Some brief notes on a conversation and some scripture verses that can help with evangelism…
Notes: Below are a number of verses that I recently printed out for an (unsaved) family member who has had a slight JW indoctrination – they can be helpful when evangelising. There is also some notes that may be helpful…
Description:
This family member has had contact with the JW’s and therefore has some serious flaws in his thoughts about God & salvation. I recently went through a number of things in the scriptures with him about Who Jesus is, ‘Jehovah’ and salvation. When he was aware of what sin is, the fact he had committed it and the only way to be forgiven through Jesus – I confronted him with what he was going to do about it.
First off I let him talk and listened to his actual beliefs & where he was. This is vital – we need to understand where people are at & not jump to conclusions.
Then I addressed each thing he said clearly, slowly and with analogies. These covered Jesus, the Trinity and God having no beginning. I went slowly & made sure He understood before going to a new topic.
I used scriptures – but I let him read them from a Bible (in this case an iPad). I stopped him and went over things until he had it. Some lines about Jesus being the Creator I went over 10 times. Then when He asked a question I said “read the verse – what does the Bible say”. He got it each time.
I used a number of verses, but took a lot of time on Romans 1:19 and Colossians 1:16.
I emphasised and asked him questions like “what does God promise will happen to those who fail to worship Him for who He is? The JW’s know this as they use it to try to say only they are in God’s will. But they miss the fact that there are other revelations about His name and character, the last being Jesus.
Obviously the JW’s miss who God is. They centre on one revelation of God at the burning bush where He calls Himself “YHWH” – which is often translated as Jehovah in English – though more accurately would be “Yahweh” *(see notes at bottom).
I asked this man to follow ‘Jehovah’ through time – to listen to what He said – right through to where Jesus was born and afterwards. I acknowledged that God did indeed reveal Himself as ‘Yahweh’ / ‘Jehovah’ – and it was not wrong to call God Jehovah, Yahweh, El Shaddai etc. But God later revealed that Jesus was divine…if we ought to honour ‘Jehovah’, we should also honour Jesus.
I showed him the verses where ‘Jehovah” said we need to acknowledge Jesus as God and that only through His name can we be saved.
The conversation afterwards went something like this:
“If I told you there was a fire on the road on the way home & your car would catch fire & you would burn to death if you tried to drive home – would you do it?”
“No of course not”
“Well your soul is much more important than your body – it lives forever!”
“You will be judged according to the Holy-ness of God and only the sacrifice of Jesus can cleanse you.”
“Yes I believe but how do I know I am saved?”
“It is like having a parachute on a plane that will crash – you may know about it, you may know how it works, you may even be able to tell other people about it – but until you put it on & jump out of the plane – you are doomed.
“If you are trusting anything other than Jesus, or anything as well as Jesus – you are still in the plane! Go home and get right with God – no one else can do it for you”
“When you are saved you will know – only He can tell you that you are saved.”
I also printed out the below for him to read in his own time.
Conclusion: The Word is powerful!
PRAYER: Lord please help us to be diligent and proactive in spreading your glorious Gospel – give us patience and clarity and above all, please empower us by your Spirit. Thank you for your love for us and the people we talk to – open our eyes and theirs continually to your love and truth Amen.
“You can enter God’s Kingdom only through the narrow gate. The highway to hell is broad, and its gate is wide for the many who choose that way. 14 * But the gateway to life is very narrow and the road is difficult, and only a few ever find it
(Matthew 7:13-14 NLTSB)
21 * “Not everyone who calls out to me, ‘Lord! Lord! ’ will enter the Kingdom of Heaven. Only those who actually do the will of my Father in heaven will enter. 22 * On judgment day many will say to me, ‘Lord! Lord! We prophesied in your name and cast out demons in your name and performed many miracles in your name. ’ 23 * But I will reply, ‘I never knew you. Get away from me, you who break God’s laws
(Matthew 7:21-23 NLTSB)
* For everyone has sinned; we all fall short of God’s g glorious standard
(Romans 3:23 NLTSB)
1 * Listen! The L ord ’s arm is not too weak to save you,
nor is his ear too deaf to hear you call.
2 * It’s your sins that have cut you off from God.
Because of your sins, he has turned away
and will not listen anymore
(Isaiah 59:1-2 NLTSB)
This includes you who were once far away from God. You were his enemies, separated from him by your evil thoughts and actions
(Colossians 1:21 NLTSB)
For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life through Christ Jesus our Lord
(Romans 6:23 NLTSB)
15 And anyone whose name was not found recorded in the Book of Life was thrown into the lake of fire
(Revelation 20:15 NLTSB)
8 * “But cowards, unbelievers, the corrupt, murderers, the immoral, those who practice witchcraft, f idol worshipers, and all liars—their fate is in the fiery lake of burning sulfur. This is the second death
(Revelation 21:8 NLTSB)
29 * Their lives became full of every kind of wickedness, sin, greed, hate, envy, murder, quarrelling, deception, malicious behaviour, and gossip. 30 * They are backstabbers, haters of God, insolent, proud, and boastful. They invent new ways of sinning, and they disobey their parents. 31 * They refuse to understand, break their promises, are heartless, and have no mercy. 32 * They know God’s justice requires that those who do these things deserve to die, yet they do them anyway
(Romans 1:29-32 NLTSB)
* You can be sure that no immoral, impure, or greedy person will inherit the Kingdom of Christ and of God. For a greedy person is an h idolater, worshiping the things of this world
(Ephesians 5:5 NLTSB)
The world’s sin is that it refuses to believe in me
(John 16:9 NLTSB)
But God showed his great love for us by sending Christ to die for us while we were still sinners
(Romans 5:8 NLTSB)
* If you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your b heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be c saved. 10 * For it is by believing in your heart that you are made d right with God, and it is by confessing with your mouth that you are saved. 11 * As the Scriptures tell us, “Anyone who trusts in him will never be disgraced
(Romans 10:9-11 NLTSB)
36 * Put your trust in the light while there is still time; then you will become children of the light
(John 12:36 NLTSB)
12 * Jesus spoke to the people once more and said, “I am the light of the world. If you follow me, you won’t have to walk in darkness, because you will have the light that leads to life
(John 8:12 NLTSB)
44 * Jesus shouted to the crowds, “If you trust me, you are trusting not only me, but also God who sent me. 45 * For when you see me, you are seeing the one who sent me. 46 * I have come as a light to shine in this dark world, so that all who put their trust in me will no longer remain in the dark. 47 * I will not judge those who hear me but don’t obey me, for I have come to save the world and not to judge it. 48 But all who reject me and my message will be judged on the day of judgment by the truth I have spoken. 49 * I don’t speak on my own authority. The Father who sent me has commanded me what to say and how to say it. 50 And I know his commands lead to eternal life; so I say whatever the Father tells me to say
(John 12:44-50 NLTSB)
38 * Peter replied, “Each of you must repent of your sins and turn to God, and be b baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins. Then you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit
(Acts 2:38 NLTSB)
7 * But if we are living in the light, as God is in the light, then we have fellowship with each other, and the blood of Jesus, his Son, cleanses us from all sin.
8 * If we claim we have no sin, we are only fooling ourselves and not living in the truth. 9 * But if we confess our c sins to him, he is faithful and just to forgive us our c sins and to cleanse us from all wickedness. 10 * If we claim we have not sinned, we are calling God a liar and showing that his word has no place in our hearts
(1 John 1:7-10 NLTSB)
2 * My servant grew up in the L ord ’s presence like a tender green shoot,
like a root in dry ground.
There was nothing beautiful or majestic about his appearance,
nothing to attract us to him.
3 * He was despised and rejected—
a man of sorrows, acquainted with deepest grief.
We turned our backs on him and looked the other way.
He was despised, and we did not care.
4 * Yet it was our weaknesses he carried;
it was our sorrows that weighed him down.
And we thought his troubles were a punishment from God,
a punishment for his own sins!
5 * But he was pierced for our i rebellion,
crushed for our sins.
He was beaten so we could be whole.
He was whipped so we could be healed.
6 * All of us, like sheep, have strayed away.
We have left God’s paths to follow our own.
Yet the L ord laid on him
the sins of us all.
7 * He was oppressed and treated harshly,
yet he never said a word.
He was led like a lamb to the slaughter.
And as a sheep is silent before the shearers,
he did not open his mouth.
8 * Unjustly condemned,
he was led away.
No one cared that he died without descendants,
that his life was cut short in midstream.
But he was struck down
for the rebellion of my people.
9 * He had done no wrong
and had never deceived anyone.
But he was buried like a criminal;
he was put in a rich man’s grave.
10 * But it was the L ord ’s good plan to crush him
and cause him grief.
Yet when his life is made an offering for sin,
he will have many j descendants.
He will enjoy a long life,
and the L ord ’s good plan will prosper in his hands.
11 * When he sees all that is accomplished by his anguish,
he will be satisfied.
And because of his experience,
my righteous k servant will make it possible
for many to be counted righteous,
for he will bear all their sins
(Isaiah 53:2-11 NLTSB)
8 Then Peter, filled with the Holy Spirit, said to them, “Rulers and elders of our people, 9 are we being questioned today because we’ve done a good deed for a crippled man? Do you want to know how he was healed? 10 * Let me clearly state to all of you and to all the people of Israel that he was healed by the powerful name of Jesus Christ the Nazarene, the man you crucified but whom God raised from the dead. 11 * For Jesus is the one referred to in the Scriptures, where it says,
‘The stone that you builders rejected
has now become the cornerstone. ’
12 * There is salvation in no one else! God has given no other name under heaven by which we must be f saved
(Acts 4:11-12 NLTSB)
26 * And the Holy Spirit helps us in our weakness. For example, we don’t know what God wants us to pray for. But the Holy Spirit prays for us with groanings that cannot be expressed in words. 27 * And the Father who knows all hearts knows what the Spirit is saying, for the Spirit pleads for us believers in harmony with God’s own will. 28 * And we know that God causes everything to work together for the good of those who love God and are b called according to his purpose for them
(Romans 8:26-28 NLTSB)
13 I pray that God, the source of hope, will fill you completely with joy and peace because you trust in him. Then you will overflow with confident hope through the power of the Holy Spirit
(Romans 15:13 NLTSB)
12 * “Look, I am coming soon, bringing my reward with me to repay all people according to their deeds. 13 I am the Alpha and the Omega, the First and the Last, the Beginning and the End
(Revelation 22:12-13 NLTSB)
JEHOVAH *
Name for God formed by adding the vowels of the Hebrew word Adonai to the consonants of the Hebrew divine name, YHWH. Out of their respect for God and their fear of defiling his name, the postexilic Jews refused to pronounce the divine name when reading Scripture. Instead, they substituted Adonai, a word meaning “my Lord.” Prior to the sixth century AD, the Hebrew text had no vowels. These were supplied during the reading of the Scripture by one who was familiar with the language. When vowel points were added to the text (AD 660- 700), the vowels of Adonai were placed below the consonants of YHWH to indicate that Adonai should be read.
It is thought that about AD 1520 Petrus Galatinus conceived the idea of combining the two names, thus creating the new form YeHoWaH, from which the English term Jehovah comes. Although this form was foreign to the Hebrew language, it gained wide acceptance and was included as the translation for God’s name in various verses in the KJV and ASV. Biblical scholars now agree that the original pronounceiation of the divine name was Yahweh or Jahveh
(TyndaleDictionary)
Lord, help us to study, devour and soak in Your Word so we have a truthful answer for those who need it. May we operate in love for all we meet and may we be guided by Your Spirit, the Spirit of Truth, to remind people of what you actually said. Be glorified.