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Getting Through to Jehovah's Witnesses
Approaching Bible Discussions in Unexpected Ways
David A Englund
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eBook - ePub
Getting Through to Jehovah's Witnesses
Approaching Bible Discussions in Unexpected Ways
David A Englund
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Ă propos de ce livre
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
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Informations
Section 1: Encountering Jehovahâs Witnesses
Chapter 1: Here They ComeâNow What?
When I was a young boy, my family followed a popular strategy in dealing with Jehovahâs 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 werenât 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 Jehovahâs Witnesses werenât bad people but that they were annoying, always trying to push their religion on everyone else. Many of them wouldnât 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 wasnât always possible. If we didnât spot them coming, we would answer the doorbell and find ourselves face-to-face with them. What then? We would politely say, âThank you, but Iâm not interested. I have my own religion.â 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. âIâm glad to hear that you have an interest in spiritual things,â they would say. âDo you read your Bible on a regular basis? We have come to your door to offer you a free home Bible study.â At that point, my parents would tell them firmly, âNo, thank you,â 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 manyâperhaps mostâChristians, I got busy with my life. Although I continued to read the Bible, I didnât begin any systematic study of doctrine. I didnât see the need for it, and even if I had wanted to I wouldnât 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 wasnât 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 Jehovahâs 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 Jehovahâs Witnesses.
The hide-behind-the-curtains strategy was no longer an option. I could tell them that I wasnât interested, but in fact I was interestedânot interested in becoming a Jehovahâs Witnessâbut interested in witnessing to them. Here was my opening. They had broken the ice. They wanted to talk about religion. I wasnât about to close the door on those people or tell them âthanks but no thanksâ 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 wasnât.
Thatâs putting it mildly. I was totally unprepared. At that point, I knew next to nothing about what Jehovahâs Witnesses believed. I knew that they called God âJehovah.â 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 wouldnât take blood transfusions. Thatâs it. I didnât 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. ThereâI 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 didnât 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.
âActually,â he said with a friendly smile, âitâs a common misconception that all Christians will go to heaven.â
Needless to say, I was shocked.
âCould you please turn to Acts 2:34 in your Bible and read that verse aloud?â he continued. I turned there and started to read out of my own Bible: âFor David did not ascend into the heavens...â (RSV). âThere, you see?â he interrupted, âEven King David didnât go to heaven, and the Bible says he was âa man after Godâs own heart.ââ I was stunned. I paused and tried to think of how to respond.
He went on. âThe Bible says something very similar about John the Baptist. Would you please turn to Matthew 11:11 and read Jesusâ own words from your Bible?â So I did: âTruly, 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 heâ (RSV).
âSo you see,â the Jehovahâs Witness said to me, âJohn the Baptist didnât 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: âThe meek shall inherit...â what does it say? Heaven? No, it says, âThe meek shall inherit the earth.ââ (KJV) Jesus quoted that promise in Matthew 5:5. Now letâs go back to Psalm 37:29 to complete the thought.â I read it aloud: âThe righteous shall possess the land, and dwell upon it foreverâ (RSV).
âThere!â said the Witness, âJehovahâs 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 âlittle flockâ of Christians who will go to heaven and rule alongside him. Revelation 14:3 gives us the exact number.â He showed me the last part of that verse: â...the hundred and forty-four thousand who had been redeemed from the earth.â (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 âprovedâ to me right out of my own Bible that it wasnât so, that even King David and John the Baptist werenât in heaven.
If I were to face those arguments today, I would note the contexts. Peter pointed out that Jesusânot Davidâresurrected bodily and ascended to heaven. Thatâs not the same as saying David isnât in heaven in spirit form. I would also point out the context of Jesusâ Matthew 11 statement. When he made that comment about John the Baptist, not only wasnât John in heaven; he was still alive and in prison. However, at the time, I didnât have a clue what to say. To be honest, I felt humiliated.
Letâs pause a bit and examine what happened to me so that you can learn from my mistakes and make sure it doesnât happen to you.
Learning from my mistakes
Should Christians refuse to talk with Jehovahâs Witnesses?
Letâs start with a fundamental question. Is it wrong for Christians to discuss religion with Jehovahâs 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 Jehovahâs Witnesses.
Granted, if you refuse all contact with Jehovahâs Witnesses, you wonât be in danger of getting sucked into their religion. But you wonât 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 Jehovahâs Witnesses away rather than sharing the gospel with them. Some of them misapply 2 John 10-11: âIf 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.â
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, âThe injunction not to receive any one who does not bring âthe teaching of Christâ 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 Jehovahâs 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.â[1]
What would Jesus do? Can you picture Jesus hiding behind curtains when false teachers ...