The Watch Tower and Scripture

Stub. Do not open with an insult about an organization. Ask how a teaching is known, and then read a passage with the person.

The question

Jehovah’s Witnesses say the Bible is God’s word. They also trust the publications of the Watch Tower Bible and Tract Society to explain it. In practice the conversation is often about both. A Christian who pretends the literature is not there will talk past the person. A Christian who only attacks the literature may never open the Bible they both claim.

A fair statement of the Witness view

Witnesses do not think they are following a magazine instead of Scripture. They think Jehovah has a channel so that the Bible is not left to private invention, and that honest-hearted people can see the teaching line up with the text. They expect study aids. Many of them have read more of the Bible, with a schedule, than the neighbor who is questioning them. Respect that.

They also live with a history in which some published expectations were later revised. You do not need a list of dates to notice the question that history raises: when a publication and a later publication differ, what is the Bible’s role? Ask it without a sneer. People can feel the difference between “help me see how you decide” and “gotcha.”

A Christian starting point

Acts 17:11 praises the Bereans for examining the Scriptures to see whether the things they heard were so. That is not a license to be arrogant with a pamphlet. It is a shared method: a teaching has to be visible in the text, in context, to both of you.

Pick one doctrine rather than “the organization” as a lump. If the visit is about Jesus, use John 1 and the Word and stay there. Agree on a passage. Read the paragraphs before and after. Ask what the publication says the passage means, and whether the sentences you both just read can bear that. Second Timothy 3:16–17 is their verse as well as yours; do not wield it as if they denied Scripture.

If you do not know a Watch Tower explanation well enough to state it fairly, say so and ask them to state it. Guessing at their literature is how Christians sound like the caricatures they resent.

Scripture to open together

• Acts 17:10–12 — examining the message against the Scriptures.
• 2 Timothy 3:16–17 — what the text is for.
• John 5:39–40 — searching the Scriptures, and Jesus’ warning that the search can still miss him. Use it with care. It is not a toy for scoring points.

Keep reading

• John 1 and the Word
• The Trinity
• Charity in disagreement