In the past at this blog, I’ve griped about how I always seem to miss Jehovah’s Witnesses when they come to our door. My husband sometimes takes a tract or two for me to pore over in amazement later, but it’s so disappointing not to be able to talk to them face-to-face. People confident enough in their beliefs to go door-to-door interrupting our lives to preach to us? I’d love to see how they answer some of my questions.
Well, yesterday, my luck turned around! In the afternoon, two young women knocked on our door with tote bags full of Watchtower magazines over their shoulders and New World Translation Bibles in hand. As I heard them introducing themselves to my husband in our doorway, I rushed over to join them.
The first question we asked was what reason they had to believe that the Bible was true. If you want to come and tell us the “good news” in the Bible, fine — but you had better start by explaining to us that this is a book worth believing in the first place. One of them happily opened up the latest issue of The Watchtower and pointed us to a colored box on the page surrounding some line of scripture. She began, “It actually says right here in –” and as she said the name of the book (I think she was citing 2 Timothy 3:16 but might have misremebered) my husband cut her off. “No. You don’t understand. If it’s in the Bible, it doesn’t count. That’s circular logic.”
They were a little bit flummoxed by this, and started assuring us that the Bible is full of verses that explain how correct the Bible is. We tried again. One of us said, “Of course the Bible says that the Bible is true. I don’t doubt that at all.” They were visibly relieved, and we went on to explain how, if we haven’t decided the Bible is true yet, it doesn’t help to point to the Bible’s assertion on the matter to change our minds. They were starting to get it.
One of the missionaries claimed that there are lots of fulfilled prophecies in the Bible, as well as later-confirmed scientific knowledge — for example that the Earth was round. We’ve been over that silly claim already; I repeated my explanation that saying that the Earth is a “circle” is not the same as saying it’s a “sphere,” and that that combined with saying that the sky is a “tent” doesn’t paint a picture of accurate science at all. She was “sorry to hear [I felt] that way about it.”
Eventually, one of the women volunteered to explain why she believed the Jehovah’s Witness version of Christianity. She was a convert, she said, and though she was brought up to believe in God and the Bible and all that, it didn’t make her a good person. She was “a drunk and a fornicator,” and she would “go to church but then get high afterward anyway.” A few years ago she learned about Jehovah’s Witnesses and started reading their literature, and she found herself inspired to clean up her act. It gave her the motivation to be a better person. The other woman chimed in at this point and they both explained how they’ve found JWs to be upstanding, well-behaved, “clean” people across the board.
My husband had a very diplomatic answer to this, which was good because I think I was too floored to have a snappy comeback. (Someone is actually presenting this to me as proof?) He said something like: “I have a lot of respect for many religious people. They seem to be trying their best to be good people, and they do a lot of good stuff for the world.” (Much nodding from the missionaries.) “The thing is, I know a lot of people like that, and some of them are Christians, some are Muslims, some are Buddhists, some have no religion. But all these beliefs are mutually exclusive, they can’t all be right! It’s got to be pretty clear that ‘helping someone behave right’ isn’t proof that an idea is true.”
At this point I was ready to join in: “Belief in Santa Claus motivates plenty of children to behave, but that’s no reason to believe Santa Claus is real — surely Jehovah’s Witnesses would agree with that.” I got a good laugh on that line.
But … a laugh was about all we got. One of them said, “Well, we’re not here to knock any other religion, or anything like that,” and our conversation meandered around to other topics (to be covered in later posts). That was all we got in the way of proof — unconvincing assertions about fulfilled prophecy and scientific knowledge, and the claim that it’s useful to encourage good behavior. In other words, no better than the nonsense I encounter every other day. You’d think that people who go door-to-door would be more prepared than that … but, apparently not.
TaiChi on 
Robert Jacobs
/ March 22, 2011 at 2:18 pmVery interesting Blog. As a Jehovah’s Witness myself and having had the privilege of going out on the ministry over the years (what most know as door to door work), I have never had this question asked of me, and not a question that would normally be anticipated in the western world, as statistically most people in the ‘west’ believe in the Bible as the word of God and it is just the interpretation and different views or translations that is being questioned.
In total there are about 6,000 different ‘Christian’ sects who all believe that the Bible is the true word of God, but all have major or minor differences. It is questions regarding these differences that Jehovah’s witnesses are usually anticipating. I want to believe that your question directed at these people was to gain knowledge and not merely to confront from the outset and think that your question is a very good one, and one that we all should be prepared to have an answer for; as Christianity only make up 1/6 of the population. How do you try and convert a Muslim believing in the Quran, that my ‘Book’ is closer to the truth than yours….
These sisters clearly went out to promote a monthly publication from the witness organization and being prepared for that, struggled to answer a question taking them into a different direction of conversation not being prepared for. You must also understand the phycology involved in going from door to door. It is not an easy task for any one at any age, no matter how confident you are in front of people, to go from door to door knowing that majority of the people will slam the door in your face, or even worse in extreme cases. But we do see it as our duty and therefore go out like a lamb between the wolves. When they were confronted with a question that they could not answer; they should have asked if it was convenient for them to come back to you regarding that, or have someone else with more knowledge come and see you, as I am sure that having answered your question in a satisfactory way, you would have been interested to hear about what they believe and not judge them on not being able to have an answer when put on the spot that any member of the 6,000 Christian sects will struggle to answer. But your question definitely made me think to be better prepared going forward. Myself.
In answer to your question. We all know about the prophesies that came true etc. etc. So putting that aside, what makes me believe in the Bible…first of all; the authors of the Book. The Bible was written over a period of 1,600 if you take the time from before Moses to John who wrote revelations. There are hundreds of archaeological findings that proofed these people really did exists and was who the Bible say they were. The Dead Sea scrolls dating back to 150 B.C. is a good example as well. It lists most of the older books in the Bible and clearly show the name of God (Jehovah, Yahweh, or however you want to pronounce it).
Also, what makes me a believer in the Bible is that it is the oldest book known to man and is the most circulated book in the world. It has been the target of many attempt throughout the centuries to be destroyed. From the ‘religious leaders’ in the dark ages to the Nazis in Germany, yet it survived and flourished, making me believe that there are higher powers at work here.
In the end it comes down to personal choice; free will to decide for yourself what feels right. I read the Quran and even though there are a fast amount of similarities to the Bible, where it differed did not sit comfortably with me and the person I want to be. It is your choice, if you will believe in the Bible, Quran or any book or theory. My suggestion would be to read them all yourself and then decide on which book you would like further guidance on. For me, I believe in the Bible and the Jehovah Witnesses’ interpretation of the Bible. I also believe that if you really seek the truth wholeheartedly, that it will come your way. Good luck in your quest.
Aristarchus
/ March 22, 2011 at 6:46 pmI think you’re missing the point. Having a good reason to believe the Bible is true shouldn’t be something you figure out before going out to convert people… it should be something you figure out before you choose to believe the religion in the first place. It’s the fact that they were Jehova’s Witnesses and didn’t have an answer that’s outrageous – the fact that they were going door to door just provided a convenient opportunity to ask them.
Most of the reasons you give, though, are complete nonsense. There is no archeological evidence to say that Moses existed. Some of the authors of the Bible did exist, but so did Mark Twain, and yet I’m pretty sure what he wrote is mostly fiction.
I for one have found almost no prophecies in the Bible that came true, so I’d love to know what you think those are.
The Bible isn’t the oldest book known to man. It is old, but neither that nor the fact that it’s widely circulated makes it true. I don’t know of any religious leaders in the dark ages who tried to destroy the Bible, though if you know of some I’d love to hear it. The Nazis never tried to destroy the Bible either. The Bible has been officially endorsed by many of the most powerful rulers/countries on earth since the year 313. It hardly takes the invocation of supernatural powers to explain why it still exists.
Really, though, all of this is beside the point. You freely explain that you choose your religious beliefs based on what sits well with you and feels comfortable and provides good guidance. That’s nice, but a lot of us choose to believe or not believe things based on whether we think they’re actually true. I know, crazy. I bet, though, that if you try to define the word “believe” you’ll come to find that that stance is sort of unavoidable…
George W.
/ March 23, 2011 at 4:17 pmMy wife and I got in an argument just last week about my need to engage with JWs. She thinks I should just tell them politely that we are not interested, but the thing is, I am interested. I like to know why people think the way they do, especially if they think differently than me.
I asked a few “tough questions” to these nice JW ladies a few months ago and, just as Robert predicted, they showed up a week later with an “Elder”- whatever that entails. He was polite as well and was happy to answer my questions, and they never seemed pushy for one moment.
I have a much larger respect for JWs then I did when I was a Christian where I was repeatedly told that they were a cult destined for Hell. They were “works-based” salvation people- that is the equivalent of being a crack-whore if you are a methodist.
I agree though, that if you are going to hold to a faith at all, you should have answered the kinds of questions like “How do I trust Biblical authority?” before you accept it as fact. This was part of what eroded my faith…I was unable, when I got to a point where I had to verify these “facts”, to actually verify anything. Even the inferences were contrary.
To add insult to irony, it was a conversation with a YEC friend that forced me to ask the hard questions, and was the straw that broke the camels back for my faith.