Hey everyone!
I thought I’d write about a new project that I am working on. Last week the JWs passed by our place and left one of the Watchtower magazines with my wife. As is my usual custom, I sat down to read it. Usually I can’t take too much of it, but this one was different. This particular issue was entitled: “6 Myths About Christianity”. It “exposed” various “myths” that most Christians believe are found in the Bible, like the immortality of the soul, the Trinity, the doctrine of hell and eternal punishment, and that pesky, recurring little idea that Jesus is God. So what? The Jehovah’s Witnesses are always pushing their literature and it’s always the same thing, more or less. The JWs themselves report a global membership of over 7 million people actively involved in evangelism and preaching. They also still (this according to http://www.jwfacts.com/watchtower/statistics.php) have a growth rate of between 1-2% per annum. While this growth rate is down significantly from three decades ago, the point is that they are still growing and retaining about 90% of their converts (U.S. Religious Landscape Survey Religious Affiliation: Diverse and Dynamic. Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life. February 2008. pp. 9, 30.). It is reported that a Jehovah’s Witness will spend between 70 and 120 hours every month evangelizing. In Costa Rica they are highly active. In fact, our church sits roughly 400 meters from a Kingdom Hall and they are regularly evangelizing the neighborhood. The thing is, while many people just slam the door in their faces or turn off the lights and hide under the carpet, there are plenty of people who continue to open the doors to them: the disillusioned, disenfranchised, elderly, shut-ins, single mothers, people who are disenchanted with the current state of the evangelical or catholic churches. My point is that as a church we must reach out to evangelize, not only Jehovah’s Witnesses, but also those who are evangelized by them. It is a sad state of affairs, but true, that many people who consider themselves to be Christians cannot defend the most basic doctrines of the faith against a well-indoctrinated JW.
What are we doing about it? After reading this last edition of the Watchtower magazine (6 Myths About Christianity), I decided to write a series of six tracts (trifold brochures) entitled: “Six Myths of the Watchtower”. The idea will be to write and print these tracts, then bundle them together. What we will do is divide our neighborhoods into sections and take the tracts house by house, leaving them with people to read and letting them know that we will be back to follow-up and if they would like to talk about them, we want to make ourselves available. This serves a number of purposes. First, we get literature about the Jehovah’s Witnesses’ key doctrines into the hands of people who may be or have been evangelized by them. Second, our church becomes a recognized source of good information and they learn who we are. Lastly, we may, in the Lord’s providence, be able to speak to some about the gospel. If people will open their doors to the JWs, why should we believe that they will close them on us?
The “six myths” of the Watchtower that we are going to hit in these tracts are (in their words):
1. When you die, you cease to exist.
2. God will not punish people in hell.
3. The majority of good people will live forever on the earth, not in heaven.
4. The doctrine of the Trinity was invented in the latter part of the fourth century.
5. Jesus Christ is the Son of God, but not God Almighty.
6. The Holy Spirit is the active force of God, not a person.
The first of these tracts was finished today and is being edited. It has already been typeset and laid out for print. Pray for this work and the success of these tracts. If the Lord does not build the house, those who labor, labor in vain.
