A Ready and Fitting Defense

AT A circuit assembly of Jehovah’s witnesses in Texas some time ago, this interesting experience was related. It shows how opposition can be met and successfully overcome.

“Another Witness and I were preaching from house to house in a rural section. As I approached the first house two men were sitting on the porch. The householder was not interested but his guest, George, was very hateful toward us. He said we were peddlers of God’s Word and that he did not need those ‘old magazines’ as he had all he needed. He said he read the King James Bible and believed every word of it. With that he left.

“When I approached the second house, there was George on the porch talking to the householder. Yes, he had already done his underhanded work. The householder said he was not interested. George left by now. Coming to the third house, there he was again; this time with a married couple.

“What George did not know was that last fall I had left some literature with this couple. At that time they were leaving to spend the winter in Florida. They had kindly let me show them how to study the literature. This was my first return visit to them since they came back from Florida. I did not know what they thought about the literature we left them.

“When George began his sermon against us, I watched the couple to see their reaction to it. Immediately I noted that the husband was visibly embarrassed because he liked what he had read in the Watch Tower Society’s books. I quickly asked George a direct question: ‘How much of the literature have you read?’

“‘Nary a page,’ he replied scornfully, ‘nor do I intend to!’

“‘Do you mean to tell us,’ I asked, ‘that you have not read any of this literature and yet you have decided on the matter and are now trying to influence others to your way of thinking?’

“‘Yes, ma’m,’ he answered.

“‘And you believe the King James Bible?’ I asked. He again replied that he did. I then asked him to read Proverbs 18:13, which says, ‘He that answereth a matter before he heareth it, it is folly and shame unto him.’

“‘That is the Bible, all right!’ cried the householder, ‘and I do not judge any man because I do not want any man to judge me.’ They asked me to sit down, and George left. The man then told me that he enjoyed our method of searching the Scriptures, and right there I started a home Bible study with him and his wife. The next house I visited—yes, no George.”