Getting Through to Jehovah's Witnesses

Approaching Bible Discussions in Unexpected Ways

David A Englund

• Publisher: Grace & Joy Publishing
• Year: 2018
• ISBN:
  9780578440132
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Teología y religión
• Subtopic: Denominaciones cristianas

Do you want to share the gospel with Jehovah's Witnesses but don't know what to say? Have you tried to talk with them only to end up frustrated and going around in circles? The key to effective communication with Jehovah's Witnesses is getting them out of their prepared presentations by approaching Bible discussion in ways they won't expect. In this way, you can get them off autopilot and help them focus on what the Bible is really saying.

This book will help you witness to Jehovah's Witnesses by:

• Relating the author's personal experiences in a Watchtower "home Bible study"
• Giving specific witnessing principles you need to follow to communicate effectively with Witnesses
• Telling you what you need to know about the differences between the Watchtower religion and biblical Christianity
• Sharing approaches which explain how to get through to Jehovah's Witnesses by presenting specific Bible truths in unexpected ways

Section 1: Encountering Jehovah’s Witnesses

Chapter 1: Here They Come—Now What?

When I was a young boy, my family followed a popular strategy in dealing with Jehovah’s Witnesses.

We hid from them.

Our house was located in the middle of the block, so we usually spotted them as they were coming up the street doing their door-to-door witnessing. My parents would close all the curtains and pull down the shades. We would stay out of sight and pretend we weren’t at home. The Witnesses would ring the doorbell, wait a few minutes, and then leave.

That was fun for me, sort of like a game of hide-and-seek initiated by adults. I have to confess, though, that I wondered what was so bad about those people that we had to hide from them. My parents explained that Jehovah’s Witnesses weren’t bad people but that they were annoying, always trying to push their religion on everyone else. Many of them wouldn’t take no for an answer, so in order to avoid unpleasantness the best thing to do was to avoid encountering them at all.

Of course, total avoidance wasn’t always possible. If we didn’t spot them coming, we would answer the doorbell and find ourselves face-to-face with them. What then? We would politely say, “Thank you, but I’m not interested. I have my own religion.” Some of the time, that was the end of it; they would thank us for our time and leave.

More often, they would try to get past that initial rebuff and get a dialogue going. “I’m glad to hear that you have an interest in spiritual things,” they would say. “Do you read your Bible on a regular basis? We have come to your door to offer you a free home Bible study.” At that point, my parents would tell them firmly, “No, thank you,” and close the door.

Coming to Christ

Fast forward several years. I was now age 17 and my college roommate shared the gospel with me. He led me through an inductive chapter-by-chapter, verse-by-verse study of the New Testament book of Romans. Wanting to make sure I was right with God, I repented of my sins. I asked Christ to forgive me and save me based on his sacrifice on the cross.

Like many—perhaps most—Christians, I got busy with my life. Although I continued to read the Bible, I didn’t begin any systematic study of doctrine. I didn’t see the need for it, and even if I had wanted to I wouldn’t have known where to start. Truth be told, there were vast portions of the Bible I had never read, not even superficially.

I knew that as a Christian I was supposed to be a witness for Christ, but I wasn’t very good at it. My main problem was with getting conversations about religion started. Many people seemed to want to avoid discussing the topic altogether. The few such conversations I did start often led to fruitless arguments and bad feelings. Because of those negative experiences, I had pretty much given up trying. Deep down, though, I felt guilty about my lack of effort. I promised God that if he would open the way, I would witness for Jesus, but that he would have to get the ball rolling.

My initial encounter with Jehovah’s Witnesses

Five years went by. One Saturday morning in 1972, my doorbell rang and I opened the door. Standing before me were a man and his wife. Immediately, I could tell by the magazines in their hands that they were Jehovah’s Witnesses.

The hide-behind-the-curtains strategy was no longer an option. I could tell them that I wasn’t interested, but in fact I was interested—not interested in becoming a Jehovah’s Witness—but interested in witnessing to them. Here was my opening. They had broken the ice. They wanted to talk about religion. I wasn’t about to close the door on those people or tell them “thanks but no thanks” without giving them some sort of witness for Jesus.

I invited them in, and the result was a disaster.

Why? Because they were prepared and I wasn’t.

That’s putting it mildly. I was totally unprepared. At that point, I knew next to nothing about what Jehovah’s Witnesses believed. I knew that they called God “Jehovah.” I knew that they went door-to-door witnessing in pairs. I knew that they offered people a magazine called The Watchtower. I knew that they wouldn’t take blood transfusions. That’s it. I didn’t even know that they professed to be Christians, let alone that they believed they were the only true Christians in the world.

They asked me about my religious background. Having that invitation, I gave them a brief testimony about my conversion experience at college, about how I had received Christ into my life by faith and gained assurance of a place in heaven based on his free gift of salvation. There—I had done it. I had witnessed for Jesus to some extent anyway. I was feeling really good about that.

Do all Christians go to heaven?

What I didn’t know then was that Witnesses expect that some Christians will give their testimonies and are prepared to use them as a springboard to preach Watchtower doctrine. Unwittingly, I had set them up perfectly. The husband was ready and moved straight into his presentation.

“Actually,” he said with a friendly smile, “it’s a common misconception that all Christians will go to heaven.”

Needless to say, I was shocked.

“Could you please turn to Acts 2:34 in your Bible and read that verse aloud?” he continued. I turned there and started to read out of my own Bible: “For David did not ascend into the heavens...” (RSV). “There, you see?” he interrupted, “Even King David didn’t go to heaven, and the Bible says he was ‘a man after God’s own heart.’” I was stunned. I paused and tried to think of how to respond.

He went on. “The Bible says something very similar about John the Baptist. Would you please turn to Matthew 11:11 and read Jesus’ own words from your Bible?” So I did: “Truly, I say to you, among those born of women there has risen no one greater than John the Baptist; yet he who is least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he” (RSV).

“So you see,” the Jehovah’s Witness said to me, “John the Baptist didn’t go to heaven when he died either. Also, remember, what Psalm 37:11 says. You probably know that verse from memory from the King James Version: ‘The meek shall inherit...’ what does it say? Heaven? No, it says, ‘The meek shall inherit the earth.’” (KJV) Jesus quoted that promise in Matthew 5:5. Now let’s go back to Psalm 37:29 to complete the thought.” I read it aloud: “The righteous shall possess the land, and dwell upon it forever” (RSV).

“There!” said the Witness, “Jehovah’s promise to faithful ones is that they will live on a paradise earth forever, not that they will go to heaven. Now it is true that Jesus said in Luke 12:32 that there is a ‘little flock’ of Christians who will go to heaven and rule alongside him. Revelation 14:3 gives us the exact number.” He showed me the last part of that verse: “...the hundred and forty-four thousand who had been redeemed from the earth.” (both verses, RSV)

By now, my head was reeling. I had just shared with him my testimony that I was going to heaven when I died because of what Jesus had done for me, and in a matter of minutes he had “proved” to me right out of my own Bible that it wasn’t so, that even King David and John the Baptist weren’t in heaven.

If I were to face those arguments today, I would note the contexts. Peter pointed out that Jesus—not David—resurrected bodily and ascended to heaven. That’s not the same as saying David isn’t in heaven in spirit form. I would also point out the context of Jesus’ Matthew 11 statement. When he made that comment about John the Baptist, not only wasn’t John in heaven; he was still alive and in prison. However, at the time, I didn’t have a clue what to say. To be honest, I felt humiliated.

Let’s pause a bit and examine what happened to me so that you can learn from my mistakes and make sure it doesn’t happen to you.

Learning from my mistakes

Should Christians refuse to talk with Jehovah’s Witnesses?

Let’s start with a fundamental question. Is it wrong for Christians to discuss religion with Jehovah’s Witnesses at all? Some Christians think so. They know that many of the teachings of the Watchtower are incompatible with biblical Christianity and are therefore heretical. For this reason, they will tell you that you should avoid all contact with Jehovah’s Witnesses.

Granted, if you refuse all contact with Jehovah’s Witnesses, you won’t be in danger of getting sucked into their religion. But you won’t win any of them to Christ that way either.

Intent on protecting their flocks from heresies, some well-meaning pastors have even instructed their congregations to turn Jehovah’s Witnesses away rather than sharing the gospel with them. Some of them misapply 2 John 10-11: “If anyone comes to you and does not bring this teaching, do not take him into your house or welcome him. Anyone who welcomes him shares in his wicked work.”

Why do I call this a misapplication? John was not commanding Christians to have no dialogue with people who believe and promote religious error. If we did that, unbelievers would never hear the gospel and Christianity would soon die out!

So what did he mean? In the first century, Christians met in homes rather than in church buildings. New Testament scholar F.F. Bruce states, “The injunction not to receive any one who does not bring ‘the teaching of Christ’ means that no such person must be accepted as a Christian teacher or as one entitled to the fellowship of the church. It does not mean that (say) one of Jehovah’s Witnesses should not be invited into the house for a cup of tea in order to be shown the way of God more perfectly in the sitting-room than would be convenient on the doorstep.”^[1]

What would Jesus do? Can you picture Jesus hiding behind curtains when false teachers ...