Welcome once again,
my beautiful readers.
Today, we answer a
Question from a reader:
“Hi!
I was wondering, is one of the reasons for preaching also to ensure
your own salvation? Tnx!”
 |
| I don't care who you are, witness or not that's funny! And I am a witness. :-) |
This is a valid
question. After all, what are Jehovah's Witnesses most know for? Yep,
their door to door ministry. How many times have I myself chuckled
when I see a show on TV and in one way or another, they are poking
fun of 'who's knocking on the other side of the door', and I always
most remember the references to Jehovah's Witnesses. Once, I saw a
Face Book post of a very large Alligator kinda standing up against
the outside of a front door of a house with the caption being about
the Witnesses... (As a side note, I think it's
cool when Jehovah's name is mentioned in movies and TV shows. I
remember it way back when in an Indiana Jones movie, not so way back
in a Monk episode, and House even said YHWH.)
 |
| It's ok to laugh... it's funny. |
There are reasons
the we, as Jehovah's people, do the preaching work. 1) Love
of God and 2) love of neighbor. Yep, it's that simple. We follow the instruction giving
from Jehovah God, found in his word, the Bible. Lets look into the
pages of God's word to see what I am saying.
Jehovah raised up
prophets who served as figurative watchmen to the nation of Israel
(Jer 6:17), and they, in turn, sometimes spoke of watchmen in a
symbolic way. (Isa 21:6, 8; 52:8; 62:6; Ho 9:8) These
prophet-watchmen had the responsibility to warn the wicked of
impending destruction, and if they failed to do so, they were held
accountable. Of course, if the people were unresponsive and failed to
heed the warning, their blood was upon themselves. (Eze 3:17-21;
33:1-9) And unfaithful prophet was about as worthless as a blind
watchman or a voiceless dog. - Isa 56:10
Ezekiel 3:17-21 was
always a very powerful statement to me of the seriousness... yes, the
seriousness, of being a watchman appointed by Jehovah God
himself. Jehovah makes it clear that he is giving a warning, and
it is up to the listener to act, but the warning must be given.
And as you can see, there are dire consequences to those who don't
listen and for those who choose not to follow the instruction
from God to do the warning. Verse18 gets it for me: “When I say to someone wicked, 'You will
surely die,' but you do not warn him, and you fail to speak in order
to warn the wicked one to turn from his wicked course so that he may
stay alive, he will die for his error because he is wicked, but I
will ask his blood back from you.'”
“Yes, but, that
was back in the Hebrew scriptures (The Old Testament)” you say. And
you would be correct, that was an old command. However, let us now
jump forward in time, to the Greek scriptures (The New Testament) to
Jesus' time.
WHY DO JEHOVAH'S WITNESS PREACH FROM HOUSE TO
HOUSE?
Jesus foretold for our day this work: “This good news of the kingdom will be preached in all the inhabited earth for a witness to all the nations; and then the end will come.” (Matt. 24:14) As followers of
Christ, we have been instructed to do this preaching work, to all the
nations. Currently Jehovah's Witness can be found in 240 lands around
the world.
He also instructed his followers: “Go... and make disciples of people of all the nations.” (Matt. 28:19) As a result, 9,708,968 free home Bible course are conducted with those who are interested.
When Jesus sent out his early disciples, he directed them to go to
the homes of the people. (Matt. 10:7, 11-13) The apostle Paul said
regarding his ministry: “I did not hold back from telling you any
of the things that were profitable nor from teaching you publicly and
from house to house.” - Acts 20:20, 21; see also Acts 5:42. The Message that the Witnesses proclaim involves the lives of
people; they want to be careful to miss no one. (Zeph. 2:2, 3) Their calls are motivated by - 1) Love of God and 2) love of neighbor..Here's something that I found to be of interest. Please allow me to share it with you... A conference of religious leaders in Spain noted this: “Perhaps (the churches) are excessively neglectful about that which precisely constitutes the greatest preoccupation of the Witnesses-the home visit, which comes within the apostolic methodology of the primitive church. While the churches, on not a few occasions, limit themselves to constructing their temples, ringing their bells to attract the people and to preaching inside their places of worship, (the Witnesses) follow the apostolic tactic of going from house to house and of taking advantage of every occasion to witness.” - El Catolicismo, Bogata, Colombis, September 14, 1975, page 14.
BUT WHY DO THE WITNESS CALL REPEATEDLY EVEN AT
HOMES OF PEOPLE WHO DO NOT SHARE THEIR FAITH?
They do not force their message on others. But they know that people move to new residences and that the circumstances of people change. Today a person may be too busy to listen; another time he may gladly take the time. One member of a household may not be interested, but other may be. People themselves change; serious problems in life may stimulate an awareness of spiritual need. - See also Isaiah 6:8, 11, 12.
For me, I have a person I call on at her home, and have done so for years. When I first knocked on her door, she was not interested in anything I had to say. She would quickly close the door when she saw me standing there. Her health is very bad, and she looks so frail. I worried about her, so once a month, I would stop by to check on her. She had very little to say, but thanked my for checking on her. This went on for months. A couple of years later, yes... years, I knocked on her door, and there was a change. She looked at me and said, “You didn't hear? My daughter died.” Of course, I had not known about it until she told me. But that changed her, (death does that to people) and she let me into her home, shared her pain with me, and allowed me to comfort her from the scriptures. I still call on her to this day, and when her health allows it, we discuss a thought from the Bible. Jehovah has made me her Watchman, I have to go, I want to share with her from the Bible.
The Apostle Paul had also something interesting to say: “To the weak I became weak, in order to gain the weak. I have become all things to people of all sorts, so that I might by all possible means save some”. - 1 Corinthians 9:22
The final scripture that really hits home for me is found at: 1Timothy 4:16 – 'Pay constant attention to your self and to your teaching. Persevere in these things, for by doing this you will save both yourself and those who listen to you.'
Having said all that... back to the original question:
“Hi! I was wondering, is one of the reasons for preaching also to ensure your own salvation? Tnx!”
 |
|
|
No.
We engage regularly in our door-to-door ministry, but we don’t
believe that we earn our salvation by doing such work. (Ephesians
2:8)
Why not?
Think
of this comparison: Imagine that a benevolent man promised an
expensive gift to everyone who showed up at a certain location on a
given date. If you really believed the man’s promise, would you
follow his instructions? No doubt! Likely, you would also tell your
friends and family about the opportunity, so that they too could
benefit from it. Even so, you wouldn’t earn the
gift by following the man’s instructions. The gift is still a gift.
Likewise,
Jehovah’s Witnesses believe God’s promise of everlasting life for
all who obey him. (Romans
6:23)
We endeavor to share our faith with others, hoping that they will
benefit from God’s promises. But we don’t believe that
we earn our
salvation by engaging in our ministry. (Romans
1:17; 3:28)
Really, no human could ever do enough to merit such an astounding
blessing from God. “
He
saved us because of his mercy, and not because of any good things
that we have done.”—Titus
3:5, Contemporary
English Version.
No comments:
Post a Comment