Ye Must Be Born Again...

Last year my Dad was sharing the gospel with a JW and the Lord put on his heart an interesting method to share with them. Yesterday they were in our neighborhood as I was walking by my mailbox and I took a moment to share with them.

Actually, I ran into two sets of them and had basically the same conversation with each pair:

Them: Hi, how are you doing?
Me: Are you JW's?
Them: Yes, we are.
Me: I'm sorry… I'm a Christian who believes in Jesus as God and I'm not interested in any of your literature. May I ask you a question?
Them: Sure.
Me: Do you believe in Jesus?
Them: Yes, we do.
Me: Do you obey Him?
Them: Yes, we do.
Me: Have you been born again?
Them: No.
Me: Then why are you disobeying Jesus? He said, in John chapter 3, that "Ye must be born again." Why have you not been born again?
Them: (looking at each other, thinking….) Jesus was talking to Nicodemus, who went to Him at night.
Me: The reason he went at night was because he was a religious man who belonged to a religious organization that didn't believe Jesus was God (that would make him a member of a cult), and he was afraid of what the other members of his religious organization would say if he went to Jesus. It would be the same for you today, if you went to Jesus, be it in the daytime or if you were afraid of what others in your church would say – at night – it doesn't matter - He would tell you the same thing. "Ye must be born again." Why have you not been born again?

They then tried to bring up some crazy idea about the 144,000. I kept going back to being born again, and encouraged them to obey Jesus and be born again – and then said "bye".

I suspect they believe they are part of the 144,000, which is surprising to me. The fact is:

• The 144,000 is a specific number (early part of Revelation Chapter 7 talks about the 144,000, and then in verse 9 it talks about a "great multitude, which no man could number" – which clearly shows that John, through the Holy Spirit, was referring to exactly 144,000 people)
• In addition, if that isn't clear enough, 4 verses in Revelations 7 (verses 5-8) go through each of the twelve tribes and say that there are exactly 12,000 from each one. The Bible could have said "12,000 from each tribe", but instead if says "Of the tribe of Juda were sealed twelve thousand. Of the tribe of Reuben were sealed twelve thousand………."
  

The Bible is very clear: the 144,000 are 144,000 actual people. Never mind that they are redeemed just like everyone else (Jesus said there is only ONE way to be saved - John 14:6 - and the JW's are purposely ignoring that ONE way).

JW's currently report worldwide membership actively involved at 7 million, convention attendance at 12 million, and annual memorial attendance at 17 million (not sure what memorial attendence is?). If I were a JW and was one of millions that were hoping to be considered one of the actual 144,000, I would be very nervous.

But wait, the nervousness would increase based upon the fact that we are given at least 3 additional clues as to who qualifies to be part of the 144,000:
- They are Jews. Chapter 7:4 "of the children of Israel" (not only must the person be a Jew, but they must be from the proper tribe, as each tribe will only have 12,000).
- They are male (Revelation 7:4 "which were not defiled with women")
- They are virgins (Revelation 7:4 "for they are virgins")

What was odd was that of the JW's I spoke with: all four were women, one had a child (I'm assuming hers) along with her, and one was clearly not ethnically Jewish.

I suspect everything I said while encouraging them to obey Jesus and of their need to be born again fell on deaf ears (such is the danger of believing church doctrine that contradicts clear Bible teaching), but I pray that they will seriously think about the fact that Jesus did say that if we want to enter the kingdom of heaven WE MUST BE BORN AGAIN (John 3:3). Period.