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A STRATEGY AND METHOD FOR REACHING JEHOVAH’S WITNESSES

My wife had watched a program on TV about one of the generals during World War II
that showed a number of scenes of his campaigns and explained the strategy that he used. The
next day my wife and I were out walking and she explained that the reason why the general had
been so successful was that he was a “history bug” and had studied the strategy of many military
men and also of the general of the enemy he was presently fighting. Therefore, when he went
into battle he knew what would work and what would not. General Douglas MacArthur was one
who understood the oriental mind and that is the reason he was so successful. Through this
discussion I realized that in order to reach those in the cults we also must know about our
opponent and their strategy. Next we have to have a strategy of our own in order to counter
theirs. (I know that ultimately it is up to the Holy Spirit to bring people to Christ along with
much prayer, but we also have to do some studying and preparation on our own. There is not
virtue in ignorance.)

When reaching out to the Jehovah’s Witnesses we must be aware of their strategy, and
theirs is a very good one. We therefore need a clear strategy and method of our own. In this brief
article, I would like to present the strategy of the Watchtower Society, how most Christians
witness and show how it is not very effective and then present a strategy that can be used to
make your witnessing much more effective and relaxing.

THE STRATEGY OF THE WATCHTOWER SOCIETY

As you have probably noticed, the main way Witnesses reach people is by going from
door to door and making the initial contact in the home. As they come to your door, they are
always very neatly dressed. (This is part of the deception process.) When you meet them at the
door they are usually very polite and have a smile, which is often practiced in front of a mirror.
They are well trained as to what they are to say. (They spend one hour in a class every week
learning how to approach people on many different subjects.) At the door they do not tell you
about the meetings at the Kingdom Hall or invite you to come there, but they try to have a “Bible
study” in your home. In this way, they are able to meet you on a personal basis and try to build a
relationship. At first, they will agree with you on just about any issue you bring up and will not
reveal to you what they actually believe because they have to make you think right from the start
that they are “such nice polite people.” This is the general impression that most people have
about the Jehovah’s Witnesses. So their first goal is to give a good impression and usually they
are very successful at it. People usually do not become associated with the Watchtower Society
because of it doctrines, but because of the people. “People are won to people, not dogma.” Many
people often think, “Such nice people surely can’t be wrong when it comes to religion!”

If you agree to start a “Bible study” with them, which is actually “studying a Watchtower
propaganda book,” they seem to really know their Bible and have simple answers to very
complex questions. (With most Christians I talk with, they will say, “The Jehovah’s Witnesses
really know their Bible!” Actually, they use only 6% of the Bible and know only the verses that
seem to prove their points. They do not read the Bible in context on their own.) Thus people are
impressed with their politeness and the fact that they seem to have a good knowledge of the
Bible.
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Right from the beginning they begin to indoctrinate people. One of the first things they
will tell you is that since you are studying “the truth” Satan is going to oppose you and this most
likely will come from your family and friends. Sure enough, when your tell your family or
friends they will begin to tell you that the Jehovah’s Witnesses are members of a false cult and
try to discourage you from continuing studying with them. This only proves to the new inquirer
that the Watchtower Society is correct.

Then next thing you will be told is that the Bible is inspired of God, but that it must be
“interpreted.” They will explain to you that in order to understand the Bible there is a certain
select group of men at the head of their organization that interpret the Bible under God’s
direction. They will take you to Acts 8:30-31 which reads: “Philip ran alongside (the Ethiopian
eunuch) and heard him reading aloud Isaiah the prophet, and he said: ‘Do you actually know
what you are reading?’ He said: ‘Really, how could I ever do so, unless someone guided me?’”
Once you buy into this propaganda then they have you. Even though you might read the Bible
and it seems to state something very simply and plainly, to the JW’s it can’t mean that because
that is not the way their leaders interpret it.

The JW’s will tell you that God deals only with an “organization” and not with
“individuals.” Thus if you want to have any contact with God and have any communication with
Him it can only be done through the Watchtower Society. The men on the Governing Body of
the Watchtower Society are supposed to have contact with God since they are of the “anointed”
class. Then these men dispense what is supposedly coming from God. Therefore, if you do not
get under the umbrella of the Watchtower Society you can’t have any connection with God and if
you ever leave the Society then God will have nothing more to do with you.

If you accept this propaganda, by now you are quite well under the control of the
Watchtower Society.

For your “Bible study” they will either give you a 32 page booklet or the book WHAT
DOES THE BIBLE Really TEACH? You will be asked to read a paragraph and then at the
bottom of the page there are questions that your “teacher” will ask you. These questions have
you repeat what you have just read which is subtly propagandizing you into the Watchtower
Societies way of thinking. It is very subtle but very effective.

When you begin to ask questions, there are several ways they will distract you. (1)
Sometimes they will say that the question you are asking will be answered later on so they will
wait until that time to discuss it. But you usually never get to it. (2) For the supposed answer to
your questions they will go into a long and involved discourse on some subject which often has
nothing to do with your actually question. They hope they will loose you and you will forget
about the questions and they don’t have to answer it. (3) They might ask you some question,
which is really irrelevant to your question in order to throw you off. (Don’t think they are really
interested in hearing the answer to the question they ask you because they are not.) (4)
Sometimes they will bring you copies of printed material from Watchtower publications that in
most cases does not answer you question, but they feel satisfied because they have given you
something. (5) If your question has to do with something about a verse of Scripture they will
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immediately counter your verse with another verse that seems to be on the opposite side. You
need to be aware of these tactics and stick to your original question and TRY to get some kind of
reasonable answer out of them.

Another effective way the Jehovah’s Witnesses have of distracting you and
circumventing your question is by asking you some hypothetical question and this causes the
conversation to go off on another direction.

Let me illustrate what I mean. When you are discussing an issue with JW’s they will
often ask a hypothetical question that seems to negate what the Bible is saying. (1) You are
discussing what will happen to the people who have heard the WT message and refused to
respond at the time of Armageddon. The Witnesses don’t want to tell you outright that these
people will be annihilated and never given a second chance, so instead of answering your
question they will ask you, “What about the heathen (native tribes) who have never heard?” They
might explain that there might be some places in the world where the message has never reached.
These are a very small amount in comparison with those who have heard. So you start discussing
and try to explain about what happens to these people and in most cases never get back to the
fact that most people have heard the Watchtower message and they will all be annihilated at
Armageddon. (2) When you are discussing the subject of assurance of salvation, the Witnesses
will almost always bring up the subject of those who supposedly fall away. I don’t know about
you, but in my experience I have known only a very few Christians who have walked away from
the faith, and the greater majority have remained faithful to the end. So in order to avoid how
you get salvation in the first place, which Witnesses never can do, they get you discussing the
subject of those who fall away and then you never get back to the subject of assurance.

Most of the things Jehovah’s Witnesses are acquainted with are memorized and they are
very, very poor at thinking on their own. In fact, the Society doesn’t want them to think.
Thinking people don’t make good Jehovah’s Witnesses!

The next step in the propaganda process is to invite you to the Kingdom Hall. They might
tell you they are having a special speaker and they are giving you a special invitation for this
occasion. Since you are quite well acquainted with the JW’s coming to your house, it is
important for them to introduce you to other Witnesses in this propagandizing process. Your host
will make sure that you are introduced to a number of people in the Kingdom Hall and all of
them will be VERY friendly to you. They will remember your first name and call you by it the
next time you come to the Hall. This friendliness is a very important step in getting you to
become a Jehovah’s Witness. You are thinking more of their friendliness than what they are
actually teaching.

After you have studied with the Witnesses for a while and gone to the Kingdom Hall,
they will begin to pressure you into becoming a full fledged Jehovah’s Witness by being
baptized. Of course, when this happens you will be obligated to attend the Kingdom Hall twice a
week. They have one night where there are three meetings back-to-back and last for two hours
and then on Sunday they have a 50-minute lecture and then spend 50 minutes studying
designated articles in the Watchtower magazine. From there they will try to move you out to
spending at least 10 hours a month going from door to door. Now you are “hooked.”
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If you are not progressing as fast as they want, in order to stop the “Bible study,” they
will say that they are not making any progress (just going on an even plain) and will want to stop
the studies.

Another tactic they have, when they want to stop the studies and not have to take the
blame for it, will be to start attacking you (character assassination) and accusing you of not being
sincere, deceiving them, or accusing you of having false motives in order to get you angry on
purpose and YOU will be the one who stopped the studies and THEY don’t have to take the
blame.

HOW MOST CHRISTIANS RESPOND WHEN THEY BEGIN DEALING WITH JW’s.

It is sad to say, but in the greater majority of the cases when Christians come in contact
with Jehovah’s Witnesses, the Christian actually helps the Witnesses and plays right into their
hands. Since the JW’s have one meeting a week, about 45 minutes, in which they have mock
conversations on how to answer questions put to them when they go from door to door, in
addition to the book Reasoning from the Scriptures that they almost always have with them, and
since most of the questions asked are standardized, they are well prepared to answer most
questions and objections.

Here are some typical approaches.

1. Most Christians will begin with the Trinity or John 1:1. The JW’s are very well
prepared to discuss this subject and most Christians are not. Usually a JW will twist a
Christian in circles when discussing the Trinity. This is the last place you should start.
The JW’s are off on the depth and seriousness of sin, thus they don’t feel they need a
big Saviour. If a JW does get saved, one of the last bastions to fall is that of
overcoming the false teaching they received concerning Trinity. You don’t attack
your enemy at their strongest position. I have never heard of a JW leaving because of
doctrine. It is because of the Watchtower Society and the unloving atmosphere among
the Witnesses.

2. A familiar topic when witnessing to the JW’s is trying to show that their Bible, the
New World Translation (NWT) is not a reliable Bible, but it is very hard to make
much progress along this line.

3. Another regular approach is to point out the false prophecies, of which there are
many. Some Christians have copies of these false prophecies but usually a JW will
not even look at them but will say they are forged so this is not effective.

4. Then a good many Christians use apologetics. They want to try to explain away all of
the objections that the JW’s have against Christianity. But what the JW’s are actually
doing is getting the Christians just defending their beliefs. You can never win a war
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by “just defending” You have to take the battle (and this is a spiritual battle) onto
their territory. A cultist must first begin to question his or her own organization
before he or she will consider anything else. I will explain how this can be done in the
next section.

Most of the approaches that Christians use are not very successful in witnessing to the
Jehovah’s Witnesses. But they are very good at driving them away. Very few Christians can
keep them coming for more than two or three times. Jehovah’s Witnesses do not have the faintest
idea as to what the true Gospel is so if we don’t use patience with them, then how will they hear?
Remember, we often witness more by our actions than by words.

A MORE SUCCESSFUL STRATEGY

If you are ever going to be successful in reaching out to a JW, you are going to have to
build a meaningful friendship and this takes time. You need to have a plan and go very slow.
From my experience I find that most Christians go way too fast.

When JW’s come to your door you must be polite. Listen attentively to what they initially
have to say.

You want to play a little hard to get. You can say, “I am a person who is very inquisitive
and like to ask a lot of questions (which I truly am).” Most questions that Christians ask JW’s are
standardized so they are well acquainted with them, thus they will take it as a challenge and it
won’t drive them away. They will usually respond by telling you that they don’t mind answering
questions.

Continue by explaining that you don’t mind talking with them if they understand you will
have a lot of questions and therefore it will take a long time. Ask them if they would be willing
to come over a long period of time so that you would not be wasting their time or yours? Usually
they will agree to come over a long period of time. It is hard for them to have “Bible studies” in
order to gain “brownie points,” so at first they will agree to almost anything.

A word of caution. In you initial meeting do not let them know you are an active
Christian. (You can do this when you give your testimony.) Don’t tell them if you go to church
or not and of course don’t give them the name of your church. (They want to pin you down later
and can use this information to do so.)

You need to play ignorant. You are not deceiving, but you don’t have to tell them all
about yourself at the door on the initial meetings. People who can think or have studied the
history of the Watchtower Society don’t usually become Jehovah’s Witnesses!

When the JW’s do come, you do not have to wear a suit and tie, like the JW men do, but
it is best to at least dress in nice casual clothes and be well groomed. Also, try to have you house
presentable.
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Most people who became Witnesses did so because they had an “emotional need” and the
Witnesses seemed to have met that need. Some examples of emotional needs are: they just
moved into a new area and are lonely, they are out of work, going through marital problems,
problems with their children, addiction problems, etc. When the emotions set in the head shuts
down. (Most people get married on emotions. Just try to tell a young lady who has fallen in love
with her “shining knight in armor” some of the severe defects he has and see how far you get.)
The Witnesses seemed to meet these needs but it was only on the surface and they were really
never met. Therefore, you are going to have to keep this in mind and one of your first concerns is
to meet these emotional needs. The best way to do this is by showing genuine Christian love by
building a friendship. I don’t want to discourage you, but this usually takes at least ten times. But
this is where the Christian has a real advantage. As a JW, the WT Society is only interested in
people as long as they can “produce” for the Society by attending meetings and going from door
to door. Among the Witnesses, “one size fits all.” They are not treated as an individual but
everyone is the same. Thus, Witnesses have no individuality. Also, JW’s are taught that they
must keep “Jehovah’s organization” clean, so they are always spying on one another to make
sure they keep in “line.” (By telling on someone advances you in that it shows you are a “loyal”
JW.) Therefore, they do not trust anyone. Parents will squeal on their children, children on their
parents, even their best friends. So because of this, JW’s are not able to talk to other Witnesses
about any of their personal problems. To have any kind of problem is a weakness in faith
according to the Watchtower Society.

So this is where the Christian has the advantage. When you bring them into your house
you can show an interest in them as an “individual.” Find out as much as you can about them. If
you don’t think you can remember be sure to write this information down. When dealing with a
JW I always bring up some individual thing that they mentioned the week before (like a sick
child, a health problem, out of work, etc.) to show them that I am interested in them as an
individual. When JW’s come to your house the head is tightly closed but the heart is empty and
opened to a degree. Most people go for the head. Since Witnesses are taught not to trust anyone,
at first they will not trust you, but if you continue to be friendly, over a period of time, they will
usually respond. If I can deal with a JW for at least ten times we will usually end up being
friends.

In order to make friends, I strongly urge that you start out by having some light
refreshments, coffee, juice, water, cookies, cake, etc. At first, the JW’s might refuse but if you
urge them they will usually respond. In this way, you can get them to relax. JW’s are usually
very professional and don’t spend much time socializing, but socializing with JW’s IS NOT A
WASTE OF TIME but is very important in building a personal relationship which is necessary
if you intend to make any progress with them.

There is another important thing you need to remember. JEHOVAH’S WITNESSES

CANNOT THINK WHEN IT COMES TO SPIRITUAL THINGS. The mind is closed.
When certain subjects come up or words are used they have “a shutter” that automatically closes
their minds. For this reason, YOU ARE GOING TO HAVE TO TEACH THEM HOW TO
THINK. This is done by asking questions that are off the beaten path and then keeping them
off. Most of the questions Christians ask JW’s are standardized. The JW’s spend 45 minutes
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every week having mock conversations on how to answer these standard questions so they are
very well prepared to answer most questions and objections. Besides this, all JW’s have the WT
book Reasoning from the Scriptures that gives answers to many questions that are put forth to
them as they go from door to door.

They are very good at getting you “chasing rabbits” when you get them onto new
subjects and they don’t have a memorized answer. Therefore, you have to keep them to the
subject and not let them get you sidetracked. Also, you will have to take big questions and break
them down into very small segments. Because it is hard for them to think it is very difficult to
take up one subject, come to a conclusion and then go onto another subject. You have to discuss
an issue for a while, then drop it for that discussion but keep bringing it up for many weeks after
that.

Often when you bring up subjects they are not familiar with they will try to put it on the
“shelf.” They will tell you they will look it up, but in most cases they don’t, so there gets to be a
lot of things on the “shelf.” But sometimes they will bring you some printed matter from
Watchtower publications, that usually do not answer your question, and in this way they don’t
have to think it through for themselves. When this happens, do not accept the material. Ask them
to read the material and then in their “own words” tell you how the article answers your
questions. You want to make them do some thinking.

I very strongly urge you to get a notebook and takes notes as you go along. Often JW’s
do not really hear what they are saying because most of what they know is memorized. You can
write your question in the notebook and then their answer. After you have written their answer,
then read back what you have written to make sure that they agree. If they have a problem with
what you write they can correct it. This is very important because later on it is almost certain that
they will contradict themselves and then you have what they said in writing with their approval.
Also, by taking notes you will slow down the conversation and this will give them a few minutes
to hopefully do some thinking.

Then it is best to review the notes of the previous week when you begin the discussion
the following week.

The Jehovah’s Witnesses have a book titled: What Does the Bible Really Teach? that I
suggest that you use. (They usually give this to you early in your meeting with them.) In this
way, you can go through their teachings in an orderly manner, because often discussions will just
keep going off in different directions. I have 85 pages of questions on this book that I will be
glad to send to you by e-mail if you don’t already have them. A word of caution. When using
this book, the JW’s want you to read a paragraph and then answer prepared questions written at
the bottom of the page. YOU ABSOLUTELY DO NOT WANT TO DO THIS. This is just
repeating what you have read and enforces their teachings. I usually say, “I like to sleep on
important issues so I can be well prepare. I don’t want to waste your time. I will read the material
on my own before we meet and then come up with my own questions.” They might say that the
way they want to do it is the way they always do it. But if you hold your ground they will usually
go along with you and let you come up with your own questions. After all, they are there to
answer questions for you and not you answer their questions.
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As I say in the book I have written Approaching Jehovah’s Witnesses in Love—How to

Witness Effectively Without Arguing, before you begin any discussion you want to give your
personal testimony as to how you came to know Christ as your own personal Savior. You can
say; “I like people. I think it would be good if we got to know each other better so would you
please tell me how you became a Jehovah’s Witness and then I will explain to you what I
believe. (Don’t say, “How I became a Christian.” If you do they will turn you off because they
have a poor impression of Christians. But if they don’t know where you are going and you make
your testimony interesting, which all are, then you can gain their interest and they can hear the
message of salvation.) I usually take between twenty to thirty minutes to give my testimony and
often have them setting on the edge of their seat as they listen with interest.

Jehovah’s Witnesses don’t like to meet with people who are well informed about their
religion. If you do know a lot and begin to reveal this then it will turn them away. They believe
that the only way an outsider can find out about the Watchtower Society it by going to the
Internet and anything that is found there is automatically false and forged material. Therefore, it
is good to never say that you got some material from the Internet. But you can learn how to ask
questions so that they will reveal information about the Society to you. Here is one example:

You can explain that you are interested in the history of the Watchtower Society and ask
them to tell you as much as they can. Usually they don’t want to talk about their history or will
give you very little information. Then you can reply: “I would imagine that your organization has
believed and practiced the same thing from the very beginning up until now”! They will usually
tell you that there have been changes but they keep getting “new light” and are making progress.
Then you can ask them to name some of the things that have changed. They might say we used
to believe that you could observe birthdays, celebrated holidays, but now we don’t. We used to
use the sign of the cross and have flags in our building but now we don’t. These are just a few of
the many things that have changed. Try to “pump” them and get as many things as possible out
of them as to the changes that have been made. This is important because you can use this
information later on and it was the JW’s who told you that they made changes and what they are.

You need to be careful because they will often talk in circles and actually go nowhere.
When this happens, just let them go, but when they are finally done come back to your original
question. Because of this tactic of the JW’s you will have to be prepared to waste about half of
the time you are with them but I don’t know of any other way to do it.

Often when you use a verse to try to prove your point they will counter with another
verse that often does not have to do with the subject. They will get you discussing the verse they
brought up and you will not be able to talk about the verse that you want. When they want to go
to another verse, explain to them that you would like to talk about this verse first.

As mentioned above, often when JW’s want to stop a “Bible study” and not take the
blame for it, they will say: “We are not making progress and just going on a even plain so lets
just stop these studies.” From the very start of your meetings it is important to say every week at
the end of each session: “We really made a lot of progress today, but this is much more difficult
than what I thought it would be and will take a lot of time, but since you are an honest religious
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person and have promised to come as long as I want you to (this is why it is so important to get a
firm commitment for a long period of time at the very beginning) that eventually we will come to
some good conclusion.” You need as much time as possible in order to build up this friendship
and to get them to think.

Dealing with JW’s is very frustrating because they are all “poker faced” and you never
know if you are making progress or not. But as I said before, be patient because they don’t even
trust their own JW’s let alone us Christians whom they feel are part of false Babylon. You are
going to have to plant a lot of good seed and use all the patience you can muster up. You are
planting seed and it takes a lot of hoeing, watering, and time to see results. Your love and prayers
can do this. It would be a big help if you could get others in the church interested in your
witnessing to the JW’s and have them pray for you.

I wish I could say there is a high success rate when Christians witness to JW’s. But I
can’t. It is very difficult, but God does not reward you by the supposed outward results but by
your faithfulness. But I can assure you that it is never a waste of time to witness to these very
needy JW’s because you are going to grow tremendously in the Lord. You will be challenged to
make your life an example of a faithful Christian before these people. You will see things in the
Bible that you have never seen before. You will see verses that clearly show that the Witnesses
are on the wrong track and at the same time notice the verses that prove that as a repented sinner
who has put your personal faith in Jesus Christ that you are in “the truth.”

If I can be of any help to you please call on me. This is the ministry to which the Lord has
called me into. I am thankful for the hundreds of people I have been able to help and would be
glad to add you to that list.