Bridge of Reason

You have left a cult, or you are helping someone come out; so what comes next? The apostle Paul wrote to the church in Corinth: 'But I, brothers, could not address you as spiritual people, but as people of the flesh, as infants in Christ. I fed you with milk, not solid food, for you were not ready for it.' 1 Cor.3:1,2 There is a process of growth every Christian needs if they are to come to full maturity in Christ. The same is true for Christians coming out of cults. What are stages of this growth? How might we think about, and identify where people are in this process of sanctification? How are we to help them move on and grow further, from the milk to the meat? Recorded at the Reachout Trust Conference, September, 2024.  

  Telling the truth means you don’t need to remember what you've said before is a valuable expression to note as it can help us to separate the lies from the truth.   The Watchtower is famous for the vast amounts of literature and information it pumps out to its members.   In recent years the number of written items has reduced, being replaced by visual media mostly on JW Broadcasting, but the sheer volume seems to be remaining the same.  This can sometimes result in slip ups in what pronouncements are made by the Governing Body. During the recent 2024 Annual Meeting of the Jehovah’s Witnesses (available for viewing on JW Broadcasting) an announcement was made, by the Governing Body member Gerrit Losch, that two new members were being added to the Governing Body.   Those new members are Jode Jedele and Jacob Rumph who are both somewhat younger than most of the present members of the body, Rumph now being the youngest at 52.   Losch welcomed these new me...

  The June 2022 Watchtower Article 24 titled “ Jehovah—The Greatest Forgiver ” attempts to paint a picture of Jehovah as a wise, just, and knowledgeable judge – which, of course He is.  However, it also shows Him as a judge who has a number of requirements before He will forgive.  The article quotes numerous Old Testament scriptures showing that Jehovah will forgive our transgressions and agrees that this forgiveness is made possible through Jesus dying for our sins, though it doesn’t mention the covenant this sacrifice generated. As Christians we would understand that Jesus’ sacrifice, the shedding of His blood, pays for our sins so that a just God can be merciful and forgive them; the price for those sins has already been paid (1 Cor 6 v 20, Heb 9 v 22). In contrast, the Watchtower article talks of there being other requirements for Jehovah’s forgiveness.  It states that, before Jehovah will decide to offer forgiveness, “ He needs to be able to consider...

Could you agree that it is possible that God would ever require you to believe something to be true that is actually false, on pain of Him irrevocably destroying you?  Titus 1 v 2 (amongst other scriptures) would tell us that God cannot lie and Proverbs 12 v 22 (amongst other scriptures) would tell us that God hates a liar.  So, it would seem inconceivable that He would require us, on pain of death, to believe a lie.  But, this is exactly what the Governing Body of the Watchtower Society teaches, even though they may not put it in that way, or even realise that they teach it.    It is a matter of record that, since its inception in the late 1800s, the Watchtower Society has never got all its doctrine correct at any one time, it has always taught something that later turned out to be false.  By 'false' I mean something that has had to be 'clarified' under their 'brighter light' policy taken from Proverbs 4 v 18.  And by 'clarified' I mean completely cha...

  As a rule, I tend to avoid the subject of the Trinity when talking with Jehovah’s Witnesses.   The reason being that it is such a big subject and one to which they are so vehemently opposed.   Their rejection of the doctrine is one of the few teachings that has made it through the decades from the very early days of the organisation. Additionally, they have been taught so many untruths about the Trinity idea by the Watchtower that one has to wade through them before even beginning to put forward the Biblical evidence They have been taught that the doctrine is confusing and that Jehovah is not a God of confusion, quoting 1 Cor 14 v 33 as proof.   This argument is a complete fallacy as we are not saying God ‘invented’ the Trinity, it’s just what is; if we find it confusing then that’s our problem not God’s mistake! The doctrine can be found in the Bible today, but you have to have a certain mindset to understand how it can be so – three separate persons yet still...

  I have a copy of the Berean Bible Teachers Manual, with the King James Bible, dated 1921. It gives, ‘Verse-by-verse comments on the entire Bible, condensed from The WatchTower, from Studies in the Scriptures, etc.’ It goes on to explain: ‘These brief comments by C J Woodworth are claimed to faithfully represent the fuller presentations of the six volumes of Studies in the Scriptures.’ The ‘etc.’ above includes comments from, ‘The Hell Pamphlet, Tabernacle Shadows, and the Spiritism Pamphlet, Zion’s Watch Tower, September 1879, a 1907 newspaper report of a sermon by Charles Russell, a 1905 Theology Quarterly, and discourses on the Chart of the Ages.’ It is incredibly well organised, its reference system clear. You may go from a Bible reference, as you would in any concordance, to a brief comment taken from one of the above publications, and if you have those publications, you may be sent to the right pages to read the context. Set alongside a set of Studies in the Scriptures, ...