I'm Off Their List!

About a year ago, right before Easter, I was at home sitting in front of the computer on a Tuesday afternoon. I looked out the office window and saw the swarm. We were under attack. Jehovah's Witnesses making their way up down the street. I had two options...fight or flight. I could close the shades and slither from room to room on my belly hoping to not be seen. Or I could answer the door and deal with them. I quickly minimized the screen on the computer and Googled "how to witness to a Jehovah's Witness". I started reading over several articles, all stating that subtlety was the key; confrontation would do no good. I read that they believe that Jesus is actually Michael the Arch-Angel, and while He is the son of God, He is not God in the human form and not to be worshiped as God is. "Hogwash", I said to my self! Then their was a knock at the door.

I decided to play dumb. I answered the door and a nice woman in her mid fifties asked me how I was doing. After a few pleasantries back and forth, she asked if she could share something with me. I said sure. She pulled a bible from her purse and read something from Revelations about how bad the world was, but how it would all be better one day, and people who believed, would be with God. Sounded good to me. Then I started to probe. Somehow we got to the topic of Jesus and I explained that I heard that they thought Jesus and Michael were one and the same and not actually God in human form. She tried to explain that a bit. My questions were now coming rapid fire and she was getting tripped up on some of the answers. She then gave me a book. It was like their field guide to witnessing. It was full of their beliefs and common questions people might ask them and the response they were supposed to give. I thanked her and she left and said she would be back later to check on me.

It took a long time for Gina to forgive me.

You see Gina is home most of the time and I'm at work. My new friend would check in on me once a month, only to discover I was not at home. At one point, doubting my absence she craned her neck around Gina to see if there were any signs of me in the house. As if I was belly crawling from one room to the next to avoid her. (I only did that once, it was in my short-lived college days and I was avoiding the paper boy that I owed several months of subscription money, but that's another blog altogether.)

Well, last week we were finally reunited. She came with back up this time. The two of them came to the door and once again shared a verse about how only the saved would avoid the gloom and doom of the last days, to which I retorted, "Amen!" I returned her book and she asked me if I had any questions. I told her that I found it very interesting but I had some strong disagreements with their beliefs that Jesus and God were not one in the same.
She was quite for a moment. I don't think that was the response that she was expecting.
I gave her a piece of paper with some scripture that I believed made my case and told her to read them and pray on it.

She had a gleam in her eye and very excitedly quoted John 1:1, "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God." She explained that this was often misused to claim that Jesus was the Word and that the Word was God. Instead she explained that it was a mistranslation and should read the "Word was a god". I stopped her and said that wasn't on my list that I handed her. She seemed disappointed. You see, this is their biggest argument.

She then quickly turned to the back of the book, and pointed out a chapter that was all "misused" scripture that people used to attack Jehovah's Witnesses with. I told her that the passages I gave her were not among those in the book.

She turned white and began to stammer. "We're not here to debate", she said.

I asked her to open her bible and turn to 1 Timothy 3:16 while I got my Bible. I then asked her to read it aloud.
God was manifested in the flesh,
Justified in the Spirit,
Seen by angels,
Preached among the Gentiles,
Believed on in the world,
Received up in glory.

There was silence. She then started to flip through the pages to look for another verse to combat the last. I stopped her and said, "We're not here to debate, just read through those on your own and pray on them."

She tried to talk more as I nicely said good bye and shut the door.

Now I don't think that she'll be showing up at my church on Sunday and making the altar call.

But, I think I'm off her list and she won't be visiting anymore.