• Preparing to Use a Watchtower Study Book - Establish safeguards before you begin ongoing Bible discussions with the Witnesses. This is especially important when using “The Watchtower Study Book Approach” explained in this series.
  • Getting Into “Bible Teach” - This is a good point to tell the Witnesses that you believe the Bible is God’s inspired and infallible Word and that there is no other book like it. This will build bridges with them and at the same time it will allow you later to establish a contrast between the Bible and fallible Watchtower literature.
  • Establish Your Right to Ask Anything - The best way to prepare to discuss a study book chapter actively is to read it through and take notes on what the Witnesses will try to get across and why. Then—using my book and blog as resources—decide what you want to get across and why. Then prepare your discussion points accordingly.
  • The Importance of the Name “Jehovah” - Given the importance of the name “Jehovah” in the Watchtower religion, it’s somewhat surprising that “Bible Teach” doesn’t introduce the topic until midway through the chapter, but the Watchtower often catches us off guard by introducing key teachings when we least expect it.
  • How Close Can We Get with God? - Paragraph 18 (p. 15) of Chapter 1 is headed, “Can You Be Close to Jehovah?” Paragraph 19 (p. 16) quotes Jesus as saying in John 17:3, “This means everlasting life, their coming to know you, the only true God, and the one whom you sent, Jesus Christ.” Interestingly, an earlier edition of the Watchtower Bible and of “Bible Teach” renders that verse differently: “This means everlasting life, their taking in knowledge of you, the only true God, and the one whom you sent forth, Jesus Christ.” If they quote the earlier edition at any point, you can ask, “Which is it? To me, there’s a big difference between taking in knowledge of someone and actually knowing that person.”
  • Establishing the Superiority of the Bible - As Christians, we can build rapport with the Witnesses by agreeing with them on these points, but I recommend also using a technique that Evidence Ministries president Keith Walker calls “stuffing aces..." Here are some “aces” you can “stuff” for use later in later chapters.
  • The Problem of Sin - In Chapter 3 of “Bible Teach”, the Watchtower makes five main assertions, each of which requires our attention and discussion. In this post, I’ll cover Assertions #1-#2. Next time, I’ll discuss Assertions #3-#5.
  • Who Rules the World? - Jehovah’s Witnesses see all of life as a loyalty and endurance test. Will we side with Satan or Jehovah, and will we endure faithful to Jehovah to the end?
  • Did Jesus Become the Messiah at His Baptism? - As Christians, we agree that Jesus is the Messiah and that John the Baptist identified him as such when Jesus was baptized, but we disagree that Jesus became the Messiah at his baptism at age 30. He was the Messiah from birth.
  • Refuting Watchtower Arguments Against the Deity of Christ - If you decide to discuss the deity of Christ now, or if the Witnesses insist on discussing the appendix on the Trinity, here’s how you can respond to the Scriptures the Watchtower cites. As usual, you do not need to discuss every point. Be sensitive to the Holy Spirit’s promptings.
  • Dealing with the Anti-Trinity Appendix - Paragraph 12 of Chapter 4 (p. 42) of “Bible Teach” refers you to the Appendix entitled “The Truth About the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.” (pp. 218-219). I will call this “The Anti-Trinity Appendix.” If you have decided to discuss the full doctrine of the Trinity at this point in your study with the Witnesses, you will want to discuss this appendix in some depth.
  • Did Jesus Preach the Watchtower’s Kingdom Message? - After the discussion of the Watchtower doctrine that Jesus is a created being, the rest of “Bible Teach” Chapter 4 covers Jesus’ life and ministry. Most of this you can agree with and continue to build bridges. However, there are some points you will want to challenge.
  • What Is the Real Value of Christ’s Sacrifice? - “What is the greatest gift you have ever received?” (paragraph 1, p. 47) It’s obvious from the title of Chapter 5 of “Bible Teach” that you are supposed to answer that it’s the ransom (or atoning) sacrifice of Jesus Christ. But that’s not the answer I would give. While not wanting to minimize the importance of Jesus’ atoning sacrifice, I would say that the greatest gift I have received is Jesus Christ himself.
  • Did Jesus Die on a Cross or on a “Torture Stake”? - Does it matter whether Jesus died on a traditional cross or on an upright stake without a crossbeam (as the Watchtower teaches)? For Christians, this isn’t a salvation issue. But to Jehovah’s Witnesses, it’s an important matter which sets them apart from pagan “Christendom.”
  • Overcoming the Power of Sin - The Watchtower greatly underestimates the power of sin that dwells within us and greatly overestimates the power of natural man to overcome it.
  • Is There Conscious Existence After Death? - Chapter 6, “Where Are the Dead?”, begins (heading, p. 57) with several questions, one of which is, “Would it be comforting to know the truth about death?” My answer would be, “Maybe, or it could be terrifying!”
  • What Are the Soul and Spirit? - This portion of “Bible Teach” shows the importance of defining terms biblically... No mention is made whatever of Jesus’ account of the rich man and Lazarus in Luke 16:19-31. This is an ideal opportunity to discuss that passage, using the points I made in The Justice for the Wicked Approach in my book (pp. 256-263).
  • What Happens Between Death and Resurrection? - Resurrection is a reuniting of body, soul, and spirit (1 Thessalonians 5:23). Resurrection bodies won’t be identical to the bodies that died, but there will be continuity, as there is between a seed and the plant it produces (1 Corinthians 15:35-43).
  • Discussing the Coming Resurrections - What the Watchtower calls “resurrection” is really a re-creation from God’s memory in which he creates new bodies and implants the person’s personalities into them. When you think about it, that view is required by the Watchtower’s teaching that the dead no longer exist and that there is no separate soul or spirit to re-enter a body.
  • What Is Judgment Day? - Do you think of “Judgment Day” as a terrifying time? The Watchtower believes it will be “a wonderful time…of hope and restoration.”
  • Do We Get a Second Chance After Death? - The “Bible Teach” Appendix entitled “Judgment Day—What Is It?” claims that Judgment Day will be a 1000-year period in which people get a second chance and will have an opportunity after death in which to learn about Jehovah, conform to his will, and so obtain everlasting life on a paradise earth.
  • Will Jesus Ever Actually Return to the Earth? - Christians are looking forward to Jesus’ return. Jehovah’s Witnesses are looking forward to Armageddon. That’s because the Watchtower doesn’t believe that Jesus will ever actually return to the earth.
  • Destination—Heaven or Earth? - When I first studied with Jehovah’s Witnesses, I was shocked when they told me that only a small percentage or Christians will ever go to heaven and that all others will live on a paradise earth.
  • Was the Watchtower Right About 1914? - The Watchtower has changed its end times chronology many times, but you would believe the opposite if your only source of information were “Bible Teach.”
  • Does God Know the Future? - Paragraph 1 (p. 86) begins Chapter 9 by saying, “Tragic things happen so suddenly and unexpectedly that no human can predict what tomorrow will bring. However, Jehovah knows what the future holds.” Christians would agree with the statement that God knows what the future holds. The problem is that the Watchtower doesn’t really believe that.
  • Christ in the End Times - Today, we’ll discuss the second and third main topics in Chapter 9 of “Bible Teach”: Christ’s “presence” and “the conclusion of this system of things” and the Watchtower teaching that Jesus is Michael the archangel.
  • Should We All Become Jehovah’s Witnesses? - Should we all change our religion and become Jehovah’s Witnesses? Today, we will cover the final two topics of “Bible Teach,” Chapter 9: The significance of and praise for the work Jehovah’s Witnesses are doing and the urgency for you to become an active and faithful Jehovah’s Witness.
  • Jesus, Angels, and Watchtower Speculation - “Bible Teach,” Chapter 10, “Spirit Creatures—How They Affect Us,” is devoted to a discussion of angels—both obedient angels and demons. While this may not seem like a fruitful area for discussion, in fact you can use this chapter as a springboard for making new points or reinforcing points you’ve previously made regarding a number of important topics:
  • The Watchtower and God’s Sovereignty - Paragraph 2 (p. 106) sets out the chapter’s primary topic in question form by asking, “Why does God allow suffering? If Jehovah God is all-powerful, loving, wise, and just, why is the world so full of hatred and injustice?” The rest of the chapter is devoted to giving the Watchtower’s answer to those questions—that God is trying to prove to all intelligent creatures that his ways are better than Satan’s. The Bible doesn’t give that answer, and so we need to need to call it into question.
  • The Watchtower’s Rebellious Student Analogy - Paragraph 12 of “Bible Teach,” Chapter 11 (p. 110) introduces a strange analogy of a classroom teacher who is “telling his students how to solve a difficult problem.” Unfortunately, a rebellious student claims that the teacher isn’t capable and that the student knows a much better way to solve the problem. Other students agree and join in the rebellion. The paragraph goes on to say (p. 111) that if the teacher throws the rebels out of the class, the remaining students might believe that the rebels are right. They “might lose respect for the teacher, thinking that he is afraid of being proved wrong. But suppose that the teacher allows the rebel to show the class how he would solve the problem.” My response would be to question the entire analogy.
  • Why Doesn’t Jehovah Prevent Bad Things from Happening? - The Watchtower seems to have anticipated my criticism of its “rebellious student” analogy , because paragraph 15 of Chapter 11 of “Bible Teach” (p. 112) asks, “Why, though, has Jehovah allowed suffering to go on for so long? And why does he not prevent bad things from happening?" My rebuttal to its answers would be a series of questions.
  • The Watchtower and Free Will - “Bible Teach,” Chapter 11, paragraphs 18-20 (pp. 113-114) asks why God couldn’t have created Adam and Eve in such a way that they couldn’t rebel. The Watchtower’s answer is that God didn’t want us to be robots. He would rather have love than compulsion. You can respond with points I made in The Righteousness Approach […]
  • The Relationship of Faith and Works - Chapter 12 of “Bible Teach”—“Living in a Way that Pleases God”—is a continuation of the Watchtower’s works-oriented “prove your dedication to God” salvation system. In dealing with Jehovah’s Witnesses, it’s important for us to acknowledge the importance of obedience and good works in the Christian life. That said, we also need to get across to them the Bible’s teachings that good works have no role in saving us and that without a transforming new birth, none of us can live up to God’s righteous standards. For these reasons, I recommend that you respond to the contents of this chapter by using a combination of The Faith and Works Approach and The New Birth Approach from my book.
  • Dealing with Specific “Commandments” - Because the Watchtower teaches that only the 144,000 can have the Holy Spirit indwell them, ask the Witnesses, “How can we produce the fruitage of the spirit if we don’t have the spirit indwelling us? The flesh can’t produce spiritual fruit, can it?”
  • The Flesh Can’t Cure the Flesh - Chapter 13, “A Godly View of Life,” continues the Watchtower’s emphasis on law and works. Paragraph 2 (p. 125) states, “…to enjoy life to the full, we need to learn God’s laws and obey them.​”I recommend that you show the Witnesses Bible passages which emphasize that righteousness comes by walking in the Spirit, not by self-effort in trying to keep the law.
  • The Blood Transfusion Ban - Under the heading, “Showing Respect for Blood,” paragraphs 10-16 (pp. 128-131) of “Bible Teach,” Chapter 13, set out the Watchtower’s scriptural arguments in support of its ban on blood transfusions. This is the point at which I recommend that you use The Life and Death Issues Approach from my book, Getting Through to Jehovah’s Witnesses: Approaching Bible Discussions in Unexpected Ways.
  • What Makes Us Precious to God? - In contrast to earlier chapters which dealt with the identity of Jesus, the Watchtower’s “sovereignty challenge” view of life, and the like, Chapter 14—“How to Make Your Family Life Happy—isn’t heavy on doctrine. Accordingly, my primary goal is to get the Witnesses to think outside the Watchtower box.
  • The Watchtower and Child Predators - Paragraph 15 (p. 140) of Chapter 14 of “Bible Teach” states, “As this world becomes ever more wicked, children need parents who will protect them from people who seek to harm them, such as sexual predators.” Here, you have a choice to make. You can either let that statement pass or you can engage the Witnesses on a very explosive subject.
  • The Focus—Jesus or Us and Our Works? - The Watchtower doesn’t understand the importance of Jesus’ statement in John 10:7: “Most truly I say to you, I am the door for the sheep.” In other words, the “narrow gate” is Jesus himself, not an organization with all its laws, policies, and regulations.
  • Six Supposed Features of the True Religion - “Bible Teach,” Chapter 15, paragraph 5 (p. 146) says there are six features that identify those who practice “the true religion,” so let’s look at each of them in turn.
  • Pagan Origins - "If similarities of pagan and modern holiday celebrations trouble your conscience, then don’t celebrate them. My own conscience doesn’t bother me with regard to these matters because I know I am not worshipping Saturn, Janus, Juno, or any of those pagan gods or goddesses in my celebrations.”
  • Praying and Getting Answers - “Bible Teach,” Chapter 17, paragraph 11 (pp. 168) says that “we may pray for anything that is in harmony with God’s will” and that “we may speak openly, ‘pouring out our heart’ to God. You might point out that the two aren’t always consistent.
  • What Does Baptism Signify? - Watchtower baptism is all about what you are going to do for God. But biblically, baptism is a picture of what God has done for you at the moment of your conversion—death to the old life and rising via a new birth. This transformation by God is the foundation from which you are able to live the Christian life.
  • The Contrast Between Watchtower and Bible Baptism - After you have worked your way through all the baptism requirements set out in Chapter 18 of “Bible Teach”, ask the Witnesses to contrast that with what the Bible reveals about baptisms of people in the New Testament. Take your time with each passage.
  • The Meaning of Baptism - Watchtower baptism is not a matter of conscience between you and God. It is dependent on receiving a favorable evaluation by congregation elders on many criteria.
  • Is God’s Love Conditional? - With the Watchtower’s emphasis on works, it’s not surprising that the title of the last chapter of the book comes from a partial quotation from Jude 21—“Remain in God’s Love.”
  • Our Need for Inner Transformation - “Bible Teach”, Chapter 19, paragraph 7 (p. 186) says, “As described in the Bible, love for God is much more than a feeling… The Bible teaches: ‘This is what the love of God means, that we observe his commandments; and yet his commandments are not burdensome.’ (1 John 5:3). To be genuine, love for God must bear fine fruit. It must be expressed in actions.​” What the Watchtower fails to understand is that none of this is possible without the inner transformation provided by the new birth (see The New Birth Approach from my book, Getting Through to Jehovah’s Witnesses: Approaching Bible Discussions in Unexpected Ways , pp. 131-133). You can drive the point home by asking the Witnesses to tell you honestly how they think they are doing at keeping all of Jehovah’s commandments. Are they certain if they died tonight that Jehovah would consider them worthy to be resurrected?
  • Our Need for a Personal Relationship with Jesus - We can agree with all of that, but we need to stress that in order for the Word to burn in our hearts—as it did with the disciples on the road to Emmaus—we need to have a personal relationship with Jesus in which he opens the Scriptures to us.
  • Do We Have to Earn Our Salvation? - Can we earn our salvation by our works? The Watchtower’s answer to that question is, “No.” Based on that, an unsuspecting Christian might well think, “Oh, I guess the Watchtower accords with Paul.” Not so! Ask Jehovah’s Witnesses this question: “Do we have to prove worthy by our works in order to obtain salvation?” If they are honest, they should answer that question, “Yes.”
  • Summing Up the Series - By knowing ahead of time what topics are likely to be covered, making your own notes, and being ready to address the topics using the various approaches I have given you, you will be able to present the gospel effectively to the Witnesses in the midst of their own Watchtower book study.