94-Disputations on Jehovah’s Witness Theology for Christian Unity

1. The Watchtower says Jehovah God controls their organization (Watchtower, 11/1/1956, p. 666), but there are false prophecies by this same Watchtower  about 1914 (Studies, Vol. 2, early editions, pp. 76-78).  (The references from primary source material are mostly used from Index of Watchtower Errors by David A. Reed, 2000).
2. “True, there have been those in times past who predicted an ‘end to the world,’ even announcing a specific date. Some have gathered groups of people with them and fled to the hills or withdrawn into their houses waiting for the end. Yet, nothing happened...Why? What was missing?...Missing from such people were God’s truths and the evidence that he was guiding and using them.” (Awake! October 8, 1968, p. 23).
3. The Watchtower asserts that to expose falsehood is not religious persecution (Watchtower, November 15, 1963, p. 688) but claiming one religion is not egoistical (Watchtower, November 15, 1963, p.688-689).  Therefore it provides basis for the reality of the Reformed faith set forth in the Reformed Confessions (LCF and WCF).
4. The New World Translation (1984) of the Watchtower organization teaches that Colossians 1:15-20 wrongly and intentionally inserts “other” things in related to the creation by Christ of the world (properly translated versions are those who do not insert “other”: NASB, NIV, KJV, NKJV, and the ESV).
5. Christians should not honor an organization over the Bible, but the Bible over an organization.
6. Christians must believe the deity of the Lord Jesus Christ.
7. Christians must believe in the deity and personality of the Holy Spirit (Studies, Vol. 5, p. 244).
8. It is better to believe the Bible’s view of the doctrine of faith alone than the Jehovah’s Witness doctrine of obedience unto eternal life.
9. Christians must believe the Trinity of God; one in essence but three in person.  It is not contradictory to believe this Trinitarian formula because it is meant in two different senses.
10. It is not right to lie in court according to the theocratic doctrine of the Watchtower organization (Watchtower, 6/1/1960, p. 352).
11. Christians must believe the bodily resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ.
12. Christians should not follow Charles Taze Russell or Joseph F. Rutherford but the Lord Christ.
13. Christians must believe in the hypostatic union of the Lord Jesus Christ.
14. Christians are called to study other false religions but not take part in them.
15. In 1889 they claimed divine authority for a lie (Studies in the Scriptures, Vol. 2, 1889, p. 15).
16. The world did not end in 1914 as they “divinely” predicted.
17. The “Armageddon of anarchy” did not happen (The New York Times, October 5, 1914, p. 8).
18. Christians must believe in sola scriptura devoid of the Watchtower organization.
19. The Watchtower taught that the men of Sodom would be resurrected but no such thing happened.  It better to believe in the final day of resurrection than a fake story.
20. True Jehovah’s Witnesses are not true Christians.
21. Christ never came in 1844.
22.  “Messiah’s Kingdom” did not come about as foretold (Watchtower Reprints, September 1, 1916, p. 5951).
23. Human works do not play a roll in spiritual salvation but only the work of Christ in His life and death saves.
24. The Versions of the Bible (KJV, NKJV, NASB, etc.) are authentic versions but they teach that the New World Translation (hereafter the NWT) is believed to be the best translation by the Watchtower (New World Translation of the Christian Greek Scriptures, 1950, p.6 & What Has Religion Done for Mankind, 1951, p. 351). 
25. The New World Translation renders John 1:1 as “In [the] beginning the Word was, and the Word was with God, and the Word was a god.”  (New World Translation, 1984, 1327).  But the authentic Versions render the verse correctly in John 1:1, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God” (NIV, NASB, KJV, NKJV, and ESV).
26. We know the Watchtower teaches that it is not persecution to reveal falsehoods about false religion (Watchtower, Execution of Divine Judgment upon False Religion, November 15, 1963).  Therefore let us consider there denial of the Gospel of grace alone.
27. The Bible is meant for private interpretation but the responsibility to interpret it correctly lies with us all.  But they teach it cannot be properly comprehended but only through the Watchtower organization (Watchtower, October 1, 1967, p. 587, Watchtower, May 1, 1957, p. 274, Watchtower, December 12, 1981, p. 27 & Watchtower, December 1, 1990, p. 19). 
28. Jehovah’s Witnesses teach that the Holy Spirit is an impersonal force and an active force (Reasoning from the Scriptures, 1985, p. 380 & Holy Spirit, 1976, p.11).  But the Bible teaches that the Spirit of God is a divine person (Matthew 3:13-17; Acts 28:25).
29. Trinitarians do not believe in three separate gods that make up God (Tritheism), nor do we deny the distinctions within the Godhead (Modalism) (Let God Be True, 1946 [1952 rev.], p. 100, 102).  It is not honest to portray both as if it is Trinitarianism.  It is a purposeful error to sway the reader.  Neither of these theologies represents what Trinitarians believe.
30. Russellites teach that the Trinity is an Egyptian and Babylonian mystery (You Can Live Forever in Paradise on Earth, 1982, pp. 40-41 & Let God Be True, 1946 [1952 rev.] p. 101), and originated from Satan himself (Let God Be True, 1946 [1952 rev.], p. 101).  In Watchtower thought the Trinity is believed to be an untrue doctrine (Reconciliation, 1928, p. 101, Should You Believe in the Trinity? 1989, p. 31, Let God Be True, 1946 [1952 rev.], p. 111, & You Can Live Forever in Paradise on Earth, 1982, p. 39).  In reality, Trinitarians believe that the Trinity is properly explained this way: God is one in essence (Deuteronomy 6:4), and three in person (Matthew 28:16-20). 
31. The Watchtower rejects doctrines that are essential to the gospel.  If a person rejects these doctrines it is not without spiritual harm.  These doctrines are essentials for our spiritual health and well-being.  But we are not saved by doctrine.  Yet it is necessary to let us know how a person is saved, but it is Christ alone that saves.  The question is which doctrines are essential to the gospel of Jesus Christ?  And another question is do you believe the true gospel of Jesus Christ?  If you do not believe the true gospel you are accursed (Galatians 1: 6-10). 
32. The Watchtower is not from God because God does not inspire falsehood.  If you want to hold that it alone correctly interprets Scripture as it says, you will have to concede the point of it being from God.  We know that God cannot lie (Titus 1:2; Hebrews 6:18).  Therefore we must submit to the divine Surety of the Word of God revealed in the sacred pages of the Old and New Testament alone.
33. Jesus merely pre-existed creation as God’s spokesman and he was not immortal before his resurrection (You Can Live Forever in Paradise on Earth, 1982, p. 58 & Insight on the Scriptures, vol. 1, 1988, p. 1189).  But the Bible speaks of His deity (Revelation 1).
34. Jesus was a perfect man as Adam was but he was not God (Should You Believe in the Trinity? 1989, p. 15, You Can Live Forever on Earth, 1982, p.63 & You Can Live Forever in Paradise on Earth, 1982, p. 39-40).  But the Bible says He was God in human flesh (Philippians 2).
35. Before Jesus became man he was Michael the Archangel, and he was resurrected with his first identity as Michael because it was restored (Reasoning from the Scriptures, p. 218, You Can Live Forever in Paradise on Earth, 1982, p. 21).  But Jesus was never Michael because He eternally existed as God the Son (John 1:1; Colossians 2).
36. Jesus was and is not Jehovah God but “a god” (You Can Live Forever in Paradise on Earth, 1982, pp. 39-40 & You Can Live Forever in Paradise on Earth, 1982, p. 40).  But the Bible says that Jesus was God in Hebrews 1.
37.  Jesus did not become the Christ but only when He became baptized (You Can Live Forever in Paradise on Earth, 1982, p. 138).  But the Bible teaches that Jesus is the Christ at His birth in Luke 2:11.
38. Jesus was not resurrected bodily but as a spirit, and not resurrected in the same body (You Can Live Forever in Paradise on Earth, 1982, p. 172, 143).  But the Bible teaches that Jesus rose bodily from the dead (1 Corinthians 15).
39. The Bible teaches that Jesus existed before His birth from everlasting to everlasting (John 1:1-2). He did not merely pre-exist creation.  Rather He is the Eternal Self-Existent One (John 8:58). 
40.  When God the Son became man, He was the Eternal God in human flesh (Philippians 2; 1 Timothy 3:16).  He is truly the Second Person of the Trinity.  He is submissive to the Father but co-equal to the Father.  He did not find equality with God something to be grasped; for He was God incarnate. 
41. Jesus was without sin, or the capacity to sin; He was the sinless God-man (2 Corinthians 5:21 cf. John 1:14). 
42. Jesus was never Michael, nor did He become Michael (Colossians 1; Revelation 1-2).
43. Jesus was the Christ that was proclaimed by the angel (Luke 2:11), and Simeon declared the child the Christ (Luke 2:25-32).
44. Jesus was bodily raised from the dead, and He was raised in the same body yet it was glorified (John 20; Acts 2:22-31).  Doesn’t the Scripture say that Christ is the fullness of Deity in bodily form (Colossians 2:9)? 
45. The doctrine of justification by faith alone is a biblical doctrine; God’s people are justified by faith apart from works (Romans 4; Titus 3:5).
46. The questions are: how can an impersonal force approve someone to a divine task?  How can an impersonal force be holy?  Tell me, how is it that the Spirit of God in Scripture speaks (Acts 28:25), indwells His people (Romans 8:11), convicts the world of sin (John 16:8-11), and even prevents His people from doing what they desired in Bithynia (Acts 16:7)? 
47. Any serious reading of Scripture shows that the Spirit of God is a divine person.  He is called God (Acts 5:3-4) and His title is the Eternal Spirit (Hebrews 9:14).  Tell me, how is an impersonal force called the Lord God (Isaiah 61:1)?  He is the One who changes the heart of stone with the divine Word of God (John 3).  He is the One who works in the life of a believer in sanctification.  He is the One who illuminates the mind of His people.  We do not own allegiance to an impersonal force but to the true living God Who is the Holy Spirit.  It is biblically proper to call the Holy Ghost the one true God.  He is the Third Person of the Trinity.  He is the One that is called God by Luke (Acts 5:1-4).
48. The Watchtower denies Hell is a place but says it’s “the common grave of all mankind” (Live Forever, p. 83).  Hell is a real, eternal place (Matthew 25:41). Disbelieve what you have learned, and submit to the Triune God of Scripture (Matthew 28:16-20).
49. What if there really is consciousness after death known as the intermediate state; for doesn’t the Scripture say to be absent from the body is to be at home with the Lord (2 Corinthians 5:8)?  Where you will spend eternity is at stake: repent and believe in the gospel of the Spirit of God.
50. The Bible teaches that we should worship the Lord Jesus Christ, but the Jehovah’s Witnesses changed from worshipping Christ (Watchtower, 11/1879, p. 48) to forbidding worshiping Christ (Watchtower 7/15/1959, p.421).
51. Are we to believe that substantial changes of Watchtower doctrine are a “growing process” or “gaining more light over time?”  Or is it an indication that the Watchtower organization had serious errors to it?  It is better to serve the Bible’s message then an errant organization.
52. For salvation a Jehovah’s Witness must always be apart of the Watchtower organization (Watchtower, 1/1/1960, p. 19), but the Bible teaches faith and repentance in the Gospel of Christ (Mark 1:15).
53. For salvation a Jehovah’s Witness must do works to have their names in the book of life (Watchtower, 4/1/1947, p. 204), but the Bible teaches faith accounted as righteousness (Romans 4).
54. Some sins for the Jehovah’s Witness are not forgiven (Watchtower, 8/1/1975, p. 459) and through it salvation comes (Watchtower, 11/15/1981, p. 21), but the Bible speaks of the forgiveness and cleansing of all sin for elect believers (1 John 1:9).
55. One must have faith in “a victorious organization” (Watchtower, 3/1/1979, p.1), but God in His Word says it’s in Christ alone that one has eternal life (John 3:16).
56. Charles Taze Russell should not have been worshipped as a creature (1975 Yearbook, p. 88), but God the Holy Trinity alone (John 4:21-24).
57. The Watchtower teaches that the Lord Jesus is forever dead (Studies, Vol. 5, p. 454), but the Bible teaches that He rose bodily from the dead (John 20:27 opposed to Studies, Vol. 7, p. 57).
58. The Watchtower denies that the atonement body of Christ is the same body of Christ at His resurrection (Watchtower, 8/1/1975, p. 479).
59. The Watchtower denies that Jesus is a man forever after His resurrection (Love Forever, p. 143), but the Bible teaches that Christ is the God-man forevermore (Acts 10:42).
60. The Watchtower teaches that the white race has “some qualities of superiority” (Watchtower, 7/15/1902, p. 3043), but the Bible teaches that God elects men from every tribe, tongue, people and nation (Revelation 5:9).
61. The Watchtower admits that Jehovah’s Witnesses are “not infallible or inspired prophets” (Watchtower, 5/15/1976, p. 297) but understands themselves as a “prophetlike organization” (Watchtower, 10/1/1964, p. 601) and Jehovah’s Witnesses are called God’s people, prophets and witnesses (Awake, 6/8/1986, p. 6).
62. The Watchtower calls its people not to take part “in political activities” (United, p. 166), but the Bible speaks of having Christ determine one’s whole life (Philippians 4:8-9).
63. The Watchtower believes the Second Advent of Christ took place in the Fall of 1874 (Studies, Vol. 7, p. 60), but the Bible speaks of Christ’s Second Coming as a public event (Revelation 1:7).
64. How can salvation be given to “a god” who is not the Divine Christ (Word, p. 52)?  Spiritual salvation is granted by the Incarnate Divine Christ, because only the God-man could satisfy divine justice (John 1:14; 1 Timothy 2:5).
65. The Watchtower spoke of the possibility of military service (Watchtower, 8/1/1898, p. 2345), but refuses it in 1951 (Watchtower, 2/1/1951, p. 73 cf. United, p. 167).
66. The Watchtower says it matters what people believe about Jesus (Watchtower, 2/1/1984, p. 3), but questions how Jesus could be “a god” (Watchtower, 7/1/1986, p. 31).
67. The Watchtower says that there is “no biblical evidence” that Jesus died on the cross (Awake, 11/8/1972, p. 14) but the Bible says Simon the Cyrene carried Jesus’ cross (Matthew 27:32 opposed to Awake, 9/22/1974, p. 28).
68. The Watchtower says it is proper to join in on Christmas (Watchtower, 12/15/1903, p. 3290), but changed its mind (Watchtower 12/15/1979, p. 5) and it is alleged that Christmas is from Satan (Watchtower, 12.15/1983, p. 7).  However, Christmas was good enough for the sinless Christmas angels to celebrate the birth of Christ the Blessed One (Luke 2:7-15).
69. The Watchtower is alleged to be “the one and only channel” of God (Watchtower, 4/1/1919, 6414), but the Bible speaks of a biblically Reformed local church (1 Timothy 3:15).
70. It is better to think that God shows people that Charles Taze Russell is from Satan then to believe Satan causes people to believe he is from him (Watchtower 9/15/1922, p. 279).
71. Vaccinations are considered a “violation of the everlasting covenant” (Golden Age, 2/4/1931, p. 293), but the Bible does not anywhere condemn them.
72. Organ transplants are considered “cannibalism” (Watchtower, 11/15/1957, pp. 702-4), but the Bible does not anywhere condemn them.
73. The Watchtower forbids blood transfusions (JW On Blood, pp. 18-19), but the Bible does not anywhere condemn them.
74. The Watchtower understands itself as a sealed book except for itself (Watchtower 7/1/1973, p. 402), but the organization is erred because the Bible calls us to private interpretation but to do so correctly (2 Timothy 2:15).
75. The Watchtower is considered by itself to be “the channel of communication that God is using” and no one will “progress along the road to life” without it (Watchtower 12/1/1981, p. 27) and it forbids independent thought (Watchtower 1/15/1983, p. 27).  The Bible must be understood as the sole infallible authority, but organizations can make errors; however, the Bible is all for independent thinking as long as it does not commit heresy.  The sin of error is a crime that can damn the soul.
76. The Watchtower wants itself recognized in “organization minded[ness]” nut the Bible can be understood apart from organizational mindedness  (Watchtower, 9/1/1954, p. 529) but every Christian should be in a Bible-based church apart from true providential hindrances (Hebrews 10:25).
77. The Watchtower says that it alone is from God (Watchtower, 3/1/1979, p. 24) but the Bible speaks of Gospel-honoring churches (Romans 1:1) but warns of those who put forth contrary opinions (Watchtower, 3/15/1986. p. 17).
78. The Bible speaks of the omnipresence of God the Father (Jeremiah 23:23-24), God the Son (Colossians 3:11) and God the Holy Spirit (Psalm 139:7-12).
79. The Bible speaks of the omnipotence of God the Father (Job 42:2), God the Son (Matthew 8:3) and God the Holy Spirit (Romans 8:5).
80. The Bible speaks of the omniscience of God the Father (Isaiah 40:14), God the Son (Colossians 2:2-3), and God the Holy Spirit (1 Corinthians 2:10-13).
81. The Bible speaks of the eternity of God the Father (Psalm 90:2), God the Son (1 Timothy 1:15-17) and God the Holy Spirit (Hebrews 9:14).
82. The Bible speaks of the divinity and personality of God the Father (Isaiah 64:8; Matthew 3:17).
83. The Bible speaks of the divinity and humanity of God the Son (Isaiah 7:6; 1 Timothy 2:5).
84. The Bible speaks of the divinity and personality of God the Spirit (Genesis 1:1-2; 6:3).
85. The atonement of Christ did not make Him a sinner when He willingly died at Calvary (nor was He a sinner at anytime in His life; He did not freely die to atone for any sin of Himself, but rather, He was and is without sin.  He died for the sin of His people, and He became sin so His people may become the righteousness of God in Him.  He died to God the Father; that is, He offered of Himself, the perfect ransom (a sweet fragrance unto God the Father), and He remains the impeccable, eternal, and unchanging Son of Man, Christ Jesus, the Victor).  He wholly and freely bore the totality of the sins of His people alone in their place in complete fullness.  The just dreadful wrath of our Heavenly Father was satisfied through, by and because of His Beloved Son. The sins of God’s people were expiated, that is, removed from all them as far as the east is from the west, and Christ appeased the wrath of God.  God the Father has accepted what the God-man, the selfless, all-sufficient, spotless, sinner-Seeker, has done for His people.  The sufficient work of the God-man was, indeed, and still is, wholly and completely well-pleasing to His Beloved Father.  What Christ Himself accomplished on the cross at Calvary, was not in opposition to His Beloved Father’s will but was in complete and total harmony with it and perfect cooperation to it.  The cross of the Incarnate Lamb did not merely potentially save God’s people but actually saved His people. The alien righteousness of Christ alone avails before God the Father Himself.  There is no division or separation between the Father and the Son.  Christ Himself, the God-man, paid for our eternal sin debt which we could never pay.  God makes a heavenly and true forensic declaration in their justification of His own, once and for all, which is not a process.  His people’s salvation is dependent upon the Triune Lord Himself not man; indeed, it is God-dependent, that is, all by, from and because of God’s sheer and pure sovereign grace alone.  It is of Christ alone, because of Christ alone, and from Christ alone, wholly in behalf of totally depraved sinners.  When God bestows upon His people, graciousness, it is not from obligation but by His blessed voluntary work of His holy kindness and tender abundant mercies. It is wholly God-glorifying and God-magnifying, which is all divinely predestinated and foreordained, before the world began for His blessed elect only.  The elect of the Lamb will preserve because of the preservation of God Himself.  Those who are truly regenerate will truly preserve unto the very end.  God safely keeps His chosen from truly falling away.  His sovereign work alone is irrevocable and unchangeable.  Indeed, it cannot be undone.  This is what a Christian is, and it is entirely foreign to the WTO (Dr. Petillo, Michael A., The Jehovah’s Witness Controversy, 2009).
86. Revelation 1:17-18 proves the deity of the Lord Jesus Christ.
87. This would be a good prayer for Jehovah’s Witnesses to say:  “Dear God, whom I hate with all my being precisely because you hate and threaten me with hell, I hate this punishment perhaps even more than I hate you. Or, maybe I should say that I love my comfort even more than I hate you. For that reason I am asking a favor of you. I want you to make me love you, whom I hate even when I ask this and even more because I have to ask this. I am being frank with you because I know it is no use to be otherwise. You know even better than I how much I hate you and that I love only myself. It is no use for me to pretend to be sincere. I most certainly do not love you and do not want to love you. I hate the thought of loving you but that is what I'm asking because I love myself. If you can answer this 'prayer' I guess the gift of gratitude will come with it and then I will be able to do what I would not think of doing now—thank you for making me love you whom I hate. Amen.”  (Gerstner, The Rational Biblical Theology Of Jonathan Edwards, 81). 
88. Christians must believe that the grace of faith is born of God but not through Watchtower errors (Titus 3:5).
89. The Bible forbids us to go door to door, but Christians should know their faith in Christ because God has given us minds to understand His truth. 
90. Easter is a great way to celebrate the bodily resurrection of the Lord Christ.
91. Reformation Day on October 31^st is a great way to celebrate the birth of the biblical Gospel into a dark world in the 95 Disputations of Martian Luther.
92. Holy Thursday as Ascension Day should be celebrated by faithful Christians because it is an essential doctrine and speaks of Christ’s kingship.
93. It is good for a Christian to engage in consistent prayer in the manifestation of an hour of worship on one’s knees to God the Holy Trinity.
94. It is better to worship the Holy Trinity alone than worship a false god.

The Divine Eucharist: A Basic Devotional Awakening to the Eucharist of the Divine Word in the Dedication of Christian Living in the Presence of God

CHAPTER 1: The All-Sufficient Sacrifice of the Divine Lamb

CHAPTER 2:  The Divine Repentance of the Spirit

CHAPTER 3:  The Weekly Continuance of Divine Communion

CHAPTER4:  The Eucharist of Thanksgiving and God’s Work

CHAPTER 5:  Christian Responsibility and God’s Divine Presence

CHAPTER 6:  Access to the Father through His Son

CHAPTER 1: The All-Sufficient Sacrifice of the Divine Lamb

            What is the Eucharist all about?  It’s about remembering the Lord Jesus Christ’s all-acceptable, all-sufficient, all-pleasing sacrifice that He accomplished once-and-all. 

            The Eucharist is a treasure; a gift of blessedness; and the riches of heaven on earth, because in the Divine Eucharist we partake and taste of heaven. 

            The once-and-for-all atonement of the Lamb of God is the means by which God’s people are freed from their sin, and are given the Son’s immaculate righteousness by the mechanism of faith alone.  Only the Divine Lamb redemptively sacrificed Himself for the spiritual acceptability of His people. 

            The Cross is where I become right with God.  The Cross is where the sinner lays his burdens down, and he is accepted in the beloved.  The Cross is apprehended by the grace of faith, and we demonstrate that faith by partaking of the Most Holy Eucharist. 

            The Son came in the inspiration of God the Spirit with the Father’s approval.  The Son committed Himself to a holy submission to the Cross, because He was meant to endure the unendurable as He is the righteous for the unrighteous; the just for the unjust; the sinless for the sinner.  He is the One who paid the price for the sin of His people, and through the Cross we are perfected. 

            The Sacred Eucharist shows us that Jesus’ body was broken for us, because His Cross actually saves His people.  Jesus says that the Eucharist is Him: His body, O that blessed Son who came and died for His own; whose body was broken so I would be rescued from divine wrath and that hellish home!  O the depths of sorrow!  O the depths of that thorny crown! 

            On the Cross alone He took upon our sin, and wore that crown of thorns for me, and for you: the ones whom He died partake of His Heavenly broken side by the water of the divine Word in all faithful acceptance, and His blood is what washes us from all sin because it alone is of God and has the divine power to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

            We partake of His body by the visibility of unleavened bread, and wine.  O His sacred body and blood!  Given for me so I know His took my place!   

Do I approach the body and blood of Christ by dirty hands?  In the Old Testament someone saved the Ark of the Covenant from hitting the mud, but his hand was more corrupt than that mud, and God struck him dead.  So to we ought to apprehend Christ in the Eucharist by faith, and understand that our hearts ought to be cleansed, because dare we approach His body and blood with dirty spiritual hands, minds, mouths and deeds? 

            Truly, truly, by nature we are more corrupt than the mud, but we now come by faith to receive the Omnipresent Christ, because Jesus says it’s Him. 

            Indeed, heaven has come down to proclaim His death of deaths so that by it and the application of God the Holy Spirit to us we can benefit in all spiritual acceptance. 

            Here, now, is the Christ of the Eucharist who was broken for us!  Yea, so we would remember His death as our exclusive way of reconciliation with God the Father.  And as we partake, the angels praise God for our remembrance due His name!

           

CHAPTER 2:  The Divine Repentance of the Spirit

            What comes with partaking of the Eucharist?  It’s all about a broken and contrite heart before God in faithful repentance by an honest searching of our hearts before God, and a proper recognition of the reality of the Cross-work of the Lord Jesus Christ. 

            The Eucharist points us to the Cross of the Lamb of God alone; because He alone is the sole Savior and Redeemer of His elect people alone.  What does Peter say about Christ?  It is through the Cross of Christ alone (Acts 4:12) that we obtain forgiveness by a God-approved repentance in light of particular sins. 

            Repentance is a holy gift of the Holy Spirit, because only God the Spirit could produce spiritual life out of spiritual death.  We know of the Blessed Eucharist by the Blessed Word of God, because the Spirit superintended the words of holy men of old.  When we approach the Holy Eucharist, we ought to examine ourselves in light of the Ten Commandments, and the New Testament Commands of the Lord Messiah.  Does anyone dare think they ought to approach the Bible-based Eucharist with corrupt, spiritual hands?  Indeed, we ought to be cleansed of our sin, before we behold Christ. 

            The Holy Word teaches repentance unto remission and life: confession of sin to God the Father through the Son by the Spirit.  Who is our great High Priest?  Perish the thought that it is any other except Christ and Him crucified.  The Lord Christ continues His work of intercession for those whom the Cross was intended.  Therefore, Christ intercedes for those whom the Spirit applies the work of His Cross. 

            Let us live our days in the doctrine of repentance: repentance ought to be what we are about because we desire to live for holiness in every right way.  In a sense, God is always before us, because we live in His presence, but when we approach that Holy of holies as Christ Himself in the Eucharist we ought to come with a heart of repentance. 

CHAPTER 3:  The Weekly Continuance of Divine Communion

            What is weekly communion all about?  The man Luther was the theologian of the Cross, and he wanted to know nothing but Him and Him crucified.  That is what a crucifix reminds us of: His all-perfect death, because in it is life.  We must worship Christ and Christ alone, but we can remember His work by the Divine Eucharist and Crucifixes that show His the spiritual life that He gives us by His death in what He has done for us.

            We must partake of the knowledge of His Word by reading the Word, and meditating on His divine truth.  When we partake of the Divine Communion by faith, we ought to know that the act of the Cross alone was a propitiatory sacrifice (that is, it satisfied divine justice of God the Father), and the expiation of what the Cross provides is removing our sins as far as the east is from the west.   

            God is a just God: He is holy and we are not.  However, by His grace we can grow in holiness, because Peter commanded that we would be holy as God is holy.  The reason why Christ satisfied divine justice was because the Father had to punish sin, but instead of punishing sin in the persons of elect sinners, He graciously provided the due punishment of our sin in Christ.  That is, He was broken for us; He was wounded for us; He was torn asunder through crucifixion, because of the determined counsel of God for the purpose of spiritual redemption. 

            As often as we partake of the Divine Eucharist, we remember the death of deaths of the Son.  It is a blessing of blessings to partake of the Christ-centered Eucharist; because in it alone do we remember the death of the Blessed One.

            The Bible calls us all to righteousness, but those who do not have the blessing of Christ in administering the Eucharist do not have the legitimacy of being an instrument of God through Holy Communion.  We ought to take spiritual pride in the faithful obedience of our leaders, and we should question why there is lawlessness, because Christ commanded that at His name: all must depart from evil.  There is a serious cosmic problem if the leaders do not have the approval of Christ but the approval of Judas. 

            If what Jesus did was all about righteousness as He submitted to the Cross, isn’t it right that we ask our leaders to be about righteousness? 

            Let Holy Communion bring to our remembrance that source of all spiritual blessing through the Cross alone, because in the work of Christ we have His righteousness accounted to us by faith alone, and here, my beloved, is the way of God-designed peace.  It is through Christ and Him alone that we have peace by the actuality and truth of how we become right with God.  Blessed Communion reminds us of this peace, because it tells us of the Cross: yea, His body and blood.

CHAPTER4:  The Eucharist of Thanksgiving and God’s Work

            What is the meaning of the Eucharist?  It is about thanksgiving because we must to be grateful for the God-man and what He has done because of God’s blessed work in awakening us by His Spirit and His Word. 

            May we approach His table with thanksgiving!  Upon what basis?  Upon the basis of Christ alone, and the work He did for us.  We ought to remember His work, because by His holy character, we have the justified reason to be thankful.  God ordains all things for our good, and how much more the Holy Communion!

            The mystery of the Eucharist, is, why the Triune Godhead would design a way at all to be saved.  We can think this way in light of our undeserving ways, and our sin.  If we think about it, because we have sinned, God is not obligated to give us anything, but due to His gracious kindness He bids us repentance in thanksgiving in recognition of His Cross.   

As we approach the table of thanksgiving: we approach the Cross.  We partake of His spiritual benefits throughout the day in the act of the Cross alone.  The power is not in symbols but in the Cross of the Lord Sovereign alone.  If we are true Christians, we must be about the power of the Cross.  Yes, my friends, it alone is the cause of all spiritual health; all spiritual profit; all spiritual wealth.  We find true cleansing of sin because of the Cross. 

The Cross is all about divine righteousness: it is not about worshipping a symbol but worshipping the Lord Christ.  When we kneel, we kneel to Christ.  When we pray, we pray to Christ.  Why?  We have hearts of thanksgiving because we remember His historical and redemptive act of the Cross, and when we approach the table we tremble at His awesomeness, but we remember His mercy in the manifestation of His Cross.  The presence of Christ in the Eucharist militate our strictest devotion to practical righteousness in holy living.  That practical righteousness is found in the unified righteousness (His life and death).  The grace of imputation (or it being reckoned) is the way we are covered by the robes of His righteousness by the sheer grace of faith. 

Holy Communion should be accompanied by the expository preaching of God’s Word in uplifting Christ alone as King Eternal!

O the sweetness I know by His Cross!  To this we now turn.    

CHAPTER 5:  Christian Responsibility and God’s Divine Presence

            What’s the responsibility of the Christian in God’s presence?  It’s all about the accountability we have before God in the presence of the Triune King. 

            If we love the Eucharist because of Christ and who He is, we will live in light of the Law of God under the Spirit of God who gives us grace to obey.  The grace to obey does not add to His whole merit, but like our sufferings (as we rejoice) it shows to whom we fight for.  We are called to live upright lives; we are called to live lives of righteousness; we are called to live in all holiness. 

If we love the Cross, we ought to live in light of Jesus’ submission to the Father in fulfilling all righteousness.  We ought to love the right way because we truly love God, and we worship Him alone. 

The Cross was the height of Jesus’ obedience to the will of the Father, and we ought to live our lives in the height of the obedience to the Father’s will.  Do not use the Cross for malice mischievousness, but use it to grow in holiness, but whatever the sin of a true follower of Christ is, it is remittable by His undying death: this means the Cross itself is a source of life that ever provides me with spiritual acceptance. 

            When we think of the Cross, we know it is true, because we know of the certainty of His triumphant resurrection.  Christ’s blessed resurrection is a sign of the legitimacy of the effectiveness of the Cross.  Therefore, we have no greater certainty of remission, cleansing and forgiveness of sin than by His impeccable Cross.

CHAPTER 6:  Access to the Father through His Son

            What is access to the Father through the Son?  It’s all about what the Son has done and it is through Him we have access to God the Father. 

            We ought to approach His throne in prayer with boldness: remember He freely died for His people, and He wants us to be confident in Him (apart from blind presumption).  The Father does not redemptively work through another except His Son alone, and here is the secret of eternal life. 

            The blessedness of the Son in His sinless life and sinless death is for His intended ones and we ought to regard His work as all-conquering against sin, God’s wrath, and Satan. 

            We have access to God the Father: our sins are forgiven us by and through the Son of God, because He is Truth itself. 

            We have access to God the Father: our prayers are heard before His throne because it is through His Son whom He said “Follow Him.”

            We have access to God the Father: our being is covered with His altogether righteousness, and by it we can stand before the Blessed Father.  

            O the sweetness of divine access: it is sweeter then sugar, and greater then wealth, and it is of the Divine Savior who blesses us with Himself this day through His general presence, and His unmistakable yet mystical  presence at Blessed Communion. 

            Grant O God of heaven and earth that we would have Thy Spirit to praise Thy character in the holiness of the triumphant death of the triumphant Son!  Amen. 

The Animism Controversy

            The Incarnate Christ is the only way to have a true relationship with God.  Religions of the world offer inauthentic, untrue and false ways to God.  Christ is the true Savior that is based on Scripture alone[i] to reveal the only true way to God.  God Himself has approved and ordained Christ as the only Savior.  Animism does not lead a person to “…a kind of preparation…” to believe Christ.  The natural man cannot cooperate with God.  God’s people are made partakers of redemption.  This is only by the effectual application to His people (John 1:12) by His Spirit (Titus 3:5-6).  The Spirit works faith in His people (Eph. 2:8).  He unites His sheep to Christ in the effectual calling of His people (Eph. 3:17).  This is the work of the Holy Ghost (2 Tim. 1:9).  The Spirit convinces God’s people of their sin and misery (Acts 2:37).  He enlightens the minds of His people in the knowledge of Christ Jesus (Acts 26:18), and renews the will of His people (Ezek. 36:26).  The Holy Ghost persuades and enables His elect only to accept Christ Jesus.  This is freely offered in the gospel (John 6:44-45).[ii]  The natural man is spiritually dead.  He cannot accept what is spiritually good (the gospel).  As we have seen, monergism is what scripture teaches.  Indeed, animism is devoid of the Holy Spirit.  The Spirit of God approved the religion of Jesus.  Therefore, the religion of animism is a false religion, and its source is of the evil one.

            The issue emerges about the spiritual source of animism.  Is the source of animism a similar source related to biblical Christianity?  Pope John Paul II wrote there is “…a kind of common soteriological root present in all religions.”[iii]  As a modified universalist, Pope John Paul II states,

…Is there, perhaps, in this veneration of ancestors a kind of preparation for the Christian faith in the Communion of Saints, in which all believers—whether living or dead—form a single community, a single body?  And faith in the Communion of Saints is, ultimately, faith in Christ, who alone is the source of life and of holiness for all.  There is nothing strange, then, that the African and Asian animists would become believers in Christ more easily than followers of the great religions of the Far East.”[iv] 

            Biblical Christianity offers the matchless message of the gospel.  The natural man cannot prepare to accept Christ.  There is nothing in and of himself that will lead the natural man to accept Christ.  Man is totally depraved, and he does not have an island of righteousness in himself.  Salvation is found in no one else except Christ alone (Acts 4:12).  Therefore, animism has the absence of the saving message of the soul, and the presence of the bondage of the soul.  Thus, the Christian Bible[v] does not teach modified universalism.  Rather, the Christian Bible teaches the exclusivity of Jesus Christ as the sole Incarnate Redeemer (1 Tim. 2:5; John 1:14).  Therefore salvation is solely found in Jesus Christ.  That is, the Christian Bible denies salvation in anyone or anything else.  True explicit faith from a true regenerated heart is essential for true soteriology (that is, salvation). 

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[i] Holy Scripture is properly understood as the sole infallible authority for Christians.

[ii] These scriptural answers were used from A Puritan Catechism by C.H. Spurgeon.  The questions range from question 28 to question 30.  The questions are:  28. Q. How are we made partakers of the redemption purchased by Christ? 29. Q. How does the Spirit apply to us the redemption purchased by Christ? and 30. Q. What is effectual calling? which were presented with answers in his Catechism.

[iii] Pope John Paul II.  Crossing The Threshold Of Hope (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, Inc., 1994), 81. 

[iv] Pope John Paul II, 82.  Exclusivists rightly understand his book as a “universalist manifesto.”

[v] The Christian Bible do not teach Communion of Saints in the Roman Catholic sense.  Communion of Saints in the biblical sense does not include but entirely excludes the concept of praying to saints (Ps. 62:2, 5; 1 Tim. 2:5) or praying for the dead (2 Sam. 12:21-23).  The Larger Catechism of the Westminster Assembly asks Q. 179. Are we to pray unto God only?  The answer is, “God only being able to search the hearts (1 Kings 8:39; Acts 1:24; Rom. 8:27), hear the requests (Ps. 65:2), pardon the sins (Micah 7:18), and fulfill the desires of all (Ps. 145:18, 19); and only to be believed in (Rom. 10:14), and worshipped with religious worship (Matt. 4:10); prayer, which is a special part thereof (1 Cor. 1:2), is to be made by all to him alone (Ps. 50:15), and to none other (Rom. 10:14).”  (The Larger Catechism of the Westminster Assembly With Scripture References, (Glasgow: Free Presbyterian Publications, 1998), 41).