This afternoon my wife and I were at home when someone knocked on the door. My wife answered to an elderly man who appeared to be hoping for a drop and run rather than a personal encounter. “Oh, I thought there was no-one here, I was just going to leave this for you.”
He gave my wife a pamphlet titled “Would you like to know the Truth?”
It’s a catchy line, a bit of a teaser really. Would I like to know the truth… Yes I would, thanks! No one wants to be given false information, we want the cold hard facts! Give me as much truth as you can muster up. What sort of truth? I wondered. The truth about life? Or the truth about a secret conspiracy like the real amount of fluoride in water, or how the government is suppressing the real cure for cancer. How much truth can you pack into a pamphlet, anyway?
Their conversation went like this:
He: “We’re dropping these in every household in the world, you know… Every household.”
She: “Oh, ok…”
He: “It’s not good to be fooled or tricked by people, is it - do you like to be fooled or tricked?”
She: “Errr… no… Are you a Jehovah’s Witness?”
He: (loudly) “Well I worship the Jehovah, yes, but (pointing at leaflet) what’s important is where we can find answers to questions, have a read of that and you’ll find out some very interesting stuff” (hastily backing down the path)
She: “Bye”
What an interesting question, but strange encounter! I was further intrigued to find that nowhere on the leaflet does it mention that the material is presented by the Jehovah’s Witnesses. Unfortunately one of his lines resounded in my head, “do you like to be fooled or tricked?”
Maybe his spiel and material don’t quite fall into the category of trickery, but I couldn’t help but think that selling yourself, your material or what you believe in under false pretense is probably not the best approach to take. We live in an age where scams and trickery are plentiful - it’s good to have a healthy degree of skepticism. If someone markets their material under a different name than the one they stand by, and does not offer to be up front with their affiliation to a particular company, church or whatever, I tend to ask myself why is that? Do they have a reason to misrepresent themselves?
Even though I do have some fundamental disagreements on Jehovah’s Witness beliefs, such as the special chosen group of 144,000 anointed ones who get to go to heaven, and (even worse) the fact that I have to read these headlines: “Jehovah’s Witness mother dies after refusing blood transfusion after giving birth to twins”, my intention is not to disparage them as a group in this post! Quite possibly there are some fundamental truths we both agree on in some areas. I would like to offer up a few thoughts though:
Why are some religions so intent on professing that their beliefs are right, rather than seeing the bigger picture? “One way to God - through St Matthew’s Church, corner Smith and First Streets..” I’m not suggesting you have to adopt other people’s beliefs, or put other religions down, but isn’t there room somewhere for healthy and open discussion about God, life, religion without misrepresenting yourself?
After doing a bit of reading about Jehovah’s Witnesses, I came across an interesting excerpt from a book by Diane Wilson, a former member, titled “Escape From the Watchtower Society“:
Occasionally a householder would want to give the Witness a religious pamphlet from her own church; while often the Witness would refuse to accept it on the basis that she already had the Truth, at other times another Witness might accept it. However, as soon as we were out of sight of the householder, the pamphlet became like the proverbial “hot potato”—the Witness couldn’t get rid of it fast enough! Some Witnesses feared that even touching the pamphlet could cause a demon to transfer itself from the pamphlet to themselves.
This fear stemmed from their belief that Jehovah’s Witnesses represent the only true religion on Earth, thus all other religions are false and under the control of the Devil and the demons; consequently, they believe all literature from another religion to be contaminated with demonic forces. While some Witnesses insisted that burning the pamphlets was the only safe way to dispose of them in order to avoid demon attacks, others seemed relieved to simply drop them into the nearest trashcan.
Maybe JW’s feel that public perceptions have forced them to be more reluctant to identify themselves. I don’t feel good about it in my heart when I see 3, 4 and 5 year old toddlers dragged from door to door wearing suits in the heat of a Saturday morning though. There seems to be something fundamentally wrong with that. Can’t you believe in God and be just as effective in ministry by kicking a football together at the park, and showing other people that family values come first?
Do you want to know the Truth?
![[Post to Twitter]](http://www.willitchangeyou.com/wp-content/plugins/tweet-this/tweet-this-small.png)
Tweet This
Stumble!
Digg
Subscribe
Del.icio.us
Leave a comment
Help support this site
Twitter
Blog Catalog
What would be fundamentally wrong about preaching from door-to-door in obedience to Jesus’ command at Matthew 28:19, 20 would be not doing it. Interestingly enough, most professed “Christians” ignore that command, or somehow twist it so it becomes something optional for them (with most opting not to do it). How exactly would kicking a football in a park be “effective in ministry”? There’s a time for relaxing recreation with family and friends, but for those truly following Jesus, our first and foremost activity is sharing the good news about God’s kingdom. And given the state of the world today, who really doesn’t want to hear about something better that’s coming? Family values are important, but they are not to come first in a Christian’s life.
@Johnny - Hi, thanks for your comment - I hope you appreciate the sentiments this post carries, my intentions are really not to bring down JW’s, but rather there was a series of events that sparked some questions in my mind! Regarding Matthew 28: I believe that different people interpret it differently. “Go therefore and teach all the nations” does not literally state “knock on every door”. Opportunities can arise in many ways, kicking a football in the park is a great way to spend time with your kids, and also carries with it an idea that is also in my opinion one of the greatest secrets to being a good parent: showing others through our action. Showing our kids by the way we act. Showing other people who are at the park that your family has something special. Who knows, you might meet other people at the park and be able to share your background on faith and God.
I tend to avoid accepting items that are presented in a way such as with a question like “Would you like to know the truth?”. One would think that if these fake-sounding introductions were ignored by consumers, they might reduce quite a bit as options in marketing departments.
Having grown up as a JW, I have strong feelings against the religion as a whole (as most organized religions). You would have to be there to truly know. If I were to say what’s on my mind, this comment would be longer than your post and I wouldn’t want to offend anyone.
About “truth” I think there are many truths out there, you just have to find what’s right for you, your family, your community, country, world, etc. Having people think they have the truth is what has gotten this country (USA) in the mess that its in now.
Sorry for my typo! I was in an hurry.
@Armen - I agree. Tacky wording can be a real turn off. Having said that, sometimes it’s a little intriguing also! Remember the secret? The movie etc - the catch-cry was “Do you know the secret?” - tacky, but I was a little interested all the same!
@Anon - Thanks for commenting, in my own life I’ve had to come to a realisation that people are people, humans are humans, and they will let you down some times. It’s hard to see a pastor go against the very values he preaches about and make a gross error in judgement, for example, and still attend church with the same enthusiasm you may once have had. Holding true to your own beliefs rather than blindly obeying an organisation’s ones is not such a bad idea, also forgiveness also plays a part from time to time. Thanks for your comments.
Interesting article. I was at a meeting a few months back where the question was asked about John 14:6 where you can only come to God through Christ. The question posed was is this how it is? What if you are born in a region of the world that Christianity hasn’t reached? Does this mean you don’t go to heaven? Is that your fault?
I suppose truth is relative to our understanding of the question and our own experience. It will therefore be different for each of us.
I also think that there is a time for knocking on doors, but that kicking a football in the park with family is just as fine an example of Christian mission.
Oh my goodness….the words that people resort to just to have you open the door. I’d agree that an open and healthy discussion on religion and spirituality is important!
Well I don’t like being forced feed any thing.
When it comes to religion to each their own.
These brochures usually are thrown in file 13 at our house.
This story also reminds me of a friend of mine.When we were in high school she( Holly )was in a car accident and because of the family’s religious believes she didn’t receive the medical attention and died two weeks later.It was a pretty traumatic time for me and the first death - I had to deal with before.We were both 16 years old.
In Holly’s case.She needed surgery.
She had been thrown threw the windshield of the car.I can still hear her mom tell us “She is in God’s hands now”.
I just found this totally unbelievable along with many of my classmates.Our high school provided grief council but they really didn’t explain much about the religious aspect behind her death.
Three other people were in the car that night.The only other injury was one broken arm.
I say the only other injury of course massive guilt for the driver who was her boyfriend.
Rambling here.Sorry
Bunny got Blog’s last blog post..Spam Bam - Thank You Mahem
@Neil - Hi, thanks for your comments. I don’t know the answer to your first question - I’ll have to do a bit of reading I think! It’s a tough scenario. It does seem to be a bit relative to our experiences etc. which is why religion’s shouldn’t be “us and them” - imaging being brought up as an Anglican and told that is the only correct choice - I totally disagree with that.
@Evelyn - I agree with your thoughts, thanks!
@Bunny - I’m sorry to hear about your friend. To be honest I’d be blaming the mother - it’s so irritating when people make decisions not to get medical treatment then somehow refer it back to “God’s will”. I appreciate hearing your thoughts…
Hi Ross….You made a curious statement in an above posting, that I wanted to comment on. You said “I believe that different people interpret it differently. “Go therefore and teach all the nations” does not literally state “knock on every door”. - How exactly do you reconcile that with Jesus’ command to go and make disciples of people of all nations? I don’t find Jesus’ words to be ambiguous or fuzzy. If you’re a true Christian, you will preach to everyone you come across, whether from door-to-door (a very popular method considering most people can be found at their homes) or on a bus, or on line in a grocery store, or wherever. If we are to try and make disciples of all, and teach all about the “good news of the kingdom”, knocking on every door would be one of many ways to try and accomplish that. Note Matthew 24:14 as well, where Jesus said that the good news must be preached through all the inhabited earth before the end will come. Again….why would anyone skip some doors if they were trying to accomplish that? Also, setting a good example for one’s children is a very positive aspect….but one also has to show their children the importance that obeying Jesus’ command to preach to all has in their life.
(amended comment)
@Robert - Hi, thanks for visiting! (Disclaimer: My reply is based on some preliminary research, not indepth study!) Regarding ambiguity and interpretation: many people use scripture from Acts 2, 5 and 20 to support the door to door method of preaching the gospel. The Greek word here translated in English as “house” is also translated as “private homes” in Acts 2:46. There is therefore some degree of interpretation of scripture - in a lot of cases we can make good inferences as to what they meant for that particular day and age, but that doesn’t change the fact that scripture is interpreted differently by different people. And sometimes that interpretation is swung to support their beliefs.
What is wrong, however, is to try to create a meaning that is not actually there. The apostles and early Christians visited people in their private home, but we don’t know that they actively engaged in door-to-door activity. I don’t believe ministry from house to house is a scriptural requirement. There is no scripture that explicitly instructs anyone to publicly door-knock. And certainly none that asks you to keep count of how many houses you knocked on.
Ross, in reference to your comments below….
“What is wrong, however, is to try to make the phrase convey a meaning that is not actually there. That the apostles and other early Christians visited people in their private homes is clear. That they engaged in door-to door activity as done by Jehovah’s Witnesses today is not clear.
Likewise, Jesus instructing his apostles to go out and preach to people’s homes, as in Matthew 10:9-14: the context can also be taken in the matter of lodging, not about a door-to-door activity.”
…..you’re actually very wrong. It would seem you are guilty of what you had also mentioned, namely “sometimes that interpretation is swung to support their beliefs”….because you’re taking a very clearly worded scripture and then twisting to say “hmmm, well it doesn’t REALLY mean this” when it does. Jesus’ command to preach the good news to people of all nations would include, by definition, going to where the people were located in order to reach them with that good news. The door-to-door method is an obvious inclusion in that; there’s no logical basis for leaving that method out of it. Looking back at Matthew 10:5-7 (which you didnt include earlier), his sending out of his disciples was exactly for the purpose of preaching (which would obviously have included door-to-door), and has nothing to do with simply visiting people for lodging. It would actually be taking the verses OUT of context, which would lead one to claim that it’s about lodging. The surrounding verses clearly show otherwise.
You said: “It only means that it would be inaccurate to call this public ministry from house to house a Scriptural requirement. It is certainly not. There is no Scripture instructing anyone to publicly preach from house to house.”
Really? Then the Apostle Paul must have misheard, or overestimated the value that going from door-to-door would have had in the evangelizing work. His own words: “I did not hold back from telling you any of the things that were profitable nor from teaching you publicly and from house to house.” (Acts 20:20). The same thing would then have to apply to the remainder of Jesus’ followers following Pentecost 33 CE: ““Every day in the temple and from house to house they continued without letup teaching and declaring the good news about the Christ, Jesus.” (Acts 5:42) - You may not find a direct scripture that says “You must preach from home to home”…..but there’s absolutely no reason why that activity would not have been engaged in, and there’s no reason why those claiming to be Christian wouldn’t engage in it today. The same value is there: finding individuals to preach “the good news of the Kingdom” to, in trying to accomplish that work “in all the inhabited earth for a witness to all the nations; and then the end will come.” (Matthew 24:14)
And there’s even more support for the door-to-door activity being scriptural in nature. At Acts 5:42 the words “from house to house” are translated from kat’ oi′kon. Here ka‧ta′ is used in a “distributive” sense. Hence, the preaching of the disciples was distributed from one house to another. Commenting on Acts 20:20, Randolph O. Yeager wrote that Paul taught “both in public assemblies [de‧mo‧si′a] and from house to house (distributive [ka‧ta′] with the accusative). Paul had spent three years in Ephesus. He visited every house, or at least he preached to all of the people (verse 26). Here is scriptural warrant for house to house evangelism as well as that carried on in public meetings.”
A similar use of ka‧ta′ appears at Luke 8:1, which speaks of Jesus preaching “from city to city and from village to village.” Paul used the plural form kat’ oi′kous at Acts 20:20. Here some Bible translations read “in your homes.” But the apostle was not referring solely to social calls upon elders or to shepherding visits in the homes of fellow believers. His next words show that he was speaking about a house-to-house ministry among unbelievers, for he said: “But I thoroughly bore witness both to Jews and to Greeks about repentance toward God and faith in our Lord Jesus.” (Acts 20:21) Fellow believers had already repented and exercised faith in Jesus. Hence, both Acts 5:42 and Acts 20:20 have to do with preaching to unbelievers “from house to house,” or from door to door.
Paul was at doorsteps regularly, setting a fine example as a minister. “He was not content with teaching and discoursing in the synagogue and the market,” wrote Bible scholar Edwin W. Rice. “He was ever diligently ‘teaching’ ‘from house to house.’ It was a house-to-house, hand-to-hand, face-to-face contest with evil, and to win men to Christ, that he waged in Ephesus.”
Hi Amy, thanks for your comments! Let me just first of all make it very clear that I’m not a biblical scholar. I don’t know the bible back to front, and I’m happy to be proven wrong on scriptural points! I don’t profess to be an expert, and my opinions and beliefs are my own, made up of my upbringing and experiences, my reading of the Bible, and my personal beliefs about God. My intention is to generate some thought about my experience with the Jehovah’s Witness, as in my main post.
Having said that, in your reply you state “The door-to-door method is an obvious inclusion in that; there’s no logical basis for leaving that method out of it”. Again that goes back to my original point: Passages of scripture are interpreted differently by different people, and different religions. Scripture is sometimes hard to interpret. I don’t believe the Jehovah’s Witnesses have it 100% correct - as stated in my post above, “Why are some religions so intent on professing that their beliefs are right, rather than seeing the bigger picture?” And I still don’t feel good about little kids knocking on my door, I’m sorry but surely that’s not right. I’m really happy to hear different people’s thoughts on this though, thanks so much for taking the time to comment. Here’s another take on it.
Here’s an interesting thought - why don’t all religions door knock? Does everyone else have it wrong except JW’s?
If you don’t mind children knocking on your door during the pagan, false religious holiday of Halloween……what would be wrong with parents training their children to faithfully and obediently serve God by sharing Bible truths with others? Surely that’s the right thing to do. I was raised around that activity, and I grew to love it and I’ve been engaged in it since I was a small child with absolutely no regrets. The children in our congregation love it as well, even if they can only ring a doorbell or hand a person a tract….they’re still contributing and they know they’re making Jehovah glad.
In the Bible, Jesus Christ himself told us that there is “one faith”, and even used the illustration of the wide and spacious road that leads to destruction that most of mankind is on, and then the cramped narrow road that leads to life that few are finding. It’s pretty clear that there is ONE true faith out there that is acceptable to God. The notion of ‘well there’s good in all religions’ or ‘all faiths have a little truth to them’ just doesn’t work. Would you drink a glass of water that had just a little poison in it? No. That said, while some religions may mean well……meaning well really isn’t enough. What they teach MUST be scripturally supported, and their actions must be in line with obedience to Jesus’ commands.
If you’ll notice when it comes to Jehovah’s Witnesses, they are the only religious group that collectively spends over ONE BILLION hours every year in talking to others about God’s Kingdom and sharing Bible truth. If you ask people which groups do they know of who will preach to them about the Bible, the majority of the time they’ll say Jehovah’s Witnesses. On occasion you’ll find some Mormons or Baptists going from door-to-door, but not sharing the same exact message the world over, and certainly not on the scale that Jehovah’s Witnesses are doing it.
One more point is that Jehovah’s Witnesses are required to submit reports every month, regarding how many hours they have spent that month in the preaching work, how many magazines, tracts,books etc that they have placed that month etc. However there does not seem to be a scripture that says that Christians must report how much time they have spent preaching.
Spiritual Brother’s last blog post..
In regards to “spiritual brother’s” comment:
There are a few things to consider when wondering why we are required to report our activity each month:
(1) Matthew 24:14 and Matthew 28:19, 20 specify that our preaching work has to be done “in all the inhabited earth” and to “people of all the nations”. - Unless the work is reported regularly, how will anyone know how far the work is progressing in the world? Unless we report it, how will we know exactly where the work is being done and where it still needs to be reached?
(2) The principle at 1 Corinthians 14:33 has a direct bearing on this preaching work. It says “For God is (a God), not of disorder but of peace.” And then in 1 Corinthians 14:40 it says “But let all things take place decently and by arrangement.” - Again, for the preaching assignment to be done in an orderly way and “by arrangement”, reports on the work would naturally need to be turned in regularly so the progress can be noted and adjustments made where circumstances require it.
(3) There are scriptural examples of the preaching work being reported. Mark 6:30 says “And the apostles g athered together before Jesus and reported to him all the things they had done and taught.” Obviously the early followers of Jesus took an interest in the reports of the progress of the preaching work. Also, the book of Acts makes mention of specific numbers of people: 120 gathered in the upper room in Pentecost, the number of disciples growing from 3000 to 5000, and so on. Obviously someone took the time to make note of those numbers and reported it to the older men, and then made note of it in the Bible record.
It just makes sense to turn in reports on the work. It’s very odd that anyone would try and take issue with it. Even in the business world, a company can send out people to work entire regions or areas, and don’t you think they’d expect progress reports from them? Or would they just throw them out there and assume it’s going well?
It is not true that “nowhere on the leaflet does it mention that the material is presented by the Jehovah’s Witnesses”. If you read it through, you will se that the last page mentions Jehovah’s Witnesses two times in the text and one time at the form at the bottom of the page - at least it does in the Danish issue I got. A friend showed me a Portuguese edition, and it was the same. At the bottom of the last page there is even a copyright statement of the Watch Tower society.
Here is the official statement about the leaflet campaign:
http://www.jw-media.org/frames/081028.htm
Hi Peter - I no longer have the leaflet to verify your claims - certainly if “Jehovah’s Witnesses” was mentioned, you’re probably right in saying it was slotted in on the back page - not on the front, not in the title, not in the main text for some reason. All material I’ve seen from other places at least reference where they’re from in an obvious spot (like the title! or the front page!) - Anglican Church… Catholic Church… Seventh Day Adventists - not this one though! Why would an organisation not want their name on the front page? It raises suspicion to hide it, and that’s the point I was making. That’s my opinion anyway - thanks for commenting.
I guess it is because Jehovah’s Witnesses want to focus on answers from the Bible, rather than focusing on their organization.
I just saw that the text from the leaflet is now online in a lot of languages for those that want to verify what I wrote above:
http://www.watchtower.org/languages.htm
My question is much sillier than everyone else’s.
If they asked, “Do you like to be fooled or tricked?” and you answered, “YES! Yes, in fact I do. Have you come with some foolery or trickery? I hope so, because that’s the sort of thing I really look forward to!”
I can’t even imagine what their response would be.
Pace’s last blog post..Mushy anniversary post. (:
@Pace - it’s funny you should mention that… You know how you look back on situations and always have a response you *wish* you came out with at the time? Well I’ve thought of several along the lines of what you suggest.. “Yes! I love a good trick!” etc… Would have made for an interesting conversation, I’m sure!
Been amoung JW for 13mnths, love the indepth study of the Bible, and love the caring people JW are, however all this aside I dont understand a few things. I was told we had to work hard in regards to the ministry because Jehovah gave his only begotton son for our sins. But it was a gift, since when do you have to work to pay for a gift given to you. Secondly I know of a young girl whose past was proded by JW’s and the affects on this girls mental state was trmendous, now shes wanting to kill herself, and she feels worthless, because the JW family she was with has abandoned her and placed her in the too hard basket. I dont feel thats very godly like, especially when they are trying to be a image of Jehovah. And thirdly I have always believed everyone has a right to believe what they want to, and each should respect there beliefs, but I have always dissaproved of door knocking to preach. I have always believe God put us on earth to be the very best we can be, be honest obedient to our parents, reliable, etc. I feel there are many unaswered questions. I believe people should love one another unconditionally regardless of transgressions. Just because someone slips up and sleeps with a married person, doesnt mean they should be banned from the meetings, and there own familys to shun them for it. I know a very dear lady whom questioned the WT doctrines, been a JW for 50 yrs didnt believe the WT was loving enough, so her and her hubby left and have been out of the JW for 25 yrs, only just learnt her son whom still was a JW had died a week after he died, and he had been having heart probs for a yr, but because of the ru you were not allowed to talk to the disfellowed ones, she missed saying good bye to her son. Thts wrong, no wonder the JW have the reputation for spliting up familes. I am sorry if this offends anyone, but if you sit down and see logic of some of these commentn line from other x JW etc, and theres some JW that wants out because of the abuse the rules have on women and kids etc. Its wrong
Hi KC, thanks for visiting and taking the time to write such a well thought out comment that’s obviously from the heart. It’s really interesting to hear from someone who has been around JW’s closely as you have. Don’t be discouraged by other people’s opinions - you have every entitlement to question things, and there is no reason to be ostracized by anyone because of this. Which really leads be back to one of my original points, “isn’t there room somewhere for healthy and open discussion about God, life, religion?”
I agree completely with your thoughts on the girl who was pressed too far - having worked with people who have been mistreated like this, my thoughts are that people need help, love, support - not grand inquisitions and revisiting of past hurts. God’s love is greater.
Regarding people believing what they want - it’s a really tough area. I’m really into leaving the nit-picking out of it. If someone grows up as an Anglican, how about you see the common ground rather than criticize them for the differences in your religion!? I’m amazed at the bickering and nit picking that goes on. Why set out to prove that your teachings are the ONLY WAY, as JW’s seem to be so intent on doing? (and keeping count!) This seems very wrong to me.
You also mention people slipping up - that is the nature of people. I do it, you do it, you’re fooling yourself if you think you’ve never slipped up - we are human! People make mistakes! The good news is, there is always forgiveness. We need to be more accepting and forgiving of other people, and ready to forgive ourselves too. Who are we to judge others? Come on… What a “holier than thou” attitide.
Thanks again for your thoughts, I hope you don’t get dejected spiritually or otherwise - your concerns are valid, maybe it’s time to try another church. All the best.
We certainatley do make mistakes.
I feel with JW they are not about forgiveness. which to me makes no sense because Jesus died for our sins, he forgave our many sins, and the JW makes this event every year a big deal, which is great, but why are they making a deal of it if they cannot apply the principle from Jesus and forgive those instead of shunning others and there families. Its cruel.
Thank you for your comments Ross.
Lots of talk about truth & whether there’s one or many. I know what I believe, but setting that to one side, it seems silly to say that lots of different views about the same subject can all be true!
Here’s a challenge. Ask God for the truth when you don’t get something. I’m always amazed at the result of this. I can tell you what I believe if you want, but I think in this case it’s best to say ask God. One bit of truth - he is reliable, but it takes some open-ness to hear him. Seems to me that this approach can’t be accused of pushing a view onto people. If you think God might have said something, ask again, he doesn’t mind. If you’re still not sure, ask again. You’ll get to a point when you know you don’t need to ask again about that subject. I guess I’m speaking mainly to people who believe there is a God, but then again, there are atheists who found God after saying, ‘if you are there you’re going to have to prove it!’. I realise that might even stretch the definition of an atheist, but this is from their accounts not mine! C S Lewis being a famous one. Hope that’s not too off the point, I’ve just seen the time and it’s not good!