AboutBrenda Martin Expertise I have been one of Jehovah`s Witneses now for over 30 years, in those years I have brought up 4 children, teaching each of them the bible.Being one of Jehovah`s Witnesses has helped me cope with my Epilepsy and bring up a daughter with learning difficulties.I have conducted bible studies with people from nearly every denomination i.e. Muslim. Having used the bible all these years to answer peoples questions, I feel I am qualified to give any answer regarding Jehovah`s Witnesses and the bible.
Experience My experience has been one of attending bible lectures 5 times a week,taking part in these lectures in front of an audience and being with thousands of J.W. at conventions where I have seen the bible at work in peoples lives.It is truly a miracle when you see thousands of people meeting together and not one policeman needed, and not even a piece of litter in sight.It is like another world.
Question I disagree that Jesus 'comes' in a different way only one verse earlier. God is "THE ONE who ... is coming, the Almighty." (NWT) That is definitive. It is not ONE and also another.
"A person who is really seeking to know the truth about God is not going to search the Bible hoping to find a text that he can construe as fitting what he already believes." We both hold the view that the other is exegeting God's Word in this manner. That's why I want to stick to Scripture in my questions.
Revelation 22:12-13
"'Look! I am coming quickly ... I am the Alpha and the Omega, the first and the last ...'" (NWT)We both agree God the Almighty is speaking. Seven verses later, the same person says again, "‘Yes; I am coming quickly.", (NWT) to which a response is immediately given, "Amen! Come, Lord Jesus." (NWT)
Argument:
If God says, "Look! I am coming quickly"
And Lord Jesus says, "Yes; I am coming quickly."
Then, God is Jesus.
Jonathan
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Followup To
Question -
In the Jehovah's Witnesses translation, Rev. 1:8 says someone 'is coming' and you agree that verse is referring to the Almighty.
Going back one verse to 1:7, who is He who 'is coming' there?
I thank you again for your responses and want you to know I am coming in hate in no way, shape or form. Please do not take my questions or responses in this way because as a follower of Jesus Christ, I seek to be like Him in considering all persons as precious creations that He seeks none to perish.
Jonathan
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Answer -
"REV 1:7, WHO IS HE WHO 'IS COMING' THERE?"
John was speaking here ---Jesus ‘comes’ by turning his attention to the executing of Jehovah’s judgments on the nations. This will result in momentous changes on earth, and since “all the tribes of the earth” have ignored the reality of Jesus’ kingship, they will indeed experience “the anger of the wrath of God the Almighty.”—Revelation 19:11-21; Psalm 2:2, 3, 8, 9.
REV. 1:8 SAYS SOMEONE 'IS COMING'
John is no longer speaking, it is Jehovah the “Almighty” who is speaking now-- First-century Christians would quickly have recognized alpha and omega as the first and last letters of the Greek alphabet. Jehovah’s calling himself by those two letters stresses that before him, there was no almighty God, and there will be none after him. He will bring to a successful conclusion, for all eternity, the issue of Godship. He will be forever vindicated as the one and only almighty God, Supreme Sovereign over all of his creation.—Compare Isaiah 46:10; 55:10, 11.
As I said earlier –“ A person who is really seeking to know the truth about God is not going to search the Bible hoping to find a text that he can construe as fitting what he already believes. “
Also we may find some texts that we feel can be read in more than one way, but when these are compared with other Biblical statements on the same subject their meaning becomes clear.
As I have explained in an earlier post; the Trinity teaching is an “added creed” not a scriptural truth.
“all scripture is inspired of God and beneficial for teaching…setting things straight” (2 tim. 3;16,17) in the light of ALL scripture, God is ONE and he has a name that was written in the original manuscripts over 7,000 times.
Jesus was created by Jehovah as the “firstborn of all creation”
The holy spirit is God’s active force.
That is what Jesus taught his early followers because that is what the bible teaches.
All the best
Brenda
Answer I think we will just have to agree to disagree, as I believed in the false doctrine of the Trinity for 19 years and have no intention or desire to return to it.
The trinity was NOT taught by Jesus and hence was not believed by his early followers, JW's follow the same pattern.
The New Encyclopædia Britannica says: “Neither the word Trinity, nor the explicit doctrine as such, appears in the New Testament, nor did Jesus and his followers intend to contradict the Shema in the Old Testament: ‘Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God is one Lord’ (Deut. 6:4). . . . The doctrine developed gradually over several centuries and through many controversies. . . . By the end of the 4th century . . . the doctrine of the Trinity took substantially the form it has maintained ever since.”—(1976), Micropædia, Vol. X, p. 126.
