Several weeks ago, I forget the exact date, we did a study on cults. Basically, just an introduction to cults. What is a cult? And not going through that whole study again, but just there were four basic things that we talked about. And one is extra-biblical authority. That is, the Bible, A good translation is not sufficient. You have to have something else to tell you what the Bible says. And that's pretty well common among the cults. Number two was the denial of justification by grace through faith alone. They all are caught up in some type of activity, something you must do. is a devaluation of Jesus and or a denial of his deity. And the fourth trait of a cult that is common, all the cults have a lot of different things, but these four things are common among them, that they are the exclusive community of the saved. If you're not one of them, you can't be saved. I wanted to look tonight at a particular cult, spend some time on it. The official name of this cult is the Watchtower Bible and Tract Society. And you would know it as Jehovah's Witness. They were founded in 1879 by Charles Taze Russell. And early on they were known as Russellites, but that's not really what they are. A local congregation is called a Kingdom Hall, and you can drive about and see a building, and that's what will be over the front of the door. It will be Kingdom Hall of something or other. Some of the doctrine of the Jehovah's Witness that specifically oppose Orthodox Christianity, and I'm not going to spend a great amount of time on them, just to give you a flavor of what this particular cult is about, what these people are caught up in. Concerning the Trinity, we are Trinitarian. We believe that God is one, but He subsists in three persons. Three persons. The Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. And the Son is not the Father, In other words, they're not intermingled in any way. There's one God of one essence. But they deny that. They say that Jehovah's Witnesses teach that there is one God, but He's Jehovah, and there is no other God. And they say the Christians worship three gods. And to be fair, for someone who maybe isn't interested, willing to study, willing to consider, it does sound like that. I mean, you say God the Father, God the Son, God the Holy Spirit, isn't that three gods? No, it's one God in three persons. And nobody, no human really understands the Trinity. We accept it. We believe the Bible teaches it. And I'm not about tonight to go into all of the proofs of that, but that is one of the major distinctions that they have doctrinally. Concerning God the Father, this is one of their quotes, there was therefore a time when Jehovah was all alone in universal space. Being alone, the first creative act of Jehovah was to create his Son. So to them, the Son, Jesus, is the first created being of God. which many scriptures won't let you get away with that if you have a good translation. The book of Colossians is certainly the place to go to see Jesus Christ as the creator himself. So he didn't create himself. Concerning God the Son, I've already mentioned this, but they teach that he is the first created being of God. And then God the Holy Spirit, has no personal name. He's not a person. He's not an intelligent person. He is an impersonal force that God uses to accomplish His will. Well, there's some truth in that, but He is a person. The Holy Spirit is a person. Concerning man's destiny. What's out there? What's out yonder? And they have three answers. The anointed, in their understanding, the 144,000, a specific number, will be in heaven to reign with Jehovah God. So their concept of heaven and those who are quote saved is limited to the 144,000. The rest of the Jehovah's Witnesses, not the 144,000, will live forever on an earth, a paradise earth. And their status will be determined by the extent of their efforts in door-to-door visitation, ministry, and distributing their written material. So that's how they gain status. If they're not of the 144,000, that's how they get promoted, I suppose. Those people who are not members of the Watchtower will be destroyed. They do not have any concept of eternal punishment in hell. They teach annihilation. So, the worst that can happen to you is you just have no existence. Well, the Bible certainly doesn't teach that either. So all of these things are contrary to what a good translation would teach you. They're pretty heavy on prophecy. They have predicted the end of the world in 1914, 1918, 1925, 1975, and 1989. So they're 100% so far of being wrong. And I don't think they have a current prediction. They may have decided that's not too fruitful to keep predicting the end of the world and it not happening. It's pretty hard on your credibility. In the way of medical practices, they refuse vaccinations. I don't know how their kids go to school. I don't know. That just occurred to me. You have to have vaccinations whooping cough and all these deputative theory and all these vaccinations to go to a public school. They deny organ transplants and blood transfusions. But recently, and I don't know the date when they changed, but they have accepted, oh here it is, they accepted vaccinations and organ transplants. So they, maybe the practicality of that finally hit them, you know, that they couldn't sustain that. In politics, they deny their members any involvement in political causes and in the military. As to holidays, they believe that all the holidays are pagan in nature, so they certainly don't celebrate Christmas. They don't celebrate personal birthdays, Mother's and Father's Day, and almost all the other holidays. I'm pretty pessimistic on that. Alright, here. What I want to try to do in the time we have, and I've called this study, How to Witness to a Jehovah's Witness. And I've had this experience. I'm talking out of some personal experience. It was probably about 20 years ago. I remember it. very vividly. A man and two women came into my yard, and I met them at the mailbox. I wasn't trying to prevent them to get to the house. I just happened to be out going to get my mail, and that's where they were. So we entered into a dialogue, and I don't make any boast in this, but I had the man who was in charge very uncomfortable. He could not He did not want to deal with the questions that I was asking him. And he was really apparently disturbed that these two women were hearing what we were saying to each other. And so he didn't stay around long. And I think my house has been somehow marked because I see them across the street. I see them next door, but they don't come to my house anymore. And I mean, I've seen them out there. several times over the past few years. In fact, just a few weeks ago. And they don't come to my house anymore. I'd be glad to talk to them again, but that's probably not going to happen. But I don't know what the outcome of my discussion with this man was. I don't know if they are still in the grip of Satan or not. He made no acknowledgement of agreement to me. But when we move through this study, you're going to see I posed him some questions that he could not answer. And he knew it wasn't kind of a gotcha thing, but he just knew that I had him. The Lord, I believe, had him. And he got out of there as quick as he could. Well, a few months ago, I was down here in Bessemer filling up my car. And a man came up to me while I was putting gas in. And he had a track Watchtower magazine and he offered it to me. And I began to talk to him. And I went along the same line that I'm going to discuss with you tonight. He said he would get back. I gave him my telephone number. I told him to think about the things we talked about. I wasn't trying to I'd be ugly to him. I really wanted him to be able to know the truth about Jesus Christ. And he said he would call me. Well, he didn't. So, whatever that is worth. But I would suggest this as a line of thought. And I can give you copies of this if you'd like to have it to study at a later time. The first thing I believe you have to do with Jehovah's Witness, or anybody else for that matter, is to settle the question of authority. What is your authority? What are you basing your belief on? And if a person says, well, I just like to think of God as Well, that's nothing. I mean, so what? What does it matter what you think of God? You have to have some authority. And that's where the issue comes. So, the Bible is our authority, but then which Bible? And Jehovah's Witness, it's especially challenging to deal with them because they have their own translation. And what I'm holding here is the New World Translation of the Holy Scriptures. This was put together in 1950 by a committee, and the committee had bias in its translation that Jesus Christ could not be God. So they made an effort in this translation to go through and change the Greek text so that where the Greek text was very clear, they would change the wording so that this translation would not say actually that Jesus is God. But they missed a lot of places. And what I did some many years ago now, I took the time to read through this, looking for text, and I found a bunch of them. So they took the ones that are probably the most well-known and popular, and change those, but they still miss quite a few. This is an aside, not in my notes, but John chapter 5 is Jesus' sermon on his deity. And I would suggest you read it with that in mind sometimes. And they didn't get that either. The things that Jesus claims for himself can only be true of God. But that's my aside. The examples, I'm going to give you several examples of where they, this New World Translation. And I'm comparing it to the New King James, but I've got I've got a whole bunch of other translations in my notes here. But the worst place is John chapter one, if you want to You can find these verses in John chapter 1. I'm reading out of the New World Translation. In the beginning the Word was, and the Word was with God, and the Word was a God. What does your translation say? My translation, New King James, says, In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. And literally, the Greek says, And God was the Word. The Greek syntax doesn't match up with English, but you take a literal word for word in the Greek, and God was the Word. And in my notes, I've got all of these Greek I want to put this up on sermon audio. All of these files will be there. I'm not going to try to read them all to you tonight. In John 1 verse 14, the New World Translation says, So the Word became flesh and resided among us, and we had a view of His glory, a glory such as belongs to Ann, A-N, an only begotten Son from a Father, and He was full of undeserved kindness and truth." I hope you picked this up. You can't be an... What's an? An is one of several. You can't be an only begotten. So, the New King James says, "...and the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, the glory of Thee only." begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth." So those are subtleties, but nevertheless, John 3.16, New World Translation, "...for God loved the world so much that He gave His only begotten Son..." Now, they missed this one, see? He's not an only begotten Son. Now He's His only begotten Son. "...in order that every one exercising faith in Him might not be destroyed." but have everlasting life. And you know, I don't have to read you John 3.15. Colossians 2.9, New World Translation, Because it is in him that all the fullness of the divine quality dwells bodily. New King James, Colossians 2.9, for in him dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily. So they didn't mess that one up too bad. Now here is my test verse for any Bible translation. And my goodness, I don't know how many there are now, but I probably got 20 in my library. I'm not counting some that's on my computer that are not in hard print on my shelves. But here's my Shibboleth. This is my test verse. Hebrews 1.8. New World Translation says, but with reference to the Son, God is your throne forever. And the scepter of your kingdom is the scepter of uprightness. New King James reads, but to the Son, he says, your throne, O God, is forever and ever." And who's addressing whom here? Your throne, O God, or God is your throne. So that's a huge difference. Some other translations, the King James says, "...but unto the Son he saith, Thy throne, O God, is forever and ever." New American Standard, same thing. You know, the same thing amplified the same. So all of the what I would call our standard English translations are pretty safe. And here's the here's the thing, I think, that got the man in the driveway so upset. I was given a lot of liberty when I was speaking to him. I make no boast in this, but I think something was going on there. Hebrews 1.6 says, the New World Translation translates this, and in the context it's speaking about the Son, about Christ. The New World Translation says, and let all God's angels worship Him. Wait a minute. We worship Jehovah. We don't worship anything else. So even the New World Translation says the angels worship God. So my approach there was if Jesus is merely a God, little g, lowercase g, then he's not due any more worship than any other God, lowercase g. And if Jesus is not to be worshipped as the unique expression of God the Father, the Word, then He's not to be worshipped at all. But your translation says the angels worship Him. Now, would God the Father command the angels to worship Him if He's not God? So that was my line of thought. All right. Turn to 2 Corinthians chapter 4. And if I have a favorite passage of scripture, this probably is it. I guess it's okay to have favorite passages. And the reason this passage is one of my favorites, if not my favorite, is it talks about Jesus Christ and who He is and His relationship to God the Father and the Holy Spirit. So I'm going to read to you. You read along in whatever translation you have. This is New King James, 2 Corinthians 4, verse 1. Therefore, since we have this ministry, as we have received mercy, we do not lose heart, but we have renounced the hidden things of shame, not walking in craftiness nor handling the word of God deceitfully, but by manifestation of the truth, commending ourselves to every man's conscience in the sight of God. But even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled to those who are perishing, whose mind the God of this age has blinded, who do not believe, lest the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ who is the image of God, should shine on them. For we do not preach ourselves but Christ Jesus the Lord and ourselves your bondservants for Jesus' sake. For it is the God who commanded light to shine out of darkness who has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. But we have this treasure in earthen vessels. that the excellence of the power may be of God and not of us. I want to look more closely at this passage of scripture, and I want to bring out three main lessons. There are many lessons here. But one is the authority of the scriptures. Two is the doctrine of revelation. And three, the glory of God is proclaimed in Jesus Christ. So, in verse 1, we don't quit. In verse 2, we don't deceive. Verse 3 tells us why falsehood is successful. Verse 4 tells us where truth is found. In verse 5, that we preach Jesus is God. Verse 6, the power of the Creator to reveal Himself. And verse 7, that God is God, and we're not God. That's just some ideas from those verses. Back to verse 2, the authority of the Scriptures. If the Word of God is not final, authoritative, and sufficient, why would it matter how you handled it? You see that in craftiness, nor handling the Word of God deceitfully. So, you have to settle in your heart and mind what is your authority. What are you basing your belief system on? And I suggest that the Bible, We don't worship paper and ink, but the Bible is the word of God. And that's what we must stand on. I mentioned, I think, the New Age movement. It's still out there. They have this silly thing of your truth and my truth, and they may be different, but they're both truth. And they may be opposite, but they're both true. That's nonsense. And then you move into post-modernism. And the cardinal rule of post-modernism is no judgment. You make no moral judgments. I've actually heard people interviewed that would not say that Hitler was an evil man. Well, I didn't know Hitler. I've read the history. I know what he did. Something's wrong with a person's mind when they think like that. But they've been brought along. I know I mentioned this in previous studies, but one of the most successful movie series was the Star Wars series. And as these people went to alien planets, Star Trek. The cardinal rule was you make no moral judgments. No matter what those life forms were doing, you make no moral judgment. Well, one of the more popular television shows, Jerry Seinfeld, I know I mentioned this the other night, but one of the most used lines on Jerry Seinfeld's show is not that there's anything wrong with that. No matter what would come up, One of the characters would say, not that there's anything wrong with that. No moral judgments. So that's how people get these ideas in their head. They don't know where they come from, but all of a sudden they're walking around thinking, well, I don't make any moral judgments. I shouldn't do that. So, with the Jehovah's Witness, you talk about translations. But I've shown you that even their translation, you can prove the deity of Jesus Christ using their own translation, if you take the time to do it. You have the doctrine of revelation. What do I mean by that? The truth of God is a revealed truth. Matthew 11, verse 25, I'll read it to you. At that time, Jesus answered and said, I thank you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that you have hidden these things from the wise and prudent and have revealed them to babes. Revealed. Even so, Father, for so it seemed good in your sight, all things have been delivered to me by my Father, and no one knows the Son except the Father, nor does anyone know the Father except the Son, and the one to whom the Son wills to reveal Him. So how do you know anything that's true about Jesus Christ? It's by revelation by the Son Himself. That's how you know anything that's true about Jesus Christ. Somewhere in my notes, I've got in the margin here, you see the Son, the star of our solar system in its own light. You see the Son of God, the S-O-N, in His own light. He reveals Himself. Well, it continues. Then He says, Come to Me. Knowledge of Christ is a revelation. Then He invites you to come. Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me. For I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light." That's the authority, the revelation. And the glory of God is proclaimed in Jesus the Christ. What is glory? And where is the glory of God to be found? There's three words in this verse 6 that I'll deal with. Knowledge, faith, and glory. Knowledge, faith, and glory. Three important words. The word knowledge, the Greek word is gnosis, and that particular word that's translated knowledge in English, that Greek word has a specific meaning, and it is a spiritual truth that which is known That which is known is important to the one who knows it. There's a lot of thought conveyed in these particular words. So it's not only that you know something, what you know is important to you. It has some real meaning. There's an active relationship between the one who knows and that knowledge. For it is the God who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, who has shone in our heart to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. And this is not in my notes either, but it's an important point. Here there is a comparison to the creation of the world, the creation of the universe, to that knowledge given to you of Christ. That's powerful. What power did it take to create everything? That's the same power. So that's the word knowledge. The word face, the Greek word is prosopon, and it means the presence of a person. It's the person himself, and the reason it's translated face is because the face expresses the mind. Some people are pretty good at hiding their feelings, but not many of us are. So if you're upset, it shows. If you're happy, it shows. Your face reveals things about you. It gives the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face, in the person of Jesus Christ. That's how you know anything about God. It's in Jesus Christ. You see that? That's in the person of Christ. Now, here's a word that the first time I saw this, I had to stop and look at it two or three times and go back and check some other Greek references because I thought, this is too simple. Glory. That word's all through the Bible. Glory. What does it mean? What's the word glory mean? Sometimes it is a brilliant eminence. Sometimes. But the basic word is doxa. We get the word doxology. And primarily it means an opinion. I checked Mr. Vines on this and I had to check Mr. Strong and a few others. Mr. Fawcett. These are all Greek commentaries. And they were consistent. So the glory of God The basic word is the opinion. So how does that tie in? Well, what is your opinion of Jesus Christ? What's the glory? The higher your opinion, the more glory. So it's a perfectly good word. Perfectly good way to understand glory. Well, I checked the Old Testament. The word for glory is kabod. And basically, that word means weight. The hippies were right. Man, that's heavy. Some of you old enough to remember the hippies. That was one of the things they went around and said, man, that's heavy. Do you hear something? Well, that's kabod. So the Old Testament was similar in that thought. We have truth. We have knowledge. We have revealed in the face, in the person of Jesus Christ. We have the glory, the opinion of God, found in the person of Christ, in His face. That's the word, face, means in His person. Jesus of Nazareth is God. And that's what the Scriptures are very clear about. There are many passages that we could use. I've got one that I use all the time that deals with who is Jesus Christ. You can turn it if you choose, but in Isaiah 6, Isaiah chapter 6 and then John chapter 12. In Isaiah 6, in the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord sitting on a throne, high and lifted up, and the train of His robe filled the temple. Above it stood seraphim, each one had six wings. With two He covered His face, with two He covered His feet, and with two He flew. And one cried to another and said, Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts, the whole earth is full of His glory. Isaiah said, I saw this, I saw God. John chapter 12, in the context, John is writing about Jesus Christ, Jesus of Nazareth. In verse 37, But although he had done so many signs before them, they did not believe in him, that the word of Isaiah, the prophet might be fulfilled which he spoke, Lord, who has believed our report, and to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed? Therefore they could not believe, because Isaiah said again, and he has blinded their eyes and hardened their hearts, lest they should see with their eyes, lest they should understand with their hearts and turn, so that I should heal them. These things Isaiah said when they saw his glory and spoke of him. John, in context, is talking about Jesus. And he says here, what Isaiah saw is God and it's Jesus. I think that's pretty powerful. In the New World Translation, I guess they weren't something enough to figure that out, and they left it alone. So it's right there in their own Bible. There are several other places where Jesus accepted worship. They fell down before Him, they worshipped Him. In no case did He say, don't do that. John in the Apocalypse did. And Peter did. I'm a man of like passions, get up. But Jesus never told them to stop worshiping Him. And you can find references in John chapter 9, Luke 24, and places like that. So, I asked this man, you don't worship Jesus now? No. I said, will you ever? No. I said, well, you better read your Bible in Philippians 2.11, because your Bible says you will. You may not do it now, but you will. One day you'll bow, and you'll confess, and you'll worship Jesus Christ. So, many other places, I've got more notes here, but I'm getting hot. I know you are. Jesus Christ came into the world to save sinners. He does that through his substitution on the cross. It's by revelation from God that you see your personal guilt and just condemnation. It's by grace through faith alone that you have the ability to believe in Jesus as the Christ. And if you add your works, Jehovah's Witness or anybody else, if you add your works to that, you're condemning yourself. You're rejecting the sufficiency of Jesus Christ. Trust the Bible. A good translation. And there are many good translations. This is just a personal note. I'm leaning really strong now to the English Standard Version. I'm going to have to do something with this old book here one of these days. It's fallen apart and there's not enough book tape and stuff to keep it. The pages are sticking together. In 40 years, I've only had to change Bibles one time. And I hate to do it again, because all these things on these notes had to be moved to the new Bible. But anyway, you have any comment?