Essentially their system functions like the Catholic
Magisterium. In fact at the core the issues we have with Rome are functionally
the same. The Governing Body tells you how to interpret the Bible. Bible study
is encouraged but only through the lens of the Governing Body.
The first claim of prophetic continuity must be challenged.
This is a common problem that Biblicists must address when talking to Roman
Catholics, Mormons and Charismatics.
In some cases we're wrestling with historical arguments and
in other cases against bogus claims of latter-day prophets. Authority is the
primary issue.
The case for Cessationism actually rests in the
Redemptive-Historical argument of Hebrews... that Christ Himself is the
ultimate and final Prophet. In the history of God's saving work or redemption
Christ is both the completion and fulfillment of all prophecy and Himself the
final manifestation of Prophet, Priest and King.
The Apostolic ministry is tied directly to the earthly
ministry of Christ. The Apostles were people who were specifically called by
Christ, followed his earthly ministry and saw him resurrected. Paul is the one
exception to this in that he wasn't a follower until after the Resurrection.
The Apostles were commissioned as the Twelve Patriarchs (so
to speak) of the New Israel. Their office and position were foundational and
thus unique.
11 Therefore remember that you, once Gentiles in the flesh—who
are called Uncircumcision by what is called the Circumcision made in the flesh
by hands— 12 that at that time you were without Christ, being
aliens from the commonwealth of Israel and strangers from the covenants of
promise, having no hope and without God in the world. 13 But
now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off have been brought near by the
blood of Christ.
14 For He Himself is our peace, who has made both one, and has
broken down the middle wall of separation, 15 having abolished
in His flesh the enmity, that is, the law of commandments contained
in ordinances, so as to create in Himself one new man from the two, thus
making peace, 16 and that He might reconcile them both to God
in one body through the cross, thereby putting to death the enmity. 17 And
He came and preached peace to you who were afar off and to those who were near.
18 For through Him we both have access by one Spirit to the
Father.
19 Now, therefore, you are no longer strangers and foreigners,
but fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God, 20 having
been built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ Himself
being the chief cornerstone, 21 in whom the whole
building, being fitted together, grows into a holy temple in the Lord, 22 in
whom you also are being built together for a dwelling place of God in the
Spirit.
Christ and the Apostles he commissioned to speak His word by
the power of the Holy Spirit (John 14.26) are the final phase of Biblical
revelation.
John's warning at the end of Revelation of course applies
specifically to the context of that book. However, I would argue that John knew
he was the last Apostle writing the last book of the New Testament canon. The
warning is applicable to the entirety of Scripture. That was the final vision.
The canon is closed. There are no Apostles today. Anyone who claims this title
and authority can be immediately labeled as a false teacher. And there are in
fact many who claim this from the Pope to many pastors.
The Watchtower society will not accept this understanding of
Redemptive-History and thus to help them understand, their 'prophets' have to
be subjected to what we might call the Deuteronomy 18 test.
At this point they fail not only in their multitude of false
predictions but in the fact that they teach doctrines which do not correspond to
Scripture. They have made numerous failed prophecies which they have redacted
in order to make them plausible.
And in terms of following Scripture they (like many) elevate
reason and logic and subjugate the message of Scripture to the parameters of
their own understanding.
Jehovah's Witnesses will spend a great deal of time arguing
for the rational and the common sense. This is an argument of coherence and I
would argue this approach, and it is common in most Christian circles is
actually a flawed one.
God is certainly not a God of chaos. Nevertheless I believe
our knowledge is limited to analogy or what some refer to as correspondence. We
don't judge God's Word according to our notions of systematic integrity and
logical construction. Many do this and are left with something like, 'If it
doesn't make sense to me then it must be wrong. It must mean something else.'
There are a thousand varieties of this which vary in levels
of sophistication. Yet the problem is the same.
We need to keep Isaiah 55 in mind as we approach the
Scripture with notions of coherence. There are many who will strongly reject
what I'm saying here but I think in the end a forcing of coherence will lead
the theology down a rationalist road and in the end an undermining of what
Scripture teaches.*
For Jehovah's Witnesses the Incarnation and its consequent
The Trinity are simply irrational. To this I reply that you cannot say you
submit to the Scripture as God-breathed and subjugate it to the limits of your
understanding. At that point you have enthroned your own reason as the
authority which Scripture must subject itself to.
They won't admit this, but that's what they're doing and it
needs to be reiterated and emphasized.
Finally, show them that they're doing this. Show them that
the Watchtower Society is false in its representation of what the Scripture
teaches.
They reject Christ's Divinity. Show them the Bible clearly
teaches it and in fact in doing so you can begin to show them that the
Scriptures from start to finish are actually about Jesus Christ.
John 5 says:
39 You search the Scriptures, for in them you think you have
eternal life; and these are they which testify of Me. 40 But you are not willing to come to Me that you may have life.
And 2 Corinthians 1 says:
20 For all the promises of God in Him are Yes, and in
Him Amen, to the glory of God through us.
They have a myriad of ways that they can wiggle out of
acknowledging Christ's claims in John 8 or Thomas' declaration in John 20. They
can twist out of Isaiah 9's declaration that the Messiah was indeed God or the prophecy
of Immanuel in Isaiah 7.
And obviously we all know of their perverted Bible
translation which destroys the opportunity to utilize John 1.
But Hebrews 1 presents real problems for them. It quotes Psalm 45 and applies the title of
God to the Son.
8 But to the Son He says: "Your throne, O God, is
forever and ever; A scepter of righteousness is the scepter of Your
Kingdom. 9 You have loved righteousness
and hated lawlessness; Therefore God, Your God, has anointed You With the oil
of gladness more than Your companions."
Finally a simple way to devastate their position is to
demonstrate that Christ is the Alpha and Omega, the First and Last.
Isaiah 44 reads:
6 "Thus says the Lord, the King of
Israel, And his Redeemer, the Lord of hosts: 'I am the First and I am the Last;
Besides Me there is no God. 7 And who
can proclaim as I do? Then let him declare it and set it in order for Me, Since
I appointed the ancient people. And the things that are coming and shall come,
Let them show these to them. 8 Do not
fear, nor be afraid; Have I not told you from that time, and declared it? You
are My witnesses. Is there a God besides Me? Indeed there is no other Rock; I
know not one.' "
Notice the 'witnesses' part. This
is one of their flagship verses. LORD (all caps) in English translations is
Jehovah or YHWH. I think the use of LORD is unfortunate because it masks the
fact that it's a proper name.
Neverthess it's clear the First
and Last is Jehovah.
Revelation 1 says:
12 Then I turned to see the voice that spoke with
me. And having turned I saw seven golden lampstands, 13 and in the midst of the seven lampstands
One like the Son of Man, clothed with a garment down to the feet and girded
about the chest with a golden band. 14
His head and hair were white like wool, as white as snow, and His eyes like a
flame of fire; 15 His feet were like
fine brass, as if refined in a furnace, and His voice as the sound of many
waters; 16 He had in His right hand
seven stars, out of His mouth went a sharp two-edged sword, and His countenance
was like the sun shining in its strength.
17 And when I saw Him, I fell at His feet as dead. But He laid His right
hand on me, saying to me, "Do not
be afraid; I am the First and the Last.
18 I am He who lives, and was dead, and behold, I am alive forevermore.
Amen. And I have the keys of Hades and of Death. 19 Write
the things which you have seen, and the things which are, and the things
which will take place after this. 20 The
mystery of the seven stars which you saw in My right hand, and the seven golden
lampstands: The seven stars are the angels of the seven churches, and the seven
lampstands which you saw are the seven
churches.
The Son of Man, Jesus Christ is the First and the Last or in
Greek the Alpha and Omega. In English that's the equivalent of the A and Z.
He is Jehovah. And to further confuse and confound them
point out that Christ as Jehovah says that he was dead is alive forevermore.
It's not that God died. This is a theological tangle some get into. The issue
is that Christ, the Incarnate Second Person of the Trinity died on the cross.
We would say his Divinity did not 'die' but certainly his humanity did. It's a
bit of a mystery and I'm happy to admit that and in fact would rather leave it
that way than try to dissect it.
For the Unitarian understanding of the Jehovah's Witnesses
it's devastating.
Revelation 21 says:
5 Then He who sat on the throne said, "Behold, I make all things new." And He said to me, "Write, for these words are true and faithful." 6 And He said to me, "It is done! I am the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End. I will give of the fountain of the water of life freely to him who thirsts. 7 He who overcomes shall inherit all things, and I will be his God and he shall be My son.
God enthroned is the Alpha and Omega. As Trinitarians we
understand that when we 'see' God, we're seeing the Son. He is the image of
God. The Incarnation is the Door, the window, the Way we interact with heaven.
We know the Father through the Son and yet both are Jehovah the One God.
It's awesome to ponder.
Revelation 22 says:
12 "And behold, I am coming quickly, and My reward is with Me, to give to every one according to his work. 13 I am the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End, the First and the Last." 14 Blessed are those who do His commandments, that they may have the right to the tree of life, and may enter through the gates into the city. 15 But outside are dogs and sorcerers and sexually immoral and murderers and idolaters, and whoever loves and practices a lie. 16 "I, Jesus, have sent My angel to testify to you these things in the churches. I am the Root and the Offspring of David, the Bright and Morning Star."
Jesus clearly identifies himself once again as the Lord
Jehovah.
You can also point that John is commanded not to worship or
venerate the angels. When he venerates and falls before Christ he is simply
told to 'Fear not'.
This is particularly poignant because the Jehovah's
Witnesses believe Christ is an Archangel.
At this point I would certainly point out to them that just
because we embrace Trinitarianism as the teaching of Scripture it does not
suggest that we necessarily embrace the whole of the Nicene and Post-Nicene
formulation.
What do I mean by this? In the Early Church you see hints of
Trinitarianism especially in the writings of Tertullian who in fact coined the
term Trinitas. Later in light of the Arian Controversy the emperor Constantine
convened the Council of Nicaea. This first Ecumenical Council and the ones that
followed it introduced a host of terms and concepts into the theological lexicon.
Battles were fought over terms like substance and essence, nature and what is a
person? While these are worthwhile discussions to have there are times when the
discussion ranges into the speculative. Even among the Orthodox parties there
was not always agreement.
In the end I'm not sure the Council formulations were all
that edifying or Biblically faithful. The problem as I see it is one of
theological method. Realistically you're probably not going to get into all of
this with a Jehovah's Witness. I think we can say we'd rather just leave the
Trinitarian formula in an undefined form and where Scripture is silent, so are
we.
The Watchtower has a host of other doctrinal problems, some
of which are really quibbles and peculiarities. On a larger scale because they
have not recognized who Christ is they certainly do not grasp the significance
of His work. They have problems with the atonement and resurrection and thus
really have no concept of the Gospel. They certainly cannot be reckoned as
Believers and in their present state have no hope of salvation.
As Annihilationists they do not believe in Eternal
Punishment which is problematic but not their most serious problem.
Once the authority of the organization is destroyed the
Bible will come alive as it were and these various topics can be revisited.
One advantage I have compared to Evangelicals is that I
don't hold to reductionist understanding of the Gospel or Saving Faith. In
addition I can find common cause with them in criticizing the idolizing of the
state, state violence, the apostasy of the age, the introduction of pagan
elements into the Church through holidays etc....
On all these points they (as lost as they are) have
exercised a bit more discernment than the mainstream Church. These doctrines
are by no means peculiar to them. They are in fact ancient and though our
modern Protestant congregations would not like to admit it, they have in many
cases adopted both the Medieval and the Modern and have also deviated from
Scriptural patterns.
The heart of the problem is the Person and Work of Christ.
Once this is grasped the Scriptures come alive and there are real possibilities.
Christ's Person and Work are what give the Bible its authority. Rome, the
Jehovah's Witness and most other false forms of Christianity have established
rival authorities which claim their prerogatives over and above the Scripture
itself. This is the first sign that they have abandoned Christ.
*By rationalist I mean an over-reliance on human reason and
intellect and the ability to find truth through deductive exercise. I'm not
referring to the philosophical school which opposed Empiricism. It is actually
Empiricism in the realm of theology that I am opposing.
And I apologize for the changes in text size. Google Blogger is actually a terrible programme but I found Wordpress to be even worse. By writing these long pieces I'm really pushing the limit on what this programme was meant to do. I spent a good hour trying to get the copy-paste formatting to work. I don't type any of this stuff on the blog site. I paste it in and often it doesn't work well. It's awful. I looked up stuff, contacted people. It's just a nightmare. In the end it's readable and I'm just leaving it.