I was excited today, because they were walking down the street–2 women with materials in hand, going from door to door. It just had to be the Jehovah’s Witnesses. “Lord bring them my way!” was my quick prayer, because for 2 years now they had conspicuously passed my house. (I think I was “black-listed” at some point, because I gave the earlier visitors a challenging time as they shared their beliefs).

I called to my wife to come downstairs fast so that we could “tag team” our inevitable confrontation (always a good thing to do, by the way; notice how they always go in pairs?) So I answered the door after their first knock…

But just that quickly I was disappointed because these ladies were only holding a few envelopes in their hands. I figured that they couldn’t be JWs since there was no New World Translation to be seen (“we use a translation… not a version” they will proudly boast.) Oh well, let’s see what these nice ladies were here for.

The Setup…

They introduced themselves politely and asked if I knew someone who might be hearing-impaired because they had resources they wanted to give out for free. They were looking to help people who spoke “American Sign”, or for anyone who might need help. I told them how great I thought their efforts were and how I appreciated what they were doing to help others.

I then told them I’m a pastor and that at our church we do have a ministry for the hearing impaired, but that those in charge were very capable of providing assistance and training. Nonetheless I offered to share their materials with that ministry to see if some kind of relationship could get established.

I then opened their envelope and noticed something peculiar, and simultaneously she went on to tell me that they had the Bible as a DVD resource. “We have Matthew, and Mark, Luke, John, Acts…” She named half of the New Testament books to me, and frankly I was impressed. For an organization that just wants to help the hearing-impaired it was great to hear one of their representatives tell me that they valued the Bible enough to help others!

Oh… but that’s when I noticed the contents of the letter that she had given me: these New Testament books being offered were from the New World Translation! I looked at them a bit incredulously,”Oh you’re Jehovah’s Witnesses and you use this New World Translation as your DVD resource?”

The Sadness…

“Yes sir, we do use a translation and not a version. We just want to help those who might be in need.” They thanked me for my time and began walking away…I felt like I’d been had! This was a tactic I’d never seen before, never read about, and certainly never experienced. It was, frankly, a brilliant technique and I was impressed and saddened at the same time.

The Apostle Paul must have experienced that sort of deception (because that’s what I’ll be bold-enough to call it), and he responding in 2nd Timothy 4:3-4:

For the time will come when men will not put up with sound doctrine. Instead, to suit their own desires, they will gather around them a great number of teachers to say what their itching ears want to hear. ⁴They will turn their ears away from the truth and turn aside to myths.

The Seriousness…

My heart hurt for them because these were 2 ladies who were completely oblivious to “sound doctrine”-but sadder yet, it was a choice they made. You know what that means? It means they had “itching ears” that needed to be scratched just a particular way. And in the spiritual realm that’s a most dangerous request to make because it’s a choice to turn from God and towards man.( From the truth and towards the myth.)

Off they went, not wanting to engage in any more conversation. I wanted to at least wish them 2^nd Peter 1:2, “Grace and peace be yours in abundance through the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord.” But I couldn’t! Their “abundance” of knowledge came from man, a few men in New York who call themselves the “Governing Body”. Everything that millions of people-like these ladies–learned came from them. Yes I suppose I do have a sense of what the early disciples of Jesus must have felt like…

But God has given me an insatiable yearning and overwhelming sense of obligation at equipping the saints of God with knowledge: but God’s knowledge, not mine. We are in a time of massive deception, ill-founded choices, and ignorance of truth. This was of the greatest of challenges to our Lord Jesus, that His truth be known without excuse.

I suppose all of my thoughts here can be boiled down to a couple of sentences: Christians please take the burden to be like Christ very seriously. Be eager students of God’s Word and then be eager to share it without excuse. Who knows, maybe those ladies who came to my door might come to yours, just be eager to listen?!