When you were in field service.... (page 4)

Tuesday

I keep thinking of putting together a quick anti-witness presentation for if they come to my door. Just state that the three beliefs that you heard of were 144,000, the great crowd on Earth, and Jesus returning in 1914, ask them to explain it. First the 144,000. When they show you the scripture say

"so the 144,000 are made of Israelites?"

When they explain that when they talk about Israelites being the 144,000 ask them how everything in that scripture is symbollic except for that number. Just point out everything "so this is symbollic, this is also symbollic, this too is symbollic, but this is literal?"

Regarding the Great Crowd say you heard something about a great crowd that has an Earthly hope, ask them to show you the scripture. Which they will, ask them how they know the great crowd is on Earth, which is usually something about them being "before the throne" and therefore and Earthly hope. Then ask if the 24 elders and the 4 creatures are also on Earth. They should say no, which you show them in Revelation 7:11 that they were also "before the throne".

Finally ask them about 1914 and how that is calculated. If they know their stuff they should at least mention something about 607 C.E. and the destruction of Jerusalem, then just tell them. "That is all well and good except for the little problem that Jerusalem wasn't destroyed in 607 C.E." Tell them about the actual date of 586/587 being the destruction date.

Close by asking them to read 2 scriptures:

2 Thessalonians 2 :1
When our Lord Jesus returns, we will be gathered up to meet him. So I ask you, my friends, not to be easily upset or disturbed by people who claim that the Lord has already come. They may say that they heard this directly from the Holy Spirit, or from someone else, or even that they read it in one of our letters.

Luke 21:8
Take heed that you are not led astray; for many will come in my name, saying, `I am he!' and, `The time is at hand!' Do not go after them.

Finish with "I'm sorry here, but I'm going to have to defer to Jesus here and not go after you"

And always keep handy the following scripture if "new light" comes up:

2 Timothy 3: 7
always learning and yet never able to come to an accurate knowledge of truth.

One would hope this would disprove three core beliefs in the matter of minutes and hopefully too quickly for them to come up with a rebuttal. Hopefully putting some doubts in their mind. Anyone who is a current witness think this would work?

reneeisorym

I met a Christian at the door. That day it was the last call and we were all hot (summer). I went by myself. We talked about a lot of things but he had answers for every scripture about what he believed. I would read a scripture to prove my point and he would nicely say, "I believe that scripture means ... and is pointing to ...... instead." He actually made sense. I was right at the top of my game that day. I had been studying really hard and had a fresh mind to argue for the JW doctrine but no matter what I said, he had a logical explination as to how it fit into his belief. He just made more sense than I did and it was obvious.

It got me to thinking and about a year later I knocked on his door and thanked him so much for taking time to talk with me that day. He invited me in and we talked about how I had accepted Christ into my life. That made his day.

mouthy

Renni What a lovely thing to do.... I bet he will never forget you.... Thanks for sharing that... Lovely

aligot ripounsous

There is one question I know would make me feel real embarrassed : " so, if I understand you well, God is going to destroy poverty by means of destroying the poor ?" this is one of the thoughts which have motivated me most to keep this organization at arm's length.

VanillaMocha73

yeah. What got me was not so much what was talked about but the fact that the elder I was with would not reason or talk and seemed very afraid of whatever she was talking about. He was so totally rude to her that I felt like I had to be the nice guy. I ended up at her church a couple years later....

limbogirl

very interesting thread. When I think back to field service there are a few things that definitely started me thinking about whether this was the right thing to do. When I was very little and would spend long days out in service with my pioneer mom sometimes people at the doors would scold her about having her children out in the heat, all dressed up in uncomfortable clothes. I remember one woman begging my mother to let us swim in her pool for a little while. I realized early on that what we were doing certainly didn't seem normal to other people and didn't really seem to be giving the "witness" that everyone at the hall thought it did. In my teen years I remember going to a door with a woman who studied with me. She and the householder got into a heated discussion about the witnesses not saluting the flag -- the woman had a huge flag flying on her house. Eventually she refused to continue talking to us and as we were walking back to the car the witness woman I was with (elder's wife and pioneer) was screaming at her, "My husband served this country in WWII -- WE served this country!!" I felt so uncomfortable about that exchange.

When you were in field service....