Get Even More Visitors To Your Blog, Upgrade To A Business Listing >>

'Give Jehovah's Witnesses a Break' Month

I've decided that May will be 'Give Jehovah's Witnesses a Break' month. (Though, if I feel like it, I will post other nicer things on them in months other than May.) I've been (rightly) critical of them on several important issues - false prophecy, the soul, eternal punishment, the nature of the resurrection body - and will have more to say by way of criticism; so, this shouldn't be seen as a recommendation of Jehovah's Witnesses. But that doesn't mean I can't be fair to them and defend them against what I think are bad or misguided criticisms. (Indeed, if one wants to get Witnesses to stop being Witnesses, they should be equipped with a sympathetic understanding of Jehovah's Witnesses - to be able to understand why Witnesses believe and practice what they do - and the best arguments against  their errors.)

Yesterday (13th) and last Sunday (6th), I begin a project to show that Witnesses's formal view of the relation of faith, works, and salvation is not as offensive to Protestant ears as it is often supposed, even if there are errors pertaining to what the exact natures of these three are. (Or, more modestly, that there is a significant vein in Witness thought that teaches salvation by faith alone formally.) I think this is useful apologetically, as I explain in the posts, and hope to do in a future essay on this subject.

This task is not completed yet, as I wish to comment on all the quotations I've provided from their literature thus far (from the Watchtower and the Awake!). I've already commented a great deal in blue, mostly attempts to show that (most of) what they say teaches or is consistent with sola fide. At the end of this, I want to have a distinct sent of negative commentaries on these quotations (in red) arguing as best as I think can be done that what they say is often or largely contrary to sola fide. So, I will continue this task with the two compilations I have posted and do so for those I have yet to post.

I also want to comment on individual Witnesses explication of their understanding of what faith, works, and salvation are, and how they relate; that, and address several of their critics on this point: people like Matt Slick and Lorri MacGregor.

On this coming Sunday (the 20th), I will kind of defend Jehovah's Witnesses' belief that Jesus is also known as Michael the archangel. I don't believe this ide, but I will defend it to some extent. Specifically, I will show that it is not as objectionable as many of their critics think it is, and that some prominent Protestants of the past have affirmed it; or, if they rejected it, didn't do so on the grounds that many modern critics of the idea do.

On the last Sunday of this month (the 27th), I will either post the third compilation of my Witnesses-and-sola-fide project (from their standard reference works: Insight on the Scriptures and Reasoning from the Scriptures), or post on another Witness-related topic in a way somewhat favorable to Witnesses for the purpose of establishing common ground and in that way creating a better apologetic.


This post first appeared on Witness Seeking Orthodoxy, please read the originial post: here

Share the post

'Give Jehovah's Witnesses a Break' Month

×

Subscribe to Witness Seeking Orthodoxy

Get updates delivered right to your inbox!

Thank you for your subscription

×