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Bethesda Shalom

Bethesda Shalom , "House of Mercy and Peace". A small independent Bible believing Church located in Wolverhampton, England; endeavouring to hold fast to truth and stand fast in love by the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ.
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Now displaying: Category: Jehovah's Witnesses

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Nov 9, 2024

Part 7

The long-anticipated event in the calendar of the Christian Church is not Christmas or Easter, but the Second Coming of Jesus Christ. Paul writing to Titus, refers to this event as “…that blessed hope, and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ” (Tit. 2:13). Peter refers to this day as “…the day of the Lord” (2 Pet. 3:10), while Jesus calls it “…that day” (Mt. 24:36).  Whatever name one wishes to call it by, the fact that Jesus is coming again is the clear testimony of Holy Scripture.  What if a group started teaching that Jesus had already come but no one saw Him?  Would you believe it?  How could you refute such a claim from the Word of God? 

Jehovah’s Witnesses teach that Jesus came spiritually in 1914.  They claim it was an invisible coming despite Jesus stating that His coming would be in the clouds in great glory (Mt. 24:64). How does one get around such a clear statement as “ Behold, he cometh with clouds; and every eye shall see him” (Rev. 1:7)?  We shall consider these questions along with others in this seventh teaching part.  
  
Download teaching notes (pdf)
https://traffic.libsyn.com/secure/bethesdashalom/7_Did_Jesus_Return_in_1914.pdf

Nov 2, 2024

Part 6

The dictionary definition of the word resurrection is “the act of bringing someone back to life”.  Resurrection is not resuscitation.  When someone is resuscitated, they are brought back to life very soon after death. Resurrection, however, is bringing again to life after the person has been legally pronounced dead.  In both cases, the bringing back to life involves a physical body.  A resurrection without a body is nonsense.  Imagine if when Lazarus was raised from the dead, one party claimed to see him alive while the women were seen carrying his corpse away.  Rumours might well surface of seeing the "spirit" of Lazarus but everyone would agree, that Lazarus is dead since a resurrection requires a bringing again to life of the body.  Jehovah's Witnesses have a very strange dilemma facing them.  On one hand, they teach that Jesus was raised from the dead, but on the other hand, they teach that Jehovah destroyed His body!  Whatever spin one may desire to put on this, one is left with the same problem, a supposed resurrection without a body!  

In this sixth teaching part, we examine the Watch Tower's teachings regarding Jesus's resurrection and compare them with what is taught in the Bible.

Download teaching notes (pdf)
https://traffic.libsyn.com/secure/bethesdashalom/6_The_Bodily_Resurrection_of_Jesus.pdf

Oct 26, 2024

Part 5

To deny the deity of Jesus Christ is to be left with a question of paramount importance that demands an answer. If Jesus is not God, then who is He?  The Watch Tower Bible and Tract Society have their answer to this question as do the Muslims and the New Agers.  However, when one looks at the alternatives being offered, it becomes deplorable.  Heretics think that by robbing Christ of His place in the Triune Godhead and stripping Him of His deity, they automatically disqualify themselves from needing to provide a rigorous argument for their claim. When one puts the question to Jehovah’s Witnesses, “Who was Jesus Christ before coming to earth” the answer that they will give is Michael the Archangel.  In the absence of any meaningful biblical support, we shall weigh this claim against a mountain of evidence to the contrary and demonstrate that Jesus is none other than God.

Download teaching notes (pdf)
https://traffic.libsyn.com/secure/bethesdashalom/5_Is_Jesus_Michael_the_Archangel.pdf

Oct 19, 2024

Part 4

Whenever the doctrine of the Trinity comes under enemy fire, it is a direct assault upon the persons of the Godhead and thus a direct assault on God Himself.  The Apostle John understood this when in his day he contended earnestly for the verity of the Christian faith against an early form of Gnosticism called Docetism.  John shot it straight and made no bones, saying, “Whosoever denieth the Son, the same hath not the Father: (but) he that acknowledgeth the Son hath the Father also” (1 Jn. 2:23).  Meddle with the Son and you meddle with the Father; deny a cardinal tenet of Christ’s nature, and you lose the Father in the process!  You cannot have it both ways and yet the irony is, the cults insist you can.  Whether it be Jehovah’s Witnesses, Mormons, or Christadelphians, each attack the deity of the Son of God, stripping Him of His eternal glory while at the same time insisting that they still have the Father!  Concerning the person of Christ, Jehovah’s Witnesses teach that Jesus is a created spirit not differing in substance to an angel.  They believe and teach that there was a time when the blessed Son of God was not!  

In part 4 of this teaching series, we confront this error and present Biblical evidence proving the deity of Christ.

Download teaching notes (pdf)
https://traffic.libsyn.com/secure/bethesdashalom/4_The_Deity_of_Christ.pdf

Oct 5, 2024

Part 3

Jehovah’s Witnesses, like all true Christians of every denomination, are monotheistic in their expression of belief. They, like us, believe in one eternal God.  The point of divergence comes however when they maintain that the singular being of God is without a plurality of persons.  The doctrine of the Trinity affirms that there is one God, eternally existent in three persons, the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. The Watch Tower Bible and Tract Society deny this truth and aggressively attacks this position in its written literature.

In this teaching, we take to task the literature of the Watch Tower and counter its heretical claims with Biblical truth.  For Jehovah’s Witnesses, the name of God which it maintains is Jehovah is everything.  But is His name Jehovah?  Does history bear this out? How should the divine name of God (Tetragrammaton) be transliterated?  What if, from the Watch Tower’s own Bible, one could prove that Jesus is Jehovah?  We endeavour to answer all these questions, proving conclusively that Jesus Christ is God.

Download teaching notes (pdf)

https://traffic.libsyn.com/secure/bethesdashalom/3._Doctrine_of_the_Trinity.pdf

Sep 27, 2024

Part 2

As one traces the history of the beginnings of Jehovah’s Witnesses, two names are indispensable to the formation and development of this cult: Charles Taze Russell and his successor, Joseph Franklin Rutherford.  In the 1830s, a Baptist minister from New York by the name of William Miller began sharing his new-found belief, that Jesus Christ was going to return around the year 1843.  This belief began to gain momentum across denominations, and by 1840 it had become a nationwide campaign. This was the birth of what became known as Adventism and it was from this influence that the Watch Tower Bible and Tract Society would emerge.

In this teaching, we examine the history of the Watch Tower cult from its beginnings until the present day. We review some of its teachings that have changed during this period and critique its peculiar version of the Bible, the New World Translation. 

Download teaching notes (pdf)

https://traffic.libsyn.com/secure/bethesdashalom/2_History_of_Jehovahs_Witnesses.pdf

Sep 21, 2024

Part 1

As of 2023, there are approximately 8.8 million Jehovah’s Witnesses globally, spread across 239 countries.  Between September 2022 and August 2023, 1.8 billion hours were spent in the field of service publishing the news of Jehovah’s Kingdom with an average of 7.3 million Bible studies being conducted each month.  If you compare this with the average amount of hours spent in outreach by Evangelicals, it is shameful on the part of us who profess to have the truth.  Concerning missionary zeal, one cannot fault Jehovah’s Witnesses for their witnessing endeavours  – it’s in their DNA.  What do they have to show for all of this effort?  Last year saw just short of 270,000 people baptised into the dedication of Jehovah’s service.  That’s just over a quarter of a million people, won over to a cult!  

In this introductory teaching, we peel back the veneer of the exterior to uncover what Jehovah's Witnesses believe and teach. 

Download teaching notes (pdf)

https://traffic.libsyn.com/secure/bethesdashalom/1._Introduction_to_Jehovahs_Witnesses.pdf

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