Witnessing In My Jammies at the Door.

There's been a bit of a lull lately with my evangelism activities for various reasons but last week I was jolted out of a state of inactivity when a Jehovah's Witness arrived at my doorstep. Even though I was still in my jammies, I decided to witness to the lone woman at my door.

I stated right up front to her that I am a born again Christian, but would be interested in talking with her. She was quite surprised that I would even talk to her. I asked her if she'd mind if I asked her a few questions and she agreed, so I started to take her through the GPT. She justified her sin by saying that everyone breaks God's laws but that Jesus washed us from that sin. So I asked her to leave Jesus out of our conversation for now and asked her if on judgement day, would she be found guilty or innocent for breaking God's law? She said guilty and mentioned Jesus again. I asked her again to leave Jesus out of this for now and she admitted she'd be guilty. I asked if God would send her to Heaven, or to Hell based strictly on her admission of guilt and she said that she didn't really believe in hell and started talking about Gehenna (sp), which wasn't a term I was familiar with. I showed her in scripture in several places where hell is described and that it is eternal. She then asked if I thought it would be fair that God send me to hell for eternity so I explained, it's His world, His laws and if I have broken them, yes...He can do whatever he wishes with me and that I deserved hell. I pointed out to her that NONE of us are good and we ALL deserve hell. She kept asking if I thought that was FAIR and I kept saying YES. Then she said that Jesus cleaned us of our sins so we don't have to go to Gehenna. And I explained that the Jesus in the Holy Bible did take the wrath of God for the sins we committed and that He died and rose from the dead three days later. And she said "See, we agree on that". I then asked her who Jesus was to her. She said that he was a "Creation" of God. I explained that the Jesus in my bible is God in the flesh and is alive in heaven today with the Father. He was fully man and fully God and that we receive salvation when we repent and put our trust fully in Jesus. I then said that the bible is clear that we are saved by faith alone, and not by works so no one can boast. She pointed to the scripture in James that says that faith without works is dead. I pointed to the scriptures that state that salvation is by faith alone, a gift of God and that we cannot bribe the Judge of the universe with out good deeds. Our good works are in response to the love shown to us by God. She disagreed with me so I pointed out the thief on the cross who died next to Jesus. He was promised heaven because he trusted and believed in Jesus. He was nailed to a cross and how on earth could he do good works in his situation? He was saved by faith alone. She responded by saying that if he hadn't have been in that situation, he would have been a follower of Jesus and done good works.

She boasted that she's been studying scripture for a long time (she was older) and that I was misguided. I then told her that I was concerned about her and where she would spend eternity. I explained that the Jesus she believes in, is not the same one in my bible and if she is counting on THAT Jesus to save her on Judgement Day, that she'd better be sure she has the right Jesus. If she doesn't believe that Jesus is God, then the Jesus she believes in has no power to save her. By this time, she was starting to walk away to join the other two women down the street. I urged her to please think about this and make sure she has her trust in the Jesus who can save her.

I thanked her for her time and she did the same and hoped that I would consider what she had told me. She refused to exchange any literature (I had the "Why Christianity" booklet handy.

She was definitely well studied and I don't know if anything I said to her caused her to reflect, but at least I gave it all I could. I don't think I've ever witnessed to a JW before, but I had read up on it in the "World Religions in a Nutshell" book by Ray Comfort. They've been by a couple of times in the past month or so, but I've not been home. With the return of better weather, it's time for me to brush up so I'm prepared for the next visit.