Jehovah's Witness/ Jehovah Witnesses

Rather than transcribing my notes from class, I thought I would present something from another Life Group teacher, Joe Huber. Joe was raised Jehovah Witness, so he has a unique perspective that I thought would be good to share. Rather than focus on what they believe, Joe spoke specifically about how to witness. Amy was lucky enough to sit in on his lesson, and bring home some notes. I hope you enjoy and that it is beneficial to you.

Jehovah Witnesses believe the Bible to be the Word of God. They believe it but they really do not know what it says for the most part because they study publications the Jehovah Witness religion produces. These publications have Bible references but the bible is rarely used. He is told that the Bible is difficult to understand and that is why they use the publications, to help them understand God's word.

The Jehovah Witness believe that the Bible and his religion are in complete agreement and taht they do not contradict each other.

Any time you witness to the Jehovah Witness realize that your greatest strength is to know God's Word so when you hear the Jehovah Witness telling yuo thing that you know are not Biblical you can use that as a tool to help him see that his religion and the Bible do not agree.

Ask the Jehovah Witness questions like, 'If the Bible and your religion contradict each other, which would you choose?' Most will choose the Bible but will quickly say that this never happens. They truly believe that both agree.

Lovingly show scriptures that show contradiction. Go slowly. Help him process truth by asking questions that help them think. Realize it is hard to accept that there is indeed contradiction and pray for him that the Holy Spirit will use God's word to bring the Jehovah Witness to salvation.

The Jehovah Witness religion believes Jesus is the arch angel Michael. He is a high priest, and a mediator, created by Jehovah God or Father. He is certainly not God.

A great place to start in helping the Jehovah Witness see this truth is John 1:1 and taking him slowly through verse 14. (turn there now and read it yourself, as practice.)

Ask lots of simple questions. Make them think. Help him process these thoughts with your questions. Ask:

1. According to John 1:1 how long has 'the Word' been in existence?

2. This person referred to as 'The Word', who is he with?

3. According to this verse who is 'The Word'? Realize that this small verse is devastating to the religion he believes in. In it is the Trinity which he does not believe in. It shows immediate contradiction. He is faced with making a choice between his religion or the Bible and that is very scary to him. Read the passage all the way to verse 14 showing that this person called the Word who the Scripture calls God is clearly Jesus. Any scriptures you know showing Jesus as God are great passages to use.

Other passages to use: Genesis 1:1, 26. before reading these verses ask, "Who made the world and who made man? After reading the verse, ask "Who is 'us' in this passage? Who is 'our' in this passage?" Compare it to John 1:10

Matt 1:23 - Immanuel means God with us.

Isaiah 9:6 - Jesus is called God/ Mighty God

Ask the Jehovah Witness who raised Jesus from the dead? He will tell you God. Agree with him and then show him John 2:19-21.

The Jews knew who Jesus claimed to be. John 10:30-33.

Thomas declared Jesus to be God and Jesus accepted the title in John 20:27-29. (If he were an angel, then he could not claim to be God, as that is above his station).

A very devastating blow to a Jehovah Witness is that Jesus is called the Alpha and Omega in the book of Revelation. A great question to ask the Jehovah Witness is who is the Alpha and Omega? He will tell you that it is Jehovah God. Tell him that you agree with him and turn in the scripture to Revelation 1:8 and follow it through to verse 18. It is clear that the Alpha and Omega is Jesus. Only Jesus was in the world, died, and is alive forevermore. The Alpha and Omega is God/ Jesus. Revelation 22:7, 12,13,16, and 20 further identifies the Alpha and Omega.

There are many more passages and God will open your eyes to as you study the scriptures to use with a Jehovah Witness. God bless you as you reach out to these people.

Joe Huber - former Jehovah Witness

Christian Science isn't very Science. Or Christian.

Let us start with a definition. Cult - a group of people who follow one person's mistranslation or interpretation of the Bible. By this definition, the Church of Jesus Christ, Scientist is a cult. Also, they are not related to the Scientology-ists. Two separate sets of sciencey cults. The Christian Scientists were founded by Mary Baker Eddy in 1875. She was born in 1821, and died in 1910. She had three husbands that last of whom died sometime before 1882 due to "arsenic, mentally administered." Someone poisoned her husband, with their minds. Or at least, that is what she thought.

See, Mary Baker Eddy grew up really sickly. Always fighting off on disease or malady. Then one day, she was reading her Bible and it was revealed to her the method (the science) by with Jesus did all his miraculous healings. And she was healed. So she wrote "Science and Health with a Key to the Scriptures". She then went on to be the most prolific healer since Jesus. Supposedly.

See, (1) one of the things she figured out was that there is no sin, sickness or death. These don't exist. In fact, (2)there is no real physical world. What we exist in is just an illusion or a lower form of the spirit world. So, she discovered the science, or method, or way to overcome the illusion that binds us and makes us think we are sick, hurt, hungry like Jesus did.

While we are on the subject, she also realized that (3) God is impersonal, a mind/spirit that can be understood as the "All in All", encompassing everything. (4) Jesus was just a man who demonstrated the metaphysical truth. He was the 'Idea of Christ', not actual diety. So (5)we can be like Jesus, by discovering or realizing the higher self inside of us. So, since he isn't diety and we can be higher spiritual beings like him, we need to realize that (6)the events in his life need to be viewed as metaphor and spiritual and not taken literally.

Ultimately, all this means that (7) Christian Science possess a more complete and superior form of spiritual knowledge than traditional christianity.

If you're a loony. First of all... her husband died of a heart attack. She didn't agree, so she hired a doctor who agreed with her. But.... turns out he wasn't a doctor. So they arrested him and closed his 'medial school'.

Secondly, the idea that this world is an illusion or somehow a reflection or lower form of something spiritual has been around since Plato and Aristotle. Remember the Matrix? That's the kind of thing she's saying. "Do you think that's air you're breathing now?"

Thirdly, the idea that the scriptures have some kind of hidden meaning in them that you have to discover or have revealed to you goes back to the Gnostics. There is a lot in the New Testament about the truth being revealed and available to all, and Gnosticism was heresy that the early church combated even in the early days.

As we discussed in class, it doesn't make any sense. How can they deny the tangibility of this existence? This reality? Or evil? How can they see such evil take place and think "this isn't really happening." Not in the sense of "this is so horrible, I wish this isn't happening" but "yeah, that didn't happen. I just think it did, but it didn't."

These are the people that we tend to see in the news, the 'christians' who didn't take their kid to the doctor and then their kid died of a preventable disease. Why go to a doctor if you aren't really sick to begin with? Through a 'practioner' (healer) they can realize they don't exist physically and therefore, they can't really be sick or hurt. Update! They do have churches. I did a Google search and they have one in Dallas. They also have something like 9 reading rooms. So you see where the emphasis is. They don't have churches, because they don't need to worship, they have reading rooms because they need to realize this existence is just a figment of our imaginations. Once we do that, we can ascend (metaphorically) like Jesus to heaven (oneness with God).

One of the biggest dangers with Christian Science is the way that they market themselves. And while I'm guilty of that joke, it's not really a joke. If you look at the fundamental beliefs of Christianity they do not match up with anything they believe. Mary Baker Eddy even said, the material blood of Jesus was no more efficacious to cleanse from sin when it was shed upon 'the accursed tree,' than when it was flowing in his veins. The only thing that Christian Science has in common with Christianity is that they are appropriating our language and terms. Is it too late to get God, Christ, Christianity, and Jesus trademarked? Some people shouldn't be allowed to use those terms.

The Mormons

To begin with, let's watch a video. Sounds pretty innocuous right? But did you notice anything that seemed a little...off? Maybe raised a red flag or two? Hopefully, you did. If not, we'll try to work some of that out.

First, some background information: Mormonism was founded in 1820 in New York when Joseph Smith had a vision of God and Jesus and they told him that all the other Christian Sects were wrong and an abomination in his sight. When Smith turned 18, he had another vision that told him about some gold plates and then at 21 he was told in a vision where to find them.

Having found them, he translated the plates into English from 'Egyptian hieroglyphics". In 1830, the Book of Mormon was published. The book of Mormon serves as their main source of scripture, and they view it to be of greater importance than the Bible. The believe it is a record of two ancient people groups who lived in North America and had highly advanced civilizations that were eventually destroyed. The only records left were the golden plates that Smith found. Jesus supposedly appeared to these people after he was resurrected. That's why they are sometimes called Latter-Day Saints, since Jesus came over here, you know. Later.

Some interesting facts about Mormonism:

1. Originally advocated polygamy. Smith himself had over 30 wives

2. No longer advocates polygamy. The newer editions of the Book of Mormon have revised or removed their stance on multiple wives.

3. God has/ had multiple wives in heaven. He had physical sex with Mary. (Maybe that should be 4.)

4. He had physical sex with Mary.

5. Jesus married Mary and Martha and had kids by each.

6. The dead can be baptized into Mormonism by proxy. That's why they have such good genealogical records, so they can save all their ancestors from hell.

7. The Trinity are different gods. Because there are multiple Gods.

8. Jesus is the first-born spirit child of God and a heavenly mother.

a. He's our elder brother

b. He's Lucifer's brother

9. Salvation is by faith plus works in the Mormon church

10. Everyone goes to 1 of 3 places.Hell, heaven and Highest Heaven. The best of the best go to the Highest Heaven, where they get to be gods and have their own planet.

11. After high School, most of the boys go on 2 year mission trip.

That is bare-bones Mormonism 101. If you compare everything they believe compared to Biblical Christianity, it is starkly different. Everything from their stance on the Trinity, the Bible to salvation, it all differs radically from what we would call 'orthodox' Christianity.

A couple of questions that you could pose to a Mormon:

Why do Mormons claim that there are many gods and that men can be gods when the Bible says there is only one God?

If Jesus was conceived of a physical union, how was he born of a virgin?

Atheism and agnosticism

This is not a joke. Seriously. Did you check it out? Did you know that 7% of Americans claim to atheist and/or agnostic. That means that they outnumber Mormons 3/1; Jews 4/1; and Muslims 14/1. They represent a huge segment of the population, we may even know someone who is one, but how prepared are we to engage with them and influence them towards a relationship with Christ.

First, a language lesson. An atheist doesn't believe that God exists. Atheist means 'no god'. An agnostic doesn't believe that God can be known. Agnostic means 'no knowledge'. The 'a' in front of the word means 'no'. Like an amusement park. Muse means 'think' which is why you pay $12 for a burger.

1. Atheism could be considered a religion. It's world view that is adhered to by millions. So it could be considered a religion. a religion that doesn't believe in God. Crazy!

2. Atheists use a couple of arguments to support their belief that God doesn't exists. Here's a rundown:

a. Evil exists. How can there be a good God if evil exists?

b. Apparent purposelessness of life. If God exists, how can life be so meaningless?

c. Random occurrences in the universe. If God exists, how can life be random?

d. First Law of Thermodynamics - "energy can neither be created nor destroyed"

How can you respond to that? These are hard questions, that everyone deals with.

a. As Christians, we know that evil exists because of sin.

b. Just because life seems meaningless, doesn't mean that it is. Christ gives us purpose.

c. Stuff that seems random isn't actually random. Like DNA. People used to think that it was random, but now they are sequencing it.

d. The first Law of Thermodynamics - "energy can neither be created nor destroyed" is not what it says. It is actually says that the amount of actual energy in the universe remains constant. Science makes no claims on what 'can' or 'cannot be' only on what is observed. As it is, the amount of usable energy is our universe is winding down, (entropy) and eventually our sun will burn out and we will all freeze to death. Yay science!

So that is pretty much it. I did want to add a short little video, where Ben Stein is interviewing Richard Dawkins, who is a best selling author and astrophysicist. He's also a huge proponent of atheism. As you watch it, keep in mind Psalm 10:4 " In his pride the wicked does not seek him; in all his thoughts there is no room for God."

Islam

Disclaimer disclaimer. I don't know everything, and depending on who you ask, I don't know anything. So what you read here has been taken mostly from the following source: What's the Big Deal about Other Religons by John Ankerberg and Dillon Burroughs. I'm not going to site every source or quote because you aren't grading me and I don't care. If you want to read a concise, well educated and thoughtful treatise of another religion, read their book. If not, read on!

When you think of a Muslim, what do you think of? Do you think of 9/11? Of horrible atrocities by a few individual outliers? If so, you may not have full understanding of what a Muslim is. Those guys make up a small part of the Islamic faith, but they are not the standard by which we should judge the whole.

Islam means 'submission' and a muslim is 'one who submits'. Muhammad is the founder of Islam and he had visions for 22 years. In those visions, the angel Gabriel spoke to him.

There are currently three main sects, or branches of Islam:

Shittes - Mostly in Iran. They believe that the leader of the muslim's (Imam) is a hereditary position passed down from Muhammad through his daughter, and that there is a last, or hidden Imam who will come and save them.

Suni - the majority of Muslims. They believe that any good muslim can become the leader and they vote on it

Sufis - the smallest branch. They are mystic muslims, and have a mystical, esoteric view of God. The 'Whirling Dervishes' are Sufi.

There are 5 'Pillars' of Islam which a good Muslim will follow and take part of.

1. saying the Shahadah - "There is no God but Alah & Muhammad is his messenger."

2. Salat - praying. They say 17 prayers a day which 5 specific daily prayer times and prayer at the mosque on Fridays at noon.

3. Sawm - fast - for lunar month of Ramadan, Muslims don't eat during daylight hours only when the sun is down.

4. Zakat - giving the poor or the needy

5. Hajj - a pilgrimage to Mecca at least once in the Muslim's life if they are physically and financially able

There is a "6th" pillar called Jihad - which is fighting against Islam's enemies, but depending on who you talk to, is not considered a Pillar of the faith. Some interpret Jihad to be metaphorical and internal, a spiritual battle that takes place within the Muslim, and others to be an actual physical struggle or holy war. There are verses and cases in the Koran for both interpretations.

The Koran, or Quaran, is the most memorized book in the world. It is divided into 114 chapters, or Suras and Muslims memorize the entire thing in Arabic. These are the visions of Muhammad as given to him by the angel Gabriel. This is the definitive revelation of God to man, all other works, The Jewish Torah and Christian Bible specifically have been misinterpreted.

The Koran is not their only source, they also have: the Hadith which is a collection of sayings and practices of Muhammad as collected by his contemporaries and historians; and Sharia Law which is a collection of civil laws that Muslims should follow.

Islam differs from Christianity in it's source material and their view of God and Jesus. They don't disbelieve the Bible per se, just in how Christians have interpreted it. They believe that Jews, and then Christians had their chance and blew it. So the angel Gabriel came to Muhammad to reveal God's good and perfect will.

They believe that Jesus was a good man, a prophet, but they assign priority based on proximity, so the most recent is the most important. Since Muhammad was last, his message supersedes Jesus'.

Muslims believe that in order to get into heaven, they have to do enough good works to balance out all their bad ones. There are two angels that follow you around, recording everything that you do. When you get to heaven, they weigh your books, the good and evil, and which ever side tips, that is where you go. So they try to stock up on those good works.

How to witness to a muslim:

1. Love them. the average Muslim has a zeal for God and a desire to follow him and they express their worship through every aspect of their lives. Respect and appreciate that ernest desire for what it is, a hunger for God.

2. Jesus. they say he is a prophet and their Koran claims he was sinless and good, but not God. If he is sinless, how can he claim to be God and not be God? Wouldn't that make him a liar? And if he didn't make that claim and we just misinterpritted the Bible, then why was he killed?

3. Salvation by grace through faith - How can they be assured their place in heaven on system that weighs the good you've done versus the bad? God is so much higher than man, so much holier, he could ban us all from his presence, why would 999 good deeds out weight 998 bad ones?

This last part I didn't have time to go over in class, but I thought was really interesting.

In the Koran, their is a term used called "abrogation" which is a legal term meaning "the destruction or anulling of a former law by an act of legislative power, authority, or use." In the context of the Koran, it means that verses could be, or have been, changed. "And whatever verse we abrogate or cast into oblivion, we bring one better or like it." and "every term has a book. God blots out and he establishes whatsoever he will." This raises some interesting and troubling questions theologically, so bear with me while we unpack this.

Abrogation means that a law or rule can be replaced by a similar law or removed all together, and that it can take place in the Koran and God can establish and change whatever he wants.

Why would God do that? If he is all knowing, why would he need to change his mind later? That isn't really reassuring. If scripture can be changed, that posses a couple of problems:

If God has or can change scripture, how do we know he won't change it in the future?

They claim Muhammad is the last prophet and there will be no more. What if there is? What if they abrogate that?

How can they trust their immortal soul to someone who can change their minds on a whim? They claim God is merciful, but how can they depend on his mercy if they can't be assured he will stay merciful?

How can you base morality on something that is temporal or temporary? What if it changes?

Lastly, there is a lot of talk about Allah and God being the same. That Islam and Christianity are both paths to the same God, and that just isn't true. If you examine their beliefs about God, Allah just doesn't measure up. Alla is not personal. He has no likeness, he is transcendent and is unknowable, apart from Koran. He has no body and "he does not resemble his creatures in any respect." He is neither physical or spirit, he is something totally unique. And that just doesn't jive with what we know about God. He is personal, and we are made in his image. He was incarnate in a physical body, fully man and fully God. He is completely unique and he is also triumverate, the God-head, one in three persons. Our God is not their Allah. They are not equal, they are not the same.

Judaism 101

Disclaimer disclaimer. I don't know everything, and depending on who you ask, I don't know anything. So what you read here has been taken mostly from the following source: What's the Big Deal about Other Religons by John Ankerberg and Dillon Burroughs. I'm not going to site every source or quote because you aren't grading me and I don't care. If you want to read a concise, well educated and thoughtful treatise of another religion, read their book. If not, read on!

Te purpose of studying other religions is not to arm ourselves to be judgemental and dogmatic but to be equipped to have an intelligent conversation with people of other faiths in order to influence them towards Christ.

What is Jew? Or, what makes someone a Jew? Is it a race? A nationality? A religion? Yes. No. Maybe? You can be Jewish and not an Isreali (you don't have Israeli citizenship). You can convert to Judaism and become a Jew, and you can be an American 'non-practicing' Jew. The word 'Jew' means all these things. For the purposes of our conversation, when I say 'Jew' you say 'religion'.

Judaism is the oldest monotheistic religion in the world. They are (as an ethnic group, nation and religon) descended from Abraham and their scripture is the Tanakh and they especially venerate the Torah (the first 5 books, given to Moses). It is also the Christian Old Testament.

In the 12th or 13th century, Rabbi Rambam put together a list of 13 Jewish Principles that Jews (I say 'Jews', you say '________' ) believe:

1. God Exists

2. God is Eternal

3. God is One and Unique

4. God is Incorporeal (invisible)

5. Prayer is to God

6. The words of the prophets are true

7. Moses' prophecies are true and he was the greatest prophet

8. the written Torah (the first 5 books) and the Oral Torah (Talmud) were given to Moses

9. There will be no other Torah

10. God knows the thoughts and deeds of man

11. God will Punish the wicked and reward the Good

12. The Messiah will come

13. the dead will be ressurrected

There are 4 types of Jews:

Orthodox Jews - believe the Torah is to be followed today (1o% of the Jews in US). These are going to be the ones who keep kosher laws, beards uncut, sideburns, tassels, etc.

Reform Jews - follow principles rather than specifics (they are considered 'Liberal'). They might tend to see the Torah as guidelines and principles rather than actual laws to follows. (35% of the Jews in US).

Conservative Jews - They fall somewhere in the middle between the other two. The believe Torah came from God but has a human component to it. (26% of the Jews in the US)

Messianic Jews - Jewish Christians. There are 47,000 worldwide.

The main differences between Judaism and Christianity is their relative stances on the deity of Christ. Jews will either say Jesus was a good man, or a heretic. The do not think that Jesus is God, as that would violate beliefs 3, 4, and twelve. They acheive salvation from doing good deeds, not from the saving grace of Jesus.

Here is a story that I didn't have time to share in class: "I tried no to stare as a bearded man three rows ahead of me stood up and began winding a long leather strap around his arm. He was observing a daily custom - binding small boxes called 'teffilin' to the forehead and arm. The boxes contain parchment with Dueteronomy 6:6-8 on it. As he wound it around himself, I could hear him speaking in Hebrew, quoting Hosea 2:19-20, " I will betroth you to me forever; I will betroth you in righteousness and justice, in love and compassion. I will betroth you in faithfulness, and you will acknowledge the Lord." Sitting next to me was a young girl who when she wasn't sleeping, was reading her scripture and praying, rythmically rocking back and forth as she read and meditated. This is a practice called 'davening', a way of expresssing that one's whole self: body and soul, is caught up with God."

These are powerful examples of the tradition and devotion that defines their faith. It is a faith based on discipline and practice, but they have a zeal and fervent devotion that is enviable.

Nature vs Nurture

I remember a very few things from my childhood with absolute clarity. One of the things I remember is THIS. It is a Superman comic book complete with audio cassette tape. Also, THIS. And finally, THIS. Now, these books were wonderful and formative for me. I named my cabbage patch kid Clark. After Superman. I was three. And awesome. (You all know you had cabbage patch kids in the 80's. Don't hate.)

Looking back, these books have kind of lost their luster. The Atom for instance (his power allows him to shrink) says "I may be short but my anger's growing!" At one point the narrator says "They decided to move on." and is immediately followed by a voice over of the Atom saying "Well, I guess it's time to move on." You can listen to it here. But my love for them extends even to this day. I have them, and I'm thinking about busting them out for my son to listen to...if I can find a tape player.....

You see, I think they started me down the path that I have walked my whole life. And gave me some sense of identity. I'm a geek. With encyclopedic knowledge of comic books. And almost anything else. I accept that. But am I a geek because of my environment, or was I born that way? I certainly didn't buy those comic book/cassette abominations myself. My parents did that. They also bought me the superman pajamas, Superman/Batman/Green Lantern/Robin/Aquaman/Wonder Woman action figures, and more Transformers and Legos than anyone in their right mind should have. So obviously they played a part. My mom introduced me to the Hobbit and Lord of the Rings and my dad made sure I watched Star Wars and Star Trek movies.

But they cringe if you call me a geek in front of them. But it is what I am. I know this. But I have also embraced it. And carried it farther than either one of them really find comfortable. Like when I got into tabletop miniature gaming. I tried to get my dad to play HeroClix with me, and he did. But only because he loved me. He got up from the game, and sighed a sigh that said, "Ok. That's over with. Let's hope he never asks again."

And when I casually mentioned that I was going to start playing a roleplaying game in college (Rifts, not D&D) to my mom, I got a "I'm not pleased with this idea" talk. And I'm pretty sure she prayed for me. I thought that playing Rifts would be a better idea than Dungeons and Dragons given some of the.... literature.....going on around about D&D, and on one hand that was true. But on the otherhand, Glitter Boys. (BROKEN!!)

So I have gone beyond and further than my parents. Beyond what they feel comfortable with. And I seek out and find new things to geek out about. Japanese Manga, anime and films. Chinese and Hong Kong Kung Fu movies. Sci-Fi and Fantasy novels. I seek it out because I like it. Because it all stimulates me. Creatively, intellectually, and recreation-ally. I seek it out. Just like I would have sought it out had they not exposed me to it.

I'm a geek because they raised me and because I choose to be. I think it's both. Environment and choice.

It's the same with Jesus (but also different). I'm a christian because I was raised in it, and because I choose to be. But I also would have chosen to follow him regardless of their decision.

But it's also none of those because he chose me. We love him because he first loved us. And I choose Him because he first chose me.

The only geek analogy I can make to that dynamic would be Captain Picard beaming me onboard and telling me he needed my help.