2007-11-17 13:36:38 · 26 answers · asked by ☻☻☻☻☻☻☻☻☻☻☻☻☻☻☻☻☻☻☻ 1 in Society & Culture ➔ Religion & Spirituality
Does God not favor those who make the effort to get to know him and live according to his word ?
Do you think it really matters to God if people call his followers Christian or not ?
Some here think they are better than you because you make a spelling mistake but forget their own imperfections.
How can they remove the splinter in your eye when there is a rafter in theirs ?
2007-11-17 13:50:27 · answer #1 · answered by Anonymous · 7⤊ 3⤋
Jehovah cares for all of His creations. He can not, of course, reward those refusing to do His will and obey Him. Why should He?
Does any parent wanting their children to grow into fine adults reward bad behavior? When parents tell their kids to do something, is there any reason for continuing to reward them for refusing to listen? Certainly not!
Jehovah's Witnesses endeavor to follow the Bible closely. We do not follow doctrines not based on the Bible. At the very simplest, we use the Divine Name of the true God, Jehovah. If people want to say it should be Yahweh then why do they not use it? Jehovah is the name in English and we use it. Is that not the most basic requirement of people who follow the Christ? To use the name of the God that Jesus worshiped?
Who God will reward is up to Him, not any of us humans. Jehovah examines hearts and minds, nothing can be hidden when Jehovah desires to know the truth of a person. He has set down His requirements for pleasing Him in the Bible. It is up to each one of us to do it or not.
2007-11-20 02:23:29 · answer #2 · answered by grnlow 7 · 3⤊ 2⤋
I can see your hesitation in calling JW's christian. They don't act like all the other 'christians' of this world. Something sets them aside from being labed as 'christians'. Although they do worship God and accept Christ as they savior, they don't ACT like other 'christians'. I have several friends who are JW's and in my opinion, they are wonderful true people. I must interject that I live in Greece, where the JW's are considered 'evil'. Just talking to them makes you an outcast. But Anybody that those Orthodox priests hate, I automatically am a friend to them. They must be doing something right.
2007-11-20 00:43:59 · answer #3 · answered by Starjumper the R&S Cow 7 · 3⤊ 1⤋
Jehovah’s Witnesses are a domination of Christianity. We do not worship the Watchtower or Awake, or any other publication. We trust ONLY the Bible as God’s inspired word. God loves all and desires no one to be destroyed. Because of this everyone who has not sinned against the Holy Spirit is believed to have a resurrection hope. Because we can’t tell if they have done this by outside actions – neither The Watchtower or any of its publications claim that even disassociated ones will be destroyed forever. The Bible only lists a few that were going to be destroyed forever in Gahanna. (Commonly translated Hell.)
2007-11-17 13:55:09 · answer #4 · answered by AEH101 3 · 9⤊ 3⤋
No! No! No! JW’s believe their works will save them, not grace, thus acting/believing contrary to what the Scriptures plainly teach. That’s why we see them cruising up and down the streets and ringing doorbells. They’re trying to do “works” by converting people over to their particular brand of religion, thereby garnering points for themselves when the time comes to stand before God and He decides if they get into heaven or not.
You’ve gotten a lot of good stuff here in the answers you’ve gotten so far, discounting the helium sniffers, so I really don’t want to re-invent the wheel.
Let me say this. Walter W. Martin, in his famous book, “The Kingdom of the Cults,” classified the Jehovah Witness/Watchtower Society as a cult. Not only that, he spent serious time and energy proving his point Biblically. He has long since passed away, but if you can find this book, it’s definitely worth a good read. Check it out for yourself.
I generally explain things this way. God is God, all by Himself. As such, He is supreme over everything and, for all intents and purposes, answerable to nobody. This being the case, I like to use an analogy of working on a job and getting a paycheck. You work for somebody for, say, forty hours a week. At the end of that week, you expect to get paid for your time and effort and, until you are, your boss is under obligation to pay you for your time. In that sense, until you are paid, you occupy a superior position to your boss. He owes you something. Try putting God in that kind of similar position and you’ll get nowhere real fast. Remember, God is supreme over everything, all the time. He will never, ever allow Himself to be placed in an inferior position, such as the boss in our little example. God will never owe us anything, ever. What He gives, He gives because He wants to, not because He is under any sort of obligation. This is what the Bible calls “grace.”
Romans 4:4 Now to him that worketh is the reward not reckoned of grace, but of debt.
Ephesians 2:8 For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God:
9. Not of works, lest any man should boast.
Do these examples make it clear enough?
In the final analysis, though, it comes down to what the individual, in this case, yourself, chooses to believe and seeks after. Do you want to believe that you can work your fanny off and that somehow you can convince God that you’ve done enough to actually “earn” your way into heaven, or would you rather believe that God actually WANTS us to join Him in heaven and has done all the work necessary to enable us to make it in?
Me, personally, I like the latter choice a whole lot better because one, it means that God has done all the hard work for me and, two, He has clearly indicated that He wants me to be with Him, so I don’t have to “prove” that I’m good enough to be in His company.
This answer may irritate a lot of JW’s who might read it, but I’m an ordained minister who has been at this for over a quarter of a century, and I believe I know whereof I speak.
2007-11-23 04:26:39 · answer #5 · answered by bruce d 2 · 1⤊ 0⤋
Jehovah's Witnesses are Christians.
We follow the example of the Lord Jesus Christ, who called himself the "Faithful and True Witness." (Revelation 3:14)
God favors those who obey Him, not just those who talk about Him. (Matthew 7:21-23)
2007-11-20 00:30:59 · answer #6 · answered by בַר אֱנָשׁ (bar_enosh) 6 · 3⤊ 3⤋
Jehovah's Witnesses are Christians.
2007-11-19 13:02:14 · answer #7 · answered by achtung_heiss 7 · 10⤊ 3⤋
God Favor's Jehovah's (CHRISTIAN) Witnesses "Over" (SUPPOSED) Christians ! ! !
2007-11-20 21:12:47 · answer #8 · answered by . 7 · 1⤊ 2⤋
Jehovah's Witnesses ARE Christians. How difficult is it to understand that?
2007-11-17 15:27:00 · answer #9 · answered by NMB 5 · 8⤊ 4⤋
Jehovah's Witnesses ARE Christians.
But - from our standpoint the answer is that God favors those who are seeking truth, have an honest heart condition and are open to recognizing when they may be misled. He reads hearts.
JWs do believe that we have the truth. But we do not claim to be the only ones who are going to be "saved".
2007-11-17 13:43:22 · answer #10 · answered by eliz_esc 6 · 11⤊ 5⤋