Jehovah's Witnesses - David Pawson (Cults and Sects Part 2)

The first visitors I had in Guildford were two from Jehovah with us, which was quite quick, but it was a coincidence that they were working on the road and didn't know who they contacted at first, I think other people do. of them, due to their unusual views, for example during the war, they applied for exemption from military service on the grounds that ministers of religion were exempt and each member of them is considered a minister of religion, furthermore, I believe that most of you know blood. controversy over transfusions and that makes headlines from time to time when I was in the Arabian desert I used to visit small fishing villages on the coast and I discovered everywhere I went that even the villages that didn't have a tap for water did have one I heard of two things or two things that two types of people had come to them, coke salesmen and Jehovah's Witnesses.

Everywhere I went they knew about those two even though they had no water share in town and it was a revelation to find out. how far they had come now a big advantage in talking about them today is that at least now they have a fixed name for many years, they kept changing their name and it was tremendously difficult to know who you were dealing with and many of the names were copies with slight alterations from well-known Christian organizations. They were first known as Millennial Dawn and that was around the same time that J.H Payton was operating a Christian group called Day Dawn, then they changed their name to Metropolitan Pulpit and if you know what. from the story of charles head and space and you know where they got that one from, so they changed their name to the pulpit of the brooklyn tabernacle at the same time that a famous preacher named telematch was preaching in the brooklyn tabernacle and then they changed their name. to the international association of bible students, which coincided with the international association of bible readers, then they changed it to the watchtower bible and tract society and they were very similar names of biblical societies but finally now they have fixed on the name

witnesses

of Jehovah and we know where they are now, first of all, some of the history, I guess it would have to start around 1872-1874.

Interestingly, this cult started in the same place and at the same time as most of the others, in the 19th century, a little later than the others, this one on the eastern side of the United States. America began with a Bible study group in Pennsylvania in 1872 and then in 1884, about 10 years later, the Zions Watchtower society was formed. That name was not published at the beginning, but I guess that is really the beginning, so we can say that 18 70s 1880s we will now see three men, the leaders, the first is a man called russell charles tays russell shepherd, a draper and haberdasher rich from Pittsburgh and this man had a strange story when he was a child, he went to the congregational church and it follows that every Sunday they had a sermon on hell, now you have had one recently, I know it and it was right for you to do it, but no You hear it every week, but they had it every week and at first his little boy mind accepted this and he became obsessed with the idea, so he used to take a piece of chalk and go around writing on the fences that if people didn't go to church on the Sabbath they would be thrown into the flames and his little boy mind was doing this when he became a teenager, a friend who was an atheist and a skeptic tied him up so much with questions that he became agnostic and lost all the faith he had as a boy and He became practically an unbeliever as an adult, returning to his faith through influence. from Mrs.

Ellen White and the Seventh-day Adventists, that's a very interesting topic, that's why it started a little later, I said it was later than some of the others, in fact, it came from the Seventh-day Adventists and so For this reason there has always been a very strong emphasis among Jehovah's Witnesses on the second advent or second coming of our Lord and the events related to his return,

part

icularly the event called Armageddon. He then began to study the Bible but began to disagree with the Adventists who had returned him to his faith. He owed a lot to this book Day Dawn by J.H Paton, but he began writing it himself and very soon claimed that he was the first person in history to be able to harmonize every statement in the Bible.

There are many apparent contradictions in the Bible, as you know, I think the more you study the Bible, the less they become. I'll be very honest with you, there are still some apparent contradictions in the Bible that I don't understand. It used to be I have hundreds, now I still have a few, but the fact that many of what I used to think were contradictions I now see very differently. I am very happy to believe that the few that remain will be resolved as my understanding grows. but I certainly would not claim to be able to explain all the apparent contradictions, some of them, by the way, being of this kind.

If I may use an illustration of the police station for a moment. I recently sat in a chair against a white background. screen not with the purpose of that chair never being used, but jokingly I pretended to do this and this in front of the white screen to chat with the camera, well, if you ever get your picture taken that way, that way you could argue that this guy has two ears and that guy has one ear and that there is a contradiction and in fact all you are doing is pointing out that here is the same chat seen from two different angles.

Do you have an idea and many of the contradictions apparent in the babble are of this type, they are the same event seen from two angles and, for example, in one gospel, Jesus rides towards Jerusalem, in a nest with a coat running next to him. , in the other gospel it simply says that it went into an ass now an apparent contradiction is just that someone noticed there were two but another person was simply noticing the one who wrote without contradiction but at least charles russell went so far as to say he could explain it all and he began to write and rightly so, in addition to speaking six to eight hours a day and traveling thirty thousand miles a year to do it, he was very quickly denouncing all organized religion and

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icularly the clergy, then he denounced all existing translations of the Bible as unreliable, although he himself did not know Greek, Latin, or Hebrew, he said that other translations were bad and that all religions, except his, were anti-Christian, he finally knew it, he predicted that schools, churches, banks and The American government would be destroyed in October 1914 when they were not, the date was extended to 1925.

He had certain domestic entanglements that came into play in 1897. He separated from his wife and in 1913 Mrs. Russell filed for divorce in the foreground. , including adultery, at first denied the motives and finally confessed them when the evidence was clear and the judge said that her insistent selfishness, extravagant self-praise and continuous domination were such as to make the life of any sensitive Christian woman intolerable; He later attempted to defraud her of the alimony she was awarded with the money he had to send to support her. by transferring all his property to the watchtower society and putting it out of their reach and then collecting a salary from it, but I think this is all relevant, his career reached a scandalous peak with the miracle wheat scandal when he sold miracle wheat for sixty dollars the bushel and this again became a court case under oath in court he said he knew the Greek language but when he was given a new will in Greek he could not read it and finally denied knowing that he died while traveling in texas and among the extraordinary claims made These two are the place next to Saint Paul in the gallery of fame as expositor of the gospel of the great master will be occupied by Charles Tays Russell It was stated that this is the other that Russell's explanatory writings on the Bible are far more extensive than the combined writings of paul john arias waldow wycliffe and martin luther the six messengers of the church who preceded him now his place was taken by a man named rutherford who did not lead the movement um for so long lord russell called himself pastor that The Mr.

Rutherford called himself a judge and you may have heard of Judge Rutherford, a title he himself assumed. In fact, he was granted a license to practice law, but he was never elected to office. He was never appointed judge. He had been Russell and I's attorney. You would have thought it was a great ordeal considering some of the mix-ups Russell got into, and in fact, as a result of being Russell's lawyer, Rutherford spent nine months in jail in Atlanta, but this made him a martyr and a hero, and after Russell's death. There were a number of divisions in the movement, Rutherford managed to take over most of them, the two main divisions were the Associated Bible Students, which was a division he lost, and Jehovah's Witnesses, which he maintained in 1930, Rutherford He claimed to have received light from heaven, which gave the most satisfactory explanation of the book of Revelation.

Well, that's quite an achievement if you've studied the book of Revelation. It is a difficult book. I agree we'll go over it at some point, but I'm pretty sure. I will say at the end of listening to myself, although it has not given me a completely satisfactory explanation, it is not a difficult book either. Rutherford was a man of tremendous drive and vigor and realized the potential of radio and developed radio and a great crusade. Ministry Jehovah's Witnesses still hold the world record for a Christian meeting with over a quarter of a million people at one meeting and were the first to develop the grand crusade type of meeting, but radio work was also one of their big ideas.

He died in 1942 at the palatial Appalachian Mansion in San Diego, California, and his place was taken by the current leader, Nathan. Or anything to do with soup, but by the same token, how many of you have heard of Nathan Noah? Can I see how? many of you had heard of Judge. Relevant. Isn't it so interesting? How many of you have heard of Russell? Some less. This is very interesting. You see he was the great publicist of the movement, so everyone has heard of him, but no. I hadn't heard of it because I was a little older and the new one isn't that impressive.

He visited England in 1955, preached at Twickenham rugby ground and had mass baptisms at the end of the meeting. Well, how has the movement spread so much? Many Jehovah's Witnesses do not read much of Rutherford or Russell. Now you don't read the enormous volumes that Russell completed and published by Rutherford after his death and you will find that Jehovah's Witnesses cannot discuss Russell or Rutherford with you. They know very little about them, they read a lot about them because their editorial work is perhaps the most amazing of all and the two ways in which they spread the two ways in which they have become such a rapidly growing movement are by publishing and by preaching. and we look at this the publishing figures are fantastic it's always a pretty cheap type of paper that you've probably seen here it's kind of a sample that you've probably seen the type of thing it's always a very cheap type of paper produced for almost nothing and produced by millions and uh this type of literature has been spread everywhere I have not bought them these are from several visits that I have had um and this has been one of the main ways in 1952, for example 22 Millions of books by a single author were sold 130 million books in 10 years This is no small thing, it is a gigantic concern.

Watchtower magazine is published regularly, as you know, and more than 2 million copies in 40 languages ​​go to 150 countries. You saw the main Watchtower magazine, that's probably the main thing they showed you in 1957, for example, they sold 55 million magazines in 162 countries. Different types of magazines. Now these books are technically not sold. They are called gifts. They will tell you how much to give. for the book, but this way they are offered as a donation, so they do not need a business license and they can sell on Sundays, so if someone comes to your door they cannot sell you a book, they can only give it to you and name the donation what you could do, but this has been one of their main activities and they publish more literature than all the Protestants in the world combined, that's the first initial thing you should know now, the second thing is preaching and they don't.

I don't mean by what you mean by they don't mean sitting in a building listening to a man speak, they mean each member going out and talking to the others, that's what they mean by preaching, that's probably what they mean. It also means in the new testament and in the last. year 34 million man hours were spent doing this now if you want to know why they grow here is the answer even though they discourage many people even though their approach to one door may close many doors, it opens enough to that it is worth it. 34 million men do not knock on doors each year and talk to people about their faith.

This should make us very ashamed. They have no salaried ministers. Each member is a non-ordained minister. A servant of the Lord who pays his own expenses. There are ID cards, but. It is on this basis that they requested exemptionof military service. They are now the headquarters of a world organization in Brooklyn and if you want to know something about the almost totalitarian organization, read a book by William J. Schnell called 30 Years a Slave to the Watchtower. It is a revelation, but here are the facts in the last 10 years Jehovah's

witnesses

have multiplied their number twice in north america now they are double what they were 10 years ago five times more in asia in ten years seven times more in europe and Africa and fifteen times more in Latin America.

I believe there is no other earl, sect or body that can claim comparable growth in Britain. They really haven't grown that fast. Its headquarters are in Mill Hill. Mr. Price Hughes was the principal officer here last time I asked. They have a quarter of a million pound headquarters with 75 employees and then divided Britain into five boroughs, each with a district. servant the districts are divided into circuits of which there are 54 uh each with more than 12 congregations in them and a circuit servant and then you have congregations with a congregation servant and a committee and there are about 50 to 60,000 in England in right now the kingdom hall in guildford is on the main street, if you continue down the main street you will see it behind, somewhere behind the pilgrims bookstore, a little further around here, am I right to spread that is now same, what do they think, now we come to what? they believe first of all they say right away that they believe in the inspiration of the bible and they will use the bible but it will be their own translation it will be what is called the new world translation of the bible and I will tell you why they made that translation and they prefer to use it at one point but remember that charles tays russell who knew no greek or latin or hebrew said that any other translation was unreliable and that there needed to be an official one for his own movement here is a statement watchtower magazine invites careful examination of his statements In light of God's infallible word, how can you then believe this and have different views than everyone else who believes the same? the answer as we saw here we go, sit down, that's all.

The answer lies in the interpretation. I wonder if I can point out something here that I've already pointed out before, but I would like to make it very clear that it is fatally easy for someone who believes in the inspiration of the Bible and believes that the Bible is reliable to start thinking that their interpretation of the Bible is inerrant, it is very easy for us to do this and we must always remember that even if we believe the Bible is inerrant, our interpretation of it may not be and our minds may not be seeing the Bible.

What is right in it is right in itself but we may not see the meaning and most of these

cults

have arisen because someone who accepted the inspiration of the Bible also said that their own interpretation of it was the only correct one and this is what begins. everything goes wrong and that is why it is so important to never follow one man's interpretation of Scripture, but to compare, listen, study yourself and look at the Scriptures from different angles. I would tell you, and I mean this, that if you ever consciously come to a different understanding of a passage than I do, then I don't want you to accept mine because I gave it from the pulpit.

I want you to go home and search the Scriptures for yourself, and if you come to a different understanding, sincerely and thoroughly after careful study, then God bless you. I would like you to do something else too, and that is to come and tell me what different interpretation you found, not because I want to dissuade you, but because that's how I learn. also and I've learned a lot from people who came to me and said, you know, I looked at that passage you mentioned, I don't think it really says that what it tells me is sansa and I look at it. and I see well maybe that's what it says and it expands my own understanding but whether it's mary baker ready or charles tase russell or whoever to say that my interpretation is the only correct one is to start a new sect and if I started to say that soon there would be a group called Pulse Nights and then they would get smaller and smaller and that would be the end and this is very important in other words, well, yeah, this is really the reason why they claimed their performance.

I was with family because everyone said it came from heaven like you say but these people don't oh yes I'm going to give you some quotes now here is a quote from rutherford these speeches do not contain my message but they do contain the expression of Jehovah's purpose that he commands now must be told to the people that is as strong as anything joseph smith or mary baker eddie said um here are two quotes from russell one from russell one from rutherford russell said that people cannot see the divine plan by studying In the Bible itself we also find that if someone leaves aside the studies of the Scriptures, those are his own studies, even after he has become familiar with them, if he leaves them aside and ignores them and returns only to the Bible, Our experience shows that within two years it returns. in the darkness, on the other hand, if you have simply read the studies of the Scriptures, which are your studies with their references, and you have not read a page of the Bible as such, you would be in the light at the end of those two years, that It's as strong as anything else.

Is it strong enough what he's saying is read my books without reading a page of the Bible and you'll come out? Read the Bible alone without my books and you will be in the dark in two years. That's a pretty strong statement. For the second part, Rutherford said that before 1930 there was never a satisfactory explanation of the published revelation, the obvious reason being that it was not God's time for His servants to understand it. That's enough quotes, but that tells you what they thought. Now I've noticed something about all these 19th century Celts and it's that they virtually say that everyone has been wrong for 1900 years.

Have you noticed this? I can't believe that for almost two thousand years Christians were in complete darkness and didn't do it. I know the truth that I find something too big to swallow and whoever it is tells me this and everyone tells me this that god in due time brought out the real truth what was god doing with the church all that time leaving it in so much darkness, what? Why did it have to wait until the 19th century and the United States to come onto the scene? Well, now, what about his beliefs compared to us?

I'm taking the same kind of pattern that we've taken before, first of all, they believe. about god they believe in god, the same god that we believe in, but they do a lot about one name, the name

jehovah

, now of course the simple answer to this is that that never wants the name of god and will never be the name of god and there is no evidence whatsoever to say that that is the name of God, but their whole movement is based on the fact that everyone else has abandoned the name of God and they are the only ones who use it and that is why who call themselves witnesses of Jehovah, in reality they are quoting the prophet Isaiah you will be my witnesses and Jehovah says that is from his translation and 6,000 let's get the correct number 823 times I have not verified this but in the old testament the translation of the new world uses the word

jehovah

and they say that is why now you should use their bible and not yours.

So let's review something I said in the pulpit a few months ago. Let me give you a little Hebrew, Greek and then English. The Old Testament came to us in three. stages it began being written in the Hebrew language it was translated into Greek and English from both Hebrew and Greek so let's see what happened in the Hebrew Old Testament the name of God is written like this in the Hebrew language there were not only vowels the consonants and j h v h are the four letters of God's name and means that I am, is so emphatic that it can be expanded to I am what I am, in other words, it is a name that says that I am different from everyone else, I am what I am. you can't define me you can't describe me because I'm the only god that I am so god gave this name to Moses now no one knows how to say it no one at all what we do know is that the j in Hebrew is always pronounced as a and for us and that v in hebrew is always announced pronounced as a w in our language so the only thing absolutely certain is that god's name was never jehovah the closest we can probably get to it right now is yahweh yahweh so if they They're really going to be coherent but of course the problem was that Russell didn't know Hebrew, but if they're really going to be coherent they should call themselves Yahweh's witnesses and I've still never met one of them who could give me a rational explanation. reason for this except that it was in the new world translation now that we can go a little further that yahweh really means the one who is so god that you can't say anything else about him almost it's I am I am not like you, I am what that I am, I am god, so when they translated it into Greek, since there was no word corresponding to this, they put the word curiosities wherever that Hebrew word appeared, in the Greek language that is the word that means god. like god what it is and in English that word is lord and every time you see the word lord capitalized in your own will it's there for that Hebrew word we don't know how to say it we don't know how to spell it so we've used the same word that they used the Greeks, which is the word that for us means god, if we call someone lord in this sense we mean god, that is why, for example, the first Christians preferred to go to the state that saying Caesar is lord because it meant god and not they would say no one was god except jesus jesus is lord but as soon as we said that we said jesus is god and you know there are some very interesting examples in gospel history. of Jesus using that phrase in the most emphatic way I am the bread of life I am the good shepherd you remember all those sayings and sometimes he only used that phrase alone before Abraham was I am and they took stones to throw at him why well if you read the story says because they said he called himself god when he said I am when they arrested him in Gethsemane the temple guards came and he said who are you looking for and they said to Jesus of Nazareth and he said I am and they fell to the ground waiting to be swallowed for such a blessing , they walked away from her.

He dared to use God's name about himself, so Jesus was actually saying "I am who I am" and the Jews killed him. for the sole reason that he said this, which brings me to the second great belief of Jehovah's Witnesses, which is that Jesus is not god and this is the point we absolutely pass by in their company, they have said god, there is only one God. and his name is jehovah jesus is not god now this is the great dividing line if you believe that jesus is god and if you meant what you sang at the beginning of this meeting then you can never be a jehovah's witness and I don't I don't know if that's why that you wanted the anthem, lord hell, but it had a link in your mind or not, you just love the anthem, isn't it extraordinary?

Well now Jesus is or isn't God, who do they say he is? Say that. Before he was born in Bethlehem he was an angel, the highest of the angels being their captain, but not God, and he was not eternal. There was a time when he was created. There was a time when Jehovah was alone without the sun and the sun was the first person to be created and was created as an angelic being above the other angels, then he became a human being in Bethlehem, but after his resurrection he became a spiritual being, he is no longer a human being now, everything This is very, very different. from what we believe and so different that this is the great divide now I have a pamphlet here of yours the word who is he according to John in the gospel of John there is a statement in my bible that says the word who is Jesus and they believe that was also god that's in every one of your bibles in the beginning it was the word the word was with god the word disappeared now how do they manage to avoid that throughout this pamphlet tells you they said it's pretty obvious the word is missing therefore? surely we should put the word a and spell it with a lowercase g.

Now that's how it's done and you can see the illogical spin that's put on it in the Greek language of the new testament, it says the word was god, that's all but what they say. if it had meant that I should have put the word the was the god and because the word the is not in it it means a god lowercase g and that is the translation well now I say that neither a nor thee should have been put because they are not there the statement is the word was god philippians 2 is a key text here and one to take you to that one day every knee will be united will call jesus what lord to the glory of god the father and that phrase is a quote from isaiah that is about jehovah and in fact therefore what philippians 2 says is that one day every knee will bow to jesus and call jesus jehovah to the glory of god the father, i just don't see how this can be avoided, i could just keep going through the new testament It's like that, but I'll let you find yours now, thirdly, what they believe about the holy spirit, well, Jesus is not god and the spirit is not a person, again and therefore, adding this up you will find that There is one word that you should never use if you don't want to really upset them, it is the word trinity, it is the only idea that they find terribly offensive because the trinity implies three people, all of them.which are god god father god son and god god Holy Spirit now, could you point out that they are perfectly happy to call Jesus the son of God and this fool?

Some people and the lady came to see me recently and told me that they were talking to one and they said that Jesus is the son of God, so they said well. What is the difference? I think he is the son of God. Ask him if he is God. The son. You can see the difference in those two phrases because in the Bible all angels are called sons of God and for them it means nothing more than an angelic being but to say god the son and then to say god the holy spirit is our faith in the trinity and this is where we really make up a part, we could go through the rest salvation, you will find that no Jehovah's Witness is sure that he is saved. of their sins and this is a point where you can begin to help onewho had recently joined the Jehovah's Witnesses visited one of the former members of my church, a lady and it was another lady and the two ladies confronted each other in the door and our church members said, well, now you've talked to me a little bit, can I tell you? about jesus and what he has done for me and she gave her testimony at the door and to her surprise the jehovah's witness at the door burst into tears and said i have been wanting to hear that for years, i never heard it in church .

I attended and joined Jehovah's Witnesses because I thought they knew and seemed very sure of their faith, much more sure than the church I went to, but she said she had never heard that you can be sure of your forgiveness and salvation. Now here it is. a point where you can take the positive initiative with some, tell them why you are sure of your salvation and the future, you will find that if you are not sure you become terribly jealous of trying to be sure and I believe that you are. Here I probably understand one of the reasons for the excessive zeal you would encounter if someone told you, for example, that your salvation would depend on how many people you told about your faith between now and the big day when you would come out, and I have noticed mothers with babies and friends pushing them from door to door to talk about what is theirs and part of the zeal is undoubtedly that they still do not know complete salvation what did Christ do on the cross the answer is that he gave us a second chance that is not at all how they would say it they would use different language but that is what they are saying that when christ died he exterminated your pets but you have to do your part now and that is why you can never be sure now that there is a There is a world of difference between seeking to tell others about Christ because he has saved you and telling others about him because you hope you can see the difference.

I think our recording needs a little oil. Finally, what about the future? Your beliefs about the future. probably most distinctive in 1874 jesus returned to the upper atmosphere and was invisibly lord of the earth until 1914, that is, according to russell's interpretation, the apostles and the dead members of his little flock rose to be with him, this was his perusia or presence in 1914 and then they changed the date to 1918 christ returned to his temple whatever that means and became king of this world ruling through his people jehovah's witnesses this is the end of uninterrupted rule from satan in the near future christ will lead his army to massacre all his enemies in the battle of Armageddon and the only way to be safe from this is to become a witness now in the millennium that follows, the survivors will repopulate the world and many dead Those who do not will ultimately be resurrected and given the opportunity to recognize Jehovah. acknowledge that jehovah will be annihilated and that russell reacted against his childhood experiences, he was denied any teaching about hell, well now that's the future, finally, so can I talk about that, just a word about his unusual behavior ?

I mentioned the blood transfusion, did he realize it was only in 1945? They taught that keep in mind that your blood transfusion has not been in the world much longer than that, but it was before that, but in 1945 they put all the witnesses under the Jewish law of not eating blood and said no It matters if you eat or not. through a vein or through the mouth that that was the reason they did it, we would say that that is a Jewish law that has been abolished within the mandatory military service of Christ. This is not because they are pacifists, they would fight for Jehovah physically.

They fight but they will not fight for anyone else and then of course uh in civic responsibility they are somewhat unpatriotic in America they refuse to salute the flag at school and so on all this has brought persecution and there are many Jehovah's Witnesses in prison for their faith in Spain behind the iron curtain and in other places they have suffered for their faith but finally let's be practical you have one at your door you are meeting with them what are you going to do about it and what is the best way to approach them Well now let me give you some practical things, first Anyway, I think there are some things we should learn from them.

I hope that doesn't surprise you, but I think there is: you will never beat others unless you go out and get them and they are the fastest growing religious body in the world and they have done it because they have gone out and one of the most challenging things they I was once told it was by a housewife with a baby in the stroller at the men's door and she told me how many of her members are willing to dedicate 100 hours a month to telling other people what is happening to them. . My answer would be not one, not one.

I didn't give him the answer, but I took the point well, I think we should learn from them, we have found salvation, we have the assurance of forgiveness, should we do less than those who follow what I think is false teaching, but then, how to deal with them, first one or two simple rules? no book except the Bible, that's the first rule and ask from the beginning if you can use yours and if they say no, we'll ask them why not and see if they know. Secondly, don't talk about the church, but about Christ. Again, they are all churches and here is the pamphlet that gives one of them Christianity or Christianity, which is the light of the world.

It is a devastating criticism of the church and many of the criticisms are valid, but we are not here to teach the church. stay away from the church talk about christ thirdly don't engage in detailed arguments but stick to your testimony simply tell them this is what christ has done for me has your religion done the same for you someone once asked a missionary Christian what can Christianity do? offer that no other religion in the world can and in flesh and blood the missionaries said sorry stick to this and finally a simple rule after having spoken tell them now you have been good enough to come to my house to tell me about your By faith, I would like to come to your house to tell you about mine.

Can I give me your name and address? Please, you may get some surprising answers, but I suggest that it is a very good thing to do to show them that you are prepared to do it. go but say now that you have come and I have heard your faith now I want you to allow me to come to your house and tell you about my faith this is only fair nine times out of ten that will be the end of the relationship, but the tenth time you could help someone , especially if you have recently joined the movement.

My experience again is that most people who become Jehovah's Witnesses have been in churches where they were not taught their own faith and where they did not understand. what they believed and where was formal and external and when they met a Jehovah's Witness not a minister but an ordinary person who really knew what they believed apparently knew the Bible I underlined the word apparently because they know some parts of it very well, but there are other parts that they just don't know at all, so show them some of the other parts, show them some of the psalms, show them some of the other things that are in the scriptures, but this is the kind of person they find. and they say now look, we can tell you the truth that you have been trying your hand and going to church and in many cases they do it many centuries ago there was a man called Aries and that man or let's get his dates right it would be about 1600 years ago not quite and he He was teaching them exactly what Jehovah's Witnesses are teaching today about Jesus there is nothing new under the sun and he was teaching it then and he was a very powerful teacher and above all he was intelligent in writing songs and If you want to plant a truth in the mind of someone, write a song and do you know that Aries was able to persuade the majority of Christians to adopt his views on Christ that Christ was not equal to God and that there was one young man and only one who stood his ground? he stood up to him and his name was athanasius and this young man fought against us 1600 years ago we could all bring the equivalent of jehovah's witnesses if he hadn't and for months and years he fought against this aries man and said what are you teaching is not a Christian truth and finally things came to a head when the Roman emperor gathered all the bishops in a place called Nicaea and they quarreled, they studied the scriptures in Athanasius they stood up almost alone almost the entire church had gone after aries and accepted their views and the Latin phrase that summarized the battle was athanasius against mundum athanasius against the world and these young men stood up and fought and the bishops were forced to see that this was not a biblical truth and so they expressed their understanding of christ in a statement of faith that we now know as the Nicene creed and if you have been in a church when it is recited, you know that when it comes to believe in Jesus Christ it says that he was god of god, very god of very god. begotten, not made, being of the same substance as the father, you read that statement and it was Athanasius fighting the same thing you will have to fight when arguing with Jehovah's Witness, finally a little book you might find useful, written by Jesus of Nazareth . specifically to help christians know what scripture says about jesus as a person as god, it's written by arthur wallace, you probably know it and it's available in the christian literature crusade, the pilgrim's book should probably have it, but if You want a book that simply tells you what scriptures to take the Jehovah's Witness also has that little book for you