Did a householder at the door ever cause you doubts

by perfect1 30 Replies latest jw experiences

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  dozy

  Never really. Most householders are either apathetic or , if they wish to disagree , confrontational. Even those who had strong religious convictions never made any effort to convince me that their religion was right or brought up any reasonable argument that I had been fooled.

  I do remember being asked by a sister to a call she had on a local theology student ( normally I would avoid these kind of discussions like the plague but no other elder would go ) & we spent an hour debating the trinity. He knew his bible a lot better than me ( like most JWs my bible knowledge was limited to a pretty sketchy knowledge of JW essential scriptures like Mt 24:45 ) and he pretty much won the argument. But even then - it was purely a theological doctrinal discussion.

  Maybe this kind of "reverse witnessing" doesn't work anyway.A couple of years ago the local Mormons came to call & I invited them in. As they were in a cult not dis-similar to the JWs I tried to talk to them about obvious untruths in their religion but they just weren't interested. Not even willing to discuss anything. Anything "negative" was just dismissed as lies from apostate ex-Mormons. "We trust our Prophet." was pretty much their stock response.
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  jhine

  This thread is very interesting to me as a never JW who tries to anti-witness . I am always surprised and saddened that the JWs at my door are surprised when someone actually engages them about the Bible . Fernando your comment about the fact that in 40 years no-one had anything useful to offer you does not surprise me but does depress me . I hope that more people post about things that made them think , though this seems a rare occurance . I understand the point made that the individual needs to be at the right point in their life before they will listen , but any experiences would be interesting to read

  Jan
• 

  Black Sheep

  A Lutheran sat my father down and trashed him on the immortal soul. My father couldn't care less, but I got the message.
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  Julia Orwell

  An elder told me some householder had started on at him about Russell and the miracle wheat. Well I'd never heard about that so got curious.
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  Apognophos

  Ditto Fernando. I don't recall any householders saying anything useful to me to make me question my beliefs. There was one time I was given a packet of information to read by a householder (some sort of Bible research he had done), but it was confiscated by an elder as soon as I got back in the car.
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  krejames

  A householder asked me what happened when JW sins in a big way. I explained the judicial procedure. He said something like "How is that like the early Christians?" (I think I had been doing the usual boast about JWs being exactly like first century Christianity). I showed him the scripture I James (I think) about the elders healing someone with prayer and oils "and if there are sins they will be forgiven" (or something like that). And he said how do you get your judicial system from that? That scripture is clearly talking about healing". That was the first big awakening for me. I shelved it for a while but I was ready for JW facts...
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  OnTheWayOut

  During my year of pioneering, giving "Jehovah" one more chance to prove that His spirit was with the JW's and my efforts, I was in the door-to-door work with an older “sister” from the congregation. A man in his fifties answered, totally answering to the stereotypical description of a hippy left over from the 1960’s. His now-gray hair was down to his waist, with a bandana trying to hide the bald spot. He had various tattoos on his arms and a jean jacket with some kind of American flags patched here and there. I don’t remember our conversation exactly, but he asked if God was so vain that He expected me to spend all my time praising Him in this door-to-door work, and if God wouldn’t forgive all the ignorant masses out there for never believing the message of these strange Jehovah’s Witnesses that come to their door with nice printed hand-outs.

  He went on to say that he felt that if Armageddon was truly so imminent, that God would do better than just deliver the warning with a few million nicely dressed nuts knocking on doors with literature that hardly anyone was likely to read, but God would have billboards, television and radio commercials, or maybe even deliver the word through some actual miracle. He asked how many Witnesses were spreading the word in Muslim parts of the world and whether Jehovah would really kill the children there for faithfully believing what their parents taught them.

  I knew the pat answers to his questions, but I was enthralled with his mannerisms and his way of free-thinking. I really didn’t think he was wrong. Even the “sister” with me had nothing to add and enjoyed his philosophic view of everything.

  I was already doubting, and didn't decide it wasn't "the truth" because of this guy, but after that encounter, I knew that God’s Holy Spirit wasn’t telling me to preach the word of Jehovah’s Witnesses as a pioneer.
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  sir82

  Back in the day when we were encouraged to engage is discussions instead of run away, I used to get into trinity discussions fairly frequently.

  In objective hindsight, I lost every debate.

  But it never really shook me from my convictions.

  That was done by JWD & its predecessors!
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  gingerbread

  Growing up 'witnessing' in the rural southern US, most folks were very polite and listened. In fact they listened to their detriment.

  JW's that moved from in the north ("to help where the need was greater") were overwelmed by the "amazing, positive response" they got at the door. Everyone invited you in to talk about the bible. Little did the newcomers understand that this was southern hospitality....and when you left the house, the 'householders' were trash talking you before you reached the car.

  As an adult I began to doubt the 'work' that was being done. Pioneers who went out all week - driving around the county 'doing calls' - and never brought anyone to the Hall. My obligitory Saturday service morning was spent riding around in a car and at the local Hardees with a biscuit and coffee.

  A sense of urgency? Not with me...or anyone else.

  ginger
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  blondie

  I researched whether Jesus was Michael the archangel for a couple I studied with. I was so confident...the WTS own words made realize how little scriptural proof if any there was. It's like waving a pot roast over the table and calling it dinner. It started me looking at their "proof" more closely using my brand new computer and internet access.