Ratings: 5 of 5
I have had consistent visits from two Jehovah’s Witnesses (JW) in the last four months. They keep coming back despite my collection of Celtic crosses in my home and the providential middle name of my son, Athanasius. Our conversations have been quite pleasant. To their surprise, I am not favorable towards youth groups, I find homeschooling quite an appealing concept, and I try to be respectful of their ideas without disrespectfully bombarding them with mine.
My strategy is simple: ask them questions. Force them to look within their own system for contradictions and incoherence with their anti-Trinitarian beliefs. It is then with great eagerness that I read David Reed’s Jehovah’s Witnesses Answered (Verse by Verse). Reed speaks as a former JW; as one who is deeply grounded in JW beliefs. In this book, he travels through the pages of Scriptures and provides us with helpful answers to JW’s while using their own translation (New World Translation) as a source.[1]
Reed runs through crucial passages used by JW’s to make their case for the non-Trinitarian god and the non-deity of Jesus and takes the reader through helpful responses to these questions.
As an example, concerning the deity of the Holy Spirit, Reed asks that we read Acts 5:3-5 with them. He writes:
You may have to read this passage a couple of times with the Witness before he even begins to grasp the point. JW’s are so accustomed to thinking of the Holy Spirit as an “it”—“Jehovah’s active force”—that their minds have difficulty even formulating the thought of the Holy Spirit as a person.” (87)
These types of observations also give us a glimpse into the psychology of JW’s.
He also observes the tremendous lack of translational accuracy in the NWT and provides numerous examples. Beyond the very careful detail given to these passages, David Reed also provides quotations and references to Watchtower prophecies and blatant disregard for those within the organization who begin to question the society.
The reader will also gain from the definition of key words in the beginning of the book and the techniques offered at the end of the book for how to share the truth of God’s Word with JW’s. The last chapter is the author’s testimony of how he became involved with the JW’s and what eventually led him to re-consider his loyalty, and his present faithfulness to Jesus Christ as His Lord.
[1] There are situations in which he explains the utter fallacy of the NWT and provides quotations from modern evangelical translations.
A friend and I at CCC had two encounters with JW’s. We “went at them” about Christ from Hebrews but they would not budge. I will put this on my to get list for JW books!
i don’t understand why don’t you people focus on the true nature of things which is finding the right way and focusing what is really important and im sure if you turn to Matthews to revelations and truly understand what it means then you will realize what you need to do now instead of judging and bashing doesn’t it say all three times in Matthews mark and Luke not to judge…, not to do to others what you wouldn’t like to be done to you, there is always going to be apostasy and people who really don’t understand what it means to try and be like Jesus because as the ones who really understand the words in the bible we are supposed to be trying to imitate him and Jesus says glory goes to my father, look it up… im not a jw but its just kind of sad how people waste their time on bashing and judging that’s not what we are here for its not our duty.
The point is which Jesus? The divine God/Man or a created being? The answer to that question is at the very heart of the gospel.