Unfortunately, Aunty Jane has declined my offer. (called me a slanderer, and put me on her shun list) I don't appreciate being falsely accused, but that how Jws operate when faced with what they
really do teach. I do not lie about the Watchtower Organization. I'm saddened that she wont come and answer some basic Christian 101 questions. Truth doesn't hide under a bushel. If she was more forthcoming here, I would not have to do this. Instead she posts incognito, as do her partners.
I wish all Jws would come to see Jesus for who He is, and be saved, including my family.
That does not mean I wont expose what they push. I do so because it is a blatantly false. We are to expose false teachers.
Be prepared to be speechless at first and then deeply saddened for them.
The short answer is-- they pay for their OWN sins by physically dying. I kid you not. Read onto see why if you have time.
To a JW- Jesus' sacrifice paid for Adam's sin only. (Although, Adam will never be forgiven.) We all know that death came through Adam as the penalty for sin. To a JW, Jesus' blood does not cover our sins. He just paved a way for us to
perhaps gain life by becoming a JW and paying for sins by dying It really doesn't matter what bad deeds you do in this life.
Romans 6 is very beautiful- 23 verses long! I encourage you to pray and read it. If you don't fully get it, use your cross references.
We should always know the bible in context.
But JWs don't do that. They memorize verses, or in this case
partial sentences. So, JWs end up with a lot of erroneous teachings.
Paul is speaking about how
believers died to sin,
were crucified with Christ,
buried with Him in baptism,
raised to
newness of life,
freed from sin, and so on. (
freed, = set free, justified, acquitted)
Out of the 23 total verses in Romans 6- Only
2 partial sentences out of 2 verses are used from this entire chapter to form this new strange Christ denying doctrine. We all have heard this one, "Judas hung himself , go and do likewise." This is the same type of thing.
Romans Chapter 6-
1What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin so that grace may increase? 2May it never be! How shall we who died to sin still live in it? 3Or do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus have been baptized into His death? 4Therefore we have been buried with Him through baptism into death, so that as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, so we too might walk in newness of life. 5For if we have become united with Him in the likeness of His death, certainly we shall also be in the likeness of His resurrection, 6knowing this, that our old self was crucified with Him, in order that our body of sin might be done away with, so that we would no longer be slaves to sin; 7for the one who has died is freed from sin.
8Now if we have died with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with Him, 9knowing that Christ, having been raised from the dead, is never to die again; death no longer is master over Him. 10For the death that He died, He died to sin once for all; but the life that He lives, He lives to God. 11Even so consider yourselves to be dead to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus.
12Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body so that you obey its lusts, 13and do not go on presenting the members of your body to sin as instruments of unrighteousness; but present yourselves to God as those alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness to God. 14For sin shall not be master over you, for you are not under law but under grace.
15What then? Shall we sin because we are not under law but under grace? May it never be! 16Do you not know that when you present yourselves to someone as slaves for obedience, you are slaves of the one whom you obey, either of sin resulting in death, or of obedience resulting in righteousness? 17But thanks be to God that though you were slaves of sin, you became obedient from the heart to that form of teaching to which you were committed, 18and having been freed from sin, you became slaves of righteousness. 19I am speaking in human terms because of the weakness of your flesh. For just as you presented your members as slaves to impurity and to lawlessness, resulting in further lawlessness, so now present your members as slaves to righteousness, resulting in sanctification.
20For when you were slaves of sin, you were free in regard to righteousness. 21Therefore what benefit were you then deriving from the things of which you are now ashamed? For the outcome of those things is death. 22But now having been freed from sin and enslaved to God, you derive your benefit, resulting in sanctification, and the outcome, eternal life. 23For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Got that? Ok, So here's where they get deadly sticky-
They utterly rip
1/7th of one sentence out of it's context. Verse 5-7 are
one sentence. They lift only this
(v7) "............
for he who has died is freed from sin."
To a Jw this means that, since
by physically dying their sins are paid for, so they will be automatically resurrected sinless.
JWS will tell you that Adam's penalty was death which spread to us but, they hide that when they die they will paying for their own sins. If you did not know Christ or the scriptures, you may believe that twisted logic. But you will not, if you do know Christ and the bible.
But, if you still are not convinced by the JW's yet- Here comes their fireball.. they will add in
1/2 of verse 23 for the foul.
(v23)- , They only use the underlined portion; the first half of the sentence.
"For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord."
So here is what they do keep from the chapter
..for he who has died is freed from sin." For the wages of sin is death
That's the doctrine. No I am not joking. No context needed!
I've tried to help a JW see that Ro 6 is speaking about
our lives NOW in the present time in Christ- but he was insistent that this entire chapter is all about
after they are physically dead! He refused to read it with me.
I could not convince him otherwise due to their JW elect leaders , Said so.
For a JW, only their elect leaders can understand the bible , and Jws are not to ever question it.
They must also teach it to others.
V23- They IGNORE the 2nd half of the sentence- they only accept the negative half which is the penalty for those who die rejecting the gospel- those who reject Jesus. Paul is showing the 2 outcomes. They refuse to see that
God is paying their wage earned as sinners. God accepts our dead bodies as payment now? God required perfect and spotless!
That is disturbing pretzel logic ignores all that the Lord Jesus did for us! They ignore this-
...but the free gift of God is eternal life in Jesus Christ our Lord"!!!
So, perhaps you can see now why Jesus is not all that terribly important in the Watchtower religion. He only helps part way by giving them a chance to earn a resurrection by obeying all of the Watchtower rules, and then dying for their own sins.
Those JWs who have not died yet have a different problem. - but that's a whole other subject........
Congrats if you made it this far!
Obviously, in CONTEXT, Paul is speaking about our lives
NOW in Christ.
Believers
have been baptized into Christ's death. And since
we were baptized into His death-we were also buried with Him, and since we were buried with Him,
we were also raised to walk in our new life now, and then we will also share in His resurrection.
