is there a difference ?
i believe so ,and a very big difference.one that harmonises with the new testament in bearing witness to jesus and his kingdom and one that amounts to a new gospel bearing witness to jehovah and his kingdom something that is condemned in the bible.. c.t.russell started the magazine called "zions watchtower and herald of christs presence" and its emphasis was on bearing witness about jesus christ and his kingdom ,of course he got many things wrong ,but he was focused on jesus & his kingdom with what the new testament is all about.. j.f.rutherford in his wisdom decided to change the heading of the watchtower to " the watchtower announcing jehovah`s kingdom" a phrase / term / doctrine that is not in the new testament and takes away the importance and role that jesus christ has in bringing people to god.phil.2:9-11. nowhere in the christian greek scriptures / new testament are followers of jesus christ instructed to be witnesses of jehovah ,nowhere there is not one scripture that instructs them to do so.. however in the christian greek scriptures / new testament there are over twenty scriptures whereby christians are told to be witnesses of jesus.. and it was by divine providence that followers of christ were to be called christians .acts 11:26 , not jehovah`s witnesses.. do jw`s even know what it means " by divine providence " ?.
the jw`s use isaiah 43:10-12 an old testament scripture to justify calling themselves jehovah`s witnesses,however that was applied to the israelites back then ,did they adopt the name jehovah`s witnesses ?
is there a difference ?
i believe so ,and a very big difference.one that harmonises with the new testament in bearing witness to jesus and his kingdom and one that amounts to a new gospel bearing witness to jehovah and his kingdom something that is condemned in the bible.. c.t.russell started the magazine called "zions watchtower and herald of christs presence" and its emphasis was on bearing witness about jesus christ and his kingdom ,of course he got many things wrong ,but he was focused on jesus & his kingdom with what the new testament is all about.. j.f.rutherford in his wisdom decided to change the heading of the watchtower to " the watchtower announcing jehovah`s kingdom" a phrase / term / doctrine that is not in the new testament and takes away the importance and role that jesus christ has in bringing people to god.phil.2:9-11. nowhere in the christian greek scriptures / new testament are followers of jesus christ instructed to be witnesses of jehovah ,nowhere there is not one scripture that instructs them to do so.. however in the christian greek scriptures / new testament there are over twenty scriptures whereby christians are told to be witnesses of jesus.. and it was by divine providence that followers of christ were to be called christians .acts 11:26 , not jehovah`s witnesses.. do jw`s even know what it means " by divine providence " ?.
the jw`s use isaiah 43:10-12 an old testament scripture to justify calling themselves jehovah`s witnesses,however that was applied to the israelites back then ,did they adopt the name jehovah`s witnesses ?
Cofty,
Sure, to an extent. I do not play a first century Jew. I do not believe there is an issue in that the Jesus of the gospels was only send to Israel but would later draw all men to himself . The old covenant nation no longer exists. Jesus came to warn them of their impending doom. Jesus is heir to all things, the angels worship him and his chief apostle is Paul
in a recent post about the watchtower’s claim that all animals were created as vegetarians, one commenter said that watchtower could no longer sustain this belief so they simply stopped talking about it.
i began thinking about other wacky doctrines and statements by the borg that have faded away.
i’ll offer two of them below, but the complete list must be longer than your arm.. 7000 year-long creative days: watchtower once taught that each of the creative days was 7,000 years in duration, hence the hype leading up to 1975. they believed that year marked 6,000 years since adam’s creation, and oh how nicely the 1,000-year reign would fit as the last piece of the puzzle, thus completing the final “day”.
I think it comes to the early chapters, it is mocks God and the rest of us to take this stuff literally. There is so much obvious symbolism, talking snakes included, that we should be able to understand this is not more literal than Pharaoh being a dragon in the Nile (Ezekiel 29). I think conservative Christendoms opposition to evolution has a lot to do with who has authority over the church souls. And this generation, means.. this generation. But coming under the watchtower inlfuence puts a veil on our eyes.
is there a difference ?
i believe so ,and a very big difference.one that harmonises with the new testament in bearing witness to jesus and his kingdom and one that amounts to a new gospel bearing witness to jehovah and his kingdom something that is condemned in the bible.. c.t.russell started the magazine called "zions watchtower and herald of christs presence" and its emphasis was on bearing witness about jesus christ and his kingdom ,of course he got many things wrong ,but he was focused on jesus & his kingdom with what the new testament is all about.. j.f.rutherford in his wisdom decided to change the heading of the watchtower to " the watchtower announcing jehovah`s kingdom" a phrase / term / doctrine that is not in the new testament and takes away the importance and role that jesus christ has in bringing people to god.phil.2:9-11. nowhere in the christian greek scriptures / new testament are followers of jesus christ instructed to be witnesses of jehovah ,nowhere there is not one scripture that instructs them to do so.. however in the christian greek scriptures / new testament there are over twenty scriptures whereby christians are told to be witnesses of jesus.. and it was by divine providence that followers of christ were to be called christians .acts 11:26 , not jehovah`s witnesses.. do jw`s even know what it means " by divine providence " ?.
the jw`s use isaiah 43:10-12 an old testament scripture to justify calling themselves jehovah`s witnesses,however that was applied to the israelites back then ,did they adopt the name jehovah`s witnesses ?
Cofty,
Jesus is appointed heir of all things and creation is commanded to confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father. So I would say the revelation of Jesus replaces the revelation of Jehovah / Yahweh. I suggest we do like the angels and worship this new mode / revelation of God (Hebrews 1:6).
is there a difference ?
i believe so ,and a very big difference.one that harmonises with the new testament in bearing witness to jesus and his kingdom and one that amounts to a new gospel bearing witness to jehovah and his kingdom something that is condemned in the bible.. c.t.russell started the magazine called "zions watchtower and herald of christs presence" and its emphasis was on bearing witness about jesus christ and his kingdom ,of course he got many things wrong ,but he was focused on jesus & his kingdom with what the new testament is all about.. j.f.rutherford in his wisdom decided to change the heading of the watchtower to " the watchtower announcing jehovah`s kingdom" a phrase / term / doctrine that is not in the new testament and takes away the importance and role that jesus christ has in bringing people to god.phil.2:9-11. nowhere in the christian greek scriptures / new testament are followers of jesus christ instructed to be witnesses of jehovah ,nowhere there is not one scripture that instructs them to do so.. however in the christian greek scriptures / new testament there are over twenty scriptures whereby christians are told to be witnesses of jesus.. and it was by divine providence that followers of christ were to be called christians .acts 11:26 , not jehovah`s witnesses.. do jw`s even know what it means " by divine providence " ?.
the jw`s use isaiah 43:10-12 an old testament scripture to justify calling themselves jehovah`s witnesses,however that was applied to the israelites back then ,did they adopt the name jehovah`s witnesses ?
The import of the name Jehovah into the NWT was obviously designed to further lower Jesus. The name of Jesus is above all (Philippians 2:9), Jesus is appointed heir of all things (Hebrews 1:2). Jehovah / Yahweh is a historical name we should only concern ourselves with if and when we study the old testament. There is a new one.
the following is an extract from an article i wrote when i left the watchtower 25 years ago.
it may be helpful in reasoning with a jw about the anointed/great crowd distinction.. --------------------------------.
to divide people into those with a heavenly hope and those with an earthly one is not a biblical concept.
Steve,
Russell certainly had his own two classes doctrine. But Bible Students would mostly go for the high calling to Jehovah nature.
There is one hope, one baptism etc. Jesus brough down the wall seperating Jews and gentiles (and kicked their behinds in AD 70).
we keep seeing posters bringing col. 1.16 and john 1.3 up as proof that christ is excluded from the creative acts.
the proof they submit is that the words "all things [gk., pánta]" appear in these texts.
however, they are missing this important element from the discussion: the word "all" is rarely used in greek, and even in our everyday language to mean literally "everyone" or "everything" under the sky.
Yes indeed. All means all within a context. But various groups want all to mean this and that. It is not just the JWs. There are many others. Calvinists have been busy telling us that all or the world means a few.
When it says all things were created in Christ (Colossians 1.16) and the statement is attacked, we must ask who do you think was not created? Then the JWs can start looking for evidence for any teaching of a created a god that created all [other] things. When it says all things reconciled in Christ (Colossians 1:20), we must ask if the few of the narrow path of Matthew 7:13 are spoken of here. No. Some other group is spoken of.
I sense the reason they add [other] in John 1.3 and Colossians 1:16 is to emphasis low Arianism. In high / semi Arianism Jesus is not "a god" and he is not on par with other creatures. Here they wanted to emphasize that this a god was a creature not to be worshipped. But you can wonder why they felt the need to add others and at the same time later produce a paper like this?
Most of the watchtower quoted verses are taken out of their context. We would use language in the same way today. “Everybody” came to the show. If you want to use the same criteria for creation and salvation be my guest. Matt 10:22 “you will be hated by everyone” must be limited to those the believer came across and in general the Christians were hated. But the context shows exceptions to “everyone”, namely the one being spoken to. Genesis 3:20? Genesis 3:15. Context. Creation is sustained through Christ (again, Colossians 1:16-20).
Context is the big problem in JW religion. They say a lot and then they quote some verses that seem to support the thought. But context of the Bible passages is often ignored.
is there a difference ?
i believe so ,and a very big difference.one that harmonises with the new testament in bearing witness to jesus and his kingdom and one that amounts to a new gospel bearing witness to jehovah and his kingdom something that is condemned in the bible.. c.t.russell started the magazine called "zions watchtower and herald of christs presence" and its emphasis was on bearing witness about jesus christ and his kingdom ,of course he got many things wrong ,but he was focused on jesus & his kingdom with what the new testament is all about.. j.f.rutherford in his wisdom decided to change the heading of the watchtower to " the watchtower announcing jehovah`s kingdom" a phrase / term / doctrine that is not in the new testament and takes away the importance and role that jesus christ has in bringing people to god.phil.2:9-11. nowhere in the christian greek scriptures / new testament are followers of jesus christ instructed to be witnesses of jehovah ,nowhere there is not one scripture that instructs them to do so.. however in the christian greek scriptures / new testament there are over twenty scriptures whereby christians are told to be witnesses of jesus.. and it was by divine providence that followers of christ were to be called christians .acts 11:26 , not jehovah`s witnesses.. do jw`s even know what it means " by divine providence " ?.
the jw`s use isaiah 43:10-12 an old testament scripture to justify calling themselves jehovah`s witnesses,however that was applied to the israelites back then ,did they adopt the name jehovah`s witnesses ?
the last couple years i have been really getting into watching these videos called the bible protect.
there is no real dogmatic axe to grind.
just simple 10 -15 min videos on the individual books of the bible and kind of how it’s all connected together.
JW leaders definetly have another spin on the Bible story than the Bible writers. But they use verses from them here and there. It is a clever arrangement.
the following is an extract from an article i wrote when i left the watchtower 25 years ago.
it may be helpful in reasoning with a jw about the anointed/great crowd distinction.. --------------------------------.
to divide people into those with a heavenly hope and those with an earthly one is not a biblical concept.
No such thing as two classes of believers. You have to be able to isolate all the stuff not found in the Bible and then discern if the JWs are prophets of God with the right to bring us new mail from God
