Jehovah's Witnesses' Beliefs- The Great Teacher

Jesus said, "I have come that they might have life and have it in abundance." John 10:10, last half, New World Translation

This lesson is directed towards the Jehovah's Witnesses. I hope to show you some interesting things to think about. I'll be reading out of a book that the Watchtower Bible and Tract Society puts out entitled "Listening to the Great Teacher". I'll be discussing Chapter 17, "Two Persons Who did not Tell the Truth" then I'll be tying in some thoughts from the "New World Translation of the Holy Scriptures"

. Listening to the Great Teacher, Chapter 17, "Two Persons Who Did Not Tell the Truth"
"Suppose a girl promises her mother, "Yes, I will come home right after school." But then other children ask her to stay and play with them. Would it be all right to stay--just for a little while?
Or perhaps a boy promises his father, "No, I won't throw the ball in the house anymore." Would it be all right to do it just a few more times when his father is not looking?-
The Great Teacher showed the right thing to do. He said: 'Just let your word Yes mean Yes, and your No, No; for anything else is from the wicked one.'-- Matthew 5:37.
What did Jesus mean by that? -- He meant that we should always keep our promises; we should always tell the truth.
There is a story that shows how important it is to tell the truth. It is about two persons who said that they were disciples of Jesus.
A short time after the death of Jesus, many people became his disciples. Some of these people have come to Jerusalem from faraway places. Here for the first time they learned about Jesus. They wanted to know more. As a result they stayed in Jerusalem longer than they had expected. Some of them ran out of money and needed help so that they could buy food.
The disciples in Jerusalem wanted to help them out. So, many of the disciples sold things that they owned and they brought the money to Jesus' apostles. Then the apostles gave the money to the ones who needed it.
A disciple named Ananias and his wife Sapphira sold a field that they owned. No one told them that they had to sell it. They decided that for themselves. But what they did was not because they loved the new disciples. Really, they wanted to make men think that they were better than really were. So they decided to make it look as if they were giving all of this money to help others. But really they were going to give only a part of it and kkep the rest. What do you thnk of that?--
Well, Ananias came to see the apostles of Jesus first. He gave the money to them. But Ananias was not giving all of the money. God knew this. So he let the apostle Peter know that Ananias was not being truthful. At that Peter said:
'Ananias, why have you let Satan cause you to do this? The field was yours. You didn't have to sell it. And even after you sold the field, it was up to you to decide what you would do with the money. But why did you pretend to give all of the money when you were giving only a part of it? By this you were lying, not just to us, but to God.'
It was that serious. Ananias was lying! He did not do what he said he was going to do. He and his wife only pretended to do it. The Bible tells us what happened next. It says: 'On hearing Peter's words, Ananias fell down and died.' God struck Ananias dead! His body was carried outside and buried.
About three hours later Sapphira his wife came in. She did not know what had happened to her husband. So Peter asked her: 'Did you sell the field for the amount of money that you gave us?'
Sapphira answered: 'Yes, we sold the field for just that amount.'
But that was a lie! They had kept some of the money for themselves. So God struck Sapphira dead too.--Acts 5:1-11.
Do you think there is something that we should learn from what happened to Ananias and Sapphira?-- Yes. It teaches us that God does not like liars. He wants us always to tell the truth.
Many people say that it is not bad to tell lies. They tell lies almost everyday. But do you think that is right?--
Do you know that all the sickness, pain and death that are on the earth came because of a lie?-- The Devil lied to the first woman Eve about God. As a result, she broke God's law. Then she got Adam to break God law too. Now they were sinners, and all their children would be born sinners. And because of sin they would suffer and die. How did it all start?-- With as lie.
No wonder Jesus said that the Devil "is a liar and the father of the lie. When anybody tells a lie, he is doing what the Devil did. We should think about this if we ever feel tempted to tell a lie.-- John 8:44.
It is often when a person does something wrong that he may feel tempted to lie about it. For example, you may break something. You may not have meant to do it, but the thing broke anyway. What should you do?-- Should you try to hide it and hope that no one will find out?-- We should remember Ananias and Sapphira. They tried to hide the truth. And God showed how bad that was by striking them dead. So, no matter what we do, we should never lie about it. The Bible says: "Speak truth." It also says: "Do not be lying to one another." Jehovah always speaks the truth, and he expects us to do the same.-- Ephesians 4:25; Colossians 3:9. "

This book was written for little children and the Jehovah's Witnesses wants their little children to practice the principles set forth in this little book, My question is, "Why doesn't the Watchtower, the very one who put the book out practice it?" They are continually lying to and deceiving their people and that's sad. So the way that they got around the lying part so that it could be justified was to rename it and not call it lying but 'Theocratic War Strategy'. That dresses it up a lot and helps them to keep millions of people in blindness a little bit longer. But for right now, I want to speak on the lesson from a different angle concerning Ananias and Sapphira not lying to men but to God by seeing who this God is that they lied to. So let's read it in the Bible and the story is in Acts 5:1-11 but we are just going to read vs.3,4. And to be even more than fair, I'm going to read it out of the New World Translation,
"But Peter said: 'Ananias, why has Satan emboldened you to play false to the holy spirit and to hold back secretly some of the price of the field? As long as it remained with you did it not remain yours, and after it was sold did it not continue in your control? Why was it that you purposed such a deed as this in your heart? You have played false, not to men, but to God."

In v.3, Peter told Ananias that he lied to the Holy Spirit but then it v.4 Peter said he lied to God. So isn't Peter saying that the Holy Spirit and God are one and the same. Peter surely wasn't telling Ananias that he was lying to an impersonal active force or mist floating around and that's what the Watchtower teaches the Jehovah's Witnesses that the Holy Spirit is. They also go on to say that Satan is spirit but he is a person in their Awake, Dec.8. 1973 but they take the personality away from the Holy Spirit. Now the Awake magazine concerning Satan says, "You will note, too, that these accounts relate conversations between the Devil and God, and between the Devil and Jesus Christ. Both Jehovah God and Jesus Christ are persons. Can an unintelligent force carry on a conversation with a person? Also, the Bible calls Satan a manslayer, a liar, a father (in the spiritual sense) and a ruler. Only an intelligent person could fit all these descriptions.

So using the same logic, the Holy Spirit is a person because he is our Teacher and Comforter (John 16:7,13). As a real person he speaks, he wills, he has a mind, and his own power (Ck. Rev. 2:7; I Cor. 12:11; Rom. 8:27; and 15:19). In Heb. 10:29, we see that he can be insulted and he can be grieved in Eph. 4:30. And I'm sure that he is both grieved and insulted by the Watchtower's statements. I close with this thought from the true word of God, the KJV which says, "Be not deceived, God is not mocked; For whatsoever a man soweth that shall he also reap." (Gal. 6:7) Come to Jesus today, the biblical one, Jehovah God Almighty. He loves you very, very much. Don't forget to e-mail me if I can talk with you more on this subject or any subject regarding the Lord Jesus Christ.