Were 1st century converts told to knock on doors?

by BoogerMan 9 Replies latest watchtower beliefs

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  BoogerMan

  Acts chapter 2 clearly shows (in JW minds) that door-door preaching was a must for all converts.

  (Acts 2:37, 38, 41, 42) “Now when they heard this, they were stabbed to the heart, and they said to Peter and the rest of the apostles: “Men, brothers, what should we do?” Peter said to them: “Repent, and let each one of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for forgiveness of your sins, but also, preach to others by knocking on their doors. ...and on that day about 3,000 people were added. And they continued devoting themselves to the teaching of the apostles, to associating together, to the taking of meals, to prayers, and to knocking on people's doors.”
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  Phizzy

  Yea, quite.

  Even the Scripture the JW's use to insist they should do that work, Acts 20v20, if you think about it, read it in context, it is not an Instruction on how to conduct a preaching Work, it is Paul saying how he taught the Christians he was talking to, he said he had done so, publicly, in the Synagogue for example, and from "House to House" or "Home to Home", he went to those Christian Acolytes in their own homes, he did not do a blanket door knocking.
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  LongHairGal

  PHIZZY:

  I agree. They did not do a blanket door knocking, but stayed at certain people’s homes! People offered hospitality back then.

  They preached in the synagogues and/or out in the open.
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  Rivergang

  Back then - and still in certain parts of the world to this day - people congregated in the market places. They went there pretty much because, for many, there was little else for them to do (I have seen this firsthand while living in Papua New Guinea). Not surprisingly then, Jesus and his followers focused their attentions on such venues as the market places.

  It requires a considerable stretch of the imagination to conclude from the bible record that early Christians went on a door knocking campaign!
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  TTWSYF

  To me,

  A better question than “How did the apostles spread Christianity? “ , IE- knocking on doors, would be “what did they teach? “

  That’s where the truth of Christianity comes from. They may have gone and knocked on doors as well as taught in Synogoges, they were in market places, etc. They preached wherever they could. They preached with a real threat of personal safety.

  So, The question is not how they taught, the question is, unequivocally, what did they teach? That’s what they gave their life for. What they taught, not how they taught.

  You’ll find what they taught not only in the writings of the Bible, but also in the writings of the next generation of “church fathers “ who were taught directly from the apostles themselves. And many traveled off to different lands to help start churches throughout the ancient world.

  just saying because it’s true

  TTWSYF

  TTWSYF
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  Bartolomeo

  @BoogerMan

  Acts chapter 2 clearly shows (in JW minds) that door-door preaching was a must for all converts.

  (Acts 2:37, 38, 41, 42) “Now when they heard this, they were stabbed to the heart, and they said to Peter and the rest of the apostles: “Men, brothers, what should we do?” Peter said to them: “Repent, and let each one of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for forgiveness of your sins, but also, preach to others by knocking on their doors. ...and on that day about 3,000 people were added. And they continued devoting themselves to the teaching of the apostles, to associating together, to the taking of meals, to prayers, and to knocking on people's doors.”

  arguments should always be supported by objective and verifiable facts. Which Bible translation would have the words you quote in bold underlined? the NWT does not have them

  
  
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  BoogerMan

  @ Bartolomeo - You're 100% correct - no Bible whatsoever contains the underlined words.
  

  Just as no other Bible or Greek concordance offer the phrases, "exercise/excercised/exercising faith," or "undeserved kindness."
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  jhine

  I read and reread the above quote from Acts and could not remember ever reading in the Bible about door knocking.

  So l checked my NIV Bible and no , nothing about doors or knocking.

  Then l looked at the Greek in an interlinear version. There is NO MENTION of the words door or knocking.

  So it seems that the Org. have been naughty again.

  Jan
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  LV101

  I recall Ray Franz (Crisis of Conscience or In Search of Christian Freedom) indicating door knocking was not biblical (didn't say it was necessarily wrong -- been yrs since I skimmed his books and I'd already checked out of the cult/long gone) or following in the footsteps of the disciples/Jesus.

  WT isn't going to chance staging/requiring followers be spectacles in wide open market places publically speaking today -- or ever. Yeah I know the old dogs may have blasted nonsense thru loud speakers/mega phones in streets (vehicles) yrs. ago. They'd hear too much truth from audience today. I heard too much from Grandparents of families/friends thinking they were crazy/delusional back then.
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  Rivergang

  In countries like Papua New Guinea the JWs do also target public venues such as the markets (certainly during my time there, this was the case). Further, it always seemed to me that they met with more success doing that than futilely knocking on people's doors.

  Not to mention, too, that for many of the population, "home" is a hovel in some crime-ridden squatter settlement. Not sure how you would go about knocking on somebody's door when there isn't one!

  The JWs did "witness" within the squatter settlements, but even there they approached people only in the public places of those areas (such as the markets). To have approached somebody's dwelling within those settlements would have been an almost certain way of receiving physical attack - usually by some wild character wielding a bush knife!