In last week’s post,  I did my best to document how the Watchtower supplants Jesus Christ in the lives of Jehovah’s Witnesses.

As a reminder, the Watchtower invites people “to come to Jehovah’s organization for salvation.” (The Watchtower, “Stay Awake and Keep Your Senses,”11/15/81, p. 22)

Once they do, then the Watchtower attempts to control every aspect of their lives, warning them that “opposers… may question the need for an organization to direct the minds of God’s people.” (The Watchtower, “What Is Our Position Toward Opposers of the Truth?” 3/1/83, p. 27)It asks, “Really, can we get along without the direction of God’s organization?” No, we cannot!” (The Watchtower, “Armed for the Fight Against Wicked Spirits,” 1/15/83, p. 27)

That’s what I mean when I talk about the Watchtower’s “organizational mindset.”

Today, I’m going to give suggestions for helping Jehovah’s Witnesses overcome that mindset.

Witnesses don’t see the problem

 Let’s start by realizing that Witnesses really don’t see that they have allowed an organization run by fallible human beings to usurp the role that rightfully belongs to Jesus Christ alone.

Not surprisingly, if you accuse them of allowing the Watchtower organization to supplant Jesus, they will deny it vigorously and most likely will call off any further meetings with you.

Instead, I approach things from a different angle.

I don’t mention the Watchtower at all.

Rather, I give them a personal testimony regarding my involvement with a different religious organization.

Jehovah’s Witnesses don’t mind us criticizing other religious groups.

Testimonial approach

I say something like this:

When I was a young man, I was brought up in a Protestant church. They had a training booklet for teens called, “I Choose the Church.” The teaching was that the way to put faith in Jesus’ sacrifice was to join the church and let the church help you obey all of God’s commandments. I tried hard to do all those things, but I knew I fell short and I had no peace and no assurance of salvation. It took me years to realize that I was seeking salvation through my own performance and through affiliation with an organization run by fallible men rather than coming to God through Christ himself.

I came to a point where I realized that I owed God a sin debt I could never pay. I had thought that salvation was a matter of faith plus works plus finding the right church. I never knew if I had done enough. Finally, I understood from the Scriptures that Jesus paid the entire price for my sin. I came to understand that salvation is not, “Jesus made the down payment, but we have to keep up the installments and join the right organization.”

Once I understood that, I believed God’s Word and I did exactly what he told me to do in those scriptures—I came to Jesus and asked him to forgive my sins. Then I finally had a sense of God’s approval on my life because I knew that I had done exactly what God commanded me to do. I found that I was trusting Jesus Christ completely for my salvation rather than my own performance or affiliation with other fallible men.

If you had a similar journey to faith, you can share with them those aspects of your own testimony.

If you never fell into those errors, then feel free to tell them my story.

Don’t cite my book or blog or try to get the Witnesses to read them.

Instead, using your own notes, get into my testimony by telling them that you recently read about a man who tried in vain to find peace with God through joining the “right” church and by keeping all of the Bible’s commandments.

Wait for them to reply.

When you do, you are likely to encounter both questions and objections.

Using Mark 9:38-40

So strong is the Watchtower’s organizational mindset that even many people who leave that religion still think in terms of trying to find the “right” organization to join.

Often, this leads to despair because the Watchtower has poisoned their minds against all other religious groups as well as because the search of the right organization is fruitless.

In order to address the “right organization” issue directly from the Scriptures, have one of the Witnesses read aloud Mark 9:38-40:

John said to him: “Teacher, we saw someone expelling demons by using your name, and we tried to prevent him, because he was not following us.” But Jesus said: “Do not try to prevent him, for there is no one who will do a powerful work on the basis of my name who will quickly be able to say anything bad about me. For whoever is not against us is for us.” (Watchtower translation)

Ask, “What does this passage say as far as whether we have to be affiliating with the right organization or group in order to be serving Jesus and his Father?”

If you sense the Holy Spirit prompting you to press the matter, you might add, “Does the Bible say that an organization is the door to God or does it teach that Jesus himself is the door?”

Does it say that some organization is the way, the truth, and the life or does it teach that Jesus himself is the way, the truth, and the life?

Does it say that Jesus is the one who showed us the way or does it say that Jesus is the way?”

Using John 6:67-69

 As I documented in last week’s post, the Watchtower actually applies John 6:67-69 to itself in order to convince Jehovah’s Witnesses that there is nowhere to go but the Watchtower organization in order to gain eternal life.

To counter that false interpretation, have one of the Witnesses read that passage aloud:

“So Jesus said to the Twelve: ‘You do not want to go also, do you?’ Simon Peter answered him: ‘Lord, whom shall we go away to? You have sayings of everlasting life. We have believed and have come to know that you are the Holy One of God.’” (Watchtower translation)

Ask simply, “Who did Peter say we have to go to in order to obtain eternal life—to an organization or to Jesus personally?”

Using 1 John 5:11-13

In order to whet their appetite for a personal relationship with Jesus, ask one of the Witnesses to read aloud 1 John 5:11-13:

“And this is the witness, that God gave us everlasting life, and this life is in his Son. The one who has the Son has this life; the one who does not have the Son of God does not have this life. I write you these things so that you may know that you have life everlasting, you who put your faith in the name of the Son of God.” (Watchtower translation)

Ask them to explain their understanding of these verses.

If necessary ask: “According to this passage, is gaining eternal life and knowing that you have eternal life dependent on associating with the right organization or on having a personal relationship with Jesus himself—a relationship in which you have him and in which you are in him?”

Witnesses will have no idea what you’re talking about.

I mean, Jesus isn’t on earth anymore, so we can’t just get on an airplane and go meet him.

So how can we have a personal relationship with him?

That’s what we’ll discuss in next week’s post.