Wanting to respond to JW's

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Yesterday, I was visited at home by the annual JW’s. I started to discuss various topics with them and want to continue this discussion with them, insofar as presenting the Catholic Faith to them. He is life long JW and she (who is the wife) converted to the Watcher Tower 6-7 years ago from being a Methodist. I have several resources here at home for answering questions from them (such as: “I Escaped From the Watchtower” tape series from Catholic Answers; booklets #2 and 2.5 from the “Beginning Apologestics” series in responding to the JW’s; and “The Catholic Answer to the Jehovah’s Witnesses: a challenge accepted” by Louise D’Angello).
I also feel very strong in my faith and genuinely have no plans on converting.
However, sine I have never done this before, I want to engage them in dialogue and do not want to scare them away. If anyone has some really good pointers on how to engage them I would REALLY appreciate the help.
God Bless and pray for my endeavor!!
Mike
 
One principle that’s helpful is to “seek to understand before seeking to be understood”. Genuinely listen to them first and try to figure out what they’re really trying to say. Don’t do what apologists are tempted to do: listen only for the purpose of trying to crush an argument. I do that all the time and often end up flogging “the wrong dead horse.”

After listening to them carefully and thinking about their perspective, affirm the truths in what they’ve shared, and show how the Catholic faith offers everything that a person could ever want in the JW system and then some.

If the Catholic vision is the fullness of truth, then its perspective of reality is not only complete, but huge. The Catholic sees life through both eyes in full color, while, the atheist, for example (and with all due respect), sees life with one eye through a soda straw in shades of grey. JWs are somewhere in between. There might be a bigger advantage in expanding a potential Catholic’s range of vision than by hunting down every error that’s in their narrow view of reality.

Once you’ve showed the Catholic perspective on things, share your testimony. Describe how your relationship with Christ in communion with his Body, the Church, has fulfilled His purpose in coming: that we may have life and that we may have it more abundantly. Sharing our story puts a human face on all of the truths that we rejoice as Catholics.

Also remember that “I don’t know” can be a really powerful answer.

And pray, pray, pray. And pray some more!
 
I find that I can engage JWs in dialog through the scriptures. The JWs that stop by my house always let me open my Bible. I let them take the opening lead, and then move the discussion away from their WatchTower tract and into scriptures. If you make your points from the scriptures, you can usually keep the JWs engaged in the discussion.

Stay away from the doctrine of the Trinity on the first visit from the JWs – they are expecting you to come at them from that direction if you are a Catholic, and they are prepared for that. Instead, get the JWs into Genesis and show them that Adam and Eve possessed bodily immortality before the Fall. JWs don’t like to concede that Adam and Eve had the preternatural gift of bodily immortality before the Fall, but it is easy to walk them through Genesis and get them to concede point. JWs usually seem genuinely perplexed when they see that bodily immortality can be lost through sin, and for some reason, that throws them off guard. Once they are a little disoriented, the discussion can take off in any direction, but stay grounded in scriptures.

I don’t think that I can bring a JW out of the darkness with one discussion. If I can get a seed of doubt planted about the claims of the WatchTower Society without being impolite or disrespectful, then I feel I have done well.

I tell you, lift up your eyes, and see how the fields are already white for harvest.
John 4:35
 
I’ve had only one encounter of JWs at my door. They stopped by and I discussed topics with them. They started saying that they were formally Catholic and started slandering the Church, thats when I told them I was Catholic and that I don’t worship idols, as they accuse Catholics of. Their eyes got all wide when I started pointing out that it is against Catholicism to worship statues and that I’ve never met a Catholic who did, they said they had to go and we arranged to meet in two weeks but they never showed up, I was disappointed.
 
A pair of them came to my door a couple weeks ago but after a short discussion they didn’t want to talk to me. They had discovered I am a catechist, I teach our parish’s confirmation class, I have a copy of the Catechism, and I also have youth materials I use for teaching.

I guess they were looking for an easier target.
 
I guess one thing also that will really awaken their hearts is to show to them that Jesus wants them in His kingdom forever, not just the 144k that was chosen and leave the rest on earth. Show to them that when Jesus spoke to the disciples about the mansions that he is going to prepare for them in heaven–is actually meant fot all of us, because He loves us so much.

Another thing, my mother-in-law is a JW. My wife got converted from JW into the Catholic faith. Very recently they got into some argument about the faith and my wife bluntly told my mom-in-law that it was not an angel who came down to save us but the Lord Himself. It’s pretty much dumb to say that an angel came and saved us and my mom-in-law was really surprised about it since they believe that it’s Michael who came down from heaven and became human:eek:.

My wife also told her that their founder is an atheist before and became a Adventist before founding his own religion. And nowhere in the history of the Christianity that JW ever existed in the 1st century AD up to the 1800’s. Ohh, and by the way, they believe that Adam and Eve were JW’s:whacky: . So my wife told her that JW religion didn’t exist that time, and it was really the Jewish religion that believed in God as a people before Christianity.

Most important of all is to show them humility and love. They start to cool down once you treat them that way.

Pio
 
Jehovah’s Witness field missionaries are on par with the best door-to-door salesmen in the industry. They are intensely trained on how to start a conversation, ask questions, turn conversations around, and get you to see things as they do. They also know how to say “Next”, and move on to easier pickings. They abide by the same thought process Christians do, “If any of them reject you, shake the dust from your feet and move to the next…” OF course there is no power in their beliefs, because they don’t believe in the same God we do. However, if you want to engage Jehovah’s Witnesses, you have to be able to successfully discuss your faith from Scripture. YOu also have to know how to take control of the conversation, which may be a tall order because THEY will be trying to do the same thing. The best thing you can do is be sincere with them and pray after they leave the door. Take their literature and research it, to understand their inconsistencies and how they believe, it will make you a better witness.
 
My approach:

1 - Ask about their faith journey
At least one is probably a Catholic, but it may be that they are kids brought up in that system. They are trained to witnesss by going door-to-door. They work off of a script, so they really aren’t interested in a debate. If Catholic, why did s/he leave?

2 - Witness to your faith journey
Why are you a Catholic?
How did you come to the fullness of the faith?
How has Jesus saved you?
How has the truth and beauty of the Catholic faith helped you?

3 - Share the Bible with them.
They always (?) carry their New World Translation (NWT) Bible. I read a couple simple verses from it:

John 1:1 ("…and the word was a god.")
I point out that there is not a single ancient manuscript with the indefinite “a” in that verse. So their translation is a little too, uh… “novel,” which leads to problems. I try to plant a seed of doubt in their field.

**Matt 16:18 ** ("…and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.")

For the JW’s to be right, the Catholic Church must be wrong.
I ask when did the gates of hell prevail over the Catholic Church?
Was Jesus wrong in his assertion?

4 - Close with an invitation
Depending on their own faith journey, an invitation to discover the fullness of the faith may be best.
If one was a Catholic, I suggest that it is time to come home.
They will always be welcome.
If interested, be willing to discuss things further with them (now or later).

Don’t rely on a handout or a brochure. They are not allowed to take anything from strangers, so don’t try.

Don’t argue with them. Proceed from love.
You won’t convert them, that’s the Holy Spirit’s job.
Just try to open the door for them. The Spirit will lead them through it.

Oh, and don’t call them “JW’s”. I use “Witnesses” for short but their full name may be best (it’s just such a mouthful 😃 )
 
Just my two cents… Why not try to study the technique of St. Thomas Aquinas? What he did was to expound the opponents’ arguments to a clearer and more convincing way and then destroys it with the truth.

Pio
 
Catholic Answers has an excellent selection of articles on the JW’s:

Strategies of Jehovah’s Witness
catholic.com/library/Strategies_of_Jehovah_Witness.asp

Distinctive Beliefs of the Jehovah’s Witnesses
catholic.com/library/Distinctive_Beliefs_of_Jehovahs.asp

The God of the Jehovah’s Witnesses
catholic.com/library/God_of_the_Jehovah_Witnesses.asp

History of the Jehovah’s Witnesesses
catholic.com/library/History_of_the_Jehovah_Witnesesses.asp

Are They Awake on the Watchtower?
catholic.com/library/Are_They_Awake_on_the_Watchtower.asp

Stumpers for Jehovah’s Witnesses
catholic.com/library/Stumpers_for_Jehovah_Witnesse.asp

More Stumpers for the Jehovah’s Witnesses
catholic.com/library/More_Stumpers_for_Jehovah_Wit.asp
 
In my lifetime I’m ashamed to admit I had the wrong attitude towards JW’s due to ignorance. I had always assumed they were Christians and I saw no need to be bothered with them when they came knocking at my door; I was just satisfied to hastily send them away. Recently, though I feel an obligation to speak with them and at least try to engage in a conversation and exchange of ideas. Instead of thinking my faith is something private which I possess to enjoy for myself I now realize my faith is meaningless if I don’t have enough love and courage to share it. That motivation is my point of departure.
When my opportunity came I zeroed in on the Divinity of Christ. The ladies claimed since He was created a human being He couldn’t be God. The doctrine of the Trinity was an impossible concept for them to grasp; nonetheless, I told them I believed Jesus was God who existed before time and before creation. When the frustrated Witness finally asked me, “Well who do you believe God is? What do you call him?” I gave the bold, simple response “Jesus is God”. Up until that point I had never said that out loud; it surprised even me. Describing Jesus as the Son of God was entangled with so much misunderstanding and bad theology (on their part) that the proclamation, “Jesus is God.” cut to the heart of the matter. Did Jesus not say, “He who has seen me has seen the Father.” Their reaction, judging by the shocked expression on their faces and the sudden movement of their heads backwards, like to duck from a physical blow, remains etched in my memory.
When I followed that with an offer to pray with them they ran off the front porch as if escaping from a knife-wielding lunatic! That was a year ago; I still pray for them and ask God to give them the gift of Faith in Jesus.
 
I’m having problems with a Jehovah’s witness on another website (a video game website, of all places!) It started when this 14-year-old copied word for word a JV pamphlet. I decided to post a comment about it, and the whole thing has turned into a war between four people: me, A roman Catholic high school seminarian, a Pentecostal (who didn’t know about the trinity, so I don’t think he knows much about his religion), an agnostic-type who thinks that only your motives matter and that nobody knows what the bible is saying anyway, and the Jehovah’s witness.

Anyway, we’ve been going back and forth about the trinity, holidays, etc, and he keeps posting watchtower stuff (he just copied and pasted it) and by the time I write something to refute him, he has already posted something else that refutes bible verses like “the father and I are one,” etc.

His latest attack is outrageous. He said that during WWII the Catholic bishops had “war prayers” for the german nazi soldiers. :eek:
Can anyone help me to steer him towards the true faith?

The guy’s last name is Garcia, and he said that he had cousins that used to be “hardcore” Catholics that now attende bible studies with him. (I bet he might be an ex-Catholic too!) 😦 JV’s are in my neigborhood, but everyone around here (whether Catholic or not) knows about the Jv stance
on the trinity and knows how to refute them. The JV’s haven’t been doing so well in my town.

I’m really hoping that I can help him realize how he is part of a faith that was founded on questionable merits to begin with, not to mention faulty theology!

I need help! Can someone aid me here?
 
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