Good investigators know that before you confront a witness with an inconsistency, you first have to pin them down to their basic story.
Otherwise, they just wriggle off the hook.
A similar principle applies in getting through to Jehovah’s Witnesses. Continue reading
Remember Lieutenant Columbo, the TV homicide detective played by Peter Falk?
Because his questions were presented as efforts to clear up various points rather than as accusations, he never came across as threatening.
In fact, at times he was self-deprecating. He would say things like, “I’m sorry, but little things like this bother me. I can’t get them out of my mind.”
Because of his soft non-threating manner, suspects tried hard to give him answers, hoping he would finally be satisfied with their explanations.
He would back off for a while, but inevitably some new inconsistency puzzled him and he asked for further help resolving that problem as well.
In order to avoid triggering the Jehovah’s Witnesses’ persecution mindset when you challenge Watchtower dogma by voicing questions they would never dare or even think to ask, I recommend that you emulate Columbo’s non-threatening manner.
Here are some examples of how this can be done (I’ll highlight the “Columbo” language). Continue reading
Many times you can use a combination of witnessing techniques.
Here’s an example of how you can combine taking the wind out of their sails with Student Role Teaching to turn the tables when discussing the biblical relationship of faith and works. Continue reading
In last week’s post, I recommended that you get Jehovah’s Witnesses out of their prepared Watchtower presentations by approaching Bible topics in ways they won’t expect.
One way to do that is to take the wind out of their sails by bringing up some of their standard arguments before they do and agreeing with the amount of truth that’s contained in them.
Then move past that to share your main points with them.
Let me give an example from my book, Getting Through to Jehovah’s Witnesses: Approaching Bible Discussions in Unexpected Ways. Continue reading
Why should you do the unexpected when discussing Bible doctrine with Jehovah’s Witnesses?
Because if you don’t, they will just recite their Watchtower talking points and you won’t get through to them.
The Watchtower trains them in how to present Watchtower doctrines. It also tells them what you and I are likely to say and informs them how to respond.
I found this out the hard way many years ago. I was particularly frustrated when my conversation with some Jehovah’s Witnesses was going nowhere. I felt as if I were talking to a Watchtower magazine instead of to human beings. Continue reading
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