Jehovah's Witnesses-What a Joke!

Back 'in the day', if the Jehovah's Witnesses came to your door, a sure repellent was to simply say, 'I'm a Catholic'. Assuming that you were a hopeless case, they would move on to the next house. In fact, my Uncle Glen, who to my knowledge never darkened the door of a Catholic Church in his life (or any church as an adult), used it effectively for years.

After the Council, with the total collapse of catechesis, they rapidly realised that Catholics were easy pickings. Since the Faith was no longer taught in 'Catholic' schools or in CCD classes, the odds on a Catholic actually knowing the Faith were decreasing rapidly and the JWs took advantage of the fact. Thus, the old, 'I'm a Catholic' defence no longer worked. The JWs actively looked for houses with Catholic imagery, a statue of Our Lady or St Francis, for example.

As a result of this the JWs began pestering my Grandmother and my Uncle. who still lived at home. Grandma was was in her 80s or early 90s, and I assume they wanted to 'get' her before she died.

Once, when I was visiting my Grandmother Weismiller and Uncle Glen,  after I'd been out hunting upland game birds, we noticed two young men approaching the house. Uncle Glen whispered fiercely, 'Jehovah's Witnesses! Hide!' Not being one to hide, I shouted, 'Hide, hell! Let me get my shotgun!', and started for the door. Uncle Glen restrained me, but the two JWs retreated down the walk rather rapidly!

After that, they weren't bothered nearly as often, but once in a while, a couple of JWs who obviously hadn't heard about the madman with a shotgun, would still knock on their door.

In the early 1970s, on my Grandmother's birthday, we had a family party for her. The family turned out in full force, including her half-brother, Oscar 'Swede' Bloomquist. Uncle Oscar had a foul mouth, with the vocabulary of a muleskinner and a temper to go with it. He was the only town mayor in the history of Kansas to go to jail for assaulting the town marshall, whom he had appointed!

So,  when there was a knock at the door and I found two strangers, a middle aged woman and a younger woman, I was reluctant to let them in the house. I first thought that they might be cousins I'd never met, but then I looked down and saw the distinctive, garishly coloured books they were carrying. The older of the two introduced herself, saying, 'I'm Mrs X and this is my daughter. We're doing our Christian duty'.

Grandma's birthday was Transfiguration Day, 6 August, so it was a pleasant day and I asked if they'd mind talking on the lawn, since there was a party in progress. They agreed and I stepped out of the house for the conversation.

After a bit of chat, the older lady asked me if I'd ever read the Book of 'Revelation' (the Apocalypse, last book of the NT). I replied that I had. She was preparing to 'set the hook' when she said, 'So, you know that only certain people are going to heaven?' Knowing their weird belief that only 144,000 souls will actually go to heaven, I knew what she was about to bring up. I was Orthodox at the time, so I replied, 'Yes. And they all belong to the One, Holy, Catholic, Apostolic Orthodox Church of the East, and everyone else is going to hell!'

She did a double take and said, 'What?', so I repeated myself.

That fairly well ended the conversation, but I told her that whilst I needed to get back to the party, I would love to discuss it further. She said she would have her son contact me. I gave her my address and phone number, and after over 40 years, I'm still waiting for him to call!

At any rate, I was reminded of all this when I found a JW leaflet on the table this morning. I asked the Cuter & Shorter Half from whence it came. She said that some JWs had knocked on the door, but before she could answer it, they had left (probably frightened by Maximus' ferocious barking), leaving the leaflet in the door.

Glancing through it, I saw that they have a website, on which one can read the Bible in over 100 languages. I was reminded of other conversations I've had over the years with JWs. They always claim that they have the greatest Bible scholars in history, the best exegetes, and the most brilliant scholars of Greek in the world.

Since they are anti-Trinitarian heretics who do not believe the Divinity of Christ, two verses that are stumbling blocks for them are John 1:1, 'In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God,' and John 8:58, 'Jesus said to them: Amen, amen I say to you, before Abraham was made, I am'.

In order to avoid the Trinitarian doctrine implicit in these verses, they have 'translated' the first, in their New World 'Translation', as, 'In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was a god', and the second as, 'Jesus said to them: “Most truly I say to you, before Abraham came into existence, I have been.”

When I first started arguing with JWs, they had published an 'interlinear' Bible, containing the Greek of the New Testament with a literal, word for word translation beneath the Greek, and their own 'translation' in a column on the outer edge of each page. The amusing thing was that, despite having the greatest Bible scholars in history, the best exegetes, and the most brilliant scholars of Greek in the world, the interlinear translation upheld Trinitarian doctrine!


I assumed that in the intervening 40 years they had managed to cobble together something supporting their deviant doctrine, so I went to the interlinear translation on their website. What did I find? This. John 1:1, 

᾿ΕνIn ἀρχῇbeginningἦνwasὁtheλόγος,Word,καὶandὁtheλόγοςWordἦνwasπρὸςtowardτὸνtheθεόν,God,καὶandθεὸςgodἦνwasὁtheλόγος.Word.
And, John 8:58:

Said αὐτοῖςto themἸησοῦςJesus᾿ΑμὴνAmenἀμὴνamenλέγωI am sayingὑμῖν,to YOUπρὶνBefore᾿ΑβραὰμAbrahamγενέσθαιto becomeἐγὼIεἰμί.am. 
Now, I'm no Greek scholar, but even I can read εγω εἰμί, and with the help of a dictionary, figure out that it means 'I AM', in other words, that He is identifying Himself with the God of Moses, Who said in Exodus 3:14, 'I AM that I AM'. And the Jews definitely knew as well, because the next verse begins, 'They took up stones therefore to cast at him', to stone Him for the capital crime of blasphemy!

So my conclusion is that the JWs are joke, ab initio!