Five Minute Ministry

Zombies at Your Door? They come slowly down your sidewalk, two or three at a time.  They show little emotion and no enthusiasm but they are after you.  They are seeking out those who aren't yet like them.  Their brains have been afflicted and they cannot reason on their own any longer and they want your brain too.  They are Jehovah's Witnesses.  Christian, certainly there is hyperbole in this characterization but it isn't that far off the mark.  When the JW's are going door to door they aren't rewarded by achieving high numbers but are putting in their time.  They face rejection almost everywhere they go so it is understandable to not have any enthusiasm for this task.  No, these aren't zombies who are walking dead people like the movies and TV shows.  They are made in the image of God and, like you, were once 'spiritually' dead in their sins and need to be born again from above.  Now, what if your encounter at the door were film...

The New World Translation (NWT) is infamous for changing verses to fit with their theology.  In some verses like Col 1:16-17 they inserted the word [other] in brackets to portray Christ as a created being.  In the most recent edition of the NWT the brackets have unfortunately been removed.  They claim that the bracketed words were inserted to improve clarity.  Even the NASB marks the words they insert to improve clarity so that practice is fine as far as it goes but often in the NWT they are actually there to negate the original meaning.  With that in mind, I would like to suggest that they could have inserted a different word to be just as clear in their goal of negating the clear text: Instead of verse 16 reading: "because by means of him all [other] things were created in the heavens and upon the earth,..."  they could have written it "because by means of him all things were [not] created in the heavens and upon the earth..." If Christ were 'create...

These are from Tower to Truth Ministry 30 Questions for JW's

Does the WT consider you to be born again? Do you have a relationship with Jesus? Does the WT allow you to pray to Jesus? Does the WT allow you to take communion? Why does the WT forbid you to do these things Jesus commanded? Is the 144,000 a literal or figurative number? Isa 48:12,16

I heard Mark Driscoll answer this question about the trinity in the Old Testament and had this very interesting answer about Targum Neofiti. I checked some other places and found some confirmation on what he said. Here's the short video segment of this very interesting assertion: http://youtube.com/watch?v=U6mVLmSMRMU I found this on a Jews for Jesus site: The Pre-existing Word John 1:1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.2 He was in the beginning with God.3 All things came into being by Him, and apart from Him nothing came into being that has come into being. John 1:14 And the Word became flesh, and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, glory as of the only begotten from the Father, full of grace and truth. The ancient Jewish Aramaic translation of Genesis 1:1, as found in "Targum Neofiti," which dates before Yeshua was born reads as follows, "In the beginning, with wisdom (hebrew Khokhmah), the Son and Memra of the L...

Greg Koukl offers this excellent question on this subject: "In order to have right standing with God, to be saved, do I have to be a member of your organization." They believe that to be true but it is awkward for them to say so. If they do admit that is what they believe then follow up with "Would you please show me in your Bible where it says that anyone needs to be a member of any organization to be saved, much less the Watchtower Society that has only be around for less than 150 years?" This is the Missouri "Show Me!" question in action.

True Jesus, who is he? CARM This article gives some good support for the question, "Do you pray to Jesus?" Few cultists will pray to Jesus. Bring up the scriptures to correct them if they say they shouldn't pray to Jesus. 1 Cor 1:1,2 A related question, "Do you call Jesus your Lord and your God?" Why not? Thomas did. John 20:28

Interesting Quotes from the Watchtower Magazine, CARM CARM sums up a lot of quotes from JW literature about how you are saved only by being associated with the Watchtower.

Jehovah's Witnesses CARM has some excellent resources for understanding and witnessing to Jehovah's Witnesses. I will highlight the parts of CARM that are most useful for the Five Minute Ministry site.

http://www.str.org/publications/deity-of-christ-case-closed#.UzGZuYUzl_M This is a very interesting and useful tactic in demonstrating the deity of Christ but I wouldn't use it in a first encounter because the overall tactic is to go after the weaker areas first, the ones they don't have all their defenses up for. Go around the Maginot Line, as it were. Still, this is a very important tool in the arsenal of defending the deity of Christ thanks to Greg Koukl.

About eight years ago I was at an apologetics conference in St. Louis and a former Jehovah's Witness, Charles Smith, relayed a very interesting story. He said he was asking another man, who had been a JW for forty years, what was the first thing that made him start to doubt the Watchtower Society. The man told him, "Thirty-three years ago a good Christian woman asked me a question I couldn't answer. She asked, 'Why do you think it was so important to Jesus that you are born again?' I didn't have a good answer to that question and it bothered me." This story has always made me think that if this man had been asked more questions like that, ones he couldn't answer, then it probably wouldn't have taken so long for him to leave the Watchtower. With this in mind, I've been thinking of those kind of questions that the average Christian, the ones who don't want, and aren't prepared for a long debate, could ask the Jehovah's Witness or...