Part 10
Jehovah’s Witnesses have long been a cult that has aggressively opposed the doctrine of hell, as can be seen in their literature and publications. Charles Taze Russell, the founder of the Watch Tower Bible and Tract Society, was himself an ardent opponent of this doctrine, as has been every presiding president over Jehovah’s organisation since. Though beginning within the ranks of conservative orthodoxy, by the time Russell had outgrown his teens, he had left both Presbyterianism and Congregationalism because he could not reconcile the idea of a loving and merciful God sending billions to an eternal hell. To this day, after nearly a century and a half, Russell’s disciples continue to hold to his beliefs and teachings.
In this teaching, we examine the beliefs of the Watch Tower Bible and Tract Society as they relate to the doctrine of hell and contrast this with what the Bible teaches.
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Judges 7:15-23
The Western Church in this hour wants method and process. If the Church down the road marches around the walls AND God gives them the victory, we write a book on it “How to take a city for God!” But in the valley on the borders of Moab, God had His people dig ditches!! In the wilderness of Tekoa, the people praised the Lord! At the Red Sea, He had them stand still! On the hilltop in Rephidim, Moses held up his hand to God! Friends, you can’t make a method out of this, our eyes must be towards the LORD!!!
Oh the that God might perform a work in this hour as He did in the days of Gideon. A work that our only boast may be in the Lord saying; by His right hand and by His holy arm has He gotten Himself the victory!
Part 9
When one begins collating the teachings of the Christian cults, it’s no coincidence that there are many shared common beliefs that the Church has long rejected as heretical. The doctrine in question in this ninth teaching part is no different. While it may not be on the same damnable par as the rejection of the Trinity, the deity of Jesus Christ or the personhood of the Holy Spirit; to deny the immortality of the soul is a false teaching and one that must be strongly repudiated. It should come as no surprise to learn that the Watch Tower along with its siblings – Seventh-day Adventists and Christadelphians, reject the belief in the immortality of the soul. What is surprising is that increasingly, Evangelicals are choosing to adopt the same position as the cults regarding this doctrine.
In this teaching, the doctrine of the immortality of the soul is defined and the beliefs of Jehovah’s Witnesses are examined and refuted from the Word of God.
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Judges 7:9-15
If God is going to get the glory from your life, it is going to require that we trust Him!!! There’s no escaping this reality!! When the call of God comes to service, it never comes in a neatly packaged parcel with a cute sticky label on the front. We want all the I’s dotted and the T’s crossed. We want it safe and predictable, secure and tested, but that’s not how it works. God called Gideon to a work above his natural ability and out of his human capabilities. At every single step along the way, he was a man pressed out of measure and therefore completely reliant upon God. In the two previous signs given to Gideon as a means of encouragement, they came about at the request of Gideon!! Gideon was the instigator! However, in the passage before us, without so much as a request on the part of Gideon, God takes the initiative to offer him a third sign as further proof on top of the further proof he had already given him — GIDEON, I’M WITH YOU FOR GOOD!!!
Part 8
So far, the studies in this series have largely focused on the person of Jesus Christ. Whilst Jehovah’s Witnesses are monotheistic in belief, they are aggressively antitrinitarian in expression. 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 denies this truth and attacks this position throughout its written literature.
The purpose of this teaching is to address the heresy of the Watch Tower as it relates to the person of the Holy Spirit. Jehovah’s Witnesses deny the person of the Holy Spirit and instead teach that the Holy Spirit is God’s active force. Journey with us as we examine this heresy in light of Biblical truth.
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Judges 7:1-8
If I were to ask why you so desire a move of God in this hour I wonder what you would say? When I speak of a move of God, I mean a heaven-sent revival that would turn the hearts of compromising lukewarm Christians back to God in fervent zeal and ardent love. I mean a heaven-sent revival that would awaken the sleeping dead and sweep whole multitudes of lost sinners from this town and beyond, into the Kingdom of God. The Pastor wants God to send revival so that His dwindling Church can be filled! The evangelist wants God to send revival so that he can tell of the great numbers that came to Christ under his ministry.
But you Pastor, I’m not a minister. I don’t care for those things just mentioned, I want God to send revival so that my backslidden husband can return to the Lord and my wayward son could get saved! Now granted, your motivation is radically different from the ego-maniac ministers just mentioned, but it still falls short of the only fitting answer to be given, as to why God should send revival. Why should God send a revival? FOR HIS GLORY!!!
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.
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Judges 6:33-40
The men God sets His hand upon for use aren’t supermen; they’re human men like you and me, fraught with human weakness and marred by many insecurities. Any good biography worth its salt will not only describe the mighty feats of the man it purports to represent but also his frailty.
When the Spirit of the LORD comes upon a man/when the anointing of God is resting upon God’s servant, He ministers in a power and an anointing that cannot be explained apart from the language of the supernatural!! It’s not His strength it’s not His power, it’s not his grace, it’s not His ability, IT’S GOD’S! It’s God’s strength, it’s God’s power, it’s God’s grace, its God’s ability!! We look and think, what a man but we’ve got it all wrong!! Rather, we ought to say, what a God!!! In this fourth part of the sermon series, we consider Gideon the man!
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.
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