The Watchtower has long denied the Substitutionary Sacrifice of Jesus.
OT Picture of NT Salvation:
On the night of deliverance from Pharaoh, the sons of Abraham were to slaughter a spotless lamb, eat its flesh and smear some of the blood over the doorway and on the door-posts of their home. Because they were under this blood arrangement and had the lamb inside of themselves after they ate the Passover Supper, the angel “passed over” that house as he delivered God’s execution judgment. ONLY THOSE UNDER THE BLOOD ARRANGEMENT WERE SPARED. There was no other way to avoid judgment….PERIOD.
Many years later, the real Lamb of God was betrayed and murdered by not only his own covenant people, but by a collaboration of gentiles as well; hence, a representation of all mankind, Jew and Gentile. Yet, on the very day that the creation killed its Creator He offered this:
“Take, eat: this is my body, which is broken for you: this do in remembrance of me. After the same manner also he took the cup, when he had supped, saying, This cup is the new testament (covenant) in my blood: this do ye”
This offer is called the Substitutionary Atonement and is denied to Jehovah’s Witnesses by their leadership. The contract states in so many words: “My LIFE for yours. I will take your punishment due you if you will take my life inside of you”….hence the symbolic significance of eating his “flesh” and drinking his “blood”.
The key point is that an exchange takes place here. Christ substitutes in our place on the Cross for the punishment due us, and we become the “righteousness of God” due him. Initially, this is true by virtue of the in-dwelling of the Holy Spirit, and finally through the process of Sanctification.
Here is the New Testament exchange that is offered to "whosoever will":
For he hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him – 2 Cor. 5: 21
This is a very real contract that is unto the death of both parties. It is a BLOOD COVENANT in the fullest possible meaning of the term. It is sealed by the death of BOTH signatories. In the case of Jesus – on Calvary Hill; and in the case of humans who accept the offer – they die as unto themselves. They give up the rights to themselves and invite God to take control of their lives. When God does this by entering the individual by means of the Holy Spirit, that person is said to be born again. The individual is no longer the ultimate boss of his or her own life, God is. Finally, the deal is consumated when the believer dies and completes his end of the bargain with God, being united with him.
Jesus answered, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God.
When a person is born again, a person receives a new spirit, "he is a new creation in Christ". The old dominance of the flesh is circumcised away, and a new spirit which is not subject to sin is implanted. It is a wonderful experience in freedom.
I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me. – Galatians 2:20
In order for the Watchtower to deny the Substitutionary Atonement, they first have to make it UNNECESSARY.
They do this by utterly avoiding this scripture at all costs.
“it is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment” - Hebrews 9: 27
After 40 years in the Watchtower system, I never heard this scripture quoted even once. The reason that so many people asked us at the doors if we knew Jesus as our PERSONAL savior, was because they rightly knew that Jesus taught a PERSONAL JUDGMENT after a person dies.
After Jesus was resurrected from the dead (which PROVED his authority over life and death) he told Peter and his other friends this in Acts. Chapter 10:
he commanded us to preach unto the people, and to testify that it is he which was ordained of God to be the Judge of the the living and the dead. To him give all the prophets witness, that through his name whosoever believeth in him shall receive remission of sins.
The watchtower goes so far as to twist Pauls' speech on the necessity of being born again, into a doctrine where a person can atone for their own sin just by dying! The watchtower (and Jw's) likes to quote Romans 6: 7 without reading the previous verse 6 (and the whole chapter for that matter)
6Knowing this, that our old man is crucified with him, that the body of sin might be destroyed, that henceforth we should not serve sin. 7For he that is dead is freed (NWT reads: acquitted) from sin.
We are not acquitted of sin by dying, we are freed from it by dying. Only the blood of Jesus can acquit us if we receive it. Rather, we we are born again NOW (and Jesus 3 times told Nicodemus this was absolutely necessary) so that we might be done with sin IN THIS LIFE.
The Watchtower completely tries to "spiritualize" away the CLEAR teaching that there will be a resurrection of the righteous and the unrighteous for the purpose of judgement:
For as the Father hath life in himself; so hath he given to the Son to have life in himself; 27 And hath given him authority to execute judgment also, because he is the Son of man. 28 Marvel not at this: for the hour is coming, in the which all that are in the graves shall hear his voice, 29 And shall come forth; they that have done good, unto the resurrection of life; and they that have done evil, unto the resurrection of damnation. - John 5
Rev 20: 5 - But the rest of the dead lived not again until the thousand years were finished.
The Great White Throne is the final place that all people who reject God's offer of Substitutionary Atonement end up. There, they will stand in their body , soul, and spirit as a full man or woman and face God. As a result of rejecting Gods offer for a pardon, they will have their sins (charges) read against them and then will receive their due punishment.... for their sins against God, and sins against their neighbor who were created in the eternal image of God.
I saw the dead, small and great, stand before God; and the books were opened: and another book was opened, which is the book of life: and the dead were judged out of those things which were written in the books, according to their works. 13And the sea gave up the dead which were in it; and death and hell delivered up the dead which were in them: and they were judged every man according to their works.
Thus the Watchtower false hope of escaping death and waltzing right on into paradise after God kills everyone except JW's at Aramgeddon....... is a very childish, selfish false hope. It is based on the premise that if a person does what the ever-changing Watchtower says, they have no guilt before God, which would make judgment unnecessary and therefore not a threat to them .... personally.
It is a different legal arrangement than the one offered by God in the New Testament. And remember, there is no atonement for YOUR sin according to the WT view; Jesus died for Adam in their view, NOT YOU. No one pays the piper for your guilt… not you, NOT Christ, no one. You get to be your own savior just by dying.
This is the singular objective of all false religion – to separate us, guilty sinners, from God’s mercy and full pardon.
John 10:1, Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that entereth not by the door into the sheepfold, but climbeth up some other way, the same is a thief and a robber.
Every home has a door. The Door to God's home has a name. His name is Jesus--
"I AM THE DOOR: BY ME IF ANY MAN ENTER IN, HE SHALL BE SAVED..."Jesus, John 10:9