Pastor Peter Simpson was proclaiming the necessity of repentance from sin and faith in Christ in High Wycombe High Street on July 11th, with Mrs Jenefer Campbell and Mrs Elisabeth Outten in support.
Pastor Simpson entered into conversation with two Jehovah’s Witnesses who agreed with one of the posters on display which reads, “WHAT HAPPENS WHEN A NATION ABANDONS THE BIBLE? Drug-taking, knife crime, no respect for the Lord’s Day, abortion, the LGBT agenda in schools, needless anxiety over climate change”. So they appeared to have a commendable love of righteousness. On this occasion the minister decided not to enter into debate with them about the JW’s serious doctrinal errors, having done so often with other JWs and having just met with a brick wall of resistance to Biblical truth. It was so sad that this man and wife have obviously grasped some aspects of Biblical truth, but are nevertheless in grave error on key issues which are fundamental to the Christian faith.
For example, JW’s, just like Muslims, deny the Trinity. They also deny the existence of hell as a place of eternal condemnation. They rather argue that hell is simply the grave. They reject that a man’s spirit is immortal, living on after the body dies, but “the unmistakable teaching of the Bible is that all people, whether saved or lost, will exist eternally” (1). Indeed, Pastor Simpson did briefly take up with the JW’s the reality of hell’s existence as the place of God’s righteous punishment of the lost, quoting to them the Lord’s words in Mark 9 : “It is better for thee to enter into life maimed, than having two hands to go into hell, into the fire that never shall be quenched. Where their worm dieth not, and the fire is not quenched” (Mark 9:43–44).
Another error of the Watchtower movement is its teaching that the Lord Jesus “was resurrected spiritually from the dread, but not physically … However, the resurrected Jesus asserted that He was not merely a spirit but had a flesh and bone body (Luke 24:39)” (2).
Concerning the Person of the Lord Jesus Christ Jehovah’s Witnesses claim that He “is Michael the archangel (and as such) is the highest created being, but this contradicts many passages of Scripture that clearly declare Jesus to be God (John 1:1,14, 8:58, 10:30).
JW’s (also) believe salvation is obtained by a combination of faith, good works and obedience (including obedience to the decrees of their organisation). This contradicts Scripture which declares salvation to be received by grace through faith (John 3:16, Ephesians 2:8-9, Titus 3:5) (3).
A man walking by during the preaching refused a tract saying that the Bible is a fairy tale, and had been disproved by evolution. How sad this was. Evolution is devoid of the necessary tenets of true science, namely evidence which is observable, testable and repeatable. But no one has actually observed millions of years of alleged evolution from simple life forms to more complex ones.
Also, take the issue of “the amount of information that is found in the human genome … it can be conservatively estimated as being equivalent to a few thousand books, each several hundred pages long. Where did this information come from? Chance does not generate information. This … caused the late Professor Sir Fred Hoyle and his colleague, Professor Chandra Wickramasinghe of Cardiff University, to conclude that the evolutionist is asking us to believe that a tornado can pass through a junk yard and assemble a jumbo jet” (4).
A lady passing the preaching and walking into a nearby public house said that she had no time for God, particularly after all her mother had been through. Pastor Simpson told her that to ignore Jesus Christ and His salvation is a matter of eternal life or eternal death. Hell really exists. She responded, “I am going down there then”, pointing down to the ground.
How tragic it is when non-believers make suffering their excuse for the rejection of God. Disease and death are all ultimately a fruit of sin. People need to look into their own hearts in a humble spirit rather than blaming God for their trials. The Lord longs to bring comfort to those going through trials, but on His terms, and via faith, not on man’s angry and demanding terms. We live in a fallen world full of relatively short lives and suffering precisely because people have chosen to go their own way and ignore their Maker.
Pastor Simpson was encouraged by a group of passing schoolboys, some of whom listened to the preaching and to whom he was able to ask the question, Are you a good person?, as an opening to the issue of the need to come to Christ to receive a new heart. One or two of them seemed genuinely sympathetic to the Christian message, including the stance being taken on sexual morality, but also spoke of the environment of their not being allowed to speak openly on certain moral issues, because to do so went against the received wisdom of the day, and the lifestyles which the world likes to condone.
So may many who heard the gospel in High Wycombe upon this day come to realise that the only solution for their lives is to come in repentance and faith to the only Saviour of the world, the Lord Jesus Christ.
- https://www.gotquestions.org/human-soul-mortal-immortal.html
- https://www.thegospelcoalition.org/blogs/justin-taylor/the-11-beliefs-you-should-know-about-jehovahs-witnesses-when-they-knock-at-the-door/
- https://www.gotquestions.org/Jehovahs-Witnesses.html
- Dr. Monty White, https://answersingenesis.org/theory-of-evolution/evidence/hasnt-evolution-been-proven-true/