Lord, bless the Jehovah's Witnesses, anyway!
I had fainted, unless I had believed to see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living.
Psalm 27:13
They're a misunderstood part of Heaven's church: the Jehovah's Witnesses. They are some of the few Christians who've been brave enough to come to our door, in a city and community whose troubles are well and widely understood now.
The latest tract I received from them is almost as if in answer to some of the worries that kept me grieved, years ago, about the state of the church, and the state of many of our homes.
The tract asks a question that would earn a "D-minus," if I were a college theology teacher. The tract asks, "Who really controls the world?"
It's a terrible question.
To make that worse, the tract goes on to say, "The Evil One controls the whole world."
But that's wrong, wrong, wrong.
The tract goes to 1 John 5:19, which says the whole world lay in evil. Some versions of the Bible read that to mean the whole world is under "power" of the "evil one." But that's just not the Holy Spirit's meaning!
1 John 5:19 is simply telling us the whole world has people who are choosing to live wickedly. There's no nation that's completely free of evil.
But that does not mean evil has control of this world!
Ephesians 2:1-6 says Heaven's church has been delivered from evil, and that means every one of us who has grown to know Jesus!
Jesus does promise that we're persecuted as Christians, as He was persecuted, especially if we want to live right instead of wickedly like much of the world. But, in heart and mind, we're not consumed by evil. We may be in evil circumstances, but the circumstances are not in control of our destinies as Christians.
So, when someone says, "We have the power. We're in control," that's not someone who really knows the Lord. Because, that's nothing to boast about.
Being free in Christ, or having the promise of freedom in Him, is something to value in our lives as Christians. But warring over "control" isn't godly or true to Heaven.
The word of Heaven says Satan is "prince of the power of the air," a kind of power "now at work in the children of disobedience." But that's as far as the word goes in giving hell any credit for being in control of anything.
Hell is at work in "children of disobedience," or people who so choose. But evil isn't at work in us as Christians, no matter how evil pushes us around. And, knowing that truth, we can patiently go about our way in life, forsaking any evil.
Evil is not our controller!
One good thing in the JW tract is 1 John 2:17.
To paraphrase that scripture, I read it to mean:
The tract also offers the comfort we find in Psalm 37:10-11 and Revelation 21:3-4.
Lord, bless those witnesses.
The latest tract I received from them is almost as if in answer to some of the worries that kept me grieved, years ago, about the state of the church, and the state of many of our homes.
The tract asks a question that would earn a "D-minus," if I were a college theology teacher. The tract asks, "Who really controls the world?"
It's a terrible question.
To make that worse, the tract goes on to say, "The Evil One controls the whole world."
But that's wrong, wrong, wrong.
The tract goes to 1 John 5:19, which says the whole world lay in evil. Some versions of the Bible read that to mean the whole world is under "power" of the "evil one." But that's just not the Holy Spirit's meaning!
1 John 5:19 is simply telling us the whole world has people who are choosing to live wickedly. There's no nation that's completely free of evil.
But that does not mean evil has control of this world!
Ephesians 2:1-6 says Heaven's church has been delivered from evil, and that means every one of us who has grown to know Jesus!
Jesus does promise that we're persecuted as Christians, as He was persecuted, especially if we want to live right instead of wickedly like much of the world. But, in heart and mind, we're not consumed by evil. We may be in evil circumstances, but the circumstances are not in control of our destinies as Christians.
So, when someone says, "We have the power. We're in control," that's not someone who really knows the Lord. Because, that's nothing to boast about.
Being free in Christ, or having the promise of freedom in Him, is something to value in our lives as Christians. But warring over "control" isn't godly or true to Heaven.
The word of Heaven says Satan is "prince of the power of the air," a kind of power "now at work in the children of disobedience." But that's as far as the word goes in giving hell any credit for being in control of anything.
Hell is at work in "children of disobedience," or people who so choose. But evil isn't at work in us as Christians, no matter how evil pushes us around. And, knowing that truth, we can patiently go about our way in life, forsaking any evil.
Evil is not our controller!
One good thing in the JW tract is 1 John 2:17.
To paraphrase that scripture, I read it to mean:
"And the world perishes, and the lust thereof: but those who live according to the will of God abide forever."
The tract also offers the comfort we find in Psalm 37:10-11 and Revelation 21:3-4.
Lord, bless those witnesses.
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