In a WT “Bible Study,” you will sit down with a JW and they will select a WT book that you will read from cover to cover. Your Bible will be used as a reference book—to look up a verse now and then or maybe just half a verse. As you progress through the WT book page by page, the WT will tell you what the Bible teaches and then will direct you to read a verse that ‘proves’ what they have just told you. At the bottom of each page are some questions, that you answer by re-reading the paragraphs. How convenient. What they will not allow you or any JW to do is to read the verse in its context—to find out what it really means.
Why is context so important?
First, because a text (verse) taken out of context is a pretext to teach anything—no matter how un-Biblical. I remember this absurd example, but it shows the importance of reading and knowing the context of any Bible verse. If you read part of Matthew 27:5, Luke 10:37 and John 13:27 you get, “Judas hung himself--go and do likewise--whatever you do, do it quickly.” Is that what those verses teach? How would you prove otherwise? Simple. Read the entire chapter where each verse is found.
Second, the context of a verse determines its meaning. As an example, what does the word “trunk” mean?--the rear of a car, the long nose of an elephant, a big container for old clothes or part of a tree. The correct meaning of “trunk” will only be known when you know the words around it, for the words around “trunk” give “trunk” its correct meaning. A verse in the Bible is the same. If you pull a verse out of its context, you will likely not understand its correct meaning. A verse is given meaning only by the verses around it.
Remember, the WTBTS says that you don’t even need your Bible for this kind of study. But I think they have the potential convert use their Bible to give them the false idea that they are indeed studying the Bible—when in fact they are just studying a WT publication. The WT does not want you to study the Bible alone, for if you do, you will not believe their doctrines—you will believe the doctrines of the Bible.
So a person sincerely seeking to do God’s will is unknowingly sidetracked into studying WT doctrine and accepting it as Biblical truth. They soon are discouraged from having non-JW friends and are required to accept and believe what is taught by the WTBTS and are discouraged from independent thinking. Consider:
"We should eat and digest and assimilate what is set before us, without shying away from parts of the food because it may not suit the fancy of our mental taste...We should meekly go along with the Lord's theocratic organization (WTBTS) and wait for further clarification…" “The Watchtower,” February 1, 1952, pp. 79-80.
This new JW in turn goes door-to-door to have other sincere people seeking God’s will enter into a “Bible” study with them. And so it goes. The vast majority of JW’s are deceived. They were looking to do God’s will, to study and learn what the Bible has to teach but they became experts in WT doctrine and experts in what the WT requires (not the Bible) for salvation.
Back in John 6:29, Jesus answered the crowd, “This is the work of God, that you believe in Him whom He has sent.” Since the JW’s have a different Jesus (see my blog on “What is the JW view of Jesus”), different from the one in scripture, they are not doing the works that God requires. And thus sadly, they did not find the answer to the question they had before they became Witnesses.
Why is context so important?
First, because a text (verse) taken out of context is a pretext to teach anything—no matter how un-Biblical. I remember this absurd example, but it shows the importance of reading and knowing the context of any Bible verse. If you read part of Matthew 27:5, Luke 10:37 and John 13:27 you get, “Judas hung himself--go and do likewise--whatever you do, do it quickly.” Is that what those verses teach? How would you prove otherwise? Simple. Read the entire chapter where each verse is found.
Second, the context of a verse determines its meaning. As an example, what does the word “trunk” mean?--the rear of a car, the long nose of an elephant, a big container for old clothes or part of a tree. The correct meaning of “trunk” will only be known when you know the words around it, for the words around “trunk” give “trunk” its correct meaning. A verse in the Bible is the same. If you pull a verse out of its context, you will likely not understand its correct meaning. A verse is given meaning only by the verses around it.
Remember, the WTBTS says that you don’t even need your Bible for this kind of study. But I think they have the potential convert use their Bible to give them the false idea that they are indeed studying the Bible—when in fact they are just studying a WT publication. The WT does not want you to study the Bible alone, for if you do, you will not believe their doctrines—you will believe the doctrines of the Bible.
So a person sincerely seeking to do God’s will is unknowingly sidetracked into studying WT doctrine and accepting it as Biblical truth. They soon are discouraged from having non-JW friends and are required to accept and believe what is taught by the WTBTS and are discouraged from independent thinking. Consider:
"We should eat and digest and assimilate what is set before us, without shying away from parts of the food because it may not suit the fancy of our mental taste...We should meekly go along with the Lord's theocratic organization (WTBTS) and wait for further clarification…" “The Watchtower,” February 1, 1952, pp. 79-80.
This new JW in turn goes door-to-door to have other sincere people seeking God’s will enter into a “Bible” study with them. And so it goes. The vast majority of JW’s are deceived. They were looking to do God’s will, to study and learn what the Bible has to teach but they became experts in WT doctrine and experts in what the WT requires (not the Bible) for salvation.
Back in John 6:29, Jesus answered the crowd, “This is the work of God, that you believe in Him whom He has sent.” Since the JW’s have a different Jesus (see my blog on “What is the JW view of Jesus”), different from the one in scripture, they are not doing the works that God requires. And thus sadly, they did not find the answer to the question they had before they became Witnesses.
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