David A. Reed - Jehovahs Witnesses Answered Verse by Verse

1986 by David A. Reed

Published by Baker Books
a division of Baker Publishing Group
P.O. Box 6287, Grand Rapids, MI 49516-6287
www.bakerbooks.com

Ebook edition created 2012

ISBN 978-1-5855-8159-7

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data is on file at the Library of Congress, Washington, DC.

Scripture references

Contents

Introduction

They always manage to knock at the worst possible timeswhen youre still in bed on a Saturday morning, when the family has just sat down to Sunday dinner, when youre in the midst of bathing the babyand they keep coming back with a persistence matched only by a hungry horsefly on a hot summer day. If you take the time to talk with them, they leave you frustrated and bewildered. They flip through their Bibles with amazing speed, quoting chapter and verse to prove that Jesus Christ is just an angel, that he died on an upright stake instead of on the cross, that accepting a blood transfusion is as sinful as adultery, and that the Watchtower Society in Brooklyn, New York, is Gods modern-day prophet, his channel of communication.

How easy it is to think of Jehovahs Witnesses as evil incarnate and to drive them from the doorstep with a harsh rebuke! Occasionally, that is just what happens. My wife, Penni, who was raised a JW, once called with a younger trainee at the door of a man who identified himself as a Christian. As soon as he discovered who they were, he ordered them off his property, shouting Deceivers! and Liars! at the top of his voice and loudly condemning them to hell. (Penni used the episode to instruct her protg on what church members are really like.)

More often, though, it is apathy rather than anger that greets the Witnesses at the doors. Im sorry. Im not interested is the response they hear most frequently, the next most common being Im sorry. Im busy, or, somewhat less often, Im sorry. Im a Methodist [or other denominational designation]. The JW will occasionally reply to the latter by saying, Im sorry, too, that youre a Methodist, but usually he or she will simply say, Have a nice day! and go on to the next house.

Why do they keep calling? For one thing, they believe that you will be destroyed in the imminent Battle of Armageddon unless you come to Jehovahs organization for salvation ( The Watchtower , 11/15/81, p. 21). They are trying to save your life. But, even more so, the motivation that truly propels them is the belief that they will not survive Armageddon unless they engage in this door-to-door preaching work under the direction of Gods organization.

Most Jehovahs Witnesses are, in all sincerity, doing their best to serve God. They are like the unbelieving Jews of whom Paul wrote:... they have a zeal of God, but not according to knowledge. For they being ignorant of Gods righteousness, and going about to establish their own righteousness, have not submitted themselves unto the righteousness of God (Rom. 10:23, KJV ).

The vast majority of Jehovahs Witnesses are victims of victimsblind followers of blind leaders. They need to escape from the salvation-through-works treadmill that makes them obedient servants of a multibillion-dollar religious empire. They need liberation from the oppressive yoke that weighs down on their shoulders; yet they have been led to believe that it is the very carrying of that yoke that will save themand that anyone who seeks to dissuade them is a deceiver sent by Satan.

If you have already made an attempt, then you realize how difficult it is to talk to Jehovahs Witnesses. They will try your patience, test your Bible knowledge, and strain your endurance. Keeping track of the point under discussion with them can be as difficult as following the pea in a carnival hucksters shellgame, as they jump from one verse of Scripture to another. But the effort is worth it, because they need to hear the gospel from you .

Most JWs come from a life history devoid of spirituality. Large numbers had been Roman Catholics who seldom went to church. Some were raised in Protestant churches but never got the message. Many had no religious background at all and were living a life of materialism or sinor simply felt trapped in a humdrum routine that led nowhereand then the Witnesses knocked at the door. The invitation to study the Bible seemed attractive. God was what they needed in their life. But the Witnesses soon switched the Bible study to a Watchtower book study and led their new disciples to an idolized organization, instead of to God.

Who will help Jehovahs Witnesses hear the real gospel of Christ? Each week they knock at many doors and meet many people, including many Christians. But they seldom encounter anyone who wields the sword of the Spirit (Eph. 6:17) in such a way as to penetrate their mental fortressthat almost impenetrable wall of twisted reasoning that the Watchtower Society has erected in their brains. We Christians send missionaries to the most distant parts of the earth and train them to speak the most difficult languages, in order to reach the lost for Christ. Should we not also make at least some effort to speak effectively to these lost souls who come knocking at our very doors?

But a Christian who attempts to converse with Jehovahs Witnesses will need help. The JWs spend several hours each week studying and practicing for such encounters. So even a Bible reader who has a thorough knowledge of Scripture may be caught off guard by some of their strange arguments. If this happens, where will you turn for help? It is to this end that the present volume has been prepared.

In it I have set out to examine closely the Jehovahs Witnesses favorite Bible versesthe texts that they use as pretexts for teaching Watchtower doctrines. Each verse is considered from several angles. What do the JWs understand the verse to mean? How does it fit into their doctrinal framework? Is the verse mistranslated in their slanted Bible translation? Do they take it out of context? What does it really say? How can you best reason with a Witness on that passage?

Other verses selected for discussion include the ones Jehovahs Witnesses ignorethe texts that their leaders carefully avoid when conducting followers on a guided tour of the Bible. (Although I was a JW elder for eight years, responsible for teaching my own congregation and frequently serving as guest speaker at others, there were numerous passages in the Bible that I never knew existeduntil the blinders were removed from my eyes.) This volume discusses the most significant of those verses and shows how you can use them effectively in sharing the gospel of Christ with a Witness.