Aiding Those Aiming to Be Clergymen

QUALIFIED TO TEACH

At a circuit assembly in Norwalk, California, one of Jehovah’s witnesses related this experience: “As a Bible study servant, I was aiding a brother in the back-call work. We made a call upon a householder who raised the objection that he did not feel Jehovah’s witnesses were qualified to teach him, inasmuch as he was a student attending a theological institute. We spent about an hour answering his Bible questions on the subject of baptism. He felt that the Bible’s answer was contrary to what he had been taught, so he decided to call in some other members of this institute to have them substantiate the doctrine that they had taught him.

“He called in two members of his organization for the second back-call. As he listened to the discussion, the two men that he had called in became angry and left. He decided to go to the top man in the organization and see if he would sit in on a Bible discussion. He believed this top man to be so well qualified to teach that one had merely to quote a portion of the Bible and he could tell the chapter and verse where it was found. So he asked the president of the school to come, and, in turn, the president of the school decided that he would like the founder and dean of the school to be present.

“The day for the appointment came. The founder and dean, the vice-president and five others came to my house, along with the theological student. The issue in the discussion was water baptism, as they did not believe that water was necessary for baptism. They offered no scriptures to back up their thinking. The man that the student believed to be so well qualified said that there was no scripture in the Bible that said that a Gentile was baptized in water. I asked him if he could quote the scriptures at Acts 10:45-48. He said that he would have his vice-president read the passage. After it was read, he decided to read it himself. He felt, after reading the scriptures, that the apostle Peter was excited and was wrong in his statement.

“I made a comparison between the dean’s thought and the apostle Peter’s statement. The reaction of the group was that they believed the Bible. After this three-hour discussion I placed various booklets, and a few days later I called on the student. His reaction to all that had happened was that Jehovah’s witnesses were qualified to teach, whereupon we began a systematic Bible study.”

OFFERS FROM THE CLERGY

At the Pomona, California, Courageous Ministers Assembly the experience was related about a man who, after attending classes in a college for those aspiring to be clergymen, had become a lay minister in the Baptist Church. He also preached in other churches. Now the time was drawing near for him to become a fully ordained minister of the church. However, this man’s wife had long subscribed for The Watchtower and finally agreed to have a home Bible study with one of Jehovah’s witnesses. Her husband also attended the study. Another Witness began a second study with her husband, and he soon learned that the Witnesses were teaching the truth of God’s Word. “After studying a short while,” this man related, “I saw it was the truth, and even my sermons in the church began to reflect the truth. My children began going around the house quoting Revelation 18:4, ‘Get out of her, my people,’ and I realized I had to get out of the church.

“Then the offers started rolling in from my former religious associates. The first offer was from one of the Baptist ministers, and he gave me his ordination papers, hoping I would use them in getting my own from the church. The second offer was from a Methodist clergyman in whose church I had given a sermon; he offered me the assistant pastor’s job and wanted me to preach regularly. I told him the only way I could give any more sermons in the church would be as one of Jehovah’s witnesses. He withdrew his offer. Then the pastor of the Holiness and Sanctified Church offered me the pastor’s job of his old church because he was moving into a new church. All of these offers began to come in after they found out I was about to become one of Jehovah’s witnesses.

“Finally the minister of the Baptist church in which I had preached said that he would top any offer that I had received from the other clergymen, if I wouldn’t become a Witness. I turned down those four offers and accepted the more valuable prize—to be one of Jehovah’s witnesses. Tomorrow morning my wife and I are going to be baptized.”