A couple of weeks ago Becky met with a pair of Jehovah’s Witness ladies in the Kingdom Hall. (She has met with these ladies for close to two years.) They were going through a passage (Colossians 1:16-17) in the JW’s own New World Translation of the Bible that is notorious for inserting one word four times in order to completely change the meaning of the passage. The New American Standard translation of the Bible translates this passage as follows.

16 For by Him all things were created, both in the heavens and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities–all things have been created through Him and for Him.
17 He is before all things, and in Him all things hold together Balklänning.

Now here is the New World Translation.

16 because by means of him all [other] things were created in the heavens and upon the earth, the things visible and the things invisible, no matter whether they are thrones or lordships or governments or authorities. All [other] things have been created through him and for him.
17 Also, he is before all [other] things and by means of him all [other] things were made to exist,

Notice any differences? The word “other” appears four times in brackets. This passage is speaking about Jesus, and as the N.A.S. points out, all things have been created by Him. If Jesus is the Creator, then that means that He is Deity. Since JW’s believe that Jesus is the first creation, they have inserted the word “other” in an attempt to make Jesus look like a created being. In other words, he didn’t create all things, he created all other things. Jehovah God created Jesus, who then created everything else.

Becky was quick to point out that the word “other” does not appear in her New International Version of the Bible. Not only that, she showed the two JW ladies that the word “other” does not appear in the Greek either. Last year one of the ladies gave Becky a Kingdom Interlinear Translation of the New Testament. This is the Watchtower’s own publication which has the word for word Greek on the left side of the page and then the NWT on the right side. Becky brings this book with her every week and has found it to be very helpful.

Once the ladies saw that the word “other” is not in the original language, they tried to explain that it didn’t make any difference. The word is inserted for clarification, but even if the NWT did not include the word, the passage still has the same meaning. Becky had an idea and decided to see if the ladies really meant that.

Becky wrote on a sheet of paper, “By means of him all things were created,” and then asked,

“If this sentence was written about Jehovah, what would it mean?”

JWs- It would mean that Jehovah created all things.

Becky- All things? You mean that this would say that everything that
was ever created would have been created by Jehovah?

JWs- That is right.

Becky- Would it leave any room for even one thing to be created by someone
else?

JWs- No, it wouldn’t. If the Bible says that Jehovah created all things, then no one else created anything.

Becky- Then why does the meaning change when this sentence is applied to
Jesus?

The ladies were so caught up in defending Jehovah’s right to creation that they failed to remember that Colossians chapter one attributes the creation, all of creation, to Jesus. If you take the word “other” out of the text, Jesus is revealed as the Creator Christ.

http://widget-49.slide.com/widgets/slideticker.swf

I came across this cool tool today so I figured I would test it out with a slide show of our family. If this works the way I hope it will, you can look forward to more slide shows of family and ministry related things.

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Important note: We will not reveal the names of our children on this blog. Any comment that mentions our children’s names will be deleted. It is nothing personal, we just feel that it is an important safety measure for our family  Bröllopsklänningar.

Eighteen years ago today I came to Christ at a Billy Graham Crusade in Rochester, New York at about 8:30 PM. I guess a good thing about joining the Lord’s army is that you don’t have to be 18 to in-list! 😉 Happy birthday to me!

Our family was recently at a lake where we were just sitting in the water and playing with the kids. We were about to leave so I told our son to put his flip-flops back on and he looked at me and said, “No comprendo.” He is three and a half.

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Important note: We will not reveal the names of our children on this blog. Any comment that mentions our children’s names will be deleted. It is nothing personal, we just feel that it is an important safety measure for our family. If you would like to read the other FTJB entries, click on the “From the Jewel Box” link in the side bar on the right or on the Jewel Box icon at the end of this paragraph.

Today marks the fifth anniversary of the tragic events at the World Trade Center. I’m sure we all remember exactly where we were and what we were doing when we first heard about the collapse of the towers. I was sitting right here at my desk working on my computer when Becky called from work. She said everyone was being sent home because the towers collapsed. I remember balking at the thought because I just couldn’t believe it. I turned on the TV to watch the news. I remember the first time I saw the clip of the second plane hitting the second tower. I thought it was an animated graphic showing us what the reporters “thought” had happened. Once I saw the explosion and the wreckage of the plane coming out of the other side of the building, I knew it was for real. Too many innocent people lost theirs lives that day.

Pray for my Mom. She is going to visit my Grandmother and is flying today. I am sure the events of five years ago will be on everyone’s mind.