"Know ye that the LORD, he is God..." (cf. Psalm 100:3).
JESUS IS LORD! "That rock was Christ..." (cf. 1 Cor. 10:4).
"In him dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily" (cf. Col. 2:9).
"It is right for me to feel this way about all of you, since I have you in my heart and, whether I am in chains or defending and confirming the gospel..." (Phil. 1:7, NIV).
"He must hold firmly to the trustworthy message as it has been taught, so that he can encourage others by sound doctrine and refute those who oppose it." (Tit. 1:9, NIV).
"You, however, must teach what is appropriate to sound doctrine" (Tit. 2:1, NIV).
"Christianity is Christ; all else is circumference." --John Stott, theologian
Christianity is all about Jesus--all else is peripheral or circumference, as John Stott says. If you remove Christ, the faith is disemboweled--unlike Islam or Buddhism, in which the founders can be removed and the religion remains intact. Without Christ, there's nothing left but ethics and pie-in-the-sky dreams. 2 John v. 9 says that if we "do not continue [abide] in the doctrine of Christ" we "do not have the Father"; this is to say that we must get the doctrine of the deity of Christ correct to be named by His name of Christian--Jesus said that Him being the Son of God is the Rock of the church to Peter. Paul knew of early heresy when he wrote Corinthians in 2 Cor. 11:4 that they had fallen for "another gospel, another Spirit, another Jesus!" They're not worthy of the Name!
The cults (and they all have something nice to say of Jesus) masquerade their faith as false teachers or wolves in sheep's clothing to sound innocuous to the innocent and naive, but they are dangerous--it's just the bit of truth mixed with error that makes them dangerous. People get enough of Christ to become immune to the real thing! Jesus never made it easy to become a believer or disciple, but discouraged the halfhearted and insincere, not seeking shallow conversions or pseudo-conversions without any substance. We all must count the cost and be willing to carry our crosses for His sake.
This is why JWs are so dangerous to Christianity--they parade themselves as genuine Christians and have a knowledge falsely so-called to fool the naive and unsuspecting students of the Word. They are simply very aggressive and the believer may be fooled because he doesn't have the answers to their challenges. Just because they name the name of Jesus, don't be fooled, because inwardly they are ravenous wolves ready to devour the sheep. The Bible warns us not to flirt with the enemy nor to welcome the false teacher who creeps in unawares or we share in his evil deeds--they are to be shunned or avoided, not fellowshipped with!
We must fight fire with fire and know how to meet them with the ammo of the Word or not try to convert them at all--they are already convinced of their heresy and may not welcome truth nor recognize it. The Bible clearly teaches Jesus as the very incarnation and personification of God in the flesh--not sent from God, a prophet of God, a mere king, the messenger of God, spokesman or surrogate of God, part of God, only a God, inspired or anointed by God, but God Himself, co-equal, co-eternal, and co-existent in essence and glory with the eternal Father--anything less is simply heresy!
CAVEAT: THE PERSONAGE PORTRAYED BY THE CULTS FALLS SHORT OF THE REAL JESUS, GOD THE SON, SECOND PERSON OF THE TRIUNE GODHEAD.
To assign Jesus to a label of some well-intended, but failed and misunderstood religious reformer or martyr, do-gooder, healer, miracle worker, good teacher, or anything less than the Son of God in all its glory and essence is blasphemous and belittles Him--even to call Him the greatest of all men or our best example of morals is an insult to His person in all its dignity glory, and majesty. For to claim He was a good man or teacher would belie the claims He made and make Him out to be more a devil and deceiver than a good man--any like claim doesn't do Him justice and is merely condescending nonsense.
Finally, we must realize they are seldom convinced by argument and we must rely on the power of the Spirit's witness and the testimony and conviction of the Word of God (cf. 1 Thess. 1:5; 2:13; Romans 10:17) as we abide in the doctrine of Christ (cf. 2 John 9). Soli Deo Gloria!
JESUS IS LORD! "That rock was Christ..." (cf. 1 Cor. 10:4).
"In him dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily" (cf. Col. 2:9).
"It is right for me to feel this way about all of you, since I have you in my heart and, whether I am in chains or defending and confirming the gospel..." (Phil. 1:7, NIV).
"He must hold firmly to the trustworthy message as it has been taught, so that he can encourage others by sound doctrine and refute those who oppose it." (Tit. 1:9, NIV).
"You, however, must teach what is appropriate to sound doctrine" (Tit. 2:1, NIV).
"Christianity is Christ; all else is circumference." --John Stott, theologian
Christianity is all about Jesus--all else is peripheral or circumference, as John Stott says. If you remove Christ, the faith is disemboweled--unlike Islam or Buddhism, in which the founders can be removed and the religion remains intact. Without Christ, there's nothing left but ethics and pie-in-the-sky dreams. 2 John v. 9 says that if we "do not continue [abide] in the doctrine of Christ" we "do not have the Father"; this is to say that we must get the doctrine of the deity of Christ correct to be named by His name of Christian--Jesus said that Him being the Son of God is the Rock of the church to Peter. Paul knew of early heresy when he wrote Corinthians in 2 Cor. 11:4 that they had fallen for "another gospel, another Spirit, another Jesus!" They're not worthy of the Name!
The cults (and they all have something nice to say of Jesus) masquerade their faith as false teachers or wolves in sheep's clothing to sound innocuous to the innocent and naive, but they are dangerous--it's just the bit of truth mixed with error that makes them dangerous. People get enough of Christ to become immune to the real thing! Jesus never made it easy to become a believer or disciple, but discouraged the halfhearted and insincere, not seeking shallow conversions or pseudo-conversions without any substance. We all must count the cost and be willing to carry our crosses for His sake.
This is why JWs are so dangerous to Christianity--they parade themselves as genuine Christians and have a knowledge falsely so-called to fool the naive and unsuspecting students of the Word. They are simply very aggressive and the believer may be fooled because he doesn't have the answers to their challenges. Just because they name the name of Jesus, don't be fooled, because inwardly they are ravenous wolves ready to devour the sheep. The Bible warns us not to flirt with the enemy nor to welcome the false teacher who creeps in unawares or we share in his evil deeds--they are to be shunned or avoided, not fellowshipped with!
We must fight fire with fire and know how to meet them with the ammo of the Word or not try to convert them at all--they are already convinced of their heresy and may not welcome truth nor recognize it. The Bible clearly teaches Jesus as the very incarnation and personification of God in the flesh--not sent from God, a prophet of God, a mere king, the messenger of God, spokesman or surrogate of God, part of God, only a God, inspired or anointed by God, but God Himself, co-equal, co-eternal, and co-existent in essence and glory with the eternal Father--anything less is simply heresy!
CAVEAT: THE PERSONAGE PORTRAYED BY THE CULTS FALLS SHORT OF THE REAL JESUS, GOD THE SON, SECOND PERSON OF THE TRIUNE GODHEAD.
To assign Jesus to a label of some well-intended, but failed and misunderstood religious reformer or martyr, do-gooder, healer, miracle worker, good teacher, or anything less than the Son of God in all its glory and essence is blasphemous and belittles Him--even to call Him the greatest of all men or our best example of morals is an insult to His person in all its dignity glory, and majesty. For to claim He was a good man or teacher would belie the claims He made and make Him out to be more a devil and deceiver than a good man--any like claim doesn't do Him justice and is merely condescending nonsense.
Finally, we must realize they are seldom convinced by argument and we must rely on the power of the Spirit's witness and the testimony and conviction of the Word of God (cf. 1 Thess. 1:5; 2:13; Romans 10:17) as we abide in the doctrine of Christ (cf. 2 John 9). Soli Deo Gloria!