S
Friends,
"BATTLE CASUALTY
"John had only been a Christian for three months when he head a well-known speak in his church talk about the false beliefs of Jehovah's Witnesses. Inspired by the speaker's story of deliverance from fifteen years as a Jehovah's Witness, John began sharing the gospel with Jehovah's Witnesses. Pretty soon he was spending every evening witnessing and weekends sharing his message in local churches. he was so busy he didn't have much time to study, and theological and doctrinal issues were too deep for him to grasp quickly. So he picked up what he felt were the quickest and easiest ways to show Jehovah's Witnesses that they were wrong. He figured that once he proved to them that the Watchtower had lied to them, they would accept the gospel easily. It seemed an easy, practical solution which enabled him to promote the gospel without really having to acquire an in-depth understanding of basic biblical doctrine.
"The John started discussions with two leading Jehovah's Witnesses. He kept pressing home to them that the Watchtower organization was a false prophet. They kept pressi9ng home to him that it was irrational to believe in the Trinity and that he couldn't answer their scriptural arguments against the deity of Christ. Every time he brought up organizational flaws, they brought up arguments against the deity of Christ. At first John didn't pay much attention to what they said. After all, he reasoned, other Christians seemed to understand and be able to defend the doctrine of the Trinity, and he thouht that if he could just discredit the Watchtower, they would drop this stuff about Jesus being created.
"But that did not happen. The Jehovah's Witnesses finally got to him by convincing him that even if the Watchtower was flawed, at least they worshiped only one God and did not commit blasphemy by making Jesus God when he was only an angel. Eventually John was baptized a Jehovah's Witness and began going door to door sharing the "good news of the kingdom" from The Watchtower and Awake! magazines.
"His "quick answers" weren't enough to protect him from the seduction of heresy. ...."
"WARFARE IS DANGEROUS
"The people in these stories are battle casualties of witch hunting. Each of them had a heart for doing God's will, and each of them was sabotaged by witch hunting. The Bible tells us to defend orthodoxy (Jude 3), to check our faith (1 Thess. 5:21-22) and to fight Satan and his influence (Eph. 6:10-17). But we must be sure that we are mature, knowledgeable, and led by the Spirit to discern properly.
"Some discerners, lacking a comprehensive and lucid understanding of essential biblical doctrine. tend to condemn anything they are not familiar with, assuming that it is better to condemn that risk letting even one heretical belief slip in. Other discerners take the same lack and do not condemn anything, assuming that "unity" is necessary at all costs, even if the one they "feel" is a believer actually espouses heretical doctrine.
"Christians should not be satisfied with either of these forms of slipshod discernment. Those who wrongly attack true believers, even unwittingly, imitate the godless who "with his mouth destroys his neighbor" (Prov. 11:9). Those who compromise essential Christian belief in the name of unity, even though they are sincere, often embrace evil (1 Thess. 5:22)."
(pages 20-21; 23: Passantino, Bob, & Passantino, Gretchen. (1990). Witch Hunt. Nashville, TN: Thomas Nelson Publishers.).
Friends!
Read this book for more on apologetics. It is an interesting book, and rather well put-together. It is written at a lay level, so there may be some books that are more excellent than this one, but it is basically a sound book. That is because it is a general reference book, and doesn't discuss the specific controversies that divide believers from each other. It doesn't take a firm stand on all important issues, so that is a caveat on this book. It's just an introductory book on Christian apologetics. It doesn't introduce the key orthodox doctrines of the Christian faith. In Erie PA Scott R. Harrington
"BATTLE CASUALTY
"John had only been a Christian for three months when he head a well-known speak in his church talk about the false beliefs of Jehovah's Witnesses. Inspired by the speaker's story of deliverance from fifteen years as a Jehovah's Witness, John began sharing the gospel with Jehovah's Witnesses. Pretty soon he was spending every evening witnessing and weekends sharing his message in local churches. he was so busy he didn't have much time to study, and theological and doctrinal issues were too deep for him to grasp quickly. So he picked up what he felt were the quickest and easiest ways to show Jehovah's Witnesses that they were wrong. He figured that once he proved to them that the Watchtower had lied to them, they would accept the gospel easily. It seemed an easy, practical solution which enabled him to promote the gospel without really having to acquire an in-depth understanding of basic biblical doctrine.
"The John started discussions with two leading Jehovah's Witnesses. He kept pressing home to them that the Watchtower organization was a false prophet. They kept pressi9ng home to him that it was irrational to believe in the Trinity and that he couldn't answer their scriptural arguments against the deity of Christ. Every time he brought up organizational flaws, they brought up arguments against the deity of Christ. At first John didn't pay much attention to what they said. After all, he reasoned, other Christians seemed to understand and be able to defend the doctrine of the Trinity, and he thouht that if he could just discredit the Watchtower, they would drop this stuff about Jesus being created.
"But that did not happen. The Jehovah's Witnesses finally got to him by convincing him that even if the Watchtower was flawed, at least they worshiped only one God and did not commit blasphemy by making Jesus God when he was only an angel. Eventually John was baptized a Jehovah's Witness and began going door to door sharing the "good news of the kingdom" from The Watchtower and Awake! magazines.
"His "quick answers" weren't enough to protect him from the seduction of heresy. ...."
"WARFARE IS DANGEROUS
"The people in these stories are battle casualties of witch hunting. Each of them had a heart for doing God's will, and each of them was sabotaged by witch hunting. The Bible tells us to defend orthodoxy (Jude 3), to check our faith (1 Thess. 5:21-22) and to fight Satan and his influence (Eph. 6:10-17). But we must be sure that we are mature, knowledgeable, and led by the Spirit to discern properly.
"Some discerners, lacking a comprehensive and lucid understanding of essential biblical doctrine. tend to condemn anything they are not familiar with, assuming that it is better to condemn that risk letting even one heretical belief slip in. Other discerners take the same lack and do not condemn anything, assuming that "unity" is necessary at all costs, even if the one they "feel" is a believer actually espouses heretical doctrine.
"Christians should not be satisfied with either of these forms of slipshod discernment. Those who wrongly attack true believers, even unwittingly, imitate the godless who "with his mouth destroys his neighbor" (Prov. 11:9). Those who compromise essential Christian belief in the name of unity, even though they are sincere, often embrace evil (1 Thess. 5:22)."
(pages 20-21; 23: Passantino, Bob, & Passantino, Gretchen. (1990). Witch Hunt. Nashville, TN: Thomas Nelson Publishers.).
Friends!
Read this book for more on apologetics. It is an interesting book, and rather well put-together. It is written at a lay level, so there may be some books that are more excellent than this one, but it is basically a sound book. That is because it is a general reference book, and doesn't discuss the specific controversies that divide believers from each other. It doesn't take a firm stand on all important issues, so that is a caveat on this book. It's just an introductory book on Christian apologetics. It doesn't introduce the key orthodox doctrines of the Christian faith. In Erie PA Scott R. Harrington
