Where oh where art though oh Witnesses of Jehova?

Well, much to my disappointment, the JW's didn’t turn up this Saturday. I had actually spent a little time preparing for their arrival, researching what they believe and seeing if it adds up to what I can read and understand from the bible. I use NIV version as I find it is easy to understand and accurate.

Now, here are some of the things I was going to go through with the JW's.

I found that their little booklet ("What does the bible really teach") to be well put together and, as I have mentioned previously, on the money for much of what they say. I found that it gave me a warm fuzzy feeling about the whole God, Jesus, death, and judgment thing. They seem
to be saying that everyone will be resurrected and will live in paradise, the good and the bad, and that there will be 144,000 that will live in heaven and be princes and kings and rulers..or some such. What became glaringly obvious to me after a while was that there is no sense
of Gods justice in their booklet. They focus only on Gods loving nature, but God is also a God of justice.

2 Peter 3:9
9The Lord is not slow in keeping his promise, as some understand slowness. He is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance.

1 Timothy 2:4
4who wants all men to be saved and to come to knowledge of the truth.

Romans 2:4-11
4Or do you show contempt for the riches of his kindness, tolerance and patience, not realizing that God's kindness leads you toward repentance?

5But because of your stubbornness and your unrepentant heart, you are storing up wrath against yourself for the day of God's wrath, when his righteous judgment will be revealed. 6God "will give to each person according to what he has done."[a]
7To those who by persistence in doing good seek glory, honour and immortality, he will give eternal life. 8But for those who are self-seeking and who reject the truth and follow evil, there will be wrath and anger. 9There will be trouble and distress for every human being who does evil: first for the Jew, then for the Gentile; 10but glory, honour and peace for everyone who does good: first for the Jew, then for the Gentile. 11For God does not show favouritism.

Footnotes:

Romans 2:6 Psalm 62:12; Prov. 24:12

Now as you can see by these few passage, yes, God is a loving God, however, for those that do not follow the path of righteousness "there will be wrath and anger", "there will be trouble and distress". Seems pretty obvious to me. The unholy will suffer damnation. For anything else to happen would only mean that God (and Jesus) are liars..and somehow, I dont think so.

Titus 1:2
2a faith and knowledge resting on the hope of eternal life, which God, who does not lie, promised before the beginning of time,

Hebrews 6:18
18God did this so that, by two unchangeable things in which it is impossible for God to lie, we who have fled to take hold of the hope offered to us may be greatly encouraged.

This also brings me back to Ecc 9:5-10. The JW's have read this passage to mean that when you die. You are dead. Period. There is no life after death in the spirit world, you a dead. However, as I ponted out previously, the tale of Lazarus and the rich man appears to be an actual account of something that has happened, rather than a parable, even then, if was just a parable, well, not even a parable teaches error. I would like to point out also, that in parables you are never given
personal details such as names. It is always "a farmer", "a poor woman", "a frog", "a duck", not "this happened to Lazarus the poor man"...get my drift? So, if the tale of Lazarus and the rich man is a true account, which it must be, then there is "life" after death. The bible is all too
clear to miss the point; eternal punishment awaits the wicked after this life.

Ecc 9:5-10 is looking at death from the livings perspective. The dead do not know what happens here anymore. They have no input to the world of the living, no knowledge of what is happening here. They know what is happening to them in hades, that is for sure.

Revelation 14:9-12
9A third angel followed them and said in a loud voice: "If anyone worships the beast and his image and receives his mark on the forehead or on the hand, 10he, too, will drink of the wine of God's fury, which has been poured full strength into the cup of his wrath. He will be tormented with burning sulfur in the presence of the holy angels and of the Lamb. 11And the smoke of their torment rises for ever and ever.
There is no rest day or night for those who worship the beast and his image, or for anyone who receives the mark of his name." 12This calls for patient endurance on the part of the saints who obey God's commandments and remain faithful to Jesus.

Revelation 20:10
10And the evil, who deceived them, was thrown into the lake of burning sulfur, where the beast and the false prophet had been thrown. They will be tormented day and night for ever and ever.

Mark 9:48
48where
" 'their worm does not die,
and the fire is not quenched.'[a]

Footnotes:

Mark 9:48 Isaiah 66:24

Matthew 25:41-46
41"Then he will say to those on his left, 'Depart from me, you who are cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels.
42For I was hungry and you gave me nothing to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me nothing to drink, 43I was a stranger and you did not invite me in, I needed clothes and you did not clothe me, I was sick and in prison and you did not look after me.'

44"They also will answer, 'Lord, when did we see you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or needing clothes or sick or in prison, and did not help you?'

45"He will reply, 'I tell you the truth, whatever you did not do for one of the least of these, you did not do for me.'

46"Then they will go away to eternal punishment, but the righteous to eternal life."

I would also like to comment on the JW’s position on hell, or Hades. The paint a picture, once again, that Hades is nothing more than the grave, rather than a place where the dead go to. I think a simple look at Luke 16:23 really does answer that argument.

Luke 16:23
23In hell,[a] where he was in torment, he looked up and saw Abraham far away, with Lazarus by his side.

Footnotes:

Luke 16:23 Greek Hades

There is also the matter of the JW’s and the 2nd coming of Christ. Apparently he came in 1914. Nice of him wasn’t it..oh, did you miss it? Well, so did everyone else. Apparently, he was invisible for his 2nd coming, this is what the JW’s teach anyway, even though doctrine say that “every eye will see him”.

Rev 1:7
7Look, he is coming with the clouds,
and every eye will see him,
even those who pierced him;
and all the peoples of the earth will mourn because of him. So shall it be!
Amen.

Odd isn’t it. Doesn’t that make the JW’s false prophets? Hundreds, if not thousands of people sold up shop because they believed that the end was nigh. What did they do when they woke up still here?…Oops!

There is much much more that could be said about what the JW’s believe, but I think I will leave it there for tonight. I will say one thing. I do not hate them, or look down on them (or any other group of believers), I feel sad for them that they are being mislead by people who should know better. As a Christian we should all study in depth the word of God and obey.

God Bless, and remember, always verify what people tell you about what God has said he wants you to do with what the bible says, as the bible is Gods inspired word.