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Dear Jehovah's Witness,
As you go door to door in this neighborhood and share your
literature, please take a moment to consider a few important
matters...
As a Jehovah's Witness you claim that the Watchtower Bible
And Tract Society, which began with the teachings of Charles
Taz Russel, is the only organization that teaches the correct
interpretation of the Bible. Given the fact that the Bible
repeatedly warns about false teachers, is it not reasonable
to question whether or not Charles Taz Russel was a false
teacher? In Acts 20:30-31 the apostle Paul warned, "from
among yourselves men will rise up [Russel started with a simple
Bible Study], speaking perverse things [then he started teaching
that core truths of Christianity, such as the deity of Christ,
were false], to draw away the disciples after themselves [he
eventually claimed that the Bible could only be understood
according to his interpretations]. Therefore watch, and remember
that for three years I did not cease to warn everyone night
and day with tears." The apostle Paul didn't even put
himself above his warnings about false teachers – "but
even if we or an angel from heaven preach any other gospel
than what we have preached..." (Galatians 1:8) In the
preceding verses Paul writes, "I marvel that you are
turning away so soon from Him who called you in the grace
of Christ, to a different gospel, which is not another; but
there are some who trouble you and want to pervert the gospel
of Christ." (Galatians 1:6-7)
What is the gospel? Do we have to earn our salvation by our
good works or is salvation a free gift? Russel taught that
we have to earn our salvation by our good works, and only
144,000 will be good enough to merit a place in heaven while
everyone else who is saved will spend eternity on a new earth.
Is this "a different gospel" that the apostle Paul
warned about?
The Bible clearly teaches that the law was not given so that
we could follow it in order to perfect ourselves and become
good enough to be worthy of eternal life; but rather "the
law was our tutor to bring us to Christ, that we might be
justified by faith." (Galatians 3:24) Quite the contrary
of serving to make us worthy before God, the law was given
"that every mouth may be stopped and all the world may
become guilty before God." (Romans 3:19) The only way
for us to be worthy to go to heaven is for the righteousness
of Jesus Christ to be "credited" to our account!
(Romans 4:3-8;4:23-24)
Romans 3:20-24: "Therefore by the deeds of the law no
flesh will be justified in His sight, for by the law is the
knowledge of sin. But now the righteousness of God apart from
the law is revealed... through faith in Jesus Christ, to all
and on all who believe. For there is no difference; for all
have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, being justified
freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ
Jesus."
The word gospel literally means "good news." Right
now as you're reading this there is good news for you! When
you trust in Christ's payment on the cross for your sins you
are "justified freely by His grace through the redemption
that is in Christ Jesus!" (Romans 3:20) Salvation is
a free gift! (Romans 5:16) The result of this free gift is
that we are freed up to serve God out of love and gratitude
for what He has done for us rather than serving out of fear
that we might not be good enough to merit salvation. (1 John
4:19)
Not only does the Bible warn about "a different gospel",
it also warns about "another Jesus" (2 Corinthians
11:4). Was Russel correct about Jesus being Michael the Archangel
rather than God or was his version of Jesus simply "another
Jesus"? By teaching that Jesus Christ is not God, Russel
undermined the free gift of salvation because only God could
bear the sins of the world and make it possible for His righteousness
to be "credited" (Romans 4:3-8;4:23-24) to our account.
Fortunately the Bible contains ample evidence that Jesus truly
is God. The following is a partial list of Scriptural evidence
for the deity of Jesus Christ:
1. The triune nature of God is first hinted at in Genesis
where God uses a plural pronoun to refer to Himself: "Let
Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness... So
God created man in His own image..." (Genesis 1:26-27)
2. God the Father refers to Jesus Christ His Son as "God".
(Hebrews 1:8)
3. Jesus Christ is the "Immanuel" which means "God
with us". (Matthew 1:20-23)
4. Colossians 2:9 states that in Christ "dwells all
the fullness of the godhead bodily." Jesus said, "He
who has seen Me has seen the Father" (John 14:9); and
Hebrews 1:3 states that Jesus is the "express image of
His person".
5. The Jews accused Jesus Christ of blasphemy because He
claimed to be God. Under Mosaic Law blasphemy was punishable
by death (Leviticus 24:16), and therefore the Jews sought
to kill Him (Mark 14:61-64; Matthew 9:3-6).
6. I AM is the self-disclosed name of God (Exodus 3:14),
which means that He is the self-existent One, unlike all of
creation that is sustained by Him (Colossians 1:17). Jesus
inferred that He is the I AM, when He said, "Most assuredly,
I say to you, before Abraham was, I AM." (John 8:58)
7. The Holy Spirit is the "Spirit of God" and the
"Spirit of Christ". (Romans 8:9-10; Ephesians 3:16-17;
Philippians 4:13; Galatians 2:20; 1 Corinthians 6:19)
8. Only God is holy. Jesus Christ is holy, therefore proving
His deity. (Revelation 15:3-4; 3:7; 1 Peter 1:18-20)
9. The angels in heaven only worship God. The angels in heaven
worship Jesus Christ, therefore proving His deity. (Revelation
19:10; 22:8-9; 4:8; Hebrews 1:5-6; Matthew 4:9-10)
10. The disciples worshiped Jesus, thus proving His deity.
(Matthew 14:33; Luke 24:52)
The Watchtower Bible And Tract Society tries to obscure a
lot of these passages by changing the wording of the Bible
in their New World Translation, which is unsupported by the
5,664 Greek manuscripts of the New Testament we have today.
This is an example of yet another warning in the Bible about
false teachers "twisting" Scripture "to their
own destruction" (2 Peter 3:16) which follows the example
of Satan who tried to tempt Jesus by twisting Scripture out
of context (Matthew 4:1-11).
This letter was not written out of a desire to attack but
out of love for you and a desire to help you find the truth.
Please pray about this and don't be afraid to think on your
own and take a stand for the truth, regardless of the peer
pressure you may face. The only acceptance you need is from
God and what matters to God is the truth!
This letter only scratches the surface of the red flags in
the teachings of the Watchtower Bible And Tract Society. If
you'd like further information to help you sort through the
issues, www.carm.org/witnesses.htm is a great website with
lots of resources and information (note: this letter is not
affiliated with carm.org)
God bless you.
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