Jehovah’s Witnesses Try to Convert Me! – Portsmouth Evangelism
Over the past few days, I have gone from the top of England to the bottom of the country. Last week, and throughout the weekend, I was away preaching in Lancashire and Cumbria, but today we were back down in Portsmouth for the regular Tuesday outreach.
Today, before we had even finished setting up, people began to stop to ask for Bibles and different gospel material. This was just the beginning of what would be 75 minutes of non-stop gospel conversations for the team. But before we got into too many chats about the good news, a man stopped to ask to pray for us. The only problem was that he was a Jehovah’s Witness who also believed he was Jesus. It was going to be a lively day!
The first conversation I had was with a man who appears to have been converted through the open-air ministry. He has been attending church, reading his Bible, and growing in the knowledge of Christ. He came by today because he had a few questions from a passage of Scripture he had been reading. I happily helped him understand the passage, then he went on his way. Part of open-air evangelism is also discipleship!
The next person I spoke with was an older gentleman who was a confused agnostic. Sadly, this man had come under the influence of false teaching, which resulted in him justifying his unbelief. The man’s main argument was that if God is real, then why is the Bible so hard to understand? My first thought was 1 Corinthians 2:14, but that was not exactly what the man meant. It turns out this older man had never read the Bible, but the small segments he had tried to read were not understood by him. I asked him to explain what he meant, and it was then that he revealed the false doctrine he had been exposed to.
The man said that he had spoken to many Christians, and he had been taught that all Bibles are corrupted and deliberately changed except for the King James Version. The man tried to read the KJV, but he could not grasp the language, so he concluded that either God did not want people to understand the Scripture, or God was not real. Let me say, I love the KJV. I think it is a beautiful translation, but when someone makes the KJV the standard that every person must read and then calls into question any other faithful translation of the Bible, I think we have crossed the line into a dangerous false doctrine. This is the same error Roman Catholicism made when it insisted the Bible only be read in Latin. Such actions can, even if that is not the intent, lock away the truth of God’s Word from the common man. This man was the fruit of such bad teaching.
I challenged the man with the gospel and urged him to read a good modern translation. The problem was that anytime I referenced a modern translation of the Bible, he would instantly begin to doubt whether it was true because of previous teaching. To add to the issue, the man had also fallen under the influence of the false teachers on television who promote the prosperity doctrine.
This conversation was challenging, but over time I was able to unknot some of the errors that had crept in. Sadly, a well-meaning Christian then came by, joined the conversation, and added the knots back in. In the end, all I could do was point the man to Jesus and give him a tract. Please pray the confusion will lift and that the man would be set free from the darkness.
Next, I spoke with a Jehovah’s Witness couple who stopped at the literature table. They told me they were ‘pioneers’ (full-time ministers for the JWs), then they set about trying to convert me! As we spoke, I asked them to imagine I was not a Christian and that I only had three minutes left to live. What would they say to me so I could be saved?
They faltered for a few seconds, then said, “We don’t know! You need to learn about Jehovah and be part of his organisation. You can’t do that in three minutes, so Jehovah will give you a second chance after you die.” What an unbiblical and hopeless answer!
I then asked them, “What would you do if the Apostle Paul gave a different answer from what you said?” They assured me Paul would agree with them, so I opened the Bible to Acts 16:30-31 and asked them to read it. After they read the Scripture, I pointed out that Paul simply told the jailer to have faith in Christ to be saved. Then I asked why they did not simply tell me to trust in Jesus. They could not answer. I asked if they had faith in Christ alone for salvation. Again, they could not answer.
The conversation then went down the path of ‘Who is Jesus?’ They argued that Jesus was a created being. I countered from the Bible, showing that Jesus is God. They asked for biblical proof to show the divinity of Christ, so I started with Exodus 3:14. As they read the Scripture, I asked, “Who is I AM?” They replied, “Jehovah!” I then took them to John 8:58 and had them read it. Once they had done that, I asked, “What name does Jesus claim for Himself?” They fumbled around for answers, then tried to change the topic, but I held them to the verse. At this point, they pulled out their own translation of the Bible, truly a corrupted version, and read John 8:58. They smiled and said, “Look, here in our edition it doesn’t say ‘I AM’, so Jesus isn’t claiming the name of God.” I have heard this argument before, so I asked them to read it aloud in their Kingdom Interlinear Translation (Greek to English). As they did so, they came across the two words they were trying to avoid: “I am!” I asked why their interlinear says “I am”, but the New World Translation does not. They told me they did not know and changed the subject.
Next, they wanted to talk about the biblical doctrine of eternal conscious torment in Hell. They asked how a loving God could ever create Hell, so I simply responded, “How could He not? He is just and holy, so He must punish sin with an infinite punishment.” At this, they walked away.
By now, 75 minutes had passed since the outreach began, and so far no preaching had taken place. The team had been kept busy with conversations and handing out tracts. It was a productive time!
Finally, the preaching commenced. Jim preached about how Jesus saves us not by righteous deeds we have done; rather, He saves us by grace alone. It was a good and joyful message!
Then it was my turn to preach. Today, I spoke from John 3:16. A few listened, including a lady who sat down to pay attention. She then engaged a team member in conversation. It turned out she attends a Baptist church but is not saved. She listened to the gospel, then prayed to ask Christ to forgive her. The team members gladly gave her the Scriptures and a booklet for new Christians.
Around this time, the JWs came back. Normally, they ignore the preaching, but the man from before began to heckle. He accused me of ‘hiding the divine name of God’. I told him I was not hiding the divine name of God, because Jesus is the name of God! The man declared I should be talking about Jehovah, so I asked, “If using the name Jehovah is commanded and so important, why do neither Jesus nor the Apostles ever use that name in the New Testament? It is not mentioned in a single Greek manuscript!” The man said, “That is a complicated question!” Then he walked away.
The heckling drew in a few more listeners, including several Christians who told us they were encouraged by the gospel.
It was a lively and busy day in Portsmouth. God’s truth continues to spread. Please spend a few moments right now praying for all those who heard the truth.
SDG!
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Josh Williamson is a full-time evangelist with The Open-Air Mission. Since 1853, OAM has been sharing the good news on the streets of the United Kingdom. To stay updated about the work of the Mission, please sign up for the free quarterly magazine and monthly prayer notes.SUBSCRIBE TO OUR MAGAZINE AND PRAYER NOTES