Bridge of Reason

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...

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...