Bridge of Reason

  Do you know what a promise box is? Someone bought one for me many years ago. It is a small box containing perhaps a hundred or so cards. On each card is a verse of Scripture. The idea behind the promise box is that a random card should be chosen each day and whatever verse is on that card, you should hold as God’s promise for you personally. Sounds fine until you realise that each verse has been plucked completely out of its context. When placed back into its context, it is often discovered that the verse has nothing to do with you personally and perhaps means something completely different from what you think it means. You may have heard of the man who, looking for guidance from God, opened his Bible randomly and read the following: ‘ And throwing down the pieces of silver into the temple, he (Judas) departed, and he went and hanged himself.’ (Matthew 27:5). The man, believing this was not very edifying, flicked through his Bible again and read these words: ‘ And Jesus sa...

  A New Year usually brings a fresh wave of optimism. There appears to be an opportunity for a fresh start, a chance to get your house in order, the possibility of doing something different. Each year people resolve such things as losing weight, giving up smoking, not drinking as much, going to the gym, or learning a new language. None of these are bad in and of themselves, but very few people will continue these activities much beyond February. Why is it that people resolve to try and change themselves? Change Did you hear of the small boy who swallowed a pound coin? When his mother called the doctor to ask of her son’s condition, the doctor said: ‘I’m afraid there has been no change’. There is something deep within us human beings that causes us to be dissatisfied with our lives. We know things are not right and so we seek to change. Realising the truth of this, the American author, Henry David Thoreau said that: ‘The mass of men lead lives of quiet desperation’, meaning that mos...

  Last week, in our Facebook Watch Tower Wednesday, we looked at this film from jw.org. It’s very short, only 2.14 long. and it would be well worth your looking at it before reading on. In the film a young Jehovah’s Witness is teaching her contact, another young woman, who says, ‘I’ve got it. I found the answers are all there.’ When she is challenged, ‘It’s more than just the answers.’ she responds, ‘I’m with it, I’m all about study.’ The Witness asks, ‘Which do you remember more from our studies, the answers, or the things that touch your heart?’ I found it interesting that an organisation that lays such great store by book studies, getting the answers right, should appeal to the heart. The question challenging the young woman involves sexual immorality and she struggles with it, but if we thought this was going in the direction of grace we would be mistaken. In another film, Reaching the Heart , we find where this is going. Where is her 'Repurchaser'? Here, the youn...

Hermes Jesus is no-one’s Hermes, a strange title, but stick with me and we’ll see what we can make of it. Hermes was the Greek god of translators and interpreters. More clever than all the other gods, he was the messenger of the gods. The Roman equivalent is, of course, Mercury. God’s have messengers, other gods who run errands for them. Oberon, king of the faeries in Shakespeare’s Midsummer Night’s Dream, sent the mischievous Puck on an errand to find a special plant with magical qualities. More prosaically, human kings have messengers, such as the character Herald, in Shakespeare’s Henry V, who passes through the battlefield unscathed because of his role carrying messages between the French king and England’s Henry. God’s Messengers The God of the Bible has messengers, human prophets and apostles, but also angels. ‘Angel’ comes from the Latin angelus ; Greek aggelos ; from the Hebrew for "one going" or "one sent," a messenger. These messengers from the throne-...

I spend a significant amount of time speaking with Jehovah's Witnesses about the deity of Christ. It's one of their favourite topics, since they have memorised verses which seem to indicate that Jesus was created and somehow “less than” the Father. If you are willing to go down this theological rabbit hole with one of Jehovah's Witnesses, you are a brave soul indeed. Yet, such a discussion needn't scare us. Some Christians say that the only thing we can do is share our personal testimony with Jehovah's Witnesses, as any other discussion is fruitless. Whilst a testimony is powerful and I'd certainly encourage sharing it, the fact remains that at some point the teachings of Jehovah's Witnesses need to be addressed biblically. Therefore consider: every Jehovah's Witness has one main argument against Jesus deity. If you address their core misunderstanding, the rest may fall down like a house of cards. Let's explore this together and hopefully, h...

The Jehovah’s Witnesses believe God’s name, his one true name, the name by which he is identified is Jehovah. But, biblically, God has and is identified by many names, names Jehovah’s Witnesses don’t seem disposed to talk about. In Genesis 1:1 he is ‘God,’ the Hebrew elohim . In Genesis 17:1 he is ‘God Almight,’ the Hebrew El Shadday . In Psalm 8:1 he is ‘Lord,’ the Aramaic  Adonay . In 1 Samuel 1:3 he is ‘Lord of hosts,’ the Hebrew yhwh tseba’ot . In the New Testament Jesus teaches his disciples to call God ‘Father,’ the Greek Pater Matthew 6:9 The disciples, following Jesus’ teaching, called God ‘Father’ 1 Corinthinas 1:3 Indeed, in the whole New Testament God is called Father. He is the Father to whom we pray Matthew 6:9 He is our Father and Jesus’ Father John 20:17 By the power of the Spirit of adoption we call him Abba, Father Romans 8:15 Our fellowship is with the Father 1 John 1:3 Of course, Jehovah’s Witnesses only became Jehovah’s Witnesses in 1931, based ...