Now on the outside, you hear that and think, Oh, he's a person who follows Jehovah (God's name in the Old Testament) and he's a witness, which means he tells other people about God.
And if it was just that, I would have no problem with it. As a matter of fact, when I began to talk to him about what I believe, there were several times he agreed wholeheartedly with me.
And I couldn't figure that out, because what we believe could not be different.
He believes that:
- Jesus was raised from the dead, not with a physical body, but as a mighty spirit creature
- The second coming of Jesus was an invisible spiritual presence that began in 1914
- The dead exist only in God's memory: the wicked will not be punished with conscious torment but will be extinguished forever.
- Jesus when He was on the earth was fully God and fully human and was raised as such - with a physical body, yet still fully God (John 20:24-29)
- The second coming of Jesus has not yet occurred but will happen soon (Revelation 22:12)
- Hell is very real and those who go there go to eternal punishment (Mark 9:47-48, Revelation 20:15)
The problem we were running into in our discussion was our context and our definitions.
Every time we talked, he agreed with me that Jesus was before time, but what I didn't find out until later was that he believed Jesus was a created being. John 1 states that Jesus was with God and was God in the beginning. It says nothing about Him being created.
When you talk to someone who doesn't share the same faith as you, often times, you can walk away feeling frustrated as if what you had to say fell on deaf ears.
Next time you have a conversation though, start with defining what you're going to be talking about. Ask questions like "What do you believe about salvation?" or "Who is Jesus to you?"
Then you'll be able to get at the heart of what you're really talking about.
My Jehovah's Witness neighbor is not ready to give up his faith, but at least we understand now what the other person is talking about.
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