Greetings:
This is my first post. I have been a Protestant Christian my entire life, but over the past few months I’ve been conversing with two Jehovah’s witnesses on a weekly basis. As they quickly learned that I was Biblically versed, they replaced what I would call a “trainee”, with someone I believe to be an “elder”. This person does 99% of all the talking while the other person sits and listens. When the silent individual does speak, it is usually out of anger in defending what he may take as me attacking what I believe to be a flawed theology. Although I am extremely versed with Scripture, they seem to have an answer to everything I throw on the table. We’ve debated about Jesus being Michael the Archangel, Jesus being God in the Flesh, His physical Resurrection vs. His Spiritual Resurrection, The Trinity, their practices of shunning, etc.
I studied and translated ancient languages at Cambridge under the tutelage of a renowned Professor for approximately 7 years. Much of my studies were devoted to the Greek Scripture and their translation, (specifically The New Testament), over the centuries into English.
What perplexes me is that even though I know the WTBTC uses linguistic trickery in their verbiage, and have admittedly stated that they have made changes to Scripture, much of it seems to make sense when I crossed referenced it to even some of the oldest of the Scriptures that I’ve been privileged to work on.
I told them today that I absolutely would not ever recognize the authority of the watchtower, as I knew they were guilty of altering the Bible to say the least, and that would alleviate me regarding the joining of their congregation.
Today we spoke about their practice of shunning in which they pointed out several versus that directly stated that one should not be associated with non-believers. I told them that there was no way that I would cut off family members who were “non-believers”. They came back with, “isn’t it more important to do what God says?” The came back with versus from Paul, 2 Thessalonians 3:6, 3:14, 1 Corinthians 5:11, 2 John 1:11, etc.
I told them that JW’s deny salvation is God’s fee gift. They teach salvation must be earned or merited. To obtain salvation and escape judgment, a person must join and do the works prescribed by the Jehovah’s Witness organization. I told them that the Bible states salvation cannot be earned or merited – it is God’s free gift. Eph 2:8: “For by grace ye are saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God.”
I said to them look at Rom 4: 1-4, Gal 2:16, Titus 3:5. They came back with the example of someone claiming to be a believer and sitting around doing nothing, versus someone claiming to be a believer and showing that in their daily lives, i.e., door-to-door ministry, etc. I told them Jesus said not to transfer from house to house.
With all this being said, I thought that our discussions were over. But, once again they came back with verses that could be construed as the opposite of that various versus I read to them. Linguistic trickery? I wasn’t sure. Within several of the versus they offered back, I did see some very interesting challenges for me to address on my own.
I can’t seem to rid myself of these two individuals regardless of what I say. Even with my extensive schooling, they have thrown out some interesting points, and insist that they’re not trying to convert me, but show me what God truly says. My wife is very worried about this entire ordeal, and wanted me to find folks that I could talk to regarding this issue. I’ve read hundreds of posts from former JW’s, and the all appear to have a common theme, which is the following:
The watchtower is a multinational cooperate giant, spreading its new message of doom to every corner of the globe. Standing between God and the JW’s is an autocratic ruling council called the “Governing Body”. Because the JW’s believe the word of God is channeled to humanity through its elite committee alone, these men rule with unchallenged authority. Every witness is subject to their dictatorship from the cradle to the grave.
When it comes to one's Salvation, you don't want to be wrong! Sorry about my first lengthly post, but I can't seem to rid myself of these two JW's. Is this divine intervention?