Jehovah's Witnesses--Would you please show me the verse in scripture?

the bible was only PIECES of God's words and dealings with mankind compiled BY MEN.

what makes you think they got that perfect? Go is a LIVING God - He is not dead. He will answer your prayers. He will guide you through your life if you so ask Him and regard His council. yes, the scriptures are very important and yes they contain His gospel and His words and His teachings for us.....but God is the definitive - not the bible.

You're not going to find a scripture that directly states that - But yet; there's a reason why Jehovah's Witnesses have created and use these "extra biblical materials".

We all have gone or are in school. During that time, your teacher used textbooks to help explain a lesson better, no? The textbook contained more direct information pertaining to the basic topic, as well as illustrations to help you better understand the lesson that was being taught. It broke everything down for you - just to make the learning process easier and more efficient.

- That's exactly the way the Jehovah's Witnesses' "extra biblical materials" work. Our literature like the Awake! and Watchtower magazines, and "What Does the Bible Really Teach?" book - and are many other publications - are all little textbooks to the Bible. ALL of the information in those books stem from the Bible and they contain scriptures citing where the information comes from. That's why they're called STUDY AIDS.

The Bible is a very big and complex book. In order to study it from cover to cover, just by itself, can be a challenge. So just as teachers would use textbooks to teach their students a lesson in a more efficient, easier to understand way - Jehovah's Witnesses use their publications to help all get a better understanding of the information in the Bible and how it can help us in many aspects of our everyday life. Nobody is FORCING you to read these - but it's just encouraged.

After years of those kinds of discussions - I could desire to decline. No single scripture or company of scriptures serves as a valid commencing place for the Trinity doctrine - in any of its iterations. And no argument offered through individuals that evaluate in the trinity overcomes the scriptures that show Jehovah, Jesus and the Holy Spirit to be separate, and unequal. At great, the Scriptures can be clipped and trimmed to point that Jesus and Jehovah are comparable, whether no quantity of bending and folding can accommodate the Holy Spirit in that association. The Trinity isn't a scriptural doctrine. (A rapid notice on the liquid water, ice, and steam occasion. that's a huge-unfold-fee occasion that actual explains the Trinity. however the trinity isn't scriptural. No quantity of illustrating, explaining and reasoning could make it scriptural. that's a shame that individuals that use that occasion are distracted from the actual incontrovertible fact that the Trinity isn't a Biblical coaching.) EDIT: recommendations-blowing - it could desire to certainly help individuals comprehend the trinity - whether does not make the Trinity comprehensible. like the entire concern else in touch in fake doctrine, even the illustrations confuse and confusing to comprehend. and must you come across - the "water" occasion compares a created ingredient to the author.

The very question "Would you please show me the verse in scripture that says I need extra biblical materials to come to relationship with God?" can be answered easily that there is NONE. There is more then enough information in the Bible to develop that relationship. However, I do use other sources in my studies to developer a deeper understanding into the scriptures. This come with a warning though. This other publications and materials are filtered by human beings. Therefore one must be able to discern and remember where these materials come from. Now when IT come to the Jehovah's Witnesses and their publication and Bible study aids, this is a different story. While we and when I speak of we, I mean the real Christians, use the Bible to dictate doctrine. The Jehovah's Witness use their publication to dictate doctrine. Let me give you some brief examples:

1. Jesus' invisible return in 1914

Not in the Bible

2. Jesus' resurrection as a spirit creature

Not in the Bible, in fact Jesus himself tells us that he is not a spirit in Luke 24:39 Look at my hands and my feet. It is I myself! Touch me and see; a spirit does not have flesh and bones, as you see I have.” also in John 2:18 The Jews then responded to him, “What sign can you show us to prove your authority to do all this?”

19 Jesus answered them, “Destroy this temple, and I will raise it again in three days.”

20 They replied, “It has taken forty-six years to build this temple, and you are going to raise it in three days?” 21 But the temple he had spoken of was his body. 22 After he was raised from the dead, his disciples recalled what he had said. Then they believed the scripture and the words that Jesus had spoken.

3. Michael is the risen Jesus

Not in the Bible

All three of these thing are not in the Bible yet is important to them and the doctrine. Where does it come from. Very Simple from a man made, man filtered, publication, study aid. They argue that it does as it is "reasoned from" little snippets and what I like to call verse bites. They make doctrine from these and yet none of it comes from the Bible.

What about Jesus' body at the grave? The answer they will give you but it's not in the Bible.

Not once doe the Bible ever say that Michael and Jesus are one and the same. Never do you read that Jesus was raised as a spirit creature.

Never do you read that Jesus manifested a body in front of his disciples for he was really a spirit.

There are so many more that do not come from the Bible but are doctrines of the Jehovah's witnesses .

There is not enough room on this form to put all the belief's down on paper.

Would you please show me where in the Bible it says that everything you need to know is in the Bible? Where does it say that God will never reveal anything any more? Don't give me scriptures that merely say that the scriptures are useful for instruction, or scriptures that talk about the value of the word of God. We know that. Where does it specifically state that the Bible is ALL you need? Where does it say that we are not to study ANY extra Biblical material? Sure, there will be false prophets and false teachings, but that is not the same as a ban against ALL instruction and teaching.

And what about those who lived before there was a Bible. Did they have enough? Were they free to say that we don't even need the Bible we have? Where in the Bible does it explain where we draw the line?

Edit. I see by your non-answer to my questions that you have no answers. It is as I have foretold.

You will not find in the Bible a statement like: "It is proper to use educational material to explain the Bible." But you will find the command to teach all the things that Jesus taught.

(Matthew 28:19, 20) Go therefore and make disciples of people of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the holy spirit, teaching them to observe all the things I have commanded YOU. And, look! I am with YOU all the days until the conclusion of the system of things.”

From the history of early Christianity we find that, primarily, Christians were interested in any legitimate method for getting “the good news” preached, in Bible education for themselves and all who would hear them. (1Co 9:16) As Professor E. J. Goodspeed says, in Christianity Goes to Press, (1940, p. 111):

“The Christians from the moment they awoke to the possibilities of publication in spreading their gospel over the world availed themselves of them to the full, not only publishing new books but searching out old ones for publication, and this genius for publication has never forsaken them. It is a mistake to suppose that it began with the discovery of printing; it was a characteristic of Christian attitudes from A.D. 70 on, gathering strength as the great fruitfulness of the method emerged. Even the barbarian invasions and the Dark Ages could not quench it. And it is all an evidence of the tremendous dynamic which informed the whole of early Christian life, which sought not only by deed and word but by all the most advanced techniques of publication to carry the gospel, in its fullness and without reserve, to all mankind.”

Many people have been introduced to the Bible message from reading Bible literature.

This is an interesting question, but it doesn't only apply to Jehovah's Witnesses.

I remember the first time the householder invited me in with the understanding

"we are only going to use the bible."

So I sat down at his dining room table and opened my bible. He excused himself stating he was going for his bible.

When he returned he had several 'reference works' and his bible was a "study bible" with commentary on almost every verse.

This is when I learned that the phrase: "we are only going to use the bible."

Literary means "My study aids but not the Watchtower's"

I don't know any serious bible student who doesn't use "study aids".

Why because there are so many things in the bible that require understanding the historical context as well as the literal / symbolic readings.

The word 'spirit' has seven major meanings from 'wind and breath to thoughts & motives to creatures.

So reading the word spirit in the bible can be very confusing if you apply the wrong meaning to the sentence.

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You are correct in that everything we need to know is in the bible. However, humans are flawed and imperfect. When you were going to school, do you remember having difficulty understanding a point and having to go to the library to seek information on the subject. Was it because your textbook was not telling you the truth or was it because a different way of expressing the same thought helped you to see it in a different light?

Our material does not contain anything that is not already in the bible. If fact, it may be that we already know it. However the material expresses it in a different manner and give us a deeper insight into the matter. Not to mention that some of us need constant reminders of the same thing. :)

We also enjoy seeing biblical points illustrated with pictures and examples and suggestions on how we can apply such points to our lives.

The bible is always the

Everything else is an aid in understanding the bible. In biblical times there were scrolls, and men assigned to deal with issues that were not written specifically in the law or 10 commandments.

Whenever someone answers a question it should be directly from the bible, otherwise you take the chance it's just their interpretation.

Whenever Jesus answered a question, he always said, "it is written". But he also used illustrations and parables to assist in his teaching, never to replace.

2Timothy 3: 16,17 All Scripture is inspired of God and beneficial for teaching, for reproving, for setting things straight, for disciplining in righteousness, 17 that the man of God may be fully competent, completely equipped for every good work.

It's a fair question. To answer it in brief, the "extra biblical materials" you refer to are simply aids in understanding and recognizing the value of God's word. They cannot of themselves bring you into a relationship with God. As Jesus said at John 6:44, "No man can come to me unless the Father, who sent me, draws him."

If you read my answers to similar questions at:

http://au.answers.yahoo.com/question/index;_ylt=Au...

and also

http://au.answers.yahoo.com/question/index;_ylt=Ar...

they might help you to realize the practical reasons why JWs value their publications.

As you are no doubt aware, JWs engage in preaching publicly, and this activity is being carried out in 239 lands globally at this time. Their publications assist them to be able to comply with the Apostle Paul's exhortation at 1 Corinthians 1:10: "Now I exhort you, brothers, through the name of our Lord Jesus Christ that you should all speak in agreement, and that there should not be divisions among you, but that you may be fitly united in the same mind and in the same line of thought."

May I ask you, do you see the unity of thought that JWs enjoy in other religions? Can you imagine the problems that JWs would constantly encounter in their door to door work if they all thought differently? There would be never ending claims of "How come you are saying so and so when last time your people were here they said something totally different?"

Jesus prophesied at Matthew 24:14: "And this good news of the kingdom will be preached in all the inhabited earth for a witness to all the nations; and then the end will come." At Matthew 10:11-14 he instructed his disciples how to do so, and the Apostle Paul affirmed it at Acts 20:20, from "house to house."

Have you identified any other religious group aside from JWs that is doing that work globally?

You cite 2 Timothy 2:15, but integral to being a "workman" is preaching the good news of the kingdom, don't you agree?

Do Catholics or Mormons do that? Or for that matter, does any other religious group? No. Why do you think that is? Is it simply because they have no desire to fulfill that prophecy at Matthew 24:14, or is it because they don't UNDERSTAND what that good news is?

There is one thing, I dont see the need for Jehovah witnesses to go out and pester people from door to door, As if one wants to hear about the Word of God, there is the Holy Scriptures, Evangelists have their programs on T.V. So dont see the need for them to harass people. Surely the Lord God knows who are His and of his flock?

Just wondering why they bother people who are already christians, and try to force their interpretation of the Holy Scriptures on them. As Christ said."You travel land and sea to make one convert, and make him more a child of hell."