Background: A JW has been calling on me since April. I have told her that my relatives are JWs (true) to explain my knowledge of JWism. I've written about her before, you can find other topics I've started on my discussions with her. I am playing the role of a person who believes that all Christians go to heaven.
Our biggest point of disagreement is whether all Christians go to heaven or not. She's showed me the usual scriptures that are higgily-piggily scattered across the Bible, but so far she hasn't proved (to my satisfaction) that Christians are also destined to stay on earth.
Today she arrived with an older guy (an elder perhaps) and her sermon today was on the apostasy of the Christian congregation. No, I'm not joking. She didn't explain what the term "apostasy" was, as I'm sure most non-JWs wouldn't know the term. Maybe she assumed I'd know what she meant.
She read the scripture about the broad and spacious road, and the narrow one. She said that being a Christian wouldn't be an easy one. Hmm, ok, but what does it prove? I didn't ask her that but looking back, she didn't explain why she used that scripture.
She also used the "sheep in lambs clothing" scripture (can't remember the actual scripture references, sorry). I agreed with her (lol). I didn't have the heart to say that I could liken the wolves to being the WTS, lol.
Anyway, after too-ing and fro-ing as we usually do, we came back to the subject of heavenly life vs earthly life forever.
I told her that there was a scripture saying that some would like their ears "tickled". She smiled as she knew the scripture, and probably happy that I had some Bible knowledge. I said, that could apply to the idea of life on earth forever playing with the pandas. It's a nice idea, but is it too easy to like having our ears "tickled" by that idea than really following what the Bible says?
I asked her, if an earthly paradise was such a big part of God's Kingdom, why didn't Jesus speak more about it?
She brought up two scriptures, the one where Jesus said that the evildoer would be with him in paradise, and also the "meek will inherit the earth" one.
I said, two scriptures??? How long was Jesus' ministry? 3 1/2 years. So in all that time, he only spoke of the idea of man living on earth forever only twice???
So I asked her, come back and tell me why Jesus never spoke of an earthly kingdom? Why was everything he said referring to God's Kingdom was as if it was a heavenly one, not an earthly one?
I know she won't be able to answer that question. Her only defense at the time was that he was speaking to those destined for the heavenly class, the 144,000. Yes, but it's not a literal number, I said. She made the point that we'd have to agree to disagree on that one. (?)
I admit I accidently got a little heated during our discussion. It's soooo frustrating to encounter a JW's blindness, unwilling and unable to open their mind up to new ideas. They have the truth and no one else does (that's a side point I brought up as well, that the JWs believe that they alone have "the truth". She denied that they do, or that it's an arrogant stance to take. Hmmm)
Due to the unwillingness for either of us to agree on some points, I got the feeling she was willing to not return. She actually asked if I'd like her to keep calling. I said I was happy to discuss things with her. I don't want to give up on her just yet. Part of me wants to, but a bigger part of me likes the challenge of trying to crack through the thickness of a JW's mindset.
I like a challenge.