This last week I had a couple of Jehovah’s Witnesses come to my door. I saw them from my study walking up my front walkway to my porch. The first thought that popped into my head is one I suspect happens to almost all Christians – I’m going to ignore these misguided cultists and pretend I’m not home. I had even more incentive to ignore them because I was still in PJs and had not yet taken a shower.
But then another thought came over me. Every last one of us will stand before God on judgment day. Its quite possible I’ll even see these folks walking to my door on that day (after all, Jesus said we’ll be involved in the trials that occur to the unbelieving world, per 1 Cor 6:2). Judgement day is like death and taxes, its something we simply can’t vote off the island. Its something that I’m 100% certain is a 100% certainty. So I decided to open the door and talk with them. Don’t get me wrong, I have far too many times opted metaphorically for the easy and lazy door, that door down the hall where I go and pretend not to be home and unproductively muse about how brainwashed these people are. Or maybe go answer the door and throw some flames, like one bomb a famous apologist once lobbed – “I knew you were coming! How? ‘cus Jesus said false prophets will come calling!”
So where do the Jehovah Witnesses go wrong? At the very core of their belief is that Jesus Christ is not God, but instead a son of God. Most reading this, even non-Christians, know that Christ as God is a central truth to Christianity. After all, it doesn’t make sense for a non-God to pay the price of sin (death) to compensate for the perfect eternal justice we deserve from God (see my blog, Christianity 101). Its an incredibly fundamental truth that they deny.
This was actually my 2nd encounter with Jehovah’s Witnesses working my neighborhood. JWs apparently go door-to-door in pairs, one serving as the spokesperson and ‘expert’, while the other stands in the shadows as the apprentice. In both encounters I don’t think the apprentice spoke a single word. The first time I engaged JWs was a few years ago. The spokesperson was a lady, probably mid 30s, the apprentice an older man in his mid-60s. I invited them in and quickly went on the offensive with John 1:1 since its well known among Christians that the JW’s and their watchtower Bible twists the Greek to say that Jesus is a lowercase son of God. I found this tact to be pretty unproductive, and the conversation ended with me spending time warning her older apprentice to do his own research and look at both sides.
The spokesperson this time around was a middle-aged man, his apprentice was a younger man, mid 20s. The spokesperson caught me a little off-guard as he handed me their pamphlet by telling me in so many words the Bible needed updating. I was surprised because JWs claim to believe the Bible. So I quickly turned to this site and recommended they visit bibleevidences.com to see the overwhelming evidence that the Bible is true. He then went off on something Paul said, and was beginning to back away to leave. I quickly mentioned to the apprentice what I had said in my last encounter – take advantage of the internet and do the research yourself. I figure I have more odds of reaching the apprentice than the “expert” brainwashing them. I cannot imagine the depth of trouble the spokesperson will especially find themselves in on judgement day when they meet the very Person they claim is not God, Jesus Christ, the Creator of ALL. Despite what many Christians believe, some sins are worse than others. The spokesperson is like the Pharisees, and the apprentice like Pontius Pilate –
“Therefore the one who delivered Me to you has the greater sin.” – John 19:11
Truth be told I wasn’t happy with my response this last time around. Aside from being surprised with their opening disparaging the Bible, I was deterred from using John 1:1 because of my last encounter, given the JWs have a stock “answer” that their interpretation of the Greek is correct. What I thought to say after they left was the one passage that converted a JW on my evolutionfairytale.com website some years ago, John 2:28, when Thomas declared Jesus as “My Lord and my God”. In my next encounter I hope I’m more prepared mentally, with a goal of stating: 1) John 1:1 is very clear that Jesus is God, the watchtower version not withstanding, 2) Jesus is worshiped as God by both man (e.g. the healed leper, the disciples, the Magi, the classic Thomas example) and angels (Heb 1:6).
In the end, a person who dies as a Jehovah’s Witness will be in the same doghouse as every other person who doesn’t accept the free gift of salvation offered by Jesus Christ alone. Jesus said “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me.” (John 14:6). His apostle Peter warned “there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved.” (Acts 4:12). That’s why its important to try to at the very least plant a seed with them, and maybe just maybe down the road that seed will take hold. Because we likely will see them again during the time of judgement, and how will we feel if we did not at least try to reach them?
For more on Jehovah’s Witness’s, visit this website.
