I was a born in JW and left at 38 years old, your videos along with Mike Winger have been a lifeline. Thank you for helping me understand more of the Bible and fall in love with God. I was so close to not believing in anything. I hope you know how far your work reaches people. Learning the truth of the gospel has been key to my healing from the falsehoods i was told were truth along with the religious trauma that comes from escaping jw
They create a lot of atheists. We kind of woke up the past two years. Like you, born in to it. Mark Martin is an x JW and he does a ministry on TH-cam to help deconstruct the doctrine and show what the bible says. He wants to prevent people who leave JW, to not leave God.
One of my friends, a former JW, came to Christ. The thing that began to "unravel" her was a question that one woman asked when they knocked on her door: "How many doors do you need to knock on before God will love you?"
I just disassociated as a JW on July 1. Found your channel. Your advice is excellent. Although I'm sure you're aware most JWs won't listen, I'm proud of you for putting forth valuable information. If even just one more escapes, it's worth it.💜
I was disassociate from the age of 27 and I am now 55. My mother is the one that "turned me in" funny enough I had just gotten divorced because my husband committed adultery but since he married the person whom he was unfaithful with, all was forgiven for him. I refused to accept their "mandate" and as result lost all my friends and I could not even sit down to have dinner with my mother. The one thing I can say is I still believe in God and his power in my life. I am grateful to have been taught faith in God as a child and do not harbor any anger towards my mother or the JWs because they are victims (most of them) of mind control. I am mostly grateful I am a free thinker and that my father was my unconditional supporter ❤
I've been doing a Bible study for a few weeks now with a JW over Zoom. I used to use a "blast" method, hitting them with loads of scriptures that showed where they were wrong. Unfortunately, if they think you aren't "open", they won't talk to you again, even if they have no answer for the scriptures. So now I let my JW friend do a lot of talking, and when it comes time to read a verse, I say, "I like to read the surrounding verses, too" Then I read a large chunk of scripture, letting the Word do the cutting, like the sharp blade that it is!
While not conducting your "blast" methods when I was a JW, I knew of the many that choose to adopt such a counter productive approach' not "holding the truth upright", even encouraging this, feeling that otherwise we would be displeasing God by not "speaking with all boldness"; oh well, so much for a proper motive, to save souls. Did we really live-to-learn?
I’ve been doing Bible study with JWs and it also got me out of my New Age thinking. They came to me in my time of need, but something feels off, and I think I’m ready to move on on my personal study. I’m really appreciating this series! Thank you for all the work you put into these 🙏🏻
So much appreciation for your hard work and ministry! Just watched the whole video with my wife, she is one of the primary reasons I started to read my Bible without watchtower material and God rescued me from that organization! I appreciate your video because of your kindness and care you have for the witness, my wife enjoyed your video because she had to employ many similar tactics when speaking with me. God bless you keep up the great work!
I myself am an ex Jehovah's Witness. I wasn't born into it. I was one 18 years total including the 3 yrs I studied with them before being baptized. When I looked back on why I joined in the first place, my first thought is "at least I took my time alot get baptized within 6 months but I'm not one to rush into things like that". But when I delve into the deeper reasons I was a lonely, depressed young woman with no prior Bible knowledge. So I think I was an easy vulnerable target for them. I did join for more a sense of community in the organization, friends. I did like what they taught too. What helped me in leaving was that I slowly started doing research outside their website & literature & watching ex jw videos. All of it helped me to really wake up to the real truths. I have been out for 3 years now & I have my own ex jw TH-cam channel as well!
Thank you for your JW videos. You have saved me alot of time compiling the info. Again, thank you. I stumbled upon them a couple days ago. I have a sister that has been a JW.for 30+ years. I moved close to her 5 years ago & have been trying to get thru to her, to no avail. I think I was using the attack tactic. I didn't know any different, now I do! Again, thank you! Keep up God's work in you, you're ministry is needed!
What you were discussing about “unlearning” and “relearning” ( around the 17min mark) is true for all of us. I am finding that the more I study scripture, the more I have to change how I think about things. I feel like I am just now beginning to do the maturing I should have been doing in my young adult years. And... I am realizing that a few of the “good Bible believing” churches I have been affiliated with in the past were pretty fluffy.
Wow Bev p this is probably the first comment I have read like this that is my reality. 21 years a believer and only now am I 'seeing' what it means to follow Jesus. I see so much I am unlearning and relearning. And although I have been reading my Bible daily for that long it amazingly was more of a 'checklist'. I've read it so I'm a good Christian. Wow.
Bev and Sally, ex-JW here and i couldn't agree with you two more. Even though i was "out" by being disfellowshipped for over 20 years, i was tortured with disabling fear that not only was God mad at me, but He was going to brutally murder me and all the other "worldly" people at Armageddon. 😪😥. What a huge relief when Jesus woke me up last year. I feel as though i am a child, just now reading the bible, but i am so grateful to no longer live in fear. Instead, i am at peace and obsessed with learning about the real Jesus, my Lord and Savior. God bless 🙏❤
I worked at a pediatric clinic for years and my FAVORITE kids and mom were JWs. They were all so nice, but in a down to earth, VERY funny way. The kids (bro and sis) were older elementary age and def got their sense of humor from their mom. I didn’t know they were JW until an appt after Christmas. (When we made schedules I always made sure I was their dental assistant because they made me laugh and were just easy kiddos....and I usually got the worst kids because for some reason God gave me a gift to be patient with horrid children haha.) So I was cleaning the bro’s teeth and having a convo with the sister and asked if they had a good Christmas. She gave me this look of almost rolling her eyes but not disrespectful at all and sarcastically said “no we didn’t get any presents.” and I could see her mom’s reaction (your a mom, you can picture it, like that OMG my child look) to her sarcastic kid and said to her daughter “you can tell Mrs savannah” and the girl said they were JW. So I just said “oh well I guess you didn’t get anything did you?” And the girl and mom thought that was hilarious, thankfully. So i just went on to ask if they have enjoyed the school break etc.... I immediately started praying for them...it just hurt my heart that this hilarious, wonderful, normal family were so deceived. I’ve not worked there for 4 years now and the kids quit coming shortly after I was gone so I can’t get updates on them. I STILL pray for that family, that their eyes are opened BUT will still pursue the truth of the Lord. Sorry for the long story with no point. They were just my favorite family to be with, such a nice break from our regular patients who had many behavioral issues, always made me laugh, the mom was NOT EVER ‘high and mighty’ and so easy to talk to. I instantly loved them and am glad I did see a little of them growing up into little pre teens.
I learned a lot of things from Scripture through my debates with the witnesses. A blessing in disguise because they gave me a good reason to read scripture more intently and carefully.
The same type of thing happened with me. My sister is JW & found I didn't have enough theological knowledge to back up trying to show her the difference of the teachings. So I went into deep study to know why i truly believed what I did. Still haven't been able to break thru to her, but I'm so much closer to our Lord Jesus!
Cheryl Smith For me, I was just a student in the process of becoming a JW. Studied for about a year with them and couldn’t deal with the red flags coming both from Their practices and Theology. The first crack on the wall was the false prophecy of 1975. I couldn’t get around that. Only got worse once I found out it wasn’t their only false prophecy. I will pray that your sister comes to know Jesus.
Had to share this video. A lot of Christians need help preaching the gospel to the Jehovah’s witnesses. May God bless us all in helping this misguided people xxx
Halfway through and lots of good information so far. I wasn't baptised but was shunned after a few years. After being out for a while I tried my best to tread lightly but didn't realize that I was being unconsciously sarcastic when speaking to them about spiritual matters. I wasn't given a chance to "correct" this behavior unfortunately. Many will view lengthy conversations as discouraging. They like questions, but they do not like questions about the answers given to those questions. Too many questions of this nature are viewed as needlessly divisive or persecutory. The Socratic method therefore has its limitations and can lead them to label you as insincere if you aren't careful. Another issue is that "apostate arguments" are essentially synonymous with "effective arguments" since the more effective arguments are what lead people to apostatize. This severely limits your toolkit. Not sure if I can ever speak with the witness on their own terms. Too much resentmen on my part. I almost certainly can't speak to my parents about spiritual matters again due to my having broken many of the rules that you mention. So frustrating. You are raised to care about truth and then punished for examining it.
Sounds very similar to my Catholic Upbringing. Just make sure you have Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior and you will be fine. Jesus Christ saves. Baptism is wonderful but it doesn't save, only believing in Jesus Christ can save us. 💙💙💙💙💜💜💜💜💜💜💙💙💙
This is one of the most awesome videos about JW's theology. I woke up in 2018 and these videos are like therapy to me. Thank you so much for putting in time and effort. I listen to you at work all day. God bless you! I also listen to Bridget from AZ because she actually calls kingdom halls to rebuts their theology.
I’m enjoying this series you are doing. I’ve been witnessing to them for almost 20 years. One thing I found helpful is not letting them use their NWT or their Search the Scriptures book starting out. If you can get them not to use them they will be lost. I learned that from Walter Martin. Walter would say “ if they want to really talk to you they will use the KJV or NASB. When you get their books away from them look at the expression on their faces. I had one come by for over six months. Do you have a Kingdom Interliner Translation? I also have two original publications. one is Should you believe in the Trinity and the other is the Awake magazine that says the world will end in 1975. They ask “where’d you get this?” “ can I take this and show it to an elder?” I purchased Tactics because you recommended it. Keep doing what you are doing. I’m praying for you.
I'm intrigued by your post, and thought I would like to share with you that even after being an ex-Jdub for some 30 years my vocabulary, or idioms formed back then still effect how I lookup, and source Bible verses; I'm thinking that this is common among us indoctrinated one; our need to use the NWT concordance to locate verses.
Thanks for trying to witness to them. One thing I will say is that having been raised a JW and waking up the past couple of years, it is actually reading Scriptures from the NWT that woke me up. The first thing that really woke me up (Praise Yah) was when I read Revelation chapter 20 and realized they weren't teaching the truth about the order of the events. And next I decided to study Revelation from the Scriptures themselves to look at the timing of events because I thought what else could we be wrong about? And lo and behold by Spirit and Scriptures I realized we were wrong about like 90 percent of Revelation and the JW timeline of events is just so off compared to Scriptures. I studied it using the JW app and mainly using the NWT and interlinear. I also had the other Bibles on the Jw app downloaded too. But even with the NWT initially it can be used to wake up a JW. And it was really powerful for me to see from my own Bible that we were not being taught full truth. I agree that there are a lot of badly translated verses, but there is enough truth there to start the wake up process. At the same time, the day I started to wake up I had humbled myself already. I was trying to research something else after my prayer wasn't being answered on another topic. So I was already in the mindset that day of maybe the Organization doesn't know it all.
This happened to us. We were getting sick of the GB exacting exclusive devotion the past two years. I used the "silver sword" to undo all the watchtower damage. My wife and I were born and raised in this, I was third gen. All we did was prey for truth and to be guided with holy spirit to instruct us, and now we have been banned from our meetings for citing Psalms 146:3
I was brought up as JW and you're right I'm always trying to directly explaining that they're wrong I will try to to this thank you well done explained, thank you!!!
The baptism is similar to that of the seventh day adventist. I accidentally came into the cult when I was coming to Christ, fast forward to 5 years after leaving & reading up on the nonsense I had to repeat I realised my baptism was not done in Christ but I was baptised in the church instead. Looking to get re-baptised as that whole experience shakes me to the core
Yes, do get baptized again. I did, because I realized the same thing. I had only been baptized into the religion. The SDAs tried to get to me shortly after I was born again and baptized, but I was like, oh, no! I am not letting another religion baptize me! I got a real baptism now, and you can't trick me, anymore!
This is just sooo good. This is the info that we urgently need to show our friends jw so they are not deceived. And there’s even more! My mom is a jw, and I’ll never give up on her, she needs to see the truth. I trust that God will show it to her.
Thank You -- for your ministry and the value you place on God's creation (humanity). I find great value in your insights on approaching JW's and on more than one occasion have been able to carry on extended conversations with them drawing on your knowledge and experience. Hopefully and prayerfully, every now and then, I may have, just possibly, been able to put a small crack in the armor surrounding the JW bubble in which they live. All I can do is drop a seed or two and the rest is up to the Holy Spirit. -- Again -- thank you.
Lorri McGregor of McGregor Ministries used this point about the 144,000: "Before we look at the verse, tell me if this passage is LITERAL or SYMBOLIC?" If it's a literal number of people, you can't have a symbolic/metaphoric description of those people - in the same verse!!!
Yep, you're one person......doing wonderful things for believers and unbelievers alike. Bought Koukl's "Tactics" based on your recommendation. Thanks for all you do!
Thanks for this series Melissa. Have you gone into detail about “surviving Armegeddon”. I missed the first episode so it may be in there. I would like to know more what they mean by that. I appreciate your gentle spirit in witnessing to JW’s. My brother just passed in March. He was a JW for 40 years. It was so hard to talk to him about my faith in Jesus. Now I have more understanding why that is. Keep up the good work. Love and prayers. ❤️🙏🏻
Thank-you so very much for the help with JW witnessing! This is a very important topic. Just a tidbit that you might find interesting: When I was learning to read Hebrew for singing from the Torah scroll, I was very surprised to see in the training program that the English pronounciation of the pointed (vowels added) "four" would actually be, if pronounced, "Yehovah". Knowing that it was wrong, but thinking that I may have misunderstood that it was wrong, I questioned Rabbi about it. He said that the reason was that when the vowels got added to the text, they deliberately used the wrong vowels so that nobody reading too quickly would forget and carelessly say the Name correctly, instead of using "Adonai". In addition, the wrong vowels were a reminder to the reader/singer that they were to use a different word. In the real scrolls, there are still no vowels. You just have the habit of singing "Adonai" and that is what comes out.
Thank you so much, this is amazing! I am so happy I stumbled on your youtube channel when researching the law of attraction oddly enough... My mom and son are both Jehovah's Witnesses and I can't wait to ask them some of these questions... I'm so grateful for you taking the time to make these videos... I'm so excited!!! Praise Yah! Answered Prayer for years on this subject...
Hey Melissa. I love your series. I'm in the middle of watching it now. I'd like to point out something to you , if I may. I was raised in the JW faith, but I was never baptized. Instinctively (if I may use that term) I never believed they followed the Bible. Even as a child. But I kept my stupid mouth shut. I read the Bible without the help of the Watchtower. And it read so differently! I was always troubled by the shunning policy. I felt it just went against the grain of being a Christian: of Jesus saying to forgive your brother not just 7 times, but 70 times 7 times. So 1 Corinthians 5:9-15 where JW's get their reasoning for this and where Paul admonishese the congregation of Corinth to not associate with anyone calling themselves brothers but not following the Christian standards bothered me. It just did not line up with what a forgiving Christian should be. And then, I started reading 2 Corinthians, and Voila. there it was! Starting with the second chapter, Paul made it clear that admonishing the Corinth congregation to not associate with brothers who had not followed Christian standards was simply a test of their obedience to follow what he had instructed them to do!! Then starting with the 6th verse of that second chapter, he made it clear that the condemnation of the majority of the congregation was enough! Wow! Let me repeat that: the condemnation of the majority of the congregation was enough!! Period! And then what did he urge: Forgive! Forgive! Forgive! This point is further stressed as you read more of the second chapter. I was really shocked when I read this. How could the Society just ignore these verses? But again, I kept silent. I have believed and still fervently believe that the Bible is a giant jigsaw puzzle. You must consider every single solitary verse of the Old and New Testament! You cannot ignore or isolate anything. When you put all the pieces in place, the true picture emerges: The whole complete picture of God's love!!
Melissa My neighbor two houses further is Jehova’s witness but before that a friend. Now with your video’s i can and will open moments to witness of Jesus Christ. Thank you you are so great. 😘
"...Christians...witness and talk...with a spiritual chip on their shoulders..." Stating that so kindly is further evidence of your good heart. And the wealth of information you provide is amazing! Thank you, Melissa!!
When Paul used the methodology of seeking common ground with his audience, namely "becoming a Jew, to the Jew; a Greek' to the Greek, etc", to 'gain' said persons, this comes to my mind when you suggest using WT literature in seeking to gain, or win-over the typical JW. Great suggestion!
You are helping me understand so much😳. Now I know why my Birth mom, who I just recently found, has shut me out. I told her I was a follower of Jesus…Born again Christian! Ugh! It makes sense that she cannot speak on the phone with me anymore, because (her sister’s/witnesses) are ALWAYS at her house, or coming to pick her up or are studying with her!! Thank you so much Melissa. Also, your illustrations and examples are priceless😊
Jesus said to the man on the cross next to him "Today you will be with me in paradise". (Luke chapter 23 verse 43). Where was he talking about??? Was this man one of the 144,000??? Also, if they believe Jesus has returned to Earth (1914), why do they still observe the Lord's Evening Meal??? The Apostle Paul said in his first epistle to the Corinthians "For as often as you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord's death until he comes". (1 Corinthians Chapter 11 Verse 26).
Wow! So much to learn? You are not kidding. Thank you for this deep dive into details of the JW religion. I have often felt tongue tied when they came to my house. I've tried to say a few things I knew were distinctly different but became convinced I was inept. Your technique is truly excellent and filled with kindness. This is the first video of yours I watched on this subject. I will search for the rest for sure. God bless your ministry and continue to encourage your efforts. :)
Ex JW here. You’re right about that. I’m convinced about Jesus Deity but not the trinity or hell. I’m all about the truth and willing to believe if it’s the truth.
Oh my goodness I am just really shocked at what they really believe! I knew a little about them and when I have been met them I have done everything wrong as far as trying to witness to them! Thank you for this video it’s very informative. Because I do feel sad that they are deceived just as I do the Mormons. This information helped me a lot! Btw I had to pray and ask God to forgive me for behavior towards them.
Thank you so much for your kind and gracious ministry, We can feel the love of the Lord Jesus Christ flowing through you. May you know the power of the Holy Spirit as he leads you into all truths.
Loving your teachings on witnessing to JWs! I think I might have something to add to your bag of tools in one aspect. At about 53 minutes into this video you mention the warping of the scripture in John where Jesus says He has "sheep not of this fold" & you asked how in the world this gets warped into being 2 different classes of Christians. That may be where JWs take that verse, but what Jesus is really talking about here is about the divided Kingdom of Israel & how Biblical Prophets like Isaiah & Jeremiah prophesied that Messiah would reunite the divided Kingdom of Israel. In that passage in John, Jesus is speaking to His disciples, all of whom were from the Southern Kingdom of Judah (the ones who went into the Babylonian captivity for 70 years), which was comprised of the tribes of Judah, Benjamin & some of the tribe of Levi. The other "sheep not of this fold" are the 10 Tribes of the Northern Kingdom of Israel who were the first ones taken into captivity by the Kingdom of Assyria. They were dispersed all over the world & had never come back to the Holy Land, but the prophets of God (like Jeremiah & Isaiah) all said that God would regather the lost sheep of the House of Israel (10 tribes of the N. Kingdom, under the rulership of Ephraim, son of Joseph). Jeremiah 33 promised that God would regather all of the scattered descendants of Jacob-Israel, bring them back to the Land promised to their fathers & make them one kingdom again under Messiah. This is the prophecy of the 2 sticks made one in the hand of Messiah. One stick for Joseph, in the hand of Ephraim & his fellows with him; and one stick for Judah & his fellows with him, joined together in God's hand & made one kingdom under God again. I am almost positive that no JW has ever been told that. It might give you a card to play for them to get their wheels spinning. To get them thinking. I hope that helps you. Thank you for everything you're doing.
God bless you Melissa very informative, take care keep doing God's work love you Melissa now I know where they are coming from, I pray the Holy Spirit opens there eyes sold out for Jesus
Another quick note is be able to show the difference between mighty god and almighty god and show where Jesus and Jehovah are both called Mighty God. Ask if they are told what Monotheism is. Chances are good they don’t.
I don't invite them (JW) inside the house but I sit with them on the porch. I guess I'm not disobeying scripture then. lol Thanks for this whole series, great work!
That last bit made a ton of sense! When I was born again and started reading the Bible, I cried, realizing how many scriptures I could actually apply to myself, that only could apply to the very few annointed, when I was a Witness. I know my Grandma wished that she could be one of the annointed. So very sad! Another thing is, I really believed, after I left the Witnesses, that I had read the whole Bible numerous times as a Witness. When I actually read it, I realized I had only read the same few proof-texts, over and over again! That is how brainwashing tricks you! I really feel for them, because it is the religion making them study any portion of the Bible. I remember reading the Bible to be a chore. But once I was born again, the word of God was like 3-D, alive, and gripping, like a novel you can't put down. That is why discussion about being born again is so very critical. If they don't fully accept the real Jesus, they never even develop a hunger to read God's entire love letter to humanity. One question: since I am a special class of disfellowshipped, called "disassociated," meaning I realized they were a cult and left of my own volition, making me, as you stated, worse than Hitler because I apostatized, should I mention this to them or hide this fact? Because when I tell them my "status", they quickly dismiss themselves, shutting down any and all discussion. Or would it be dishonest to not tell them at first?
Valerie Campbell Really good question! Maybe read Proverbs to find your answer on that one. I’ve been in a similar situation where I was being dishonest/lying to the witnesses while I was trying to let them know the truth. In my case I was secretly going to another church at the same time I was a student for them. I’d say to Defer to what Gods word says first on the issue. For me, and it may different for you, I was being self-righteous when I was being dishonest. I had to ask myself if I was being an ambassador for the Lord or for my own selfish gain. Just my 2 cents. God bless!
The more I look at videos that talk against Jehovah witnesses the more I am drawn to Jehovah witnesses. Matt24:14 Jesus said to preach about the kingdom throughout the earth and then the end will come. Luke 10:1-12 gives us insight as to how we should preach to people.....basically in 2's from door to door. As far as separation of a person from the jehovahs organization 1corinthians 5:9-13 says to remove the person from among the congregation that is an unrepentant sinner. If a person loves a person more than Jesus and Jehovah..the person is their god. All the things you talk about are not accurately explained. I will continue to study with jehovahs witnesses. I've learned more from them than from anybody else
I love your clear concise videos and how you explain things simply. The main thing for me I want to know is, which bible do they use/read/quote from ? From my understanding JW's, Watchtower etc was started by an 18 year old by the name of Charles Taiz Russel in 1884, so did he re-edit some ones existing bible to suit his own understanding of things?
Melissa, lets pass these first phases of reaching... and say that someone repents of his/her false belief. They accept Jesus as their only and sufficient savior. NOW, where do you lead him? What congregation / church, doctrine, baptism?... what happens next?
I worked with a jw woman. She didn't witness to me, rather, I noticed her "bible" and asked her if she was a jw. One day we were talking and she asked me what Baptists believe. It was that question that caused me to dig into the word. I was determined to prove her wrong. Sound familiar? I didn't achieve that goal, but we agreed to disagree. We still had some discussions, but we also shared scripture and agreed to pray for one another. I also shared my answered prayers. During one of our discussions she told me I should be a witness. Actually, I considered it a compliment. She told me once that her worst experience witnessing was with a Baptist peacher. It embarrassed that she was treated so badly by a fellow Baptist. Of course, we didn't convert the other, but I pray that I left seeds that will one day germinate.
As an x-JW, out for some 30 years; I still feel a very deep regret at being so hoodwinked by the Borg-Org; allowing myself to become so arrogant and self-assuming, going beyond what is written' in (The Word), and in a word' a construct, not of God's doing, although having a sincere heart for the work. I guess I should visit a shrink.🧐
You're so right only their bible is right according to JW. I'll have to consider this point strongly, although I have known this, but have forgotten this or don't realize how mind controlled this part is when I'm in the middle of trying to preach the gospel, thank you excellent video.
i first, without ever being J W, got thinking about Bible, through this wrong Bible of theirs.....so yes God, can do great things trough wrong ones.. and it proves that'' God's Word is is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and of spirit, of joints and of marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart. The words of the Lord are pure words, like silver refined in a furnace on the ground, purified seven times.''- how true
Ok, so I did go for the jugular and brought up the Trinity and the deity of Jesus on their second visit to me. However, I can defend the Trinity in my sleep. I know my Bible from back to front and I've been studying apologetics and theology for nearly 15 years. And I'll be going to seminary soon to go even deeper! I think this is good advice for people who are still kind of green in their Bible knowledge though. My biggest obstacle is trying to keep them from playing "scripture ping pong". I can answer all their proof texts but getting them to stay on topic and not jump all over the canon is 90% of the battle for me. To be frank, this and their view of Jesus' resurrection are the most important things to talk about. All their other views on things like birthdays and blood transfusions are minor issues. Getting the nature of God and the identity of Jesus wrong is huge, though! But once you back them into a corner, they will just drop the proof text against the Trinity or the deity of Jesus they pulled up and go to another one.
Hi Melissa, There're a ton of verses, but I noticed that these 2 have a devastating implication for their view of Jesus: Isaiah 44:24 b (NWT) "I, Jehovah, am doing everything, stretching out the heavens by myself, laying out the earth. Who was with me?" John 1:3 (NWT) "All things came into existence through him [Jesus], and apart from him not even one thing came into existence ..." Would love your thoughts. Many thanks and appreciation for the many hrs of work. Cheers, Matt
With my appreciation of the Bibles admonition to 'flee from idolatry', I simply conducted my ministry to the people, without holding-out the WT Organization as an implied/inspired' entity; or idol. I viewed them as having a supportive roll in fully accomplishing my ministry; as a lawyer would view a law library; guess I didn't get that memo, Oh well HAHA. My joy came from the simple message, that in whatever form mankind is blessed by the Kingdom of God, through Christ, this certainly was "the good news", and my primary motivation had to be to love, and serve the people, for God's glory.
Those "fearful scribes" had such a reverence for the holy name YHVH which is read from right to left. (All languages move towards Isreal.) It's pronounced as the letters Yood, Hay, Vav, Hay. Which means "Behold the hand, behold the nail. The Tav is also the last letter of the Hebrew Aleph-Beyt. Thanks for another informative video sister. 👍🏾
1 Timothy 6:16 states God alone is immortal. So humans could not have a immortal soul . Less God is a liar. And I think not. Beside we don`t have a soul , we are a soul. God formed man from the dust of the ground and gave him the breath of life. Man then became a living soul. That is my understanding.
I was born and raised a Jehovah's Wittness. I am not disfellowshiped. I faded and removed myself over the Watchtower doctrine. I had a Bible study with a lady in the 90s who was a born again a Christian. I was like Islam ☪️ about my faith as was my mother. I had been shown copies of past Watchtower and Awakes will false and changing doctrine. It didn't affect me as we are mere humans who make mistakes like David. I found the Ex Wittness as bitter and angry and pretty scary!! Lol A Christian lady welcomed me in her home and the unconditional love I felt with soft gospel music 🎶 playing in her home was very different and comforting. She allowed me to teach her and was so sweet, kind and the HOLY SPIRIT was reaching me in her. She feed me, loved me and put up with my rude way of speaking against her Jesus. She would ask me questions about this verse and that verse in my TRUTH? I found the verse MISSING! I found changed words and added words in The New World Translation JW Bible. The JW Greek interlinear it was shown to be changed from the Greek! When I went to the elders I was told not to return that she wasn't open to TRUTH. I had already established a trust and love for her by that time. ❤ She shared who she thought Jesus was in the Bible so I could teach her using her scriptures to explain the real truth to her. The more I researched the more I saw the only way the Gospel of the Watchtower is correct is by an edited Bible and a conditioning tool like the magazines and JW books that plants those ideas in your head prior to reading the Bible. I left and after becoming a born again Christian was shunned by my family but never disfellowshiped publicly maybe because I moved away. I struggled with the Trinty and she played a song for me that really made me see the power of what Jesus did for humankind. He walked a mile in my shoes. I still don't really associate with ex Wittnesses mainly because they are so broken and messed up emotionally which is understandable. Most ex Jehovah's witnesses don't want anything to do with the Bible or God and it's sad because Satan has won through the Cult and through the personal trauma 💔 Of being and leaving the group to keep people away from the real JESUS. Love your videos Great tips!
I love the link you left, Does Scripture Instruct Us Not To Let Jehovah’s Witnesses And Mormons Into Our Homes? My best friend and I have many arguments over whether or not we should witness to JWs & Mormons. This article was very helpful!!
I learned the best way to "get rid of them" was to tell them that my in-laws are JW'S and if I had any questions I'd ask them. They walk away looking relieved. They never really blacklisted my house. I guess it's because we lived in a neighborhood that had a lot of transient people (we were military at the time)
One thing I’ve often wondered about in the past is whether there is any by unpacking of biblical Christianity by a an LDS or JW apologist in the same thing as this channel
They don't teach that there was always a slave class anymore. They now teach that the Faithful and Discrete Slave is exclusively a "time of the end" thing. Yes, the governing body is now teaching that they are higher in priority than the apostles. Though I don't think most witnesses make that connection.
Dear Melissa, I am a United Methodist pastor who has a love for Judaism and Hebrew. I've spent a very long time studying the NAME of God, doing both firsthand and secondhand study. I would love to help you understand it better, if you're interested: it's the most fascinating word in the Scriptures. I promise, I'm a mainline orthodox, Trinitarian Christian. But we Christians so very rarely study the Hebrew that we have neglected the NAME of God, which He reveals to Moses in Exodus 3:15-16. It's important. Please let me know if you'd like to hear what I have to say on it. Love your stuff! Thank you for all that you're doing!
Jehovah is a composite name invented in 1272 A.D. by a Spanish Catholic Church Monk named Raymundus Martini. Watchtower referenced this in an WT issue of 1950 and also in a brochure or two around that time. You may find this info. by checking their website under his name and clicking on index 59-50. You may also check WT '80, if it has not yet been scrubbed from view. Additionally their publication entitled Aid to Bible Understanding ( a Raymond Frantz directed work) p884-885 lends credence to this . Go to WT Liabrary 2010 and type the name of the monk. Great job for a non-JW, by-the-way! Should also be verifiable extra-JW lit.
One of their newest statements is everyone should trust Jehovah, Jesus and the governing body. They are also saying that if you disagree with the governing body, you disagree with Jehovah, or if you leave the governing body/organization your leaving Jehovah....a different version of a trinity?
I love this, but I feel like I could study for a year and maybe still not be equip to witness to them. They pop up from time to time, last time I think they realized I'm not changing my mind. And they always try to ask me questions that make it to appear we agree... They haven't been back, but I always feel a little ashamed that I did not have the ability to present them the truth in a way that they can see we believe very differently.
I was a born in JW and left at 38 years old, your videos along with Mike Winger have been a lifeline. Thank you for helping me understand more of the Bible and fall in love with God. I was so close to not believing in anything. I hope you know how far your work reaches people. Learning the truth of the gospel has been key to my healing from the falsehoods i was told were truth along with the religious trauma that comes from escaping jw
They create a lot of atheists. We kind of woke up the past two years. Like you, born in to it. Mark Martin is an x JW and he does a ministry on TH-cam to help deconstruct the doctrine and show what the bible says. He wants to prevent people who leave JW, to not leave God.
One of my friends, a former JW, came to Christ. The thing that began to "unravel" her was a question that one woman asked when they knocked on her door: "How many doors do you need to knock on before God will love you?"
I just disassociated as a JW on July 1. Found your channel. Your advice is excellent. Although I'm sure you're aware most JWs won't listen, I'm proud of you for putting forth valuable information. If even just one more escapes, it's worth it.💜
Liplocked Nomore
I am so glad you were able to wake up and get out. Hope you enjoy your beautiful life!
I hope you have Jesus Christ in your life now and forever. 💜💜💜💜💙💙💙💙
I was disassociate from the age of 27 and I am now 55. My mother is the one that "turned me in" funny enough I had just gotten divorced because my husband committed adultery but since he married the person whom he was unfaithful with, all was forgiven for him. I refused to accept their "mandate" and as result lost all my friends and I could not even sit down to have dinner with my mother. The one thing I can say is I still believe in God and his power in my life. I am grateful to have been taught faith in God as a child and do not harbor any anger towards my mother or the JWs because they are victims (most of them) of mind control. I am mostly grateful I am a free thinker and that my father was my unconditional supporter ❤
"It doesn't smell as good as my other Bibles."
THIS is the content we're here for!
crosswarrior7 lol love that comment 😂
I loved that too when she said it!❤️
I've been doing a Bible study for a few weeks now with a JW over Zoom.
I used to use a "blast" method, hitting them with loads of scriptures that showed where they were wrong. Unfortunately, if they think you aren't "open", they won't talk to you again, even if they have no answer for the scriptures.
So now I let my JW friend do a lot of talking, and when it comes time to read a verse, I say, "I like to read the surrounding verses, too"
Then I read a large chunk of scripture,
letting the Word do the cutting, like the sharp blade that it is!
While not conducting your "blast" methods when I was a JW, I knew of the many that choose to adopt such a counter productive approach' not "holding the truth upright", even encouraging this, feeling that otherwise we would be displeasing God by not "speaking with all boldness"; oh well, so much for a proper motive, to save souls. Did we really live-to-learn?
Yeah I tend to blast when I’m excited
Good strategy!❤️
It seems like were in the same boat but i cant seem to get my points to work
I’ve been doing Bible study with JWs and it also got me out of my New Age thinking. They came to me in my time of need, but something feels off, and I think I’m ready to move on on my personal study. I’m really appreciating this series! Thank you for all the work you put into these 🙏🏻
So much appreciation for your hard work and ministry! Just watched the whole video with my wife, she is one of the primary reasons I started to read my Bible without watchtower material and God rescued me from that organization! I appreciate your video because of your kindness and care you have for the witness, my wife enjoyed your video because she had to employ many similar tactics when speaking with me. God bless you keep up the great work!
I myself am an ex Jehovah's Witness. I wasn't born into it. I was one 18 years total including the 3 yrs I studied with them before being baptized. When I looked back on why I joined in the first place, my first thought is "at least I took my time alot get baptized within 6 months but I'm not one to rush into things like that". But when I delve into the deeper reasons I was a lonely, depressed young woman with no prior Bible knowledge. So I think I was an easy vulnerable target for them. I did join for more a sense of community in the organization, friends. I did like what they taught too. What helped me in leaving was that I slowly started doing research outside their website & literature & watching ex jw videos. All of it helped me to really wake up to the real truths. I have been out for 3 years now & I have my own ex jw TH-cam channel as well!
Thank you for your JW videos. You have saved me alot of time compiling the info. Again, thank you. I stumbled upon them a couple days ago.
I have a sister that has been a JW.for 30+ years. I moved close to her 5 years ago & have been trying to get thru to her, to no avail. I think I was using the attack tactic. I didn't know any different, now I do!
Again, thank you! Keep up God's work in you, you're ministry is needed!
What you were discussing about “unlearning” and “relearning” ( around the 17min mark) is true for all of us. I am finding that the more I study scripture, the more I have to change how I think about things. I feel like I am just now beginning to do the maturing I should have been doing in my young adult years. And... I am realizing that a few of the “good Bible believing” churches I have been affiliated with in the past were pretty fluffy.
Wow Bev p this is probably the first comment I have read like this that is my reality. 21 years a believer and only now am I 'seeing' what it means to follow Jesus. I see so much I am unlearning and relearning. And although I have been reading my Bible daily for that long it amazingly was more of a 'checklist'. I've read it so I'm a good Christian. Wow.
Bev and Sally, ex-JW here and i couldn't agree with you two more. Even though i was "out" by being disfellowshipped for over 20 years, i was tortured with disabling fear that not only was God mad at me, but He was going to brutally murder me and all the other "worldly" people at Armageddon. 😪😥. What a huge relief when Jesus woke me up last year. I feel as though i am a child, just now reading the bible, but i am so grateful to no longer live in fear. Instead, i am at peace and obsessed with learning about the real Jesus, my Lord and Savior. God bless 🙏❤
Welcome to the club❤️
I worked at a pediatric clinic for years and my FAVORITE kids and mom were JWs. They were all so nice, but in a down to earth, VERY funny way. The kids (bro and sis) were older elementary age and def got their sense of humor from their mom. I didn’t know they were JW until an appt after Christmas. (When we made schedules I always made sure I was their dental assistant because they made me laugh and were just easy kiddos....and I usually got the worst kids because for some reason God gave me a gift to be patient with horrid children haha.) So I was cleaning the bro’s teeth and having a convo with the sister and asked if they had a good Christmas. She gave me this look of almost rolling her eyes but not disrespectful at all and sarcastically said “no we didn’t get any presents.” and I could see her mom’s reaction (your a mom, you can picture it, like that OMG my child look) to her sarcastic kid and said to her daughter “you can tell Mrs savannah” and the girl said they were JW. So I just said “oh well I guess you didn’t get anything did you?” And the girl and mom thought that was hilarious, thankfully. So i just went on to ask if they have enjoyed the school break etc.... I immediately started praying for them...it just hurt my heart that this hilarious, wonderful, normal family were so deceived. I’ve not worked there for 4 years now and the kids quit coming shortly after I was gone so I can’t get updates on them. I STILL pray for that family, that their eyes are opened BUT will still pursue the truth of the Lord. Sorry for the long story with no point. They were just my favorite family to be with, such a nice break from our regular patients who had many behavioral issues, always made me laugh, the mom was NOT EVER ‘high and mighty’ and so easy to talk to. I instantly loved them and am glad I did see a little of them growing up into little pre teens.
really enjoyed this story! :) thanks for sharing, will be praying they see the light
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I learned a lot of things from Scripture through my debates with the witnesses. A blessing in disguise because they gave me a good reason to read scripture more intently and carefully.
The same type of thing happened with me. My sister is JW & found I didn't have enough theological knowledge to back up trying to show her the difference of the teachings. So I went into deep study to know why i truly believed what I did.
Still haven't been able to break thru to her, but I'm so much closer to our Lord Jesus!
Cheryl Smith For me, I was just a student in the process of becoming a JW. Studied for about a year with them and couldn’t deal with the red flags coming both from Their practices and Theology.
The first crack on the wall was the false prophecy of 1975. I couldn’t get around that. Only got worse once I found out it wasn’t their only false prophecy.
I will pray that your sister comes to know Jesus.
@@carbon273 JWs don’t believe in the gift of prophecy.
You put me in my place. Thank you for reminding me to "speak the truth in love."
So many have put me in my place as well 🙏 I'm passing along the wisdom I've learned from them.
@@MelissaDougherty
Hello
Had to share this video. A lot of Christians need help preaching the gospel to the Jehovah’s witnesses. May God bless us all in helping this misguided people xxx
Halfway through and lots of good information so far. I wasn't baptised but was shunned after a few years. After being out for a while I tried my best to tread lightly but didn't realize that I was being unconsciously sarcastic when speaking to them about spiritual matters. I wasn't given a chance to "correct" this behavior unfortunately. Many will view lengthy conversations as discouraging. They like questions, but they do not like questions about the answers given to those questions. Too many questions of this nature are viewed as needlessly divisive or persecutory. The Socratic method therefore has its limitations and can lead them to label you as insincere if you aren't careful.
Another issue is that "apostate arguments" are essentially synonymous with "effective arguments" since the more effective arguments are what lead people to apostatize. This severely limits your toolkit. Not sure if I can ever speak with the witness on their own terms. Too much resentmen on my part. I almost certainly can't speak to my parents about spiritual matters again due to my having broken many of the rules that you mention. So frustrating. You are raised to care about truth and then punished for examining it.
Sounds very similar to my Catholic Upbringing. Just make sure you have Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior and you will be fine. Jesus Christ saves. Baptism is wonderful but it doesn't save, only believing in Jesus Christ can save us. 💙💙💙💙💜💜💜💜💜💜💙💙💙
Gospel that backs up my claim is 1 Corinthians 15:2-4
This is one of the most awesome videos about JW's theology. I woke up in 2018 and these videos are like therapy to me. Thank you so much for putting in time and effort. I listen to you at work all day. God bless you! I also listen to Bridget from AZ because she actually calls kingdom halls to rebuts their theology.
I’m enjoying this series you are doing. I’ve been witnessing to them for almost 20 years. One thing I found helpful is not letting them use their NWT or their Search the Scriptures book starting out. If you can get them not to use them they will be lost. I learned that from Walter Martin. Walter would say “ if they want to really talk to you they will use the KJV or NASB. When you get their books away from them look at the expression on their faces. I had one come by for over six months. Do you have a Kingdom Interliner Translation? I also have two original publications. one is Should you believe in the Trinity and the other is the Awake magazine that says the world will end in 1975. They ask “where’d you get this?” “ can I take this and show it to an elder?” I purchased Tactics because you recommended it. Keep doing what you are doing. I’m praying for you.
I'm intrigued by your post, and thought I would like to share with you that even after being an ex-Jdub for some 30 years my vocabulary, or idioms formed back then still effect how I lookup, and source Bible verses; I'm thinking that this is common among us indoctrinated one; our need to use the NWT concordance to locate verses.
Thanks for trying to witness to them. One thing I will say is that having been raised a JW and waking up the past couple of years, it is actually reading Scriptures from the NWT that woke me up.
The first thing that really woke me up (Praise Yah) was when I read Revelation chapter 20 and realized they weren't teaching the truth about the order of the events.
And next I decided to study Revelation from the Scriptures themselves to look at the timing of events because I thought what else could we be wrong about?
And lo and behold by Spirit and Scriptures I realized we were wrong about like 90 percent of Revelation and the JW timeline of events is just so off compared to Scriptures.
I studied it using the JW app and mainly using the NWT and interlinear. I also had the other Bibles on the Jw app downloaded too. But even with the NWT initially it can be used to wake up a JW. And it was really powerful for me to see from my own Bible that we were not being taught full truth.
I agree that there are a lot of badly translated verses, but there is enough truth there to start the wake up process.
At the same time, the day I started to wake up I had humbled myself already. I was trying to research something else after my prayer wasn't being answered on another topic. So I was already in the mindset that day of maybe the Organization doesn't know it all.
How does one get an older Awake magazine?
I adore your videos. Make sure to keep up the good work
This happened to us. We were getting sick of the GB exacting exclusive devotion the past two years. I used the "silver sword" to undo all the watchtower damage. My wife and I were born and raised in this, I was third gen. All we did was prey for truth and to be guided with holy spirit to instruct us, and now we have been banned from our meetings for citing Psalms 146:3
I was brought up as JW and you're right I'm always trying to directly explaining that they're wrong I will try to to this thank you well done explained, thank you!!!
The baptism is similar to that of the seventh day adventist. I accidentally came into the cult when I was coming to Christ, fast forward to 5 years after leaving & reading up on the nonsense I had to repeat I realised my baptism was not done in Christ but I was baptised in the church instead. Looking to get re-baptised as that whole experience shakes me to the core
Yes, do get baptized again. I did, because I realized the same thing. I had only been baptized into the religion. The SDAs tried to get to me shortly after I was born again and baptized, but I was like, oh, no! I am not letting another religion baptize me! I got a real baptism now, and you can't trick me, anymore!
Yeah I feel you there but what do we do about it cause I am in the same boat but am now searching the Bible to understand
Well done, lady Melissa !
You're an excellent teacher !
This is just sooo good. This is the info that we urgently need to show our friends jw so they are not deceived. And there’s even more! My mom is a jw, and I’ll never give up on her, she needs to see the truth. I trust that God will show it to her.
Thank You -- for your ministry and the value you place on God's creation (humanity). I find great value in your insights on approaching JW's and on more than one occasion have been able to carry on extended conversations with them drawing on your knowledge and experience. Hopefully and prayerfully, every now and then, I may have, just possibly, been able to put a small crack in the armor surrounding the JW bubble in which they live. All I can do is drop a seed or two and the rest is up to the Holy Spirit. -- Again -- thank you.
Thank you Melisa, I have an aunt that is a JW and I have so much love for her but never know how to talk to her. This was really helpful.
I would say three distinct persons, but not separate, because the three are united as the one God, Great video and thank God for your ministry!
Lorri McGregor of McGregor Ministries used this point about the 144,000:
"Before we look at the verse, tell me if this passage is LITERAL or SYMBOLIC?"
If it's a literal number of people, you can't have a symbolic/metaphoric description of those people - in the same verse!!!
Melissa, I am so enjoying this series. Thank you so much. 🙏🏾
We need more of this 144,000, the anointed and their eschatology please! That’s their core from where they get everything else !
Yep, you're one person......doing wonderful things for believers and unbelievers alike. Bought Koukl's "Tactics" based on your recommendation. Thanks for all you do!
Thanks for this series Melissa. Have you gone into detail about “surviving Armegeddon”. I missed the first episode so it may be in there. I would like to know more what they mean by that. I appreciate your gentle spirit in witnessing to JW’s. My brother just passed in March. He was a JW for 40 years. It was so hard to talk to him about my faith in Jesus. Now I have more understanding why that is. Keep up the good work. Love and prayers. ❤️🙏🏻
Thank-you so very much for the help with JW witnessing! This is a very important topic. Just a tidbit that you might find interesting: When I was learning to read Hebrew for singing from the Torah scroll, I was very surprised to see in the training program that the English pronounciation of the pointed (vowels added) "four" would actually be, if pronounced, "Yehovah". Knowing that it was wrong, but thinking that I may have misunderstood that it was wrong, I questioned Rabbi about it. He said that the reason was that when the vowels got added to the text, they deliberately used the wrong vowels so that nobody reading too quickly would forget and carelessly say the Name correctly, instead of using "Adonai". In addition, the wrong vowels were a reminder to the reader/singer that they were to use a different word. In the real scrolls, there are still no vowels. You just have the habit of singing "Adonai" and that is what comes out.
Thank you so much, this is amazing! I am so happy I stumbled on your youtube channel when researching the law of attraction oddly enough... My mom and son are both Jehovah's Witnesses and I can't wait to ask them some of these questions... I'm so grateful for you taking the time to make these videos... I'm so excited!!! Praise Yah! Answered Prayer for years on this subject...
Hey Melissa. I love your series. I'm in the middle of watching it now. I'd like to point out something to you , if I may. I was raised in the JW faith, but I was never baptized. Instinctively (if I may use that term) I never believed they followed the Bible. Even as a child. But I kept my stupid mouth shut.
I read the Bible without the help of the Watchtower. And it read so differently! I was always troubled by the shunning policy. I felt it just went against the grain of being a Christian: of Jesus saying to forgive your brother not just 7 times, but 70 times 7 times. So 1 Corinthians 5:9-15 where JW's get their reasoning for this and where Paul admonishese the congregation of Corinth to not associate with anyone calling themselves brothers but not following the Christian standards bothered me. It just did not line up with what a forgiving Christian should be.
And then, I started reading 2 Corinthians, and Voila. there it was! Starting with the second chapter, Paul made it clear that admonishing the Corinth congregation to not associate with brothers who had not followed Christian standards was simply a test of their obedience to follow what he had instructed them to do!! Then starting with the 6th verse of that second chapter, he made it clear that the condemnation of the majority of the congregation was enough! Wow! Let me repeat that: the condemnation of the majority of the congregation was enough!! Period! And then what did he urge: Forgive! Forgive! Forgive! This point is further stressed as you read more of the second chapter.
I was really shocked when I read this. How could the Society just ignore these verses? But again, I kept silent.
I have believed and still fervently believe that the Bible is a giant jigsaw puzzle. You must consider every single solitary verse of the Old and New Testament! You cannot ignore or isolate anything. When you put all the pieces in place, the true picture emerges: The whole complete picture of God's love!!
Melissa My neighbor two houses further is Jehova’s witness but before that a friend. Now with your video’s i can and will open moments to witness of Jesus Christ. Thank you you are so great. 😘
"...Christians...witness and talk...with a spiritual chip on their shoulders..."
Stating that so kindly is further evidence of your good heart.
And the wealth of information you provide is amazing!
Thank you, Melissa!!
When Paul used the methodology of seeking common ground with his audience, namely "becoming a Jew, to the Jew; a Greek' to the Greek, etc", to 'gain' said persons, this comes to my mind when you suggest using WT literature in seeking to gain, or win-over the typical JW. Great suggestion!
You are helping me understand so much😳. Now I know why my Birth mom, who I just recently found, has shut me out. I told her I was a follower of Jesus…Born again Christian! Ugh! It makes sense that she cannot speak on the phone with me anymore, because (her sister’s/witnesses) are ALWAYS at her house, or coming to pick her up or are studying with her!! Thank you so much Melissa. Also, your illustrations and examples are priceless😊
Thanks so very much, Melissa
I'm thinking about very lovingly and unconditionally visits their church. I really want to hear a service.
Jesus said to the man on the cross next to him "Today you will be with me in paradise". (Luke chapter 23 verse 43). Where was he talking about??? Was this man one of the 144,000???
Also, if they believe Jesus has returned to Earth (1914), why do they still observe the Lord's Evening Meal??? The Apostle Paul said in his first epistle to the Corinthians "For as often as you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord's death until he comes". (1 Corinthians Chapter 11 Verse 26).
Wow! So much to learn? You are not kidding. Thank you for this deep dive into details of the JW religion. I have often felt tongue tied when they came to my house. I've tried to say a few things I knew were distinctly different but became convinced I was inept. Your technique is truly excellent and filled with kindness. This is the first video of yours I watched on this subject. I will search for the rest for sure. God bless your ministry and continue to encourage your efforts. :)
Hey Melissa. I love your work. Can you explain you thoughts on disfellowship?
Ex JW here. You’re right about that. I’m convinced about Jesus Deity but not the trinity or hell. I’m all about the truth and willing to believe if it’s the truth.
Oh my goodness I am just really shocked at what they really believe! I knew a little about them and when I have been met them I have done everything wrong as far as trying to witness to them! Thank you for this video it’s very informative. Because I do feel sad that they are deceived just as I do the Mormons. This information helped me a lot! Btw I had to pray and ask God to forgive me for behavior towards them.
Thank you so much for your kind and gracious ministry, We can feel the love of the Lord Jesus Christ flowing through you. May you know the power of the Holy Spirit as he leads you into all truths.
Loving your teachings on witnessing to JWs! I think I might have something to add to your bag of tools in one aspect. At about 53 minutes into this video you mention the warping of the scripture in John where Jesus says He has "sheep not of this fold" & you asked how in the world this gets warped into being 2 different classes of Christians. That may be where JWs take that verse, but what Jesus is really talking about here is about the divided Kingdom of Israel & how Biblical Prophets like Isaiah & Jeremiah prophesied that Messiah would reunite the divided Kingdom of Israel.
In that passage in John, Jesus is speaking to His disciples, all of whom were from the Southern Kingdom of Judah (the ones who went into the Babylonian captivity for 70 years), which was comprised of the tribes of Judah, Benjamin & some of the tribe of Levi. The other "sheep not of this fold" are the 10 Tribes of the Northern Kingdom of Israel who were the first ones taken into captivity by the Kingdom of Assyria. They were dispersed all over the world & had never come back to the Holy Land, but the prophets of God (like Jeremiah & Isaiah) all said that God would regather the lost sheep of the House of Israel (10 tribes of the N. Kingdom, under the rulership of Ephraim, son of Joseph).
Jeremiah 33 promised that God would regather all of the scattered descendants of Jacob-Israel, bring them back to the Land promised to their fathers & make them one kingdom again under Messiah. This is the prophecy of the 2 sticks made one in the hand of Messiah. One stick for Joseph, in the hand of Ephraim & his fellows with him; and one stick for Judah & his fellows with him, joined together in God's hand & made one kingdom under God again. I am almost positive that no JW has ever been told that. It might give you a card to play for them to get their wheels spinning. To get them thinking. I hope that helps you. Thank you for everything you're doing.
God bless you Melissa very informative, take care keep doing God's work love you Melissa now I know where they are coming from, I pray the Holy Spirit opens there eyes sold out for Jesus
Another quick note is be able to show the difference between mighty god and almighty god and show where Jesus and Jehovah are both called Mighty God. Ask if they are told what Monotheism is. Chances are good they don’t.
I don't invite them (JW) inside the house but I sit with them on the porch. I guess I'm not disobeying scripture then. lol Thanks for this whole series, great work!
Thank you SO much. I miss my Jehovahs Witnesses. I think I got black listed.
That last bit made a ton of sense! When I was born again and started reading the Bible, I cried, realizing how many scriptures I could actually apply to myself, that only could apply to the very few annointed, when I was a Witness. I know my Grandma wished that she could be one of the annointed. So very sad! Another thing is, I really believed, after I left the Witnesses, that I had read the whole Bible numerous times as a Witness. When I actually read it, I realized I had only read the same few proof-texts, over and over again! That is how brainwashing tricks you! I really feel for them, because it is the religion making them study any portion of the Bible. I remember reading the Bible to be a chore. But once I was born again, the word of God was like 3-D, alive, and gripping, like a novel you can't put down. That is why discussion about being born again is so very critical. If they don't fully accept the real Jesus, they never even develop a hunger to read God's entire love letter to humanity. One question: since I am a special class of disfellowshipped, called "disassociated," meaning I realized they were a cult and left of my own volition, making me, as you stated, worse than Hitler because I apostatized, should I mention this to them or hide this fact? Because when I tell them my "status", they quickly dismiss themselves, shutting down any and all discussion. Or would it be dishonest to not tell them at first?
Valerie Campbell Really good question! Maybe read Proverbs to find your answer on that one. I’ve been in a similar situation where I was being dishonest/lying to the witnesses while I was trying to let them know the truth. In my case I was secretly going to another church at the same time I was a student for them. I’d say to Defer to what Gods word says first on the issue. For me, and it may different for you, I was being self-righteous when I was being dishonest. I had to ask myself if I was being an ambassador for the Lord or for my own selfish gain. Just my 2 cents. God bless!
Nothing you have said is wrong. You have nailed it. Don't have any idea how many hours of research you have done. Spot on.
Yeah IAM glad I found you REALLY glad 🤗🤗🤗🤗👍👍👍🙏🙏🙏
The more I look at videos that talk against Jehovah witnesses the more I am drawn to Jehovah witnesses. Matt24:14 Jesus said to preach about the kingdom throughout the earth and then the end will come. Luke 10:1-12 gives us insight as to how we should preach to people.....basically in 2's from door to door. As far as separation of a person from the jehovahs organization 1corinthians 5:9-13 says to remove the person from among the congregation that is an unrepentant sinner. If a person loves a person more than Jesus and Jehovah..the person is their god. All the things you talk about are not accurately explained. I will continue to study with jehovahs witnesses. I've learned more from them than from anybody else
I love your clear concise videos and how you explain things simply. The main thing for me I want to know is, which bible do they use/read/quote from ?
From my understanding JW's, Watchtower etc was started by an 18 year old by the name of Charles Taiz Russel in 1884, so did he re-edit some ones existing bible to suit his own understanding of things?
Melissa, lets pass these first phases of reaching... and say that someone repents of his/her false belief. They accept Jesus as their only and sufficient savior. NOW, where do you lead him? What congregation / church, doctrine, baptism?... what happens next?
I appreciate your heart for the Lord and sharing effective witnessing techniques. Also, your siamese cat is adorable.
I worked with a jw woman. She didn't witness to me, rather, I noticed her "bible" and asked her if she was a jw. One day we were talking and she asked me what Baptists believe. It was that question that caused me to dig into the word. I was determined to prove her wrong. Sound familiar? I didn't achieve that goal, but we agreed to disagree. We still had some discussions, but we also shared scripture and agreed to pray for one another. I also shared my answered prayers. During one of our discussions she told me I should be a witness. Actually, I considered it a compliment. She told me once that her worst experience witnessing was with a Baptist peacher. It embarrassed that she was treated so badly by a fellow Baptist. Of course, we didn't convert the other, but I pray that I left seeds that will one day germinate.
True, you have to love, pray, and study Gods word.
Thank you; I'll use some of your tips whille talkig to the protestants next time: turned out some of them are quite oversensitive as well...
As an x-JW, out for some 30 years; I still feel a very deep regret at being so hoodwinked by the Borg-Org; allowing myself to become so arrogant and self-assuming, going beyond what is written' in (The Word), and in a word' a construct, not of God's doing, although having a sincere heart for the work. I guess I should visit a shrink.🧐
Nothing wrong with going to therapy, especially after that kind of experience!
Thanks for the excellent video. You have a very beautiful cat. I love cats.
I wish these were numbered in the title.
Again.....Great video, Melissa. It has been a while since I have studied this, but you did a good job explaining their doctrine. Thank you
Thanks for sharing the wonderful info and help witnessing to jws. God bless you sister. 👍🏾
You're so right only their bible is right according to JW. I'll have to consider this point strongly, although I have known this, but have forgotten this or don't realize how mind controlled this part is when I'm in the middle of trying to preach the gospel, thank you excellent video.
i first, without ever being J W, got thinking about Bible, through this wrong Bible of theirs.....so yes God, can do great things trough wrong ones.. and it proves that'' God's Word is is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and of spirit, of joints and of marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart.
The words of the Lord are pure words, like silver refined in a furnace on the ground, purified seven times.''- how true
Greatly appreciate your channel. God bless Melissa
The best thing that could happen to a Jehova's Witness is knocking on Melissa's door. 😊
i love what you are doing , the lord has led me to study this topic as well to reach them because one church of them is in my village
Thank you.🙏🥰
Thank you so much for sharing your knowledge and passion on this topic!
I wish I had this four years ago.
Ok, so I did go for the jugular and brought up the Trinity and the deity of Jesus on their second visit to me. However, I can defend the Trinity in my sleep. I know my Bible from back to front and I've been studying apologetics and theology for nearly 15 years. And I'll be going to seminary soon to go even deeper! I think this is good advice for people who are still kind of green in their Bible knowledge though.
My biggest obstacle is trying to keep them from playing "scripture ping pong". I can answer all their proof texts but getting them to stay on topic and not jump all over the canon is 90% of the battle for me. To be frank, this and their view of Jesus' resurrection are the most important things to talk about. All their other views on things like birthdays and blood transfusions are minor issues. Getting the nature of God and the identity of Jesus wrong is huge, though!
But once you back them into a corner, they will just drop the proof text against the Trinity or the deity of Jesus they pulled up and go to another one.
Hi Melissa,
There're a ton of verses, but I noticed that these 2 have a devastating implication for their view of Jesus:
Isaiah 44:24 b (NWT)
"I, Jehovah, am doing everything, stretching out the heavens by myself, laying out the earth. Who was with me?"
John 1:3 (NWT)
"All things came into existence through him [Jesus], and apart from him not even one thing came into existence ..."
Would love your thoughts. Many thanks and appreciation for the many hrs of work.
Cheers,
Matt
With my appreciation of the Bibles admonition to 'flee from idolatry', I simply conducted my ministry to the people, without holding-out the WT Organization as an implied/inspired' entity; or idol. I viewed them as having a supportive roll in fully accomplishing my ministry; as a lawyer would view a law library; guess I didn't get that memo, Oh well HAHA. My joy came from the simple message, that in whatever form mankind is blessed by the Kingdom of God, through Christ, this certainly was "the good news", and my primary motivation had to be to love, and serve the people, for God's glory.
Please pray for Patricia Kinder, who is a JW.
Those "fearful scribes" had such a reverence for the holy name YHVH which is read from right to left. (All languages move towards Isreal.)
It's pronounced as the letters Yood, Hay, Vav, Hay. Which means "Behold the hand, behold the nail.
The Tav is also the last letter of the Hebrew Aleph-Beyt.
Thanks for another informative video sister. 👍🏾
1 Timothy 6:16 states God alone is immortal. So humans could not have a immortal soul . Less God is a liar. And I think not. Beside we don`t have a soul , we are a soul. God formed man from the dust of the ground and gave him the breath of life. Man then became a living soul. That is my understanding.
Please explain the spirit concept. 1 Thessalonians 5:23 and Hebrew 4:12
I was born and raised a Jehovah's Wittness. I am not disfellowshiped. I faded and removed myself over the Watchtower doctrine.
I had a Bible study with a lady in the 90s who was a born again a Christian.
I was like Islam ☪️ about my faith as was my mother.
I had been shown copies of past Watchtower and Awakes will false and changing doctrine. It didn't affect me as we are mere humans who make mistakes like David.
I found the Ex Wittness as bitter and angry and pretty scary!! Lol
A Christian lady welcomed me in her home and the unconditional love I felt with soft gospel music 🎶 playing in her home was very different and comforting.
She allowed me to teach her and was so sweet, kind and the HOLY SPIRIT was reaching me in her.
She feed me, loved me and put up with my rude way of speaking against her Jesus.
She would ask me questions about this verse and that verse in my TRUTH?
I found the verse MISSING!
I found changed words and added words in The New World Translation JW Bible.
The JW Greek interlinear it was shown to be changed from the Greek!
When I went to the elders I was told not to return that she wasn't open to TRUTH.
I had already established a trust and love for her by that time. ❤
She shared who she thought Jesus was in the Bible so I could teach her using her scriptures to explain the real truth to her.
The more I researched the more I saw the only way the Gospel of the Watchtower is correct is by an edited Bible and a conditioning tool like the magazines and JW books that plants those ideas in your head prior to reading the Bible.
I left and after becoming a born again Christian was shunned by my family but never disfellowshiped publicly maybe because I moved away.
I struggled with the Trinty and she played a song for me that really made me see the power of what Jesus did for humankind.
He walked a mile in my shoes.
I still don't really associate with ex Wittnesses mainly because they are so broken and messed up emotionally which is understandable.
Most ex Jehovah's witnesses don't want anything to do with the Bible or God and it's sad because Satan has won through the Cult and through the personal trauma 💔
Of being and leaving the group to keep people away from the real JESUS.
Love your videos
Great tips!
I love the link you left, Does Scripture Instruct Us Not To Let Jehovah’s Witnesses And Mormons Into Our Homes?
My best friend and I have many arguments over whether or not we should witness to JWs & Mormons. This article was very helpful!!
I learned the best way to "get rid of them" was to tell them that my in-laws are JW'S and if I had any questions I'd ask them. They walk away looking relieved. They never really blacklisted my house. I guess it's because we lived in a neighborhood that had a lot of transient people (we were military at the time)
😂
Johovah witness founder was a freemason, kabballhist & occultist like Joseph Smith. I love the JW & Mormons but just letting you people know.
One thing I’ve often wondered about in the past is whether there is any by unpacking of biblical Christianity by a an LDS or JW apologist in the same thing as this channel
They don't teach that there was always a slave class anymore. They now teach that the Faithful and Discrete Slave is exclusively a "time of the end" thing.
Yes, the governing body is now teaching that they are higher in priority than the apostles. Though I don't think most witnesses make that connection.
I discovered your videos this evening. I've listened to several of them. You're a wonderful teacher. Thank you so very much.
Love the hair up 🙂
Dear Melissa,
I am a United Methodist pastor who has a love for Judaism and Hebrew. I've spent a very long time studying the NAME of God, doing both firsthand and secondhand study. I would love to help you understand it better, if you're interested: it's the most fascinating word in the Scriptures.
I promise, I'm a mainline orthodox, Trinitarian Christian. But we Christians so very rarely study the Hebrew that we have neglected the NAME of God, which He reveals to Moses in Exodus 3:15-16. It's important. Please let me know if you'd like to hear what I have to say on it.
Love your stuff! Thank you for all that you're doing!
Everyone should check out TH-cam channel "Light over dark ministry." He takes up a number of JW issues in individual short videos. They're excellent.
Melissa, Just finished watching your video on the JW’s and the 144.000. Please refer to Revelation 14:1-5.
Thank you again.
"Doesn't smell as good as my other Bibles".😆 That made me laugh.
You are great.
Love your videos so i subscribed to your channel.
Thank you so much!!!
Good stuff, Melissa!
Jehovah is a composite name invented in 1272 A.D. by a Spanish Catholic Church Monk named Raymundus Martini. Watchtower referenced this in an WT issue of 1950 and also in a brochure or two around that time. You may find this info. by checking their website under his name and clicking on index 59-50. You may also check WT '80, if it has not yet been scrubbed from view. Additionally their publication entitled Aid to Bible Understanding ( a Raymond Frantz directed work) p884-885 lends credence to this . Go to WT Liabrary 2010 and type the name of the monk. Great job for a non-JW, by-the-way! Should also be verifiable extra-JW lit.
You have great advice.
One of their newest statements is everyone should trust Jehovah, Jesus and the governing body. They are also saying that if you disagree with the governing body, you disagree with Jehovah, or if you leave the governing body/organization your leaving Jehovah....a different version of a trinity?
I love this, but I feel like I could study for a year and maybe still not be equip to witness to them. They pop up from time to time, last time I think they realized I'm not changing my mind. And they always try to ask me questions that make it to appear we agree... They haven't been back, but I always feel a little ashamed that I did not have the ability to present them the truth in a way that they can see we believe very differently.