Wow. The disciples didn't preach door to door but they would preach from private home to private home
I didn’t say “from private home to private home.” I said “in private homes.” One does not equate to the other, as I pointed out. As I said, going to people’s homes does not equate to knocking randomly at the doors of strangers. The disciples preached everywhere they went, whether on the street, in synagogues, or in the marketplace. And, just possibly, they may have preached from house to house at times. That was very much in harmony with the technology of the day. But as others have pointed out on this thread, they also rode donkeys and wore sandals everywhere they went, and I haven’t seen any JWs doing that lately.
I don’t believe that we can state with certainty that their preaching was definitely from house to house, or that such a method was even their primary method. We read far more instances of the disciples preaching in public places than in private homes. I find it just as easy to believe that the private homes in which they preached and taught were those of people whom they had met in public places who showed interest during their public proclamation as to believe that they were engaged in some sort of door to door canvassing. More so, really, because in those days, the streets and marketplaces were where you found people, and a message proclaimed in the public square tended to become known throughout the town fairly quickly. Much more efficient than going to houses one by one.
How are the disciples to search out in a city who is deserving and who is not? How can Jesus say the entire city will be judged on Judgement Day if the disciples only went to talk to a few people here and there in private homes? Also, notice that Jesus says "wherever anyone does not listen to YOUR words...on going out of THAT HOUSE". Now if Jesus' disciples are just teaching people in their private homes, why would the people they are teaching not listen to their words? Again, why is the entire city/village going to be judged on Judgement Day if all the disciples are doing is teaching/preaching in private homes?
As I pointed out above, one possibility is that they would contact people in public places and then visit with them in their homes upon invitation. We aren’t talking about Manhattan here. Cities back then were much smaller than cities today, and there were many fewer distractions in the form of entertainment than we have today. Ephesus was a good sized city for the time - I visited its ruins just last month - but no bigger than an average small town today. When someone came to town with a new teaching and proclaimed it in public, word got around very effectively. People came to follow Jesus in droves to hear His preaching, because word had gotten around. Surely you aren’t going to try to make the case that the disciples went around Jerusalem from door to door passing out invitations to the Sermon on the Mount?
The potential for rejection that Jesus mentions does not eliminate this possibility; as a JW there were many times that my message was ultimately rejected by someone who initially showed interest. Admittedly, another possibility is that the disciples did actually preach from house to house. I’m not trying to make the case that they absolutely did not do so. My point is that there is not explicit enough indication in the Bible to be certain that they absolutely did, as JWs argue. Remember, the question we are discussing is not whether the disciples preached from house to house, but whether God commands Christians to preach in this specific manner. JWs would argue that, if the apostles preached this way, modern Christians are also required to follow this exact method, with God disapproving anyone who fails to do so, no matter how zealous he may be about spreading the message in other ways.
Paul is summarizing events that haven take place over a period of three years. That is why Paul says "YOU well know how from the first day that I stepped into the [district of] Asia I was with you the whole time.." Now if Paul is talking about his preaching to the elders, this statement must be false. On Paul's first day in the district of Asia there were no disciples. There was no congregation. There were no elders. How could Paul have been with the elders, preaching to them in their private homes from the first day he came into Asia? Also, why does Paul mention opposition from the Jews regarding his preaching. How were the Jews opposing and setting plots against Paul if he was simply going to the private homes of the elders? It is very obvious whose interpretation doesn't make nearly as much sense.
Sorry, but your timeline is flawed. The three-year visit that is ending here in Acts 20 was not Paul’s first visit to Ephesus, and it is untrue that there were no disciples in Ephesus when he arrived. According to Insight on the Scriptures (v. 1, p. 735), Paul had visited Ephesus previously in 52 C.E. and then left, promising to return if it was God’s will. During his absence, Aquila and Pricilla remained in Ephesus, along with Apollos, whom they taught. Paul returned in the winter of 52/53 and then proceeded to stay for 3 years. So it is apparent that there were disciples in Ephesus prior at least to Paul’s second visit. Now, if I understand your argument correctly, you are saying that in one three-year visit, Paul took Ephesus from having no Christians at all to having a church with elders, and that therefore his teaching must have included house to house canvassing so as to make converts, some of whom would later become elders, but that his reference to teaching “publicly and from house to house” would refer to all phases of this three-year visit. But your premise is wrong. There were Christians, and almost certainly at least a rudimentary church in Ephesus before his arrival. He did much to grow and develop it, but it wasn’t as if he walked into the city, started converting pagans and built a church where there was no prior Christian presence at all. So I would maintain what I said – Paul’s comments in Acts 20:20 refer to his actions toward “you” – the elders with whom he was speaking and not the church as a whole.
Incidentally, I find it interesting that the emphasis in Acts is placed on Paul’s preaching in the synagogue and the school auditorium at Tyrannus – public places – and not particularly on any supposed house-to-house campaign (Acts 19:8-10). Note that verse 10 states that “This [reasoning daily in the school of Tyrannus] continued for two years, so that all the residents of Asia heard the word of the Lord, both Jews and Greeks.” Not through random door-knocking, but through preaching in public places.
We CAN assert this as conclusive because we have clear instructions from Jesus to his disciples about searching out who is deserving in a city/village. "If anyone does not take you in or listen to your words..on going out of THAT HOUSE.." There is nothing ambiguous about these instructions. These weren't instructions to go and preach to people in private homes, they were to search the entire city for deserving ones. How could this be done if they did not go door to door?
As I pointed out above, and as the Scriptures seem to bear out, the disciples preached in public places. This is certain. There are dozens of citations where the disciples went to marketplaces, synagogues, public squares and other public locations in order to evangelize. They went wherever people were to be found. Let’s face it, if their primary work was preaching from house to house, why did both Jesus and the apostles face so many attacks from angry mobs? How does a mob gather if you are speaking to one person at a time, in the privacy of his own home? Clearly, their primary means of communicating the Word was by public proclamation. Whether they supplemented this with any sort of door-to-door canvassing is uncertain, but even if they did, it was certainly never commanded by Jesus as THE method for Christians to use in preaching – which, again, is supposed to be the question we are addressing.
We live in a day when it is not seen as socially appropriate in many areas for strangers to approach the doors of people they do not know. This has changed just within my lifetime. I am now 60 years old; when I was young, we had a man come to the house regularly to deliver milk, and another who brought ice for our icebox three times a week. Salesman used to ply their wares from door to door, the Fuller Brush Man came by once a month or so, and occasionally, someone who was down on his luck would knock on the door and ask for a handout. All of this was taken in stride by householders; it was the normal way of things, nobody worried about it. But rising violent crime and differing social conditions have made such things obsolete. Now, we are concerned when we see a stranger approach our doors. We open them only a crack, because we don’t know who it is, and we are worried that it might be someone intending to rob or harm us. Companies that used to hire door-to-door salesman have moved to other marketing methods. We get milk and bread at the supermarket or convenience store. We do not expect strangers to knock on our doors, and our guard is immediately up when one does. JWs who have not adapted to the social environment find that many are unwilling to talk with them at all, because their very approach is seen as inappropriate.
Besides all that, there are very efficient methods today of reaching mass audiences. TV, radio, mass mailings and the Internet are all far more efficient at reaching people than door-knocking, and many Christian ministries use these methods to great effect. The Great Commission is still being obeyed, using the best methods available in our time – just as it was in the time of the apostles.
1950--1 in 5000 attended the memorial
2001--1 in 400 attended the memorial
1950--1 JW for 7000 people
2000--1 JW for 1000 people
If you could establish that all those people were brought into the JWs through the door-to-door work, you might have something there, but as far as I know, no statistics are kept as to the method of initial contact used with new converts. In my experience, most JWs I knew had NOT been contacted through the house-to-house work. Rather, the majority had been initially introduced to the JW teaching through workmates, acquaintances, and relatives or had been raised as JWs. It was a very small percentage who had come in through the door to door work. Which makes the statistics I cited regarding 2011 that much worse (and the numbers are similar for most years, I only picked 2011 because it was the most recent number I had). Over 5000 hours to make a convert, and most converts did not come in through that means. So how many hours to make a real convert who was actually contacted through the door-to-door work? 10,000? 15,000? Very efficient indeed.
The other question that crosses my (admittedly cynical) mind is whether we should trust the growth statistics from the WTS in the first place. They claim growth every year, but seem to be on a downsizing campaign the last few years. Branches are being closed and consolidated, as are local congregations. If the organization were actually growing as it claims, it seems they would be opening new branches and congregations, not closing the ones it has.
Jesus, Paul, and the early Christians knew they best way to spread their message.
They certainly did, and it has continued to spread for 2000 years, using the best technology and methods available at every point. Christians today who engage in evangelism don’t usually ride donkeys, they don’t preach from handwritten scrolls, and they don’t typically go canvassing from house to house. At one time all of these things may have represented the optimum in efficiency; today they are obsolete. You are welcome to stick to first-century methods if you wish, but you are not free to demand that every Christian follow your example. There is no command in the Bible for Christians to go sequentially from house to house for the purpose of evangelism.