How do Jehovah's Witnesses understand Romans 4:1-5 as it applies to salvation/eternal life?

Meaning that works alone does not cut it with Jehovah and faith alone doesn't either!

Faith without works is useless to Jehovah basically.

One can be doing all they are supposed to be doing, but their heart is untouched ie they are just going through the motions.

One who believes but does not act on that belief, might as well not have that faith.

One who has faith and also proves it by their works ie the heart at play here, is what Jehovah smiles on!

Many say: I believe and that makes me a christian.

Cain for example: did works, but he did not love Jehovah and so did not have faith. Meaning that he gave sacrifcies but didn't care a hoot about what he was giving, so ended giving rubbish.

Abel on the other hand worked and had faith.

I think Suzanne lily summed that up rather nicely.

For those who think Abraham only put trust in Jehovah and not any works doesn't know a thing about Abraham. He worked at showing his true faith and his faith led him to works.

What Sunshine said is correct. We understand that Scripture to mean if we have real, living faith that moves us to action, then we we the opportunity to live forever.

Just claiming to have faith does not save; James 2:14-26 informs us if our faith does not move us to act in harmony with it, then it is a dead, useless faith.

If you read the Genesis account about Abraham, he hed enough faith in Jehovah that when Jehovah told him to go, he went. When Jehovah told him to sacrifice his son, he attempted to do so. (Hebrews 11:8-10, 17-19; James 2:21-23)

It was not those things that had him declared righteous, it was the fact that he had the FAITH to do what God told him to do that allowed Jehovah to call him his friend.

We believe that true faith, like that of Abraham is important and that imperfect people can gain God's approval if they have faith and act in line with their faith.

SUNSHINE

Jehovah's Witness

We have a publication, available online called IMAITATE THEIR FAITH which speaks of the faith of

the ancients

Abdijah : I hope you dont have a son and have God command you to sacrifice him.. What parent would do that ? Perhaps a selfish one ? What kind of God would even suggest it ?

NWT : eliminated " Grace of God " and substituted " underserved kindness " which does not convey the same depth of God's love for man.

Works in the organisation are : Meeting attendance, Hours in field service.. these are outward signs.. and one major part of qualifying for elder. These outward signs of what a member would call works dont really show the depth of understanding nor do they measure ones "spirituality" which they have coined to be how deep your bond to the ORG/God truly is ..

Works in Abraham's time was not clocking in / writing down time / publication placements. It was simply following God's commands and living the life of a pre christian

That would really take personal reasoning by the part of a current JW... which you wont get.. most dont really know through personal study of scripture .. they will use their publications to respond.

As a formal elder, even going over the questions for baptism.. most never really understood questions like what is the Holy Spirit ? however, we were instructed to just ask the questions and not really dive into deeper understanding. It was the constant study of history and the Bible that had me further pursue really making sense of the Bible .. but, what do you do when you come to figure that 2+2 does not equal 5 ???