The
Jehovah’s Witnesses seem more visible and active than ever. On more than one
occasion I have observed Kingdom Halls filling with strong numbers of people
assembling to congregationally work through the literature of the Watchtower
Society. It is virtually impossible to walk through major town centres across
London without seeing at least a few Witnesses distributing literature and
almost everyone has had a couple knock on their door at some time. The devotion
of JWs cannot be denied, and is one reason (explored last week) for their
growth. But there is more. It is not only their devotion, but what they devote
themselves to: discipleship.
1.
Discipleship through public witnessing. This is what the JWs are best known
for. They make disciples to their cult by intentionally going to complete
strangers and sharing with them their beliefs. This is accomplished through
door to door work, where two people seek to engage people in conversation at
their homes, generally by asking a question: “Why is there so much suffering in
the world?” for example. Their current campaign across the nation’s cities,
called ‘metropolitan witnessing’, has them stand outside of major transport
hubs and along busy high roads holding literature and gives strangers the
opportunity to come to them – either to
receive the literature on offer or to engage them in deeper conversation.
2.
Discipleship through private teaching. Supposing a conversation, either on the
door or street, goes well... The proselytizing Witnesses (or ‘Publishers’ as
the organisation calls them) will likely offer a ‘free Bible study.’ At this
series of meetings they systematically walk through a short book that sums up their
beliefs – “What does the Bible really Teach?”.
For seven weeks this past summer, I got a glimpse of how these meetings are run
whilst meeting with a Jehovah’s Witness in his house. Each chapter begins with
questions, each paragraph is accompanied by questions (the ‘true’ answers to
which are in the paragraphs), and there is a recap at the end. The participant
therefore has no choice but to engage with the material during the study, and
is encouraged to read the next chapter between studies, underlining the answers
to the questions. If an objection can be raised to anything in the booklet,
participants are referred to other resources on the extensive JW website and
those conducting the meeting patiently and clearly explain their beliefs
without compromising in the face of disagreement. Participants are given a copy
of the New World Translation of the Bible and it is not long before they are
encouraged to go to a Kingdom Hall meeting, ‘just to see what it is like.’
It
is ironic that the very practices for which Jehovah’s Witnesses are sometimes
mocked are the reasons for any growth they are currently experiencing. It has
become fashionable in evangelical circles to claim that door-to-door and street
evangelism are no longer effective means to reaching our culture with the
gospel, and yet it appears at present to be an effective means of spreading the
lies of a Bible-twisting, heretical cult. Perhaps we have misjudged, and in so
doing, have left the ripe fields of spiritually dissatisfied strangers we will
never find in our ‘networks’ for thieves to harvest. We must repent of our
evangelistic inactivity and gospel irrelevancy and move beyond the comfort zone
of people like us to devote ourselves more intentionally to making disciples of the biblical Christ, baptising them in the name of the Triune God, and
teaching them all that Jesus commanded.
This was printed in the worship bulletin of Grace Baptist Church (Wood Green) on 26 October 2014. Part two in a series
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