The Watchtower Denies Substitutionary Atonement

by Perry 24 Replies latest watchtower bible

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  Perry

  For 30 years I never heard one time that Christ died for me personally. I always heard that he died to pay back what Adam lost. That never made alot of sense to me, but I just went along with it as a kid and young adult.

  Then, after I left... it hit me just how simple the whole thing was. God said that the wages of sin is death. But, the key is that it doesn't have to be YOUR death, UNLESS YOU JUST WANT IT TO BE. For example:

  “‘If any one of the people of the land sins unintentionally and becomes guilty by doing one of the things that Jehovah commands should not be done, 28 or if he becomes aware of a sin that he has committed, then he should bring a sound young female goat as his offering for the sin he has committed. 29 He will lay his hand on the head of the sin offering and slaughter the sin...

  The priest will take some of the blood ...and he will pour all the rest of its blood at the base of the altar…. and the priest will make atonement for him for the sin that he has committed, and it will be forgiven him. - Lev. 4 (NWT)

  Under the OT system a person could transfer his sin upon an animal and upon killing it with a priest invoved, the death penalty would be considered carried out. It is exactly the same under the NT system with the only difference being that there was no need for repetition.

  To deny the substitutionary sacrifice is to deny the very mechanism whereby God allows Someone to die IN YOUR PLACE. The WT has gone to great lenghts to try and tie Jesus' death to ADAM, and not to your own personal sins that will be judged after you die.

  Here is the NT proof that Christ died for US and NOT JUST ADAM:

  For, indeed, Christ our Passover lamb has been sacrificed. 1 Cor. 5:7 (NWT)

  The one who did not know sin, he made to be sin for us, so that by means of him we might become God’s righteousness. 2 Cor. 5: 21 (NWT)

  Christ purchased us, releasing us from the curse of the Law by becoming a curse instead of us, because it is written: “Accursed is every man hung upon a stake.” Gal. 3: 13 (NWT)

  He was handed over for the sake of our trespasses and was raised up for the sake of declaring us righteous. Romans 4: 25 (NWT)

  For Christ died once for all time for sins, a righteous person for unrighteous ones [not simply Adam], - 1 Peter 3: 18 (NWT)

  And once this exchange has been made on behalf of the believer, he is in need of NOTHING MORE:

  Look out that no one takes you captive by means of the philosophy and empty deception according to human tradition, according to the elementary things of the world and not according to Christ; because it is in him that all the fullness of the divine quality dwells bodily. So you have acquired a fullness [literally: you are complete] by means of him, the one who is the head of all government and authority. Col. 2: 8 - (NWT)

  Praise God that I don't need the Pope, Mary, a Jewish Priest, the Mormon Priesthood, dead saints, or the invented class of a Faithful and Discreet Slave, or any other human agency. I am complete in Christ Alone.... owing NOTHING to anyone for salvation.
• 

  moggy lover

  Indeed.

  I think the Watchtower position has been arrived at by two mistaken views of the Atonement.

  1. Ever since the time of CT Russell, founder of the movement, the Watchtower has placed undue stress on the concept of what they term the "Ransom" theory. The term is relatively rare in NT writings, and is restricted to two contextual grids. In two texts, both referring to the same conversation by Christ, we are told that "Christ "GAVE" [not "paid"] His soul as a ransom for many." [Matt 20:28, Mar 10:45]

  Protestant theologians during the Reformation, studying this aspect of Christian theology anew, concluded that the atonement was not simply a "price" that was paid since Christ was Himself this "price", neither was it a compact worked out under Divine Fiat, from whence one could, by deligently "exercising faith", work out one's own redemption. Rather, it was concluded, after logically studying the divergent threads on this subject, that Adam was not just a person who sinned and who passed this on to all. But rather since none of us could claim to have done any different were we in Adam's place, all of us deserve to die. None can say that were he/she in the original pair's shoes, they would have done differently. Hence there would have been no need for Christ to die.

  Therefore, rather than each and every one of us dying, as we deserve, Jesus Christ died in our place, meaning that we don't have to die. This consequently led to the substitionary understanding of the death of Christ. Augustine, writing in Latin, hinted at this when he used the Latin "vicarious", meaning "a substitute".

  2. I further think that The Wt position is compounded by an error of translation. At 1 Tim 2:5, the NWT informs us that the Man Jesus "Gave" [again not "paid"] Himself "a corresponding ransom" for all. Here the Greek "Antilutron" in the NW"T" against the united testimony of decalred scholarship, has used this espression: "Corresponding" ransom.

  The "Insight" volume 2, page 736 reveals that this peculiar NWT rendering was precipitated by an understanding of what the Parkhust Greek Lexicon had to say about this word. A careful examination will however reveal that Parkhust [first published as long ago as 1845] actually shows the word to mean "CORRESPONDENT" ransom, rather than as portrayed by the writers of Wt material. Indeed, Parkhust was saying nothing contrary to Christian thinking on this issue.

  But, "Corresponding" to what?

  Official Watchtower Theology has always presented the view that this "corresponded" to Adam. Hence rather than the "Substitutionary" nature of the Atonement, the Wt forces the "Adam Corresponding" theory on its followers. Rather than die for us, Christ died as an equivalent of Adam, and in doing so only removed something called "Adamic" sin from us. Our individual sins, however, have still to be worked out, and worked at, by strictly applying all the talmudic regulations laid out by the Watchtower leadership.

  In fact as one can detect when we study Wt material on the matter, that the Wt presses this concept, not so much as a variant on the Atonement, but rather than as an attack, warranted or otherwise, on the Deity of Christ.

  Since Jesus was exactly the equivalent of Adam, then how could He be God, no?
• 

  designs

  The very basic problem with Pauline theology is that it is based on Paul's imagination and bad science. First you have to accept that there was a literal Adam and Eve and that homosapiens are only 5774 years old as a species. Then this Pauline idea of ancestral sin, Romans 5:12.

  Free yourself from Bronze/Iron Age gods and mythologies.
• 

  Perry

  Moggy Lover : Brilliant.

  Thanks for fleshing that out.

  In fact as one can detect when we study Wt material on the matter, that the Wt presses this concept, not so much as a variant on the Atonement, but rather than as an attack, warranted or otherwise, on the Deity of Christ. Since Jesus was exactly the equivalent of Adam, then how could He be God, no?

  Good catch. Their logic actually builds on the false premise of the so-called exchange with Adam. In so doing, they can then attack the diety of Christ that is so carefully laid out in Hebrews Chapter 1 ...which BTW the WT tries to botch with strange punctuation.
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  designs

  moggy--One not so slight problem, Jews don't believe in Origianl Sin that is a Pauline invention Oooops. Individual responsiblity was the bed rock of Judaism.

  All of the "Replacement theology" or "Supersessionism" was the not so hard to detect antisemitism of the NT.
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  Heartofaboy

  marked
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  unstopableravens

  perry: who do you believe jesus dies for?
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  Perry

  He died for "Whosoever".

  For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. 17 For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved. 18 He that believeth on him is not condemned: but he that believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God. - John 3
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  OnTheWayOut

  Christ died for ALL? How many sacrificial lambs were needed back in the day? Why couldn't one guy give one lamb for everyone?

  Why did one lamb not even cover the sins of one person in perpetuity? Any answer starts to take you down the same trail JW's went down.

  God sacrificed himself to Himself, to appease his own rules concerning the naive first humans that he created unable to live up to his impossible rules, then the sacrifice was made alive again, hence NO SACRIFICE.

  It can be spun all day. It takes dissonance to accept some form of belief similar to JW doctrines concerning the matter. You can say it wasn't Jesus' death for what Adam lost but it was a death for everyone, but then the idea of what alledgedly happened with Adam has to be introduced in the explanation.
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  Zoos

  marked