Hello FAT,
Unfortunately you seem to be missing the point completely when it comes to Salvation, but never mind; so do most others. Christ and Paul certainly did not lie, you are simply failing to discern what is being said: "For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life."
You are reading into this that belief in Christ is the simple answer to salvation. If this was so, then you have just condemned every individual who died before Christ came and every individual who has lived since and never even heard of him.
The point this scripture is making is that while the statement is correct, you have failed to determine the time period in which it applies and the two separate groups of which it also individually applies. If you had taken the Oxford Theocratic Course with me in 1960 you would already have the answers to this and more.
I have already mention how God so loved the human race that because it was the iniquity of Satan which caused Adam and Eve to transgress that he provided a Liberator Christ Jesus to accomplish the reversal of this unfortunate incident in Eden; but only at the appointed time.
So far only the anointed 'little flock' have received their salvation due to the fact that they are of the 'first' resurrection. Because you are tainted with the beliefs of Christendom you have formed the opinion that salvation is accomplished simply by believing in Christ.
Well there will be those who have perhaps done this and yet still fall for Satan's deceptions at the end of the Sabbath Millennium, while there will be others who have refused now, yet will accept him also during the Millennial period and so gain everlasting life. So while belief in him now is commendable, it will only be those who maintain that belief on the 'last' day who will receive salvation. (Revelation 20:7-10)
Now let me clarify something here, I am nothing to do with the JWs, me teaching comes solely from the Oxford Theocratic Course under the late Professor Rupert Waverley B.Th. Litt.D. of Oriel College, Oxford. I had only just left the Army a year before and knew nothing about JWs nor Mormons nor any other movements.
This was a Non-denominational Course which taught only the Bible free from Christendoms man-made doctrines. Later i was surprised to find in 1985 that the Millennial Dawnists under Charles Taze Russell taught
the same as the scriptures. The watchtower Society on the other hand does not teach the 'second chance', or that Adam will get a resurrection like the rest of us, even their identification of the 'other sheep' of John 10:16 is flawed!
This Course has ow been discontinued due to the Pope and others declaring that 'all' faiths are correct, also I have just received a bulletin informing me that the priests of the Trinitarian Catholic Church under the Pope; have just declared that Sodomy is a 'gift' from God! Thereby confirming Jesus' words "As it was in the days of Sodom!"
Now as for drawing conclusions regarding the scriptures regarding the scriptures in Revelation, again this has nothing to do with The Watchtower Society; we learnt this back in 1960 and the scripture I quoted has already been examined and corrected since by the translators of other Bibles:
Corrected Scripture:
Revelation 20:4, 5 “…And they came to life and ruled as kings with the Christ for a thousand years. 5 This is the first resurrection. The rest of the dead did not come to life until the end of the thousand years.” [This is the second resurrection (Acts 24:15)] NMTCS
Revelation 20:4, 5 “…They all came to life again, and they reigned with Christ for a thousand years. 5 This is the first resurrection. (The rest of the dead did not come back to life until the thousand years had ended.)” NLT
Revelation 20:4, 5 …They had come to life again and now they reigned with Christ for a thousand years. 5 This is the First Resurrection. (The rest of the dead did not come back to life until the thousand years had ended.) TLB
So you see, not my words, but the scriptures themselves bear witness.
Now we come to the favorite one 'hell' which is indeed and English word but which has still been used to blanket words which do not signify what the word 'hell' is said to portray. You do not have to take my word for it, research shows that these original words in their root origin have nothing in common with the word 'hell'!
e.g.
(1) HELL : (Hebrew - Sheol) The unseen state [grave]
(2) HELL : (Greek - Hades) The unseen world [grave]
(3) HELL : (Hebrew) Gehenna (Heb) (Valley of Hinnom) [Second Death]
(4) HELL : (Greek) Tartarus (To cast down) [Angelic Incarceration]
N.B.
(1) Catholic: Hell, Hebrew: Sheol, English Translation: Grave (Psalm 16:10) and more.
(2) Catholic: Hell, Greek: Hades, English Translation: Grave (Acts 2:27) and more.
(3) Catholic: Hell, Hebrew: Gehenna, English Translation: Second death (Matthew 23:33)
(4) Catholic: Hell, Greek: Tartarus English Translation: Angelic Incarceration (2 Peter 2:4)
Young's Analytical Concordance for the Holy Bible 1961 - 30th Reprinted Editon
So there we have it, Christendom in its Creed states that at his death; Jesus descended into hell [grave] and on the third day he ascended into heaven. If however, ‘hell’ is a place where only the evil an unrighteous go; then you have a big problem!
Unfortunately your reasoning on John 1:1 is also flawed. Translators around the world have checked back to the 'root' original words on this and here are a few giving the correct translation:
• 1808 “and the Word was a god” - Thomas Belsham The New Testament, in An Improved Version, Upon the Basis of Archbishop Newcome’s New Translation: With a Corrected Text , London.
• 1864 “the LOGOS was God, This was in the Beginning with God” A New Emphatic Version (right hand column)
• 1864 “and a god was the Word” (left hand column interlinear reading) The Emphatic Diaglott by Benjamin Wilson, New York and London.
• 1867 “In the beginning was the gospel preached through the Son. And the gospel was the word, and the word was with the Son, and the Son was with God, and the Son was of God” - The Joseph Smith Translation of the Bible.
• 1978 “and godlike sort was the Logos” - Das Evangelium nach Johannes, by Johannes Schneider, Berlin.
• 1822 "and the Word was a god." - The New Testament in Greek and English (A. Kneeland, 1822.);
• 1863 "and the Word was a god." - A Literal Translation Of The New Testament (Herman Heinfetter [Pseudonym of Frederick Parker], 1863);
• 1885 "and the Word was a god." - Concise Commentary On The Holy Bible (R. Young, 1885);
• 1879 "and the Word was a god." - Das Evangelium nach Johannes (J. Becker, 1979);
• 1911 "and the Word was a god." - The Coptic Version of the N.T. (G. W. Horner, 1911);
• 1958 "and the Word was a god." - The New Testament of Our Lord and Saviour Jesus Anointed" (J. L. Tomanec, 1958);
• 1829 "and the Word was a god." - The Monotessaron; or, The Gospel History According to the Four Evangelists (J. S. Thompson, 1829);
• 1975 "and the Word was a god." - Das Evangelium nach Johannes (S. Schulz, 1975);
• 1975 "and a god (or, of a divine kind) was the Word" Das Evangelium nach Johnnes, by Siegfried Schulz, Göttingen, Germany
Excerpt from - From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
I have also checked the word for word Greek interlinear on this and it reads:
"In [the] beginning the Word was, and the Word was with God, and the Word was a god."
The fact that a capital Theta is used for the first word 'God' and a standard Theta for the second word 'god' confirms the presence of two God's of unequal standing, just as Jesus himself acknowledged.
You seem to have an obsession for the JWs, however, I have examined their Bible thoroughly and it cheks-out with both Concordance and Interlinear; while your NAS does not!
Also, you research is lacking with regard to the word 'cross' which is found nowhere in the original Greek which actually uses the Greek word 'staurus' [stake]. It was when the Catholic Church decided to put it into Latin that they discovered that there is no equivalent word in Latin for 'stake' so they inserted the word 'crux-simplex' which means a cross without a cross-bar.
When the Emperor Constantine Magnus legalized Christianity to help him win his battles against his opponents, he used the sign of the Chi-Rho X which is far from the sign they use today. The original Christians used the sign of the fish to identify themselves, with a significant word for each letter which meant Jesus Christ Saviour, Son of God. The sign they use today is Pagan.
It seems to me that you have a lot to learn yet regarding the understanding of scripture, The JWs have not re-written the Bible in favour of anything, as for separating God from Jesus, there has never been anything different. If Jesus was Almighty God incarnate as the Trinitarians state; then at his death at Golgotha Satan would have taken over straightaway and we would not now be having this conversation.
The Christian world is trying hard to cover up the correct wordings of this verse. As it is the only verse in the Bible which came closest to the concept of Trinity, 1John 5:7 (“For there are three that bear record in heaven, the Father, the Word, and the Holy Ghost: and these three are one”), has been detected as a fabrication and a corruption in the Bible by biblical scholars and kept out of the later versions of the Bible. This verse in truth also does not support Jesus’ divinity. So what we find is that as more investigations are made into the Greek texts of the Bible, Jesus is seen to be losing the “divinity factor”. However it is up to the Christian brothers and sisters to realize the games that the Churches are playing with them.
I notice that you completely misunderstand the point of how both Almighty God and Jesus can each be referred to as Saviour, yet the answer is simple, Jehovah is the provider of salvation for all mankind and Jesus is the instrument of that salvation; in this way both is a Saviour.
"God has brought to Israel a saviour Jesus." Yes, this is quite correct, and if you understood the reason for this wording you would not be querying it. When Jesus arrived as the Messiah, he had to keep the Covenant with Israel for one week of years [29 CE to 36 CE]
This is why all the men that Jesus chose, were Jews, no Gentile was given the 'word' until the end of that week of years in 36 CE when the word went out to them and the centurion Cornelius was baptized.
So you see, unless read with understanding; you will get it wrong every time.
Alexander