Devil in the Details

Some kind gentlemen knocked on our door today.  I recognized them as Jehovah’s Witnesses. These people are some of the sweetest people you’ll ever meet. They offered me some literature as they are encouraged to do by their works-based doctrine. While some who peddle religion are often met with a quick slam of the door in their face, at our house, we look forward to sharing our beliefs with ANYONE, even those who claim to know Jesus. With a smile, I told them I’m a born again Christian and together we proceeded to converse on the world situation as it relates to the Bible.

Although we all knew Jesus, the difference is that the JW’s do not claim Jesus to be God. At least, he wasn’t “born” that way, they say. I believe Jesus to be God himself, incarnate. I supported this with scripture, pointing out the book of John in the first chapter where it says, “In the beginning was the Word. The Word was with God and the Word was God.”

The Word is Jesus. They weren’t buying it.

Without believing in the deity of Jesus, I told them, then who was it that sacrificed himself for my sins? There is no man on earth who could satisfy God the father’s wrath other than God, the son, himself.

To believe that Jesus was a perfect man (which he was) and compare him to the first man, Adam, is to me a grave injustice bordering on heresy. To believe as the JW’s believe would appear to give false grandeur where it ought not to be. It’s like man has become elevated in their minds to become like God. This mindset leads to a false view of both man and God. I told them that NO man could ever satisfy the wrath of God with regard to my sins. Only God can fulfill that requirement.

What we did agree on was that God is a marvelous mystery. After they left, I prayed that God would reveal the truth to them and that this one pesky detail in their belief structure would go away and that they would give homage to Jesus as the one true God.