Jehovah's Witnesses Visit
Well, it seems that, while I was napping this weekend, some Jehovah's Witnesses (JWs) came by. The last time we had a visit by JWs was about 20 years ago in Northern Italy. Two sweet little old Italian ladies, holding Italian translations of The Watch Tower, were very surprised to have the door of an apartment in a little rural Italian town answered by English-only Americans. A week or so later we came home to find some materials in English at our door.
The wife was busy so the JWs left a copy of Awake!, The Watch Tower, and a small booklet, What does the Bible Really Teach?. Someone is supposed to return mid-week to meet with us. I really am wanting to meet these folks. What Christian evangelist wouldn't?
Looking over Awake!, the issue focused on families and had nothing really objectionable in it. It appeared to be like any other magazine by any of hundreds of Christian denominations. I even did well on the Bible quiz at the end.
The edition of Watch Tower was fairly mundane and a bit of a disapointment for me as this publication usually includes JW polemics against one or more Christian and/or Catholic doctrines. This issue focused mostly on earthquakes and the end times spoken of in Daniel and Revelation. The only thing remarkable was a brief item noting that for Pope Benedict's visit to Germany the Catholic Church licensed a vendor for official memorabilia (rosaries, t-shirts, etc.) There was a brief mention of Jesus clearing the Temple with the insinuation that the souvenier sales by secular entities was somewhat equivalent. For those not familiar with the JW faith, JWs oppose any religious item, including plain crosses.
What interested me most was the booklet. Having recently read The Methodist Primer and learning much about Methodism, I was very much interested to get my hands on an official JW source for JW doctrine. The booklet is copyright 2005 and this copy was printed in 2006. All quotes are from the New World Translation of the Bible, although which version is not stated. I assume 1961.
The booklet is cleverly writen to appeal to Reformation Christians. It carefully avoids revealing basic JW doctrines like the non-divinity of Christ, disbeleief in the Trinity, annihilation of the soul, or that Jesus is Michael the Archangel. Apologetics for some of the more well known JW traditions, such as refusal of blood transfusions appear in the final chapters.
I dunno, but it seems to me, that with a belief in one God and a denial of the divinity of Jesus and the Trinity, JWs have much in common with Islam, the Heresy of the Ishmaelites.
I put together a briefing folder with some apologetics tracts on JWs for my wife to read and prepare for our meeting. I may also print up a few tracts to hand to our visitors. Being a member of the PJPII Society of Evangelists, there is a wealth of free apologetics pamphlets available for download and printing on the society web site.
Watch for a follow up post on how things went.
The wife was busy so the JWs left a copy of Awake!, The Watch Tower, and a small booklet, What does the Bible Really Teach?. Someone is supposed to return mid-week to meet with us. I really am wanting to meet these folks. What Christian evangelist wouldn't?
Looking over Awake!, the issue focused on families and had nothing really objectionable in it. It appeared to be like any other magazine by any of hundreds of Christian denominations. I even did well on the Bible quiz at the end.
The edition of Watch Tower was fairly mundane and a bit of a disapointment for me as this publication usually includes JW polemics against one or more Christian and/or Catholic doctrines. This issue focused mostly on earthquakes and the end times spoken of in Daniel and Revelation. The only thing remarkable was a brief item noting that for Pope Benedict's visit to Germany the Catholic Church licensed a vendor for official memorabilia (rosaries, t-shirts, etc.) There was a brief mention of Jesus clearing the Temple with the insinuation that the souvenier sales by secular entities was somewhat equivalent. For those not familiar with the JW faith, JWs oppose any religious item, including plain crosses.
What interested me most was the booklet. Having recently read The Methodist Primer and learning much about Methodism, I was very much interested to get my hands on an official JW source for JW doctrine. The booklet is copyright 2005 and this copy was printed in 2006. All quotes are from the New World Translation of the Bible, although which version is not stated. I assume 1961.
The booklet is cleverly writen to appeal to Reformation Christians. It carefully avoids revealing basic JW doctrines like the non-divinity of Christ, disbeleief in the Trinity, annihilation of the soul, or that Jesus is Michael the Archangel. Apologetics for some of the more well known JW traditions, such as refusal of blood transfusions appear in the final chapters.
I dunno, but it seems to me, that with a belief in one God and a denial of the divinity of Jesus and the Trinity, JWs have much in common with Islam, the Heresy of the Ishmaelites.
I put together a briefing folder with some apologetics tracts on JWs for my wife to read and prepare for our meeting. I may also print up a few tracts to hand to our visitors. Being a member of the PJPII Society of Evangelists, there is a wealth of free apologetics pamphlets available for download and printing on the society web site.
Watch for a follow up post on how things went.
Labels: Apologetics, Bible, Doctrine, Evangelism, Jehovah Witnesses
1 Comments:
That's true, we didn't reveal everything on the first visit!
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