Witnessing to Jehovah’s Witnesses

The following is the conclusion to the article by Keith Gibson, What Must the Jehovah’s Witnesses Do to Be Saved?  It was in the July-August 2005 edition of the Areopagus Journal, from the Apologetics Resource Center.  It should give you some ideas about dealing with the next Jehovah’s Witnesses that come to your door.

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Jehovah’s Witnesses, like those in any other works-base group, desperately need to hear the message of grace.  Though there is no “sure-fire” method for witnessing, some suggestions might prove helpful.  First, build on the Witnesses’s uncertainty of trying to earn Jehovah’s favor.  Question the Witness regarding his ability to know when he has done enough.  In other words, when he lays his head down at night, how does he know if he has done enough of each activity that day?  If he cannot know if he satisfied Jehovah even for a single day, how can he know about an entire life? 1 John 5:11-13 is helpful at this point.   No honest Jehovah’s Witness can tell you that he knows he has eternal life as this text says he can.  Tell the JW that you know that you have eternal life because you have fully complied with God’s requirements for receiving eternal life.  John 1:12, teaches that we must receive Christ for salvation.  It is his righteousness and not our own that secures our salvation (Phil.3:9).  Share with the JW John 5:37-38; John 6:28-29; and Eph 2:4-9 which make it clear that our works do not save us.  Indeed, to attempt to earn salvation by works is in direct disobedience to God’s commands.

Another passage that may prove helpful at this point is Hebrews 10:14 which states, “For by one offering he has perfected forever those who are being made holy.”  Emphasize that as a believer in Jesus, you have been given the perfection for which the Witness is so diligently laboring.  Note: this is not the time to talk about your ongoing struggle with sin.  This is the time to emphasize the imputed righteousness of Christ.  Notice that the verse says that by Christ’s offering we are perfected forever.  Lovingly, patiently, drive that home.  In my own encounters with Witnesses I have said something like this:  “I see you working so hard and hoping desperately that you have done enough and that Jehovah is finally pleased and knowing that tomorrow you have to go through the process again.  But in Christ we can be given the righteousness that is pleasing to Jehovah and we can have peace with him.”  Jehovah’s Witnesses can never truly know peace with God.  They live daily under the unbearable burden placed on them by  the Watchtower.

Second, it may also be necessary to explain how a true understanding of grace does not lead to a life of sinfulness.  I have used the illustration of the obedience given to a loving father.  The child obeys, not in order to earn the love and relationship with the father, but in response to it.

Finally, and above all, pray.  Salvation is a miracle of God.  Only God can open eyes blinded by the god of this world. ... Former Jehovah’s Witness, Joan Cetnar says this, “Talk to God about the person more than you talk to the person about God.”  Words worth remembering.