Ok, it's Monday morning and I am comfortably resting at home recovering from recent surgery. I have to still wear a huge collar a few more days to keep my neck from moving around so much, so I was not able to see the two men in white shirts walking the neighborhood. They got me! Before I knew it, they were knocking on my opened front door, and I didn't even have time to fake like I was not home. You got it, Jehovah's Witness. I guess I could have simply told them the truth: I'm sorry, I am recovering from surgery and would not like any company right now. Or I could have told them the real truth: I'm a Christian and don't want to be converted to your cult beliefs. But I did neither. In just a matter of a few seconds, they were on my couch, and I was dragged into a conversation that I am actually glad I had. I will say one thing about them: They know what they believe, and probably better than "we" know ours sometimes.
On every issue they brought up, God provided me with a biblical verse that countered their false doctrine. That is, every issue except one. One of the men asked me to explain how, if Christ was God, why did He not know when He would be coming back for His disciples? (they apparently don't believe in the Trinity) Hmmm, I did not know the answer to that. I did express to them that just because I did not have an answer to their question, that did not prove they were "right" and I was "wrong". But after they left, I frantically started searching for the answer. Do you know why I did not know the answer to their question? Because my knowledge of the Bible is so weak. But God showed me where to find the answer. Although Jesus was God while he walked the earth, He purposely chose to "give up" certain knowledge and divine attributes, and chose to only do the will of the Father. Why do you think He prayed for God's will so hard and so earnestly? By Him choosing to restrict Himself from all His "God stuff", He demonstrated to us just how important it is to rely solely on the Father for everything! I may have never known the answer to that question had I not answered the door today. Proof again that God can speak to us in many different ways.
Philippians 2:6-8 says, "Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped, but made himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness. And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself and became obedient to death."
Father, thank you for stirring my mind today. Ever since I told You I wanted to follow Your will only, I find myself seeking it more and more. Wow! You are awesome, Lord. In Jesus name, Amen.
I was raised as a Jehovah's Witness... The reason they know what to say is they are given books specifically written to counter anything that a good Christian with just moderate knowlegde would know. The Watchtower society gives out daily reading plans, the watchtower magazine, Awake mag, books upon books, to teach "witnesses" how to convert people. It is amazing and somewhat creepy, but in everything they do is in a process of getting people to become a witness too. They claim to be the channel of communication from God to his people, that it represents Jesus on earth, and they have said that you can't find Scriptural guidance outside of it's publications. Here are quotes from the watchtower:
ReplyDelete"It should be expected that the Lord would have a means of communication to his people on the earth, and he has clearly shown that the magazine called The Watchtower is used for that purpose."-1939 Yearbook of Jehovah's Witnesses, p. 85
Make haste to identify the visible theocratic organization of God that represents his king, Jesus Christ. It is essential for life. Doing so, be complete in accepting its every aspect."-The Watchtower, Oct. 1, 1967, p. 591.
"We all need help to understand the Bible, and we cannot find the Scriptural guidance we need outside the 'faithful and discreet slave' organization."-The Watchtower, Feb. 15, 1981.
We all need help to understand the Bible, and we cannot find the Scriptural guidance we need outside the 'faithful and discreet slave' organization."-The Watchtower, Aug. 15, 1981.
ReplyDeleteThey as you can tell they say they are God's "visible theocratic organization" and the 'faithful and discreet slave" and that they are teaching true Christian doctrine. The only problem is that the Watchtower doctrine is not biblical doctrine. It is filtered biblical teachings through Watchtower interpretations combined with selective questions and scripture quotes. JWs will totally disagree with that. They say that they read and study their Bibles and only use the Watchtower literature as a guide to understanding God's word. But that in itself condemns them because their ideals are not found biblical. The proof is in the Watchtower. Consider this quote from The Watchtower magazine, August 15, 1981 that says:
"From time to time, there have arisen from among the ranks of Jehovah's people those, who, like the original Satan, have adopted an independent, faultfinding attitude...They say that it is sufficient to read the Bible exclusively, either alone or in small groups at home. But, strangely, through such 'Bible reading,' they have reverted right back to the apostate doctrines that commentaries by Christendom's clergy were teaching 100 years ago..."
MEANING if you read the Bible without their influence, you will believe in the trinity because that what the Watchtower is meaning by "apostate doctrines." So if you read the Bible alone, you won't believe what the Watchtower says. So Jehovah's Witnesses do not get their teachings from the Bible, but from the Watchtower literature. This is another quote "We should eat and digest and assimilate what is set before us, without shying away from parts of the food because it may not suit the fancy of our mental taste...We should meekly go along with the Lord's theocratic organization and wait for further clarification.'
Within Christian denominations are the core beliefs that unite us all. We are allowed differences of opinions on non-essential doctrines (Rom. 14:1-7). Each week, they are all taught the same doctrine from the same publications. There are the same speeches and the same questions and responses given every sunday, and all give identical claims of "The Kingdom of God," "the Errors of the Trinity," the "Coming Armageddon," etc. Essentially, if you've spoken to one Jehovah's Witness, you've spoken to them all.
If you want to learn what the average Jehovah's Witnesses believes, you don't read the Bible, you read the Watchtower Magazine. This is because the Watchtower is the source of their theological beliefs, not the Bible. If you want to quickly learn what the Watchtower teaches, spend an hour with any Jehovah's Witness.
This was paraphrased from http://www.carm.org/religious-movements/jehovahs-witnesses
and some if from my own personal knowledge. You have to go thru classes to be baptized. If you get baptized and you are caught smoking, or doing any sin you are disfellowshipped. No one in the congregation can talk to you. They will see you at the store and will have to act like you do not exist. The elders determine if you are repentant enough. And that is if you have attended enough meetings and proved yourself worthy to them. They tell you that God does not listen to you if you are disfellowshipped. The Holy Spirit is only an active force of God. It is a sick sad world and there are alot of dead people who think they will be on the good side in the end. But they are going to be one of the ones that go up to the Lord and say "Lord, Lord I did this and that for you and he will say get away from me I never knew you." Sorry I got carried away! I just want everyone to know what they are all about!!!!
Jehovah’s witnesses are heretical cult and this article tells it very assertively.
ReplyDeletehttp://koti.phnet.fi/elohim/jehovaswitnesses