Jehovah's Witnesses

[newcreature]

They have infiltrated my community and I don't know what to say to them. I am unprepared to combat their untruths or to witness to these who are lost. What do you say to the Jehovah's Witness when he knocks at your door?

 

[SeanPatrickCornell]

Here's a decent general resource, courtesy of Dr. James White.

aomin.org

 

[MichaelNZ]

Matt Slick has a great deal of resources on Jehovah's Witnesses at the Christian Apologetics and Research Ministry.

MacGregor Ministries Outreach Inc. also has some good resources.

 

[hammondjones]

What do you say to the Jehovah's Witness when he knocks at your door?

I have told them that Jesus is Jehovah on several occasions. Not exactly witnessing, but it quickly ended the conversation, which was what I was looking for after they literally jumped out of a van, NWT in hand, to harass me.

 

[Jerusalem Blade]

Hi Angela,

First one must learn what their "untruths" are, and then study up on the Biblical truths a bit. Basically they say that Jesus is not God, but a created angel. The Holy Spirit is a force, not a Person. Their "salvation" (which is not authentic) is by works, if their false version of "Jehovah" thinks you've done enough for him and the Watchtower organization. One must put in so many hours of witnessing / handing out literature per week or month.

My take on their foundation is that their founder, Charles Taze Russell, hated the doctrine of eternal punishment (he has those not approved by "Jehovah" annihilated), and the rest of the system built upon that.

If you just want to have them go from you, state and show from Scripture that the Lord Jesus is Jehovah the Son. For example, it is written of Jesus in Hebrews 1:10-12,

And, Thou, Lord, in the beginning hast laid the foundation of the earth; and the heavens are the works of thine hands: They shall perish; but thou remainest; and they all shall wax old as doth a garment; And as a vesture shalt thou fold them up, and they shall be changed: but thou art the same, and thy years shall not fail.​

Yet it is said in Psalm 102 of God the LORD (i.e. Jehovah),

Of old hast thou laid the foundation of the earth: and the heavens are the work of thy hands. They shall perish, but thou shalt endure: yea, all of them shall wax old like a garment; as a vesture shalt thou change them, and they shall be changed: But thou art the same, and thy years shall have no end (vv 25-27).​

So what is said of Jehovah God in the OT is revealed in the NT to be talking of Jesus Christ, who is Jehovah the Son, or God the Son. They may retort, "Well, yes, Jesus the angel of God was given to create the heavens and the earth, but this does not mean he is God." And in reply one should answer them, "But Psalm 102 says this specifically of Jehovah God, that He created it all Himself, and we see in the NT that this creation by Jehovah was in fact Jehovah the Son."

One can also get copies on the internet of their old Watchtower and etc magazines showing where they made false prophecies about the end of the world, and how that the Watchtower organization was the prophet of Jehovah to give the truth to the world. Deuteronomy 18, in talking about false prophets says in v 22:

When a prophet speaketh in the name of the LORD, if the thing follow not, nor come to pass, that is the thing which the LORD hath not spoken, but the prophet hath spoken it presumptuously: thou shalt not be afraid of him.​

And I will say to the JW, "You have proven yourself – that is, the Watchtower society of which you are a part – by your failed prophecies, to be a false prophet, and not to be 'feared', that is, not to be listened to as speaking for the true God."

One can also give them copies of these old Watchtower publications, but if you do they will not want to talk with you again. Once a JW is converted to Christ, he or she can be a powerhouse against the JW cult, and win many to the truth. So it does pay to have mercy on them, but one who deals with them must have a good knowledge of Scripture, and how to refute their teachings, and how to cause them to doubt by invalidating their sources of authority, as well as presenting the way of salvation in Christ in a manner understandable to them. It's not easy, as they are sharp, and often well-trained.

 

[rookie]

When I first started with them, I try to get them to explain exactly what salvation is. Then I ask how can Jesus be sinless as a man, if not God (then point a few scriptures that Christ is God). And that should build a lengthy discussion. Just make sure that whatever you talk on (cross, Christ, God...) you stay on your topic. All the JW's I have spoken on, are incredibly trained on creating a rabbit trail.
And one more thing to notice as well, they are HEAVILY taught to "teach" and walk away if you do the teaching. So the best way to teach them, is in a question format. If you can grasp their attention, and try to "reconcile" their doctrine, with the scriptures, and prove to them their doctrine doesn't line up, they sometimes question their own. But if you take the "I'm going to show you how you're wrong" approach, they probably won't come back.
Remember, our job is not to prove them wrong, it's to share the truth and the gospel.

 

[chuckd]

The one time I interacted with them they used Prov. 8 to show Jesus was created.

 

[Marrow Man]

I actually spent 30-45 minutes speaking to a couple of JWs this past Saturday. I have a couple of copies of the New World Translation and attempted to use that to speak with them. I tried to establish the deity of the Holy Spirit and of Jesus during the conversation. For example, I went to the opening verses of Acts 5, where Annanisus is said to lie to God in one verse and to the Holy Spirit in the next verse. They objected to this, of course, and one of them pointed out that there was a cross reference in the margin (N.B.: I knew in advance that although the NWT is a corrupt translation, JWs apparently borrowed cross references from orthodox translations and include those in their Bibles). The cross reference linked to "Holy Spirit" was Deut. 30:2, which speaks of not breaking one's vows before God. They were taken aback by this.

Other things you can do is show how verses in the OT which refer to God/Jehovah are applied to Jesus in the NT. Some examples of this would be to go to places like Psalm 45:6 or Psalm 102:25 and show how these verses about God/Jehovah are applied to the Son in Hebrews 1:8 and 10. Another place to go would be Isaiah 45:23, which is applied to Jesus in Philippians 2.

 

[Mnason]

I was dealing with the same situation last year. I was recommended the book "Jehovah's Witnesses Answered Verse by Verse" by David A. Reed. I read it and found it extremely helpful. You should check it out.

 

[au5t1n]

Like Pastor Phillips I would also point to OT verses about Jehovah that are in the NT applied to Christ. I would also point out that Jesus said the gates of hell would not prevail against his church (Matt. 16:18) and that he would be with his church till the end of the world (Matt. 28:20). The JWs cannot point to what they would regard as a faithful church before they came along, except that they believe the early church was like them. This requires them to posit an immediate, wholesale apostasy of the entire Christian church because none of the early church writers can be found to hold any of their distinctive views. This prompts the question, during those many centuries between the Apostles and the Watchtower organization, where was the church that Christ said he would not abandon and against which he said the gates of hell would not prevail?

 

[fredtgreco]

I have found that the most productive way to engage JWs is not to get into the area that they are ready for - the Deity of Christ - but rather to go straight for how one is right with God, justification. They are often unprepared for that, and even if they are, they have unbiblical answers.

 

[sevenzedek]

What do you say to the Jehovah's Witness when he knocks at your door?

Pray.

I say "pray" because it cannot be overemphasized. I have had a number of conversations with JWs. In fact, my neighbor is one. I have presented very good arguments to them from the scriptures concerning their doctrines and they still don't budge. My arguments don't seem to convince them. I believe a good argument is important, but God is the one who has to convince them.

One time I had one of their elders talking with me about the scriptures and I pointed out that Jesus is worshipped in Hebrews one according to one of their earliest editions of the NWT (which I have). He looked me square in the eye with great contempt and told me, "So what!" Then he stormed off to his car while telling me he had important work to do.

I have made some other very convincing arguments to them. I am always amazed at how they are willing to twist the scriptures worse than what they probably would have before they were converted to the JWs. At the end of the day, they are going to believe what they want. That is why they need God's help.

So, pray.

 

[newcreature]

I will definitely be looking up some of the resources provided in this thread, studying the scriptures and praying. The JWs have been heavy on my heart lately and I would like to be able to witness to them when they stop by next time. They have promised to return and hopefully I will be ready to engage them, so please pray with me that the Lord would use me for His service and the advancement of His kingdom. Thank you all for your input.

 

[Marrow Man]

I have found that the most productive way to engage JWs is not to get into the area that they are ready for - the Deity of Christ - but rather to go straight for how one is right with God, justification. They are often unprepared for that, and even if they are, they have unbiblical answers.

Fred has a great point here. In the conversation I had with the two JWs, I brought up the subject of justification (along with assurance of salvation), and they really had no answers. It actually gave me time to explain the gospel to them in fairly great detail without much interruption -- apparently since they were not prepared to answer along these lines.

One more thing about the deity of Christ -- in my limited conversations (and I've heard others teach this as well), they are prepared to answer the claims of Jesus' deity, but not much more along the standard "proof-texting" lines. So, they are trained to answer things like John 1:1 or Col 1:15ff. But most are not prepared to deal with the OT verses about Jehovah that are clearly applied to Christ in the NT.