Tag Archives: A Conversation With A Jehovah’s Witness Elder

Faithful are the wounds of a friend, But deceitful are the kisses of an enemy (Proverbs 27:6).

(Continuing from the last post)

KW: I have a question. How can I know the difference between new light and false prophecy?

Silence. Except for the crickets, of course.

JW:  What do you mean by false prophecy? Do you mean in relation to this subject?

KW: In general. Do you remember one of our previous conversations when I told you about a friend of mine who belonged to a group which did make false prophecies? What if his leaders claimed to make an adjustment or if they said they had new light? How can I define a false prophet in such a way that he can’t use the excuse of new light?

In Deuteronomy 18 there is a test. If someone claims things in the name of the Lord and it doesn’t come true, then that is a false prophet. But if a false prophet could say, “Well, we got new light,” then how do I know if he is really a false prophet? How do you define a false prophet? Read More →

Guilty as charged.

Do you remember when I said at the end of my last post how that meeting was the most difficult discussion we had to date? Well, today was another day. This one topped that one by far. My Jehovah’s Witness friend was so upset, I almost lost him twice. We’re talking gather up his stuff, pack his book bag, place it on his lap and saying. “I don’t see any point to meeting anymore.” Yeah, that close. This false prophecy issue has him sweating bullets. Read More →

JW: All I need is this (pointing to his Bible) and this (pointing to the “Teach” book).

KW: (Pointing to my Bible) All I need is this. If the Watchtower did imply that 1975 was going to be the end of the world, and obviously it hasn’t happened, then that would concern me.

JW: Let’s say I was afraid to search it out. What would that change between us sitting here discussing things?

He had sort of a sad look in his face at this point. I got the impression that he thought I would no longer study with him if he refused to look at the references. From the looks of him, he didn’t like that thought.

KW: What do you mean by, “What would change?”

JW: Why do we need to talk about this in the first place?

KW: Because it is stuff we talked about last week. I mentioned TV preachers and false prophecy and you said that because some Jehovah’s Witnesses believed the end of the world was going to occur in 1975, the Watchtower has been accused of being a false prophet. Read More →

He lied to me.

JW: I didn’t find anything in regards to 1975.

KW: You didn’t?

JW: Well, I did, but not really. There was never really a statement that said, “The end comes in 1975.”

KW: You didn’t find anything on your super-secret CD-Rom that I can’t have?

JW: No.

Fast forward to when I arrived home after my meeting. I exclaimed, “He lied to me!,” There are very few things for which we spank our children, but lying is one of them. After hearing my exclamation, our five year old innocently asked, “Did you pop him?” I couldn’t help but laugh. It has been a heavy morning. I needed that. Read More →