Day 174 - The JW

I had an opportunity on this day to witness to a Jehovah's Witness. My heart breaks for them. I once labored under the impossibly heavy yoke of a works based cult prior to the Lord saving me. I can relate to how hard we worked then to defend our biblically baseless beliefs. Thank God His truth broke through in my life and showed me the power of the Gospel.

I had the chance to show how Isaiah and Philippians connect Jehovah to Jesus as both being one and the same. Amazingly, my Pastor, Pastor Jim Johnston, taught on this just the Sunday before.

In Isaiah 45:23, Jehovah speaks through the prophet and states:

By myself I have sworn, my mouth has uttered in all integrity a word that will not be revoked: Before me every knee will bow; by me every tongue will swear.

In Philippians 2:10, the Apostle Paul declares that Jesus did not cling to his equality with God, but instead humbled himself to our level by being incarnated in the form of man in order to pay for the sins of the world by dying in the place of all those who will repent and believe. For that loving act of sacrifice, Paul then writes:

"[A]t the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth . . . ."

Paul clearly declared that Jesus is Jehovah. I shared that with my JW friend. I also shared other verses that equate Jesus with Jehovah, like Matthew 1 where it says that they will call Jesus Immanuel, which means "God with us."

I concluded by explaining that if I am wrong and she is right, I will simply sleep in eternity, as JWs believe there is no eternal condemnation to hell. If she is wrong, however, the consequences are much more grave. She will pay for her own sins in hell for eternity, because she did not repent and trust in the true gospel, but rather trusted in "another gospel," a false one that is powerless to save (Gal. 1:8).

Pray the seeds sown will produce fruit. Lord, save her!