Pastor Lovingly Confronts Jehovah's Witnesses

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The call is to turn from your sin and put your faith in Jesus. Hey ladies, can

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I take some of your material? Sure, sure. So you guys are

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Jehovah's Witnesses, huh? Yes, we are. Yes, yes, you know we are. Yes.

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Well, you know that I care about you guys. Um, I have a hard time...

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So you're here to talk to people though, right? To spread the good news of the kingdom? Yes, but... So why would a Christian minister be bothering you if he wants to engage with you?

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Because we don't believe the same thing.

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How so? Uh, when you, uh, photograph or record one of our...

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You're in a public area though. We would really prefer not to interact with you.

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Don't you believe that you're part of the one true organization of Jehovah? Yes, I do, but I...

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Do you care for my soul? I care for all people, but I really do not want to interact with you.

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Don't you believe that I'm on my way to annihilation? So you don't really, you don't...

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But you don't really, you don't really love me though if you think I'm going to be annihilated. And you're unwilling to minister to me, right?

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Don't you believe you have the truth of Jehovah? Because my motivation, and I just want to tell you with love, my motivation to care for you and to speak to you is not anything to do with malice or hatred.

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It's out of a genuine concern for you all. I love Jehovah's Witnesses.

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You guys have more dedication and zeal than many Christians. No, I love you.

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I care for your soul. I do believe, and this is the truth, I want to give you a compliment that Jehovah's Witnesses, you have some of the greatest zeal and discipline more than many professing

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Christians. I think that your commitment to what you believe to be true and your willingness to sit here in the hot sun all day and to be out every week to do your mission

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I think is something that's, humanly speaking, commendable. And I mean that with true sincerity.

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But you know, and we would all agree that truth is the truth and you can believe that you're in the truth but actually be believing a lie which is what you believe

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Christians are doing when they believe in the Trinity and believe in salvation by grace, right? That's true.

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Yeah, so my coming to you would be in the same light of say and I know you accept the scriptures,

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Acts chapter 9 the Apostle Paul goes to the synagogues and he reasons with the Jews in the synagogues and it didn't go well.

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I mean some of them wanted to kill him, right? So sometimes when we have conversations like this there is conflict but I don't desire to have any hostile conflict with you.

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I want to share with you and I want to hear from you as well. So I mean that's,

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I think, genuine love. I know that what motivates you to come out here, it has to be love. Right?

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You guys have to love the people that are coming by here otherwise you wouldn't really be doing this. So I guess from my perspective and maybe you don't have to even exchange with me but just so you understand the two things that I'm most concerned with is one, we use the same language we use

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Jesus Christ, Heavenly Father, we say Jehovah Salvation, Grace, Cross, all those but we mean completely different things.

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And I think one of the things I've always respected about my Jehovah's Witness friends is that you seem to embrace that more than many people are willing to do say that are

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Mormons or Muslims you seem to embrace the fact that we are saying we mean different things when we say

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Christ. We believe in a different Christ. And my concern, and just so you know my heart on this because you know me, you've been to our website just so you know my heart on this

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I'm not concerned with the differences that are non -essentials between us. You guys are sweet people, you serve people, you do mercy ministry, all that stuff.

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My concern is with what Paul said in 2 Corinthians 11 he was worried about the early Christians in Corinth that they would believe in another

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Christ and another gospel. And that was not long after the resurrection. There were people who were promoting a false

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Christ and a false gospel and he was worried about them. So, you can be zealous and disciplined and loving and gracious and all that but you can be following a

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Christ that's not the true Christ and believing a gospel that's not the true gospel. Yes.

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We all have our own beliefs and our own thoughts and we can follow that. The Jehovah God would help us on the right path if we're on the wrong path.

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I grant what you just said. I want to acknowledge what you said. I can be wrong. There's no question about that.

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But the question we have to ask, I think, that's for all of us to set on is how do we know we're wrong?

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Is it based on a feeling? Is it based on an organization telling us that we're right? Or is it based upon the word of the living

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God? Is that the standard? Because my concern, and because I've wanted to listen graciously to my

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Jehovah's Witness friends and say, well, let me listen to what they're saying and make sure that I'm being fair with them, that I don't just say, hey, you listen to me.

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I'm not willing to listen to what you're saying. So I've had Jehovah's Witness friends come over, have dinner at my house and spend time together.

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What I've tried to do is listen to what they say about Christ. And what I've understood, and tell me if I'm wrong because I don't want to misrepresent you, what

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I've understood is that Jehovah's Witnesses believe that Jesus is Michael the archangel, the first and greatest creation of Jehovah God.

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Right. Okay, so you do believe that. Yeah, we do believe that. Yeah. So, my question then, in terms of like filtering that through what

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Paul says about believing a false Christ, is that the Bible teaches that Jesus is the eternal God, that he's always existed as God.

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I've never read that in the Bible. I don't read that in the Bible. So, can I just, you don't have to answer it now.

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But yeah, I'll just point you to some passages. You can read it later, just examine it. And I would read it in a translation that's a regular

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English translation. You can even go to Hebrew and Greek if you have the proper tools, if you want to.

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But I would read Isaiah 9, 6 through 7, long before Jesus comes, 600 years or so before Jesus arrives in his ministry.

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It says that, because we all believe there's only one God, right? You believe that, I believe that, there's only one

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God. So, we're unified there together. I know. But it says that... Unto us a child is born, a son is given, and the government will be upon his shoulder, and he shall be called

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Wonderful Counselor. And the word in Hebrew is Mighty God, El Gibor, the

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Father of Eternity. That's what it says. So, El Gibor, the Mighty God, the Father of Eternity.

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And what's interesting is that's Isaiah 9. I'm sure you're familiar with that verse, right? The next chapter, the next chapter over,

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Yahweh, Jehovah is called El Gibor. So, in Isaiah 9, it says that the one who's coming, the

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Messiah, is El Gibor, the Mighty God. He is Jehovah. He is the

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Mighty God, the Eternal One. So, long before Jesus comes to his earthly ministry, it says that he's the

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Eternal God, the one who's always existed, the Father of Eternity. So, that would be one passage before we even get into the

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New Testament that says that Jesus is Eternal God, uncreated. There's one example.

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Another one is Micah 5, verse 2. It says the one coming to Bethlehem is from Eternity.

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From Eternity. So, it says that Jesus is Yahweh. He's Jehovah. And he's from all

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Eternity. And the reason why, and I just want to say this with humility to you, the reason why I said to read an irregular

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English translation is you guys have the New World Translation, correct? Yes. So, if you read in Colossians chapter 1, and I know it's a lot to throw at you and to put together in your head, but remember

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Isaiah 9. But in Colossians chapter 1, if you take a regular

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English Bible, any English translation, it doesn't matter which one it is, and you compare it to the New World Translations, Colossians 1, in Colossians 1 it says that by him

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Jesus were all things created, in heaven and on earth, visible or invisible, thrones, dominions, or rulers or authorities, all things were created by Jesus, right?

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But the Watchtower adds words in the New World Translation. Just read in Colossians 1 and compare it to every

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Greek text, every English text. Because it doesn't fit the Watchtower's view of who Jesus is, it says, by him were all other things created.

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Yeah, other than him. Well, that's really not what the text is saying because it repeats itself in Colossians 1.

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But here's what I want to encourage you to see. The Watchtower adds words to the translation that don't exist in any text, because it doesn't fit the

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Watchtower's view of Jesus. So, yeah. And I know that you believe that Jehovah is the

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Almighty God, right? Yeah. But if you read Revelation, chapter 1, and then read the end of Revelation, it calls

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Jesus the Almighty God. Okay. Yeah. Thank you.

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I appreciate you guys doing that, and I want you to know that I love you. I do. I know it's hard for you to accept that because I'm obviously in disagreement with you, and I want to reach you.

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But I want you to know it's motivated by love, and I just want to share one thing with you, and I hope you just receive it with the

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Spirit I'm giving it. The good news of the Kingdom, your emphasis on the

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Kingdom, is so important because that is an emphasis from the Old and New Testament. That's true.

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The question is, is who's the King? And what's the good news? And the good news according to Scripture is that men and women can be reconciled to God by God's grace through faith in Jesus, the eternal

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God who took on flesh and rose again from the dead. And it's through faith in Him and His work alone you get

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His righteousness as a gift according to Paul in Romans 5. You can't earn your own righteousness or climb your way to Jehovah, right?

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Which, I'm glad you're saying that, but you know that classic watchtower theology doesn't teach that it's solely a gift of God's grace through faith in Jesus alone.

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It's also based upon my righteousness and my good deeds. Right? Yeah. Then Paul says in Galatians chapter 5, if you go that route, attempting to establish your own righteousness and faith in Jesus, then he says

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Christ has become of no effect to you. You've fallen from grace. It's either the grace of God through faith in Jesus alone, through His righteousness, or you and I stand before God in our own unrighteousness and our own sin.

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You can't have... The way I understand it is that so many denominations, and I don't know what yours teaches, but so many denominations teach that once you're baptized or once you're saved or always saved, you can then go about and do whatever you want to do and you're still saved and you're still going to...

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And we don't believe that. That's what the watchtower is trying to teach. We would reject that as well.

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Yeah. Right, right. It's like, no, just because I was baptized and just because I accepted

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Jehovah as my Lord and Jesus as my

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Savior, doesn't mean that I still don't have to live a righteous life to continue to benefit from that undeserved kindness.

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Yes. And so that's, to me, what the watchtower teaches. It's not what you're saying.

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I appreciate your animosity towards that message, that somebody could just say they have a mental ascent to Jesus and then all of a sudden that means that nothing happens and the rest of your life you can sin and be corrupt and disobey

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God and you can claim that you're saved. That's a false gospel. Exactly. It is.

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But the historic gospel teaches that when a person is reconciled to God, they're born from above and they're raised to life with Jesus now, which means that God promises to finish the work that He started in them.

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So the way that you and I know someone has truly been reconciled to God and saved, given eternal life, is the fact that God begins to change them and if there's no transformation, it means not that they lost their salvation, it means that they never had it to begin with.

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Yeah, I would believe that. Well, good, good. That's a good way to look at it. Yeah. It's basically saying no more sin.

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Except one, can I have one caveat that maybe we can think about together? And this is important, is the watchtower does teach, though, that you are accepted by God based upon, in some sense, your obedience.

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Right? I could pull the quotes, but...

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Yeah, I think it's probably, we're going to get into semantics again. Yeah, again, I agree with you.

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It is semantics because it is our obedience. Yes, that's what you believe.

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It's because we're supposed to follow. You're not doing it just because that's the rule and I have to follow.

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I know, I know. Because it's coming from the heart. You want it to come from the heart. I understand that. Exactly. But you do believe that God will look at you and accept you based upon your obedience and your faith in Jesus.

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Well, if you have the faith in Jesus, you're going to naturally do what He asks. True, but when

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God accepts us, according to the watchtower, He accepts us based upon our own obedience. Yeah.

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Paul says that's a false gospel. And I'll point you to a passage. You don't think I'm just saying that. But it isn't just my obedience.

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I know, it's also faith in Christ. My obedience to what? Yeah. That's the question.

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Yeah. My obedience to what? Is it my obedience to just reading the

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Bible? Is it my obedience to Jesus Christ and His doctrine? Is it my obedience to Jehovah's principles?

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And in my mind, it's a combination of things. I know. Because of the fact that He does tell us, this is my

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Son who I've approved. And the only way you're going to get to me is through Him.

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That's right. You know, so I know that if Jesus told me to do something,

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I should do the best I can to try to do it. Right. I also know that Jehovah put principles in the

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Bible to help me live my life in a righteous manner.

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Yes. So He's teaching me, don't lie, don't steal, don't commit adultery, don't do these different things.

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What you're saying, none of us are like you say, if we get righteous, then He's going to like us.

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That's not what we're saying. No. We're saying that you're learning to live in a righteous manner. We're always imperfect. We're always going to make mistakes.

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Of course. No, I know you believe that, yes. But to live our life in a righteous manner, that is pleasing to Jehovah.

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Yeah, and based upon that, we'll determine whether you are living forever in paradise with God or if you're annihilated.

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I know, but based upon your obedience, that will make that determination. So I just want to point you to one passage.

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I know I'm giving you a few to think about. Just read Galatians. The book of Galatians, Paul addresses, for all of us, we all need to acknowledge this and think through it.

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I'm not saying you to meet me as well. Paul was speaking in the first century to the Judaizers that were teaching that it's grace, it's faith in Jesus.

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He did all his work, but we need to have obedience to this one law in order to be justified before God.

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It's faith plus this one act of righteousness, obedience. He says anybody preaching that message should be eternally condemned by God.

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He says we are justified through faith in Christ apart from works of law. Nobody will justify what the

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Watchtower does teach, that it is based, in some sense, off your own works. You may say that, but it's not.

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It's on your actions and how you live your life. Right. Your obedience.

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The Bible itself says faith without works is dead. Amen. James said that, not telling us how to get saved.

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He was telling, how do we know the difference between true living faith and false dead faith? Right. And based upon what it does.

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Right. But it's only that faith that brings you to a place where God declares you righteous. Only faith alone.

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So all I want to do is just, remember those passages, and just read them later so you know where my heart is, because I'm sure we'll see each other, small island.

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Oh yeah. Isaiah 9. Isaiah 9. El Gabor. He's the mighty God. Revelation 1 and Revelation 22.

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That's that Jesus is the almighty God. And then the book of Galatians. Just read through the book of Galatians.

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No influence from me or anybody else. Just read Galatians. And I want to encourage you, with respect, read

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Galatians in a regular English translation, because I can. King James. King James is great.

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New King James. ESV. And the only reason I say that is so you can see that I'm not, I don't want to be dishonest.

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If I'm dishonest with you, you have the right to confront me. Just take a regular translation and put it next to Colossians in the

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New World Translation, and you'll see. And I can give you a number of other examples. The New World Translation literally changes the text in critical doctrinal areas that don't match the

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Greek text from which we get the Bible. And you don't have to defend it right now. Just go read Colossians 1 and compare it.

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Okay? Bless you, ladies. Thank you so much for spending the time talking. By the way, that one thing that you said really resonates with me all the time, talking about whether or not someone really knows

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God, is there going to be a change that accompanies that afterwards. I love the passage in Romans 6 where Paul says, if you are dead with Christ, if you've died with Him, if you've been buried in baptism with Him, then you're made alive together with Him.

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And so you walk in newness of life. You're no longer a slave to the flesh and to your sin anymore. But I think the distinction that we're just trying to make, with respect to you ladies, is the front end of what happens and how we're made right with God.

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That conversation is kind of the back end of once our hearts are changed, then we walk in obedience and righteousness.

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But the distinction that we're trying to draw is on the front end of that. I have nothing to stand before God with but my filthy rags.

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My righteousness means nothing. Ultimately, it's only faith in Jesus that's going to save me, make me right.

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And that's purely a gift of His grace. It has nothing to do with me. He bestows it as He will.

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So that's all. That's the only thing I would say to you ladies. Bless you ladies. Thank you so much. Thank you. By the way, what's your name?

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I'm Betsy. Betsy and? Karen. Karen. Alright, God bless you ladies. And I will read your material.