Click image to access this “Bible Teach” chapter on the Watchtower’s website
So far, I have discussed the first three topics in Chapter 1 of “Bible Teach.” Today, I’ll move on to the next subject.
Topic #4: How to draw close to Jehovah
Paragraph 18 (p. 15) of Chapter 1 is headed, “Can You Be Close to Jehovah?” Paragraph 19 (p. 16) quotes Jesus as saying in John 17:3, “This means everlasting life, their coming to know you, the only true God, and the one whom you sent, Jesus Christ.”
Interestingly, an earlier edition of the Watchtower Bible and of “Bible Teach” renders that verse differently: “This means everlasting life, their taking in knowledge of you, the only true God, and the one whom you sent forth, Jesus Christ.”
If they quote the earlier edition at any point, you can ask, “Which is it? To me, there’s a big difference between taking in knowledge of someone and actually knowing that person. How do you see that?”
Try to get them to express their views them on this subject. They need to see for themselves that getting close to the Father and the Son is a matter of a personal rather than organizational relationship.
World-view confusion means this: “Scriptural statements, stories, commands or symbols which have a particular meaning or set of meanings when taken within the intellectual and broadly cultural framework of the Bible itself are lifted out of that context, placed within the frame of reference of another system and thus given a meaning that markedly differs from their intended meaning.”
As a reminder of the definition from last week, a person or organization commits the error of rejecting biblical authority when “either the Bible as a whole or texts from the Bible are examined and rejected because they do not appear to agree with reason or other revelation.”
