PREACHING CHRIST JEHOVAH S WITNESSES INTRO Slide 1

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1 PREACHING CHRIST JEHOVAH S WITNESSES INTRO Slide 1 Q) How many of us have had JW s knock on our door or handed us a leaflet? There are 7 million JW s worldwide in over 230 countries & UK HQ in Mill Hill They call themselves Christians.but so does 59.3% of England. So what s the problem? JWism, Mormonism, Christian Science etc are pseudo-christian religions they twist Christianity EXPLAIN 5 Characteristics of God: omnipotent, omnipresent, omniscient, eternal & immutable. CLIP 0:00 01:47 Truth be Told YouTube HISTORY Charles Taze Russell o Christian upbringing in Pittsburgh, lost his faith in late teens due to faults in Christian creeds o After attending Adventist preacher he became convinced again of Christ s return in 1878 or 79 & the Word of God o Founded the Bible Students movement in July 1879 o Began publishing Zion's Watch Tower and Herald of Christ's Presence o Believed Christ would return visibly in 1914 o Believed Jesus was gifted divinity after His death, H/S just a power no Hell Joseph R. Rutherford o Took over in 1931 & changed name to Jehovah s Witnesses Isaiah 43:10 o Believed that Abraham, Issac & Jacob + would return in 1925 o Built a mansion in San Diego, CA to house them and lived in it until his death o Started sending out door to door missionaries with audio sermons Nathan H. Knorr o He trained missionaries in modern door to door techniques o He commissioned a new Bible translation New World Translation in 1947 o Believed Armageddon would happen in 1975 Frederick Franz o After 1975 he explained Armageddon would be very soon, within the generation of those from o Explained that 144,000 anointed ones (only an anointed will know) will go to heaven with Christ. The remnant JW s will rule in new bodies in the new Eden. o The rest will be annihilated as there is no hell. Milton Henschel o After nearly all the 1914 generation had died he said that Armageddon will come very soon but no-one knows when. Don A. Adams - Today s Leader

2 BELIEFS JESUS o Jesus is created by God as the 1 st born of creation i.e. His son o Jesus is not equal to God o Jesus is not eternal o Jesus was only spiritually resurrected HOLY SPIRIT o H/S is not God only the power of God HEAVEN o Our spirit is not eternal & when we die we die completely o Only 144,000 anointed go to heaven o JW s & others will resurrect & live on new earth if they are good. BIBLE o NWT is the only true translation o Translators remained anonymous glory to God o Later revealed to be 5 members, none of whom had any knowledge of Greek or Hebrew o Franz initially lied under oath saying he was familiar with Greek, Hebrew, Latin. He later under oath revealed he could translate Genesis 2:4 from the Hebrew. SALVATION o Jesus died for us o We are saved because He died for us o Be good people LIFE o Pacifists o No blood transfusions o No worldly interactions certain jobs, education, friends etc.. o No political affiliations o No celebrations holidays, birthdays etc Pagan METHODS 1. Magazines door to door or on street a world without pain 2. Small Bible Study using Watch Tower and NWT. Easy questions 3. Larger Bible Study at Kingdom Hall. 4. Services Attend service with teaching from HQ DARK SIDE Alienated If you leave the JW s Focus is on good works i.e. following HQ doctrine & visiting people with message CLIP 05:22 06:32 Warning to JW s

3 IS THE TRINITY BIBLICAL? The Bible doesn t ever use the word Trinity Tertullian circa 200AD Trinitas Early Christian writers battled hard to explain what the Bible shows i.e 1 God in 3 persons Arius, circa 250AD, came to this conclusion: Arius concept of Christ is that the Son of God did not always exist, but was created by and is therefore distinct from God the Father. This belief is grounded in the Gospel of John passage that I am going to the Father, for the Father is greater than I." (John 14:28) Wikipedia 2013 This is basically what the JW s believe and therefore this is nothing new Where then does the Bible show the Father, Son & Holy Spirit as a Holy Trinity? CHRIST Here are a few verses to show Jesus equality with God: (I found 60 ) 1. John 1:1 - NWT says a god. There is no a in the Greek and also JW s believe in 1 God? 2. 2 Peter 1:1 3. Colossians 2:9 4. John 14:9 5. Revelation 22: Other Studies Both God & Jesus forgive, raise the dead, are worshipped, are our righteousness, are called the First & Last & Mighty God. HOLY SPIRIT Here are a few verse to show that the Holy Spirit is a real Person, equal with Father & Son 1. Mark 3:29 2. Acts 5: Hebrews 9:14 God s Attributes eternal, omniscient, omnipresent, omnipotent & immutable

4 TRINITY 1. Matthew 28:19 Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit 2. 2 Corinthians 13:14 The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all CONCLUSION Sadly it seems that Jehovah Witness-ism is just a few men having led desperate people who want to know God down a path of legalism and falsehood. Christ came as God to be our Saviour, our Righteousness, by His grace & love. Through the Holy Spirit we become more like Christ. Ephesians 2:8-9 says: For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith. And this is not your own doing; but is the gift of God, not by works, so that no one may boast. We must love them, pray for them, be careful but talk/treat them as we would like to be talked to/treated

5 THE FATHER (1 ST PERSON) 1) PERSONALLY Who is the Father to us? How would we describe Him? 2) THEOLOGICALLY The Church has always from the beginning believed in one God, maker of heaven and earth just as the Jews believed. This separated Christianity from paganism. Hermas, believe that God is one, who created and established all things, bringing them into existence out of non-existence Aristides of Athens believed that God is uncreated, without beginning or end; He has no form, no limits, no sex. The heavens do not contain Him on the contrary, He contains them (Kelly, Early Christian Doctrines, p.84) Justin Martyr taught that the Father and Son were related in how a torch lights another without distraction Irenaeus, yet all saw the Father in the Son, for the Father is the invisible of the Son, the Son the visible of the Father (Adversus Haereses, iv.vi.5) Clement of Alexandria, nor does the Father exist without the Son, for Father implies Father of a son ; and the Son is the true teacher about the Father (Stromateis, iv.xvii) Origen, we are forbidden the impiety of supposing that the way in which God the Father begets & sustains his only-begotten Son is equivalent to the begetting of man by man or animal by animal; there must be a great difference; and it is fitting that this should be so,... Thus human thought cannot apprehend how the unbegotten God becomes the Father of the only-begotten Son. For it is an eternal & ceaseless generation, as radiance is generated from light. For He does not become the Son externally, by adoption of the Spirit, but He is by nature the Son. (De Prinicipiis) 3) DEVOTIONALLY Biblically John 6:44 No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him John 10:29 John 14:9 John 14:16 Romans 6:4 2 Corinthians 1:3 He is our real Father: Maybe some of us have had bad fathers or non existent fathers but God is our real Father. He truly cares and is proud of us. He WANTS us to be in His family.

6 Jeremiah 31:20 Is Ephraim my dear son? Is he my darling child? For as often as I speak against him, I do remember him still. Therefore my heart yearns for him; I will surely have mercy on him, declares the LORD. Matthew 3:17 2 Corinthians 6:18 Galatians 4:6-7 1 John 3:1 THE WORD (LOGOS), JESUS, THE SON 2 ND PERSON PERSONALLY What does Jesus mean to you? How would you describe His relation to the Father? THEOLOGICALLY It was always the intent of the apostles and early church to frame an intellectually satisfying explanation of the relation of Christ to God the Father They were all ardent monotheists (Kelly Early Christian Doctrines). To Justin Martyr and many at that time (the Apologists), Jesus before His birth is the Word or Logos (Λόγος), the reason or thought of the creator God or Father, different as light is from the sun. Below the Creator of all things, there is Another Who was, and is called, God and Lord and having been put forth as an offspring from the Father, was with Him before all creatures, and the Father had converse with Him...and He is divine being Word and first-begotten of God, He is also God Thus, then, He is adorable, He is God and we adore and love, next to God, the Logos derived from the increate and ineffable God, seeing that for our sakes He became man this Power is indivisible and inseparable from the Father (Justin) Tatian believed before creation God was alone, the logos being immanent in Him as His Potentiality for creating all things; but at the moment of creation He leapt forth from the Father e.g. I talk and you listen to me; but I, who converse with you, am not, by the conveyance of my word to you, made empty of my word (Kelly & Tatian) Irenaeus The Father is God and the Son is God, for whatever is begotten of God is God Tertullian before all things God was alone...in the sense that there was nothing external to Himself. But even then He was not really alone, for He had with Him

7 that Reason which He possessed within Himself His own reason Then he says that Father, Son and Spirit are one in substance. Thus (they) are one identical substance which has been, not divided, but extended ; the Saviour s claim, I and my Father are one, indicates that the Three are one reality not one person (Kelly & Tertullian). Three persons, forms, expressions & One substance. Hippolytus when I speak of another I do not mean two Gods, but as it were light from light, water from its source, a ray from the sun N.B. The term Father to all of these above meant Creator, God not necessarily the Father of the Son. They also believed that the Son of the Godhead existed at The Birth but before He was and is the Word. Origen being outside time and immutable, the Father begets the Son by an eternal act, so that it cannot be said that there was when He was not ; further the Son is God (Kelly & Origen) E.g. Man and wife are one flesh yet 2 people. However there must be some distinction within the Godhead or we fall into a form of 1) modalism or 2) Monadism 1. Noetus, Epigonus or Pope Calistus taught that the Father and Son were one identical person and that consequently it was the Father Himself who entered the Virgin s womb, so becoming, as it were, His own Son, and Who suffered, died and rose again. Thus this unique Person united in Himself mutually inconsistent attributes, being invisible and then visible (Kelly). See Patripassianism. 2. Sabellius taught the Godhead as a monad which expressed itself in three operations Imagine a balloon being push out at one point from the inside and then disappearing again i.e. expansion or dilation. DEVOTIONALLY John 1:1-2, 14 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth. John 10:28-30 Matthew 9:2 John 8:58 John 8:46 John 8:28-29 John 6:38 Colossians 2:9 Philippians 2:6-8

8 HOLY SPIRIT 3 RD PERSON PERSONALLY What does the Holy Spirit mean to you? How would you describe His relation to the Father & Son? THEOLOGICALLY For a hundred years or so after the New Testament had been written, the Holy Spirit was acknowledged among the Christians as God yet not really discussed in theological circles in regards to how. It was after the Nicene Creed that real discussion started on how He is equally God just like the Father & Son. Cyril Of Jerusalem The Spirit he claims belongs to the Trinity, and we do not divide the holy Triad as some do, nor do we work confusion in It as Sabellius does The Father gives to the Son, and the Son communicates to the Holy Spirit ever-present with the Father and the Son (Kelly & Cyril) Athanasius was asked to correct certain Egyptian Christians in 360AD who believed that the Spirit was a creature brought into existence out of nothingness He was an angel, superior to other angels in rank (Kelly). Athanasius replied that the Spirit belongs to and is one with the Godhead He is for example, the Spirit of the Son the vital activity and gift whereby He sanctifies and enlightens Lastly, he (Athanasius) infers the Spirit s divinity from the fact that He makes us all partakers of God (1 Cor 3:16). If the Holy Spirit were a creature, we should have no participation in God through Him If He makes men divine, His nature must undoubtedly be that of God (Kelly & Athanasius) Gregory of Nazianzus Is that Spirit God? Yes, indeed. Then is He consubstantial? Of course, since He is God (see John 4:24, Rom 8:26) Gregory of Nyssa The Spirit, he teaches, is out of God and is of Christ; He proceeds out of the Father and receives from the Son; He cannot be separated from the Son out of the Father through the Son (Kelly) - EASTERN THEOLOGY Epiphanius, The Holy Spirit is not begotten, not created, not fellow brother, nor brother to the Father, not forefather nor offspring, but out of the same substance of Father and Son from both, a Spirit derived from Spirit, for God is Spirit - WESTERN THEOLOGY DEVOTIONALLY Acts 13:2 While they were worshiping the Lord and fasting, the Holy Spirit said, "Set apart for me Barnabas and Saul for the work to which I have called them." Personal John 16:13 - Speaks & Hears

9 John 6:63 - Gives Life Ephesians 4:30 - Be Grieved Luke 12:10 - Blasphemed Hebrews 9:14 - Eternal 1 Corinthians 2:10 - Omniscient Romans 8:11 - Omnipotent raised Jesus from dead as the Father does Genesis 1:2 - Creator John 14:26 Romans 8: Interceded for us AMEN