Over this past summer, I have been picking up and putting down Ravi Zacharias’ new book Beyond Opinion: Living the Faith we Defend. It’s a great book and I do look forward to finishing it, hopefully before Shepherd School starts up again for the year.
The first section of this book is actually written by those on in senior positions on Dr. Zacharias’ staff who used to belong to various theological persuasions such as Atheists, Muslims, Hindus, etc.. The purpose of the first section of the book is to answer the question “How could someone believe that?” The respective chapter’s author gives a testimony of how they came to believe what they did, then takes a step back to present the mainline belief and arguments of their particular sect, concluding in an apologetic response to each key point. It is a quick way to get a half a clue as to the belief systems of say, a Hindu, from an inside perspective from someone who used to practice Hinduism. It helps you get inside the mind of a Hindu a little and in most cases, it is enlightening to see just how someone could come to understand doctrine surrounding the Vedas and such.
Doing this is valuable because it helps you see that people with differing belief systems are (usually) not crazy and that they do have a legitimate reason for believing as they do. In a very real sense, talking with the Jehovah’s Witnesses has been like a live exercise of what is highlighted in Dr. Zacharias’ book. How could the JW’s believe this stuff? In a formal debate, those who usually succeed are the ones who cannot only fully understand the opposing position, but know the arguments well enough that they could actually defend it if they suddenly found them selves on the other side of the argument and needed to.
Yesterday’s topic surrounded the Trinity and I have to admit that I kind of did before, but now I totally see how the Jehovah’s Witnesses get off track. Even more, I can see how they think that Crystal and I are off track. Giving all credit to the Holy Spirit, we gave as good as we got and both parties walked away needing to go back to our respective camps and check a few things out in the Bible. Until the day I die, there will be things about the Bible that I will not understand because they are spiritual things and as of yet, I am not spiritual. If I understood them all, then I would be God. FYI, I have never seen a supposed “contradiction” in the Bible that could not be explained by normal reason and logic after being studied out. The contradictory things are usually very clear once you understand the contextual, historical and cultural aspects of the contradiction in question. Since the Bible is inerrant, it is always the reader who has made some error on some level and is either not connecting all the dots, or connected them incorrectly. Studying those errors out will only make you a better student / learner. So bring your questions! The Bible has bested better and more learned people than you and I!
This is all the more reason to learn to rightly divide the word of truth. Mr. JW made the comment that so many of the people he comes across are spiritually dry inside and worst of all, have no hope. Not having that first hand knowledge, I am strongly inclined to agree with him, but tying back to my first point, I can absolutely see how someone would buy into the JW’s doctrine. If you have no basis of comparison and cannot discern truth, the first form of spirituality that you encounter will likely carry you away. In the case of the JW’s, the Scripture that they quote and the way they present it does appear to say what they advocate that it says.
Ephesians 4:13-15 says: 13Till we all come in the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ: 14That we henceforth be no more children, tossed to and fro, and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the sleight of men, and cunning craftiness, whereby they lie in wait to deceive; 15But speaking the truth in love, may grow up into him in all things, which is the head, even Christ:
Having quoted that passage, I don’t think that Mr. JW is deliberately trying to deceive us, he really believes what he is saying to us just as we really believe what we are saying to him. A person should believe strongly enough in their convictions to the point that they can intelligently defend their stated position, whatever the topic.
While at the end, I don’t see either party changing the mind of the other, regardless of the strength of argument(s), etc. I can tell you that when we do come to the table for that last time, we will be none the worse for wear. Proverbs 27:17 (NASB) says: Iron sharpens iron, So one man sharpens another. This is exactly right. The next time around, be it another JW or just a guy on the street, both Crystal and I will be sharper and far better equipped to handle the questions that are right to ask. We will have a far better ability to show the whole chain of Scripture that supports our claims and reasons for faith and hope, not just showing a pithy verse here and there, expecting people to automatically throw themselves at the feet of Jesus, weeping in repentance. It is right to challenge the Bible, as the infallible word of Jehovah God, the Almighty, it can certainly stand up to the scrutiny, however minute and exacting, but will you be willing to make a change if you get your questions answered? Will you live like the answer you got actually meant something to you?
If have taken your question to the Bible and still, the answer is “no”; I love you, but you’ve made an operator error.
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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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Over this past summer, I have been picking up and putting down Ravi Zacharias’ new book Beyond Opinion: Living the Faith we Defend. It’s a great book and I do look forward to finishing it, hopefully before Shepherd School starts up again for the year.
