Has anyone here ever read "Reasoning from the Scriptures with the Jehovah's Witness" by Ron Rhodes? If so, what were your thoughts.
Question for the Board
by ExmormonRobertson 6 Replies latest jw friends
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myMichelle
I read it.
IMO, it was written in a very fundamentalist/evangelical tone. There were some good thought provoking questions listed to ask JWs, but I did find it to be somewhat condescending. My husband, an active JW at the time, came across my copy and flipped through it and he said that if the JWs were arrogant and judgemental, the author was equally so. He then discounted everything he read there, and continued his WT activities.
Michelle
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ozziepost
Yes, I've read it, more than once in some places.
Some features of it are very good, such as the Bibliography for each chapter, as well as the Index. It's written in such a way that it's got an easy-to-find style.
I noted, however, that the author was never a JW. In the Acknowledgments the author acknowledges the help of the manual Witnessing to the Witnesses by Marian and Jerry Bodine at the Christian Research Institute (CRI). This lack of personal knowledge of the Witnesses IMO is a disadvantage and he lacks the specifics necessary to persuade a Dub. Many of his points are well-made but, as Michelle has shown when referring to her husband's reaction, it's not what is needed to get through the mental barrier that the Dubs put up. I also agree with Michelle's observation that it's written in a condescending style and is typical of the fundamentalists self-righteous approach to belief. The type of approach that he typifies i.e. bandying scripture texts back and forth, is seldom going to be effective. It just ends up in a contest to see who can have the last word.
My conclusion is that it's worth having a copy in your home library and is useful for reference. I'd consider it one of the 'second stage' books along with David Reed's books. First stage books are COC and ISOCF by Ray Franz with David Penton's tome as a supplementary.
Stage three should contain positive books on Christian belief. Maximus had a thread called Nourishment for the Spirit that dealt with what I call Stage 3. It'd be good to refer back to that thread.Cheers,
Ozzie"There are two ways of moving men, interest and fear" Napoleon
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ExmormonRobertson
Thanks for the input ozzie, I've read so much about this book CoC that today I ordered a copy from Amazon.com. I can't wait to read it.
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ExmormonRobertson
By the way, what is ISOCF?
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Billygoat
ISOCF = In Search of Christian Freedom
BG
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Stephanus
On this topic, has anyone read Approaching Jehovah's Witnesses in Love, by Wilbur Lingle? The approach of this book acknowledges that scriptural ping-pong will never work, because to a JW a verse only ever means what Bethel says it means. Therefore the tactic this book uses is to pose a series of questions to the JW which might start them questioning whether or not the Tower really is God's visible organisation.