|
|
NOW AVAILABLE: Ruth's book Knock, Knock: Shedding light on Jehovah's Witnesses at your door is officially released and ready for distribution at local and online bookstores. It will be available on-line at www.amazon.com , Barnes & Noble, Target WalMart, and eight book outlets on Biblioscribe in soft-cover book, retail cost 12.99. If you would like a book, an ebook at 7.99 or a 6 CD audio book at 24.99, contact Tate Publishers at http://www.tatepublishing.com/bookstore/book.php?w=978-1-60247-565-6 or call them at 1-888-361-9473.
SPECIAL NOTE: I have vowed 25% (twenty- five percent) of all gross royalties from the sale of all Knock, Knock products--books, ebooks, and audio books-- to go back into God's Church through offerings, missions, and helping the poor, homeless, and hungry.
Our favorite charities are Feed the Children, Faith Mission of Elkhart, and the Isaiah 58 program of The International Fellowship of Christians and Jews which provides food and care for elderly and orphaned Jews in Russia.
Knock, Knock answers many questions that people have regarding Jehovah's Witnesses. The first question is mainly answered by taking the text from chapter one starting at page 14ff.
Why Should I talk to Jehovah's Witnesses at all?
First and foremost, we have to recognize that all
Christians are in a spiritual battle with the unseen forces of
darkness that are at the root of all false doctrines. They are
the ones that need to be defeated. It is not necessarily the
individuals of any cult group, including Jehovah’s Witnesses.
The problem lies with the spirits behind the cults. For exam-
ple, Satan’s main purpose has been to usurp God’s authority
and power. As he has pushed forward in this purpose, his
tactics have never changed from the beginning of his rebel-
lion, especially in regards to man. What are Satan’s main tac-
tics? His main tactic is to present himself as something non-
threatening. The next step is to pervert God’s words through
deception and lies and make them appear as the truth. The
third step is to make the perversion appealing to the flesh.
But, in addition to knowing what Satan’s tactics are, we need
to talk about how he uses them to achieve another goal.
Satan’s goal from the Garden of Eden has been to kill
the Messiah, the Christ-to kill Jesus. He was always watch-
ing and waiting for Jesus to appear so he could destroy Him.
He thought he had done that very thing at Calvary; instead,
it brought about his ultimate defeat. But, has this stopped
Satan? No! He still needs to kill Jesus somehow in order to
kill the message of hope, salvation, redemption, and God’s
promise to mankind of everlasting life with Almighty God
in heaven. How does Satan accomplish this? He kills Jesus
through the doctrines of the cults under the guise of organi-
zations like the Watchtower Society who deny the deity of
Jesus or through world religions who don’t recognize Him at
all. This is where Christians can see the forces of darkness at
work: no matter what a cult believes, everything hinges on
the teaching that Jesus was ultimately just a human being
who was humanly exalted. In regards to Jehovah’s Witnesses,
Jesus had/has no deity whatsoever. The end result is that the
full importance of who Jesus was, what Jesus taught, His suf-
fering, His death, His blood, and His resurrection were all lation from anything truly Christian is the way God intends
for them to be. But, this situation is like a two-edged sword.
Most Christians find J.W.’s doctrines, beliefs, and preach-
ing methods so offensive and repulsive that they lend to their
isolation by not talking to them. Speci? cally, most of us have
given up trying to speak the Gospel to them. This is not a
reproach or condemnation on Christians. I believe that this
lack of interchange has served in many ways to protect many
Christians through the dark and troublesome times of the
past few decades.
This lack of communication between Christians and J.
W’s also brings us to some important things we must face
about ourselves. The fact is that the majority of Christians
do not know what they believe or why they believe it. Thus,
they are unable to give a proper defense of the Gospel. The
lack of biblical knowledge leaves these people susceptible to
a cult’s message because they don’t have anything to compare
it with.
Secondly, few religious leaders have really wanted to edu-
cate Christians about the basic beliefs and doctrines of the
sects and cults. Believe it or not, this often leaves people dan-
gerously open to curiosity about these organizations. Thirdly,
many Christians who know the Bible, as well as the major
Christian doctrines, sincerely have the strong desire to share
their faith but are unable to. Nearly all of the latter people
end up with some degree of emotional stress because they
think that they have somehow let God down. These issues
are what this book is all about.
It’s about loving, serving, and glorifying God out of a
grateful heart. It’s about helping spiritual brothers and sis-
ters by instructing and informing them on how to take the
believer’s power and authority given through Jesus Christ by
the Holy Spirit in order to make a solid defense to Jehovah’s
16
knock, knock
Witnesses. It is about protecting them and their families
from the wolves in sheep’s clothing. It’s about all of us being
Christ-like in love, patience, and caring about the spiritual
condition of others-of Jehovah’s Witnesses. In short, it is
about planting seeds. However, before we go any further, per-
haps we should talk about something else-change.
Why Change?
To many people change is a scary word, isn’t it? Most of us
don’t like change. We all know that adjustments and changes
are not always easy or even desirable. We like to stay within
our comfort zone, where we feel safe and secure. However,
the changes I’m talking about should not be too painful if
we’re really serious about serving God. The facts are that
many Christians will need to make a change in their attitudes
and understanding.
One important area that I know many Christians need
to make a change in is why they reject and object to Jehovah’s
Witnesses in the ? rst place. This is not in a spirit of reproach,
but at least 90% of all objections regarding Jehovah’s
Witnesses have been: they don’t serve in the military, they
don’t celebrate birthdays or holidays, and they don’t take
blood transfusions. I’m not addressing whether these beliefs
are right or wrong, rather, isn’t something missing here?
Where is God in these objections? Where are the Christian
doctrines that should be the foundation of why the Witness’
beliefs are wrong? Christianity is all about Jesus, so where is
He mentioned in all this? I believe that sincere Christians
will agree with me that we need to start digging into the
spiritual heart of the matter. A good reason for doing this is
because I know that people’s/society’s ostracism concerning
the matters mentioned above barely makes a small dent in a
perverted. In essence, they have “…trampled the Son of God
underfoot, counted the blood of the covenant by which he
was sancti? ed a common thing, and insulted the Spirit . .”
(Hebrews 10:29 nkjv). So why should we have compassion
on Jehovah’s Witnesses?
I know from firsthand experience that many honest and
sincere people, Jehovah Witness believers, actually believe
Satan’s lies through that organization. [They may be sincere, but sincerely wrong] They truly believe
that they are serving Jehovah God with spirit and truth. The
really sad part is that Satan and his minions have them totally
in bondage by the belief that separation, isolation, and insu-
ruth baker
J.W. In fact, most of them expect these objections because
they’ve heard them for so long. What they’re not accustomed
to is having other people know what their beliefs and meth-
ods are. Nevertheless, these objections are not the only thing
that need adjustment.
Another important area that needs change is the
Christian’s general attitude about J.W.s. The dominant idea
for many decades has been that if you’re a Jehovah’s Witness,
somehow you are not worthy of any consideration for sal-
vation. It’s like you’re a plague to be avoided at all costs. I
feel that the biggest reason for this perspective is a lack of
understanding. People just don’t understand that Jehovah’s
Witnesses on the human level are ordinary people who are
enveloped in spiritual darkness. I discovered in painful ways
that a very ? ne line exists between condemning what a person
believes and condemning the person. I’m an ordinary person
now and an ordinary person when I was a Jehovah’s Witness.
Let me give you an example.
When I was a Jehovah’s Witness, my grandmother told
me that she was at church one day and she was telling her
church friends about how nice, faithful, and loyal I was in
helping her, picking her up and bringing her to church, taking
her to the doctor and grocery shopping, visiting, and bring-
ing her to our home on a regular basis for dinner. Do you
know what their Christian response to her was? “But she’s a
Jehovah’s Witness!” It didn’t matter that I was one of God’s
creatures or that I was morally clean. They gave no other
reason whatsoever for their condemnation, rejection, objec-
tions, or whatever else you want to label it, other than, “She is
a Jehovah’s Witness.” Her feisty response to them was, “She
may be a Jehovah’s Witness, but I love her anyway!”
That was many years ago and I do not harbor any hard
feelings toward anyone about their thoughts or words about
18
knock, knock
me. But, I never forgot my grandmother’s response, and it
made me love her more. It also made me love God more
since I know this is exactly how He saw me-I was in err, I
was in spiritual darkness, but He still loved me and waited for
the day that I would turn to Him with my whole heart, mind,
and soul. After all, isn’t that what Jesus died for?
But let’s extend the subject of understanding a little fur-
ther. I believe that many Christians may feel that seeing J.W.s
as real people might mean compromising one’s Christian
beliefs. It absolutely doesn’t mean this at all. If I didn’t learn
anything else from my experiences, I came to realize that
there is a huge difference between hating/condemning doc-
trine and methods and loving the person who is in God’s
image beneath it all. That’s exactly how Jesus sees people.
Jesus walked among all types of sinners such as harlots,
adulterers, thieves, liars, users, manipulators, and false teach-
ers. And He did more than that, too; He talked and preached
to them, taught them, ate with them, and healed many of
them spiritually and physically. I believe we are supposed to
have a Christ-like walk and talk. But let’s take a look at some
early Christian examples of change.
One Christian we can look at is the apostle Peter. When
the Holy Spirit directed him to go to Cornelius’ house as
recorded in Acts 10, we discover that Peter’s objections were
based on his Jewish beliefs that Cornelius was an unclean,
gentile pagan. But he had an eye-opening experience when
the Holy Spirit fell on the “unclean” person and his house-
hold just like it had on the Jews on the day of Pentecost.
Peter had to understand that he had to look beyond what
he thought about the outer person. He ultimately came to
understand that it is Almighty God who knows the heart.
He also found out that God’s plans were not always what he
expected them to be.
19
ruth baker
We can also look at another apostle, Paul. First, Paul was
raised and schooled in the rigid teachings and rabbinical tra-
dition of the Jewish faith. In addition to disliking gentiles and
their beliefs (in regards to being outside the Israelite faith),
he hated, persecuted, imprisoned, and was instrumental in
executing many of the early Christians because he thought
the new sect was going against God. He, too, had his eyes
of understanding opened in several ways. The central idea
I want to make, however, is that from Paul’s conversion and
for a number of years after that, he took the message only to
Jews. But where did his ministry end up? Going into Gentile
nations and preaching among and to violent “pagans,” idola-
ters, and the sexually immoral-all of whom were steeped in
false religion.
Ultimately, all the Jewish disciples, especially Peter and
Paul, had to come to an understanding of what it was all
about. They needed to understand what God’s desires and
plan were for all people. And what has always been God’s
desire and plan? He inspired the prophet Ezekiel to express
His desire: “ ‘Do I have any pleasure at all that the wicked
should die?’ says the Lord God, ‘and not that he should
turn from his ways and live?…For I have no pleasure in the
death of one who dies,’ says the Lord God. ‘Therefore turn
and live!’” (Ezekiel 18: 23,32 nkjv). Jesus later asserted what
God’s plan was for all time: “For God so loved the world
that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in
Him should not perish but have everlasting life” ( John 3:16
nkjv). Jesus also taught us that we are to be the light of the
world so others would praise the Father (Matthew 5: 14–16
nkjv).
In order for Peter and Paul to come to this understand-
ing, they had to make signi? cant changes in their attitudes.
Sometimes it meant completely abandoning the old ways
ruth baker
in their everyday lives. Perhaps it is time to view J.W.s as the
mission ? eld standing at your door. What could be easier?
You don’t have to go anywhere in order to do your mission.
They come to you! You don’t have to have any funding. You
have everything right in your home. You don’t have to make a
speci? c time commitment for three, six, or more months at a
time. Rather, you can manage and control whether you spend
ten minutes or two hours.
In addition to all of the above reasons concerning why we
should change, it is very important to remember two things:
Jehovah’s Witnesses have a feeling of superiority and great sat-
isfaction when people cannot give an accounting for their faith.
They not only believe that they have more accurate knowl-
edge, but that they also have God’s guidance via angels in
their ministry. In fact, they mock our God, the one true God!
In their mind-controlled worldview, if Christians had the
spiritual truth, we would be able to defeat them when they
come to our doors. Just more proof to them, as far as they are
concerned, that we are under Satan’s control and not God’s.
Excuse me for my bluntness, but this has got to change!
The other thing to keep in mind is rejection and perse-
cution makes Jehovah’s Witnesses stronger. Do not underesti-
mate what this statement means. They have a whole group
of Bible verses that have been misapplied, but fully support
the reasons, in their minds, why they are the brunt of mis-
treatment, rejection, and persecution from “outsiders,” “the
world.” They will argue, after all, it is plainly written in the
Bible that true believers will be hated and persecuted because
of bearing God’s name and also because they are no part of
the world. Although it is not pleasant for anyone to undergo
this type of treatment at any time, believe me when I say that
it does serve to solidify their belief that they have the truth
when people do not answer the door when it is clear that
knock, knock
someone is home. When people rudely or quietly shut the
door in their faces. When they are beaten, imprisoned, and
killed (this has indeed happened in numerous countries in
the last seventy years). However, we can utilize this knowl-
edge of their attitudes and turn them into spiritual weap-
ons by being non-aggressive and, do I dare say, kind to them
when they call on us.
There is little doubt that most Christian people will need
to go through some altering processes before they can reach
that place of peace. I feel that the first beneficial step we
should take on our road to personal change, with Christian
discernment and caution, is understanding why people find
Jehovah’s Witness’ messages appealing in the first place.
What appeals do Jehovah's Witnesses have that entice people to listen to them?
Is the J.W.'s New World Translation the same as other Bible translations?
How is a person transformed into a J.W.?
How and why is the Watchtower organization a work-based religion?
What do they believe about Jesus, the Holy Spirit, death, resurrection and future hope?
Why and how is the Watchtower organization a false prophet?
Why doesn't anything I say seem to make any difference to them?
Why won't they take any religious literature even if it is free or I take theirs?
I want to give a Gospel defense, but I don't know how. How do I do it?
These are just some of the most frequently asked questions that are answered in the book. Please investigate the information in this book. You may search other parts of the book at Amazon--just type knock, knock ruth baker in the search field. It is a valuable tool for everyone for their protection from the false and deceptive methods and doctrines of the J.W.'s and others who come to your door. Following is the back cover's book and author biographies.
Do you know someone who is a Jehovah's Witness? Have you ever questioned how and why a person becomes a member of the Watchtower Society? Are you ever frustrated, hopeless, or angered because you cannot reach them with the Gospel? In her breathrough book, Knock, Knock: Shedding light on Jehovah's Witnesses at your door, born-again author Ruth Baker uses her twenty years of experience as a Jehovah's Witness to unveil the mystery of this obscure cult. This shocking testimony will not only equip Christians to properly protect themselves, their families, and friends from the unseen forces of darkness, but will also challenge them to boldly defend the truth with confidence and love. This book is an essential weapon in preparing for the next Knock, Knock.
Author Ruth Baker is a full-time servant of the Lord who is passionate in helping the needy in spirit and knowledge. She actively encourages those in need, both among fellow believers and those outside the church. She presently teaches a woman's Bible study at Faith Mission of Elkhart, Indiana, and has taught Sunday Schoold, participated in street evangelism with the Rock of Israel, and given powerful testimonials at crusades, churches, and seminars. Ruth and her husband, James, currently reside in Goshen, Indiana, and enjoy fellowship with their children, grandchildren, and many Christian friends. Ruth is so thankful that the Truth finally set her free.
Thank you for considering this book and the importance it could have in your life and those that you love. Ruth
