In this sermon, the speaker discusses the importance of understanding the nature of God. He shares a personal experience of witnessing to a Jehovah's Witness girl who was convinced by a verse from the Bible that there is only one God. The speaker emphasizes the need to carefully examine the translations of Bible verses and points out that the Jehovah's Witness translation is incorrect. He then focuses on Isaiah 43:10 as a key verse in understanding the nature of God, highlighting that there is only one God and that Jesus is the Alpha and Omega. The speaker concludes by referencing Revelation 22 and emphasizing that it is Jesus who is coming quickly and will reward each person according to their works.

Bless us now as we open your scripture and we examine the non-christian cult of Jehovah's Witnesses. I pray that you'll open our minds up and cause us to be receptive to your spirit. In Jesus' name, Amen. Okay, we ended up with number 8 on the second page. There's two statements down there at the bottom of the page. The first one is, if Jesus was God, who ran the universe for three days while he was in the grave? This is a question commonly asked by a Jehovah's Witness, kind of as a smokescreen. They want to fit everything logically into their mind and they have a misconception about the nature of the Father and Christ. Now, this statement kind of shows their ignorance of what we believe. We don't believe that Jesus was ever the Father. Christ was never the Father. He is a totally distinct person, separate from the Father. Now, this statement confuses that fact. When a Jehovah's Witness says God, he most often means the Father or Jehovah. When we say Jehovah, sometimes we mean the Father and sometimes we mean Christ. But the Bible teaches that Christ is Jehovah, but Christ is not the Father. The Father is the name for the first person in the Trinity and Jehovah can be used for any member of the Trinity or to So the terminology has to be watched carefully. This question, if Jesus was God, who ran the universe for three days while he was in the grave? Jesus was God. The question is, who ran the universe for three days? The answer is the Father. It's very simple. You don't have to really go into it too much deeper than that, but you have to make sure that you realize that Jesus is separate and distinct from the Father. Even though he always remained God, he was separate from the Father. We sometimes use the word God and mean the Father, but usually when we say God, it stands for the office, the Godhead, which, depending on the context, can be talking about any one of the three persons. But we have to remember there is only one God manifested in three persons. It's not unreasonable to believe that. It's just beyond reason. The Jehovah's Witnesses try to simplify religions and the nature of God so that they can understand it. But if you pin them down, they will admit they don't understand the nature of God. But whenever you touch on the Trinity, they say, how can three be one? It's not reasonable. So the best comeback to that is, do you understand the nature of God or is it a mystery? And they will always say they do not fully understand the nature of God. No one does. If we can understand God's nature, then he wouldn't be God. If we knew everything he knew, he'd be no more than we are. Okay, let's look at the next question. If Jesus was God, who was he praying to in the garden? Himself. Same thing. These two questions are our favorite ones of the Jehovah's Witnesses. You can use the same logic to answer that question. He was praying to the Father. Okay, do we have any questions? I want to open up this session since it's going to be our last for questions. Okay, now Jesus was fully man when he prayed. He had taken on the form of a slave. And that human nature did not want to go through that suffering. We've got to understand that Jesus was not praying as God at that point. But he had a human nature just as we did, just as we do. And we all know that our natural man fights within us. The spiritual man sometimes gets the worst end of the deal. But Christ had a human nature just like we did, just like we do. And when he was praying in the garden, as a man, he didn't want to go through that punishment and that pain. But he said, not my will, but yours. We're going to look real briefly at John 1.1. Now in the Jehovah's Witness Bible, they have translated for John 1.1, in the beginning the Word was, and the Word was with God, and the Word was a God. The Greek says, in the beginning was the Word, and the Word was toward the God, and God was the Word. There's one problem in the Greek, and that is when they put the English underneath the Greek, they did not capitalize the word God. So in the mind of the translator, they're differentiating that God from the other God. But the same word in the Greek itself, without the translation underneath, is theos. And numerous places in the New Testament, this word is directly referred to as the name of the Father, or referring to Jehovah. They say it's unreasonable to assume that the Word could be with that God, or could be that God with whom he was said to be. He couldn't be the God and be with God at the same time. It's unreasonable. And in their appendix, they have a long section on John 1.1. It covers about four pages in real small print. And I've gone over this real carefully, and the only thing that they can come up with as a final statement on why they mistranslate that verse is this statement. The first part of the statement I'm going to read, we agree with. And then you'll see the last part of the statement, you'll see their reasonable conclusion why they have to do it that way. In the original Greek, there is no definite article, the, before theos, which is God. And it's presumptuous to say that such a definite article is to be understood. So that the sentence should therefore be translated, and the Word was God. Now that's a fact so far. There is no article before the Word God. And it's presumptuous to think that one should go there. Okay, here's what they say about that. That would mean that the Word was the God with whom the Word was said to be. This is unreasonable. For how can the Word be with the God, and at the same time be that same God? That's their whole argument. They have no basis for translating it that way, other than the fact that it's unreasonable in their mind to have the Word be with God, and at the same time be God. Okay. Now, if you want to further combat that error, you can look in the context. If they're going to be putting an article before the Word theos, then they have to be consistent. They have to do it every place. They can't just pick and choose where they want to put it. So if they're going to say a God in verse 1, then in verse 6, they have to say there arose a man that was sent forth as a representative of a God, because you have the same type sentence structure in that verse. You have to say a God. That wouldn't be right. Then farther on down, verse 13, and they were born, not from blood, or from a fleshly will, or from a man's will, but out of a God. Next verse 18, same sentence structure. No man has seen a God at any time. Okay? You kind of get the point? They have to be consistent. Let me read you Caldwell's rule that we have on this page. A predicate nominative preceding the verb does not take the article unless the context demands it. That's the rule that maintains that in John 1.1, it has to be translated, and God was the Word, or and the Word was God. No article. And in that long appendix they have in the back of the KIT, they have verse after verse after verse that they use for explanation on why they do what they do. But every single one of those verses points out that Caldwell's rule still holds in those verses. The verses they give as proof do not prove they are right. They prove they are wrong. Because if you hold to the rule, which is recognized by all Greek scholars, those verses point out the fact that the verse is correctly translated in the regular Bibles, and the Jehovah's Witness translation is wrong. But people don't take the time to check those verses out. They read this big long list of verses and they say, well, look, all this is evidence. We must be right. They don't take the time to check it out. All those proof texts are evidence against them on this point. Isaiah 43.10 is very interesting about that. I'm reading out of New Record standard here. You are my witness in the presence of the Lord, and my servant from when I was chosen, in order that you may know and believe me, and understand that I am he. Before me there was no God formed, and there will be no one after me. And that shows the wonders. Right. That's probably the key verse when we're trying to understand the nature of God. It has three things in that verse. You are my witnesses, whom I have chosen, that you may know and believe and understand that I am he. Before me there was no God formed, neither shall there be after me. Then the next verse is good too. I, even I, am Jehovah, and besides me there is no Savior. Now that is correct if you believe in the Trinity. But if you do not believe in the Trinity, that makes that verse false, because we know the Savior is Jesus Christ. But here in the American Standard, it says, I am Jehovah, and besides me there is no Savior. We know there is a Savior besides the Father. But this verse is correct, because Jesus is Jehovah. Revelation 1.8 points that out. Matthew 1.23, very important. Let me read it out of the New World Translation. The last part of the verse says, And they will call his name Immanuel, which means, With us is God. Out of their own Bible they say the name of Christ, which is another name, is Immanuel, when translated means, With us is God. They don't put a God at that point. With us is God. A little bit more interesting is over in the Greek. It says, With us THE God. Not a God or not God in general, but THE God in capital letters. So that's very important. Look at Isaiah 9.6. We'll hit that from another angle. For unto us a child is born, and unto us a son is given. And the government shall be upon his shoulder, and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. Remember we talked about Jesus is not the Father? This verse had me stumped for a long time, because I couldn't fit this into my theology. How can Christ be the Everlasting Father? I checked this verse out with a guy named Dick Knowles who taught the Catholic thing, and he said, Look in the Hebrew Bible, and in the Hebrew Bible it has, instead of Everlasting Father, it is translated from the Hebrew Father of Eternity. And it all cleared up at that point. If Father of Eternity is the correct translation, as all the Hebrew Bibles state, then there is no conflict at that point, because we know that Christ created all things, and he was before all things. He goes back to time indefinite. There never was a time when Christ didn't exist. And he could be called the Father of Eternity, because there was nothing before him. He was always with the Father. This word Mighty God here in Isaiah 9.6 can be backed up in Jeremiah 32.18, who shows loving kindness unto thousands, and recompenseth the iniquity of the fathers into the bosom of their children after them. The Great, the Mighty God, Jehovah of Hosts is his name. Now, we've had the verse in Isaiah 9.6 that says, Christ is the Mighty God. Here it says, Jehovah is the Mighty God. We've got a problem here. Now, are we to assume like the Jehovah's Witnesses that there are two Mighty Gods, one Jehovah and one Christ? No. Turn back to Isaiah. You might have to keep coming back to this verse a lot of times when you talk to a Jehovah's Witness. Isaiah 43.10, Before me there was no God formed. That lets out anything before the Father or before Jehovah. Neither shall there be after me. I, even I, am Jehovah. Besides me there is no Savior. Now, there is only one God. His name, if we want to use the Jehovah's Witness terminology, is Jehovah. He is the only Savior. But the fact that they fail to realize is Jehovah is manifested in three persons. We can have plurality in unity even as the body is made up of many organs. All the organs make up the one body. If you wanted to get something that is purely one, unity incomplete, we'd have to go to the one-celled amoeba, and nobody would compare God to a one-celled amoeba. But the higher the living organism, the more complex its unity becomes. John 10.30, I and the Father are one. What did the people that were around there think he was saying? Did they think he was saying, I'm one in purpose and in spirit? A lot of the prophets and the priests of the day made that claim, and that didn't rattle anybody's cage. But when Jesus said, I and the Father are one, what did the Jews do that were standing around? They picked up stones to kill him. Nobody could say, I and the Father are one in that sense and mean I and the Father are one in essence and power. Just before that, he said, before Abraham sprang into existence, I am, which is what he said to Moses. Christ said to Moses from the burning bush. So he was perfectly understood by the hard-hearted and ignorant Jews. Why the Jehovah's Witness people can't understand it, I don't know. But even the Jews understood that. Question? Okay, let's read a little further. Okay. Verse 33 says, The Jews answered him, For a good work we stoned thee not before blasphemy, and because thou being a man, makest thyself God. They understood what he was saying. Then Jesus said, we called the people of God back in the old times, the judges. And you get upset because I said I am the Son of God? Now read on. If I do not the works of my Father, believe me not. But if I do them, though you believe not me, believe the works, that you may know and understand that the Father is in me and I in the Father. That's the key to the whole thing, that verse. Christ was in the Father, the Father was in him. Right. Well, that might be what he was saying. But are we ever one like Christ and the Father are one? No. That is the ideal. He prayed that we might be one, even as they are one. But that doesn't happen. We don't reach that until we become glorified. That's the ideal, though. But I haven't seen anybody yet that could match up to that. Now, I don't understand exactly what the term means, that we are in Christ and Christ is in us. I don't understand that. But like we said before, 164 times Paul states that the believer is in Christ or Christ is in the believer. And it doesn't mean in union with. It means in, positionally. So positionally we are in Christ. Practically, we don't measure up. That probably is the key. But you'll never be able to convince a Jehovah's Witness of that because he doesn't believe that we can be positionally in Christ. Yeah, we have some tapes available by John on that, the positional unity and the practical unity. And it gets complicated. When I talk to a Jehovah's Witness, I never get that far, because either they come to the point where they realize the New World Translation is dishonest, or they don't want to talk about anything anymore. Once they believe the New World Translation is dishonest, they're no longer a Jehovah's Witness. They can't be a Jehovah's Witness and believe that this book is dishonest. They come out of it. So as far as arguing over verses, doctrinal verses, it's absolutely futile unless you can break down their foundations, right here. And that's what we talked about the first week. Okay, back into Isaiah. There's so much good stuff in Isaiah. Mark these down in your Bible if you have a pen or a pencil. You'll always need to go back with these when you're talking about the nature of God. They'll say there's lots of gods. You take them back to Isaiah and show them. Thus saith Jehovah, the King of me, there is no God. This verse was the one verse that led a Jehovah's Witness girl that I was witnessing to out of it. And she accepted the Lord after seeing this one verse from the 1901 American Standard. It uses the word Jehovah. And she could relate to that as a Jehovah's Witness. And after showing her the basis of their Bible was wrong, she was open. And when she saw that verse, things just clicked in her mind like that. Let me read that to you again. Listen carefully. Thus saith Jehovah, the King of Israel, and his Redeemer, Jehovah of Hosts. There's two Jehovah's, both saying, I am the first and the last, and besides me there is no God. That's devastating evidence. Okay, skip down to verse 8. Fear not, neither be afraid, for have I not declared unto thee of old and showed it, and ye are my witnesses? Is there a God besides me? There is no rock, I know not any. Jesus is called the rock, but there is no rock besides Jehovah. Okay, here's another good point that when you deal with a Jehovah's Witness, ask a Jehovah's Witness who created the earth. You know what he'll say? Jesus Christ. Okay, look at verse 24 of Isaiah 44. Thus saith Jehovah, thy Redeemer, and he that formed thee from the womb. I am Jehovah that maketh all things, that stretches forth the heavens alone, that spreadeth abroad the earth, who is with me? There's nobody with him. He did it alone by himself. Jehovah's Witnesses will say that the Father did this through his master workman, Christ. Okay, the illustration they'll use is an architect can say, I built that Golden Gate Bridge because I designed it. Somebody else actually did the labor, but I really built it because I am the master designer, and I just had workmen go out and do the job, but I am responsible and I built it. They'll say that's what's happening at this verse, but we have to look at the verse again and see if that can be a possibility. I am Jehovah that maketh all things, that stretches forth the heavens alone, that spreadeth abroad the earth, who is with me? Okay, now maybe in the further stretch of imagination an architect could say, I made that bridge, but he could not say, I alone made that bridge by myself and there was nobody with me. He could not say that because then he would negate the fact that he didn't actually do the work. He had other people do the work. He couldn't make that statement. So unless the Bible here is fabricating a lie, we have to say that Jehovah did it all alone by himself. If you hold to the idea that God is manifested in three persons, we've got no problem. But if you hold to the fact that there is more than one God, you've got a tremendous problem all through scripture. Question? Isaiah what? 4028. Hast thou not known? Hast thou not heard? The everlasting God, Jehovah, the creator of the ends of the earth, fainteth not, neither is weary. There is no searching of his understanding. That's a good one. Even that last part, there is no searching of his understanding. We can't understand him. And in Deuteronomy 29.29, it says the secret things belong unto Jehovah. Question? Yeah. The main ammunition of a Jehovah's Witness is taking two unrelated scriptures and fitting them together. And you can prove anything you want that way. Okay, let's look one more in Isaiah 48.12. Hearken unto me, O Jacob, in Israel am I called. I am he, I am the first, I also am the last. Yea, my hand hath laid the foundation of the earth, and my right hand hath spread out the heavens. Notice several times in Isaiah we've seen that Jehovah is called the first and the last. And in Revelation 1.8, 1.17, 21.6, 22.7, and all those verses under the next heading on our paper say that Christ is the first and the last. Okay, let's look one more time at Galatians 4.8. You've got to know that one. Albeit at that time, not knowing God, you were in bondage to them that by nature are no gods. And if a person is not a slave to Jesus Christ, who is he in bondage under? Okay, now this is a very important statement that is being made. Because it's said that these persons are in bondage to those who are by nature no gods, but yet they are called gods. But when we say God, we think of the God because there is only one God by nature. Sometimes you have to go over that point 50 times to a Jehovah's Witness to say that even though Satan is called the God of this system of things, he is by nature no God. Okay, we looked at John 8.58 last time. I had a question this morning. A person came up and said, I shared John 8.58 from your mimeograph sheet, and the Jehovah's Witness denied that there was such an edition as the 1950 edition of the New World Translation. Then he went back and he checked it out. He asked all the elders and the overseers in the church, and they say, no, there is no 1950 edition. They would like to believe there is no 1950 edition, because it has so many glaring errors in it. The worst one is in John 8.58, where they make up a Greek tense to fit the verse, and we saw that last time. Okay, John 18.5 and 6. They answered him, Jesus of Nazareth. Jesus said unto them, I am he. Okay, now this I am is the same I am as when they picked up stones and tried to stone him back in John 8.58. Again, he says, I am. Verse 6, when therefore he said unto them, I am he, they went backwards and fell to the ground. That he is inserted for clarification. Okay, let's see what it says in Greek. John 18.5, ego ame, the same exact statement as Christ made in John 8.58. Now, why would they fall backwards if he said, I am Jesus, or I am he? The statement was so powerful, I am, the same statement that Jehovah made to Moses in the burning bush. That statement was so powerful that in John 8.58, the Jews took up stones to stone him for using that sacred name. That's the reason the Tetragrammaton appears, the YHWH, because in Hebrew, the words I am were sacred, so they took out all the vowels in the sacred writings. All they had left was YHWH. That statement was so powerful, it knocked all the guards over backwards in John 18.6. That's how powerful that name is. Okay, Mark 14.62. Then Jesus said, I am, and you persons will see the Son of Man sitting at the right hand of power and coming with the clouds of heaven. There's that name again. I am. Okay, now, real quickly, we'll look at some things in Revelation. This is the best proof that Christ is one with the Father, or Christ is Jehovah, depending on how you want to look at it, because they both say, I am the first and I am the last. Christ says it, Jehovah says it in the Old Testament. You cannot have two firsts and two lasts. The first one is Revelation 1.8. We saw that a little bit last time. That's where it all starts. The problem is, in Revelation, the Jehovah's Witnesses pick the book apart, and they say, here John is speaking, here an angel is speaking, here Jehovah is speaking, here Christ is speaking. And whenever you try to pin them down, they say, well, that isn't that guy, that's the other guy. So, if you read the context, start from the very first, read all the way through, then you can prove it to them. But you can't just take out a verse out of the middle and prove anything, because then they'll take you back to a verse out of the first part and say, see, it says Revelation, Jesus Christ, which God gave to him and through an angel, etc., etc. So, if you want to take the time to go through, start at the first verse with a Jehovah's Witness and read down to verse 8. Otherwise, he'll back you up and say, wait a minute, this isn't Christ speaking, this is Jehovah speaking. Verse 8 says, I am Alpha and the Omega, saith the Lord God, who is, and who was, and who is to come, the Almighty. They shy away from that word Almighty because that only refers to Jehovah in their mind. But we've got to understand that Jesus is called Jehovah all through the Bible. He's not called the Father, but he is called Jehovah. Now, they'll say, this is not Jesus speaking. You've got to go from the beginning, read through there, and keep reading down to about verse 17. Because I asked an elder in the Jehovah's Witness church, who is speaking? He said, Jehovah, not Christ. I said, who's speaking all through here? Who's talking in verse 17? When I saw him, I fell at his feet as one dead. And he laid his right hand upon me, saying, fear not, I am the first and the last. I said, who's that? Jehovah. That's Jehovah. I said, okay, read the next verse. And the living one. And I was dead. And behold, I am alive forevermore. And a color just drained from his face. And he says, oh, I'll have to check into that some more. I'm not real sure anymore who that was. So, once you point that out, that the whole context is talking about Jesus Christ. The Father never died. Christ did. Okay. Revelation 21.6. And he said unto me, they are come to pass. I am Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end. I will give unto him that is a thirst of the fountain of the water of life freely. He that overcometh shall inherit these things. I will be his God. He shall be my son. That's Christ speaking. He is the one that gives water from the fountain of life. He is the one that is the first and the last, the Alpha and the Omega. Okay. Chapter 22. Just to be sure we know who's speaking all through, I'll give you the key verses. 22 verse 7 says, behold, I come quickly. Is the Father coming quickly? No. Christ is coming quickly. Verse 12. Same chapter. Behold, I come quickly. And my reward is with me to render to each man according as his work is. I am the Alpha and the Omega, the first and the last, the beginning and the end. Verse 16 kind of pins it down real close. I, Jesus, have sent my angel to testify to you these things for the churches. I am the root and the offspring of David, the bright and morning star. Then the last one, he who testifies these things saith, yea, I come quickly. Amen. Come, Lord Jesus. We looked at Micah 5.2 and Isaiah 9.6 already. But Micah 5.2 and Hebrews 7.3 are key verses. So have those in mind when the Jehovah's Witnesses say that Christ is a creature. Those are two verses they can't dispute. Before we get into the Jehovah's Witnesses and false prophecy, there's a couple of verses that Walter Martin uses when he wants to stump a witness on something. First one is John 2, verse 18 and 19. The Jews therefore answered and said to him, What sign showest thou unto us, seeing that thou doest these things? Jesus answered and said unto them, Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up. Just to combat that idea, take them over here and say, What did Jesus say he was going to do with his body? Now, if they say, Well, he wasn't talking about his body, he was talking about the temple, take them to verse 21. The Jews said the same thing in verse 20. The Jews therefore said, Forty-six years was this temple in building, and you're going to raise it up in three days? But he spoke of the temple of his body. He was going to raise his own body up in three days. They've never been able to answer that question. The other one that kind of goes along with this, they say that Christ was unconscious for three days while he was in the grave. Do we have any evidence that Christ was conscious when he was in the grave? What sign did Christ say to the Jews that he was going to be raised up from the dead? They wanted another sign. He said, No sign will I give you but the sign of Jonah. Now, the analogy is, Christ said, This is the sign I give you. Just as Jonah was in the belly of the whale for three days and three nights, so the Son of Man shall be in the belly of the earth for three days and three nights. Now, if we can prove that Jonah was unconscious in the whale, then the Jehovah's Witnesses are right. But what did Jonah do when he was in the belly of the whale? He prayed. Can you pray when you're unconscious? No. So that verse kind of does him in at that point. Matthew 12.38 through 40. There's three persons said to have raised Jesus' body. That's the problem. See, God is said to have raised it. Acts 2.32. In John 2.19, Jesus said he was going to the spirit of him who raised Christ from the dead. The Holy Spirit is said to have raised Christ's body from the dead. All three of the persons in the Trinity had a hand in raising Christ's body. So that's another good point for the Trinity. And Peter 1.11. 1 Peter 1.11. One other thing while we're kind of on that subject. 1 Corinthians 6.19 and 20 says your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit. 1 Corinthians 3.16 and 17 says your body is the temple of God. We've talked about Christ being part of the Trinity, but we haven't talked too much about the Holy Spirit being part of the Trinity. Write those verses down. 1 Corinthians 6.19 and 20. 1 Corinthians 3.16 and 17. They go together. And the verses on the raising the body, Romans 8.11, Holy Spirit raised Christ's body. Acts 2.32, God raised Christ's body. John 2.19, Jesus raised his own body. Okay, now there's two more. There's two verses we want to talk about real quick, and that's Luke 4.8 and Hebrews 1.6. These are two verses that drive the Jehovah's Witnesses crazy. Luke 4.8 says, And Jesus answered and said unto him, talking to Satan, It is written, Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and him only shalt thou serve. There we have from Christ's own mouth, Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and him only shalt thou serve. Then look at Hebrews and see what God says to the angels. Hebrews 1.6, And when he again bringeth in the firstborn into the world, he saith, Let all the angels of God worship him. Verse 8, But of the Son he saith, Thy throne, O God, is for ever and ever. Here the Father is calling the Son God. They've never had an answer for this. This knocks out the fact that they believe that Christ is not God. This knocks that out, and it knocks out the fact that they believe Christ is Michael the archangel. Verse 5 of Hebrews 1 says, For unto which of the angels did he say, At any time thou art my Son, and this day I have begotten thee. Implying that at no time to no angel did he ever say, You are my Son. That's kind of two birds with one stone. Now there's a quote from the April 1, 1972 Watchtower that has been real helpful to me. When we talk about Jehovah's Witnesses and false prophecy, many times a Jehovah's Witness will say nobody ever said or claimed that the Jehovah's Witness organization is a prophet from God. We don't believe the Watchtower Society is God's prophet. But in April 1, 1972 Watchtower says, A third way of coming to know Jehovah God is through his representatives on earth. The question is, does Jehovah have a prophet to help them, to warn them of danger, and to tell them of danger, tell them of things to come? These questions can be answered in the affirmative. Who is that prophet? This prophet was not one man. It was a small group of footstep followers of Jesus Christ known at that time as International Bible Students. Today they are known as Jehovah's Christian Witnesses. They're kind of stuck with that now that they've printed it. They claim to be God's prophet. So then, how do we know whether they're a true prophet or a false prophet? First of all, look at Deuteronomy 18.21. Start at verse 20. But the prophet that shall speak a word presumptuously in my name, which I have not commanded him to speak, or that shall speak in the name of other gods, that same prophet shall die. Verse 21. And if thou say in thy heart, How shall we know the word which Jehovah hath not spoken? There's the test. That's what we're looking for. How shall we know the word which Jehovah hath not spoken? When a prophet speaketh in the name of Jehovah, if the thing follow not, nor come to pass, that is the thing which Jehovah hath not spoken. The prophet hath spoken it presumptuously, thou shall not be afraid of him. But if he speaks a word presumptuously, verse 20, he shall die. So that's the test of a true prophet. Now, is the thing going to come to pass? And let's look at a few things. The question I've written down here, have the Jehovah's Witnesses ever said anything in the name of the Lord that didn't come true? Let's see. I've got the book Jehovah's Witnesses and Prophetic Speculation here. And this thing is full of false prophecy, just absolutely packed. Here, I've got the quote from Watchtower Reprints, Volume 2, page 1677. This is talking about the false prophecy in 1914. This is before that time when they were still looking for 1914 to be the end of the time of trouble. We see no reason for changing the figures, nor could we change them if we would. They are, we believe, God's dates, not ours. So they're speaking in the name of the Lord. These are God's dates, not ours. But bear in mind that the end of 1914 is not the date for the beginning, but for the end of the time of trouble. Later they changed that to go the opposite way. So now we turn to Matthew 7.15 and we check out the fruit of a false prophet. This chapter is really good. Matthew 7.15. Beware of false prophets who come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly are ravening wolves. By their fruits you shall know them. Do men gather grapes of thorns or figs of thistles? Even so, every good tree bringeth forth good fruit, but the corrupt tree bringeth forth evil fruit. A good tree cannot bring forth evil fruit, neither can a corrupt tree bring forth good fruit. Okay, this talks about fruit and we're talking about, in verse 15, prophets. The subject of the whole passage is beware of false prophets. Then it talks about fruit. Now, we know the fruit of an apple tree is an apple. The fruit of a grape bush is grapes. The fruit of a true prophet is true prophecy. What is the fruit of a false prophet? False prophecy. Now, the Jehovah's Witness does not want to believe this is talking about false prophecy. He'll say this is talking about fruit, not prophets. But look back to verse 15 and see what the thought is they're trying to get across. Now, how can a Jehovah's Witness be said to be a wolf in a sheep's coat? We saw two weeks ago that they smuggled doctrine, false doctrine, into the text. In many cases, in their New World Translation. In this sense, I believe the Jehovah's Witnesses are wolves in sheep's clothing. Because they literally attempt to pull the wool over the eyes of the unsuspecting Jehovah's Witness. When they smuggle preconceived watchtower doctrine right into a doctrinal verse. With no indication that it's been tampered with. I believe this is what it means. That, you know, outside they look good. But inside, when you get right down to the people that are making the command decisions, they are ravening wolves. Okay, and further on down on this page, we have some quotes out of this book. You can see that time and time again, they have made false prophets, false prophetic statements. 1922, they said the date 1925 is even more distinctly indicated by the scriptures than 1914. So nothing was ever said in the scripture about 1914. But 1925 is even more distinctly indicated by the scripture. And 1923, they said, our thought that is that 1925 is definitely settled by the scriptures. How sure? The Christian now has much more upon which to base his faith in the coming destruction than Noah had on which to base his faith in the coming deluge. So now they're comparing themselves with the situation in Noah's time. Question. These are taken from Watchtower, let's see, Watchtower magazines in 1922 and 1923. I might add that there's a syllabus that's called, they've taken full copies. Good, that'll be real handy. Let's see, this is taken from a section of the book that just listed the things in chronological order. I don't see the thing here. You probably have to check the Watchtower reprints because I don't have the month of the issue, just the year. Question. But what is the test of a true prophet? We saw in Deuteronomy, if the thing doesn't come to pass, then that prophet shall die. As far as the Bible's concerned, the Watchtower society should be dead and buried because they said something, even if it was only one thing, in the name of the Lord that didn't come true. According to the Bible, they are to be disregarded. Yes, the problem is to get them to admit, well, we didn't say that in the name of the Lord, we were just saying indications by scriptures are. But they did say in the name of the Lord, they say, we are God's prophet. Anything that a prophet of God says on the subject of God has to be true. Otherwise, he's not a prophet of God, he's a false prophet. Just like Joseph Smith of the Mormon religion. He is said to be a prophet on the same level as Isaiah and Jeremiah and anybody you want to pick in the Old Testament. Yet, time after time after time, false prophecy come out of the guy. Yeah, that's what we read. Do they believe that anybody? No, they believe that the faithful worthies of old, they call them, are part of the 144,000 class, which will be resurrected to heaven. And they will be the heavenly class. And after 1930 or something, when they got more than 144,000 members in their sect, they had to change their theology. So they made two classes. Now they have a heavenly class, which is all booked up. And then they have a earthly class, which is the remainder. OK, good point. They believe that these people will be resurrected during the millennial time. If they haven't had a chance, they'll get a second chance at that time. Yeah. Then at the end of the thousand year reign of Christ, when everybody gets their second chance, if the Jehovah's Witness are, if they are found faithful at the end, then based on the merits of their own work, Jehovah will grant them the free gift of eternal life based on their own works. Question. OK, they had to cover themselves on the 1914 issue. They said that 1914 is going to be the end of the time of trouble. Nothing happened in 1914. Absolutely nothing. They couldn't point to anything that could get them out of the bind. So they said, well, Christ came down from heaven. The great dragon was thrown out of heaven. Christ came down to set up his kingdom. He's here spiritually, but he's not here physically. And they use the verse in Matthew, what shall be the sign of your coming? They translate that, what shall be the sign of your presence? So they're looking not for his presence, but of a sign of his presence. Question. Yeah, handle me and see. There's a kind of a fine line here. They say, we don't believe flesh and blood can enter the kingdom of heaven. And we believe that also. But Christ had a body of flesh and bone. It was a glorified body. Wasn't the same as ours, but it was a physical body. Not flesh and blood, but it said flesh and bone. So there's a little area there that is a little bit unclear. See some question. Yeah, you can get the reprints from the Watchtower. Watchtower reprints, I think they're six or seven dollars for an entire year. You can get all the issues of the Awake and the Watchtower. That was the April 1, 1972. Yeah, I've never had that problem. When I show them something, they believe it and they try to change the subject. Because most of the stuff I have is documented. I've got a lot of stuff at home. But if I can read to them, they recognize the style of the writing. And nobody has ever said, well, that's not true. Because if they ever said that, and they were proved to be wrong, they'd be in big trouble. Question. Yeah. Well, the problem you're going to have there is if you say, go through the Bible verse by verse, they can't understand it. Because they don't have the mind of God. You, being born again, can understand the things of God. But they, being the natural man, the only way they're going to understand the Bible without being born again is if they follow somebody that attempts to render the Bible down to easily understood things, which may or may not be true. So, yeah. They're completely dependent on that Watchtower material, even to the songs they sing in their services on Sunday morning. It's all printed in the Watchtower. They don't make a move without consulting it. Because unity is the most important thing. That's good. Any more questions before we close? I just want to say that there's a little magazine in the bookshelves, and it looks exactly like a Watchtower magazine. Yeah, that's good. I leave that laying around the fire station for the two Jehovah's Witnesses to pick up by mistake. Question. Many other Jehovah's Witnesses that I've counseled with have come out of it because of the material in their own Kingdom Interlinear translation, proving that the Jehovah's Witness organization has smuggled in their own doctrine, preconceived ideas right into the text. And that's been the most fruitful tool that I've ever used dealing with Jehovah's Witnesses, their own book. Okay, is that it? One more. That's the easiest way to get it. No, you can walk up to the back of the meeting. After they're through, they have a bookstore at the back of each Kingdom Hall. And for $2, they'll sell you the book. Another way to get it is if a Jehovah's Witness comes to your door, you can ask him to sell you his. He'd be glad to because they get points or credit or something else for selling books, any kind of books. Okay, let's have a word of prayer. Father, we thank you for what we've learned this morning. I pray that you'll be able to use this material through us. Help us to be open and clean vessels for your use. In Jesus' name, Amen.