Jehovah's Witnesses and Knowing Christ

The sad fact about many who call themselves Christians is that they don't know Jesus. In fact, they're like the rest of the world who only know about Christ. To them, he was a good teacher or moral leader who was born in Bethlehem and died on a Roman cross. They don't know him personally like those of us who have yielded to his will.

Jehovah's Witnesses are in the first category. They don't have a personal relationship with the lover of their souls. This is why this statement by the Apostle Paul seems puzzling to those who aren't born again. Philippians 3:10 (KJV) reads, "That I may know him, and the power of his resurrection, and the fellowship of his sufferings, being made conformable unto his death;"

Knowing somebody is different than just knowing about them. For example, I love the music of Lenny Kravitz and I know some facts about him. But I can't claim to know him, much as I'd dearly love to be his personal friend.

Jesus explained how he knew his heavenly Father whereas those Pharisees he argued with only knew about him. John 7:29 (KJV) quotes him as saying, "But I know him: for I am from him, and he hath sent me."

We can also discern those people who really know the Lord through the way they obey him out of their love for him. As Jesus said in John 8:55 (KJV), "Yet ye have not known him; but I know him: and if I should say, I know him not, I shall be a liar like unto you: but I know him, and keep his saying."

As sincere as they are, Jehovah's Witnesses are much like the Pharisees. Jesus condemned those sort of legalists when he said in Matthew 23:27 (KJV) "Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye are like unto whited sepulchres, which indeed appear beautiful outward, but are within full of dead men's bones, and of all uncleanness."

I'll be writing more about this personal relationship in my next book called You Think You're Going to Heaven. People need to understand that it isn't what you know that matters for eternity but WHO you know.