“Some people who have witnessed these events would willingly acknowledge that the manifestations are indeed spiritual but are not from God…” (emphasis added).
It is important to understand that the Catholic Church forbids Catholics to have anything to do with Spiritism, which she condemns as a destructive superstition. The Holy See has issued at least five decrees prior to 2003, (1840, 1847, 1856, 1898, 1917) forbidding Catholics “to be present at spiritistic conversations or manifestations of any kind, even though these phenomena present the appearance of honesty or piety, whether by interrogating souls or spirits, or by listening to responses, or only by looking on, even with a tacit or expressed protestation that one does not wish to have anything to do with wicked spirits.”
Spiritism is simply a modern from of pagan necromancy condemned by the Law of Moses. “There shall not be found among you anyone who burns his son or his daughter as an offering, anyone who practices divination, a soothsayer, or an augur, or a sorcerer, or a charmer, or a medium, or a wizard, or a necromancer. For whoever does these things is an abomination to the Lord” (Deut. 18:10-12).
Greber translated John 1:1, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God; and the Word was a god.” This translation was the basis for the Watchtower Society’s interpretation.
In the first verse of Saint John’s Gospel, John plainly says, “the Word [Jesus] was God.” (RSVCE) There is no doubt among reputable Biblical scholars that this is the correct interpretation.
There are five instances in the NWT Interlinear translation of the New Testament where the word God is used in the Greek in exactly the same way: John 1:1; John 3:16; Acts 15:8; Acts 19:11; and 1 Cor. 1:3. In John 1:1 the word God is translated with a lower case g. In each of the other instances, it is translated with a capitol G, which shows a lack of integrity in the translation of John 1:1.
No reputable scholar recognizes the Jehovah’s Witnesses translation of John 1:1.
John 20:28, where St. Thomas says: “My Lord and my God!” (NWT) This passage shows the logic of the Catholic position.
Also, look at Matt. 1:23: “Look! The virgin will become pregnant and will give birth to a son, and they will call his name Immanuel, which means, when translated, ‘With us is God” (NWT).
We must not discount the Fathers of the Church when we analyze the meaning of various Scripture passages. That Jesus was Divine and spoken of as God is found in the early writings of the Church. The Jehovah’s Witnesses will only recognize the Fathers of the Church when it suits their purposes.
“Christians trace their origin to the Lord Jesus Christ. He that came down from heaven in the Holy Spirit for the salvation of men is confessed to be the Son of the Most High God. He was born of a holy Virgin without seed of man and took flesh without defilement; and He appeared among men so that He might recall them from the error of polytheism. When He had accomplished His wonderful design, by His own free will and for a mighty purpose He tasted death on the cross. After three days, however, He came to life again and went up into the heavens.
“It is possible for you, O king, to learn to know the report of His coming in the holy gospel writing, as it is called by us – should you chance to come upon a copy. He had twelve disciples who, after his ascent into the heavens, went out into the provinces of the world teaching about His greatness. In this way one of them came through the places around about us, announcing the doctrine of truth. Since then, they who continue observe the righteousness which was preached by His disciples are called Christians. These are they who, above every people on earth, have found the truth; for they acknowledge God, the Creator and maker of all things, in the only begotten Son and in the Holy Spirit”[v]
In addition, there are 39 other citations from the Fathers of the Church written in the Pre-Nicene era, in other words prior to the year 325 AD, which is when the Jehovah’s Witnesses say that the doctrine of the Trinity was invented by the Church, the clearly spell out the divinity of Christ and that God is triune.
[i] The New Testament—A New Translation and Explanation Based on the Oldest Manuscripts, by Johannes Greber (a translation from German into English), edition of 1937, the front cover of this bound translation being stamped with a golden cross.”
[ii] Johannes Greber, The New Testament: A New Translation Based upon the Oldest Manuscripts. (Johannes Greber Memorial Foundation, Teaneck, N. J. 1937). p. 8.
[iii] Johannes Greber, Communication with the Spirit World of God: Personal Experiences of a Catholic Priest. Fourth Edition. (1970) Johannes Greber Memorial Foundation, Teaneck, N. J. p. 6.
[iv] Ibid. p. 4.
[v] Apology to Emperor Hadrian Caesar from the Athenian Philosopher Aristides, ca. AD 140, Jurgens, Faith of the Early Fathers, vol. 1, p. 49.