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Author: David Englund (page 1 of 91)

A New Creation or Just a New Personality?

In last week’s post, I asked the question, “How exactly can a sinner who has never been indwelt by the Holy Spirit through the new birth possibly live the righteous kind of life modeled by Jesus?”

That’s a rhetorical question—it’s impossible.

But the Watchtower’s answer seems to be that by striving non-stop, you can do it—that is, by striving diligently, you can change your personality to make yourself into the righteous person God wants you to be.

We can see the difference by looking at how Christians and Jehovah’s Witnesses deal with two key passages of scripture— Colossians 3:9-10 and Ephesians 2:22-24. Continue reading

Can We Be Christians Without Being Born Again?

When I first became a Christian, someone joked with me about what it must have been like to be one of the younger children of Mary and Joseph, constantly being asked, “Why can’t you be more like your older brother?”

The Watchtower states, “Today, there are more than six million Witnesses of Jehovah who…make every effort to ‘walk worthy of Jehovah to the end of fully pleasing him,’ applying his standards in every aspect of their lives.” (The Watchtower, “Stirred by ‘the Magnificent Things of God’”, 8/1/2002, p. 17)

My question would be, “How are you coming with that?” Continue reading

Did Jesus Die for ADAM’S Sin Or Ours Also?

We move in our series from Watchtower misconceptions regarding Jesus’ earthly ministry to its misconceptions about Jesus and salvation.

If you ask Jehovah’s Witnesses to explain their understanding of Jesus’ sacrifice, most of them will focus on Adam’s sin rather than on their own sins. Continue reading

Did Jesus Focus on End Times Prophecy?

The Watchtower constantly stresses the importance of spreading “the Kingdom message.”

There is no doubt that Jesus spoke a great deal of the Kingdom of God.

But was his message the same “Kingdom message” as that of the Watchtower? Continue reading

Does Jesus Require Door to Door Preaching?

If there is one thing people know about Jehovah’s Witnesses, it’s that nearly all of them witness door-to-door on a regular basis.

A number of former Jehovah’s Witness elders who left the Watchtower have stated publicly that the number of hours a Witness reported was the primary measure of spirituality and the deciding factor in whether they would be offered a position of responsibility in the congregation.

I will vigorously defend the right of Jehovah’s Witnesses to proselytize from house to house (so long as they respectfully take no for an answer and leave), but why does the Watchtower insist that all of them do so and, in practice, make it a test of spirituality? Continue reading

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