An angle that I successfully used in a discussion with a Jehovah Witness.

As the subtitle explains, this is a teaching that I will give to expose and exploit one of the Jehovah Witness's sacred cow's. And that is how they repeatedly use the word "Jehovah" many times in the New Testament section of the New World Translation of their bible. "Jehovah" is an english translation of the hebrew word "Yahweh" which comes from a word called the Tetragrammaton (YWHW), which is four letters that make up God's name. Yahweh (YHWH) is used abundantly in the original hebrew manuscripts. In New Testament Greek however, we never see the word "Jehovah" being used at all. How can they do this and still claim scriptural accuracy? Lets take a look.

Even though this shouldn't have to be said I am going to say it anyway. There is no one sure teaching to read that will equip you enough to successfully argue a point to defeat a Jehovah's Witness. A Jehovah's Witness is usually very studied up and entrenched and ensnared in his/her doctrine. There are two main ingredients that you should have in your christian life to be a successful witness to the JW's, knowledge and anointing.

You've heard the cliche that 'knowledge is power', well in this case the little bit of knowledge I had went a long way. At this point in my christian life I was at a crux in my life in that I knew I was a leader in the ministry that I worked with, but wasn't to sure how I was going to land after things got rolling. The Lord blessed me with a means to earn a fair amount of money, and that money went into buying study books of all kinds. I literally began to absorb information, the only problem I have now is that I could retain all that info that I learned.

Anointing, that word says so much that there is almost nothing more that I need to say. In fact, if you have the 'anointing' you can skip the 'knowledge' section that we just covered. The simplest way to explain what the anointing is is God's hand reaching directly into someone else's life and making a life changing effect through you. To get to this point in your life cost you a whole lot. Denying yourself, obedience to God, making him Lord not just savior, etc. I wish I had had more of that anointing when I had my talk with this JW, but thankfully I had a little of the knowledge.

In my aforementioned quest for books, I stumbled on a few JW books in a used book store, I had a credit with the store for trading some books that I no longer needed, so I bought them and made some use of them. One book called "Reasoning from the Scriptures" and a "New World Translation Bible" which is a version of the bible that they publish and give to their witnesses to use.

One interesting thing that I read in Reasoning from the Scripture was concerning the New World Translation on page 276. It defines it as ..A translation of the Holy Scriptures made directly from Hebrew, Aramaic, and Greek into modern-day English by a committee of anointed witnesses of Jehovah. These expressed themselves regarding their work as follows: "The translators of this work, who fear and love the Divine Author of the Holy Scriptures, feel toward Him a special responsibility to transmit his thoughts and declarations as accurately as possible..." emphasis added.

On page 277 we read... For one thing, it is an accurate, largely literal translation from the original languages. It is not a loose paraphrase, in which the translators leave out details that they consider unimportant and add ideas that they believe will be helpful. Again emphasis added.

Even on page 278 they address my initial claim... "Why is the name Jehovah used in the Christian Greek Scriptures?" They make a reference to 'The Emphatic Diaglott' as using the word "Jehovah' 18 times when an OT verse is being quoted that contained the Tetragrammaton (YWHW). Next they use the Septuagint (LXX) as a reference point showing that the tetragram is used in its pages. Which it is, and this is where the wetness' that I talked with tried to trick me. He shown me articles containing a graphic showing the tetragram embedded within a Greek text and said "see the early writers did it this way, so the NWT does translate the NT scriptures correctly". Well if I didn't already know that the Septuagint was the Old Testament translated into Greek having nothing to do at all with the New Testament, then he might have stumped me. Once I called him on his error he conceded the discussion.

His partner, a visibly confused lady and quite disturbed with the direction of conversation I was taking him in, asked me why was this so important to me and what was the big deal that they had a few 'Jehovah's' misquoted in their translation, and that even the King James Version doesn't accurately translate everything either. I agreed that the KJ isn't completely accurate, but the NWT is heralded as "an [accurate], largely literal translation...is not a loose paraphrase, in which the translators leave out details that they consider unimportant and add ideas that they believe will be helpful." If the NWT is found not to be accurate in such an obvious fashion, than how can we trust it when it reads "In the beginning was the word and the word was with God and the word was a god." There are many other verses that we can reference here too but I will stick with this one because it so blatantly steals the deity of Christ away. It steals something so pivotal, so important to our faith, and we are supposed to put our trust in this altered translation of the bible.

If there is a single strategy that can be used while dealing with cults, it would have to be the deity of Christ, and or the trinity. Study yourselves up in these areas and you will do well. Jesus is the author and finisher of our faith.

Labels: Study

An age long question is "What is blasphemy against the Holy Spirit"? and "Can we be forgiven of it"?

The source of these questions comes from the story in the New Testament when the Pharisees came to Jesus and claimed that the works he was doing were of "Beelzebub the prince of the devils." This is written about a couple of times in the NT but we will draw from Matthew 12:22 - 32.

First question: What is blasphemy against the Holy Spirit? My question to you is, What was Jesus doing when the Pharisees came along to provoke this dialogue where He mentions blasphemy?

verse 22: Then was brought unto him one possessed with a devil, blind, and dumb: and he healed him, insomuch that the blind and dumb both spake and saw.

and immediately after that...

verse 24: But when the Pharisees heard it, they said, This fellow doth not cast out devils, but by Beelzebub the prince of the devils.

Jesus was casting out devils and healing the blind and dumb then along came the Pharisees and said he cast out devils by the power of Beelzebub. Jesus' rebuttal was, how can satan cast out satan and by the way...

Verses 31 and 32: Wherefore I say unto you, All manner of sin and blasphemy shall be forgiven unto men: but the blasphemy against the Holy Ghost shall not be forgiven unto men. And whosoever speaketh a word against the Son of man, it shall be forgiven him: but whosoever speaketh against the Holy Ghost, it shall not be forgiven him, neither in this world, neither in the world to come.

Its interesting to note that Jesus was the one to mention the word 'blasphemy'. Which means that what the Pharisees just did was considered blasphemy to Jesus, and that was calling His great works the works of the Satan. Which will be forgiven. So we can therefore determine that if we call the Holy Spirits works 'of the Devil' that this would be blasphemy. and that brings us to our second question. Can we be forgiven of it? According to Jesus' words in Matthew it shall not be forgiven him, neither in this world, neither in the world to come.

Labels: Study

Watching the National Geographic special on Noah's Ark tonight inspired some thoughts and questions concerning the six day creation. One question that would lead to other questions is: In a perfect world what would you have? What characteristics would you see or not see? Whether they were geological, physical, spiritual, etc. Lets begin a list of possibilities. No death. animal nor human death. No pain or suffering. No laborious work. No rain, snow, cold weather, nor harsh weather of any kind. No earthquakes, thus, tectonic plate movements. No Volcanoes. It has been suggested that animals had died but man did not before the fall of man. If there is no death then it would be assumed that death wouldn't affect animals either since through sin death entered into the world (Romans 5:12). It had not rained (Genesis 2:5), But there went up a mist from the earth, and watered the whole face of the ground (Genesis 2:6). So, if it hadn't rained, would there be layers of sedimentary rock and dirt? Also, because of sin the earth was cursed. Genesis 3:17-19 Cursed is the ground for thy sake; in sorrow shalt thou eat of it all the days of thy life; Thorns also and thistles shall it bring forth to thee; and thou shalt eat the herb of the field; In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread. So, if thorns and thistles were created as a part of a curse on the earth, what other possible things came from that? Would there have been volcano and earthquake activity that would cause major geological changes or possibly death? When exactly would volcano and tectonic activity begin? If you are a Young Earth Creationist as myself you'd have to believe that this activity would have started within the last 6,000 to 10,000 years, but was it in Adam's time or in Noah's time? Not that in Adam's time or Noah's times makes that much difference, but rather, if there was a time that there wasn't major geological change (ie. rain, snow, ice, volcano, earthquake) prior to Noah's flood. Could someone dig so far into the ground that they could find a portion of undisturbed soil? Undisturbed meaning not in sedimentary layers laid down by flooding and volcano activity. And would it be evidence of creation having undisturbed soil? If there were "millions and billions" of years of evolution, and there would be constant geological change during this time, then its likely that all soil as we know it would be in sedimentary layers and none would be as it originated even in evolutionary terms. However, from a creationist stand point, the earth is cursed during Adam's time and completely covered in flood water in Noah's time. If indeed God created the heavens and the earth and created them in a perfect stage as we YEC believe He did. Could one find evidence of it? Can we find evidence of pre-flood, pre-volcano or pre-tectonic activity? If we can, then what would that evidence be? What could we look for? would we just look for pure undisturbed earth? What other things can be added to our List of possibilities? What other thoughts could be added to our Undisturbed Soil idea?

Labels: Creation, Study

I don't think that is completely accurate. It is said that gravity can have an effect on the speed of light and time. The speed of light, as Einstein once put it, is relative as well as time. If you were traveling on a beam of light at the speed of light, other beams of light would appear to stand still, or travel slow. Also, a clock that is at the top of a tall building would appear to run faster than clocks near ground level. There is one very important thing to remember is that God created light before He created the sun, moon and stars. He also created evening and morning before creating the sun, moon and stars (Genesis 1:3-5). Some Young Earth Creationist like to argue that light was created in transit. I don't think that is true but it is interesting to consider that light was created before these celestial bodies were. What do you think???

Labels: Creation, Study

I just read this article over at answersincreation.org concerning AIG's article about Steve Irwins untimely death. Answers in Creation is an organization dedicated to daily rebuttals of AIG's stance on Young Earth Creationism. Ken Ham (of AIG) in his article, tells us about how many AIG supporters have tried to witness to Steve Irwin by sending him some of their creation books. Greg Neyman made the incorrect statement "they had no chance of reaching Irwin with the Gospel", and "In the scientific community, young earth creationists are not taken seriously". Dear Mr. Neyman 1st Corinthians 1:17,18 tells us that the preaching of the cross is to them that perish foolishness. The very preaching of the cross is foolishness to the lost, but we have a great commission to do it anyway. Even if Mr. Irwin never receives Christ as his savior, he at least had the chance to receive Him. The Gospel was at least presented to him. I am certainly grateful that someone took the chance to witness to me.

Labels: Creation, Study

On day four of the creation record in Genesis, God creates the sun, moon and stars. Some day-age Creationist believe that this is proof of an ancient, or old earth, since there is no way that we could have had a 24 hour day without these celestial bodies. Why not? Is God subject to the actions of the sun, moon and stars? or are they (sun, moon and stars) subject to God's will? Think of a ruler, a foot measurement (12 inches). Is a foot 12 inches because the ruler dictates that it is? or did man come along and say "This length of space is a foot and I'll make this ruler as a tool so that everyone is on the same page"? It's a tool. And in this way so is the sun moon and stars. As the NIV puts it "...and let them serve as signs to mark seasons and days and years". The sun, moon and stars mark days as the ruler would mark 12 inches. In Genesis 1:3 God created Light and then in verse 5 He called the light Day and the darkness Night, and the evening and morning were the first day. So metaphorically, God created the 12 inches and on the fourth day created the ruler. Even without the sun, moon and stars we still had day and night and evening and morning. Nothing at all here indicates an age of time with the absense of sun, moon and stars, more likely a 24 hour day is indicated.

Labels: Creation, Study