This is what Jehovah says, your Repurchaser, the Holy One of Israel: āI, Jehovah, am your God, The One teaching you to benefit yourself, The One guiding you in the way you should walk. If only you would pay attention to my commandments! Then your peace would become just like a river and your righteousness like the waves of the sea.
Isaiah 48:17-18 NWT
Brother Schafer said that these verses from Isaiah teach us that imperfect human beings can have a righteous standing before God. He claimed that the peace that righteousness brings is achieved by obedience to Jehovahās commandments.
What he fails to mention is that these verses were given to the people of Israel and should be, at least in the way Jehovahās Witnesses understand things, considered āoldā light. One cannot address the issue of how a person is made right with God, without considering the ānewā light found the Christian Greek Scriptures (New Testament). Because Schafer sticks with the āoldā he teaches that righteousness, and the resulting peace, can only be attained through our own effort.
OXYMORONS
An oxymoron isā¦ a figure of speech that juxtaposes concepts with opposing meanings within a word or phrase that creates an ostensible self-contradiction.[1]
Some of my favourite oxymorons are Military Intelligence, Microsoft Works, and Family Holiday! I mention oxymorons because I find this idea of self-contradictory words/statements often at play in the cults, and they donāt even realise it.
This is what Brother Schafer does as he teaches about pursuing peace. He asked the question: āDo you recall the very first time the word ārighteousā is used in the Bible?ā
Taking his hearers to Genesis chapter 6, he pointed out that Noah found favour in the eyes of Jehovah because he proved himself faultless amongst his contemporaries. Indeed Genesis 7:1 NWT says:
āAfter that Jehovah said to Noah: āGo into the ark, you and all your household, because you are the one I have found to be righteous before me among this generation.ā
Noah was certainly obedient in building the Ark, and God did declare him righteous, but here are my questions to Brother Schafer. Did Noah continue to be seen as righteous by Jehovah after the flood? What about when Noah was drunk and lay uncovered in his tent? (Genesis 9:21) Is being declared righteous something one can slip in and out of, so that I am righteous when Iām obedient but not righteous when Iām disobedient?
This is a serious question because Jehovahās Witnesses appear to believe this. I recently spoke to a JW lady at their cart, and she told me that obedience to Jehovah is needed to be saved. She told me that a person who smokes is not being obedient to Jehovah, so cannot be a Jehovahās Witness and so cannot be saved.
But here is where the oxymoron comes into play, because Schafer now moves onto the next appearance of the word ārighteousā in the Bible, Genesis 15:6 NWT:
And he put faith in Jehovah, and He counted it to him as righteousness.
This of course is speaking about Abraham. Schafer acknowledges the verse and claims to believe what it says yet goes on to contradict what it teaches. He is, at this point, being clearly ambiguous, because though the Bible says we are made righteous by faith, Jehovahās Witnesses believe that it is faith + works.
This is how the verse reads in a few other translations:
And he believed the Lord, and he counted it to him as righteousness. (ESV)
Abram believed the Lord, and he credited it to him as righteousness. (NIV)
And he believed in the Lord, and He accounted it to him for righteousness. (NKJV)
Then he believed in the Lord; and He credited it to him as righteousness. (NASB)
Now you may feel I am finding something that is not there, or I am being a little neurotic, but I want to point out something that I believe the Jehovahās Witness will see in the verse, that we probably wouldnāt.
All the other versions I have quoted say that Abraham ābelieved in the Lordā but the New World Translation says: āhe put faith in Jehovahā.
The Jehovahās Witness will read this as Abrahamās faith and works (obedience to Jehovah) resulted in him being declared righteous.
Now of course we believe that the fruit of righteousness is works, but root righteousness is faith. In other words, we are not declared righteous because of anything we do, but rather we are declared righteous because of what we believe.
Abraham believed the Lord, and he counted it to him as righteousness. Genesis 15:6 (ESV)
Interestingly, Brother Schafer fails to mention that the Apostle Paul has something to say about Abraham to his fellow Jews in the New Testament. Using Genesis 15:6 as his base he tells them:
āWhat then shall we say was gained by Abraham, our forefather according to the flesh? For if Abraham was justified by works, he has something to boast about, but not before God. For what does the Scripture say? āAbraham believed God, and it was counted to him as righteousness.ā Now to the one who works, his wages are not counted as a gift but as his due. And to the one who does not work but believes in him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is counted as righteousnessā¦ā
Romans 4:1-5 ESV
Paul is very clear in his communication to his fellow Jews. They, like the Jehovahās Witnesses, believe they must keep the commandments to be made righteous with God, but Paul says there is no real peace to be found in pursuing this course of action. Elsewhere he says:
For all who rely on works of the law are under a curse; for it is written, āCursed be everyone who does not abide by all things written in the Book of the Law, and do them.ā Now it is evident that no one is justified before God by the law, for āThe righteous shall live by faith.ā
(Galatians 3:10-11)
Brother Schaferās talk was entitled: The Result of True Righteousness will be Peace, yet Jehovahās Witnesses know nothing of true righteousness. They reject Godās righteousness, which can only be found by faith in the true Jesus, and seek to establish their own.[2] Therefore they are still lost in their sin and in need of salvation. As they are now back on their carts and soon to be back on our doors, letās share with them the true gospel of peace.
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