Archive for category: Jehovah’s Witnesses

   I have really missed having the opportunities I had back in the 80s and 90s to spend time meeting with Jehovah’s Witnesses. I used to have many opportunities to go to homes and meet with Witnesses. Most of these came about when the Witnesses came by someone’s home and asked to have a meeting with them. I would be invited

   Not too long ago, this ministry received some emails regarding a small work that had been handed or otherwise recommended to them by members of the Jehovah’s Witnesses. The book was concerning to them for a couple of reasons: 1) It was written by a man claiming to be a biblical scholar who was, above all, a neutral observer and

Regarding the creation of mankind, the Westminster Shorter Catechism (Q10) asks “How did God create man?” And it answers the question by stating “God created man male and female, after his own image, in knowledge, righteousness, and holiness, with dominion over the creatures” (emphasis mine). And because we are made in the image of God, we are to image Him

   Almost a decade ago I presented a paper at the national meeting of the Evangelical Theological Society in Orlando, Florida, on the topic of Greg Stafford and the relationship that exists between the Society and those who seek, outside of her official publications, to give a defense of her beliefs. Back in the 1970s the Watchtower Society disfellowshipped an early

Here are a couple of responses to a recent blog post by Greg Stafford. The first one is from Triablogger Steve Hays. The second post is from me. Pay attention to the comment sections and add any additional information, if needed.

   Many of you will recall that a few months ago I visited the saints in the UK and that the first evening of my trip I did a program on “Revelation TV” regarding the subject of predestination. You may also recall that my luggage did not make it to London for two days, so, I had spent most of the

   The next question is based upon the Carmen Christi of Philippians 2:5-11. You might find my article on this text from the CRI Journal useful, found here. The issue can be summarized in this section from my article:    But how was this action of making Himself “nothing” accomplished? It is just here that we must listen to this hymn from

   Regular readers of this blog know that for a couple of months now I have been posting clips from various debates. Why? Because I learned how, that’s why! I’ve done more than sixty such debates, and many of them have been video taped. The large majority of my readers have enjoyed watching clips of debates on a wide variety of

   Now, a little behind the scenes information. I have often said that the best “the other side” has to offer is the best way to make sure your own arguments are strongest. Arguing on the basis of the Least Common Denominator, going for the “popular” viewpoint, may sell more books, but it is not the way to honor the truth.

   Here’s a test. Watch this exchange from the debate on the deity of Christ from December of 2003 in Tampa. Tomorrow I will begin posting a discussion of the exchange. But, watch this first. Also, make note of the two main questions addressed in this exchange, and the answers provided by Stafford. Assign a relative “strength” to Stafford’s response. Obviously,

   Sometimes I take a little trip through a residential area to avoid a bad corner on my way to the office. This morning as I went through this area I glanced at the thermometer and saw it was reading 111 degrees at only 10am. The thought crossed my mind, “I wonder if Jehovah’s Witnesses are out in this furnace?” I

I have been responding to various comments made in defense of the New World Translation by a defender of the Watchtower Society. One of the passages referenced is Colossians 1:15-17. Our JW defender once again shows no familiarity at all with the discussion of this text and its meaning despite his comments on the “weakness” of my apologetic regarding the

Another text our JW correspondent mentioned was John 8:58. Once again the commentary shows no sign of any serious interaction with the chapter I offered in The Forgotten Trinity nor any of the various scholarly articles on the use of evgw. eivmi at 8:58, 8:24, 13:19, 18:5-6, etc. Of course, it is hard to be overly critical (outside of his

Recently one of the fairly large group of “JW Internet Apologists” wrote to CRI to complain about my identification of the New World Translation as one of the “ugly” translations of the Bible in my recent articles on Bible translation. I went so far as to identify it as one of the most dangerous anti-Christian pieces of literature around, and

Given that Jehovah’s Witnesses have heard John 1:1 quoted to them so many times they can, quite literally, respond to it while in a comatose state, I suggest the memorization (yes, memorization–the real thing, not the “can’t I just stick a little page flag thingy in my pocket New Testament” thing) of a passage that Jehovah’s Witnesses do not encounter

The view that God’s exercise of his foreknowledge is infinite and that he does foreordain the course and destiny of all individuals is known as predestinarianism. Its advocates reason that God’s divinity and perfection require that he be omniscient (all-knowing), not only respecting the past and present, but also regarding the future. For him not to foreknow all matters in

Since I was in Georgia last weekend, we started showing the Tampa debate with Greg Stafford in the Bible Study class I teach at PRBC. We continued that this morning, since we hadn’t quite finished my opening statement last week. I had presented the first portion of the debate in my Systematic Theology class at GGBTS a few weeks ago

We had one of Jehovah’s Witnesses come into #prosapologian last night. Someone asked him to comment on John 2:18-21, and specifically Jesus’ words about raising His own body from the dead. We were told that “the temple of His body” was actually a reference to the church! Now, it is interesting to speculate on how some of our very vocal

So you think Jesus is a mighty angelic creature, the greatest of God’s creations, and is hence “a god”? And that all the passages that refer to him as qeovj, theos, “god,” are simply referring to him as one in a class of mighty angelic creatures? Well, if that is so, pray tell us all: if a creature, no matter

1972 “So, does Jehovah have a prophet to help them, to warn them of dangers and to declare things to come? These questions can be answered in the affirmative. Who is this prophet?…This ‘prophet’ was not one man, but was a body of men and women. It was the small group of footstep followers of Jesus Christ, known at that

A. Establishing an Ancient Date 1. Fixed Dates 2. King List 3. Cuneiform Tablets 4. Correlation   B. Astronomical Data 1. VAT 4956 – astronomical observations made during Nebuchadnezzar’ s 37th regnal year – 568/67 B. C. Hence, his first regnal year was spring 604 B. C., or, using  Babylonian reckoning, 605/04 B. C., or, in Jewish civil calendar, it was