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I'm tempted lately to put together a pamphlet that can be handed out to JWs. One citing their own sources in the Watchtower magazine, the NWT and Matthew 7:15-20 and Deuteronomy 18:20-22 with th elong list of failed prophecies.
But I'd do poorly at it and end up taking more of a hitting them over the head approach then would be good. It'd probably be for the wrong reason of just feeling self-gratified to hand them out in front of a Kingdom Hall.
I feel sorry for them--they're very deluded.
Their Bible translation is whacked. I did buy an Interlinear Bible from them, which has the Greek, the literal translation into English, and the \"Jehovah's Witness\" version. It's astonishing to see how many fairly small, but significant and alarming, changes they've made in it...For example, in one place where we translate \"God\", the say \"a god\".
The interlinear Bible was great for studying and translating Old Church Slavonic, though, when I was taking courses in it in grad school.
Yeah I was a little offput to see they translated John 1:1 like that. In other places translating kyrios as lord or Jehovah when it just means lord.
I don't know if anyone here uses Linux at home but there is an excellent program for it BibleTime. Many translations available for direct comparison including ancient Greek and LXX texts and a Greek lexicon with Strong's numbers.
I run Linux in a virtual machine and the only reason I really use it these days is for that program. It doesn't have the NWT as one of the available translations which is a shame since there is also easily accessed commentary in the program.
You can find similar functionality for Windows here:
http://www.crosswire.org/sword/software/biblecs/
I've invited them in on a couple of occasions but the never stayed. Between the Icons and the fact I had about 10 different Bible's available for us to discuss they may have be overwhelmed. I read a Pew report that said the JW's attract large numbers of converts but hemorage as many as they take in annually. That speaks volumes about them to me.
Please pray for me. I work at a dental office, and the boss and his wife hired 2 JWs recently. One is the receptionist and the other is a dental assistant. (I'm the dental hygienist) The receptionist, especially, started preaching to the patients in the waiting room. The boss had to put a quick stop to that! I've recently found out a few things about JWs that I didn't realize before. For example, they don't believe in military service. I also wasn't aware that they believe that Jesus was \"created\" and not \"begotten\". And the whole thing about how only 144,000 people will be saved? Don't get me started!
The Jehovah's Witnesses are an offshoot of a 19th-century millenialist (sp?) movement that splintered into the usual multiplicity of sects. They started from a position of ignorance and went on from there. The Seventh-Day Adventists are a saner offshoot from the same root.
I come in contact with them regularly, since I use public transportation and they hang out at the bus station seeking their prey. In my discusssions with them, I found out that they quote the great comission in Mathew commanding them to baptize in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit! But they still deny the Holy Trinity ,because they are told to do so. Poor people there is a lot of cognitive dissonance going on there.
I have taken to repurposing the covers of the Watch Tower magazines that they used to leave lying around at pay phones in my nieghborhood. I write on them \"Jehovah Witnesses are a Santanic Cult\" with a large permanant marker. By God's grace this small effort on my part has stopped them from littering so much in my part of town.
One experience I had with them nearly 40 years ago was when two mothers stayed on the sidewalk while their two children holding Watchtowers rapped on the door - I asked the children to call their mothers to the door. One woman yelled at me to talk to the children (\"it is their duty\") and I replied that what I had to say was for adult ears only. The other woman reluctantly came to the door where I showed her the Hebrew and Greed Testaments and asked her which one she wanted to debate over. She replied that she was no longer interested, told the children to come along, and they all left.
I had not seen them darken any of the porches where I have lived since until about six months ago when a young couple came to the door offering to give me a good word for the day. I asked them where they were from - the husband said from here in town, his wife said \"He means 'What church'\", and proceeded to say Kingdom Hall. I stated I am Orthodox and that I needed to have some sort of common understanding in order to have a conversation, and asked what Bible they were using. He said, \"Oh we use many different ones - which do you prefer?\" I told them I prefer the Septuagint, and then asked, \"Do you believe in the Trinity?\" He hem=hawed a bit and his wife piped in \"no, of course not.\" To which I replied that we had no common ground upon which to discuss things - thank you for dropping by.\" And they left.
About three months ago, an older couple approached me while I was out on the porch. They too said they had a good word to share, and would open the Bible to it. Because I was feeling a bit feisty, I asked them about the Trinity. In unison they replied that that was unbiblical heresy, and of course they did not believe in it. I said I was sorry because without the Trinity we could not discuss the Bible rationally. They thanked me for my time and left.
The Witnesses around whom I worked never entered into the birthday parties even when those parties were for either of them or for Thanksgiving or Christmas. Publicly they never accepted gifts given them. But they also did not 'evangelize' at the workplace.'
Pray for me, a sinner.
Gamliel, they are Arians in many ways. Mostly because they claim Christ is a created being not the Logos. In fact I f memeory serves they believe that Jesus was the Archangel Michael, and that he only appeared to suffer on the cross, just as many 2nd through 4th or 5th century heretical groups believed.
It's not just the misguided nature of their church, the JW's and Mormans are closed societies. They are not allowed to question their church. If they leave the church, then they are the outsiders, sometimes cut off from friends, family, etc. It's not just a matter of exposing the holes in their theology.