Don't

Don't

Don’t bring up the Trinity or the Deity of Christ too soon
 

Discussing the Trinity with Jehovah's Witnesses is very tempting, it goes to the very core of our Christian beliefs. Keep in mind that when we talk about the Trinity we are talking about the innermost makeup of God. For us to try to fully understand the Trinity is like a 2 year old trying to understand how a computer microchip works. As mere humans we simply can not understand the makeup of our creator.

More importantly perhaps is the fact that Jehovah's Witnesses have been taught to loathe the Trinity and they are trained to defend their beliefs. The Trinity and the Deity of Christ is generally one of the last Christian beliefs that an Ex-Jehovah's Witness comes to accept. Many Ex-Jehovah's Witnesses do not accept the Trinity belief for months even years after leaving, some have never accepted it. The belief that Jehovah is one God and that he created Jesus Christ as an angel is a deeply engrained belief and is a subject best avoided until later.

However when you think it is time to discuss the Trinity see Sharing the Deity of Christ and The Jehovah Witness Jesus also The Trinity

Don’t try to get them to agree with you

 Remember your goal is to get the Jehovah's Witnesses to think for themselves. Try to get them to to think for themselves by asking questions and then let them answer, if they do not have an answer right then ask them to do some research and get back with you. If the Jehovah's Witness does research on your questions this is even better, the research may help them think. See Questions and More Questions also see Stay in the student role.  
 

Don't preach at them or try to teach them

Remember the Witness is there to teach, not to be taught, the moment they think you are trying to do any teaching they will leave and your opportunity to witness to them will leave with them. Witnesses have been taught that they are part of the only true religion on earth today and all other religions are from Satan. They will therefore view any information you have on the Bible to be coming from Satan. Let them know that you have many questions about the Bible and get them to agree in advance to allow you to ask them as they come up. Then lead the conversation by asking questions like any good student, keeping in mind any teacher will admit they learn from their students. Used properly the student role can put you in an excellent position to teach someone with a closed mind.

Properly used questions will force the Jehovah's Witness to think, he or she has to in order to answer your question. Jehovah’s Witnesses are not accustom to thinking, they are in fact discouraged from thinking for themselves. They are told that God is working through the leadership of the Watchtower Bible & Tract Society as mans ONLY channel of communication with God and they have “the sayings of everlasting life”. If the Witness does not understand something the Watchtower Society is trying to teach them they are told not to question or think about the information, it is, they are told coming directly from God through the Watchtower Society. If they have questions they are told to accept the teaching and wait, the answers will become clear later. Witnesses therefore are not in the habit of thinking for themselves in their study of the scriptures, one way you can get them to think for themselves is to ask thought provoking questions.

Then as a student you can ask the thought provoking questions about what they are teaching that will help them question the teachings of the Watchtower. For example you may begin by asking how many true Gods there are, according to John 17:3. Allow him to read this aloud from his Bible. “This means everlasting life there taking in knowledge of you, the only true God, and the one whom you sent fourth, Jesus Christ.” Based on this the Jehovah’s Witness will say that Jehovah (the father) is the only true god.

Next point out that according to John 1:1 in the New World Translation Jesus is a God. Ask if he or she agrees that Jesus is a God. The answer will be yes. Now ask him if Jesus is a true God or a false God. This will present a dilemma for the Jehovah’s Witness. If they say Jesus is a false God he will disagree with the Watchtower teaching at John 1:1 and if he says Jesus is a true God he will disagree with the Watchtower teaching at John 17:3. See Questions for Jehovah's Witnesses.

Don't be intimidated Jehovah's Witnesses don't know the Bible as well as you may think

Jehovah's Witnesses know the doctrine the Watchtower Society has taught them and are well trained to defend it. They will try to do this by playing “Bible hopscotch” and often misapplying Scriptures. Don’t allow the witness to do this, reading a verse from one Bible book, then a verse from a different book, and so on, slow them down. Stop them long enough to establish the context of the verse. This will sometimes prove the Watchtower Society's argument to be wrong, and will also help the Witness see the way the Bible should be studied. Remember that they are trained to present only one side of an argument, you are not dealing with their beliefs, but those of the Watchtower Society. The Witnesses are trained not to think independently and they study Watchtower Society publications with the Bible as a reference but not the Bible by itself. Jehovah’s Witnesses spend about 90% of their study time reading Watchtower publications and only 10% of their study time actually reading the Bible and that from their own translation that has been altered to fit the Watchtower teachings. They are encouraged to have Watchtower publications close at all times when reading the Bible so they can quickly lookup the meaning of the scriptures. They are told they cannot understand the Bible without the aid of the Watchtower publications. They are told to trust the Society’s interpretation of the Bible, it is the only accurate teaching and is from the only spirit-guided people on earth, the leaders of the Watchtower Society.