Click image to access this “Bible Teach” chapter on the Watchtower’s website
Does it matter whether Jesus died on a traditional cross or on an upright stake without a crossbeam (as the Watchtower teaches)? For Christians, this isn’t a salvation issue. But to Jehovah’s Witnesses, it’s salvation issue which sets them apart from pagan “Christendom.” Continue reading
Click image to access this “Bible Teach” chapter on the Watchtower’s website
“What is the greatest gift you have ever received?” (paragraph 1, p. 47)
It’s obvious from the title of Chapter 5 of “Bible Teach” that you are supposed to answer that it’s the ransom (or atoning) sacrifice of Jesus Christ.
But that’s not the answer I would give. While not wanting to minimize the importance of Jesus’ atoning sacrifice, I would say that the greatest gift I have received is Jesus Christ himself. Continue reading
Click image to access this “Bible Teach” chapter on the Watchtower’s website
After the discussion of the Watchtower doctrine that Jesus is a created being, the rest of “Bible Teach” Chapter 4 covers Jesus’ life and ministry. Most of this you can agree with and continue to build bridges. However, there are some points you will want to challenge.
Assertion #4: Jesus preached the same message that the Watchtower does today Continue reading
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.”[1]
John 6:66-69 tells us that after Jesus gave a speech in which he talked about the necessity of eating his flesh and drinking his blood, “…many of his disciples turned back and no longer walked with him. So Jesus said to the twelve, ‘Do you want to go away as well?’ Simon Peter answered him, ‘Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life, and we have believed, and have come to know, that you are the Holy One of God.’”
Clearly, the focal point of this affirmation is Jesus himself. He also is the one to whom we must come. He alone is “the Holy One of God.”
However, since Jesus isn’t here physically any longer and since the Watchtower is convinced that he has appointed it as his “faithful and discreet slave” and put it in charge of all his earthly affairs, it substitutes itself for Jesus in Peter’s declaration. Continue reading
“Confused definition” means, “A biblical term is misunderstood in such a way that an essential biblical doctrine is distorted or rejected.”[1]
Let’s look at several Watchtower examples.
I won’t go into detail refuting each one. Rather, my goal will be to identify them so you will know the sort of thing to look out for. Continue reading
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