VOTE YOUR "SILVER BULLET" QUESTION (page 6)

2050

For Witnesses and other Bible believers.

Me: Does Earth appear to be flat?
JW: Yes, but it's not flat, the Bible says so.
Me: No, the Bible says that the world is flat and that the sun orbits us. Isaiah 40:22, Proverbs 8:27, Ecclesiastes 1:5, Psalm 19:4,5,6.
JW: Blah blah blah Jehovah.
Me: Does life appear to be designed?
JW: Yes, because it is.
Me: Things are not always as they seem. The Bible says that Jehovah created all animals as vegetarians, Genesis 1:30. When did he turn them all onto each other?
JW: Blah blah blah Satan.

The effectiveness depends on how far gone the individuals thinking capicity is of course.

Why have you changed your Bible, adding the name Jehovah to the book of Revelation 11 times in places it never ever quotes from the old testament? Doesn't Rev. 22: 17-19 say you can not add to nor take away a single word from its scroll?..............deer in headlights............oompa

how can you trust any religion that would change the bible to make it say what they want it to?????????????

cabasilas

This is a variation of an earlier posted question, but in two parts:

Is the number 144,000 in Revelation chapter 7 a literal number or a symbolic number?

The JW will always answer that it's a literal number.

Revelation chapter 7 says the 144,000 is made up of 12,000 from 12 tribes. Is the number 12,000 a literal number or a symbolic number?

Most JWs will quickly say the 12,000 is a symbolic number.

Isn't it inconsistent to say that the 12,000 is symbolic, but the total 144,000 is literal? Wouldn't consistency demand that either both be symbolic or both be literal?

I've asked this of dozens of JWs and never had one give me an adequate response. In fact, I've had a couple of elders admit that "maybe there are more than 144,000 in the heavenly class."

cabasilas

On whether it's important for Christians to use the name Jehovah:

Can you show me one verse where Jesus actually utters the name "Jehovah" in a prayer?

There is not a single verse in the New World Translation where Jesus pronounces the name "Jehovah" in a prayer. He refers to a "name" in a couple of places (Matthew chapter 6 and John chapter 17, but he does not pronounce Yahweh or Jehovah there. "Name," of course, means reputation or character in these verses. If it had meant to pronounce the name then Jesus would have done so.

Can you show me one place in the Greek New Testament in the Kingdom Interlinear where the name Jehovah appears?

There are none.

Are there any New Testament Greek manuscripts that contain either Jehovah or Yahweh?

There are none.

Say, for the sake of argument, we accept the theory that the name Jehovah was removed from the Greek New Testament (even though there' s no NT manuscript to show it was there originally): How often does Jesus use the name Jehovah when in his everyday speech -- when he's not quoting the Old Testament?

Hardly any. So far, I've only found 3 possible places in the New World Translation where Jesus is said to pronounce the name Jehovah apart from Old Testament quotations. Jesus used "Father," "God," and "Lord" to describe his heavenly Father in his everyday speech -- even in the New World Translation.

The New World Translation "restores" the name Jehovah to the New Testament (again, with no NT Greek manuscript evidence) a total of 237 times. So, is this the name that is emphasized in the New Testament? How many times does the New Testament use the name "Jesus"?

The Comprehensive Concordance of the NWT has the name Jesus over 900 times in the New Testament. That's nearly a 4 to 1 ratio of emphasizing the name Jesus over the name Jehovah in the New Testament. Even if we exempt the Gospels for this comparison, the name Jesus occurs way over a 3 to 1 ratio over the name Jehovah in the rest of the New Testament in the NWT. And, in actual fact, since no Greek New Testament manuscript contains the name Jehovah in it, then the name that is emphasized in the NT is clearly that of Jesus.

cabasilas

On the historicity of whether the JWs are the only true Christians:

Jesus said in Matthew 16:18-20 that the "gates of Hades" would not overpower his Church. Can you point to a group of Christians over the centuries since Jesus' day that could be identified as Jehovah's Witnesses? Has Jesus' Church been in existence continually since he set it up at Pentecost?

The average Witness probably has never thought about this and there is no historical evidence to show a continuity of people holding the beliefs that Jehovah's Witnesses hold throughout the centuries.

A good follow up question:

If it true that the light for God's people keeps on getting brighter and brighter, then shouldn't we expect that the light would have been getting brighter and brighter since Pentecost all through the centuries since then? Isn't your belief actually that there was a total apostasy and that there was a beginning of restoration of true worship about the 1870s and the light only started getting brighter since then? But, what did Jesus say? Did he predict a total apostasy or did he say that the "gates of Hades" would not overpower his Church? Didn't he also say he'd be with his followers "all the days" until the end of the world? (Matthew 28:19-20)

The JW may still try to say there was some sort of remnant all through the centuries. Challenge the JW to produce evidence of a continual group of people that could be identified as JWs.

yadda yadda 2

Excellent questions Cabasilas

Finally-Free

God decreed that Adam, Eve, and their offspring must die because Adam and Eve stole some fruit. Does that mean my coworker and his offspring should die if he steals my yogurt out of the refrigerator? If not, why not? Since God is omnipotent and owns much more than me, my loss is proportionately greater than his.

W

Billy the Ex-Bethelite

How about something "left field"...

If there was a global flood some 4300 years ago with only the people and animals in Noah's ark surviving, why are there no kangaroos or fossils of kangaroos around Mt Ararat, but only in Australia?

Scully

V:

Most JWs would say Jesus sacrificed a perfect human life countering Adam. Then he was resurrected in a different body.
It remains then that Jesus is a clone, not the original Jesus...

Just the same, JWs believe that "the wages sin pays is death, but the gift God gives is everlasting life by Christ Jesus our Lord." (Rom 6:23)

The logic there is that if you die, you've paid for the "sinfulness" that you inherited from Adam. However, you get resurrected to "sinless" everlasting life, only to be eternally indebted to God for saving you from "sin". You didn't asked to be born into a "sinful condition", and thus be born with a debt of "sin" hanging over your head, and when you die, it's supposed to be cancelled out. Yet you also don't ask to be resurrected so that you can enter a different, eternal kind of indebtedness. In any case, gifts, in the true sense of the word, are supposed to be without strings attached - this one is like being pulled out of the lake and saved only to have the person throw you back into the lake with a millstone hung around your neck.

Now I know where economists and politicians got the idea to impose taxes on money they've already taxed.

V

Thanks all!

My apologies to anyone offended by my JW-style responses, especially "yadda yadda 2" who postulated some incisive questions. I hope afterall, this will be a good exercise in JW-think.

Stay tuned to Watchtower Comments (just Google that if you want to see our exposure), the next video series will not be shooting blanks!

VOTE YOUR "SILVER BULLET" QUESTION

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