Category: Salvation (page 2 of 12)

Was Jesus Just a Man?

In the Watchtower Bible, 1 Timothy 2:6 reads as follows: “For there is one God, and one mediator between God and men, a man, Christ Jesus, who gave himself a corresponding ransom for all—this is what is to be witnessed to in its own due time.” (emphasis added)

 So far as I can find, no other translation includes the word “corresponding,” but the Watchtower builds much of its Christology around it.

 In its book Good News to Make You Happy (1976), p. 118, the Watchtower states: “Jesus was not half God, half man. He was not God in the flesh. To atone for ‘one man’s [Adam’s] trespass’, ‘the one man, Jesus Christ’ had to correspond exactly to the once-perfect Adam. He had to be a perfect man, nothing more, nothing less. (Romans 5:15)” Continue reading

Can Someone Besides God Forgive Sins?

In Matthew 9:2, Jesus told a man, “Your sins are forgiven.”

The Jewish leaders were outraged. Mark 2:7 tells us that they reasoned, “Why is this man talking this way? He is blaspheming. Who can forgive sins except one, God?

Here’s a great question to ask Jehovah’s Witnesses:

If—as the Watchtower teaches—Jesus isn’t God—what right did he have to do that? Continue reading

The New Birth Is Available to Everyone

Once you have shown the Witnesses that the new birth is an inner transformation and that all Christians are in the new covenant, I recommend that you direct their attention to Scriptures which show that Jesus’ invitation and promises are for everyone who will receive him, not just a select group of 144,000. Continue reading

All Christians Are in the New Covenant

Because of the Watchtower teaching that only the anointed 144,000 are born again into the new covenant, at their annual Memorial service (their version of communion) only those who profess to be in this class are allowed to partake of the bread and wine. Others attend and watch, but the Watchtower says that the new covenant in Christ’s blood is not for them. (p. 133)

To show the Witnesses that this practice is unscriptural, I recommend that you draw the Witnesses’ attention to the following passages. Ask them to read them aloud. Continue reading

The New Birth Provides an Inner Transformation

In last week’s post, I made the following points:

  1. If Jesus’ statement to Nicodemus about the need to be born again was a totally new teaching that 144,000 people would receive spirit bodies when they die and go to heaven (which the Watchtower says he meant), he wouldn’t have expected Nicodemus to understand that already.
  2. Yet in John 3:10 Jesus chided Nicodemus because he didn’t understand was Jesus meant by the new birth or his need to have this experience.
  3. Therefore, Jesus must have meant something quite different what the Watchtower says.
  4. Jesus was indicating that all human beings need a spiritual rebirth, an inner transformation by the Holy Spirit, in order to meet Jehovah’s righteous standards.
  5. That’s something he would expect an Old Testament scholar like Nicodemus to understand.

If you make such a claim, most likely Jehovah’s Witnesses will ask you why you think an Old Testament scholar would understand such a thing. Take them to two Old Testament passages that teach this. (p. 131) Continue reading

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