In this series we will be giving 25 reasons why the Jehovah’s Witnesses have their Christology and Trinitarian theology wrong. We will make our case right from the Scriptures:
6. God alone forgives sins.
I, even I, am the one who wipes out your transgressions for My own sake, And I will not remember your sins (Is 43:25).
Seeing their faith, He said, “Friend, your sins are forgiven you.” The scribes and the Pharisees began to reason, saying, “Who is this man who speaks blasphemies? Who can forgive sins, but God alone?” But Jesus, aware of their reasonings, answered and said to them,“Why are you reasoning in your hearts? Which is easier, to say, ‘Your sins have been forgiven you,’ or to say, ‘Get up and walk’? But, so that you may know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins,”—He said to the paralytic—“I say to you, get up, and pick up your stretcher and go home.” Immediately he got up before them, and picked up what he had been lying on, and went home glorifying God (Luke 5:20-25).
Jesus does not correct the Pharisees that people other than God ultimately can forgive sins. Rather, he proves that He is God by healing the man which is at least outwardly a larger miracle than just saying someone’s sins are forgiven. Christ elsewhere forgives sins (Luke 7:48), which is clearly an attribute of Jehovah.
It was not Jesus who forgave the sins, but it is his heavenly Father Who forgive sins.
And about the JW their idea about the trinity, they are ful right to believe only in One true God and accept the Biblical Words of the god Who does not tell lies and declared the man standing in the river Jordan to be His only begotten son of God. Jesus is the sent one from God according to the Scriptures and the Way to God, not God himself.
John 1:29 KJV The next day John seeth Jesus coming unto him, and saith, Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world.
29 (NWT) The next day he saw Jesus coming toward him, and he said: “See, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!
Interesting Marcus, even your NWT bible agrees that Jesus forgives sin. I could give you many more scriptures, like:
Matthew 1:21 And she shall bring forth a son, and thou shalt call his name JESUS: for he shall save his people from their sins.
John 5:22-23 KJV For the Father judgeth no man, but hath committed all judgment unto the Son: That all men should honour the Son, even as they honour the Father. He that honoureth not the Son honoureth not the Father which hath sent him.
Sorry Marcus,
You aren’t honoring the Son. Very serious spiritual condition, you need to repent and come out of the JW false religion.
YOU write “your NWT bible” pointing out to the New World Translation, which is not my Bible Translation, but a translation made by the Jehovah’s Witnesses. I helped to translate totally different Bible translations. I also have nothing to do with the Jehovah Witnesses, never belonged to them and do not belong to them at all.
You seem to forget that it is the Lamb of God, which takes away the sin of the world by the grace of God. Without God allowing the sins whitewashed we would still be with them. It is by God accepting the ransom price paid by Christ that our sins are forgiven. It is Jehovah God Who accepted that payment by His only begotten wel-beloved son.
I am honouring that son probably more than you, because I really believe that this man of flesh and blood sincerely put his own will aside to do the Will of his heavenly Father, and gave himself for the sins of many.
Jesus did not prove that he is God ‘by healing the man which is at least outwardly a larger miracle than just saying someone’s sins are forgiven’. The healing is also done by the power of God, who is greater than Jesus according ot Jesus his own words (which you seem to forget or to ignore).
But…the Scripture says Jesus healed them.
Also today doctors are healing lots of people. Are they than God?
No, but Jesus Christ (according to the Scripture) is explicitly forgiving sin and he heals to authenticate that He has the authority to do so.
You say it yourself “Jesus has the authority to forgive sins and to heal people”! The authority to do so comes from his heavenly Father, Who is greater than Jesus.
John 5:16-18 NWT
For this reason, the Jews were persecuting Jesus, because he was doing these things during the Sabbath. 17 But he answered them: “My Father has kept working until now, and I keep working.”18 This is why the Jews began seeking all the more to kill him, because not only was he breaking the Sabbath but he was also calling God his own Father, making himself equal to God.
The Jews even understood Jesus’s claim of being equal to God unfortunately JW’s do not.
Philippians 2:5-7 KJV Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus Who being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God:
John 20:28 (NWT) Apostle Thomas said – My Lord and My God.
Wasn’t he speaking to Jesus?
Read from NWT, also verify using the KJV What does Alpha and Omega mean? The beginning and the end, right.
Rev 1:8 – I am the Alpha and Omega (who is this – Jehovah God right)
Rev 21:6 – I am Alpha and Omega the beginning and the end – (Jehovah God right)
Rev 22:13 – Alpha and Omega first and the last (Jehovah God right)
One more scripture, From the NWT Rev 1:17,18. 17 When I saw him, I fell as dead at his feet.
And he laid his right hand on me and said: “Do not be afraid. I am the First and the Last 18 and the living one, and I became dead,
(STOP! Did Jehovah die? When did Jehovah die? You’re reading that from your bible. Who died? Oh, you mean, Jesus is the beginning and the end , the Alpha and Omega, Jehovah God? Would you go back to your Kingdom Hall and ask your overseer when Jehovah died?) Open your eyes Marcus the JW religion is false.
Go back to the watchtower and come up with some better arguments, when attempting to tear down Jesus. Because it’s not working here.
Why should I go back to the Watchtower, a magazine which is no part at all of my faithgroup?!? Why also should I go to overseers of a faithgroup I do not belong to, to ask about matters I preach myself and can read the Bible myself too?!
I also never said Jehovah die. In case you think Jesus is God then God would have either died or faked His death. God cannot die so in case Jesus is the eternal God He would have faked His death.
The Pharisees were infuriated that Jesus forgave sins. Jesus said that he has the authority to do it. But if only God can forgive, it is blasphemy to think God delegates such authority, which Jesus clearly claims.
Therefore, Christ is God.
The Pharisees see Jesus as blaspheming for making himself equal to God. I take this as good evidence that the Pharisees would’ve made great JWs. But clearly Jesus and the Pharisees are on different sides. I’ll take my chances with Jesus over any Pharisee.
Therefore, I cannot be a JW.
I, for other reasons can not and shall not be a JW!
It is a misunderstanding of people to think they have to join the JW to believe and worship the Only One True God! There are many other non-Trinitarian faithgroups, who worship the same God Jesus worshipped. Jesus did not worship himself, but prayed to the God of Israel, to Whom he asked also why He (Jehovah) had abandoned him (Jesus).