Bridge of Reason

Isaiah 43:10 is a familiar text in this ministry. It is routinely misused by Jehovah’s Witnesses as an apologetic for their use of ‘the name’ It is not, however, a call to use God’s name, but a call to witness before a world full of gods the character and works of God, his sovereignty, aseity. He alone is God and his people are called to witness to these things. You Will be my Witnesses God demonstrates his determination to be glorified in his works, his delivering of Israel out of bondage in Egypt: ‘ For I am the LORD your God, the Holy One of Israel, your Saviour. I give Egypt as your ransom, Cush and Seba in exchange for you, peoples in exchange for your life.’ Isaiah 43: 3,4 Isaiah paints a picture of a great trial in which these other gods are openly challenged: ‘ Bring out the people who are blind, yet have eyes, who are deaf, yet have ears! All the nations gather together, and the people assemble. Who among you can declare this, and show us the former things? Let them brin...

  I recently spent a day in London as a tourist. I had come down to spend time with my son who works in London and lives just inside the M25 ring. During the day I had the opportunity to interact with a number of Jehovah’s Witness teams on their carts. The conversations went much like I expected, having had many such conversations, but there were a few points that stood out for me. The first team I noticed were outside the tube station in Theydon Bois where my son lives. This was at 7:30am, just as the morning commuter rush hour was getting going. This cart couple were well dressed, as always, and made no attempt to interact with us as we passed, as always. My immediate thought was why were they there at that time and place bearing in mind that no one had the time to stop and chat at that point in their days?  I think the most likely reason was that they didn’t expect anyone to  stop, which was the whole point of choosing that time and place. Many former-Jehovah...

  The above title comes from a jw.org article as an answer to one of their Frequently Asked Questions .   This is of particular interest around this time as they have just celebrated their annual memorial of Christ’s death.   I have to say, for full disclosure, that I have never attended one of these memorial meals despite having been invited several times.   I just don’t think I could manage to bite my tongue hard enough not to respond to the talks being made.   However, I have read and listened to a number of accounts from non-Jehovah’s Witnesses who have attended, some repeatedly over many years.   The Memorial Meal , as Jehovah’s Witnesses refer to their version of communion, only takes place once a year and is always regarded as a very special event.   As they do not celebrate any other event, such as Easter, Christmas, birthdays, Pentecost, and so forth, they do make a big thing of it. Potentially millions of invites are handed out around the...

  Jehovah’s Witnesses were originally members of Charles Russell’s Bible Student Movement . It was in 1931, under the leadership of Joseph Rutherford, who had seized control of the movement, that they became Jehovah’s Witnesses. Isaiah 43:10 is the organisation’s apologetic for being Witnesses of Jehovah: “ You are my witnesses,’ declares Jehovah, ‘Yes, my servant whom I have chosen, so that you may know and have faith in me…’ On the face of it that seems reasonable enough. However, the Watch Tower Society is a Restorationist as well as an Adventist movement and claim to have restored Jehovah’s Organisation of the 1 st Century. While they emphasise how the early church was organised, they seem to have misunderstood what they were organised to do. In the above linked article, they write: ‘ Jesus made God’s name known.   In prayer to his heavenly Father, Jesus said: “I have made your name known.” ( John 17:26 ) In line with Jesus’ example, Jehovah’s organization does eve...

T oday, when we come across Jehovah’s Witnesses and Mormons we find that they are led by a group of people who hold unquestioned authority. Members of this group know this, some even believe it themselves. This puts them in a powerful position, even to the point where they can create their own Bible. Two examples are the J oseph S mith Translation of the Mormons and the N ew W orld T ranslation of the Jehovah’s Witnesses. T hey can add words into their own Bible, words that are not in other, respectable, translations. F or example, in the Greek, C olossians 1:1 6 say s that J esus created all things: ‘ He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation. For by him all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities – all things were created through him and for him.’ Col.1:15,16, ESV Jehovah’s Witnesses say that this runs counter to their understanding that Jesus is God’s first creat...

Jehovah's Witnesses teach that “the times of the gentiles” is a time period of 2,520 years, beginning in 607BC and ending in AD1914. According to their doctrine, Jesus was enthroned as King in AD1914 when the “gentile times” ended. 1. Only one verse in scripture mentions “the times of the gentiles”: 'They will fall by the sword and will be taken as prisoners to all the nations. Jerusalem will be trampled on by the Gentiles until the times of the Gentiles are fulfilled.'  Luke 21:24 NIV. The Jehovah's Witness organisation has linked this one verse with other prophetic passages to calculate the supposed length of these “gentile times”, notably a time period which began hundreds of years before the incarnation and ended over 1900 years after it. 2. Simple examination of the text of Luke 21 reveals what Jesus was referring to when he used the phrase “the times of the gentiles”. Let's look at the passage together and distil this into four points which you may...

You have left a cult, or you are helping someone come out; so what comes next? The apostle Paul wrote to the church in Corinth: 'But I, brothers, could not address you as spiritual people, but as people of the flesh, as infants in Christ. I fed you with milk, not solid food, for you were not ready for it.' 1 Cor.3:1,2 There is a process of growth every Christian needs if they are to come to full maturity in Christ. The same is true for Christians coming out of cults. What are stages of this growth? How might we think about, and identify where people are in this process of sanctification? How are we to help them move on and grow further, from the milk to the meat? Recorded at the Reachout Trust Conference, September, 2024.  

  Telling the truth means you don’t need to remember what you've said before is a valuable expression to note as it can help us to separate the lies from the truth.   The Watchtower is famous for the vast amounts of literature and information it pumps out to its members.   In recent years the number of written items has reduced, being replaced by visual media mostly on JW Broadcasting, but the sheer volume seems to be remaining the same.  This can sometimes result in slip ups in what pronouncements are made by the Governing Body. During the recent 2024 Annual Meeting of the Jehovah’s Witnesses (available for viewing on JW Broadcasting) an announcement was made, by the Governing Body member Gerrit Losch, that two new members were being added to the Governing Body.   Those new members are Jode Jedele and Jacob Rumph who are both somewhat younger than most of the present members of the body, Rumph now being the youngest at 52.   Losch welcomed these new me...

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 cha...

  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...

  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, ...