I am shocked by my neighbors response to a Jehovah's Witness. SHOCKED! Now I really need to know the truth!?
As I was getting my mail some weeks ago, I noticed that Jehovah's Witnesses was at my neighbor's door. Before putting my house on lock down, I wanted to be nosy and listen to their conversation. WHY? Because my next door neighbor is a preacher with over 500 members at his church, and I just knew he was about to blow them door knockers out the water. But what I heard and saw was jaw dropping. This is what I heard....(in so many words)
PREACHER & JW: HA Ha HA HA HA HA!
PREACHER: That's a good one. But I just want to commend you for doing what you are doing. It takes a lot of guts to do what you do.
JW: Thank you. We try to follow Jesus example and go to the people to help them appreciate what the bible really says.
PREACHER: Yes, the way people are today, they lost the love of God and most have the me first attitude.
JW: That is so true. You said you really know your bible because you been a preacher for over 20 years. Do you and your church members preach as Jesus did from door to door?
PREACHER: How Long have you been preaching son?
JW: About a year and a half.
"Oh yeah"! I said. "1 and a half years? He bout to get his #&% chewed out now!" So I thought :-(
PREACHER: Well it's like this son. The lord did what he had to do back then. And yes he told us to go door to door to reach the people. But we live in a much dangerous world. We are much busier and under so much more stress and people just don't have the time or energy........
JW: That's true. The apostle Paul mentioned that critical times hard to deal with will be here.... As one of 7 million JW's throughout the earth, we try everyday to do as Jesus tell us to do. Notice I said try. It's a struggle but we try........
Preacher: Yeah Yeah that's good in all but for the rest of the world that can't, we have to come up with new and improved ways to reach the lord. Change it up...you know, twist things up a bit to fit the life styles of today.
JW: It's interesting that you use the words change and twist. I'm sure you're familiar with Deuteronomy 4:2....
Preacher: There's so many scriptures I can't recall it right now from the top of my head.
JW: Well, it mentions that you must not 'add' or 'take away' from the commandments God is commanding us. And 2 Peter 3:16 mentions the untaught and unsteady 'twist' the scriptures around to fit their own thinking. So the bible tells us to beware of these things because it will cause our own destruction. You do know this right?
PREACHER: Yes but...
JW: So if you know this, why do it? Why not teach the people the truth of the bible and let them try and make up their own mind if they want to follow it or not?
This is what floored me
PREACHER: Well son it's like this... You know, I can't answer that right now. I'm pressed for time so maybe we can continue this discussion another day. Bi now.
WHAAAAAAT! He just closed the door! He choked, backed down and closed the door. What the hell!? But that's not all. JW"S are knocking on my door almost everyday and a few weeks later I was helping my preacher neighbor take out his trash when the JW's was parking their car. And you know what Mr. preacher man did? He ran in the house and didn't even answer the door when they came to his house. Was he scared and really didn't have an answer? I look up to this man. He preach to me all the time. I want to question him about it but don't know how. What should I do? What do you make of all this? Help me please!!
I went to http://bible.cc/ and every scripture the JW mentioned was true. I need to know the truth now.
Anonymous2010-06-08T09:30:35Z
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I was atheist ,now I am studying to be a JW. Why Scripture & logic. I have no doubt in my mind the JW's are the only true Christians . I am good at questioning but if you want to know more email me I can put you on to people with a far greater bible knowledge than me.
Check out this site , it too can guide you better than I .
Just ask any JW they all know the bible & follow it.
http://www.watchtower.org/
Edit So far the only real JW's that have answered are Leo & An earthly hope. Maybe Kimberly but I can not vouch for her as I do not know her but her answer makes me feel she is that plus the links. Wendi888 & Leslie H are real JW's listen to them also.
For a start both the preacher and the JWs are wrong. Nowhere in the bible does it say we should go door to door... NOWHERE.
Mt 28:19 says go make disciples Mk 16:!5 says "Go into all the world and preach the gospel to all creation" M 24:14 says "And this gospel of the kingdom will be preached in the whole world as a testimony to all nations, and then the end will come."
Now JWs will tell you that they're the only church doing this but it's just plain arrogance or ignorance (I'm not sure which). 8 million JWs preaching to 8 billion people ...
The reality is that JWs are pretty much detested for their door knocking. Being detested is not a good place to start witnessing or preaching. The main stream Christian churches preach around the world (and there are up 2 billion of them) they just don't' go door to door. In fact friendship evangelism / preaching is by far the most effective. In fact just one Anglican initiative "The Alpha Course" has takend 24 million people in 169 countries and 112 languages through a detailed course on Christianity.
JWs are generally nice people and somewhat bible trained (I say somewhat because if you depart from the arguments they're given by their WatchTower publication they struggle - just like the preacher!!). Unfortunately they are massively deluded about the development of their own doctrine, their own history, the characters who ran them and those who do now, their belief they don't have leaders, their nutty views of birthdays, Christmas, blood transfusion, the cross, shunning, the divinity of Christ (Jesus is an archangel!).... etc.. The list goes on.
But if you want tangible proof that they are not all they claim to be in terms of followers of Christ and the bible then test them on these things...
1) The bible tells us to feed the poor. Lu 3:11, Ro 12:20 Mt 25:37 and a many others. Yet JWs feed no-one who isn't a JW. Test if they claim they do and if they're lying or exaggerating you know what they're really like.
2) Help the poor. 1Jo 3:17, Ro 12:13, Lu 6:20, Ez 16:49, Pr 19:7 and others. Again do JWs help the poor? Nah! Not a sign of them in our local communities or on a worldwide stage unless of course there are JWs in need!!
3) Help widows and orphans... 1Ti 5:3, Ja 1:27, ... and where are the JWs???
4) Fight injustice... Ex 23:6, Is 1:17, ... yet again do you see JWs doing this??
The bare faced reality is that JWs don't do much for anyone who isn't a JW! Oh they go door to door but is that to share Christ or to gain recruits? If it were to share Christ then they'd be sharing Christ's love by feeding the hungry, looking after orphans and widows, helping the poor and fighting for justice around the world and on their own doorsteps.... You be the judge!
While the JW may be commendable in their zeal for evangelizing, their organization appears 1800 years too late and should thus be suspect as the true faith.
In addition to being 1800 years too late, they do not share some of the beliefs of the Early Church such as the True Presence, the divinity of Christ, and others.
The JW organization was not around during the compilation of the Bible in the 400s and lacks the teaching authority Christ passed on to His Church through Apostolic Authority.
The links below give a lot of information on the group and point out several outstanding issues of the JW beliefs.
The preacher was in the right and so was the JW. They, though from different denominations, preach the same thing and were at agreement. The JW stumped that preacher because the preacher couldn't admit that it was really up to us. Yes -- we're God's hands and feet. God is within man and is invisible. The JW provides those hands and feet nicely. However, he does fail in quite a few areas, and so do we all. Jesus told us to heal the afflicted and raise the dead and then, after the miracle, explain it with the Gospel. Only very few of us do that. We should never explain the Gospel only with no miracle to give it validity.
I think if you are interested you should go for it- as in talking to the Witnesses next time they come by or calling in the Kingdom Hall-that is what they call their place of worship as opposed to a church. I didn't know if you knew that or not. They are listed in the phone book under churches under Jehovah's Witnesses and you can call the Kingdom Hall anytime if someone is there they will usually pick up and you can request someone come by your home or call at a specific time. If no one is at the KH there is usually a answering machine on just leave your first name and phone number and reason for calling as well as best call back time. Most likely and Elder- a will call you back.
Also their official web site if you do not all ready have it is www.watchtower.org
They are mostly all good people. Like anywhere there are good and bad.
I will only say this no matter what never stop asking questions even the ones that make people feel awkward and even if not popular stand up for your beliefs even if you are told they are not popular. Worshiping Jehovah- Yahweh is a true blessing. i encourage you to talk to JW's if that is what you feel -go with it.
I am actually a former JW but have nothing against true hearted followers of that faith.
PS. They will also bring you a Bible and literature if you would like.
All meetings are open to everyone- nothing odd goes on inside- it is basically a large room with a main seating area with a library room in back. There are Men's and Ladies restrooms and water fountain is usually always available too. Honestly nothing strange goes on at all. At the beginning everyone sings from the song book a prayer is said and then the main Bible based talk with a speaker starts. No collection plate is ever passed around. No one is ever under direction to donate. Donating is up to to the person. Donation boxes are around but it is usually private. Spiritual wealth is more important to them and I think it one of extremely few religions that do not expect you to give whether you can or cannot. I respect that completely. I do hope this helps you somewhat. Oh I know some people wonder about why some Kingdom Halls do not have windows it is only to help to keep distraction down and to help with vandalism since windows were often broken. There is no odd things secretly going on inside as some I guess you could say 'Religious Urban Legends" may say.
Best to you and yours and I hope you are able to find what you are looking for wherever that may lead you may it be with God.