Bridge of Reason

The Paschal Lamb Jehovah's Witnesses have just sat and watched as the memorial meal passes them by, excluding them from the kingdom, separate from Christ, strangers to the covenant of promise, having no hope (Eph.2:12). This coming weekend I am sure they will take every opportunity to tell you our Easter celebrations are pagan and wrong. I hope this article from the archives helps you speak intelligently and biblically in your conversations. If you have encountered Jehovah’s Witnesses at all leading up to the Easter period they may well have been eager to explain to you why they don’t celebrate Easter. The Watchtower website features an article explaining  why Jehovah's Witnesses don't celebrate Easter.  There is also a link to an article explaining  what the Bible says about Easter. Their explanations might, at first glance, look plausible. You might imagine someone doing a book study and hearing these things for the first time being given pause for thought. A close...

Each year I receive an invite from the Jehovah’s Witnesses to the ‘annual commemoration of the death of Jesus Christ’. Known as ‘The Memorial Meal’, Jehovah’s Witnesses and invited guests, gather ‘to remember what he did in giving his life for us’. This year (2021) will be slightly different. Due to the Covid lockdown restrictions, the observance will be held virtually via Zoom. Though the location of those gathered will be different, the content of the meeting will not have changed whatsoever. In my next few articles, we will begin to consider the Why? What? and Who? of the Memorial Meal. WHY? The purpose of the Lord’s Evening Meal is to remember Jesus, showing our gratitude for his sacrifice in our behalf. ( Matthew 20:28;  1 Corinthians 11:24 ) [1] Keep doing this in remembrance of me. 1 Cor.11:24 The Jehovah’s Witnesses get this part right. They, just as the Christian Church has done throughout its history, gather to remember what Jesus did. Jesus gave his life...

There is something ugly about the prophesies of the cults. I don’t mean the fact that they raise people’s hopes only to dash them. We have seen this all too often. I mean the way these prophesies detract people from what really matters, so what really matters catches us napping. We have all seen the lists of failed and altered Watchtower prophesies . The Mormon Church has its own problems in the failed and altered prophesies of Joseph Smith . It is an ugly business. The Christian Church has form when it comes to false prophecy , from the Montanists, through the Anabaptists, to some of today’s Charismatic/Restorationist leaders. Charismatic Christians have recently had to deal with an abundance of false prophesies, with some self-styled prophets issuing apologies and taking flak for doing it. A whole industry has grown around the apocalyptic, From Hal Lindsey’s much revised The Late Great Planet Earth, to the Tim LaHaye and Jerry Jenkins’ Left Behind books. It is miraculous that th...

  What does ‘a different gospel’ look like? Paul, in his letter to the churches in Galatia, is ‘astonished’ that they had turned so readily to a different gospel (Gal.1:6-9) In a letter to Corinth he writes: If someone comes and proclaims another Jesus than the one we proclaimed, or if you receive a different spirit from the one you received, or if you accept a different gospel from the one you accepted, you put up with it readily enough.’ (2 Cor.11:4) This different gospel uses the same language, references the same familiar ideas as the genuine. We know that our first task in a discussion is to define terms, find out what someone understands by the language they use. A different Jesus still goes by that name. The Mormon Jesus, however, is not Immanuel, God with us (Mt.1:23) but literally our elder brother from a premortal existence, the brother of Lucifer. The Watchtower Jesus is not our Creator (Col.1:15-19) but another creature, a premortal angel, and ‘the greatest man whoe...

One of the valuable lessons I learned early in my life is, a man who does a lot of explaining has usually got a lot of explaining to do. It is often a sign someone is trying to excuse or justify something, and the more they ‘explain’ the less plausible they sound. Haven’t you ever listened to someone ‘explaining’ and thought, ‘Come on, it cant be that complicated?’ I am not saying some things, like some Scripture passages, don’t need some unpacking, but we all know the Scripture reading principle: the main things are the plain things and the plain things are the main things. The cults, of course, have their explanations all lined up and they are prepared to ‘explain’ their position at some length. This is where plain and contextualised Bible reading and understanding are so important. Jehovah’s Witnesses will tell you God’s name at the drop of a hat. They will have their explanations lined up, their proof texts ready, and will explain the importance of knowing God’s name. They wil...

  We humans know that we could be much more than we ordinarily are. But what is this? What potential do we have that we could develop more fully? And who could tell us what this potential is? There is a body of knowledge that answers these questions. It provides theory, practice, and techniques that enable us to free ourselves from the limitations of ordinary life and achieve greater happiness, wisdom, and peace. This knowledge has gone by many names: the Ancient Wisdom, the perennial philosophy, the wisdom tradition. Because it is universally true, it is found all over the world, but it takes many different forms, depending upon the time and circumstances and the people it is addressing. One version of this Ancient Wisdom in recent times is Theosophy. [1]   The name Theosophy derives from two Greek words. Theos meaning ‘god’ and Sophia meaning wisdom, so Theosophy literally means ‘divine wisdom’. It is an eclectic mix of beliefs drawn from philosophy, mysticism, and vari...