Bridge of Reason

  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  all the relevant facts&

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 chang

  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 only one God.   Bu

  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, I im

  The Book of Mormon and The Land of Jerusalem The Book of Mormon describes a ‘land of Jerusalem.’ The land of Jerusalem appears about 40 times in the book. It is not found once in the Bible, and that is important. Perhaps the most controversial reference to the land of Jerusalem is in Alma 7 where Alma seeming to foreshadow the role of John the Baptist, saying: ‘Repent ye, and prepare the way of the Lord, and walk in his paths, which are straight; for behold, the kingdom of heaven is at hand, and the Son of God cometh upon the face of the earth. And behold, he shall be born of Mary, at Jerusalem which is the land of our forefathers…’ Alma 7:9,10 Of course, Jesus was born in Bethlehem and not ‘at Jerusalem.’ Where is the land of Jerusalem? Mormons say Alma was written 500 years after Nephi left Jerusalem, that this is entirely consistent with how the Book of Mormon describes places “being in the land” of cities. However, t he people of the Book of Mormon are supposed to be c

  It is popularly believed that Christians, when we go to church, hang our brains up at the door. Yet it is my experience that when I try and engage unbelievers in intelligent conversation about great issues of faith, it is so often they who shut down their thinking, who refuse to intelligently engage. This is because they have already decided faith has nothing to offer by way of intelligent conversation. Of course, this is a poor caricature of faith as being by nature unreasonable, like superstition. You either have it, or you don’t, and who can explain it? It’s rather embarrassing, and who would admit to it? An example I think of is that of creation. However you understand the Bible creation narrative, one thing is certain, the universe had a beginning. Science tells us that space, time, and matter came into being at the same moment. There was nothing, then there was...well, everything. That makes the universe contingent. Think of oak trees. If you see an acorn, you would be forgi