I’m always pleased when Jehovah’s Witnesses come knocking on my door. Why? It’s my God-given opportunity to witness Jehovah to them. I inform them, “I’m Jehovah’s witness too; His name is Jesus and now I’m going to tell you what He’s done for me. He took away my desire for boozing and drunkenness. Jesus cleaned up my filthy mind, my filthy heart and filthy mouth and now I’m living the guilt-free life we see promised in the gospels.” They will deny Jesus is Jehovah, but they will not deny what I say He did for me. Rarely will they respond however; their objective is to convert, not get converted!
That is not my approach with them. Bible Christians seek not to covert but to proclaim. We have no powers to convert anyone; that’s the Holy Spirit’s job. But it is our job to speak the Word of God into their spirit, leaving the rest for Him to act upon in His time. It is also our job to know the Scriptures like the back of our hand so that when JW’s come armed with their preconceived theology, we know how to respond accurately without put-downs and insults being part of the response; they’re expecting those by the way. Not only is a JW’s theology preconceived, it is also very limited. In other words, they don’t know what they would have you believe they know. Important note: the basis for their theology is human reason, not divine revelation.
That explains why they deny Jesus Christ is God. They have no Holy Spirit to reveal otherwise, and since they also deny God is a Trinity, 3 Persons in the one God, human reasoning in turn disqualifies them from experiencing the Holy Spirit as He and not it. However, when He, the Spirit of truth has come, He will guide you into all truth; for He will not speak on His own authority, but whatever He hears He will speak; and He will tell you things to come. He will glorify Me, for He will take of what is Mine and declare it to you. All things that the Father has are mine. Therefore I said He will take of mine and declare it to you John 16:13-15. (Underlines mine). The Trinity of God is revealed here. Jesus is speaking; He’s referring to both the Holy Spirit and God the Father.
3 Persons in the one God does not mean 1 + 1 + 1= 3 Gods, it means 1 x 1 x 1= 1 God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit. In the interim that won’t make sense to most JW’s standing to my door, for their minds are fixed on what they’re going to say next as soon as I stop talking. In general, they’re not there to listen, they’re there to get me to listen. I say “in general” because the other day when they called, the younger one of the team did listen. It was discernible she was new to the religion and new to witnessing. “I don’t believe what you believe but I’m interested in what you’re saying.” She asked if she could come back and talk more sometime, to which the older woman with her promptly responded with a firm, “No!”
It was my sharing of the Holy Spirit’s work in my life that captured her attention. She said she has difficulties hearing at times and recently at a Bible lesson she was not able to grasp what the teacher was saying. “So I went into the kitchen and prayed to God. Then I came out, sat down and I could hear him clearly? Do you think the Holy Spirit did that?” I told her I believed so, and that she should pay full attention to the plain-sense meanings of the Bible, not with human reasoning but simply let the Scriptures speak for themselves. I looked her in the eye, pointed to her and said, “You are a seeker and God will respond to you.” I looked the older woman in the eye, pointed to her and said, “You are not a seeker.” With covert anger she smirked and said, “That’s your opinion!”
When the going gets tough for JW’s in their denials of Jesus being God in the flesh and there being no such entity as the Trinity, they will shift the focus onto other issues. Hell is one of the issues; they say there’s no such place, therefore, there’s no such thing as eternal punishment. They hold to a doctrine of annihilation. Yet, in spite of their denials they possess a dreadful fear of God. As Bible Christians we must know JW’s don’t door-knock because of any love for Jehovah, they do it out of fear and terror of Him; they don’t want to be among the annihilated. So I use that to point them back to Jesus, who mentions hell 16 times in the New Testament. “It doesn’t matter what you believe to the contrary,” I say to them, “Hell is where you’re headed without Christ.”
They don’t like to hear that, but they need to hear it because that’s the reality for them as it is for all who deny Christ. Both Testaments of the Bible declare there is but one God and one Savior. And there is no other God besides Me, a just God and a Savior; there is none besides Me Isaiah 45:21. For the grace of God that brings salvation has appeared to all men…… looking for the blessed hope and glorious appearing of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ, who gave Himself for us, that He might redeem us from every lawless deed…… Titus 2:11-14. That’s why I don’t allow them to shift their focus from Jesus. I have the anointing of the Holy Spirit within and upon me, they don’t; that means the spirit within them yields to the Holy Spirit during our time together.
What happens after we part company, only God knows, but I know when they knock on my door it is not by chance; God sent them here because He has for them a message of redemption, not a message of religion! What’s the difference? All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God Romans 3:23. Jesus Christ’s gift of redemption frees us from the guilt and penalties of sin. We are justified freely by His (God’s ) grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus Roman 3:24. Religion rejects this glorious message and seeks to justify its own way into receiving God’s forgiveness and favors. In other words, religious people are rules based, redeemed people are faith based. For whatever is not from faith is sin Romans 14:23.
When face to face with JW’s, I ask them to read Scriptures I have chosen from their Bible translation, because they are told our translations are corrupted. Sadly, they are not wrong about that today with so many human-centered translations out there on the market! But they believe that about all Bible translations we possess, including the Authorized King James Version. They need a corrupted Bible of course; without it they would have no reason for a translation of their own. Truth is, they’re the ones with a corrupted Bible. They’ve chopped it, changed it, edited it and revised it for the sole purpose of making it fit with their preconceived theology. Rather than conform their beliefs to ours, they’ve altered it so as to conform with theirs.
So when they read Scripture aloud from their translation, I read silently from mine. When a clear change shows up I will explain the seriousness of it. One example only: “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was a god.” So says the JW translation of John 1:1. One little letter a and one little lower case g is all it took for the JW’s to topple the true status of Jesus Christ, God Almighty Incarnate. In truth the Scripture reads, In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. (Underline mine). So the first truth to know about JW’s who come knocking is to know they are a deceived people. That is why we must not put them down or insult them. They need help, but if not from us then who?
I recommend avoiding discussions with JW’s regarding their doctrines of the elect 144,000 people, the end-times, recreation versus resurrection, Paradise versus heaven and the refusal of blood transfusions. Discussing these takes one away from what ought to be the primary focus always, the God-status of Jesus Christ and the reality of the Trinity of God. False beliefs in the former will do less harm to them spiritually than false beliefs in the latter. Besides, only Jesus and the Holy Spirit have the power to release them from all false beliefs, whatever they might be. They may call God, Jehovah, but they don’t know Him. They will never know Him unless they come to know Jesus, the only One who can lead them to Jehovah through the ministry of the Holy Spirit.
Jehovah’s Witnesses deny Jesus Christ’s death was the complete payment for the sins of all mankind. They deny the bodily resurrection of Jesus from the tomb. They deny Jesus will physically return to earth and to rule the world from Jerusalem. It is not our denials of their beliefs that is of primary importance when Jehovah’s Witnesses come knocking, it is their denials of our beliefs that matter. Therefore, we must know what we believe and why we believe it. Otherwise, they’ll take full advantage of our lack of Bible knowledge just as they do with disillusioned Roman Catholics and others. For I bear them witness that they have a zeal for God, but not according to knowledge. For they being ignorant of God’s righteousness, and seeking to establish their own righteousness, have not submitted to the righteousness of God. Romans 10:2-3.