Only the one who goes from house to house in the sense of Matthew 28, the last verses (18-20), is a true Christian

by Eddie

First of all, the Bible text. In Matthew, chapter 28, verses 19 to 20, Christ gives the following instruction:

The New World translation of the WTS reflects this as follows:

Go therefore and make disciples of men of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to keep all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you every day until the completion of the system of things.

In Acts chapter 20, verse 20 the following is said:

The New World translation of the WTS reflects this as follows:

I have not hesitated to give you all that was useful and to teach you publicly and from house to house.

The Gospel of Mark, chapter 6, verse 7, we read:

The same text is read as follows in the NWT of the WTS:

Then he called the twelve to himself, and he began to send them two and two each, and he began to give them power over the unclean spirits.

The last text given here is the one from the Gospel of Matthew chapter 24 of verse 14. It is written there:

The NWT says:

And this good news of the kingdom shall be preached throughout all the inhabited earth, to all nations for a testimony; and then shall come the end.

Jehovah's Witnesses / WTS claim to be the only faith community that fulfills the verses quoted above by sending their own disciples to two from house to house to preach the good news.

Let us take a closer look at this statement and compare it with the word of God, the texts quoted above:

From the biblical account of Acts 20, verse 20, we can see that Paul did not hold back from saying anything useful, both publicly and in (private) homes or houses. The term "in the houses" (or "apartments", which is completely identical in the sense, according to modern usage), is used in the WTS as "from house to house". One might think that a trifle is the freedom of the translator to choose which words to use here. But far from it! The whole thing only makes sense if one adds the above-mentioned statement that the JW are the only ones who go from house to house in order to missionize.

Why?

Ray Franz, nephew of Fred Franz (former president of the WTS) and former member of the board of directors of the WTS in the headquarters in Brooklyn, says in his two books "In Search of Christian Freedom" and "The Conflict of Conscience", which he wrote after his expulsion from the headquarters, that in the translation work of the Bible into English (and other languages) word constructions were formed again and again which seemed useful to the doctrine (thus the dogmas) of the WTS. Since JZ move from house to house, the phrase "and in (private) houses" became a "house to house". This is a first-degree falsification of meaning. Here the original meaning of the text is quite clearly bent, towards an already existing doctrine, in order to support it. It couldn't be more cheeky.

There are two strange things about it:

First, the study version of the WTS-NWT gives a hint, by footnote, that one can also translate "from house to house" with "private houses". Question on this: Why not just like that – right! – but via the detour with the footnote? Answer: See above, just explained, the thing with the conscious change of meaning and thus misleading.

Secondly, in its interlinear translation of the NT Greek – English, the NWT writes in the foreword that something like this must not be done, that a translation should be bent towards an already existing doctrine and that it has taken great care to avoid such a thing. This hint leads our own procedures ad absurdum.

A further characteristic of this dogma of the WTS is the text from the Gospel of Mark, chapter 6, verse 7, which the WTS also bends for itself. There it is said, as we read above, that Jesus sent out his disciples to two. Now the WTS does the same, sends its members out in pairs (at least in most cases) as well, and they then have to report to their headquarters (via the detour: local assembly (= congregation), then headquarters of the respective country, then headquarters in the USA). What was once a direct order of Jesus to his disciples, in a concrete situation, now claims the "organization of God" for itself, in general. Is it the "mouthpiece" or "channel" of Jehovah, allegedly of the Old Testament God? A formulation, by the way, which one also does not find in the Bible in a suggestive way.

It is not said here in these treatises that the door-to-door sermon service is wrong of its own accord. On the contrary. It is a very good and praiseworthy method to reach people to fulfill the commandment of Christ. However, it is very important to make sure that there are no false doctrines or dogmas. Other communities also preach from house to house, such as the Mormons. The content of their sermons is written on another sheet of paper. In this respect, smaller, local congregations in most cases also fulfill this instruction, even though they do not necessarily evangelize from door to door, but, for example, set up stalls in pedestrian zones and, if they are interested, contact those interested – see in general Matthew, chapter 24, verse 14.