Answering Jehovah's Witnesses: Subject by Subject by David A. Reed

Author:David A. Reed [Reed, David A.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Religion, Institutions & Organizations, Cults
ISBN: 9780801053177
Google: f1oQt8lufloC
Barnesnoble:
Publisher: Baker Books
Published: 1996-04-30T22:00:00+00:00

Grace

If you tell a Jehovah’s Witness that you want to discuss grace, he or she may well respond, “Grace who?” It seems

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that the average JW is more familiar with Grace as a feminine first name than as a biblical concept.

In part, this is due to the fact that their New World Translation renders the Greek word CHARIS (cavri") as “undeserved kindness” rather than as “grace.” This, in itself, is not a problem. “Undeserved kindness,” is indeed a valid translation, similar to The Twentieth Century New Testament ’s rendering “loving-kindness” and Charles B. Williams’ rendering “unmerited favor.” The real problem is that Jehovah’s Witnesses fail to grasp that salvation is truly “undeserved” and “unmerited.” Generations of Christians have received assurance from the precious words of Ephesians 2:8 , “For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God,” but Jehovah’s Witnesses tend to pass over that verse. They miss “the grace of God that bringeth salvation” ( Titus 2:11 ) apart from works.

Their organization is responsible for this, because it teaches them that salvation hinges on affiliation with the Watchtower Society and obedient participation in its works program. ( See Salvation .) This is nothing new, of course. It is very similar to the false teaching spread abroad in the first century by the Judaizers Paul battled against, and it is similar to the works mentality of the sixteenth century Roman Catholic Church that Martin Luther and other reformers refuted with the Word of God.

No essay need be written here to prove the power of God’s grace. The apostle Paul’s letter to the Romans already accomplishes that and is the perfect refutation of works-based salvation. Unfortunately, JWs are accustomed to reading Romans—and the rest of the Bible—with Watchtower literature in hand to ensure that only the organization’s interpretation is gained from the reading. When I quit the sect and read the epistle itself without a superimposed interpretation, I was overwhelmed.

Can God’s free gift be earned by performing works? Paul explains that it would then no longer be a gift: “Now to him that worketh is the reward not reckoned of grace, but of debt.” ( Romans 4:4 ) One might expect this to be clear to JWs, since their Bible version speaks of grace as “ un deserved kindness.” “ Un deserved” means not deserved. Yet, in an amazing contradiction not only of Scripture but of the plain meaning of words themselves, an official Watchtower publication speaks of God’s undeserved kindness going to those who deserve it:

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