Week 9

Jehovah’s Witnesses

What if I told you the end of the world is coming on a certain date. That day came and went, and no end to speak of. I set a new date. That day came and no end of time. “Really this time I’m for real” and set a new one. Still the end is not here. What if I then told you that you misunderstood me and this is the last and final date. Guess what? Not that date either. I wouldn’t be very trust worthy would I?

This is exactly what the Jehovah’s Witnesses (JWs) have been doing. They’ve made predictions for the end of the world or the second coming of Christ in 1879, 1914, 1925, 1940, and 1975. In Matthew 24:36 it says But of that day and hour knoweth no [man], no, not the angels of heaven, but my Father only. No one knows when Jesus will return, but they still keep trying to predict it. What is bad is Jehovah’s Witnesses believe everything the Watchtower tells them. The Watchtower is the publication from the main headquarters and is used as a study tool. This is their authority. They are not allowed to think on their own and interpret scripture.

Another place the JWs error in is the Trinity. They don’t believe that God can be three coequal, coeternal Persons. They don’t believe the Holy Spirit is God. They say it is like electricity. Here are some references that attribute personal traits to the Holy Spirit: Acts 13:2; Romans 8:14, 26,27; 1 Corinthians 12:11; Hebrews 3:7 and Revelation 2:7. Also in the Trinity they don’t believe Jesus as God. They do say that is was created as a god and call him a “mighty god”, but not God Himself.

JWs also don’t see that we are saved by grace through faith in Jesus Christ (Eph. 2:8,9). They got the grace down and believe that by the grace of God we are able to work our way to heaven.

Last time I checked a prophet had to be 100% correct. With their several missed predictions, I don’t know how anybody can trust anything that they teach especially when it is in direct contrast to the bible. When the bible has been held up as truth for so long and has been scrutinized throughout the centuries without any contradictions, how can you trust anything above the bible?

Our Visit

We had a really good visit. We visited a family from the school. The son last Sunday wanted to go to Church but they didn’t know how to get there. They left trying to find it with the son praying in the back seat. They ended up finding Victory and was there a little early for our evening services. They were going home to get the mother and never made it back.

We had a great visit with them they are believers and love the school and the son’s teacher this year. We talked to them a little about Sunday school and church. The son and the dad were going to be there for our Wednesday night services. We prayed with them and left them some church information.

We gave our bible out to a guy in the Walmart parking lot. I tried to give it out first without success. The person said they already had one but Joanna was successful.

Prayer Request

Pray that God will give us a passion for the lost, one that we loose sleep at night worrying that people are going to hell. Pray that God will put people in our path that we can share the gospel and His Word with.

Week 8

Cults

This week we talked about cults. It was an introduction to cults and in the next few weeks we’ll do a more in depth study of some of different ones.

The word “cult” comes from the Latin word for worship. Basically a cult is defined as “a religion regarded as unorthodox or spurious”. Really anything that opposes the normal biblical view. It is not meant to be an insulting word but a way to categorize something different the biblical Christianity. Some of cults, for example the Mormons, might even call biblical Christianity a cult. The Jews call early Christianity a cult because of their differing views.

One of the characteristics of a cult is that it always surrounds itself around a specific person or that person’s misinterpretation of the Bible (ex. Joseph Smith with the Mormons). Besides being focuses around a leader or person’s interpretation, there are 5 things that you can look for doctrinally in a cult.

They reject the Trinity. They do not believe that Jesus is God. They either lower him down to humanity’s level or will raise themselves up to the same status as Jesus.
Belief that all Christians churches are wrong and they have the only truth.
They believe the bible, but will distort it to fit their viewpoint of man, God, Holy Spirit, Heaven and hell, salvation, and many other doctrines.
They deny that people are saved by faith alone. There is always works involved. Haven’t we seen that through all the religions we’ve studied so far?
They are skillful at using Christian words and doctrines, but with a twist. They’ll use the same words but they will not mean the same thing.

The first thing to do to identify cults is to know true Christianity. The bible tells us to test all things (1 Thess. 5:21). A guy that once worked for the Secret Service in the counterfeit division was asked “how, with all theses different types of fake bill going around, do you figure out which ones are not real?” He responded with, “To spot the fake ones all you have to do is know the real one”. If we know God’s word, when something comes along that teaches a different gospel we’ll be able to spot it.

Our Visit

We had a great visit. We visited a family that came to our “Trunk or Treat” that we put on at the school. The family had a young boy in the 4K class at the school. We talked with the wife. The husband was in bed, he’d had a few shot for a back problem earlier in the day. We did have a good conversation talking about our Sunday School class and Church. We asked the “Key Question”, “In your opinion, what do you understand that it takes for a person to go to heaven” She gave, what seemed to be a faith answer, but added a little to it. To be safe, I shared the gospel with her. We continued to talk a little more and prayed with her before we left.
When we got back to the car, we realized we were 1 hour late getting back to the church. It was worth it we had a great visit and Joanna clicked well with her. Ashley, the other young lady we brought with us, bonded great with the son. Well she played video games with him anyway.

Prayer Request

Pray for this family that they find a church home that can minister to their needs. Both of them have bad back and are taking treatments for the problem. Pray for our ministries, both here and PMBS AIT in the Philippines.