I recieved a PM from a born again Christian asking how I might aid him in helping a relative excape the WT. While I am not a born again Christian, the teaching of Jesus that we can remove guilt and be right with God just by believing it is done helped me out. In a sense I was "saved" from the WT "yoke of slavery" (Gal. 1:5) The Watchtower has craftily convinced all JWs that they must "do more, do more, do more" or they will not survive Armageddon. They have glossed over the teaching of Grace, even translating the original Greek to "underserved kindness". Unfortunately this phrase does not convey the real message of salvation as an unconditional free gift but the word "underserved" rings in the ears of JW's and so they still feel unworthy. I doubt the translators did this intentionally but certainly did a good job of hiding the truth of being made right with God as a free gift. Jehovah's Witnesses DO NOT FEEL RIGHT WITH GOD. There is a constant feeling of inadequacy, guilt that one is not "doing all we can". Yet in reading the book of Romans with the help of translations other than the NWT (we preferred The Living Bible ) we found text such as "yet God declares us 'not guilty' of offending him if we trust in Jesus Christ, who in his kindness freely takes away our sins." (Rom. 4:24, Living Bible) But what about the "do more, do more, do more" mentality of the JW? Paul answeres "Through reading the scriptures that I came to realize that I could never find God's favor by trying--and failing--to obey the laws. I came to realize that acceptance with God comes by believing in Christ." (Gal 2:19) It is very difficult to understand this as a JW. I had read these scriptures many times but they did not make sense to me. So I started substituting words as I read and it began to click. In the following I will give an example:
Gal 3:11-13: Consequently, it is clear that no one can ever win God's favor by trying to keep the Jewish Laws, because God has said that the only way we can be right in his sight is by faith. As the prophet Habakkuk says it, 'The man who finds life will find it through trusting God'. How different from this way of faith is the way of law witch says that a man is saved by obeying every law of God without one slip. But Christ has bought us out from under the doom of that impossible system by taking the curse for our wrongdoing upon himself."
Now to swap a few phrases to fit our WT experience:
"Consequently, it is clear that no one, can ever win God's favor by trying to keep the Watchtower rules, because God has said that the only way we can be right in his sight is by faith. As the prophet Habakkuk says it, 'The man who finds life will find it through trusting God'. How different from this way of faith is the way of a Jehovah's Witness which says that a man is saved by obeying everything the Watchtower says without one slip. But Christ has bought us out from under the doom of that impossible system by taking the curse for our wrongdoing upon himself."
Another is Gal 4:9-11;
How can it be that you want to go back again and become slaves once more to another poor, weak , useless religion of trying to get into the Paradise (heaven) by obeying the Watchtower Society (God's laws)? You are trying to find favor with God by what you do or don't do".
We know JW's are turned off by those they perceive to be a "Jesus Freaks". They are locked into the old testament JEHOVAH concept of god. Yet I personally feel the best way to help a JW to wake up is to give them a clearer picture of this issue of FAITH VERSES WORKS. And belief in Jesus and a loving father who demand nothing but "love" is a great anchor to hang on to when you find your entire belief system has been based on a fraud. What do you think? Steve