Without Sarcasm, How would a witness respond to this?

Kristofer

I plan on posing this question the next time my dub friends knock on my door.. What is the good news, the gospel you preach? As a witness, what are the responses I can expect? From your responses, I plan on doing some research so I can efficiently discuss this. I know there have been many threads here about how they preach a different gospel. HOWEVER, I know that many times what is Watchtower Doctrine and what they will say at my door are two different things... Thanks

BlackSwan of Memphis

Those that I know would probably say something to the effect

That they are preaching the good news of the kingdom and that Christ took the throne in 1914.

In fact I can almost hear my mom saying it now.

meagan

greendawn

The JWs will claim that they are the only religion that preaches the gospel in such a total way and they are the only ones that keep a high moral standard in their society. So they have to be preaching the right gospel.

Narkissos

There is a fairly good chance that "paradise earth" will be part of the answer.

MerryMagdalene

I thought I would do a quick check in the Reasoning book to see if there was a standard, recommended, programmed answer to this (it's been a long time since I was in field service myself)...and guess what? Good News and Gospel are not listed topics, nor are they in the index even. LOL.

If memory serves me at all, they may say something about the good news being that God's kingdom rules, and will SOON bring to ruin those ruining the earth, and turn it into a paradise where you too can live forever if you take the appropriate steps as outlined in this publication [insert whatever they are using these days].

~Merry

Justitia Themis

I am a JW. The word evangel is from the Greek word "evangelos" which simply means bringing good news. Religiously, it usually refers to the positive promises found in the New Testament. Any time anyone or any religion references those promises, they are evangelizing. In the future, we will all find out the true meaning of those promises.

I will add one caveat: My response is probably not your normal JW's response.

ballistic

Justitia Themis do you work for a large corporation? I just notice one of the annoying buzz words that's going around in corporations at the moment is caveat. They change every year.

Justitia Themis

Dear Ballistic:

No, I do not work for a large corporation. It's worse than that. I work in the legal field.

jwfacts

Mt 24:14 "This good news of the KINGDOM will be preached"
It is the kingdom that they emphasis and say that they uniquely preach. They are the only ones that preach of Christ starting his kingdom rule in 1914 and will bring to earth a paradise 'soon'. You will need to discuss what this kingdom is.
Which other Christians teach about the kingdom
Is the kingdom within you
When did the kingdom start - is 1914 correct
Those are some of the directions the conversation will take

moggy lover

Basing themselves solely on the one text at Matt 24:14, the WTS has suceeded in deflecting the "Gospel" message away from a Person, Christ, and placing it on a concept, a thing, an abstraction - the "kingdom"

Whether Matt 24:14 [indeed the whole chapter] is taking place at our time is debateable, and even the WTS has had different interpretations of it. There are those who will argue persuasavely that Matt 24 only has one application, back in the 1CBC, and there are others who with equal conviction, feel that it has two such applications, one in the 1CBC, and the other at the time of the Great tribulation, which is still in the future. So focussing attention on just one text that is highly exegetical makes for bad theology. One must remember that since its inception in 1877, the WTS has used this chapter with different, and transcient meanings, simply to involve the people of the times in which they were dealing. Your great grandfarther would have been convinced by the WTS that the Chapter of Matt 24 applied to his times. And shamelessly they are now doing the same to us.

There are two texts, both in Acts, which describe the practical application of what it means to preach the "Kingdom" Stephen is said to have preached the "Kingdom" at Acts 8:12, and Paul, at Ac 28:31 is also said to have done this. At BOTH texts, however, the practical implication of this is indecently ignored by the WTS. And this is that when reading both those texts it becomes plain, that preaching the "kingdom" is actually preaching the "name of Christ"!! Nowhere is the Kingdom reduced to an abstraction apart from the Person of Christ. It is'nt just that He is a king of a kingdom that also includes 144K other kings, but that He IS the Kingdom, He embodies and articulates it, Personally.

I recall seeing this casually absurd picture drawn on pg 3 of the brochure called :"The Government That Will Bring Paradise" where a suitably contrite Jesus is made to point AWAY from Himself to a far-off sunlit majestic mountain, evidently symbolizing this abstract "kingdom concept". This is grotesquely at variance with the real attitude of Jesus which He stated at Jo 5:40

Cheers

Without Sarcasm, How would a witness respond to this?

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