Bridge of Reason

  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, ...

  The Book of Mormon and The Land of Jerusalem The Book of Mormon describes a ‘land of Jerusalem.’ The land of Jerusalem appears about 40 times in the book. It is not found once in the Bible, and that is important. Perhaps the most controversial reference to the land of Jerusalem is in Alma 7 where Alma seeming to foreshadow the role of John the Baptist, saying: ‘Repent ye, and prepare the way of the Lord, and walk in his paths, which are straight; for behold, the kingdom of heaven is at hand, and the Son of God cometh upon the face of the earth. And behold, he shall be born of Mary, at Jerusalem which is the land of our forefathers…’ Alma 7:9,10 Of course, Jesus was born in Bethlehem and not ‘at Jerusalem.’ Where is the land of Jerusalem? Mormons say Alma was written 500 years after Nephi left Jerusalem, that this is entirely consistent with how the Book of Mormon describes places “being in the land” of cities. However, t he people of the Book of Mormon are supposed to ...

  It is popularly believed that Christians, when we go to church, hang our brains up at the door. Yet it is my experience that when I try and engage unbelievers in intelligent conversation about great issues of faith, it is so often they who shut down their thinking, who refuse to intelligently engage. This is because they have already decided faith has nothing to offer by way of intelligent conversation. Of course, this is a poor caricature of faith as being by nature unreasonable, like superstition. You either have it, or you don’t, and who can explain it? It’s rather embarrassing, and who would admit to it? An example I think of is that of creation. However you understand the Bible creation narrative, one thing is certain, the universe had a beginning. Science tells us that space, time, and matter came into being at the same moment. There was nothing, then there was...well, everything. That makes the universe contingent. Think of oak trees. If you see an acorn, you would be f...

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.

  Should You Believe in The Trinity? is a booklet published in 1989 by the Watchtower Society to challenge Trinitarian doctrine. Always good for an eye-catching book title, Doug came up with Why Should You Believe? Should You Believe in The Trinity? He did a great job of demonstrating the mendacity of the Watchtower Society in their publication. I am in the process of updating and reformatting Doug’s work. You can still find the JW title  on their website. I want to share some of Doug’s work with you, along with a simple example of how Doug more than competently handles the defence they offer when you challenge their selective quoting. When it is republished I will be sure to let you know. Doug writes: ‘ When you show that a particular quote is selective many Jehovah’s Witnesses will say, “Well the writer does say these words and therefore we are not misquoting them.” The answer I give to this is to quote John 3:16 & 17 from the New World Translation, as follows: ‘ For...

Have you ever asked yourself this question? I spoke about this at our 2023 Reachout Trust Convention. Our 2024 Convention is already planned and booked for September. Why not join us and enjoy a weekend of teaching, equipping, and fellowship? Find out more here.  Meanwhile, I hope this teaching blesses you.  

  Image by  Myriams photos  from  Pixabay Thoughts on faithfulness to take us into the weekend. It was Saint David, the patron saint of Wales, who is said, on his death bed, to have uttered in his native Welsh language, ‘Gwnewch y pethau bychain mewn bywyd,’ which translated means, ‘do the little things in life.’ I am sure he had in mind the words of Jesus in Luke’s gospel, ‘“One who is faithful in a very little is also faithful in much…’ Luke 16:10 There was a man who was faithful in the little things. He frequented the same place of worship for years, practised the same spiritual exercises, prayed the same liturgy, confessed and worshipped God in the same way. He heard of revivals in different parts, but he didn’t go to see. He was told of prophets proclaiming the imminence of Christ, but he didn’t go to listen. He heard of folk who had gone up a mountain, or into a wilderness to await deliverance, he didn’t join them. He simply frequented the same place of worsh...