Jehovah 39;s Witnesses Bible

[Munir Junker]

Christianityis all about a person - Jesus Christ - who lived and died and rose again. He made many claims about himself and backed them up by his actions. His ultimate claim is that he is God made humans and that by dying on the cross he has opened the way for all of us to be reunited with God in perfect relationship. He did this because he loves us and as a result, we need to do nothing to be made right with God - simply receive this gift.

The thing to note is that these are central issues of the Christian faith and if you do not believe them then you cannot be called a Christian. If any one of these is wrong then all of Christianity is wrong and is not worth following. This is what Paul (one of the writers in the bible) says:

If there is no resurrection of the dead, then not even Christ has been raised. And if Christ has not been raised, our preaching is useless and so is your faith. More than that, we are then found to be false witnesses about God, for we have testified about God that he raised Christ from the dead. But he did not raise him if in fact the dead are not raised. For if the dead are not raised, then Christ has not been raised either. And if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile; you are still in your sins. Then those also who have fallen asleep in Christ are lost. If only for this life we have hope in Christ, we are to be pitied more than all men.

1 Corinthians 15:13-19

While the Jehovah's Witnesses believe that Jesus lived and died, they do not believe everything that he claims about himself. They do not believe that he is God but has been created by God. He is still very important to God but not in essence God. They believe that he is in fact the Archangel Michael become man.

And while they believed he died and paid a ransom for the sins of humanity, they do not believe that he rose again bodily but spiritually and materialised a new body in order to appear before his disciples.

Jehovah's Witnesses differ from Christianity in many other areas as well - some are important others are not so. However, in these central issues, the differences mean that we cannot call them Christian.

Love them. They are as much loved by God as you are and for us to treat them with respect and not slam the door in their face is important. Most witnesses are taught to expect opposition and door slamming will only reinforce this.

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