How does a born-again Christian kindly turn the tables and witness to a self-proclaimed Jehovah’s witness (JW)?
Jehovah’s witnesses are the folks who come to your door and proclaim their understanding of the kingdom of God in a way that is not consistent with orthodox Christianity.
One of their most important doctrinal points has to do with denying the divinity of Jesus and the Holy Spirit, therefore denying the Trinity. They believe that Jesus was a created being just like Satan and the archangel Michael, and the Holy Spirit is a mere force.
There are also many other secondary doctrinal heresies involving earning salvation, failed end times predictions (see photo above), and bizarre eschatological and apocalyptic teaching.
When discussing the Bible with JWs, I highly recommend to first and foremost focus on the Person of Jesus and His divinity. That should be the center of your witnessing. Everything else like deconstructing the failed apocalyptic predictions, and the unbiblical decrees of their society, should be used as plan B. The reason you must focus on Jesus is that you must minister to them almost like to an unbeliever.
It is important to know that they use the New World Translation of the Bible, a specific JW Bible which has key verses like John 1:1 altered to fit their theology.
In this post as well as upcoming posts we will focus on the divinity of Jesus arguments. Your goal will be to show that Jesus is the same as the Jehovah revealed in the Old Testament, part of the Godhead. Anytime we see the name LORD (all caps) in the OT, it comes from the Hebrew word YHWH, and it can also be named Jehovah in English, and we will show that LORD applies to Jesus.
Let us start off with the “first and the last” argument. Here are two powerful verses from Isaiah spoken by the LORD (YHWH):
Isaiah 44:6 “Thus says the LORD, the King of Israel and his Redeemer, the LORD of hosts: “I am the first and I am the last; besides me there is no god.”
Isaiah 48:12 “Listen to me, O Jacob, and Israel, whom I called! I am he; I am the first, and I am the last.”
There are at least three places in Revelation where we can ascribe the title “the first and the last” to Jesus, as it is ascribed to Jehovah. For example, in Revelation 22 in the setting of the Second Coming, Jesus speaks by the angel:
12“Behold, I am coming soon, bringing my recompense with me, to repay everyone for what he has done. 13I am the Alpha and the Omega, the first and the last, the beginning and the end.”
16“I, Jesus, have sent my angel to testify to you about these things for the churches. I am the root and the descendant of David, the bright morning star.”
Isaiah 42:8 also tells us “I am the LORD; that is my name! I will not give my glory to another,” another powerful statement that the LORD does not share His Name with anyone. In light of fact that Jesus calls Himself “the first and the last,” and in light of the fact that the LORD also gives Himself that name, we must conclude that Jesus is the LORD (YHWH).
to be continued…
Delight in Truth 
Thanks for posting!
I was born 1957 3rd generation JW and have no reservations speaking out against the Watchtower cult abuses.
Number #1 lie of the Jehovah’s Witnesses is the date for Jesus return aka second coming October 1914.
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Danny Haszard Bangor Maine FMI dannyhaszard(dot)com
Excellent post. And very much needed. This is great Chris, since we have no way of escaping them. Let’s just say that most of us tend to shy away from engaging with them, even though in my town they got a hold of a Romanian Yellow Pages Book and they call everybody all the time, wanting to keep coming into our homes until they convert us- nice try, but many of them don’t even know that their Bible is “corrupt’ and changed. And they can spin their wheels on you in such a way, that you get so frustrated that you want to just kick them out of your home. When they get stuck on a passage, they ask you to let them leave and study it, and then send back someone more “studied” to try and argue you down
So, your post is highly welcomed by this reader. We need some fresh perspective, because as soon as the nice weather return, they will start showing up at the door again. 🙂
I have read their rebuttal to the first and last divinity argument. And it is not good. There are serious textual gymnastics being performed there and the ideas are so tangential that you have to ask what are we talking about…
I have a meeting coming up with a serious JW student of the Bible, a nice guy. He promises to settle this in JW favor… So I will report back with any relevant info…
I like Paul’s written message in Galatians 1:8
“But even if we or an angel from heaven should preach to you a gospel contrary to the one we preached to you, let him be accursed”
Not a diplomatic approach, but it is the Truth – and The Word of our God will set anyone free.
My point being that I believe in Jesus Christ, the Son of God, as written in “my bible”. If anyone wants to speak to me about God, it is great, but must do so only from MY Bible ;).
Not the best argument, but I believe in MY Christ and MY God because He works in my life – why would I betray Him with a false teaching?
Amen Tibi. They are actually trained to use our Bibles as well. Depending of the level of education they have in their theology, they will try attack correct orthodox doctrine. But like Rodi said, they are trained to say they have to consult someone else if you present a clear, coherent argument for the Divinity of Jesus.
But that is why, us as Christians, must study the Word and learn the plethora of Trinity verses and Divinity of Jesus and Holy Spirit evidence.
Francis Chan took the right approach with the Jehovah’s Witnesses. He shared Christ and His power. That is where we must focus. Christ. Everything else if peripheral.
Excellent post… and it is good advice to witness to them as you witness to an unbeliever….
The big difference between Jehovah’s Witnesses and Christians is that the Watchtower Society’s central core creed proclaims Jesus second coming in October 1914.
They sometimes try to obscure this today and say that he came ‘invisibly’.Yes,all other Christians are awaiting Jesus return,the JW say he ALREADY came in 1914.
Jehovah Witnesses are a spin-off of the second Adventist which all came from the Millerite movement.American war of 1812 army captain William Miller is ground zero for Jehovah’s Witnesses.
Yes,the “great disappointment” of Oct 22 1844 has never died out… it lives on in the Jehovah’s Witnesses.
The central CORE doctrine of the Watchtower,yes the reason the Watchtower came into existence was to declare Jesus second coming in 1914.When the prophecy (derived from William Miller of 1844) failed they said that he came “invisibly”.
Actual news releases on Jehovahs Witnesses Armageddon 1975 prediction
http://www.dannyhaszard.com/colitis.htm
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Danny Haszard (been there)
Danny, thank you for the visit. It is interesting to browse through your site… I once sat down for a long time and researched the issue of JW and blood transfusions because this comes up on occasion in my field of work as an anesthesiologist. I came across an unbelievable amount of articles and blogs from former JWs and it was shocking to read what they were saying about what goes on in the inner JW circles. Thank you for exposing some of it.
Are you a born-again Christian now?
Some comments are so funny about debunking the teachings of the JWs. The orthodox Christianity itself was a product of xtianity tainted with Greek philosophy and Babylonian teachings which made majority of d doctrinal teachings pagan related. For the fact that we have 2/3rd of d world population in the orthodox Christianity does not make it the true way. Because the origin of catholicism till the time protestants broke out of them was borne out of war, terror, shedding of innocent blood that has no iota of Christ teachings but of Satan traits. Jesus himself said in Matt.7:13 that broad is the gate and spacious is d road that leading off into destruction, and many people are found there. But narrow is d gate and cramped in d road that leads to life, only d few are finding it. Apostle Paul even prophesied the outcome of xtianity immediately he and other disciples are no more in Act20:29,30 he said after my going away, oppressive wolves will enter in among u(which d invasion of roman rulers) and will not treat the flock(xtian brethren) with tenderness(persecution) even among u men will arise(protestant breaking out of catholic faith in a blood bath battle) and speak twisted things(various doctrines among d denominational xtians) in order to draw men after themselves. Same with what Jesus said in Matt.13:36-43 about d parable of d wheat and d weed. Which we have today among d Christendom churches and those in the truth. The teachings of d Christendom doesn’t hold a scriptural truth but rather on philosophy and on human tradition in order to prove the divinity of d trinity teaching which apostle Paul himself warned xtians against in Col.2:8.The churches of d Christendom has failed to realised that d very bible they owe so much respect to was altered and changed during d time of translation and wrong renderings were given to some words which has become an erroneous teaching in their faith.
I don’t know how ppl misconstrued theJWs at to what happened in Oct. 1914 which the witnesses noted as d time Christ presence was visible. Ppl av failed to read d account of Matt.24:3-11 when 4 of Jesus’ disciples, peter, Andrew, john and Matthew went to meet Jesus privately to know when the sign of his presence would be and the conclusion(end) of the world system. According to Jesus response, he said until they begin to see persecutions of xtian brethren and nations rising against nations, kingdom against kingdoms, series of earthquakes, pestilences, pangs of distress. This is just the beginning of his sign of presence in heaven as the newly installed King. According to Rev.12:7-12, a revelation was given to John on how Satan and his demons will oppose Jesus right as d king of the heavenly kingdom. As a result of that, Michael, another name of Jesus in d heavenly realm waged war against d dragon(Satan) and his demons. Which he eventually hauled down d great dragon and his demons to d earth. Immediately, a joyful voice was heard as the accuser of d angels day and night had been ejected out of d heavenly place down to the earth. Immediately, a voice was heard saying woe unto d earth and sea for d enemy has been hauled down coming with great anger and fury to torment the ppl of d earth because he has short time to live. The calamity that has befallen d ppl here on earth started when d first ever unprecedented world war broke out it was as a result of satan presence on earth signifying that Jesus was enthroned in that year. That year 1914 was also the appointed time when d son of destruction, Satan was revealed according to 2Thes.2:3-11, the very one who has been behind false worship on earth.