Aided by “Watchtower” Articles

ALERT TO OFFER AID

A congregation overseer of Jehovah’s witnesses in Illinois reports: “One morning on my way home I turned on the local radio station to a program that people can phone in and ask questions or voice opinions over the radio on any subject. A man telephoned and wanted the program to get information on ESP (extrasensory perception). Having read the article in The Watchtower on ‘What Is Extrasensory Perception?’ and recalling information in the booklet What Do the Scriptures Say About ‘Survival After Death’? I hurried home and telephoned the station moderator for about fifteen minutes and left my phone number for others to call. To my surprise the telephone rang right away and a lady in our territory told me of her ability in ESP. She said she had envisioned a piece of machinery flying through the air and narrowly missing her husband, and that night he came home and told her this had happened. Since she wanted to know the Bible’s answer to ESP, I visited her and brought The Watchtower with the article and the booklet and explained how wicked spirits are responsible for the phenomenon known as ESP. After three back-calls a Bible study was started and within two months she began to attend the public Bible talks.”

AIDED TO RESIST

A Witness in North Carolina tells what happened after starting a home Bible study with a young woman: “During the study her mother asked me if I thought that those who were dead could come back and communicate with the living. She related an experience in which she said this had taken place. I explained that such practices were spiritism, which is contrary to the Bible, and that persons who did such things were actually communicating with demons. She then pointed to her daughter, who then confessed that she did communicate with spirits and had done so over the past year. I showed from the Scriptures the seriousness of her course, and the study concluded with her saying that she would think about the matter.

“I continued the study, opening and closing it with prayer, also tactfully asking her to remove a large cross she wore and which cross she admitted she used in spiritistic practices. Later, on the occasion of a circuit assembly in our city, I asked the district servant to accompany me and give this woman more Bible counsel. She has been further helped a great deal by the article in The Watchtower of March 15, 1963, on ‘Resisting Wicked Spirit Forces.’ After reading it she told me that she had made special arrangements in her bedroom so that when harassed by wicked spirits she could immediately turn on the lights and begin to read the latest issues of The Watchtower or the Bible to overcome the problem. She announced also that she has burned all the things she had been using in spiritistic practices, and she has begun to attend meetings.”

CHANGED ATTITUDE

One of Jehovah’s witnesses in Canada relates the following: “I work in an office with a woman who would never take the magazines nor let the Witnesses talk with her. One day she mentioned that her daughter in high school was to take part in a debate entitled ‘Is the Twist a Proper Dance?’ Her daughter had not been able to find any material that she could use to support her side. She asked me if I had a magazine that might help her. I immediately thought of The Watchtower with the article ‘How Should Christians View Dancing?’ I wondered what she would say when I gave it to her. To my surprise she readily accepted it, as I pointed out a few of the good points in the article.

“About two weeks after this she very happily told me that her daughter’s team had won the debate. Not only that, but her daughter had obtained the most points on her team for the best material; and the judge was a clergyman. This seemed to impress her again. This time her daughter was to give a five-minute discourse on how to study. Could I help her? I knew there was a chapter in Qualified to Be Ministers on that subject. I gave her the book. Again her daughter was awarded the highest number of points. Her teacher commented that the material was so good that undoubtedly one of the other teachers must have helped her. This has changed this woman’s mind about the Witnesses. Since then she has of her own accord asked me many questions, and I will continue to help this sheeplike woman.”