I know how they got me. It may shed light on your friend’s situation who was also raised Catholic. The way the Witnesses get you is through pride. It’s very psychological, but it’s also the oldest trick in the book…or should I say “Oldest Trick in the Book.”
None of us knows everything about our particular religion. There are mysteries that transcend our understanding. This goes for practically all of us, regardless of creed. Even the psalmist acknowledged this when he wrote:
O Lord, my heart is not proud,
nor haughty my eyes.
I have not gone after things too great,
nor marvels beyond me.
Truly, I have set my soul
in tranquility and silence.
As a weaned child on its mother,
as a weaned child is my soul within me.
O Israel, wait for the Lord,
both now and forever.–Psalm 131.
The Jehovah’s Witnesses tell you this is wrong. They tell you that we have questions because God wants us to have and find the definitive answers. “Would a loving God give you the desire to know the answers to all the great mysteries in life and not supply a way for you to have them now?”
Of course, you answer. If God is loving (and I know God is) then surely he would supply these answers.
Jehovah’s Witnesses tell you they have all the answers to life’s greatest mysteries: “They are all found in the Bible.”
If you agree to this, they begin a process of indoctrination whereby the Bible is reduced to no more than the status of a child’s Magic 8 Ball…inspired of God, of course, but no more practical than a textbook that supplies all the answers for life: how to dress, how to think, what to believe, what jokes to laugh at and which to give a frown to, what religion to belong to, even how to correctly fill out your tax forms!
Suddenly you have all the answers. They teach you to tell others that you have different beliefs because you yourself did all the research into the Bible and now you know for yourself. Of course no one learns these JW doctrines by themselves, but that doesn’t stop them from acting like they came up with their newfound convictions due to their own efforts.
Sadly, if you get this far it is because you fell for the greatest “straw man” pitch ever! Did any of you see the fallacy when I brought it up?
The straw man pitch the Witnesses use is this: The claim that God intends us to have all the answers to all life’s mysteries.
As the psalm I quoted above demonstrates, God never promises we will have all the answers like God does. Ever read the book of Job? It begins with Job asking God why he and other good people suffer and ends with God asking Job: Who are you to ask “why”?–Job 42:1-6.
Ever read Acts? Remember the first chapter when Christ’s own apostles want to know the details about the coming Kingdom of God, and do you remember the answer from Jesus? He told them the answer doesn’t belong to humans.–Acts 1:6-7.
How about Genesis? Remember the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Bad that the snake told Eve would give her the same knowledge that God had about life, the universe, and everything? How did that turn out?
It’s the oldest straw man pitch in the book. It targets us at the center of our sinfulness and desire to have what we are not entitled to. They get you the way the original serpent got Eve: "Your eyes will be opened and you will be like God who knows good and evil.”–Genesis 3:5.
It’s not that God doesn’t want us to have any answers or keep us in the dark. He does want to teach us, but on his own terms and in his own way.
Your friend is caught in a snare of ego-centric pride. She now “knows for herself,” even though she was hand-fed all she now believes from other Witnesses. Now she knows “the truth!”
It’s the Oldest Trick in the Book.
