In Romans 10:1-3, Paul reveals something regarding his fellow Israelites which I believe applies equally to Jehovah’s Witnesses.

Brothers, the goodwill of my heart and my supplication to God for them are indeed for their salvation. For I bear them witness that they have a zeal for God, but not according to accurate knowledge. For because of not knowing the righteousness of God but seeking to establish their own, they did not subject themselves to the righteousness of God.

Trying to be righteous sounds like a good thing, so you can draw this scripture to the Witnesses’ attention and ask them to explain it to you.

You won’t be attacking the Watchtower or Jehovah’s Witnesses.

You’ll be asking stone-in-the-shoe questions about what the Israelites were doing wrong.

Be praying that the Witnesses will see that they are making the same mistake.

Have one of the Witnesses read Romans 10:1-3 aloud and then ask:

  • What were those Israelites doing wrong?

Most likely, they will tell you that the Israelites were following their own rules rather than God’s righteous ones.

If so, ask:

  • Didn’t the scribes and Pharisees know the Mosaic law very well?
  • Doesn’t Paul say here that they were “zealous for God”?
  • So what did they do wrong?
  • Were they content to be unrighteous? No, Paul says they were trying to establish their own righteousness. But isn’t that that a good thing, trying to be righteous?
  • Shouldn’t we try to be righteous?

What the Witnesses fail to realize is that there is no way human beings can ever by self-effort become righteous enough to meet God’s standards.

If we try to establish our own righteousness—that is, if we try to generate sufficient righteousness by self-effort and dedication—we are thwarted at every turn by the dead spirits we inherited from Adam.

But this is exactly what the Watchtower insists they must do.

The Watchtower teaches that members of the great crowd are not part of the new covenant.

Because they will not be receiving spirit bodies suited for heaven, they do not need to be born again.[1]

The Watchtower specifically says, “The ‘great crowd’ of ‘other sheep’ that is forming today is not in that new covenant.

However, by their associating with the ‘little flock’ of those yet in that covenant they come under benefits that flow from that new covenant.”[2]

Thus, without becoming part of the new covenant or receiving Christ’s righteousness by faith as a gift, these Jehovah’s Witnesses must “exercise faith” in Christ’s ransom sacrifice through their works and thereby prove worthy on their own merit to survive Armageddon and enter the millennial kingdom.

They don’t understand that Jehovah’s standard is perfection, and that without Christ’s righteousness it is impossible to measure up.

Ask:

  • What measure of holiness does God expect of us in order to make it into the millennial kingdom?
  •  Where do we find this in the Bible?

Summary

Pray that the Witnesses will see that we need to receive Christ’s righteousness by faith as a gift.

If they don’t seem to understand, you can ask:

  • Doesn’t Paul mean that the Israelites tried in their own strength to generate enough righteousness to please God rather than accepting as a gift the righteousness of God which comes through faith in Christ?

We need that gift both to free us from the penalty of sin and from the power of sin.

 

[1] Reasoning from the Scriptures, pp. 77-80

[2] The Watchtower, “Questions from Readers,” 4/1/79, p. 31

 

 

 

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