Learning from the Jehovah's Witnesses

I'm more of a "big picture" person than a "specific details" person when it comes to certain things.  Maybe it's because the big picture can apply to everyone, whereas the specific details that are important differ from person to person and situation to situation.

Last week, a Jehovah's Witness showed up at my door and asked if she could share their beliefs with me.  Actually, I've *never* talked to a JW before and have had secret fantasies of meeting one for YEARS.  I was disappointed a few years back when we missed their visit and only had a copy of their Watchtower magazine thingy to read from.

I love learning about others' beliefs.  Mark and I were involved for a few years in an interfaith dialogue thing, primarily between Mormons and Evangelicals.  We made a few friends there and still stalk them on Facebook. ;)  (Hello, Billy and Adam!  I doubt you'll read this, but I love you guys and still think of you often!)

The thing about this interfaith dialogue is that it strengthens the faith of both sides involved.  We don't prove each other wrong - we can't! - but we explore and better understand the reasons why we believe what we believe and why we disagree on certain points.  It gives us a greater respect for the other view, too, because we then understand that people don't just blindly follow their faith as we sometimes wish to believe.

If you compare scriptures and which references we choose to focus on and how we choose to interpret them, we can understand how so many people can come up with so many different reasons to believe differently on even basic octrines.  And how is God going to judge that, when so much of the Bible seems to be so ambiguous?  It doesn't seem fair that he would exalt one and damn another because they happened to focus on "this verse in Corinthians says X" instead of "this other verse in Isaiah goes along with this other verse in Romans that actually says Y."  Or whatever.  I gave up on Bible bashing in high school.




I will go back and re-find the references later, but I want to share the experience I had with the JW's about their beliefs about the identity of "Jehovah".  Some believe Jehovah refers to God, as in the Father, and others believe Jehovah refers to Jesus Christ.  Others believe in the Trinity, so they're the same person anyway. ;)

This Jehovah's Witness showed me a few things in the Bible (you know, like how "THE LORD" replaces "Jehovah" a gajillion times) and showed some scripture in the New Testament that made it look like Jehovah has to refer to God because Jehovah refers to his son.  Hm.  Interesting.  I never put much thought into it after the New Testament seminary lesson we had that showed some scripture that made it sound like JESUS declared himself to be Jehovah.

Right now, I'm reading the beginning of 1 Samuel, so the scriptural whatnot surrounding "Jehovah" isn't at the front of my mind.  I wasn't about to argue with this Jehovah's Witness about what she gleans from the scriptures.

Mark, on the other hand, served a mission and probably spent a lot of time discussing this very issue with people.  I asked him if he could show me some references in the Bible about why we believe Jesus Christ, not God the Father, is Jehovah.

He opened up his scriptures and showed me something in Isaiah about Jehovah being the judge, then showed me something in the New Testament about how Christ is the judge and His Father turned over that responsibility (of judge, to judge) to him.  Interesting.  So that makes Christ Jehovah, and his own

father, and now there's a lot of support for the Trinity, in whom a lot of Christians DON'T believe, and then there's the whole "When Christ was baptized, the Father spoke and the Holy Ghost was in the form of a dove, so clearly they are separate and this whole egg-Trinity thing doesn't work."

So who is right?  At this point, an atheist throws the Bible out and says it's a load of crap and clearly this is one of the MANY straws that finally broke his previously faithful back.

And my other question is ... who cares about these nitpicky details?  Does God?  If he cared, wouldn't he ... uh ... make it more clear so EVERYONE would be forced to come to the same conclusion?  I'm more concerned about trying to follow Christ and have charity and bear one another's burdens and remembering the beam in my own eye and everything.  Worrying excessively about things like this makes me think of counting my steps on the Sabbath.

That's why I'm Mormon.  I'm thankful we have personal revelation that confirms truth to us.  I'm thankful we have modern prophets, seers, and revelators that can tell us the word of God as it applies to our lives, just as God provided His people with prophets, seers, and revelators in Biblical times.  I think a just God would hold people accountable for their knowledge and their understanding.  I could go on.



I also see why others believe as they do and have no interest in arguing with them because I believe there are grains of truth in just about every belief system that has a wide following and has stood the test of time.  People generally don't believe crap.  I just believe I have more, if you want it, if you're interested. ;)