Jehovah’s Witnesses have no personal relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ.

Rather than coming directly to Jesus for salvation, Witnesses rely on their dedication and service to the organization they think he has chosen to represent him on earth—the Watchtower Society.

Many years ago, I heard a talk by Arnold Hoffman in which he recommended a devotional approach which focuses attention on the Witnesses’ need for a personal relationship with Jesus Christ.

I give details of the approach in The Come to Jesus Approach (Chapter 7 of my book, Getting Through to Jehovah’s Witnesses.

Today, I’ll give you the highlights.

The key to the approach is to show the Witnesses that Jehovah God wants them—in fact commands them—to come to Jesus personally in order to obtain salvation and forgiveness of sins.

They need to know that they are obeying Jehovah God if they come to Jesus for forgiveness and that they are disobeying Jehovah God if they don’t.

You can give them three lines of Bible evidence in support of that claim.

#1: Jehovah has delegated to Jesus the authority to forgive sins

Jehovah’s Witnesses attribute saving action to Jehovah; Jesus’ role was to be the sacrifice.

Focus on helping them come to understand that in Jehovah God’s arrangement, it is Jesus who actually has the authority to forgive their sins and give them eternal life.

You can introduce this concept by saying something like this: “We all sin; we can never do enough to measure up to God’s holy standards. To whom can we go to get those sins forgiven?”

Have one of the Witnesses read aloud Jesus’ words in Matthew 9:6: “‘But so that you may know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins…’ Then he said to the paralytic, ‘Get up, take your mat and go home.’”

Ask, “According to this verse, who has authority to forgive our sins?”

Make sure that they acknowledge that the answer is Jesus.

They probably will ask, “Who gave him that authority?”

Rather than getting sidetracked into an argument about who Jesus really is, simply answer, “Jehovah gave him that authority. That’s my point. It seems to me that this passage says that’s Jehovah’s arrangement. He has delegated to Jesus the authority to forgive sins. That’s why I believe we need to come to Jesus if we want our sins forgiven.”

Have one of the Witnesses read aloud John 5:22-23: “Moreover, the Father judges no one, but has entrusted all judgment to the Son, that all may honor the Son just as they honor the Father. He who does not honor the Son does not honor the Father, who sent him.”

Ask, “According to this passage, who will pass judgment on our lives—the Father or the Son?

#2: Jesus commands us to come to him

One of the most effective passages I have found with regard to coming to Jesus for forgiveness is John 5:39-40.

Have one of the Witnesses read aloud Jesus’ statement to the Pharisees: “You are searching the Scriptures because you think that you will have everlasting life by means of them; and these are the very ones that bear witness about me. And yet you do not want to come to me so that you may have life” (Watchtower translation)

Ask the Witnesses to explain to you what mistake Jesus said the Pharisees were making.

Pray silently that they will realize that they are making the exact same mistake.

Jehovah’s Witnesses search the Scriptures to find the way to everlasting life, but they refuse to come to Jesus to get it.

Because Witnesses consider Jehovah to be the ultimate authority, sometimes it is helpful to stress that whenever Jesus gave a command or a teaching, he was saying exactly what his Father told him to say.

In other words, all of Jesus’ commands express Jehovah’s will for our lives.

You can make this point by saying something like this: “John 8:28 says that Jesus only spoke the words that his Father gave him to speak, so when Jesus says we need to come to him for life, isn’t he expressing the will of Jehovah? Don’t we need to comply with that command by coming to Jesus?”

You can also have the Witnesses read aloud the Father’s own words in Matthew 17:5: “While he was still speaking, a bright cloud enveloped them, and a voice from the cloud said, ‘This is my Son, whom I love; with him I am well pleased. Listen to him!’”

Having established that when Jesus tells us to do something, it is a command that comes from Jehovah, you can show the Witnesses additional passages where Jesus instructs people to come to him personally for salvation.

Ask them to read one or more of them aloud (as many as are necessary to get the point across—I will use the Watchtower translation):

• Matthew 11:28: “Come to me, all you who are toiling and loaded down, and I will refresh you.”

 “Come to me…” is a command, not a request.

You might add, “If Jesus says, ‘Come to me,’ then what does God want us to do?’”

• John 6:37: “All those whom the Father gives me will come to me, and I will never drive away the one who comes to me.”

• John 6:44-45: “No man can come to me unless the Father, who sent me, draws him, and I will resurrect him on the last day. It is written in the Prophets: ‘They will all be taught by Jehovah.’.”

If you sense that they don’t get the point of this passage, ask, “According to that passage, if we listen to the Father, to whom must we come?”

• John 7:37: “On the last day, the great day of the festival, Jesus stood up and he called out: “If anyone is thirsty, let him come to me and drink.’”

#3: Jesus personally gives eternal life

Help the Witnesses see that the Bible teaches that in Jehovah’s arrangement, Jesus personally gives life to his sheep.

Request that one of the Witnesses read aloud John 10:27-28, where Jesus said, “My sheep listen to my voice; I know them, and they follow me. I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; no one can snatch them out of my hand.”

Ask, “According to this passage, who gives us eternal life?”

You can also have one of the Witnesses read aloud John 17:1-2 and comment on what authority Jehovah has given Jesus: “Jesus spoke these things, and raising his eyes to heaven, he said: ‘Father, the hour has come. Glorify your son so that your son may glorify you, just as you have given him authority over all flesh, so that he may give everlasting life to all those whom you have given to him.’” (Watchtower translation)

Say, “If the Bible told us that God had delegated to Moses the authority to forgive sins and give us life, then the only way to obtain forgiveness and eternal life would be to come to Moses, wouldn’t it? Instead, it says that he has delegated this authority to Jesus. So if we want forgiveness of our sins and if we want eternal life, it seems to me that we have to obey Jehovah and come to Jesus to get it. I have done this. Have you? Have you obeyed this commandment of Jehovah?”

This often shocks the Witnesses, since they believe they are the only ones who are obeying God.

Have one of the Witnesses read aloud John 10:7-9: “Therefore Jesus said again, ‘I tell you the truth, I am the gate for the sheep. All who ever came before me were thieves and robbers, but the sheep did not listen to them. I am the gate; whoever enters through me will be saved. He will come in and go out, and find pasture.’”

Ask, “How can we enter through a gate unless we first come to the gate?”

The conference call prayer

Even though Jesus is now in heaven, 1 Peter 2:4 says that we are still supposed to come to him.

That requires prayer.

Jehovah’s Witnesses will be extremely uncomfortable with this.

As I pointed out in an earlier post, the Watchtower teaches that we should only pray to the Father, not to Jesus.

Back when I was studying with Jehovah’s Witnesses, this was a problem for me.

I could see that I was supposed to come to Jesus, but I thought praying to him might incur the wrath of Jehovah.

That’s when I came up with what I refer to as “the Conference Call Prayer.”

I prayed, “Father—and I’ll call you Jehovah in case that’s what you want… it seems to me that your Word tells me I need to come to Jesus and I don’t see any way to do that other than to pray to him. I don’t want to do anything behind your back, so I would like to talk with him now if that’s all right with you. In fact, I’ll address my comments to both of you at the same time.”

It worked for me in that it got me past my fears.

I recommended the conference call prayer to a Jehovah’s Witness friend who understood that the Father wanted him to come to Jesus personally for salvation.

He tried it and put saving faith in Jesus.

He told me later that my suggestion helped him overcome a long-standing barrier which had kept him from the Savior.

Conclusion

If the Witnesses follow you and are receptive to the seeds you are planting and are prepared to come to Christ for salvation, by all means lead them through that process.

Unfortunately, given the depth of Watchtower indoctrination, most Jehovah’s Witnesses are very unlikely to be ready to come to Christ so quickly.

If they are not ready to proceed further in this direction, leave them with this thought: No matter how many good works we do, no matter how much preaching we do, no matter how many organizational meetings we attend, we can only be saved if we comply with Jehovah’s arrangement by coming personally to his Son, Jesus, for forgiveness based on his sacrifice.

It is only by obeying Jehovah by coming to Jesus that we can have the peace with God that we all want and need.