DISCLAIMER--I will, by no means, exhaustively write about each and every error in each and every chapter of this book—that would require a book several times the size of this WT book. I will pick out a topic or two from each chapter to write about. Some will be a “mole hill” in the landscape of Bible doctrine and others will be a “Mt. Everest.”
Chapter 19 “Remain in God’s Love.” I started with Chapter 19 since I have nothing of note to discuss.
Chapter 18 “Baptism and Your Relationship With God” On Page 188--the last paragraph--the WT makes reference, for the umpteenth time in WDTBRT, to John 17:3 to answer this question, “How can you prevent your love for Jehovah and for Bible truths from cooling off?” The answer from John 17:3, “keep taking in knowledge of Jehovah God and Jesus Christ.”
Here is the WT translation of John 17:3: “This means everlasting life, their taking in knowledge of you, the only true God, and the one whom you sent forth, Jesus Christ.”
Now John 17:3 in the NASB, “This is eternal life, that they may know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom You have sent.”
The point of contention—should the verse say “taking in knowledge” or “may know.” What is the difference? Why did the WT state “taking in knowledge”? The WT wants its devotees to BUY the latest WT publication. Thus they tell JW’s that they must be constantly “taking in knowledge” about Jehovah and Jesus. And the only place to get “the truth” is from the WTBTS and its publications.
However, JW’s who are constantly reading JW publications are “ever learning, and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth” (2 Tim 3:7). The facts that keep filling Witnesses’ heads never make up for the lack of actually knowing Jesus, the living Truth.
Why did the NASB state "may know." Think of a young person that looks up to a famous singer. They have read the stars biography, know all the facts about their life, their accomplishments, gold records, etc. However, they will not “know” the star like the star's parents know the star. The parents are in a close relationship with the star—the kind of relationship a fan can never have no matter how many facts they know about the star. The JW is the fan, a true Christian is like the parents.
Taking in statistics about someone (the WT's "taking in knowledge"), where that person was born, their accomplishments, etc is not the same as "knowing" (the NASB translation) that person in a personal, intimate way.
Which is correct? This link will take you to "Blue Letter Bible" and show that the Greek word we are looking at is Strong's Number G1097 and matches the Greek γινώσκω (ginōskō), which occurs 246 times in 208 verses in the Greek concordance of the KJV. The 246 occurrences are then listed and I invite you to read these. I believe you will then agree with the NASB translators and John 17:3 should read: “This is eternal life, that they may know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom You have sent.”
What Does the Bible Really Teach--A WT Book "The Appendix" is here.
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