Ask Pastor Mike Live

Pastor Mike: Online with Pastor Mike, how can I help?

Guest (Male): Hi Pastor Mike. I've been going through Focal Point U. I've listened to all the different religions. When I run into somebody that is a particular religion and I'm trying to witness to them, I try to go through it again. Anyway, a Jehovah's Witness is somebody I've been talking to lately at work. On that one, I don't know if you've got all the way to how they see salvation. How do they attain salvation in that particular religion?

Pastor Mike: As I remember, I spent a long time on John 1:1 and dealing with their central issue, which is they're bearing Jehovah's name and we're not. I know I took a lot of time in that Focal Point U message in that.

The bottom line is they are not really in their teaching talking about salvation by grace. They're talking about Jesus ransoming us, providing us the opportunity to be set free from sin. That's right off the jw.org website. One gets their name written in the Book of Life based on their works. That's what the Watchtower and Tract Society says. We should be working hard for the reward of eternal life.

These are the things that are taught. Their salvation theology is there's an anointed class of 144,000 spiritual top dogs in eternity, and then there's an earthly class. There's a saved or second-tier blessing after death, and it's a physical paradise. Then the lost are just annihilated. The worst that can happen to you is you cease to exist if you reject the teaching of the Watchtower and Tract Society.

If you don't become a Jehovah's Witness, or you are not one of the 144,000 top dogs, then you're going to be a part of the physical paradise. That's what most JWs are just shooting for. All of that, sadly, is always about you've got to work your way there. That is something that is present not only with Jehovah's Witnesses. A lot of evangelical churches don't understand the Gospel of Grace. They basically think the same thing.

This is why Catholicism is such a similar concept in people's minds. They go to church, pray some prayer, walk some aisle, or they get baptized, and then they think, "Now I've got to do a lot of stuff so God will accept me." They think even if I die, how in the world can I go and be with God? I've got to go to purgatory and get my sins burned off.

You could talk about the sacrament of penance, that they've got to work off what they've done after they've confessed their sins. That's not how Christianity works. That's not how grace is depicted. We are fully qualified to enter into God's presence at the moment of our faith in Christ. If you really get down to it, the Jehovah's Witnesses are just a typical works-based theology that says if I'm good enough, I'll go to heaven.

That's why James D. Kennedy's old questions from Evangelism Explosion way back in the day were so good. They ask people, "If you died today, do you think you're going to go to heaven?" The person usually says yes because most people think they're going. Most people believe in some kind of afterlife. Then you say, "If you were to die today, stand before God, why would you, what would you say about why you should be allowed into his heaven?"

That answer right there should distinguish a good evangelical Christian who believes that we are saved by grace through faith and a cultist. They're going to say, "Because I'm trying really hard, because I'm working really hard, because I'm trying to do enough good works to get my name written in the Book of Life, because I'm doing what I can to get the reward of eternal life." Those are the answers that you'll probably get from your typical Jehovah's Witness.

Jehovah's Witnesses are big at putting the stripe on their arm that we're out witnessing, and "what are you doing sitting on your duff every day as an evangelical?" We're doing the work, and we're out here earning our way. That's not how we're saved. Although just this week, our church together goes through our neighborhood. We'll go door-to-door too. It's not that we're against good works or even the work of evangelizing door-to-door.

We all do our good works because we are saved, not to try and get saved. That's where a lot of people are in a lot of religions that name the name of Christ, but particularly the Jehovah's Witnesses. That's what they're saying. It's basic works. If you talk to a Jehovah's Witness, they've just basically got their ladder of good works figured out.

Your next-door neighbor that does nothing but play golf and walk the dog on Sunday morning, that guy thinks he's going to get to heaven by good works too. Well, so does a Jehovah's Witness. It's just that they've got a much more exalted way that's led by Taze Russell and the Watchtower and Tract Society to get them there. Ask them those questions. "Why would you go to heaven? Why is God going to let you in?"

If there's any other answer than the imputed righteousness of Christ, a wretch saved by grace, there's no other way to get there. That's unfortunately what shows that they don't believe in the Gospel of the New Testament.

Guest (Male): Okay. Well, thank you Pastor Mike, and I'll be sure and ask those questions. I appreciate it.

Pastor Mike: Yeah, do that. Okay. Thanks for that call, Lonny. Thanks for listening to Focal Point U. You can find Focal Point U, which is some pretty in-depth, as you can just tell, not always as in-depth as it needs to be, lectures about all kinds of theological topics, all the divisions of theology. We do a bad theology series which is on all the cults and world religions. If you want to be a part of that, just go to pastormike.com. It's all free.

People that have been through Focal Point U, as we call it, as in university, a bunch of lectures instead of sermons, they say good things about it. It's helpful to them. Since it's all free, the price is right. All it takes is time while you're working out or whatever you're doing.