Key Points to Keep in Mind When Sharing the Gospel of Jesus Christ With Jehovah’s Witnesses
PRAYER
Never underestimate the power of prayer, as in all our endeavors as Christians, prayer is our most powerful tool, sharing the Gospel of Jesus Christ with Jehovah’s Witnesses is no exception. As soon as you are aware that Jehovah’s Witnesses are going from door to door in your neighborhood begin praying for guidance and direction from the Holy Spirit.
LOVE
As Christians, we realize the importance of showing love toward others. But it is important to keep in mind why showing love toward Jehovah’s Witnesses is essential. The Jehovah’s Witness at your door is very sincere. They believe they must warn as many non-Witnesses as they can of the impending doom the Watchtower organization has deceived them into believing is coming upon all who are not part of their organization. They truly believe they are serving God. Don’t be rude to them or give them any excuse to bolster their “martyr complex”. They will simply walk away thinking “I must be in the right religion I’m being persecuted as Christ was”.
SHARE YOUR TESTIMONY WITH Jehovah’s Witnesses
Describe your relationship with Christ, tell them what Jesus has done for you in your life, and what He can and will do for them. They can not argue with you, they can’t open their Bible and prove you don’t have a relationship with Christ. Jehovah’s Witnesses have no personal testimony of a relationship with God through Christ; they reject being born again, and therefore cannot give a testimony of a personal salvation. The Watchtower Society tells them that each one must “work out their salvation”. Hopefully, they will contrast your relationship with Christ with the fact that their relationship with God is entirely dependent on their loyalty to the Watchtower Society.
If you lack the time to get into an involved discussion with them you could stop here and accomplish much. Imagine if Jehovah’s Witnesses were to hear testimony after testimony as they go from door to door. The Watchtower Society teaches them that Christians are a lost, unhappy people that go to church to have their ears tickled with the teachings they want to hear. They think Christians lack a relationship with God and do not live by their faith. Your testimony may help them to realize that not everything that the Watchtower Society teaches them is accurate, and could make great inroads into getting them to doubt the Watchtower Society.
If however, you are in a position to make reaching Jehovah’s Witnesses part of your ministry tell them you are very interested in the Bible and would like to learn more. This could be a very time-consuming commitment. Jehovah’s Witnesses will want to meet with you once a week for an hour or more each time, and you will need to set aside adequate time each week to prepare for their visit. This ministry is not for everyone; it is easy to become discouraged when trying to reach the closed mind of Jehovah’s Witnesses. But please keep in mind this may be the only way the Jehovah’s Witnesses at your door will ever hear the truth of God’s word. I encourage you to prayerfully consider trying to reach Jehovah’s Witnesses as a part of your ministry. They are misled into believing that they must “work out their salvation”, they do not know God’s grace and they do not have a relationship with Jesus. They may have a smile on their face but a false prophet is misleading Jehovah’s Witnesses.
RESIST THE TEMPTATION TO DEBATE BIBLE DOCTRINE WITH Jehovah’s Witnesses
If you have ever tried to share the Gospel of Jesus Christ with someone who does not believe what the Bible says, then you know it is not an easy task. This is the problem you’re facing when talking to a Jehovah’s Witness. Jehovah’s Witnesses do not believe what the Bible says. I know this may have you scratching your head because Jehovah’s witnesses always come to your door with Bible in hand. This is a very important key point, Jehovah’s Witnesses do not believe what the Bible says but instead believe what the Watchtower Bible and Tract Society tells them it says. Debating Bible doctrine with Jehovah’s Witnesses results in a conversation resembling a Ping-Pong game, you will tell them what the Bible says and they will tell you what they’ve been told the Bible says. After this goes on for a while both you and the Jehovah’s Witness become exhausted, you will think there is no sense in trying to witness to Jehovah’s Witnesses and they will go away still holding to their wrong beliefs. To debate Bible doctrine with Jehovah’s Witnesses is treating the symptoms and not the cause. To effectively reach Jehovah’s Witnesses one has to help them appreciate the source of their misinformation, the Watchtower Bible and Tract Society. This is not an easy task and will indeed take time.
Remember the Witness is there to teach, not to be taught, the moment they think you are trying to do any teaching they will leave and your opportunity to witness to them will leave with them. Witnesses have been taught that they are part of the only true religion on earth today and all other religions are from Satan. They will therefore view any information you have on the Bible to be coming from Satan. Let them know that you have many questions about the Bible and get them to agree in advance to allow you to ask them as they come up. Then lead the conversation by asking questions like any good student, keeping in mind any teacher will admit they learn from their students. Used properly the student role can put you in an excellent position to teach someone with a closed mind.
Properly used questions will force the Jehovah’s Witness to think, he or she has to in order to answer your question. Jehovah’s Witnesses are not accustomed to thinking, they are in fact discouraged from thinking for themselves. They are told that God is working through the leadership of the Watchtower Bible & Tract Society as man’s ONLY channel of communication with God and they have “the sayings of everlasting life”. If the Witness does not understand something the Watchtower Society is trying to teach them they are told not to question or think about the information, it is, they are told coming directly from God through the Watchtower Society. If they have questions they are told to accept the teaching and wait, the answers will become clear later. Witnesses, therefore, are not in the habit of thinking for themselves in their study of the scriptures, one way you can get them to think for themselves is to ask thought-provoking questions.
Then as a student, you can ask the thought-provoking questions about what they are teaching that will help them question the teachings of the Watchtower. For example, you may begin by asking how many true Gods there are, according to John 17:3. Allow him to read this aloud from his Bible. “This means everlasting life there taking in knowledge of you, the only true God, and the one whom you sent forth, Jesus Christ.” Based on this the Jehovah’s Witness will say that Jehovah (the father) is the only true god.
Next point out that according to John 1:1 in the New World Translation Jesus is a God. Ask if he or she agrees that Jesus is a God. The answer will be yes. Now ask him if Jesus is a true God or a false God. This will present a dilemma for the Jehovah’s Witness. If they say Jesus is a false God he will disagree with the Watchtower teaching at John 1:1 and if he says Jesus is a true God he will disagree with the Watchtower teaching at John 17:3. See Questions for Jehovah’s Witnesses.
USE YOUR BIBLE
Their Bible translation (The New World Translation) has been modified to match the doctrines they have been taught. After they read a verse from their Bible read it from your Bible.
JEHOVAH’S WITNESSES DO NOT KNOW THE BIBLE AS WELL AS YOU MIGHT THINK
Jehovah’s Witnesses know the doctrine the Watchtower Society has taught them and are well trained to defend it. They will try to do this by playing “Bible hopscotch” and often misapplying Scriptures. Don’t allow the witness to do this, reading a verse from one Bible book, then a verse from a different book, and so on, slow them down. Stop them long enough to establish the context of the verse. This will sometimes prove the Watchtower Society’s argument to be wrong, and will also help the Witness see the way the Bible should be studied. Remember that they are trained to present only one side of an argument, you are not dealing with their beliefs, but those of the Watchtower Society. The Witnesses are trained not to think independently and they study Watchtower Society publications with the Bible as a reference but not the Bible by itself. Jehovah’s Witnesses spend about 90% of their time studying Watchtower publications and only 10% of their study time actually reading the Bible and that from their own translation that has been altered to fit the Watchtower teachings. They are encouraged to have Watchtower publications close at all times when reading the Bible so they can quickly lookup the meaning of the scriptures. They are told they cannot understand the Bible without the aid of the Watchtower publications. They are told to trust the Society’s interpretation of the Bible, it is the only accurate teaching and is from the only spirit-guided people on earth, the leaders of the Watchtower Society.
DO NOT BECOME DISCOURAGED
Jehovah’s Witnesses will look at the Scriptures you read to them the way the Watchtower Society has taught them to understand it, and it will take time to get them to see God’s truth with out the Watchtower filters. The Jehovah’s Witness may stop the study before you can reach him or her, but if you are able to get them to doubt just one teaching of the Watchtower Society, they may begin to doubt other teachings. Another Christian may be able to reach them with one more point that puts doubt in their mind. And of course keep in mind that it is not we who bring people to God but Holy Spirit on God’s timetable, we simply are being used as tools.