Alright is this is one of my pet peeves. I studied as a jw for a year or so. Please do not say that the kjv is the only way to defend christian doctrine against their beliefs. I have read many, many posts on this forum that believe that the kjv is the only way to defend the trinity etc.
To clear things up, here are jw beliefs. I know because i attended kh and also studied with them|:
1. Michael the archangel is christ
2. The cross is pagan, and in fact he was crucified on a stake
3. The trinity represents false relgion because many pagan religions worshipped gods with 3 heads etc.
4. Only 144,000 are admitted to heaven. The rest will be resurrected to paradise eath.
5. There is no such thing as hell. Only death, and those that accept christ will be resurrected to the paradise earth.
6. Jehovah is the true name of god.
You must utilize a modern translation such as the nasb, or esv to deffend yourself against their doctrine. Utilizing the kjv will get you no where. Their nwt is based upon the asv. They will state that the kjv is inferior based upon textual basis.
Jw's used to utilize the kjv as their translation. Their beliefs are along the lines of the 7th day adventists who also believe christ is michael the archangel.
It all comes down to the gospel of john where he states the word is god. I attend a fundamental baptist church. My pastor is fluent in greek. He utilizes a greek translation to argue thier doctine. He points out that the indefinite article |"a" is not present in the sentence where the word was god. It is clearly seen in the greek and one cannot argue that. They place the indefinite article there because the sentence, 'the word was god" would totally contradict their doctrine. They will still argue that they can defend this sentence though.
They argue based upon scholarly research and state the kjv has errors and thus is not a sound argument. Although i use the kjv i can see their points because, yes, there is much research of the errrors contained withing the kjv. You would be better off utilizing a modern translation such as the nasb to defend you beliefs.
Believe me, i have spent countless hours regarding this issue and it is very personal to me. The best argument over our doctrine is to find the actual greek text and utilize that with one that can read the greek text. My pastor can, and they actually will no longer communicate with him because of this.
In john, jesus states who do you say i am. The i am is infact a reference to god. He is claiming his deity. They also mistranslate this passage as well. Look at their first chapter of colossians as well to gain a better insight.
If anyone is serious in arguing their position, I would suggest you go their website and look at their NWT. it is intersting on how they translate passages. You will see where they deny the Holy |Spirit as part of the Trinity and also the passages where there is any link to Christ as being part of the deity.
Also, if one looks at the NWT, they will see that in fact, there were no scholars present in the translation. The translation was based upon 5 or so men, of whom, none held advanced degrees. They will state that it doesn't matter, but i believe bible translation is in fact a science, just as a surgery, or medicine is a science, and education/licensure is part of the process. One would not want a physician to operate on them without the proper credentials.
Chris- you are so correct. The same is true with the JW Bible in Spanish. They cannot argue with the Greek- however, I suppose that you are also aware that they have their own Greek translation, which is a hybrid, if I am not mistaken.
I do indeed. That wasn't your claim. Your claim that all sinners are barred from heaven. That's false doctrine.
Scripture makes it VERY CLEAR that a person's salvation is not contingent upon whether one commits sins or not, nor is it contingent upon whether a person continues to sin or not after conversion. For example, I could point to your previous posts and say "I've already demonstrated that you are an unrepentent gossiper and a liar." Despite that, your salvation is secure.
It's posts like these that best sum up why the extreme view of KJVO is flawed- the belief that the translation is superior to that which it was translated from. I believe this is referred to as "new revelation". It is completely without scriptural support and it cases like this, it can lead to a misinterpretation of scripture.
I don't know Greek (a great reason why I read the King James translation, and dig deeper into its words with tools like Strong's)...
It also poses a doctrinal problem.
For example, I hold in my hand at this very moment the "Nederlandse Statenvertaling", which is a 1750 Dutch translation of scripture.
Supposed KJVO superiority would dictate that the KJV is superior in translation to the Statenvertaling.
Yet, if I translate the KJV to Dutch (rather than the greek/hebrew sources to Dutch), the KJV-to-DUtch translation will be wrought with translational problems.
The JW doctrine is very, very, close to my heart because I have seen it first hand destroy familys. It has mine. PLease, do not believe that one cannot argue their doctrine based solely on the KJV. In fact web pages that state the NIV etc is the same as the |JW bible are completely false. |You need to dig into their doctrine and study it.
When the J|W's find one that is against their belief's or is sinning, they disfellowship them. |When this occurs, they will not talk, or associate with that individual. I am not saying that sin needs to remain unaddressed, or unpunished, but the damage they do is incredible|!!!!!!!!!!! I know first hand. There is nothing Christ-like in that action. They simple cut people off and provide NO support. I have meet people who were disfellowshipped JW's and their lives are nothing close to being in concert with the lives we are taught to live in the bible. It is because they were completely cut off from their families.