JW: Good morning, I'm here talking to my neighbors about better times ahead, and they're coming soon as we're living in what the Bible calls "the last days". Here at Matt. 24:14 it says, "this good news of the kingdom will be preached in all the inhabited Earth for a witness to all the nations, and then the end will come". Jehovah's Witnesses are the only religion that focuses on the door to door ministry, and this shows that the end is near.
PIMO: But early Christians didn't go door to door.
JW: Look here in Acts 20:20, "I did not hold back from telling you any of the things that were profitable nor from teaching you publicly and from house to house."
PIMO: That wording sounds awkward, doesn't it? Why would Paul teach fellow Christians house to house? It makes more sense when you read the way most Bible's say it: in private homes. He's makes a contrast between public and private.
JW: But Jesus himself set the standard, when he sent his disciples out to preach house to house. Notice what he told them at Luke 10:5, "Wherever you enter into a house, say first: ‘May this house have peace."
PIMO: Jesus was sending them to teach in public, in the town square. The house was only for staying as guests. Drop down to verse 7, "So stay in that house, eating and drinking the things they provide, for the worker is worthy of his wages. Do not keep transferring from house to house." So he even said NOT to go house to house.
JW: Well, Jehovah's Witnesses have many ways of preaching, such as literature carts, displays and JWdotORG. And the signs clearly show that we're living in the last days. Look at 1 Pet. 4:7, "the end of all things has drawn close. Therefore, be sound in mind, and be vigilant with a view to prayers."
PIMO: What end? Surely Peter wasn't talking about an end a couple of thousand years after his lifetime. He said it had drawn close.
JW: -
PIMO: Let me rephrase that. What last days was Jesus talking about in Matt. 24?
JW: He was talking about the last days of Jerusalem, but it has a modern-day fulfillment.
PIMO: Are you sure? Look back at Matt. 24 about the last days of Jerusalem, this time in verse 21, "for then there will be great tribulation such as has not occurred since the world’s beginning until now, no, nor will occur again". He said it would only happen once.
JW: -
PIMO: And I'm also uncomfortable with the fact that you're coming to my door saying that the end is near.
JW: That God's message, not ours.
PIMO: On the contrary, Jesus told me to look out for you. Look what he said in the parallel account in Luke 21:8, "Look out that you are not misled, for many will come on the basis of my name, saying . . . ‘The due time is near.’ Do not go after them".