Usually i'm just a lurker. I'm a Chrirstian concerned for a JW teen, and wanting to understand what he's going through, and where he's coming from I don't usually post, but this morning i came upon this while reading from The Sermons of martin Luther , Volume 1. He's speaking about Luke 21:28.
"The godless fanatical preachers are to be censured who in their sermons deprive people of these words of Christ and faith in them, who desire to make people devout by terrifying them and who teach them to prepare for the last day by relying upon their good works as satisfaction for their sins. Here despair, fear and terror must remain and grow and with it hatred, aversion and abhorrence for the coming of the Lord, and enmity against God be established in the heart; for they picture Christ as nothing but a stern judge whose heart must be appeased by works, and they never present Him as the Redeemer, as he calls and offers himself, of whom we are to expect that out of pure grace he will redeem us from sin and evil.
Such is always the result where the GOspel is not rightly proclaimed. When hearts are only driven by commands and threats, they will only be estranged from God, and be led to abhor Him. "