Today I had two sweet little old ladies come to my door toting New World Translations of the Holy Scriptures. I was working in my basement when my son came down and informed me that we had "friends" upstairs sharing the gospel with mommy. Imagine my excitement.
So I came upstairs and introduced myself. When I asked them who they were with they proudly announced that were Jehovah's Witnesses.
"Really" I said. "You know your leaders predicted the end of the world 14 times incorrectly, right?"
Cute Little Old Ladies: "That is not true - they never gave a precise date!"
Me: "Your translation is a terrible knock-off of the 1611 King James Bible. Did you know the authors didn't know Greek, Hebrew or Aramaic?"
Cute Little Old Ladies: "According to Jeopardy, the New World Translation IS the most accurate translation in the world."
Amber: "Huh, well if it was an answer on Jeopardy..."
Me: "Ladies, we worship Jesus here - that's the fundamental difference between us."
Cute Little Old Ladies: "Colossians says that Jesus is the
firstborn of all creation. Isn't that interesting?"
Me: "Yeah, almost as interesting as the next verse which says that
by him all things were created in heaven AND on earth. Oh, and that ALL things were created through him and for him."
Cute Little Old Ladies: "Well, we best be going now..."
Me: "So we're clear, what you believe is a deception. You are deceived and you are deceivers. You believe in a works based righteousness and unless you repent and turn to Jesus for forgiveness, annihilation will be the least of your worries."
***SLAM***
So I've had a fairly robust history with Jehovah's Witnesses, and as you can see from the footnotes of my conversation above, I'm not exactly extending the olive branch when they show up. Here's why:
II John vs. 9-11 say "Everyone who goes on ahead and does not abide in the teaching of Christ, does not have God. Whoever abides in the teaching has both the Father and the Son. If anyone comes to you and does not bring this teaching, do not receive him into your house or give him any greeting, for whoever greets him takes part in his wicked works."
Now, these verses refer to false teachers that hold to a view of eschatology that does not include a bodily return of Christ - not to Jehovah's witnesses. I looked for the verses about Jehovah's Witnesses when I was in college, but could not find any. :) But John's admonishment is that people who depart from a right view of Christ so zealously as to teach contrary to the gospel of salvation by Grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone are void of God. John doesn't even want his audience (the elect lady and her
children) to let these guys into their house.
So my logic is this: I hear John's pastoral voice warning me to protect the sheep (Remember that my 4 year old son
thought the J-Dubbs were preaching the gospel to his mommy.) but I also hear Jesus' example of presenting himself to his enemies. I guess I balance it by bringing a hard gospel axe to the root of their deception as hard as I can swing. They aren't invited in, but I'll engage with them as far as they'll let me. I want Jesus to demonstrate his power to them and ultimately bring them to repentance and faith - but I also want my children to learn to identify false teachers and know that it is a no nonsense affair. I will warmly share the love of Christ with the broken-hearted - but I will also present Christ the stumbling block to those who need their heart broken, first.
So tell us about a time the J-Dubbs visited your house. What do you think is the best policy for balancing gospel invitation with gospel warning?
