@ Seabreeze
Excellent response! Hope you don't mind if I copy and use it with your permission.
Here are some things I have found:
Christ
paid the ransom by His death
Matthew_20:28
Even
as the Son of man came not to be ministered unto, but to minister,
and to give
his life a ransom
for many. (Mark 10:45)
The
ransom was paid for all
1Timothy_2:6
Who
gave himself a ransom
for all,
to be testified in due time.
The
price for the believer's ransom being the blood of Christ.
Acts
20:28 Take heed therefore
unto yourselves, and to all the flock, over the which the Holy Ghost
hath made you overseers, to feed the church of God, which he hath
purchased (ransomed) with his own blood.
The
Ransom was paid to free men from sin's consequences i.e., spiritual
separation from God including slavery to sin and ultimately from
eternal death.
Hos_13:14
I will
ransom
them from the power of the grave;
I will redeem them from death: O death, I will be thy plagues; O
grave, I will be thy destruction: repentance shall be hid from mine
eyes.
The
ransom payment was paid for all so mankind would have a right to a
resurrection. Christ died for all. But it seems that the benefits of the ransom sacrifice don't apply to the other sheep right now.
The
January 1, 1987 Watchtower,
page 30 says:
"While
the small group selected to be taken to heaven have had their sins
forgiven from Pentecost of 33 C.E. onward and thus already enjoy the
Jubilee, the Scriptures show that the liberation for believing
mankind will occur during Christ's Millennial Reign. That will be
when he applies to mankind the benefits of his ransom sacrifice."
Watchtower
writings speak highly of "the atonement." But, in fact, as
to its importance, they relegate it to a secondary status behind
human good works. In an ultimate sense, what is it that determines
whether or not the salvation benefits of Christ’s death are
applied? It is not faith in Christ that applies the merits of
Christ, but the good works and perseverance of the individual and his
faith in the Watchtower Society. For without these, the merits of
Christ are worthless. The atonement is therefore of secondary
importance to man’s own works of righteousness. Apparently
then, for the Watchtower Society, what the Bible describes as "filthy
rags" (our works of righteousness) has more value for
salvation than the sacrificial and sanctified death of
Jesus Christ Himself!
The
Witnesses’ doctrine of the ransom largely ignores the Biblical
teaching on the subject, by claiming to accept the "ransom
sacrifice" which was provided in the death of Christ not as a
finished work, but only as a foundation from which man works to
provide his own salvation.
