How do I reply to a Jehova’s Witness’ claim?

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My dad’s coworker is a Jehova’s Witness, and it seems like he is trying to get to my dad. Luckily my dad isn’t one to be convinced, but he did mention that his coworker had told him that the human soul is our blood? I know this is incorrect, but how do I explain this in a way that is compelling. Thank you!

I’m looking for Biblical references, Holy traditiom, solid arguments you know that I can bring to the table. I know his claim is false, but I need solid material to, you know, go to battle lol
 
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If they meant literal blood then thats false. Another thread was talking about this and debating weather the soul is material or not. In our faith, the soul isn’t physical. However I am not entirely knowledgable about the entire subject but I thought I would add my two cents.
 
Yeah, I know it’s false, but I was hoping to get Bublical references or references from tradition, church teaching. You know, sources that are more official sounding so I can create a solid argument for him lol
 
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Traditionally, blood is symbolic of life. But life is distinct from soul. Indeed, one may not have physical life, but the soul continues apart from blood or body. Jesus himself makes a clear distinction between body (or its parts) and soul.

Matthew 10:28

“Do not be afraid of those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. Rather, be afraid of the One who can destroy both soul and body in hell.”
 
Awesome Colnel! This is exactly what I was looking for! You see, form what I hear, they don’t believe in the existence of the soul so he was arguing that what the Bible refered to in these passages was human blood. Our Lord made quite a clear distinction here, and I had never noticed! Thank you!
 
I don’t think the JW is conveying that correctly, or what they said is being conveyed incorrectly. According to them Man is totally tangible and possesses nothing intangible except this impersonal spirit (which is in the blood) and which belongs to and returns to God (thank you). They therefore impersonalize the soul and at the same time naturalize the soul. (Which to me are quite difficult to reconcile). But they do not teach the human soul is our blood.

It is therefore impossible to go to heaven since anything tangible cannot enter an intangible place. It is therefore impossible to go to hell since anything tangible cannot enter an intangible place. Therefore they have pictures of lions and sheep and white middle class Americans on their magazine covers.

This would have been a very non-Christian possibility that was, until we passed through the age of enlightenment which opened up the possibility for this world-view, prior to that the only strange abnormality was “soul-sleep”.
 
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Humans and animals are different. The animal’s life is “in the blood.” Once they die in the body, their soul dies with it. Humans, on the other hand, are a perfect union of body and soul. The body, because of sin, perishes and dies, but the human soul is eternal and lives on. Our bodies will be raised either to glory or damnation when Christ comes in judgment. Those who are given glorified bodies will live in the way God originally intended us to live and even more perfectly.

This is how you must respond to “soul sleep” nonsense, a doctrine held by some Protestant groups or religions like the Jehovah’s Witness cult.
 
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How do I reply to a Jehova’s Witness’?

Politely say that you are busy (for the foreseeable future) and close the front door.
Just joking.
 
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They’re harder than the Mormon’s. With them I just politely say “Can’t chat right now. Latter days, maybe?”

The best I can come up with the JW’s is I gotta Jego to fitness class.
 
Agreed. JWs are Sola Scriptura so it often helps to have Bible references. Besides the good one provided by the Old Colonel, there is also the fact that Jesus Christ went and preached to the souls in prison. And Acts 2:27 which has Jesus Christ going to two places, the intangible soul to hades, and the tangible body not seeing corruption before his resurrection to glory.
 
That’s interesting and very good to know too! Thank you for explaining that to me. It’s definitely a bit hard to grasp
 
It also makes it harder that their scripture was changed was it not? Like, they added commas and stuff to change the meaning of certain passages.
 
Luke 16:19-31 The Rich Man and Lazarus:

This is not directly related to blood but is a depection of the result of the soul after fleshly death. As we see the soul does not die with or without a blood reference.

Peace!!!
 
The soul, as used by the Catholic Church is a philosophic concept (Greek) not a Biblical one coming from Aristotle, baptised by Aquinas. The soul of humans is spiritual not material.
You wont find anything much in the Bible re “soul”.

The Biblical view is different. It is more physically represented as in “life force”.
This is primarily represented by the Hebrew “nephesh” which has many meanings but in this context “breath” is usually the analog of soul. Remember the creation of Adam (God breathed…).

http://www.ancient-hebrew.org/ahlb/

While blood also has connotations of “life force” especially in sacrifice, it is not the primary analog of the Greek soul idea from what I can see. Nor does it seem to symbolise what man receives from God.

In any case, Hebrew “breath” and Greek “soul” are really only very superficially similar.
 
The JWs did not really have Hebrew or Greek education. The JWs do not seem to like their youth to enter higher education, for if they did, they would develop unanswerable questions. So the NWT is based largely on the Diaglott by one Benjamin Wilson. The JWs bought the rights to it, and it fortunately has an English rendition underneath the Greek text so they were able to use that English, to manipulate their own English translation. The unusual part is that they had to render 99.9 percent of the Bible, just so they could manipulate that last 0.1% into their own pretext. It is an on going exercise for them.

There are two important things I should share.

Jesus Christ preaching to the souls in prison. The original Greek states “spirits” in prison, yet to them “spirit” is an impersonal life force. How can you preach to an impersonal life force? The soul, as used by Aristotle was borrowed from somewhere else and cannot be considered “original” material. One could use Discourse Concerning Hades to provide a perfectly valid Catholic perception.

With regards Acts 2:27 it is a citation from Psalm 16:10. They will reply that it is Hebrew poetry, and they will claim Hebrew poetry states the same thing twice. That is not correct about Hebrew poetry. Hebrew poetry will state 2 related but different things.
 
I saw two Jehova witnesses walking down the street…
Clean shaven young guys in their mid twenties…
Clean ironed shirts. Fancy ties. Shiny shoes. Their bible.
And this is a somewhat rough city. Many ‘ condos ‘. Traffic.
I drove towards them, rolled down my window,
and told them - to get a real job ! 😛
I had to. They been at my door knocking.
Like bad ambitious politicians, from a community college graduation.
 
I just tell JW or our local fundies ”We’re not interested, please go away” and normally they do. Maybe click my tongue, shake my head and look disapproving but staying polite and not engaging them.
Since you cannot reach them by debate, I just consign them to grace and allow them to muddle through on their own.
 
Last time JWs came to my door, I said “Hi I am Catholic lets talk”, the intern then proceeded to turn up a passage in their magazine and read it to me pointing at the words as they read it to me, fumbling most of the way through. I didn’t actually feel like we were talking, apologized and closed the door. They only wanted to make sure that they had handed me one of their magazines. Nothing else. If I had just taken the magazine, they had done their requirement, whether I read it or threw it directly in the bin, they had done what the Tower had expected of them.
 
Seagull said:
I saw two Jehova witnesses walking down the street…
Clean shaven young guys in their mid twenties…
Clean ironed shirts. Fancy ties. Shiny shoes. Their bible.
And this is a somewhat rough city. Many ‘ condos ‘. Traffic.
I drove towards them, rolled down my window,
and told them - to get a real job ! 😛
I had to. They been at my door knocking.
Like bad ambitious politicians, from a community college graduation.
Click to expand...
How will they ever hear the truth if we dont engage with them in a Christ like maner? :man_shrugging:t3:

Peace!!!
 
It’s truly terrible! One cannot reason with them. They are totally brain washed, and it’s kind of scary. They declare to go only by the Bible, but their Bible is incorrect, so we cannot really even use our Bible to speak to them. It’s a truly bad situation 😦
 
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