KingdomRose
New member
Jehovah Witness Teaching compared with The Bible
I mentioned to a JW on another thread, that I agreed with the JWs on some of their teachings, but that I disagreed with quite a few of their other teachings. I hope to present some of these differences in this thread, and I hope we can take this steadily, without jumping to every topic at once. Possibly as each topic is reasonably covered we can either agree, or disagree, but our respective positions will be reasonably covered. I hope to learn from this interaction.
Topic 1: The return of our Lord Jesus Christ from heaven
Acts 1:9-11 (KJV): 9 And when he had spoken these things, while they beheld, he was taken up; and a cloud received him out of their sight. 10 And while they looked stedfastly toward heaven as he went up, behold, two men stood by them in white apparel; 11 Which also said, Ye men of Galilee, why stand ye gazing up into heaven? this same Jesus, which is taken up from you into heaven, shall so come in like manner as ye have seen him go into heaven.
Acts 1:9-11 (NWT 2013): 9 After he had said these things, while they were looking on, he was lifted up and a cloud caught him up from their sight. 10 And as they were gazing into the sky while he was on his way, suddenly two men in white garments stood beside them 11 and said: “Men of Galʹi·lee, why do you stand looking into the sky? This Jesus who was taken up from you into the sky will come in the same manner as you have seen him going into the sky.”
My understanding of the above is that Jesus is to return to the earth in a similar way to that mentioned above, literally, visibly and as a result Jesus will be actually upon the earth, and no longer in heaven. I also believe that the return of Jesus is still future and when this occurs it will result in the overthrow of the kingdoms of men and be the start of the establishment of the Kingdom of God upon earth that will last for 1000 years.
My assessment of the JW position is that Jesus will not literally return to the earth. I will let them explain their position, but it could be that Jesus returned invisibly in 1914, but is still in heaven. There may be other reasons why they claim that he will not literally return or that it is not possible for Jesus to return to the earth.
Kind regards
Trevor
I may have answered this before, but I don't remember. From what I see when I read these verses, Jesus will return invisibly because the angels said that he would come back just like he went up. He was obscured within the clouds so that they didn't see him any longer.
Verse 9: "He was lifted up and a cloud caught him up from their vision."
Verse 11: "They said, 'Men of Galilee, why do you stand looking into the sky? This Jesus who was received up from you into the sky will come thus in the same manner as you have beheld him going into the sky.'"
It plainly says, to me, that Jesus was obscured from their sight, and he will be obscured from sight when he comes back.
We also believe, as you do, that when Jesus comes at Armageddon he will overthrow all of the kingdoms of men and establish the Kingdom of God over the earth that will last for 1,000 years.