One or Three? the Witnesses and Me

By V.R. Williams

I just stood there. Not only were their beliefs completely foreign to anything I'd heard before, but they had so much evidence. I had always heard that they don't have a leg to stand on, so why was I the legless one? Things they'd said and questions they'd asked were still circling around in my head days after their visit; round and round they went, looking for a place to rest. Wasn't I the one who was supposed to leave them with questions they couldn't answer?

Looking back now, it's clear what happened. While the Jehovah's Witnesses were well schooled by The Watchtower in what I was likely to say and how they should reply, I didn't have a clue what they would say much less how to reply. It's different now, though. The Witnesses seldom come to my home anymore, but when they do knock on the door, I'm prepared. Showing them one of the places where The Watchtower and Bible disagree is all it takes. They don't stay.

One or Three? The Witnesses and Me has been written to share what I've discovered over the years about the Trinity and how I found my way through the maze of information the Witnesses have on the subject. My hope and prayer is that this will help others prepare for their knocks.

Hopefully many will be able to come together and help the Witnesses see where The Watchtower and Bible disagree.

• Language: English
• Publisher: WestBow Press
• Release date: Oct 8, 2015
• ISBN: 9781512713282

V.R. Williams

The author is nobody in particular, living a quiet life in sunny Queensland, Australia.

Book preview

Copyright © 2015 V.R. Williams.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced by any means, graphic, electronic, or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, taping or by any information storage retrieval system without the written permission of the author except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.

Scripture taken from the New King James Version. Copyright © 1979, 1980, 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Scripture taken from the Amplified Bible, copyright © 1954, 1958, 1962, 1964, 1965, 1987 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission.

WestBow Press

A Division of Thomas Nelson & Zondervan

1663 Liberty Drive

Bloomington, IN 47403

www.westbowpress.com

1 [phone]

Because of the dynamic nature of the Internet, any web addresses or links contained in this book may have changed since publication and may no longer be valid. The views expressed in this work are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher, and the publisher hereby disclaims any responsibility for them.

Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Thinkstock are models, and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.

Certain stock imagery © Thinkstock.

ISBN: 978-1-5127-1329-9 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-5127-1328-2 (e)

Library of Congress Control Number: 2015915545

WestBow Press rev. date: 10/8/2015

CONTENTS

Acknowledgements

The Beginning

Before We Start

Some Milk, Please

How Can One God Be A Trinity?

Don’t Take Another’s Word, Take God’s Word

Where’d He Go?

The Same Lord

Did We Believe In Vain?

And The Word Was…

Who? What?

Tips

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

This book would not be the same without the unselfish help of those around me. Each in their own way has given time from their busy lives to guide me with everything from Is it understandable yet? to Internet problems. For this, I am truly grateful.

THE BEGINNING

M ost of my life I went to church, listened to the teacher, came home, and forgot it all. There was always so much to do – school, work, family, and so on. There was really no time or need to find out why I believed what I did. The people in my life either didn’t talk much about God, or they had the same basic beliefs. When I had questions, there were always people more than happy to help with answers. Besides, my personality didn’t easily reach out to others. With no real reason to delve deeper, I was comfortable.

Then one day two nice ladies knocked on my door; they were Witnesses. Normally I would have asked Dad to speak to them, but by this time, the good Lord had taken him home. Being the only one available was a first for me, and I wasn’t sure what to say. We did end up chatting for a few minutes, but after showing the ladies John 3: 16, I quickly sent them on their way. They were part boomerang though because they kept coming back.

The weather was hot on one of their return visits. Feeling sorry for the poor women, I offered them a drink, which they accepted. Somewhere along the way, we started talking about the Trinity. Now, I had never really spoken with anyone who didn’t believe in the Trinity. I did recall a couple of Scriptures – John 1: 1 and 1 John 5–7 – proving the concept was in the Bible. For those of you who are laughing – yes, I really was that clueless.

My guests then politely pulled the rug out from under me. They told me how John 1: 1 was translated wrong, and scholars had found 1 John 5: 7 was added to the Bible at a later date. My proof went poof. Then they became curious, asking questions like, How can Jesus be God when no one has seen God? Unable to give them any kind of reply, I started to wonder why I believed in the Trinity. Looking back on this time, I feel sad. There were plenty of opportunities to find answers for all these questions, but I had no interest.

After they left, I searched for more information to give them the next time around. When they returned I felt prepared, but once again they told me how Scriptures were misinterpreted, how scholars quoted were incorrect, and so on. After a few visits like this, I started to feel like we were playing Piggy in the Middle, and I was in the middle. Both sides of the debate couldn’t be right, yet on each side were sincere people, confident in the scholars they referenced and what they believed. It didn’t make sense. How could opposing answers about something so basic as God come from one Bible?

After a few months of debate, my job took me to another city. Shortly before the move, the women gave me a booklet called Should You Believe in the Trinity? After the move I had plenty of time on my hands, so I started reading it. Eternity was too long to be wrong, so now I just wanted to know God. At first I noticed mostly little details that weren’t quite right, but I couldn’t discard everything the booklet said, so I kept reading. Then it dawned on me. These little details were adding up to big details. I finally concluded there was only one way to be certain – check for myself.

Putting aside the booklet, I took out my Bible and began searching for passages about God. At first this was hard. I didn’t really know where