Sunday, June 19, 2011

Going Nowhere

A few months back a pair of Jehovah Witnesses came to my door. I invited them in and we had a very pleasant conversation. I was enjoying the points they brought up because it made me research and study my faith on a deeper level. They came a second time and again, had a great conversation. It was interesting seeing how a simple scripture can be interpreted in a completely different way. I am so thankful for the restoration and how it has cleared so many things up! However, they came a third time and I almost felt attacked.

I could handle the little comments about how they "only study the word of God, not the Book of Mormon that Joseph Smith wrote" (which I totally corrected on the spot), but this time they crossed the line when they actually printed out discrepancies between the Book of Mormon and the Bible which therefore voids the validity of the Book of Mormon. Discrepancies that don't even make sense! The problem is, I don't know the scriptures well enough to compete with the knowledge they have of the Bible. They know everything about the Bible. I am envious. This has really motivated me to get to know the scriptures more, but is it healthy to keep having them come here? I'm afraid that I will keep looking like an idiot and giving the church a bad name. For example, they don't believe in pre-mortal existence or a spirit world after death. We do. So, they bring up bible scriptures like Ecclesiastes 9:5 and Psalm 146:4 that I have no clue how to explain except with the Book of Mormon which they don't believe in. Now I look like an idiot and they think they have caught me in a religious discrepancy. I know there has to be an explanation here, but I don't know what it is.

Obviously, we can't even get to common ground...so this is going nowhere. Now what? If I tell them to stop coming then I look like they I'm asking them to stop coming because I don't want to be proven wrong anymore. I've bore my testimony over and over, but that's all mumbo jumbo to them I think. Where do I go from here?