Did a householder at the door ever cause you doubts

perfect1

Recently on a saturday morning there was a knock on my door.

Two ladies asked me if I was familiar with the JWs

I said: Yes unfortunatley

them: why unfortunately

me: (fire in mine eyes)

Them: Its OK, you can talk to us.

me: I would advise you to research your religion thoroughly.

Good bye.

that was as polite as I could be in that moment given I was ready to really go on a rampage- and I didnt want to ruin my day.

But I couldnt help but wonder what else I could have said to make them think.

Did anyone ever say anything to you at the door that made you think, or that you looked into.

I had a conversation about evolution with a young guy on the doors and felt utterly stupid since he was clearly vastly better informed than me and all I could offer him was "every house has a builder" and "aren't animals amazing - surely that's design".

That did make me want to investigate rational and scientific arguments against evolution. So I read Dawkins.

ooops.

ILoveTTATT

Lots of my awakenings happened while in service, actually!

Reading other people's bibles made me see how different ours was...

For example, in the Psalms where the righteous shall posses the Earth... it was translated "country" in the Bible I read... and I immediately got the point that it was the land of Israel...

So that awoke me... another one was not finding the phrase "nor the Son" in someone's Bible... I was shocked because the WT decided to add those words where in that one gospel (can't remember which one it was), the phrase is not in some manuscripts...

The best advice anyone's ever given me is, ILTTATT, READ THE BIBLE ON YOUR OWN, WITHOUT USING WATCHTOWER PUBLICATIONS!!

That was a big part of what helped me wake up...

So... ironically... preaching helped me wake up...

LoisLane looking for Superman

I had a friend who was a Professor of Physics.

I talked to him about the Bible, because we are indoctrinated not to let any opportunity go by without boldly going where no man should. There is a reason, in polite Society, friends, even mere acquaintances, do not broach subjects which might be of a personal nature, and might cause offense.

He asked me how long I thought Man had lived on the earth.

Like a battery backed up Robot, I said, "Man has lived on the earth for 6,000 years". "Do you believe that?" With conviction, "Yes."

Him, "Do you not know about the famous cave in France that has cave paintings 17,000 years old?" "No". The look he gave me was priceless.

Pity, contempt, facepalm , incredulous.

That actually was the last time I talked to him about the Bible.

I was a religious fanatic of the WatchTower , born and bred, I am ashamed to say.

LoisLane

Julia Orwell

Brilliant! A householder who pointed out how spiritually bereft jws appeared to him to be got me thinking a little. And then a Christian preacher who came to MY door got me thinking when he observed that jws cherry picked the scriptures rather than taking them in context, and his scripture knowledge was superior to any Jw's I'd met. He got me thinking a little.

Max Divergent

Yep. But only after I was ready to hear it.

He must have been an academic as he lived near a university campus and the way he talked. I had some silly Watchtower about God existing and I rattled off the standard spiel from the usual scriptures. He said things like, 'Oh, the onlological argument...' and went on to explain the origin and faults of each argument I was putting. What that did was tell me the WTS had nothing more than the theologians and were nothing special. I was just recycling old church rubbish in another guise.

It only made an impact as they were the right words at the right time to the right person.

inbetween

IloveTTATT: Ihad the same experience with psalm 37 many years ago, a well informed guy of protestant denomination brought it up, in his bible it was translated like "land" and he applied it to the land of Israel.

over the many years, this somehow stuck in my mind, but you know, Paradise earth is such a nice idea, hard to get over wishful thinking sometimes...

Zoos

No. I considered any "defeat" as my own lack of preperation and study. Without question, I had the truth. It said so right there in the Watchtower.

I'm nobody's fool.

Fernando

perfect1, I suspect what you said may have been exactly what they needed to hear - nothing more - nothing less.

It was brutally honest, whilst clearly inviting them to do the right thing, and then draw their own conclusions.

In more than 40 years of doorknocking not a single householder ever had anything useful to offer. Sometimes hostility, but always at a total loss when it came to articulating their issues in any meaningful shape or form.

Good on you.

That would have helped me.

In the end a simple question started my jailbreak which took three-and-a-half years: "What is the gospel in one word?"

I was profoundly struck by my ignorance of something so fundamental, and knew instantly someone had been hiding something important from me.

This kick-started a life changing and breathtaking research undertaking which became a one-way ticket out of the Watchtower, out of religion and into vibrant faith and spirituality.

DesirousOfChange

Him, "Do you not know about the famous cave in France that has cave paintings 17,000 years old?" "No". The look he gave me was priceless.

JWs would just say that carbon-dating is inaccurate. You know, things did not decay as rapidly when the earth had the water canopy prior to the flood. That's why men lived longer too!

Do you trust science? Or, God's Word?

I had an RV that clearly is the one who planted many seeds of discontent, esp about the Blood Issue by dispelling the idea that a transfusion = "eating" blood. If that were true, then just have someone who is hemmoraging drink a couple units of blood. No need for needles. OOPS! That doesn't work. NOT the same.

Doc