I'm afraid of starting a new post because I've stepped on a few feet here with my last post... But I still love you guys.
Last night I went home to find my wife and her friend on the couch with the bible, ready to show me how I'm wrong and exercising "apostate thinking". My wife said, "I am unable to fight you with the Bible because you know more than me about it. But K** knows more and will be able to show you how you are wrong.
So my wife went into the other room so as not to be stumbled by my discussion. It got a bit heated. We mostly discussed false prophecy. It was actually interesting because I heard some defenses that I hadn't come across yet. She was very aware of false prophecies in the past. But she held that they were not prophecies. I asked her to define the term "False Prophecy". She struggled around between someone that sets a definite date and time and says that that date and time came from God, and someone who doesn't correct their mistaken false prophecy. I told her that the society has done both things. Unfortunately all my research and WT articles are at work so as not to cause a problem with my wife. So I was unable to show her direct quotes.
Most of the time was spent doging questions and her trying to prove that JWs are doing things that NO ONE ELSE is doing. She used the age old misquote from Peter "Where else should we go to?" I tried to make her see that Peter was talking about JESUS. WHO else could we go to? I thought I gave a good fight, but the false prophecy issue went nowhere. It actually surprises me that they refuse to see it. I think if someone would have discussed this with me YEARS ago, I would've listened and seen the truth. I actually wish someone would've.
One interesting thing happened though. I brought up the double standards that the WT has had through the years. I gave her the experience of the Malawi and Mexican Witnesses that was discussed in Crises of Conscience. She was silent and eventually said...."That really disturbs me". I couldn't believe it. I thought that was the weakest and most unbiblical of my arguments. I begged her to read the book and assured her that it wasn't an angry hate filled book. She didn't commit, but I'm going to follow up.
Also, I was very weary of talking to someone else about these issues. She is an active faithful JW. I told her that if the elders knew that I talked to her about this I could be disfellowshiped for "causing divisions". She made a promise not to talk to them and that our convo was in confidence. I know that is not 100% reassuring, but it was the best I could do. I still feel the need to make a defense for my faith.
One of the frustrating parts of the conversation is she kept bringing up that we were the only ones that do not believe in the trinity, hellfire, and immortal soul. I've actually seen how the WT has twisted the scriptures to support these ideas, so I'm not sure that any of these things are false. I think there is a large amount of support for all of them, especially the deity of Jesus.
Anyhow, this was my first chance to witness to someone. I'll keep you all up to speed with how it goes. Any advice for our next convo would be awesome.
