Coffee With A. Duck

My friendly neighborhood Kingdom Hall, part 1

The past two Saturdays, Crystal and I have hosted a pair of Jehovah’s Witnesses, a father and a daughter, in our home and have had some theological discussions with them.  Both meetings thus far have run over the agreed on time and they have been great fun.  I have to say up front that this has been a spectacular, stretching exercise in apologetics and polemics for Crystal and I and I am excited to meet with them as many times as we can.

Theologically speaking, I cannot and do not agree with them and while everyone has remained cordial, relaxed and polite, there is no question that each team regards the other as being of the variety of false teachers that every book in the New Testament warns against.  The differences I will save for possibly another post, but I have to admit that I have been very convicted when comparing some of their practices against that of evangelical Christianity at large.

The sad fact is that few professing evangelical Christians, especially American ones can even put on a basic presentation of the Gospel.  If actually using the Bible to make that presentation is required, I would imagine that the number drops again, but I admit my own unresearched speculation on this point.  Because of this collective Biblical ineptitude on our part en masse, I can absolutely see where these folks would come off as threatening.  No one likes to be in a conversation where they know the least about the subject of discussion and I guarantee that these folks know their Bibles better than you.  This can absolutely be intimidating, especially if you do not know how to rightly divide the word of truth yourself.  I am so thankful for the efforts of the Shepherd School of Ministry and the fact that I have been able to learn so much there as I am drawing on very nearly every class that I have taken to talk with these JW’s.  Without it, I know for a fact that I would have been like so many people and would have either shut the door in their faces due to sheer intimidation or, had I tried to engage, would have likely gotten shot down, if not completely railroaded.

While we can argue over their doctrine, it is highly commendable how the Jehovah’s Witness operations are set up in such a way as to be able to equip a new member and inspire them using the Bible to go out and do door to door evangelism in a matter of mere weeks…and be effective at it.  The JW’s governing body, the Watchtower, knows what works to get their message out and has taken a very pragmatist position to see that this is the experience of their new members; they go with what works.  How awesome is that?  Again, we can make our doctrinal dissents, but being able to rapidly teach new members how to not only guide strangers through the Bible towards salvation, but having a mental catalog of anticipatory arguments and likely responses from a variety of people’s backgrounds that might arise is something that especially from an ecclesiological systems standpoint, I stand in awe of.

In my observation, the JW’s are excellent, patient listeners and while they likely do not agree with you, they are well versed in people and how to handle them.  I think this is an excellent quality to have if you’re going to be involved with lots of people.  To be sure, there is a bit of manipulation involved, but I would argue that there is at least a hint of manipulation involved in most of the relationships that we have with most people that we interact with, so let’s not be self-righteous about it, hmmm?  They can disagree and still present themselves as friendly, not resorting to asinine arguments like “Well, that’s just your opinion” and the like.  There’s nothing but calm to look at while they try to dismantle your arguments, which, in my opinion, is where the real fun is.  No one likes to argue with someone else who is going to go off the deep end by getting angry or offended because you won’t come around to his or her point of view.  No one likes to debate with someone else who can’t at least attempt to put an argument together.

I hope that the point was not lost on you that this is a Father/Daughter evangelism team.  The daughter is about 14 or so and while she shows complete deference and lets her father take the lead in the discussion, the mere fact that she is witness to and being taught hands-on evangelism by her father like this has convicted me deeply.  While I recognize that my children will have an advantage simply by having a father in the home while they grow up, to whom much is given, much is required.  Will Abigail be able to go toe-to-toe apologetically or evangelize to people many times her senior at age 14?  If not, where has the responsibility not been met?  The question is not whether or not we have been called to evangelize and train our children this way, the question is what are we going to do about the fact that we so clearly have?  If there has been a systems breakdown and she is unable to be clear and overt with her witness, to whom does the blame fall?

Uh, that would be on me.

While the divorce rate inside the church is very nearly on par with secular society who does not claim Christ, these folks are not only NOT engaging in the same, but are instead staying together and training up their children in the way they should go.  In these respects and others, I think that the JW’s are kicking our evangelical tails.

One of the more famous quotes of Christian author/friar/speaker Brennan Manning is when he said that: “The single greatest cause of atheism in the world today is Christians, who acknowledge Jesus with their lips, then walk out the door, and deny Him by their lifestyle.  That is what an unbelieving world simply finds unbelievable”.

I think that the JW’s are some of the best examples that I can think of regarding a sect of people who live the way they say they believe and for that, I give them big, fat kudos.  I personally feel that I have much to learn from them in terms of how to be an effective witness of the Gospel, whether as the member of a church, the leader of a small group from said church or on an individual level.

So how about it?  Can you clearly lay out the Gospel for someone else?  I posted on Facebook the other day that regardless of what you believe, you should be able to coherently defend your position and not mind if people ask you tough questions about it.  Real truth is true all the time and a person should be able to stand up for what they believe or find a belief that you can stand up for.  Do you acknowledge Jesus with your lips, then walk out the door, and deny Him by your lifestyle?  How about your kids?  Can they follow more than a surface discussion about the Bible?  Are you teaching them beyond what they are getting in Sunday School?  While the church is certainly there to assist, they should not be the primary source of biblical information that your child receives.

Uh, that would be on you.

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Tags: Apologetics, Jehovah, JW, Witness