Witnessing to Witnesses
February 2008
In July
2007 I wrote in this space about a conversation that I had with two
Mormon elders and what I learned from it. I have been wanting since then
to follow up with this article on how to converse with a Jehovah’s
Witness.
I have far
more experience conversing with Jehovah’s Witnesses than I do with
Mormons. In fact, I have gone out of my way to have them visit, even
requesting follow up visits from them.
On previous
occasions we have covered this material in the Adult Sunday School
Class, and now I offer it to you in written form, with the hope that it
will serve to encourage and equip you to share your faith with
Witnesses.
The Limit of Argument
One thing to
keep in mind anytime you are discussing Scripture with an unbeliever, be
they atheist, agnostic or cultist, is that no amount of argument or
slick apologetic rhetoric will get them into the kingdom.
Ultimately we
must remember that regeneration is the work of the Holy Spirit and not
something that we can bring to pass by our words or efforts.
That
realization should always serve to take some pressure off of us. Our job
is to share truth, lovingly and gently (2
Timothy 2:24-25),
trusting that God will grant them repentance and lead them to a
knowledge of the truth.
Since you
cannot intellectually argue a person to faith in Christ, you can rest
confidently in the ability of God to use what you do know and not wait
until you think you have answers for every question or objection before
engaging in a witnessing encounter.
But even
though ultimately the regeneration is not our work but God’s, we still
must
“always be ready to make a defense to everyone who asks you to give an
account for the hope that is in you”
(1
Peter 3:15).
It is in hopes
that you would “be ready” that this article is written.
A Wise Strategy
Before I offer
to you a simple technique for witnessing to Jehovah’s Witnesses, I need
to say a word about strategy.
Some methods
of handling the Witness are simply unproductive. So here is what you do
not want to
do.
DON’T slam
the door in t
heir face while
you scream, “Get off my porch, you brainwashed religious Nazis!” That
doesn’t help them, and it certainly doesn’t help you if they happen to
see the “Jesus loves you” bumper sticker on your car.
DON’T
confront them with their error right away. Don’t open the door and say,
“Oh, you’re Jehovah’s Witnesses. Well, do I have a bone to pick with
you. We disagree on the deity of Christ. Since you don’t believe that
Jesus is God in human flesh, you are wrong and going to hell.” That is
not productive.
INSTEAD of
starting an argument,
ask some questions.
It is always more productive to lead people to your conclusion by asking
questions than it is to try to argue them there by making assertions.
You just have to know
which
questions to ask, and I’ll get to that in a moment.
If you have
had interaction with a Jehovah’s Witness before, then you know that they
are trained to hand out their literature, but
they will not take yours.
They view any literature that is critical of the Watchtower Society as
satanic lies and propaganda. In the same way, anyone who seeks to reason
with them about their doctrines and win them over is viewed as the
enemy!
So, when
Jehovah’s Witnesses come to my door, I want them to think that I am just
“non-religious Joe Homeowner.” I want to have a chance to have my point
heard before the defenses go up. In short, I want to back them into a
theological corner and have them admit that Jesus must be God before
they even realize that I have been moving them into a corner.
Getting
the Conversation Started
I am going to
share with you a method I have used and actual words that I say when
Jehovah’s Witnesses arrive at my door.
JW [italics]:
“Good
day, sir. We are from the Watchtower Bible and Tract Society and we’re
going through your neighborhood today, telling people about. .
.” At this point
they will hold out a copy of one of their magazines, which this month
addresses some relevant topic. I have had them start the conversation
talking about paradise on earth, teen pregnancy, abusive families,
drugs, etc. They will give you a quick overview of the literature
designed to pique your interests. “You
can keep a copy of this if this topic interests you.”
I’ll let them
give their 60-second pitch and then I say, “Sure, I’ll take a copy.”
Then I’ll follow it up with something like, “Are you guys Christians?”
They will
always answer, “Yes.”
“Do you read
the Bible much?” I ask with a curious voice.
“Oh, absolutely. It’s God’s Word and we read it every day.”
“Have you ever
read Revelation?” I ask. Revelation is one of the Jehovah’s Witnesses
favorite books, so I know that they have spent a lot of time in it.
“Yes.”
“I ran across
some things in Revelation a while back when reading through it and was
wondering if you might be able to clear something up for me.” They are
always eager to have you be the student while they teach, and so I have
yet to have a JW turn me down!
Three Stops in Revelation
I then ask
them questions about three different verses in Revelation. I
never use
my own Bible in the discussion. Witnesses believe that your Bible is
mistranslated and cannot be trusted. (Irony?) So I ask them, “Would you
mind if we look at a couple verses and I ask you about them?” They
always have a copy of their New World Translation handy.
“The first
question I have is about
Revelation 1:8.”
I ask them to open to this first reference and ask, “Would you mind
reading that for me?”
This does two
things. First, this allows them to see the text with their own eyes. I
want them reading the verses for themselves, not listening to me quote
them from memory. Second, they are seeing it out of
their own translation
which they feel they can trust unquestioningly.
Having turned
to
Revelation 1:8
they will read it
aloud from their
New World Translation,
“I
am the Alpha and the Omega,” says Jehovah God, “the One who is and who
was and who is coming, the Almighty.”
“Who is the
Alpha and Omega?” I ask.
“Jehovah
is the Alpha and Omega.”
“Jehovah is
God, right?” I ask.
“Yes, Jehovah
is one of the names given in the Bible for God. He also has other names,
like ‘Alpha and Omega.’”
I want to
dwell on this point a little so that they are clear on Who the Alpha and
Omega is. “What is an Alpha and Omega?”
They will
explain, “Alpha
is the first letter of the Greek alphabet and Omega is the last. It is
God’s way of saying that He is the beginning of everything and the end
of everything. It is another name for God.”
“So Jehovah
and the Alpha and Omega are the same person?”
“Yes.”
“Well, that
helps. My second question is kind of similar. It is from
Revelation 22:13.
Would you mind reading that one?”
From the NWT:
“I
am the Alpha and the Omega, the first and the last, the beginning and
the end.”
I want them to
see that the Alpha and Omega is also called “beginning and dnd,” so I
ask something like, “So there in that verse is the Alpha and Omega and
then ‘first and last’ and ‘beginning and end.’ Who is the first and last
spoken of?
“Well,
that is Jehovah, too. That is simply another name for God.”
“And how about
the title ‘beginning and end’? Who is that? Is that Jehovah too?”
“Yes.
Those are three ways of saying the same thing. Jehovah is the Alpha and
Omega and the first and the last and the beginning and the end.”
“So Jehovah is
the First and Last?”
“Yes.”
“This is
starting to get clear now. My last question is back in
Revelation 1:17.
Can you read that one?”
From the NWT:
“And
when I saw him, I fell as dead at his feet. And he laid his right hand
upon me and said, ‘Do not be fearful. I am the First and the Last.”
I stop them right there, before they can move on to verse 18 or before
their eyes can glance down and ask, “So who is the ‘First and Last’
there?”
“That
would be Jehovah.”
“So
when I read of the First and the Last in the Bible, is it always talking
of Jehovah? Because I notice in a footnote somewhere that the same
phrase is used in Isaiah. It looked like in Isaiah that that was
speaking of God, too.” (See
Isaiah 41:4; 44:6; 48:12)
Likely, they
will affirm that the First and Last is Jehovah and none other.
Then I ask
them to read the verse immediately following: “.
. . and the living one; and I became dead, but look! I am living forever
and ever, and I have the keys of death and of Hades.”
(NWT)
This is where
you have to nail it. I look them in the eye and ask, “Tell me please,
when did Jehovah die?”
Be prepared
for a LONG pause.
I went through
this one time with a Jehovah’s Witness couple, and the lady stood there
for the longest time, looking at the verses. “Um. Uh. Well . . .”
She then
looked up at me after a couple moments with a knowing half-grin on her
face and said, “I know what you are trying to do!”
I said, “I’m
trying to get you to admit that Jesus is Who He claimed to be.”
How They Avoid the Truth
Jehovah’s
Witnesses are not quick to simply say, “Oh, well then, Jesus must be God
Almighty. The Watchtower Bible and Tract Society must be wrong. I’ve
been lied to for the last “X”
years.”
That just doesn’t happen. They are so committed to denying the deity of
Christ, that they will try all sorts of twisting distortions to avoid
the obvious implications of Christ’s words. Let me give you some
examples.
One time a
lady said to me, “Well, obviously Jesus died, not Jehovah. So both Jesus
and Jehovah are the First and Last.”
I said, “So
Jesus is the First and Last? And Jehovah is the First and Last? How can
you have two firsts and two lasts?”
Take them back
to
Isaiah 44:6-8
and show them that God claims to be the “first and last” and that there
is no God besides Him. They love that passage, since they derive their
name “witnesses” from
Isaiah 44:8.
I then ask,
“\What kind of an imposter/demon do you consider Jesus to be if He would
use the divine name of Himself, claiming a title that should belong only
to Jehovah, if He is not Jehovah?”
I always try
to come back to the main point by saying, “We have already established
that the First and Last, Alpha and Omega, Beginning and End are all the
same Person. They are all divine titles. That is what your Bible says.
So my question again:
When did Jehovah die?”
In all
likelihood, they will pull out a little brown book called
Reasoning from the Scriptures.
It is their book of “answers” for things they are regularly challenged
with. They will flip to the back and check the Scripture index to see if
Revelation 1:17-18
is listed. Much to
their disappointment, they will find that they have no answer for your
question.
In my
experience, they will try to set the question aside. When I had reached
this point in the discussion with one couple, the conversation went
something like this:
“Well,
we are getting off topic. We just wanted to share a copy of our magazine
with you. And we’ll leave that with you.”
“That is fine,
but do you have an answer to my question?
When did Jehovah die?”
“Well, can we
get back to you? We’ll ask our leaders and then bring an answer back.”
“Are you
promising you will come back? Because I had another witness tell me that
when I asked them this question, and they never returned. They didn’t
keep their word. Will you keep your word? Are you promising that you
will return?” That did happen to me on a previous encounter. Once they
got away, I never saw them again.
“We
will come back within a couple of weeks with an answer.”
Sure enough,
they came back and handed me a stack of literature on the Trinity and
dealing with verses out of the gospel of John.
I said to the
man, “Tom. Do you remember the question I asked? None of this literature
answers the question I asked you.”
“What was it
again?” I then took him to
Revelation 1:17-18
again and said, “Here Jesus is using a divine title of Himself. This One
called the First and Last, Who is also the Beginning and End, the Alpha
and Omega, the
Almighty (Rev.
1:12), is
said to have died. Remember my question:
When did Jehovah die?”
Repeating all of that gives the truth another chance to sink in.
“Oh,
yeah. I remember now.”
“Will you get
me an answer for that and come visit me again? Tom, I fear that the
Watchtower has lied to you about the identity of Jesus Christ. You can
be right about a lot of things, Tom, but if you are wrong about Who
Jesus is, you are wrong enough to lose your soul for eternity. He is the
First and Last, the Almighty.”
To his credit,
Tom came one more time. He delivered another handful of materials. I
took him back to our unanswered question. I didn’t see him again until I
moved from that house down the street to our current residence. Then you
should have seen the look on Tom’s face when I answered the door.
“Didn’t
you live down the street?”
Apparently they had “marked” my house!
“Yes, I did.
But I’m glad to see you, Tom, because last time we met, there was a big
unanswered question. Do you remember what it was?” Then I gently
reminded him.
I hope and
pray that every time Tom reads
Revelation 1:17-18,
he remembers my question. I hope it haunts him that he can’t answer it,
and I pray that those words keep echoing in his ears: “When
did Jehovah die?”
Putting It Into Practice
In closing,
let me offer a few pointers in using this method to talk to Jehovah’s
Witnesses.
1) Don’t be intimidated by Jehovah’s Witnesses.
They are for the most part, average people who don’t know their Bibles
as well as you do. They are locked in darkness and need to know the
right Jesus to have eternal life. Be compassionate to them.
2) Be authentic.
Don’t act smarmy, intellectual, or superior. Just be you. You are asking
them a few questions, that’s all.
3) Memorize those three references.
You don’t want to have to search through your Bible to find the
references. You want them to turn right to them. You don’t have to
memorize the verses themselves (although that certainly wouldn’t hurt),
but you do have to memorize their reference.
4) Stay on point.
Don’t get sidetracked on any of a hundred different references that they
will want to drag you off to. I usually say, “I’ll be happy to talk
about that verse, but you still haven’t answered my question.” They will
want to take you to places in the Bible where they feel much more at
home. Always bring it back to Revelation and the question:
When did Jehovah (the First and Last) die?
5) Don’t forget the gospel.
I always try to give the gospel emphasizing that it is by grace and not
works. I share that Jesus had to be God in order to pay the enormous
price for our sins. Remind them that there are none good. Stress the
fact that if Jesus is the First and Last and they have rejected the true
Jesus, they can only expect His wrath on the Day of Judgment, not His
mercy.
Next time the
Witnesses come to witness, witness to them! Take them through the three
stops in Revelation and see what they say about it. Then share your
experience with me. I would like to know how it goes!
Without Wax-
Jim Osman
Pastor/Teacher
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