Jehovah Witness... are they Christian?

[Zemke]

From what I can see, JW's believe Jesus died and rose again, but as a spirit rather than in a physical body.  He pretty clearly had a physical body as he demonstrated to Thomas so I don't know why they insist that he rose as a spirit.  It appears that he did walk through walls (i.e. the doors were were shut and locked and yet he appeared in the midst of the room where the disciples were gathered) so maybe that's why they think he was a spirit.

 

I also made a mistake with one of my assessments earlier.  It appears they do believe that Jesus was a man in the flesh (while he was alive) but that he is not God at the same time as being a man in the flesh. 

 

Anyway, ultimately it's God's salvation and he can do whatever he wants with it.  I personally see heaps of examples of God being willing to overlook wrong (or even bad) theology if he can see a sincere, humble, loving spirit. Perhaps some JW's will be unsaved, but then again I think that's something which will most likely be true of all denominations.

 

Or, perhaps a better way of making my point would be to substitute the good Samaritan for a JW and call it the parable of the Good JW.  I think the basic lesson of the parable would still be the same no matter what classification of person you substitute there.

 

 

They may say that now but the doctrine of the JW says, the life force of Michael the Arch Angel was placed in the ovum of Mary and that same life force appeared in several bodies after the death of Jesus. "The man Jesus is dead, forever dead." Charles Taz Russel. Jesus did not appear anywhere. It was the life force of Michael that appeared in those diverse bodies and now is in heaven as some spirit creature much like we will be if God so chooses to boot the memory of us into a spirit creature if we lived worthy. You see, Works salvation once again. It takes away from the once and for all finished work of the cross.

 

All cults are a Jesus plus something proposition. The struggle we have is simply believing on the finished work of Christ The wages of sin is death, by sin, death entered into the world and the gift of God is eternal life. From the beginning Lucifer sought to break the fellowship Man had with God and he will continue to attempt to break the way of salvation and the restoration of fellowship with the Creator. One way is to sell a different Jesus and the JW's Jesus is not the Jesus of the scriptures, they are believing a lie and some one needs to love them enough to tell them the truth but agreeing with them is not a healthy thing to do, It will wash your own faith to a place where you will need repentance. 

[Guest shiloh357]

Yeah, Paul taught that people shouldn't boast about their good works, as though they are saved by their own goodness.  Totally agree.  And yet, God is a good God.  It doesn't make sense to me that he'd want to save people who have no interest in being good.

God has an interest in saving everyone including those who have no interest in being good.  He died for everyone, not just the good people.   God is good, but God doesn't comprise His goodness, even to save another person.

 

God doesn't save people on the basis of goodness 'cause in His eyes, no one is good.   God has only one standard of good, and it's Him.  He is good and if goodness could bring salvation, we would have to be as good and as perfect as He is, that isn't going to happen.

 

I personally try to be good because I believe God wants me to be good.  I think if I was either indifferent to, or against being good, God could still save me, but I doubt he would want to.  No amount of pleading the blood or saying "Lord, Lord" will convince God to save someone who has decided they have no interest in being good.

 

It is when we stop trying to be "good" and we obey that Gospel that we are saved.  The reason a lot of people are not saved is because they are caught up in trying to be good enough.    There are people going to hell, not because they are prostitutes, or murderers or adulterers or thieves, but because they never were.  There are "good" people who revel in their goodness and they are strutting right down into hell.  

 

It is when we come to the realization that we are sinners and that we are not good before God and when we lose interest in trying to be good that we can be in the position of humility necessary to be saved.   Repentance means, in part, being sorry for my sin and admitting before God that I am not good and that I am giving up on trying to be good enough.   It means that I want to rest in HIS goodness and not mine.

 

Even things like saying the sinners prayer or reading our Bibles or going to church or singing praise songs amount to works, i.e. we must DO these things for them to have any meaning.  Jesus won't come into our heart if we don't ask him.  Helping the poor is a work.  Preaching the gospel is a work. Confessing our sins and repenting of our wrongs are works; something we must do to show our sincerity. It's not the works which are the problem, but pride about our works.

 

Saying the sinner's prayer doesn't save us.  Nothing we do saves us.  Salvation occurs the moment our heart says, "yes" to Jesus.  "For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness..."   Rom. 10:9.

 

But the problem with JW's is that they don't believe what it takes to be saved.  Their theology isn't based on the Bible or really on being good.  Their theology is based on false teachings that they are fed and which deny what we need to believe in order to be saved.

 

We can be proud about working sure, but we can also be proud about NOT working.

[Willa]

Okay Shiloh.  I can see it's time to take a break from this topic.  Maybe next time we'll find something with which we can agree more readily.

JWs worship a different Jesus than Christians. They worship a created being, not God. So their jesus cannot be God in human flesh, reconciling the world unto Himself.

A person who worships a false god cannot be born again. Unless you are born again you can't enter the kingdom of heaven. John 3:3

It is very evident that the JWs do not have the Spirit of Truth, Who leads us into all truth. They do have the spirit of error. They are blinded to the understanding of scriptures and to the truth.

1 John 4:3 and every spirit that does not confess that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is not of God. v5 They are of the world. Therefore they speak as of the world, and the world hears them. We are of God. He who knows God hears us; he who is not of God does not hear us By this we know the spirit of truth and the spirit of error.

There are many things that true Christian disagree on, such as the timing of when Jesus will return for His church; That only the Father knows. But of the things revealed in Scripture about who Jesus is, we do agree. In John 8:58 Jesus claims to be "I AM". In EXodus 3:14-15 we find that I AM is in fact the Jehovah God of your fathers. (Most translations use LORD in place of Jehovah) Since Jehovah's witnesses do not believe that Jesus is in fact Johovah, they shall die in their sin. John 8:24

The current pope is very loving, even claiming that athiests can go to heaven by their good works (for which the infallible pope was corrected). All roads don't lead to heaven as he seems to think. Jesus said "I AM the way, the truth and the life; no man can come to the Father but by Me. There is salvation in no one else, for there is no other Name under heaven that has been given among men, by which we must be saved. Acts 4:12 He is not a created being but the Creator of heaven and earth the firstBORN of all creation. Colossians 1:15-16

No one can go to heaven by good works. No one can be saved by something that is not the Living God Who gave Himself as our sacrifice for our sins, our Passover Lamb of God that takes away the sins of the world.

No one can go to heaven without the Holy Spirit with Whom we are sealed as the earnest (security deposit, guarantee) of our salvation. 2 Cor.1:21-22 John 3:3

We trust in the Living God, Who is the Savior of all men, especially of those who believe.

When we know the Truth, Jesus, intimately, it is easy to recognize what is false and who is false.

We hope to share His loving forgiveness with all who will believe, and His coming righteous judgement with those who persist in rejecting His unmerited mercy and favor.

[John Robinson]

Several years ago a former JW wrote a book called Thirty Years a Watchtower Slave. It's chilling how evil and controlling this cult is.

[gray_robe]

I appreciate the willingness of people here to go through the various verses which they feel support their view.  I agree that the JW's have some inaccurate views.  They can be quite stubborn and even seemingly willfully blind to these faults, as well.  Their insistence that God gets confused about who we're talking to if we don't use a specific title kinda irks me, too.

 

Also, a stubborn refusal to change very well could lead someone to eternal punishment.  There really is a hell and people really will experience it.

 

However, I think we Christians can also become stubborn with the criteria for which we sometimes use to decide who will be punished and who will not (as though it's our place to even make such eternal judgments).  For example, the apostles came to Jesus to tattle tale on someone they saw casting out demons in his name, but did not work directly under them.  Jesus challenged the hardness in their hearts by saying, "he who is not against us, is for us".

 

Another time, the apostles wanted to call down fire on a village who refused to accept him.  Jesus rebuked them, saying they had a bad spirit.  Just thinking they should be destroyed went against what Jesus was trying to teach them about the power of loving even those who reject us, blessing them and praying for them.

 

Jesus said things like, "not everyone who calls me Lord will be saved".  Here he is, admitting that in some circumstances, just saying, "Jesus is Lord" isn't good enough.  There are cases of evil spirits confessing Jesus as the most high son of God and Jesus telling them to shut up.

 

According to the evidence, "confessing" Jesus requires more than the correct words or even the correct theology.  Jesus said, "I do not judge you; it is my teachings which will judge you".  In another place he said, "he who is ashamed of my teachings, I will be ashamed of him".

 

Based on the evidence, what it means to "confess" Jesus could have a few different interpretations since Jesus is more than just a name and more than just a man.  He's a teacher.  He's a savior.  He's a creator.  He's a leader and a pastor.  There are many aspects to Jesus' ministry and the evidence shows that he seemed to feel loving God and loving our neighbor were the two most important aspects.

 

Someone may reject the Divine aspect of Jesus, but respond to the loving aspect.  There is simply no evidence that refusing to acknowledge Jesus as God stops God from still being able to work with that person through other means, like showing love to their neighbor.

 

We will be judged with the same measure that we judged others.  By all means, lets correct incorrect theology, but to judge that a person goes to hell because of wrong understanding on the divinity of Christ, despite and regardless of whatever love they show to their neighbors?  That's a pretty harsh judgment and according to what Jesus said, anyone who makes that kind of Judgment is also destined for hell, since we all have at least some wrong understanding of the nature of God.

 

Like Jesus saying, "father forgive them for they know not what they do";  one could make a pretty good argument that the Jews really did know what they were doing.  They quite deliberately trapped Jesus, lied about what he said and pushed for him to be executed.  And yet Jesus still found a bit of room for mercy, suggesting they still just didn't quite get it.  They were still blinded by all their various squabbling over correct theology to be able to see the truth in his teachings.

 

Rather than cursing people to hell, isn't that the example we should be following?

Edited January 10, 2015 by gray_robe

[ayin jade]

Galatians 1

 

6 I marvel that you are turning away so soon from Him who called you in the grace of Christ, to a different gospel,

7 which is not another; but there are some who trouble you and want to pervert the gospel of Christ.

8 But even if we, or an angel from heaven, preach any other gospel to you than what we have preached to you, let him be accursed.

9 As we have said before, so now I say again, if anyone preaches any other gospel to you than what you have received, let him be accursed.

[B3L13v3R]

The JWs cultic view of Jesus Christ will not get anyone into heaven.

Many people in this forum have shown this scripturally.

 

1Jo 2:22 Who is a liar but he that denieth that Jesus is the Christ? He is antichrist, that denieth the Father and the Son.

 

The JWs believe that He had not come back in the flesh, but instead a “divine spirit being” or “invisible spirit creature.”

What spirit is this? The spirit of the antichrist:

 

1Jo 4:1-3

(1) Beloved, believe not every spirit, but try the spirits whether they are of God: because many false prophets are gone out into the world.

(2) Hereby know ye the Spirit of God: Every spirit that confesseth that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is of God:

(3) And every spirit that confesseth not that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is not of God: and this is that spirit of antichrist, whereof ye have heard that it should come; and even now already is it in the world.

 

These verses apply to any who preach the “wrong” Jesus Christ, and the “wrong” gospel: (Some of the same verses Ayin has brought us)

 

Gal 1:3-10

(3) Grace be to you and peace from God the Father, and from our Lord Jesus Christ,

(4) Who gave himself for our sins, that he might deliver us from this present evil world, according to the will of God and our Father:

(5) To whom be glory for ever and ever. Amen.

(6) I marvel that ye are so soon removed from him that called you into the grace of Christ unto another gospel:

(7) Which is not another; but there be some that trouble you, and would pervert the gospel of Christ.

(8) But though we, or an angel from heaven, preach any other gospel unto you than that which we have preached unto you, let him be accursed.

(9) As we said before, so say I now again, If any man preach any other gospel unto you than that ye have received, let him be accursed.

(10) For do I now persuade men, or God? or do I seek to please men? for if I yet pleased men, I should not be the servant of Christ.

 

I know with the false christ they, and many others like them serve, they will be going to an eternal Lake of Fire, an eternal Lake of Fire they themselves do not believe in.

 

After becoming grounded in Christ and His Word, and understanding many of their falsehoods, I regularly have reached out to them over the years, and continue to do so when I run into them.

Calling on their repenting and believing on the true Lord Jesus Christ, God the Son.

[B3L13v3R]

More on the resurrection of Christ in His body:

 

Prophetic of His resurrected body the temple:

 

Jesus answered and said unto them, Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up. Then said the Jews, Forty and six years was this temple in building, and wilt thou rear it up in three days? But he spake of the temple of his body.

(John 2:19-21)

 

Jesus miraculously shows up here with Thomas, who did not believe in the literal bodily resurrected body Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ comes with His resurrected body and tells Thomas to “Then saith he to Thomas, Reach hither thy finger, and behold my hands; and reach hither thy hand, and thrust it into my side” only to have Thomas cry and call out “My Lord and my God. “

This is not a “spirit body” but a resurrected body with previously wounded hands and a previously pierced side.

For one to believe this was not the previously crucified body of Christ is denying God's Word.

 

But Thomas, one of the twelve, called Didymus, was not with them when Jesus came. The other disciples therefore said unto him, We have seen the Lord. But he said unto them, Except I shall see in his hands the print of the nails, and put my finger into the print of the nails, and thrust my hand into his side, I will not believe. And after eight days again his disciples were within, and Thomas with them: then came Jesus, the doors being shut, and stood in the midst, and said, Peace be unto you. Then saith he to Thomas, Reach hither thy finger, and behold my hands; and reach hither thy hand, and thrust it into my side: and be not faithless, but believing. And Thomas answered and said unto him, My Lord and my God.

(John 20:24-28)

 

The disciples “thought” Jesus to be a spirit here, and yet he told them “Behold my hands and my feet, that it is I myself: handle me, and see; for a spirit hath not flesh and bones, as ye see me have. And when he had thus spoken, he shewed them his hands and his feet.”

 

But they were terrified and affrighted, and supposed that they had seen a spirit. And he said unto them, Why are ye troubled? and why do thoughts arise in your hearts? Behold my hands and my feet, that it is I myself: handle me, and see; for a spirit hath not flesh and bones, as ye see me have. And when he had thus spoken, he shewed them his hands and his feet. And while they yet believed not for joy, and wondered, he said unto them, Have ye here any meat? And they gave him a piece of a broiled fish, and of an honeycomb. And he took it, and did eat before them.

(Luke 24:37-43)

 

May Jesus Christ “open our understanding” to “understand the Scriptures.”

Followed by our reaching out to the lost with “repentance and remission of sins should be preached in His name” to the constant lost we come into contact with every day!

 

“And he said unto them, These are the words which I spake unto you, while I was yet with you, that all things must be fulfilled, which were written in the law of Moses, and in the prophets, and in the psalms, concerning me. Then opened he their understanding, that they might understand the scriptures, And said unto them, Thus it is written, and thus it behoved Christ to suffer, and to rise from the dead the third day: And that repentance and remission of sins should be preached in his name among all nations, beginning at Jerusalem.

(Luke 24:44-47)

[Guest shiloh357]

 

However, I think we Christians can also become stubborn with the criteria for which we sometimes use to decide who will be punished and who will not (as though it's our place to even make such eternal judgments).  For example, the apostles came to Jesus to tattle tale on someone they saw casting out demons in his name, but did not work directly under them.  Jesus challenged the hardness in their hearts by saying, "he who is not against us, is for us".

 

 

What you are failing to understand is that it is not OUR critieria.  God has made it clear how a person is saved and we are only saying what the Bible says.  It is not "stubborn" to hold fast to biblical truth.  The Bible is how we know God and how He prescribes salvation.     Your example has nothing to do with the issue at hand and is yet another misapplication of a text of Scripture.   We are not deciding who can be saved and how they are saved.  God has declared the criteria for salvation unambiguously.

 

The stubbornness is actually from you.   Even when faced with the fact that the JW's reject the very pillar upon which Christianity rests you still want to live in some fairytale land where it doesn't really matter what the Bible says.  Sorry, but you are batting zero. 

 

 

Another time, the apostles wanted to call down fire on a village who refused to accept him.  Jesus rebuked them, saying they had a bad spirit.  Just thinking they should be destroyed went against what Jesus was trying to teach them about the power of loving even those who reject us, blessing them and praying for them.

 

Except we are not asking for God to call down fire and we are not condemning anyone to Hell.  We are holding up what Jesus Himself said about salvation and what the entire Word of God has to say about salvation,   You are taking passages that have nothing to do with the issue at hand and are trying to apply them to something completely dissimilar. 

 

 

Jesus said things like, "not everyone who calls me Lord will be saved".  Here he is, admitting that in some circumstances, just saying, "Jesus is Lord" isn't good enough.  There are cases of evil spirits confessing Jesus as the most high son of God and Jesus telling them to shut up.

 

Jesus was talking about insincere professions of faith.  There are people who are Christians nominally.  They think they are Christians because they go through religious motions, they mouth the right words, but their hearts have never been changed.  They are still sinners.    It's not that calling Jesus "Lord"  isn't good enough.  It is good enough IF Jesus is your Lord.   Jesus is not the "Lord" of the JWs.

 

 

Someone may reject the Divine aspect of Jesus, but respond to the loving aspect.  There is simply no evidence that refusing to acknowledge Jesus as God stops God from still being able to work with that person through other means, like showing love to their neighbor.

 

The problem is that Jesus doesn't give us the options of rejecting Him as God.  If you don't have the correct view of Jesus, everything else you believe about Him will be wrong.   Jesus presents Himself to us as God and we don't get to set the terms of the relationship.   Christianity isn't a smorgasbord where you get to pick and choose which parts of Jesus you want and which parts you don't want.   He offers Himself to us as God and we accept Him on those terms, or not at all.  Anyone who says otherwise is 100% wrong.

 

Jesus doesn't work through those who reject Him and the JW's have truly rejected Him.  They have their own version of Jesus and they have rejected the Jesus of the Bible.  

 

 

We will be judged with the same measure that we judged others.  By all means, lets correct incorrect theology, but to judge that a person goes to hell because of wrong understanding on the divinity of Christ, despite and regardless of whatever love they show to their neighbors?  That's a pretty harsh judgment and according to what Jesus said, anyone who makes that kind of Judgment is also destined for hell, since we all have at least some wrong understanding of the nature of God.

 

See, we're not judging the JW's.   The JW's are already under God's judgment for their rejection of Jesus and the only way of salvation.  They stand condemned before God, not us.   We endeavor to tell them the truth about their condition before God and we endeavor to lead them out of their cult and into God's salvation.   Loving your neighbor means nothing if you don't have Jesus.  Loving your neighbor doesn't make up for rejecting Jesus.  Loving your neighbor doesn't bring salvation.  Lot's of people go to hell loving their neighbor.

 

 

Like Jesus saying, "father forgive them for they know not what they do";  one could make a pretty good argument that the Jews really did know what they were doing.  They quite deliberately trapped Jesus, lied about what he said and pushed for him to be executed.  And yet Jesus still found a bit of room for mercy, suggesting they still just didn't quite get it.  They were still blinded by all their various squabbling over correct theology to be able to see the truth in his teachings.

 

Rather than cursing people to hell, isn't that the example we should be following?

 

 

We're not cursing anyone to hell.  Their rejection of Jesus brings the curse on them.  We are trying to show them how to get out of the curse.   We are following the example of both Paul and Christ in that we are warning people of the danger ahead.   You, on the other hand prefer to sing them to sleep.

 

 

That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.

(Rom 10:9-10)

 

That's the heart of the Gospel.   You MUST believe in your heart that God has raised Jesus from the dead to be saved.  That's how it's done.  The JW's reject that essential truth of the Gospel.   That's not us, setting the criteria; that God setting it. 

Edited January 11, 2015 by shiloh357

[gray_robe]

The JW's have some wrong interpretations. Their insistence that God only responds to the title "Jehova" isn't scripturally consistent.  Their interpretation that Jesus was not the same as God while yet being separate at the same time is inconsistent.  Their interpretation that Jesus was not raised with a physical body is inconsistent with the evidence we can see.  All of this I agree with.

But what we're really talking about here are interpretations of what we read in scripture.

For example, the Seventh Day Adventists believe Saturday is the only correct day to worship.  If people worship God on a Sunday (or presumably any other day) they are wrong. Back in the day, people used the Bible to justify and promote slavery.  Others have used the Bible to justify domestic violence, siting Paul's teachings about how the woman must be subject to the man, while others till have used it to promote war.

Over the years the Bible has been used to justify all kinds of weird and wrong interpretations.  They can all claim, "the Bible says so" and they all have their various proof texts to prove it. Some of them, getting carried away with religious fervor and with a certain flare of righteous indignation even suggest that questioning their various interpretations equated to questioning the Bible itself.

But what we really need to be looking for, to the question "are they Christian", is an interpretation which is consistent with the bigger picture; an interpretation which can account for all the verses and teachings rather than just a select few.

The JW's believe that Jesus is the savior.  They believe that Jesus died to pay for their sins and that Jesus was resurrected.  They believe Jesus is the only begotten son of God, but they do not believe Jesus is equal to God.  From what I can see, the JW's are not rejecting Jesus, but rather they are quite ignorantly assuming that if they cannot understand how God and Jesus can be one at the same time while at the same time being separate, then there must be some other explanation which their tiny human minds can understand, so they decided to settle on Jesus being the only begotten son of God, just not equal to God.

Is this an ignorant and stubborn point of view?  Yes.  Just because we cannot understand something about God doesn't make the observation (i.e. that Jesus is the same yet different at the same time) untrue.  Is it an offense worthy of hell? Maybe.  It's up to God, but there is nowhere in scripture where Jesus says people will be condemned to hell if they do not believe he is equal to God.  The teaching simply does not exist.  There are plenty of teachings about our need to accept Jesus, but "accepting" Jesus is far more than a theological statement that he is equal to God.  The "Good Samaritan" showed his acceptance of Jesus through showing love for his neighbor.  The sheep from Matthew 25 didn't even know they were helping God by helping those in need, yet God still rewarded them.

 

Jesus himself said, "whoever speaks a word against the son of man will be forgiven, but who ever blasphemes the Holy spirit will not be forgiven".  This is because Jesus knows how stubborn we can be when it comes to theology.  We may reject some theological point of view, but God can still reach us through the holy spirit in a way that our conscious, stubborn mind can't.  The fruits of the spirit are love, joy, peace, longsuffering etc...  If I see someone exercising these fruits, then I must assume the Holy spirit is working in them, despite whatever wrong theological understanding they may have.  Otherwise, I must assume there is some OTHER spirit out there mimicking the Holy Spirit and I dare say THAT would be far more of a dangerous theology than refusing to believe Jesus is equal to God.

 

Anyway, moving on...

The JW's believe that Jesus was a real, flesh and blood man.  The verses people have quoted about those who refuse to acknowledge that Jesus came in the flesh don't specifiy that it's Jesus' resurrected body which they are dealing with.  This suggests that there IS at least some room for misunderstanding in how the verses are being applied to the JW's, since the JW's do acknowledge that Jesus came in the flesh, despite their belief that his resurrected body was spiritual.

The evidence show's that Jesus was, in fact, resurrected with a physical body.  This was precisely the reason he asked Thomas to touch his hands and side.  And as Shiloh pointed out, Jesus ate fish with his very real, very physical mouth.  I don't know why the JW's are so stubborn about this point.  Maybe I'm still missing something in their interpretation.

But, an offence worthy of eternal damnation?  Maybe.  Once again it's up to God, but there simply is no teaching where Jesus says people will be lost if they refuse to believe he was resurrected with a physical body as opposed to a spiritual body.  It's not even the resurrection which is in question but rather "how" he was resurrected.  The whole argument just seems so petty, on par with the correct way to water baptize, through complete immersion or sprinkling or whatever.

The subject of this thead asked do these wrong understandings of Jesus' divinity and resurrection exclude them from being Christ-like (i.e. Christian)?  It has been suggested that having a right undertanding of Jesus' divinity is the crux or the core of the Gospel; that this correct understanding of Jesus' divinity is THE Gospel, upon which everything else rests.

Well, even this point of view is an interpretation based on what people have read in the Bible.  The JW's have their interpretations.  I have my interpretations.  Other individuals on this forum have thier own interpretations.  We all have our various interpretations.  The question is whether our interpretations are consistent with the bigger picture.

Ultimately Jesus' interpretation is the most significant.  So what did Jesus say about what is the most important part of his ministry?  When asked that question He said the two most important parts are to love God and to love our neighbor.  He said everything else rests on those two parts.

However, when I earlier suggested that despite the JW's wrong understanding on the theological position of Jesus' divinity, God could still look deep into their hearts and perhaps forgive them their petty misunderstandings on the basis of their sincere attemtps to love their neighbors.

The response to that was to suggest I was promoting the infamous "salvation by works" heresey.  Several people commented that showing love to our neighbors is nice, sure, but certainly not something which could forgive an unwillingness to claim Jesus is equal to God.  In other words, if someone does not acknowledge Jesus as being equal to God, then no matter how much love they show to their neighbor, God will send them straight to hell.

It sounds to me like the second most important command has been replaced by another command; believe that Jesus is equal to God, and this is exactly what Jesus said people would do with his teachings.  "The stone which the builders rejected has become the head of the corner".  When we say that showing love for our neighbors has become a heresy (i.e. salvation by works), then we've well and truely thrown out the cornerstone and replaced it with some other lesser brick (i.e. salvation comes through believing that Jesus is equal to God).