Witnessing to Witnesses- Not quite prepared
I went with my folks today to pick up my brother from the airport. He is visiting for CHRISTmas. Since we got to the airport early, I decided to drop by and see if the Jehovah’s Witnesses were there. They have a booth in terminal one where they usually station themselves. Sure enough, they where they.
My folks and I went into the Starbucks in the terminal and on the way, I took a Watchtower magazine from the two JW ladies. The title said something about living forever. If you know anything about my Dad, you will know that he is notoriously EARLY for everything. Since we had close to an hour, I decided to spend it with the JW’s. I went back to their booth and asked if they wouldn’t mind answering a question about the magazine I took from them earlier. The magazine talked about living forever so I inquired about where they expect to spend eternity. As most Witnesses will say, they expect to live forever on earth.
I brought up the thief who died next to Jesus and asked what Jesus promised him. They were familiar with the account and correctly said that Jesus promised to be with Him in paradise. I pointed out that since Jesus said He was going to be with the thief, then regardless of whether the thief spends eternity in heaven or on the earth, he would be with Jesus. Since this is completely foreign to Watchtower theology, the JW ladies gave me blank stares.
As most conversations with JW’s go, we talked about a number of different topics. We got to talking about the resurrection of Jesus Christ and they wanted to know why I believed that Jesus was raised in the same physical body in which He died. As the title mentions above, I was not quite prepared- I did not have my Bible with me. Interestingly enough, they did not have their Bibles either. I asked for a pen and paper and wrote down a couple of passages that prove that Jesus still has a physical body.
First Timothy 2:5- For there is one God, and one mediator also between God and men, the man Christ Jesus.
Notice that this passage is speaking of Jesus as a man after His resurrection. He is not a “spirit creature” as the Watchtower teaches, He is a man.
Acts 17:31- Because He has fixed a day in which He will judge the world in righteousness through a Man whom He has appointed, having furnished proof to all men by raising Him from the dead.
This is speaking of a future event in which all mankind will be judged by a man. The context of the passage reveals that this resurrected man is none other than Jesus Christ. Again, we will not be judged by a spirit creature, we will be judged by a man.
We talked about a few other topics as well, and I wrote down more passages for them, but it was about time for me to meet my brother. The ladies wanted my contact information so they could answer some of my questions. I gave them one of my non ministry e-mail addresses and they promised to get back with me.
I was happy to be able to have a chance to witness to these ladies, and I did learn something in the process. I need to put a Bible on my PDA. If I would have had my Bible with me, the points I made would have had much more of an impact. I’ve got a Treo 600 and lots of space on it. I need to load it up with some witnessing materials so that I will be better prepared in the future. Please join me in prayer for these two JW ladies. May God reach them, take them from darkness and bring them into His marvelous light.