Marks, are you OK? I literally just answered this question in my last post, # 838.
I hadn't seen that one yet when I wrote my post . . . thank you for asking!
Robert made numerous posts. Yet, you said he did not respond. Sometimes threads become so active, it is easy to miss posts made with good points and questions.
Yeah, there is a lot of activity, and sometimes I don't see people's posts right away. But I give review, and I read more carefully than a lot of people read, or write, and while Robert did post some things, he never responded to the thing we've been going on about, his mis-use of Revelation 1:5, and that in fact it refutes that Jesus is anyone other then Himself, Jesus Christ, Son of God, and the Michael, a created angel. Unless I've missed something . . .
I hope all is well and we may love well our Christian siblings, JW though they may be.
I hope all is well with you also! We live at peace with, and in love relationships with others, to the best of our ability. Though as we've been determining on this thread, I cannot consider the "Jehovah's Witnesses" to be true Christianity, for the reasons previously explained. I don't judge any individual, as I've said, I'm speaking toward the teachings of the institution as explained to me by these individuals.
This isn't a complex thing to me. It's just a matter of accepting the sayings of Scripture, and rejecting what is contrary.
To be honest, Robert made a bigger deal about Jesus being a 'spirit being' than he did about being Michael. Both seem peculiar doctrines to me but I have to remind myself of what I frequently say, there is no doctrinal purity test to be saved.
He claimed both as true.
2 Corinthians 11:3-4 KJV
3) But I fear, lest by any means, as the serpent beguiled Eve through his subtilty, so your minds should be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ.
4) For if he that cometh preacheth another Jesus, whom we have not preached, or if ye receive another spirit, which ye have not received, or another gospel, which ye have not accepted, ye might well bear with him.
There can be those who preach another Jesus. In this case, a Jesus who is the created angel Michael, a Jesus who lies to his disciples about his resurrection, a Jesus who is declared antichrist by John. Another Jesus, who ceases to be Jesus, and returns to being Michael, the angel, though the Bible shows Him still to be Jesus Christ, or, if the JW version were true, who continues to lie about who he is.
I think this is a matter of preaching another Jesus, whom Paul did not preach. We're talking completely different "beings" here. An angel who takes on a different identity for the purpose of a body to be killed, then goes back to being an angel, all the while engaging in deception after deception. And making the Bible itself guilty of the same deceptions, as it promotes the version that the JW's say is the deception.
Do you need to need for me to go back into the details on any of these points? The simple statements made by these JW's? The simply refutations in Scripture, which they consider deceptions? Jesus temporarily receiving back his crucified body even after it was destroyed for the purpose of convincing Thomas that he was raised from the dead by giving Thomas a fake body to feel so he's believe? Isn't this what Robert has been saying?
The angels pointed to the empty space in the tomb as mute evidence that Jesus was risen. His body was gone, because He had risen from the dead.
Matthew 28:5-7 KJV
5) And the angel answered and said unto the women, Fear not ye: for I know that ye seek Jesus, which was crucified.
6) He is not here: for he is risen, as he said.
Come, see the place where the Lord lay.
7) And go quickly, and tell his disciples that he is risen from the dead; and, behold, he goeth before you into Galilee; there shall ye see him: lo, I have told you.
They must have been deceivers also then?
John 20:27-29 KJV
27) Then saith he to Thomas, Reach hither thy finger, and behold my hands; and reach hither thy hand, and thrust it into my side: and be not faithless, but believing.
28) And Thomas answered and said unto him, My Lord and my God.
29) Jesus saith unto him, Thomas, because thou hast seen me, thou hast believed: blessed are they that have not seen, and yet have believed.
Jesus, the deceiver?
Luke 24:37-40 KJV
37) But they were terrified and affrighted, and supposed that they had seen a spirit.
38) And he said unto them, Why are ye troubled? and why do thoughts arise in your hearts?
39) Behold my hands and my feet, that it is I myself: handle me, and see; for a spirit hath not flesh and bones, as ye see me have.
40) And when he had thus spoken, he shewed them his hands and his feet.
??????
Luke 24:41-43 KJV
41) And while they yet believed not for joy, and wondered, he said unto them, Have ye here any meat?
42) And they gave him a piece of a broiled fish, and of an honeycomb.
43) And he took it, and did eat before them.
How far do you think Jesus would go to push the Big Lie? Physical resurrection?
This is the Jesus I preach, the Son of God, the Lord from heaven, YHWH, Who took on flesh, and gave that flesh in death on the cross. For me. Then rose again from the dead, alive again, meaning, physical resurrection. And it is upon this truth, that Jesus died, was buried, then came back out of the tomb - the grave - in His now resurrected body, to ascend again to heaven, from which He will come, that I have the hope of salvation, and eternal life.
1 Corinthians 15:1-4 KJV
1) Moreover, brethren, I declare unto you the gospel which I preached unto you, which also ye have received, and wherein ye stand;
2) By which also ye are saved, if ye keep in memory what I preached unto you, unless ye have believed in vain.
3) For I delivered unto you first of all that which I also received, how that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures;
4) And that he was buried, and that he rose again the third day according to the scriptures:
Psalms 16:10 KJV
10) For thou wilt not leave my soul in hell;
neither wilt thou suffer thine Holy One to see corruption.
Acts 2:24-32 KJV
24) Whom God hath raised up, having loosed the pains of death: because it was not possible that he should be holden of it.
25) For David speaketh concerning him, I foresaw the Lord always before my face, for he is on my right hand, that I should not be moved:
26) Therefore did my heart rejoice, and my tongue was glad; moreover also my flesh shall rest in hope:
27) Because thou wilt not leave my soul in hell,
neither wilt thou suffer thine Holy One to see corruption.
28) Thou hast made known to me the ways of life; thou shalt make me full of joy with thy countenance.
29) Men and brethren, let me freely speak unto you of the patriarch David,
that he is both dead and buried, and
his sepulchre is with us unto this day.
30) Therefore being a prophet, and knowing that God had sworn with an oath to him, that of the fruit of his loins, according to the flesh, he would raise up Christ to sit on his throne;
31) He seeing this before spake
of the resurrection of Christ, that his soul was not left in hell,
neither his flesh did see corruption.
32) This Jesus hath God raised up, whereof we all are witnesses.
David? Still buried there in his tomb. Jesus? Risen from the dead, the tomb was empty.
John's declaration, denying Jesus came in flesh (perfect tense, still in flesh) is antichrist.
And given such a strong representation of Jesus' bodily resurrection (I've just shown a small part) their only answer is to claim it is all lies.
So are these "doctinal differences"? Or a "different Jesus", whom Paul did not preach?
Much love!