Contents

Matthew 5:5

Matthew 6:7

Matthew 11:11

Matthew 24:36

Mark 13:32

John 1:18

John 2:19-21

John 4:34

John 6:68-69

John 8:42

John 10:17-18

John 20:17

Acts 2:24

Acts 8 :30-31

Acts 15:2-4

Acts 24:25

Matthew 5:5

Blessed are the meek: for they shall inherit the earth. (KJV)

"This verse proves there is a class of Christians who will reside forever upon the earth instead of going to heaven," a Jehovah's Witness may assert. When confronted with this argument by a JW acquaintance, a reader in Illinois wrote me asking how to answer, since he did not find Matthew 5:5 discussed in my first book Jehovah's Witnesses Answered Verse by Verse. I had to tell him that the verse was not considered there because the Watchtower organization does not interpret it that way. His friend had actually contradicted the organization's interpretation, which declares that "JesusŠis the principal Inheritor of the earth" and that heaven-bound "'joint heirs with Christ"Šwill share in Jesus' inheritance of the earth." (The Watchtower February 1, 1978, page 29) So, even the JW leadership admits that Matthew 5:5 applies principally to persons going to heaven. However, since some sect members mistakenly use the verse as did this Witness in Illinois, I am including these points here.

An ordinary human king can inherit a realm to rule over without having to reside there. For example, at the height of the British Empire a newly crowned sovereign inherited rulership over Canada, India, and African colonies, but ruled them from a throne in England. Similarly, the meek "inherit the earth" as joint heirs with Christ in his heavenly kingship.

Jehovah's Witnesses who understand this may still turn to Matthew 5:5 and argue, "What point would there be in Christ and his heavenly joint heirs ruling over an empty planet? There must be human inhabitants who will live forever on earth." In responding to this argument we need not pretend to know all the details of God's future plans for this planet--just the clear message of the New Testament that Christians will end up with Christ, where he is, to behold his glory. (John 17:24) The resurrected and glorified Christ appeared many times on earth, even enjoying a seaside meal of cooked fish, so Christians raised to heavenly life in his image might be expected to have similar access to the earthly realm of the heavenly Kingdom.

Thus, Matthew 5:5 offers no biblical basis for claiming as JWs do that followers of Christ would be divided into classes with two different hopes--some earthly and some heavenly. The Bible sets out "one hope" for believers. (Ephesians 4:4)

Matthew 6: 7

But when ye pray, use not vain repetitions, as the heathen do: for they think that they shall be heard for their much speaking. (KJV)

Taking this this as a command to avoid repeating the same words in prayer, Jehovah's Witnesses avoid reciting the Lord's Prayer found in verses 9-13. When Christians do employ the Lord's Prayer in church services or private worship, JWs condemn them as violators of Jesus' instructions at Matthew 6:7.

However, if you become a regular attender at JW Kingdom Hall meetings and pay close attention to the prayers uttered there--almost exclusively at the opening and close of meetings, since prayer does not usually form part of the service itself--you will note that some of the men there also repeat the same words whenever it is their turn to pray. They avoid the Lord's Prayer, but their own words are recited repetitively. Most of those praying publicly at Kingdom Hall do indeed make a conscious effort to vary their expressions, but the individuals who repeat themselves each time are tolerated, whereas someone who repeated the Lord's prayer would be rebuked.

Is it wrong to pray using the words, "Our Father which art in heaven, Hallowed by thy name," and so on? Hardly, because Jesus introduced those words by saying, "This, then, is how you should prayŠ" (Matthew 6:9 NIV) He did not give those words to instruct us how not to pray, but rather to show how we should pray.

True, repeating the "Our Father" over and over again in a monotone while counting Rosary beads might fall into the category of "vain repetitions"--especially if the person praying expects to acquire merit through the number of repetitions. (Compare verse 7.) Yet prayers were recorded in the Psalms, evidently for use in worship over and over again. And we are told that in the garden of Gethsemane the Lord "went away again, and prayed the third time, saying the same words." (Matthew 26:44) So, there is no basis in Scripture for the JW condemnation of reciting the Lord's Prayer.

Matthew 11:11

I tell you the truth: Among those born of women there has not risen anyone greater than John the Baptist; yet he who is least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he. (NIV)

Jehovah's Witnesses conclude from this verse that John will "not be in heaven with Jesus" but "will instead be an earthly subject of God's Kingdom." (The Watchtower January 1, 1987, page 17) From this they go on to argue that only 144,000 go to heaven, while all other believers share with John an earthly destiny.

However, examined alone without Watchtower commentary, Jesus' words about John carry no such implication. The Lord simply contrasts John, as the last and greatest prophet under the Old Covenant, with those who would come under the New Covenant. He does not show that there would be an earthly class of believers, but rather that the New Covenant is superior to the Old Covenant. (Compare Hebrews 2:18-24.) John the Baptist was "born of woman," but those in the New Covenant are "born of the Spirit" (John 3:6 KJV) and are therefore greater.

Matthew 24:36

No-one knows about that day or hour, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father. (NIV)

Jehovah's Witnesses use this verse to argue against the doctrine of the Trinity and to support their teaching that the Father alone is God while the Son is the first angel God created and the Holy Spirit is a mere impersonal force, like electricity, that God uses to accomplish his will.

Before attempting to answer them on their misuse of this verse, we should first note a fundamental difference between Jehovah's Witnesses and Christians: They feel that they can neatly fit all known facts about God into a simple framework of clearly-stated beliefs, while we recognize much about God to be beyond our limited human understanding and comprehension.

We know the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit personally and intimately as a little child knows and trusts its parents, but we are also like that little child in its inability to grasp fully the relationship between its father and mother--how their sexual union makes them "one flesh," the principles of husbandly headship and wifely subjection, the legal and emotional aspects of the marriage bond, and so on. Similarly, how one of the Persons of the Godhead can know something and another not know is beyond our minds to understand. And if it is beyond our grasp, how much more so is it beyond the comprehension of Jehovah's Witnesses! ("The man without the Spirit does not accept the things that come from the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him, and he cannot understand them, because they are spiritually discerned."--1 Corinthians 2:14, NIV)

When we offer the possible explanation that the Son may not have known "that day or hour" because he was speaking in his human incarnation, the Witness may shoot back the challenge, "But why does the holy spirit [sic] not know?"--a question prompted by the JW handbook Reasoning from the Scriptures, page 426.

While we can freely acknowledge that it may be beyond our human brain capacity to grasp how one member of the Godhead can know something and another not know--and that we can know only the details God chooses to reveal to us in human terms--we can also offer this possible explanation: Namely, that Jesus was taking it for granted that the Holy Spirit knows everything the Father knows. The JW New World Translation says at 1 Corinthians 2:10-11 that "the spirit searches into all things, even the deep things of God," and that "no one has come to know the things of God, except the spirit of God."

By the way, notice that the verse says, "no oneŠexcept the spirit of God." So the Holy Spirit is someone, rather than some thing. (If you ask people to fill in the blank in a sentence such as, "No one knows my address except ________," they would fill in the blank with someone's name--not with an impersonal thing like a book or a computer.) So, by saying, "No oneŠexcept the spirit," the New World Translation reveals that the Holy Spirit is someone!

However, rather than trying to puzzle out why Jesus said he did not know the day and hour, a more important question for Jehovah's Witnesses to consider is why their leaders falsely claimed to know the time of Christ's return, falsely prophesying about the years 1914, 1918, 1925, 1975, and so on.

See the discussion of Mark 13:32 and Revelation 1:1.

Mark 13:32

"Concerning that day or the hour nobody knows, neither the angels in heaven nor the Son, but the Father." (Watchtower Society's New World Translation)

Jehovah's Witness argue that Jesus could not be God if only the Father knew the hour of Christ's return, but the Son did not know. However, this argument is false.

First of all, Scripture plainly states that, like the Father, Jesus too knows "all things." (John 16:30; 21:17 NW) So, he is not inferior to the Father in knowledge.

Secondly, whether we agree with them or not, the Witnesses themselves teach that the Father voluntarily chooses not to know certain future events. ("Selective foreknowledge means that God could choose not to foreknow indiscriminately all the future acts of his creatures."--Insight on the Scriptures, p. 853) If JWs claim that to be true, then it implies that Jesus also could choose not to know the exact time of his coming--without in any way being inferior to the Father. So, the Witnesses cannot use Mark 13:32 as an argument against the deity of Christ without contradicting their own teachings about the Father.

See also the discussion of Matthew 24:36 and Revelation 1:1.

John 1:18

No man hath seen God at any time; the only begotten Son, which is in the bosom of the Father, he hath declared him. (John 1:18 KJV)

JWs say that Jesus is not God because no man has seen God, but men saw Jesus. In saying this, however, they miss the point of John 1:18. Here the term God is used in a restrictive sense in reference to the Father--just as it is used in reference to the Son at Isaiah 9:6. Context at Isaiah 9:6 reveals that God in that verse is the "child" who is born, the "son" who is given, yet this cannot be used to prove that the Father is not God. So, the fact that the title God is used specifically of the Father at certain other verses--such as John 1:18--cannot be used as an argument against the deity of Christ. It is the Father who "no man has ever seen." (NIV) The words at John 1:18 roughly parallel those of John 6:46, "No-one has seen the Father except the one who is from God; only he has seen the Father. (NIV)

When discussing John 1:18, JWs would be more correct to say that Jesus is not the Father because no man has seen the Father, but men saw Jesus. Elsewhere, however, Jesus explains that seeing him is equivalent to seeing the Father. "Jesus answered: "Don't you know me, Philip, even after I have been among you such a long time? Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say, `Show us the Father'?" (John 14:9, NIV).

See also the discussion of Exodus 33:20.

John 2:19-21

Jesus answered them, "Destroy this temple, and I will raise it again in three days." The Jews replied, "It has taken forty-six years to build this temple, and you are going to raise it in three days?" But the temple he had spoken of was his body. (John 2:19-21, NIV).

This verse is particularly useful in proving the bodily resurrection of Christ, a doctrine JWs deny.

Please see the discussions of Acts 2:24, 1 Corinthians 15:45 and 1 Peter 3:18.

John 4:34

"My food," said Jesus, "is to do the will of him who sent me and to finish his work. (NIV)

When arguing against the deity of Christ, Jehovah's Witnesses point out that he was sent by the Father. Obviously, it is a lesser one who is sent by a greater one, they continue, so Christ must be inferior to God the Father. Their argument is specious, however, because the same line of reasoning could be used to "prove" Jesus inferior to King Herod and his soldiers: "Then Herod and his soldiers ridiculed and mocked him. Dressing him in an elegant robe, they sent him back to Pilate." (Luke 23:11 NIV) They, too, sent Christ. Yet, in his humanity, Christ was their equal. So, the fact that Jesus was sent by the Father does not in any way rule out his equality with the Father.

See also the discussion of 1 Corinthians 15:23-28 and the discussion of 1 Corinthians 11:3 in Jehovah's Witnesses Answered Verse by Verse.

John 6:68-69

Lord, whom shall we go away to? You have sayings of everlasting life; and we have believed and come to know that you are the Holy One of God. (NW)

The Watchtower Society freely applies this passage to itself, interpreting Scripture as saying that JWs dare not leave the Brooklyn-based organization:

"Šthe record that the 'faithful and discreet slave' organization has made for the past more than 100 years forces us to the conclusion that Peter expressed when Jesus asked if his apostles also wanted to leave him, namely, 'Whom shall we go away to?" (John 6:66-69) No question about it. We all need help to understand the Bible, and we cannot find the Scriptural guidance we need outside the 'faithful and discreet slave' organization."--The Watchtower February 15, 1981, page 19

'Whom shall we go away to?' No one!, is the Watchtower Society's answer, drilled into each Witness through constant repetition. Our organization is the only way, the only truth, the only life. This view of things makes it very difficult for Jehovah's Witnesses to leave the organization--and very confusing and even frightening for those who do leave.

The verses that the Watchtower Society applies to itself actually apply to Jesus Christ, the Son of God. Jesus is the One the disciples were talking to when they said, "Lord, whom shall we go away to? You have sayings of everlasting life; and we have believed and come to know that you are the Holy One of God." (John 6:68-69 NW) They were not speaking of an organization. And "the Truth" is not an organization, either. Scripture identifies Jesus Himself as "the Way and the Truth and the Life." (John 14:6 Modern Language Bible)

As Witnesses we were taught that people had to "come to Jehovah's organization for salvation" (The Watchtower November 15, 1981, page 21) but Jesus actually said, "No one comes to the Father except through me." (John 14:6) The Society taught us that "accurate knowledge" was the key, but Jesus told the Pharisees, "You are searching the Scriptures, because you think that by means of them you will have everlasting life; and these are the very ones that bear witness about me. And yet you do not want to come to me that you may have life." (John 5:39-40 NW)

So, what is the point? This: The way of salvation that Jesus proclaimed was not through organizational membership or accurate knowledge of the Scriptures--although both of these enter into it. In order to gain life, people had to come to Jesus personally. Under the new covenant there would be no other way to the Father, except through Jesus.

Compare the old covenant arrangement with the Watchtower Society of today. Jews were in a special relationship with God by virtue of being members of the nation of Israel. Similarly, Jehovah's Witnesses are taught that they have a special relationship with God by virtue of association with the Watchtower Society. The Watchtower continues to mirror the old covenant provisions, ignoring the new way of approach to God through Jesus Christ.

God sent His Son to earth to fulfill the "new covenant" prophecy of Jeremiah, chapter 31. Under this new covenant "'they will all of them know me, from the least one of them even to the greatest one of them,' is the utterance of Jehovah. 'For I shall forgive their error, and their sin I shall remember no more.'" (verse 34 NW)

It is each and every Christian's privilege to "know" God through a close, personal relationship with Jesus Christ. No human organization has any business inserting itself into this relationship so as to come between the believer and God. JWs need not fear leaving the Watchtower organization, if they are abandoning that counterfeit way of approach to God in favor of the real thing, Jesus Christ. He invites all such people, "Come to me, all of you who are tired from carrying heavy loads, and I will give you rest." (Matthew 11:28 Today's English Version) "I will never turn away anyone who comes to me." (John 6:37 TEV)

John 8:42

Jesus said unto them, If God were your Father, ye would love me: for I proceeded forth and came from God; neither came I of myself, but he sent me. (John 8:42, KJV).

"How could Jesus be God," a Jehovah's Witness may object, "if he was not acting on his own initiative but was being sent by another?"

Please see the discussion of John 4:34.

John 10:17-18

The reason my Father loves me is that I lay down my life-- only to take it up again. No-one takes it from me, but I lay it down of my own accord. I have authority to lay it down and authority to take it up again. This command I received from my Father." (NIV)

This passage is the best one to turn to when Jehovah's Witnesses argue against the bodily resurrection of Christ by saying that he could not take back the value of the sacrifice he made for our sins--that is, the body that he laid down in sacrifice.

The Watchtower Society teaches, "Having given up his flesh for the life of the world, Christ could never take it again and become a man once more. For that basic reason his return could never be in the human body that he sacrificed once for all time." (You Can Live Forever in Paradise on Earth, page 143)

In the scripture passage above, however, Christ himself says that it was his life that he lay down as a ransom sacrifice to pay for mankind's sin, and that he indeed had authority to "lay it down and authority to take it up again."

See also the discussions of Acts 2:24, 1 Corinthians 15:45 and 1 Peter 3:18.

John 20:17

Jesus said, "Do not hold on to me, for I have not yet returned to the Father. Go instead to my brothers and tell them, `I am returning to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God.'" (NIV)

How can Jesus be God, since he called the Father "my God"? As far as Jehovah's Witnesses are concerned, Jesus' use of the expression "my God" in reference to the Father means that Jesus is not God. To answer them, first explain that there can be structured relationships such as headship among equals. Ask the JW to read Exodus 4:16 (NW), where it says that Moses "will serve as God to" his brother Aaron. Moses' serving as God to Aaron did not change the fact that Moses and Aaron were equals in their humanity. Similarly, the Father and the Son can be equals as to their Deity, with the Father serving as Head or God to the Son.

Next, look at Hebrews 1:10 where the Father calls the Son "Lord." If the Father can call the Son "Lord" without losing the status of being Lord himself, the Son can call the Father "God" without losing the status of being God himself.

Finally, you may want to show the JW what Thomas called Jesus at John 20:28. "Thomas said to him: 'My Lord and my God.'" (NW) So Jesus, too, is called "my God." Even if we can't completely understand Christ's relationship with the Father, we can understand enough to know that we are in the same relationship to Christ as Thomas was, so we too can call him our God.

Acts 2:24

But God raised him from the dead, freeing him from the agony of death, because it was impossible for death to keep its hold on him. (Acts 2:24, NIV).

JWs have been trained to challenge Christians with the question, "If Jesus is God, then how was Jesus dead and God alive at the same time?" Simple logic thus shows that Jesus could not be God, the Witnesses conclude. Actually, though, the sect arrives at this wrong conclusion through a rather complex blend of erroneous teachings on the nature of death, the meaning of the resurrection, and the identity of Christ.

To the JW, (1) Jesus was a human incarnation of Michael the archangel, (2) at death he disappeared into nonexistence, body, soul, and spirit all gone into nothingness without a shred remaining ("God disposed of Jesus' body"--The Watchtower November 15, 1991, page 31--and in Witness theology there is no invisible part of man that lives on after death), and (3) Christ's resurrection consisted of the Father's creating from memory an exact duplicate of Michael the archangel, once again in angelic rather than human form. Obviously the idea of Jesus being God would not be consistent with that scenario. Someone who no longer exists would not be around to perform the act of bringing himself out of nonexistence.

To the Bible-believing Christian, on the other hand, (1) Jesus was a human incarnation of Almighty God ("in him dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily"--Colossians 2:9), (2) it was his body that died on the Cross ("he being put to death in the flesh, but being made alive in the spirit"--1 Peter 3:18 NW), and (3) his resurrection consisted of Christ raising up his own body from the grave, leaving the empty tomb as a witness to his bodily resurrection.

Which scenario fits the Scriptures--t he JW version of events or the Christian version? Jesus promised at John 2:19-21 to do something that a nonexistent Christ could not do: he promised to raise up his own body: "Jesus answered them, 'Destroy this temple, and I will raise it again in three days.' The Jews replied, 'It has taken forty-six years to build this temple, and you are going to raise it in three days?' But the temple he had spoken of was his body." (NIV) Note that Jesus said I will raise it up. So, he could not have gone out of existence between his death and resurrection as the Witnesses believe. Hence the above question JWs raise as a supposed obstacle to Christ's deity is pointless. He had died in the flesh but was alive in the spirit.

Note, too, that the verses quoted above tell us in one place that Jesus raised up his body and in another place that God raised up his body. Since the Bible does not contradict itself, this clearly tells us something about who Jesus is!

See also the discussion of John 10:17-18, Acts 2:24, 1 Corinthians 15:45 and 1 Peter 3:18.

Acts 8:30-31

"Then Philip ran up to the chariot and heard the man reading Isaiah the prophet. "Do you understand what you are reading?" Philip asked. "How can I," he said, "unless someone explains it to me?" So he invited Philip to come up and sit with him." ( NIV)

This passage is a favorite one that Jehovah's Witnesses use to argue for the necessity of their organization with its publishing empire and the many books and magazines. 'How can we understand the Bible,' a Witness will say, 'unless someone explains it to us?' The result of this way of thinking is that JWs remain dependent on the Watchtower Society for their understanding of Scripture.

But is that the biblical pattern? Did the Ethiopian eunuch remain dependent on Philip? Verse 39 says, "And when they were come up out of the water, the Spirit of the Lord caught away Philip, that the eunuch saw him no more: and he went on his way rejoicing." After he was baptized, the eunuch saw Philip no more. He was no longer dependent on someone else for his understanding of the Bible. He had come into the same relationship with God that Philip was in--not a subordinate position like the one JWs are taught to remain in by their leaders.

God used Philip to bring the Gospel message to the Ethiopian, but God did not put Philip in place as a permanent 'channel of communication' that Philip had to obey thenceforth and forever more. The Watchtower Society misuses this biblical account when using it to justify the organization's domination over Jehovah's Witnesses.

Acts 15:2, 4

ŠSo Paul and Barnabas were appointed, along with some other believers, to go up to Jerusalem to see the apostles and elders about this question.ŠWhen they came to Jerusalem, they were welcomed by the church and the apostles and elders, to whom they reported everything God had done through them. (NIV)

"One of the evidences that ours is the true religion," JWs will argue, "is that we have a Governing Body just like the one that directed the first century Christian organization." The account in Acts chapter 15 demonstrates, in the JW interpretation, that Christians worldwide reported their activity to a headquarters in Jerusalem and looked to this headquarters organization for instruction and direction.

The JW interpretation ignores the fact that Paul and Barnabas were sent to Jerusalem to resolve the circumcision issue because the problem originated there. "Some men came down from Judea to Antioch and were teaching the brothers: "Unless you are circumcised, according to the custom taught by Moses, you cannot be saved." (Acts 15:1 NIV) "We have heard that some went out from us without our authorisation and disturbed you, troubling your minds by what they said." (Acts 15:24 NIV) There is no indication in Scripture that Christians worldwide regularly reported to Jerusalem or sent questions there for resolution, as JWs do today with their Brooklyn headquarters offices.

Yet, the JW leaders say this about themselves:

God's visible organization today also receives theocratic guidance and direction. At the headquarters of Jehovah's Witnesses in Brooklyn, New York, there is a governing body of older Christian menŠ

The men of that governing body, like the apostles and older men in Jerusalem, have many years of experience in God's service. But they do not rely on human wisdom in making decisions. No, being governed theocratically, they follow the example of the early governing body in Jerusalem, whose decisions were based on God's Word and were made under the direction of holy spirit.--You Can Live Forever in Paradise on Earth, page 195

Are the members of the JW governing body actually the modern-day successors of the apostles, as this quote implies? Interestingly, the Witness book Reasoning from the Scriptures attacks the doctrine of "apostolic succession" in connection with the Catholic Church, "The doctrine that the 12 apostles have successors to whom authority has been passed by divine appointment," responding forcefully that this is, "Not a Bible teaching." (page 37)

Acts 24:25

As Paul discoursed on righteousness, self-control and the judgment to come, Felix was afraid and said, "That's enough for now! You may leave. When I find it convenient, I will send for you." (NIV)

This verse may prove helpful in refuting the Watchtower teaching that death is simply extinction, nonexistence, with no punishment for the wicked after death. If that were the message Paul was preaching, Felix would not have become "afraid." This Roman procurator of Judea, appointed by emperor Claudius, was certainly acquainted with death and would not have trembled at the thought of his life coming to an end some day. What frightened Felix was the possibility that death would also bring judgment.

He knew where his licentious lifestyle placed him in regard to righteousness and self control. With a Jewish wife, he was also familiar with the punishments meted out under the Law of Moses. What would have been new to Felix was the message about Christ and the coming judgment:

"For if we sin wilfully after that we have received the knowledge of the truth, there remaineth no more sacrifice for sins, But a certain fearful looking for of judgment and fiery indignation, which shall devour the adversaries. He that despised Moses' law died without mercy under two or three witnesses: Of how much sorer punishment, suppose ye, shall he be thought worthy, who hath trodden under foot the Son of God, and hath counted the blood of the covenant, wherewith he was sanctified, an unholy thing, and hath done despite unto the Spirit of grace? For we know him that hath said, Vengeance belongeth unto me, I will recompense, saith the Lord. And again, The Lord shall judge his people. It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God." (Hebrews 10:26-31, KJV).

Such a message would be cause for Felix to become "afraid"--not the prospect of dying without mercy, a fact of life which he was already familiar with, but the "sorer punishment" that he might face after death for rejecting Christ.

For MORE verse-by-verse answers to Jehovah's Witnesses, see Jehovah's Witnesses Answered Verse by Verse by David A. Reed (Grand Rapids, Mich.: Baker Book House) 1986, ISBN 0-8010-7739-7.

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