Phone Line Transcript Feb, 2000

The Good News / Gospel

Thank-you for calling S.O.S outreach. This phone message is for all those
who are seeking the truth about God through the Scriptures.

For February message, we will be talking about the Gospel, or as it is
referred to in the New World Translation, "The Good News".

Does the Watchtower's "Good News" differ from "The Good News" of the Bible?
That is the question we would like to answer today.

For Most Jehovah's Witnesses, one of the strongest "Marks" that set the WT
Society apart from Christendom is indeed that belief that the Society is the
only organization on earth that "preaches The Good News of the Kingdom" to
all mankind. Thus fulfilling the foretold, "witnessing to all the nations
and then the end will come" explained in Mat. 24 vs.14. --- Of course, those
who refuse "The Good News" the WT brings to their door will have no hope of
survival when God returns to bring judgment on the earth. And those who do
accept the WT's Good News will in turn receive that life saving "Mark" on
their forehead.

So--- What actually is "The Good News" according to Jehovah's Witnesses?

One Author explains it this way:
The WT message focuses on a "Good News" that deals overwhelmingly with
concerns about negative world conditions and hope of early relief from the
problems these bring.

If you have the WT Society's large red book called, "YOU CAN LIVE FOREVER in
PARADISE on EARTH", turn to page 255 par. 15. --- Here "The Good News" is
compared to a "Grand Prize" and I quote,
"So keep the picture of God's promised new system of things bright in your
mind and heart. Every day think about the grand prize that Jehovah God holds
out to you---living forever in Paradise on earth. This is no dream. It's
real!" – End of quote.

But - Was this the Gospel or Good News preached by Jesus and his apostles?

We have a clear presentation of what Jesus’ Apostles understood to be “The
Good News”. One simply has to read the Bible. The book of Acts is especially
helpful because the book of Acts is an historical record of the early
Christian believers and what they preached to the people of their time. They
were "The Early Christian Witnesses of Jesus and Jehovah".
Throughout the book of Acts the apostles were preaching “The Good News of
Jesus' life, death and resurrection." This is notably different to the “The
Good News of Living Forever in Paradise on Earth” preached door to door by
the WT Society.

Consider for example the 10th chap. of Acts vs. 34 to 43. Peter emphasized
to his Jewish audience the importance of Jesus' life, death, and
resurrection.

This same "Good News" was echoed later by the apostle Paul to his Greek
listeners in Acts chap. 17 vs.18: I'm reading now from The NWT:

-Quote- "But certain ones of both the Epicurean and the Stoic philosophers
took to conversing with him controversially, and some would say: "What is it
this chatterer would like to tell?" Others: "He seems to be a publisher of
foreign deities." This was because he was declaring The Good News of Jesus
and the resurrection." –End of Quote-

It is clear that the Good News that Peter preached to the Jews was the same
as Paul's Good News to the Greeks. They both preached the Good News about
the life, the death and the resurrection of Jesus Christ.

The very important question that I would like to ask you today is this:

Is "The Good News" that the WT society presents to many households door to
door, the same "Good News" that Peter and Paul preached to the Jews and The
Gentiles in the 1st century?

According to the May 1, 1981 issue of the WT, on page 17,
-I quote-
"Compare...the kind of preaching of the gospel of the Kingdom done by the
religious systems of Christendom during the centuries with that done by
Jehovah's Witnesses...they are not one and the same kind. That of Jehovah’s
Witnesses is really “gospel” or “good news” as of God’s heavenly kingdom
that was established by the enthronement of his Son Jesus Christ at the end
of the Gentile Times in 1914.”-End of Quote-

Does this mean that Watch Tower leaders claim that all of the preaching done
by Christendom’s missionaries in the last 2000 years has been a waste of
time? Do the WT leaders have us believe that “The real good news” was
preached only by Jehovah’s Witnesses and only since 1914 -1918?

The October 1, 1980 WT on page 28 sums it up this way.
- And I Quote-
“But the Kingdom witnessing of Jehovah’s Witnesses since 1914 has been
something far different from what Christendom’s missionaries have published
both before and since 1914...What Jehovah’s Witnesses have preached world
wide since 1918 is something unique, something that distinguished these as
being the “last days” of...this system of things. It has been a world wide
witness concerning a royal government now set up in the heavens...”-End of
Quote-

But if The WT is preaching a different “Good News”, that leaves every
Jehovah’s Witness in a very precarious position according to the Apostle
Paul as he warns us:
-And I Quote-
“But even if we or an angel from heaven should preach a Gospel other than
the one we preached to you, let him be eternally condemned! As we have
already said, so now I say again: if anybody is preaching you a gospel other
than what you accepted, let him be eternally Condemned”. -End of Quote-
Galatians 1: 8,9. NIV

It is the utmost importance that you should distinguish the “Good News” of
the WT from the real “Good News” of the Bible.

Would you like to know "The Good News" of Jesus Christ's Life, Death and
Resurrection?

Let’s sum up, once again, the real "Good News". The Apostle Paul appealed to
the believers of his day as he set the precedent for the present day
Christian to follow. Please note what Paul emphasized as "First importance"
as I read from the NWT @ the 1st letter to the Corinthians. chap. 15 vs. 3
to 5
-Quote-
"For I handed on to you, among the first things, that which I also received,
that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures; and that he was
buried, yes, that he has been raised up the third day according to the
Scriptures; and that he appeared to Cephas, then to the twelve. After that
he appeared to upward of 500 brothers at one time..."-End of Quote-

Yes. There were over 500 at one time that were Witnesses to Jesus’
resurrection. The Good News is all about what was witnessed almost 2000
years ago when Jesus was raised from the dead.

The Apostle Paul's Good News gives Christians today a pattern, which
consistently points to Christ's ransom sacrifice. It points to Jesus'
victory over sin and death on behalf of all of mankind and "the authority
the Father has given to his resurrected Son to liberate from the wages of
sin and death all those who put faith in Him". That was -and is- the good
news the Bible itself brings to us.

Stay tuned to next month’s message. We will be discussing the significance
of the date 1914 and how it may be affecting your life.

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