Dear Reader, when you talk to a Jehovah’s Witness,
you will notice that if you start to talk about redemption, they get
quite defensive about it … and replace it, with the word “ransom”.
“Oh yes”
they will say “we believe that Christ is
our ransom” and they point to the scriptures that say
“Even as
the Son of man came not to be ministered
unto, but to minister, and to give his life a ransom for many.”
(Matthew
20:28)
“Who gave
himself a ransom for all, to be
testified in due time.” (1 Timothy 2:6)
Ah yes!
One verse from Christ himself, under the
kingdom of heaven dispensation, and one verse from Paul preaching the
kingdom
of God.
So what’s
the difference?
A ransom
gives temporary security while a
redemption gives permanent and eternal security.
So?
JW’s
wrongly believe you can lose your salvation,
so they go for the weaker word of “ransom”. Yes, it is the price that
was paid
by Jesus Christ for a start, but then Christ’s ransom is also the
redemption.
Mathematically
speaking, a ‘redemption’ is a subset
of ‘ransom’ but not the other way around, that is, all redemptions are
ransoms
but not all ransoms are redemptions.
Ransom =
temporary salvation
… you can lose it.
Redemption
= permanent salvation
… you can’t lose it.
Even in
the Old testament the distinction is made
between the two words as follows:
“None of
them can by any means redeem (permanent)
his brother, nor give to God a ransom (temporary)
for him:”
“I will ransom
(temporary)
them from the power of the grave; I will redeem (permanent)
them from death: O death, I will be thy plagues; O grave, I will be
thy
destruction: repentance shall be hid from mine eyes.” (Hosea 13:14)
Summary:
If you pay
a ransom for a person he can
revert back to his previous owner by being bought back again.
If that
person is redeemed, there is no
going back to his previous owner as the tie has been permanently and
irrevocably cut.
Harley
Hitchcock
www.
AustralianBibleMinistries
.com
Australian
Bible Ministries, PO
Box 5058 Mt. Gravatt East 4122 Qld, Australia
www.AustralianBibleMinistries.com
