Why do Jehovah's Witnesses?

Question

Why do JW"s claim to be the only followers of Jesus command, to preach the good news of the kingdom? Why do they claim to follow Jesus's example when they do a poor imitation of what he did? Jesus had nothing..lived by the grace of others and traveled from village to village.....I don't see JW's doing that.

It is interesting that as an ex Witness...I do more talking about God than I ever did as a Witness..Now no one asks me to report how much time I spend though.

pappy...I was going to concede you have a point until you called me ignorant...Is it ok if I call you a liar?

It is a bummer that they are preaching the WRONG good news....There are lots of christians who are preaching just as much but they act in humility.

Hay ...I am a Baptist....We are active in a more quiet way with how we preach....We don't have to document every word or hour ,...or report it to the society...I DO MORE PERACHING AS A BAPTIST, THAN I EVER DID AS A WITNESS.

Bill If you knew my past you would withdraw Your response and crawl into a hole...But One of the reasons that I am not a JW. any more is because my father (a practicing elder) raped and solomized me when I was 8,

Answer 1

By making house-to-house preaching a requirement of salvation the Watcthower Society certainly have a high percentage of members in this work. However, this is promoted through an incorrect interpretation of Acts 5:42 and Acts 20:20 in the New World Translation. (see http://jehovah.net.au/preaching.html)

The very low growth rate of JWs now also shows how ineffective this work, with over 15000 hours of preaching required to make a single convert.

Most interestingly, the Bible does not say to go house to house, in fact it says the very opposite at Luke 10:1-7 “After these things the Lord designated seventy others and sent them forth by twos in advance of him into every city and place to which he himself was going to come. … 5 Wherever YOU enter into a house say first, ‘May this house have peace.’ 6 And if a friend of peace is there, YOUR peace will rest upon him. But if there is not, it will turn back to YOU. 7 So stay in that house, eating and drinking the things they provide, for the worker is worthy of his wages. Do not be transferring from house to house."

The fact that there are other religions with far more members shows that JWs are not the only ones that preach.

Answer 2

Hey, "Lemming Princess" my uncle will swear that the church of christ is the true religion, are you saying we do not have the same right?

Jehovah's Witnesses care about people of any "color, language, etc." JW's believe they have the truth that the Bible teaches, they also believe the "system" we live in has a very short life span, so being concerned for your welfare, they come to your home to speak to you, and maybe leave some information with you just like Jesus and the early Christians did. Just remember, if you go out, you may talk to someone, if you wait for them to come to you, you may never talk to anyone.

And since we have the Bible knowledge, which most of you do not, 99% of you could not hold a bible conversation going house to house.

By talking, take a look at what transpired world wide in 2006:
Last year 2006, 248,327became Jehovah's Witnesses and everyone of these had to change their minds pertaining to the false teachings that they had been taught, these were people that used their own Bible, King James, etc., 28,915 were from the United States. Also 1,333,966,199 hours devoted to the public ministry, equivalent to over 150,000 years.

This is on the average of 680 new Jehovah's Witnesses every day of the year, or six '6' new Congregations each day of the year.

"Princess" Was your father & Elder when you say he did that to you? How many years ago was this suppose to happen?

In my 50 yrs. as a JW, have never heard of this happening, & if it did, he most certainly would have been removed as & Elder & probably would have been "disfellowshipped" I am not saying this did not happen, because all of us are imperfect & make mistakes.

Is he & Elder today, the reason I ask, you said you were 8 yrs. old at the time.

Have you never read the scripture that says "before you bring your gift to God, in other words "your prayer" go & forgive anyone that you might have something against or they against you, then bring your prayer to God & He will forgive you. You cannot continue to hold a grudge, even as bad as you say it is, & expect God to forgive you for your sins, that you & I commit each & every day, some small, some large, a sin is a sin according to God's Word.

Answer 3

You obviously have a beef with the JW's.
I would have to say, for a group that is able to mobilize virtually every member to support their own preaching work in line with the example of Jesus, and the virtual vacuum of any other group to acheive the astonishing preaching of over a billion hours a year (from about 6 million JW's) you really have to honestly take anther look at this group.
Your claim that Jesus lived by the grace of others totally ignores, that the man worked as a carpenter till the age of 29.5, and then commenced on a 3.5 year preaching mission to train his followers (like Paul who actually worked to support his mission), and call it "living by the grace of others".
It clearly says in the OT, that you must not muzzle a bull that is threashing, and there are many JW's that have submitted to this work of Jesus, totally relying upon the donations of other JW's.
These men do not draw a salary, rather, they are given a small allowance so that they may eat. They are provided with modest living accomodations, and some are provided with a means of transportation. To say that the JW's do not resemble closely the Christ, and the example he set, is to proclaim aloud your ignorance.
(I am not a JW, yet I know many who are)

My thought for you to ponder is this: What other organization is there upon the earth that has accomplished so much preaching with so few people?
(Do the math: seven billion people on earth, six million JW's, over a billion hours of preaching. That means that they have devoted about 9 minutes of preaching every year for each person alive today.Any other group match that?)

Answer 4

We are the only ones doing the preaching work about God' Kingdom. Have you noticed any Baptists?

As far as I can see, we are the only ones following Jesus' example of preaching and teaching what he did as he did. We all have jobs to support ourselves just as the apostles did. (2Thess. 3:7-10) We are all ministers like Jesus & the apostles. We do not have a clergy class that has to be supported by a laiaty class. We are not paid anything for our preaching or teaching. Not even Billy Graham, who is from around my home, and is regarded as honest in amongst the other preachers embroiled in controversy goes without a paycheck. Our literature is also largely for free as is our offer of free home Bible studies with interested people.

Not one of the people we study with has ever been in a headlock and forced to either study or convert.

How much do your clergy charge for what they do? More importantly, how much do they tell you? Do they educate the people about the Bible? We do. Do you realize the God you pray to is named Jehovah? If you do not know that, what else have they not told you? (Psalms 83:18)

Mainly, the only thing I see the clergy teaching is for their people to be afraid of us! All we have is the Bible. Everything we say we can prove with your Bible. I don't see the clergy doing that.

These are some of the many reasons we say we are true Christians as we worship only what the Bible teaches without any pagan beliefs interfering.

Answer 5

As a group they are told they are the only ones fulfilling Matthew 24:14, Matthew 28:19,20, etc. When asked about other groups who even go door to door, they come up with reasons why they don't count.

In some neighborhoods, there are religious flyers left at doors several times a week. While visitng a friend, a nice young lady came to the door with a pamphlet about a Christian recovery group to help young people. Others I've seen have pictures that have reminded me of the Watchtower illustrations about the dragons of Revelation. When a witness came with the "Do You Follow the Christ?" invitation, I had to look closely at it before I could differentiate it from some of the others I'd seen there. The JW/Watchtower association was buried on the last page in small type.

I was wryly amused at the similarity between their tract that those of other local churches. They aren't so unique as they are made to believe they are.

Answer 6

Jehovah's Witnesses do not do as this so-called "question" suggests. The ministry performed by true Christians (such as Jehovah's Witnesses) is not necessarily performed with the hope of pleasing this questioner, but with the hope of pleasing God and Christ.

While the adherents of this religion or that may pretend that they are performing a more thorough ministry than that of Jehovah's Witnesses, it is interesting that around the globe Jehovah's Witnesses are so closely identified with the preaching work. By 2006, nearly 7 million Witnesses preached publicly each month.

(Matthew 28:19,20) Go therefore and make disciples of people of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the holy spirit, teaching them to observe all the things I have commanded you.

(Acts 5:42) Every day in the temple and from house to house they continued without letup teaching and declaring the good news about the Christ, Jesus.

(Acts 20:20) I did not hold back ...from teaching you publicly and from house to house


It's sad when someone who claims to respect the bible insults a peaceful preacher, or attacks the quality of another's preaching work. It is sad but completely expected.

(2 Timothy 4:3-5) For there will be a period of time when they will not put up with the healthful teaching... You, though, keep your senses in all things, suffer evil, do the work of an evangelizer, fully accomplish your ministry.


Really, if someone goes out of their way to disregard Christian preachers and preaching, what is he saying about himself?

(Luke 10:1-17) After these things the Lord designated seventy others and sent them forth by twos... “He that listens to you listens to me too. And he that disregards you disregards me too. Moreover, he that disregards me disregards also him that sent me forth.”


Learn more:
http://jw-media.org/people/ministry.htm
http://watchtower.org/e/jt/index.htm?article=article_04.htm
http://watchtower.org/e/pr/index.htm?article=article_03.htm
http://watchtower.org/e/rq/index.htm?article=article_15.htm
http://watchtower.org/e/lmn/index.htm?article=article_11.htm
http://watchtower.org/e/ti/index.htm?article=article_09.htm

Answer 7

The traveling brothers just about do.
The society used to fulfill their needs to drag a travel trailer around, or such, but not any more.

They do it all out of a suitcase, and the contributions it takes to get them from one congregation to the next. One town to the next.

Answer 8

They travel through East dangerous areas. Witnessing.

Answer 9

Every religion claims to be the only true religion, which is why there are so many wars.

Answer 10

Lots of boasting from them again.... sigh.

You would think they would catch themselves boasting. The truth is they are NOT the only ones sharing the good news, but they ARE the only ones bragging about doing it!!!

Instead of telling us how many they preach to and what the data is, they should be saying that they know that other people preach too.

And, what other religious person in their right mind keeps track of stats on how many people they talk to or convert or how many hours they do it in!!! Is sharing the good news a business that needs to be kept track of? Or is it rather a fruit of the spirit that dwells within? True Christians speak openly about the love of Christ to anyone and everyone that will listen... and they don't keep score to brag about it.

I have no scorecard. I do have fruits.