Thursday, April 27, 2006

The Cult

Here is a chart by Shane Smalley. Be sure to add this to your cults file. Don't forget to pray for the Jehovah's witnesses as well.


Christianity

Jehovah's Witnesses

Founder of the “Movement.”

Jesus Christ.

Charles T. Russell

(1852-1916)

Founded in 1879.

The Gospel Message

Jesus came as God in the flesh, and died for our sins, so that we might be found justified in the eyes of Almighty God.

Jesus opened the door for us to earn our own salvation by adhering to the Watchtower's rules, doctrine, and mission.

The Church

Those who are saved, and have been baptized into Christ Jesus (Romans 6). These are the ones who have put their faith in Christ.

Those who have been baptized into the Watchtower organization, having received the Watchtower baptism. This faith is in the “Victorious Watchtower”

God

Trinity; 3 Persons in One Essence.

One God, revealed in one Person.

Trinity

The 3 Personal Aspects/Manifestations of God; The Father, Son and Holy Spirit; all Co-Equal for all eternity, yet internally distinct from One Another.

In essence, Big God, little god, force. God, JHWH (Jehovah) is all powerful, Jesus, created, and the Holy Spirit, force. To them, the Trinity is a repugnant, 3 headed false god invented by Satan.

Jesus Christ

God in the flesh. Eternal, Immutable, Fully God, Fully man.

Created being, Michael the archangel who became a man, and while sojourned on earth, died a Physical Death, with a Spiritual resurrection only.

Holy Spirit

The 3rd Member of the God-head; active in Creation, God in us apart of the New Covenant, seal of promise (Ephesians 1-3). The Holy Spirit has personality and Deity (Romans 8:26-27), disciples also knew the Spirit Personally (Jn 14:16-17).

Deny both the Deity and personality of the Holy Spirit; an Impersonal force that God uses to accomplish His will, similar to the force of Star Wars. The JW use their translation at Gen 1:2, and escape the Definite Article that is in the Masoritic Text, and call him the “holy spirit”, Inactive.

Salvation

By Faith, Through Grace. Man responds to God's offer of Salvation by First Hearing the Message, then he must believe what he hears, then must repent, confess Christ as Lord, then present Himself for Baptism for the Remission of sin, to receive the Holy Spirit In Order to help live the Christian life; then must be a practicing, faithful Christian until His Last day.

Elusive, works-oriented, and different for two classes of believers. The Watchtower wants everyone to look to the society for salvation, not Christ, and to get 'ones name written in the Lamb's book of life depends upon one's works (The Watchtower, April 1, 1947, Pg 204). They want all to come to the Watchtower Society for salvation (The Watchtower, Nov. 15, 1981, Pg 21)

Scriptures of the New Covenant.

The Holy Bible; Emphasis on the New Testament as the standard for rule, faith and practice in the Church Age. The Bible Alone.

The Bible (New World Translation-Badly translated), Studies in the Scriptures, and the Watchtower and Awake Magazines.




Resurrection

Jesus rose in the same body He died in.

Jesus rose spiritually from the dead, and the body of Christ was either mistakenly lost, or thrown to the dogs.

Second Coming

Christ has one second coming, of which noone knows the day, time nor hour. The 2nd coming is VISIBLE, not an INVISIBLE one (2 Thess 4; Mt 24:26-27; Rev. 1:7.)

The Watchtower asserts that Christ has returned multiple times, such as in 1874, and was 'invisibly present'. Have taught many 2nd comings, due to error of their 'prophet's' prophecies not coming true. 1874/1914. Taught in

many different places within Watchtower paraphernalia ( Creation, 1927, Pg 310 in the early editions, Pg 289 in the later ones; Golden age, 1930, Pg 503; Golden age, 1934, Pgs. 379, 380; The Harp of God, Printed March 1937, 5,736,190 Edition, Pg 235; Etc.).




The Conception of Grace

Christian concept of Grace:

God's

Riches

At

Christ's

Expense.

We see that, from the words of Ephesians 2:8 that we are saved by Grace through Faith, and that faith causing us to respond in such a way that is pleasing to God. Titus 2:11 speaks that we are saved by grace apart from anything we could ever do. We realize that God has saved us according “to the riches of His Kindness in Christ” (Eph 1). Paul says that if one works for grace, it is no longer free, but earned (Romans 4:4). We are given God's grace, free of charge; because of What HE has done, not because of what we've done.

Grace depends on affiliation with the Society. This concept is relatively unknown to them. The Greek Word Charis, what we would translate in our modern day and time as “loving-kindness”


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