The following is a testimony of Dustin Conner in witnessing to a Jehovah Witness. We all will come in contact with one sooner or later – let us always be READY!
I met Marie through my girlfriend at Wake Forest University. They lived on the same hall together. Marie grew up in a home with a mother and sister who were Jehovah’s Witnesses, a father who was a “technical” Methodist, and a brother who was a strong Baptist believer. Marie was caught in a tug of war and was emotionally broken when she started school at Wake. She found comfort and acceptance in a local Kingdom Hall and began being discipled by a JW couple. Jill and several other Christian girls had talked to her about her family problems and her seeking faith through Kingdom Hall, and when I heard her story, I wanted to talk with her. I did a little research on JWs and found that they heavily deny the deity of Christ. To them, He is the special created son of God. At supper one night, I asked Marie what name of God she and other JWs use during prayer. She said primarily “Jehovah and I told her that we refer to the Lord as Father, God, Jesus, etc depending on what we’re saying or praying. As soon as I connected Jesus with being God, Marie corrected me by telling me that Jesus was not God. So trying to be smart about it in front of others in a restaurant, I told her that my Bible said differently and maybe we could talk about it some time. So after that night I spent a few months researching and learning about JW doctrine. I met with a Kingdom Hall elder of 35 years to simply learn what they believed. He gave his explanation of who Christ really was and I gave what I saw in the Bible. His New World Translation of the Bible is very biased and was written to specifically misinterpret Scripture regarding the deity of Christ. This is primarily how Marie began to completely deny the deity of Christ. She was taught by Kingdom Hall that there is only one God who was not Trinitarian and Jesus was Michael the son of God the archangel who was born and became the savior of mankind. Their “Bible” said so and she bought into it.
After I felt confident enough through my research, I approached her and asked if we could talk. We first talked about her relationship problems with her family, and then I asked her what her biggest problem in her search for authentic faith was. She told me that the deity of Christ and the whole concept of the Trinity was her biggest hurdle in accepting true Christianity. When she told me that she was really still searching for the truth, I opened her Bible (NWT) and showed her how the mistranslated NWT still had a Trinitarian God. The biggest argument is in Revelation. I took her to Rev. 1:8. The NWT says, “I am the Alpha and the Omega says Jehovah God.” Here, Jehovah God = alpha and omega. Next I turned to Rev 21.5-7, where the One seated on the throne is again called Alpha and Omega and also called the beginning and the end. Verse 7 connects God to the One who just spoke. So now Jehovah God = Alpha & Omega and Beginning & the End. Now it gets interesting. I turned to Revelation 22:13 (still in the NWT). Here we have the One referring to Himself as, “the Alpha & Omega, the first and the last, the beginning and the end.” If Jehovah was already proven to be the Alpha & Omega and the Beginning & the End, then according to 22:13, Jehovah must also be the first and the last. The next part is what caught Marie’s eye and also baffled the 35 year JW veteran. I turned to Rev. 1:17. “And when I saw him, I fell as dead at his feet. And he laid his right hand upon me and said: ‘Do not be fearful. I am the First and the Last’.” I stopped there and asked her who this first and last was. She answered that we just saw in 22:13 that Alpha & Omega, Jehovah God was the first and the last and now we see him here again in 1:17. The JW elder and his wife also agreed that the first and the last was Jehovah based upon what we just read in 22:13. I then asked Marie to read the next verse. “And the living one; and I became dead, but, look! I am living forever and ever…” I then asked her like I asked the other couple, “Please tell me when Jehovah God died.” According to 1:17-18, the first and the last “became dead” but is now alive. If Jehovah is the same first and the last of 22:13 then He had to die at some point. Here, Marie got quiet and she said that she’d never seen that before. The elder and his wife sat with no answer (until they tried to make up a few that contradicted what they already told me). Marie made a profession of faith about 2 months later while she was at home and she began attending a Baptist church with Jill and me. I just simply let the Word of God speak about the Trinity louder than me, and it worked for one Jehovah’s Witness.
While witnessing to her, I found that just simply caring and listening went further than trying to correct or debate.
Dustin Conner
