Discussing people’s standing with God requires a great deal of tact. Because the Watchtower has trained them to expect persecution, Jehovah’s Witnesses are often easily offended.

In order to personalize the issue without giving offense, I recommend that you ask questions such as these:

• If you were to die right now, how confident are you that Jehovah will deem you worthy of resurrection? (p. 68)
• If Jehovah were to tell you that you are going to die tonight and gave you a chance to tell him why you think you have proved worthy to be resurrected, what would you tell him?
• In retrospect, what do you think you could have done differently in order to be more certain? (p. 68)
• How can we experience peace with God if we can’t be certain where we stand with him? (p. 69)

In order to understand what Jehovah’s Witnesses believe about the millennial kingdom, ask things like this:

• When people are resurrected into the millennial kingdom, will they be sinless immediately or will they still have the same sinful inclinations they had when they died? (The Watchtower says it’s the latter.)
• How can we be totally acceptable to God as long as we are unable to do what is right because of the power of sin that resides inside us? (p. 70)
• Will we ever be freed from the power of sin within us? If so, how and when will that happen? (p. 70)
• How good will we have to be by the end of the 1,000 years in order to prove worthy of everlasting life? (p. 70)
• How are sinful descendants of Adam supposed to accomplish that without some sort of inner transformation by God? (p. 70)
• When will we ever be 100% secure in our salvation? (p. 70)

This approach has a limited objective. It doesn’t explain God’s true plan of salvation. Instead, it focuses on showing the Witnesses that the Watchtower’s salvation system could never work because it is nothing more than sinful flesh trying to overcome sinful flesh. It says that we will be required to attain to moral perfection by the end of the millennial kingdom but doesn’t satisfactorily explain how we can accomplish it. In other words, the Watchtower gospel is impossible. (p. 71)

The approach highlights the fact that the Watchtower system can never give the Witnesses what they want most—forgiveness, victory over sin, rest, peace, and assurance of God’s approval. Since Jehovah promises all these things to people who trust him, he must have a different—a better—way of salvation. This foundation will open the door for you later to help the Witnesses to see that God’s real solution to our sin problem is for us to come to Jesus to receive forgiveness and to receive a transformed, new heart which enables us to live righteously. (p. 71)

Study Questions

1. Evangelism Explosion training advised Christians to ask people, “If you were to die tonight and God asked you, ‘Why should I let you into heaven?’ how would you answer him?” How would a Jehovah’s Witness answer that question? Does he expect to go to heaven at all? (p. 67)

2. Why would, “How do we prove righteous enough to enter the millennial kingdom?” be a more effective question to ask Jehovah’s Witnesses? (pp. 67-69)

3. When will be freed from the power of sin that controls us from within so that we can live the truly righteous life God requires? What is the process by which this will happen? (pp. 69-70)

4. How might these questions help Jehovah’s Witnesses see the flaws in the Watchtower’s salvation system? (p. 70)

5. When will we be 100% secure in our salvation? How would a Jehovah’s Witness answer that question? How might that question help Jehovah’s Witnesses see that God must have a better plan of salvation than what the Watchtower teaches? (pp. 70-71)