Bridge of Reason

Following my article on why Jehovah’s Witnesses don’t celebrate Easter and Tony Browns excellent account of his visiting the memorial meal online, post 1 here , post 2 here , I thought it might be helpful to look at how Witnesses think about the elements of the Christian Pasch, starting with the cross. In their Insight on the Scriptures the Watchtower Society writes: TORTURE STAKE. An instrument such as that on which Jesus Christ met death by impalement. (Mt  27:32-40; Mr 15:21-30; Lu 23:26; Joh 19:17-19, 25) In classical Greek the word (stau·ros#) rendered “torture stake” in the New World Translation primarily denotes an upright stake, or pole, and there is no evidence that the writers of the Christian Greek Scriptures used it to designate a stake with a crossbeam.—See IMPALEMENT; Int, pp. 1149-1151. The book The Non-Christian Cross, by John Denham Parsons, states: “There is not a single sentence in any of the numerous writings forming the New Testament, which, in the origin...

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...

Jehovah’s Witnesses have this month gathered in Kingdom Halls around the world for their annual Nisan 14 celebration. This article, looking at the Memorial Meal from an outsider’s perspective, appeared in the April 2017 Reachout newsletter, Bridge of Reason.   Communion It’s known by different names in different traditions; the Lord’s Table, the Lord’s Supper, the Eucharist, the Breaking of Bread, Holy Communion. Mormons call it ‘the sacrament’ which seems strange since it is a sacrament. Even in Mormonism, however, it isn’t the only sacrament since they also have baptism, as well as rituals of anointing. In my church we Acall it communion and I regard it as very precious. I was interested, then, in what the Jehovah’s Witnesses do with it, how they regard it. To Jehovah’s Witnesses it is a ‘Memorial Meal’ and, while Christian churches celebrate this sacrament frequently, Witnesses mark it annually, on the Jewish Passover which, in 2017, will be Tuesday 11 April. My wife and I wen...

If you have encountered Jehovah’s Witnesses at all over the Easter period they may well have been eager to explain to you why they don’t celebrate Easter. The landing page of JW.ORG currently shows a piece 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 and you might imagine someone doing a book study and hearing these things for the first time being given pause for thought. A closer examination and a wider search on the subject reveals some serious flaws in what they have to say. They have much to say, as many know, about the origin of the name 'Easter' and we will come to that, but in their explanation of their position on Easter they play a trick on the minds of the unsuspecting. After quoting various secular sources they finally come to the Bible and insist: 'The Easter holiday celebration is not based on...