Before we discuss the Watchtower salvation system with Jehovah’s Witnesses, we need to make sure we have a solid understanding of what the Bible actually teaches.

Start by looking at how bad our sin condition really is.

Jehovah’s Witnesses don’t seem to understand this.

Treat Jehovah’s Witnesses as brothers and sisters in Adam and note that we all have the same problem.

Let God’s diagnosis serve as stones-in-the-shoe.

As we examine God’s plan of salvation, let’s first look at the problems he had to solve.

We human beings like to think of ourselves as basically good with a few character flaws that we need to try to overcome.

But the Bible tells us that our natural condition is dismal.

Ask one of the Witnesses to read aloud Romans 3:9-18:

What then? Are we in a better position? Not at all! For above we have made the charge that Jews as well as Greeks are all under sin; just as it is written: “There is not a righteous man, not even one; there is no one who has any insight; there is no one who searches for God. All men have turned aside, all of them have become worthless; there is no one who shows kindness, not so much as one.” “Their throat is an open grave; they have deceived with their tongues.” “Venom of asps is behind their lips.” “And their mouth is full of cursing and bitterness.” “Their feet are swift to shed blood.” “Ruin and misery are in their ways, and they have not known the way of peace.” “There is no fear of God before their eyes.”

Ask the other Witness to read aloud Jeremiah 17:9: “The heart is more treacherous than anything else and is desperate. Who can know it?”

Finally, ask them to read aloud Ephesians 2:1-2:

Furthermore, God made you alive, though you were dead in your trespasses and sins, in which you at one time walked according to the system of things of this world, according to the ruler of the authority of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience.

You can comment:

  • It seems to me that as sinful descendants of Adam we aren’t able to live up to our own stated moral codes, let alone God’s. Would you agree?
  • It seems to me that we descendants of Adam have two distinct problems.
  • The first problem is our sins. There’s something wrong with our behavior.
  • We need to be saved from the penalty of our sins – a way to pay our sin debt to God. In short, we need
  • Would you agree with that?

 After they have responded, you can continue:

  •  I believe the second problem is our selves. There is something wrong with us.
  • We also need to be saved from the power of sin that controls us.
  • We are born spiritually dead, a condition we inherited as descendants of Adam.
  •  Self-improvement plans cannot make us righteous.
  • We need a way to become righteous inside so that we can live the kind of life God desires.
  • In short, we need an inner transformation.
  • It seems to me those are things only God can do.
  • Would you agree with that?

 Summary

You can sum up by asking:

  • How does the plan of salvation taught by the Watchtower solve each of those two problems?

Make sure to discuss both of them.

Let the stone-in-the-shoe be the knowledge that the Watchtower salvation system doesn’t solve either of them.

God’s plan of salvation provides the solution to both of these problems because it is dependent on the finished work of Christ.

In contrast, the Watchtower’s system of salvation solves neither of the problems because it is dependent on a never-ending series of works done by sinful and fallible human beings.

Pray that God will open the Witnesses’ eyes to the difference.

 

 

Comment Policy