I was browsing channelc.org and came across this. I certainly had never thought of the concept of Jesus simply pointing the way to God, rather than being the way as he should be.
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Just the other day, I bumped into the ?Greatest Man? book and started to leaf through it and wondered how I must have read it several times while a JW and never once connected the dots that Jesus Christ IS the Kingdom and He is the road to life.
The book contains the life and works of Jesus, it contains His words, and every time I read it, tears welled up in my eyes, BUT it lacked the one essential thing and that is point to Jesus as the Savior. Yes, it talked about him as being the Son of God and savior of the world, but it did not promote the notion that one must approach Him now to be saved. I kept asking myself why? What was lacking?
Here are few points that I have found, and I am sure you too must have found some glaring issues with it.
- The Watchtower Society teaches that Jesus Christ is Michael the Arch Angel, and since Angels are mere messengers of Jehovah, JW would not think of approaching an Angel for salvation.
- The title of the book is ?The Greatest Man?? which implies that Jesus was a man who mainly facilitated salvation but was not the SOURCE of it.
- The book?s main focus is to point to Jesus as an example, as a role model mainly for the preaching activity. On the second page, there is picture of Jesus gesturing with His hands inviting the reader to follow, but if you examine it carefully you would note that Jesus is not actually pointing to himself, but rather He is pointing to a path further along. They want to impress on the reader that Jesus merely pointed the way, and not that He himself IS the way.
- The book continuously refers to Jesus as a servant of Jehovah, as one who fulfilled his ministry and the work that Jehovah had set for him all in an effort to instill the same spirit in JWs meaning that they too must fulfill their ministry and work in order to be saved. This is to emphasize a work-based salvation and not a person based salvation, namely Christ.
- The book?s main thrust is to encourage JWs to follow Jehovah and do His will. How would one follow Jehovah? Well, Jehovah has a visible earthly organization, that?s how. Follow the organization and you would be following Jehovah. Do the will of the organization and you would be doing Jehovah?s will.
- Jesus Christ has been substituted from the source of salvation, the focal point of the Kingdom, to somebody who simply pointed the way, the way to Jehovah. The way to Jehovah is through his earthly visible organization. In effect, the life and works of Christ has been employed as a promotion tool for bolstering the visible organization, which is the Watchtower Society.
- In a quick sleight of hand, the Watchtower Society has transformed Jesus Christ from Master to someone who is actually serving the Society. They have turned Jesus Christ from the way to salvation to someone you stopped and asked for directions.
- The last two chapters of the book is where the Society plants its own doctrine and slant on things, such as 1914, the Generation and Armageddon.
No wonder then that reading the ?Greatest Man?? book, one will never be encouraged to approach Jesus Christ personally as The Way and salvation.
As a JW, I would never have entertained the thought that Jesus is approachable, even today, when I speak to JWs that they need to approach Jesus Christ, they would invariably reply ?How?? or ?Where is Jesus??
It is far easier for them to follow a visible structure, an organization that claims to speak on behalf of God, rather than follow the real truth in Christ.
I thank God for having opened my eyes and allowed me to see Jesus Christ, the way He really is.
In Christ,
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a reply was given...
You know I had never really realized that they were always pointing away from Christ to Jehovah as the main source of salvation. But it is true the sure do. Never is it clearly mentioned that one must approach Christ to reach Jehovah in the text. Though the book is about Jesus Christ he is given second position, as only a teacher and follower of God.
Curious that I did not realize that before.
I noticed in the magazines that they will say:
Reasoning people will see this or that, implying that anyone that does not see things their way are unreasoning. I also just noticed that for the first time. The brain washing is in small word thoughts. If you are looking for it you would not notice it. Very cleaver.
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Anyone here realize this quiet deception?