![]() ![]() That is why I said he receives from what is mine and declares to YOU. (NWT) 15 All the things that the Father has are mine. 14 That one will glorify me, because he will receive from what is mine and will declare it to YOU. 8 And when that one arrives he will give the world convincing evidence concerning sin and concerning righteousness and concerning judgment: (NWT)ġ3 However, when that one arrives, the spirit of the truth, he will guide YOU into all the truth, for he will not speak of his own impulse, but what things he hears he will speak, and he will declare to YOU the things coming. For if I do not go away, the helper will by no means come to YOU but if I do go my way, I will send him to YOU. Here are a few verses for comparison, and since the verses mostly speak for themselves, I’ll keep my comments to a minimum (with the verses, the English Standard Version (ESV) text appears in RefTagger links while the NWT is provided below):ħ Nevertheless, I am telling YOU the truth, It is for YOUR benefit I am going away. We as Christians believe the Holy Spirit is he who indwells us as believers, interceding and upholding us. The analogy most often presented to me by JWs is the spirit of God is like electricity for your house, it (note the impersonal pronoun here) energizes you in the faith but it is not a person. JWs believe the Holy Spirit is an impersonal force. The first item I have found helpful to establish is the personhood of the Holy Spirit. It is helpful to point out here that most JWs appear to know their Bible better than they actually do, and that is because they study the Watchtower literature (the monthly Awake and Watchtower magazines) more than the Bible itself, sometimes exclusively. Moreover, these passages that follow below either clearly contradict JW teachings on these topics, or they at least cloud the issue up enough to make honest inquisitive JWs uncomfortable with the theology they have been taught. Using the JWs’ own Bible translation, the New World Translation of the Holy Scriptures (NWT) lends some credence and acceptability to what you are trying to present to JWs. ![]() These two doctrines are better starting points because they provide immediate clear differences that can be exposed in the JWs’ own Bible translation. ![]() Instead, I have found it more effective to present two items of orthodox Christianity to which JWs do not hold- the personhood of the Holy Spirit and the divinity of Jesus. Going too far down these roads only delays talking about substantive issues and ultimately getting to the Gospel. However, in my discussions with JWs, I have found it to be too difficult of a jump to go right into a discussion of the Trinity, just like it is nearly pointless to get into a circular discussion of eschatology with them. The JWs do not hold to a trinitarian God while we Christians do. William Lane Craig from his “Defenders” (Series 1) podcasts the historic plumbline between orthodox Christianity and heresies has been the Trinity. The biggest difference that marks the Jehovah’s Witnesses (hereafter JW, or plural JWs) is their teachings on the nature of God. As any Christian apologist knows, there are vast differences between orthodox Christian and Watchtower Bible and Tract Society (Jehovah’s Witnesses) beliefs. ![]()
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