to the jehovah witnesses?

Question

Why do you not believe in the trinity, or hell? Have you ever studied these subjects outside of your faith? You may email me your answers if you don't want to post on here. Would like to hear from you.

Answer 1

Using nothing but a householder's own bible, it is quite simple to demonstrate the unscriptural nature of Christendom's teachings regarding hellfire and the so-called trinity. Even schoolchildren among Jehovah's Witnesses can do this.

It is simply ridiculous to suggest that Jehovah's Witnesses are not serious bible students. As a religion, more than 85% of their adherents are at all of the FIVE HOURS of bible instruction each week. Every active Witness is not just a bible student, but is also a bible teacher.

From their bible studies, individuals studying with Jehovah's Witnesses usually conclude for themselves that many of Christendom's ideas are simply not found in the bible. Interestingly, it is AFTER discovering the bible truths that bible students typically decide to abandon their former false worship and align themselves with Jehovah's Witnesses. They just don't like realizing that they have been lied to for years or decades.

Learn more:
http://watchtower.org/library/w/2001/8/1/article_01.htm
http://watchtower.org/library/ti/index.htm
http://watchtower.org/library/w/2002/7/15/article_01.htm

Answer 2

I have to say, that I am one of Jehovah's Witnesses because I studied what the Bible said about these subjects. I am a very logical person, I do not just take what people say and "believe". The trinity doctrine has never made sense to me. Neither has the hell doctrine. Why would a God of love not go by his own justice? He set up an eye for an eye in the Mosaic Law, that is fair, but to punish someone for eternity, simply because of mistakes made as an imperfect human... the justice doesn't match. Hell fire goes against two of his most dominate qualities, justice and love.

Answer 3

Not a JW... but study the Word because the truth is in there.

There are three parts to an egg. The shell, the Albumin (white) and the yolk. These three have different uses and functions, but individually or collectively it's all still and egg.

Point 1.
John 1:1 "In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God and the Word was God"

John 1: 10 He (Jesus) was in the world and the world was made by Him (God) and the world knew Him not."

Jesus was God in the flesh.. part human part divine... you see, God's got it like that... He can do ANYTHING!... but fail.

Genesis 2 - Let "US" make man in "Our" own image (Cross reference John 1: 10-11)

Search the scriptures and you find out who the Word is? Ans.. Jesus.

Point 2. (new testament)
Why was Jesus accused of Blasphmey by the Pharises and Saducees?
Ans. Because He (Jesus) claimed to be God. (see John 1.1) Now ask yourself.. would God send a liar to Earth to die for our sins? ans. No.. So Jesus was telling the truth.

Why was He (Jesus) crucified? For what crime?

Jesus is God and God is Jesus.

When Jesus read from the Bible in the Synagogue... do you remember how He read the Bible?

Search the scriptures.. and stay away from your own intrepretation and of what you may have been taught through the traditions of men or your own reasoning power apart from the aide of the Holy Spirit. If you ask the Holy Spirit to show you the answer and you really desire it He'll help you to understand.... but then when the answer is revealed to you.... then what? Will you trust and obey?

The Father, Son and Holy Spirit) are three in one. The Son.. saved us from our Sins by dying in our place, the Holy Spirit (Comforter) convicts us of our sin and the Father through Jesus is able to pardon us from sins and extends His grace because of His Son.

Unfortunately, our tiny, poisened, sinful, much less than perfect minds can't comprehnd God... It's tragic and so very sad, when we try to reason with our feeble attempts about God,His ways or who He is. God defies and goes beyond our microscopically small amount of intelligence, logic and comprehension. TRUST!

As the Word states... "Can any man by searching "truly" find out God?"... ans. NOT!

If it doesn't seem logical to us we then try to dismiss it, find our own explaination that seem logical, say it's not possible, or that it doesn't make sense. How sad. We will NEVER have all the answers about God, His Love for us, and His existance because our brains can't really handle it.. and can really handle who God is. We can bearly deal with keeping ALL 10 of His commandments, so then why would understanding the God being in three distinct person (Triune/Trinity) God be any different.

By the way... Trinity/Triune is just a way of describing three... not that Trinity or Triune appears in the Bible..

Answer 4

Trinity is not a Christian thinking ,nor is Hell it has nothing to do with Christians , as does Jehovah not have anything to do with Christians, and christians in Paradice do not have to have babies. Like Jehovah witnesses do. I would not be concerned about any religion that excludes the Celestial,
and embrases this world. because Jesus is the one that set me free from Religion.

Answer 5

Hi...God is the Holy Spirit, that is one person, and Jesus is his son, that makes 2 persons. There is no third person.

The Bible hell is the grave, or memorial tomb; Ecc. 9:5, John 5:28,29.

Answer 6

Jesus never said he was God, who was he praying to himself. no you can not pray to yourself, he was praying to his Father in the heaven. when Jesus got baptize, God said this is my beloved my son. if you need more information about Jehovah Witnesses visit a kingdom hall in your neighborhood or www.watchtower.org Jesus Christ is the head of our Kingdom Hall in 235 lands. we worship Jesus Christ. a cult worships a mere man. we worship Jehovah and his son Jesus Christ. we live in our own homes. a cult lives in one state and does what the man wants. Jehovah did not make robots.

Answer 7

if jesus was not God he could not have died for sins,jehovahs witnesses are following a cult

Answer 8

What is the origin of the Trinity doctrine?

The New Encyclopædia Britannica says: “Neither the word Trinity, nor the explicit doctrine as such, appears in the New Testament, nor did Jesus and his followers intend to contradict the Shema in the Old Testament: ‘Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God is one Lord’ (Deut. 6:4). . . . The doctrine developed gradually over several centuries and through many controversies. . . . By the end of the 4th century . . . the doctrine of the Trinity took substantially the form it has maintained ever since.”—(1976), Micropædia, Vol. X, p. 126.

The New Catholic Encyclopedia states: “The formulation ‘one God in three Persons’ was not solidly established, certainly not fully assimilated into Christian life and its profession of faith, prior to the end of the 4th century. But it is precisely this formulation that has first claim to the title the Trinitarian dogma. Among the Apostolic Fathers, there had been nothing even remotely approaching such a mentality or perspective.”—(1967), Vol. XIV, p. 299.

In The Encyclopedia Americana we read: “Christianity derived from Judaism and Judaism was strictly Unitarian [believing that God is one person]. The road which led from Jerusalem to Nicea was scarcely a straight one. Fourth century Trinitarianism did not reflect accurately early Christian teaching regarding the nature of God; it was, on the contrary, a deviation from this teaching.”—(1956), Vol. XXVII, p. 294L.

According to the Nouveau Dictionnaire Universel, “The Platonic trinity, itself merely a rearrangement of older trinities dating back to earlier peoples, appears to be the rational philosophic trinity of attributes that gave birth to the three hypostases or divine persons taught by the Christian churches. . . . This Greek philosopher’s [Plato, fourth century B.C.E.] conception of the divine trinity . . . can be found in all the ancient [pagan] religions.”—(Paris, 1865-1870), edited by M. Lachâtre, Vol. 2, p. 1467.

John L. McKenzie, S.J., in his Dictionary of the Bible, says: “The trinity of persons within the unity of nature is defined in terms of ‘person’ and ‘nature’ which are G[ree]k philosophical terms; actually the terms do not appear in the Bible. The trinitarian definitions arose as the result of long controversies in which these terms and others such as ‘essence’ and ‘substance’ were erroneously applied to God by some theologians.”—(New York, 1965), p. 899.

Hell:

Does the Bible indicate whether the dead experience pain?

Eccl. 9:5, 10: “The living are conscious that they will die; but as for the dead, they are conscious of nothing at all . . . All that your hand finds to do, do with your very power, for there is no work nor devising nor knowledge nor wisdom in Sheol,* the place to which you are going.” (If they are conscious of nothing, they obviously feel no pain.) (*“Sheol,” AS, RS, NE, JB; “the grave,” KJ, Kx; “hell,” Dy; “the world of the dead,” TEV.)

Psalms 146:4: “His spirit goes out, he goes back to his ground; in that day his thoughts* do perish.” (*“Thoughts,” KJ, 145:4 in Dy; “schemes,” JB; “plans,” RS, TEV.)

Does the Bible indicate that the soul survives the death of the body?

Ezekiel 18:4: “The soul* that is sinning—it itself will die.” (*“Soul,” KJ, Dy, RS, NE, Kx; “the man,” JB; “the person,” TEV.)

“The concept of ‘soul,’ meaning a purely spiritual, immaterial reality, separate from the ‘body,’ . . . does not exist in the Bible.”—La Parole de Dieu (Paris, 1960), Georges Auzou, professor of Sacred Scripture, Rouen Seminary, France, p. 128.

“Although the Hebrew word nefesh [in the Hebrew Scriptures] is frequently translated as ‘soul,’ it would be inaccurate to read into it a Greek meaning. Nefesh . . . is never conceived of as operating separately from the body. In the New Testament the Greek word psyche is often translated as ‘soul’ but again should not be readily understood to have the meaning the word had for the Greek philosophers. It usually means ‘life,’ or ‘vitality,’ or, at times, ‘the self.’”—The Encyclopedia Americana (1977), Vol. 25, p. 236.

What sort of people go to the Bible hell?

Does the Bible say that the wicked go to hell?

Psalms 9:17, KJ: “The wicked shall be turned into hell,* and all the nations that forget God.” (*“Hell,” 9:18 in Dy; “death,” TEV; “the place of death,” Kx; “Sheol,” AS, RS, NE, JB, NW.)

Does the Bible also say that upright people go to hell?

Job 14:13, Dy: “[Job prayed:] Who will grant me this, that thou mayst protect me in hell,* and hide me till thy wrath pass, and appoint me a time when thou wilt remember me?” (God himself said that Job was “a man blameless and upright, fearing God and turning aside from bad.”—Job 1:8.) (*“The grave,” KJ; “the world of the dead,” TEV; “Sheol,” AS, RS, NE, JB, NW.)

Acts 2:25-27, KJ: “David speaketh concerning him [Jesus Christ], . . . Because thou wilt not leave my soul in hell,* neither wilt thou suffer thine Holy One to see corruption.” (The fact that God did not “leave” Jesus in hell implies that Jesus was in hell, or Hades, at least for a time, does it not?) (*“Hell,” Dy; “death,” NE; “the place of death,” Kx; “the world of the dead,” TEV; “Hades,” AS, RS, JB, NW.)

Does anyone ever get out of the Bible hell?

Revelation 20:13, 14, KJ: “The sea gave up the dead which were in it; and death and hell* delivered up the dead which were in them: and they were judged every man according to their works. And death and hell were cast into the lake of fire.” (So the dead will be delivered from hell. Notice also that hell is not the same as the lake of fire but will be cast into the lake of fire.) (*“Hell,” Dy, Kx; “the world of the dead,” TEV; “Hades,” NE, AS, RS, JB, NW.)

Why is there confusion as to what the Bible says about hell?

“Much confusion and misunderstanding has been caused through the early translators of the Bible persistently rendering the Hebrew Sheol and the Greek Hades and Gehenna by the word hell. The simple transliteration of these words by the translators of the revised editions of the Bible has not sufficed to appreciably clear up this confusion and misconception.”—The Encyclopedia Americana (1942), Vol. XIV, p. 81.

Translators have allowed their personal beliefs to color their work instead of being consistent in their rendering of the original-language words. For example: (1) The King James Version rendered she’ohl′ as “hell,” “the grave,” and “the pit”; hai′des is therein rendered both “hell” and “grave”; ge′en·na is also translated “hell.” (2) Today’s English Version transliterates hai′des as “Hades” and also renders it as “hell” and “the world of the dead.” But besides rendering “hell” from hai′des it uses that same translation for ge′en·na. (3) The Jerusalem Bible transliterates hai′des six times, but in other passages it translates it as “hell” and as “the underworld.” It also translates ge′en·na as “hell,” as it does hai′des in two instances. Thus the exact meanings of the original-language words have been obscured.

Is there eternal punishment for the wicked?

Matthew 25:46, KJ: “These shall go away into everlasting punishment [“lopping off,” Int; Greek, ko′la·sin]: but the righteous into life eternal.” (The Emphatic Diaglott reads “cutting-off” instead of “punishment.” A footnote states: “Kolasin . . . is derived from kolazoo, which signifies, 1. To cut off; as lopping off branches of trees, to prune. 2. To restrain, to repress. . . . 3. To chastise, to punish. To cut off an individual from life, or society, or even to restrain, is esteemed as punishment;—hence has arisen this third metaphorical use of the word. The primary signification has been adopted, because it agrees better with the second member of the sentence, thus preserving the force and beauty of the antithesis. The righteous go to life, the wicked to the cutting off from life, or death. See 2 Thess. 1.9.”)

What does the Bible say the penalty for sin is?

Romans 6:23: “The wages sin pays is death.”

After one’s death, is he still subject to further punishment for his sins?

Romans 6:7: “He who has died has been acquitted from his sin.”

Is eternal torment of the wicked compatible with God’s personality?

Jeremiah 7:31: “They [apostate Judeans] have built the high places of Topheth, which is in the valley of the son of Hinnom, in order to burn their sons and their daughters in the fire, a thing that I had not commanded and that had not come up into my heart.” (If it never came into God’s heart, surely he does not have and use such a thing on a larger scale.)

Illustration: What would you think of a parent who held his child’s hand over a fire to punish the child for wrongdoing? “God is love.” (1 John 4:8.) Would he do what no right-minded human parent would do? Certainly not!

What is the origin of the teaching of hellfire?

In ancient Babylonian and Assyrian beliefs the “nether world . . . is pictured as a place full of horrors, and is presided over by gods and demons of great strength and fierceness.” (The Religion of Babylonia and Assyria, Boston, 1898, Morris Jastrow, Jr., p. 581) Early evidence of the fiery aspect of Christendom’s hell is found in the religion of ancient Egypt. (The Book of the Dead, New Hyde Park, N.Y., 1960, with introduction by E. A. Wallis Budge, pp. 144, 149, 151, 153, 161) Buddhism, which dates back to the 6th century B.C.E., in time came to feature both hot and cold hells. (The Encyclopedia Americana, 1977, Vol. 14, p. 68) Depictions of hell portrayed in Catholic churches in Italy have been traced to Etruscan roots.—La civiltà etrusca (Milan, 1979), Werner Keller, p. 389.

But the real roots of this God-dishonoring doctrine go much deeper. The fiendish concepts associated with a hell of torment slander God and originate with the chief slanderer of God (the Devil, which name means “Slanderer”), the one whom Jesus Christ called “the father of the lie.”—John 8:44.

If you would like further information, I encourage you to contact Jehovah's Witnesses at the local Kingdom Hall. Or visit http://www.watchtower.org

There is a superb brochure: "Should You Believe in the Trinity?"