Bridge of Reason

Tony Brown spoke at our 2023 Convention on the Impossible Gospel of Mormonism. Our 2024 Convention is already planned and booked for September. Why not join us and enjoy a weekend of teaching, equipping, and fellowship with people who have been there and understand. Find out more here . Meanwhile, I hope you find this teaching a blessing.

The Watch Tower Society's definition of salvation is: “ Preservation or deliverance from danger or destruction. That deliverance may be from the hands of oppressors or persecutors. For all true Christians, Jehovah provides through his Son deliverance from the present wicked system of things as well as salvation from bondage to sin and death. For a great crowd of faithful servants of Jehovah living during 'the last days', salvation will include preservation through the great tribulation.” - Reasoning from the Scriptures, WBTS, 1985, p.356. This, at first glance, seems right but when you look further qualifications begin to appear. “ Remember, though, that you must work hard to receive these blessings. It will cost you time and effort ...We therefore urge one and all to lay hold on God's promises and to trust him fully. By continued diligent study of the Bible and by application of its wise counsel you may attain to the grandest of blessings, including everlasti...

  The Council of Trent was the 19th ecumenical council of the Roman Catholic Church. It met from 1545 to 1563 in Trento, Italy in response to the ever-growing influence of the Protestant Reformation. The Council was particularly concerned about a former German monk named Martin Luther. He was teaching that a person could be saved by faith alone, in Christ alone, without the need for the sacraments and ceremonies offered by the Roman Catholic Church. It was his doctrine of ‘sola fide’ (Latin for ‘by faith alone’), amongst other things he taught, that angered the Council, causing them to gather and respond forcibly. They were furious that Luther was preaching and teaching that salvation could be obtained outside the visible Church. Extra ecclesiam nulla salus The Roman Catholic Church taught, and continues to teach (though they seek to make it a little more palatable these days) extra ecclesiam nulla salus, which means that ‘outside the Church there is no salvation’. It teaches that ...

  The Transfiguration, Carl Bloch, 1865 In the January 2023 Study Edition of the Watchtower magazine the Watch Tower comes up with another of its quaint and awkward 'translations.' “ Be transformed by making your mind over, so that you may prove to yourselves the good and acceptable and perfect will of God.”—ROM. 12:2. They write: 'HOW often do you clean your home? Perhaps before you first moved in, you scoured it thoroughly. But what if you neglected it afterward? As you know, dust and dirt can accumulate quickly. To keep your home presentable, you need to clean it regularly. 'A similar ongoing effort is required when it comes to our thinking and our personality. Of course, before getting baptized we worked hard to make necessary changes in our life in order to “cleanse ourselves of every defilement of flesh and spirit.” (2 Cor. 7:1) Now, though, we need to follow the apostle Paul’s counsel to “continue to be made new.” (Eph. 4:23) Why is continual effort neede...

  For our latest Watch Tower Wednesday on Facebook we were again in the Examining the Scriptures Daily - 2022 where, for January 4, we read: 'The apostle Paul said that all true Christians are in a race. (Heb. 12:1) And all of us, young or old, energetic or tired, must endure to the end if we want to receive the prize that Jehovah offers us. (Matt. 24:13) Paul had freeness of speech because he had successfully “run the race to the finish.” (2 Tim. 4:7), But what, especially, is the race that Paul spoke about? Paul sometimes used features from the games held in ancient Greece to teach important lessons. (1 Cor. 9:25-27; 2 Tim. 2:5) On a number of occasions, he used running as in a footrace to illustrate the Christian course of life. (1 Cor. 9: 24; Gal. 2:2; Phil. 2:16) A person enters this “race” when he dedicates himself to Jehovah and gets baptized. (1 Pet. 3:21) He crosses the finish line when Jehovah grants him the prize of everlasting life.—Matt.25:31-34, 46; 2 Tim. 4:8. w20.04...

  “No matter what happens, never forget the door-to-door ministry.” With those words ringing in my ears, I walked three miles to the nearest village. When I arrived, I could not find the courage to go to the first house. After some struggle, I went into the woods and prayed very hard to God for the courage to preach. Finally, I was able to return to the first door and give my presentation. [1] Each week we run a City Centre book table giving out tracts, booklets, and Bibles. We have a lot of interesting discussions with all manner of people. Recently, I got into a conversation with a nice gentleman who told me that his wife was a very committed, baptised Jehovah’s Witness. He said that she had been in the Witnesses for over thirty years, and one of his sons was also a zealous adherent. I asked him why he was not a Jehovah’s Witness, to which he replied with a smile on his face: ‘I like golf too much.’ PAR FOR THE COURSE He admitted that for him, the cost of joining them wou...

There is an argument I see coming up time and again, from Mormons and others, even from within the body of Christ, that the law that doesn’t save is the Law of Moses. Paul in Romans writes: ‘ Therefore no one will be declared righteous in his sight by observing the law; rather, through the law we become conscious of sin’ (Ro.3:20, NIV) ‘ For by the works of the law no human being will be justified in his sight, since through the law comes knowledge of sin.’ (Ro.3:20, ESV) The fallacy arises when people fail to understand the role of the law in salvation. The argument is made that we are not saved by Moses, by the ceremonies of the cult of the temple, by the civil law peculiar to the nation of Israel. Nevertheless adherence to the eternal statutes of God contained in the Ten Commandments do have a role to play in the saving of men and women. The fallacy arises when people fail to understand the role of the law in salvation. The text makes t he same distinction but to reach a ver...