B
bariles7
Guest
I grew up a Jehovah’s Witness and playing “scriptural pingpong” with them usually does not work. They believe their “governing body” is the “faithful and discreet slave” mentioned in the gospels and they equate them with God (they refer to God as Jehovah).
One argument that really gets to the point is to ask them where their religion originated. They will probably answer “Abel” from the Old Testamet. Ask them if God has always had an organization on the earth. They should answer yes, because their religion does teach that. If they don’t, stay on point anyway. Point out that their founder, Charles Taze Russell (late 1800s), grew up a Presbyterian, then Congregationalist, then an Adventist of sorts, and finally his own religion.
Presbyterians can be traced back to John Calvin, who broke off from the Catholic Church. So, JWs, like any other Protestant denomination, can be traced back to Catholicism. In reality, what they are saying is that God’s organization for 1,500 years was the Catholic Church and then God rejected Catholicism and went with John Calvin and the Presbyterian tree as his organization until the 1800s, when he switched to Congregationalists, to Adventists, and then just Russell himself.
Ask them why God rejected Catholicism. They will likely try to point out that our teachings are not biblical and were not taught by the early church. Explain to them that the foundational truths of our faith have not changed in 2,000 years and they can find this out for themselves by looking on the internet at a neutral site like wikipedia.com Furthermore, much of what John Calvin taught they vehemently disagreed with. So why would God choose men and religions as his organization that taught in direct opposition to JWs supposed founder?
One argument that really gets to the point is to ask them where their religion originated. They will probably answer “Abel” from the Old Testamet. Ask them if God has always had an organization on the earth. They should answer yes, because their religion does teach that. If they don’t, stay on point anyway. Point out that their founder, Charles Taze Russell (late 1800s), grew up a Presbyterian, then Congregationalist, then an Adventist of sorts, and finally his own religion.
Presbyterians can be traced back to John Calvin, who broke off from the Catholic Church. So, JWs, like any other Protestant denomination, can be traced back to Catholicism. In reality, what they are saying is that God’s organization for 1,500 years was the Catholic Church and then God rejected Catholicism and went with John Calvin and the Presbyterian tree as his organization until the 1800s, when he switched to Congregationalists, to Adventists, and then just Russell himself.
Ask them why God rejected Catholicism. They will likely try to point out that our teachings are not biblical and were not taught by the early church. Explain to them that the foundational truths of our faith have not changed in 2,000 years and they can find this out for themselves by looking on the internet at a neutral site like wikipedia.com Furthermore, much of what John Calvin taught they vehemently disagreed with. So why would God choose men and religions as his organization that taught in direct opposition to JWs supposed founder?