Preaching.

The Jws believe that the main thing that sets them apart from all other world religions is the preaching work. They claim the following:

1) They are the only ones that preach about God's Kingdom.

2) They are the only ones preaching worldwide.

3) They preach from house to house, claiming that this is a christian requirement.

For them, no other religion is doing those three things. If you mention that other religions preach, they will ask if they are doing this worldwide. Or they will say that others are not as organized, which leaves the chance that many will not be preached to. The following quote encompasses all of this.

"Since the last days began in 1914, Jehovah's Witnesses have preached the good news of God's Kingdom throughout the world in the manner ordered by Jesus, namely, at the homes of the people. (Matthew 10:7, 12; Acts 20:20) Millions of Witnesses call on people in every nation to talk to them about the new world. This has led to your receiving this brochure, as the work of Jehovah's Witnesses includes printing and distributing billions of pieces of literature about God's Kingdom. Do you know of anyone else who preaches about God's Kingdom from house to house throughout the world? And Mark 13:10 shows that this preaching and teaching work must be done "first," before the end comes." Does God Care? p.30


First, let's see if other religions are preaching about God's Kingdom.

The 7th Day Adventists : "Our highest responsibility is to the church and its commission to preach the gospel of the kingdom to all the world ."

Born Again Christians: Here He lays down two conditions for a person to enter the Kingdom of God, without both being fulfilled a person is barred from God's Kingdom. Christ declared that everyone wanting to enter God's Kingdom must be born of water and born of the Spirit. (John 5:3)

Anabaptists: The purpose of the commands of the Lord Jesus is to teach us how to live in love, how to experience the love, joy and peace available in the Kingdom of God. These commands help us to live in Jesus and allow Jesus to live in us. (John 14:20, 17:20-23) We want to be like Paul who said, “I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me.” (Gal 2:20)

Catholics: Jesus taught constantly about "the kingdom of God".

This concept was at the center of his teaching and life. It should also form a central place in your own Catholic faith.

The list goes on and on, which proves a simple point. The JWs are not the only religion that preach about God's Kingdom. Although these teachings vary depending on what religion is describing the Kingdom, it is evident that they do in fact teach about the good news of God's Kingdom.

Next, we should see if they are preaching worldwide.

True, they might have a few people spread out in many different countries. But consider these statistics. (jwfacts.com)

•1032 Witnesses out of 145 million people in Pakistan
•A few thousand witnesses out of over 1.3 billion people in China.
•25,000 to 1,000,000,000 Indians.
•18,000 to 219,000,000 Indonesians

Is it reasonable to think that so few could possibly preach to each and every member in those countries? In fact, the overall statistics of JWs vs total population of the world is between 7 to 8 million vs about 7 billion. That is barely over 1 percent of the entire world's population responsible for preaching to everyone.

For the JWs to claim that they are fulfilling Matthew 24:14, that is exactly what they are required to do. Simply having a few members in a country and trying to pass that off as fulfillment is ridiculous. And it goes against the next thing we are going to consider.

Is it really a Christian requirement to preach from house to house? There is actually only one time that the phrase "house to house" is used in regards to the preaching work. And Jesus specifically states not to go from house to house.

Luke 10:1-7 "After these things the Lord designated seventy others and sent them forth by twos in advance of him into every city and place to which he himself was going to come. "Wherever YOU enter into a house say first, 'May this house have peace.' And if a friend of peace is there, YOUR peace will rest upon him. But if there is not, it will turn back to YOU. So stay in that house, eating and drinking the things they provide, for the worker is worthy of his wages. Do not be transferring from house to house.

The JWs use two other verses in an attempt to prove the house to house preaching work is a requirement. Acts 5:42, and also in Acts 20:20.

Considering Acts 20:20, it is easy to see what was meant here by reading from verse 17-20.

"However, from Mi·le´tus he sent to Eph´e·sus and called for the older men of the congregation. When they got to him he said to them: "YOU well know how from the first day that I stepped into the [district of] Asia I was with you the whole time, slaving for the Lord with the greatest lowliness of mind and tears and trials that befell me by the plots of the Jews; while I did not hold back from telling YOU any of the things that were profitable nor from teaching YOU publicly and from house to house."

Paul is talking about those that were already Christians.

Acts 5:42- Day after day, in the temple courts and from house to house, they never stopped teaching and proclaiming the good news that Jesus is the Christ.

Remember that in the very beginning, they had no churches to congregate at. So where do you think they met? In someone's house.

Jwfacts.com states: The Greek used at Acts 5:42 and Acts 20:20 is not Ek oikia eis oikia, but rather Kata oikos. For this reason most Bible translations render this "in every house", "at home" or "in their homes". The New World Translation uses the phrase "house to house" at Acts 20:20, though the footnote acknowledges that the Greek word means "in private houses".

Other verses verify this.

Romans 16:5 "and [greet] the congregation that is in their house."

Colossians 4:15 "Give my greetings to the brothers at La·o·di·ce´a and to Nym´pha and to the congregation at her house."


And not everyone was required to evangelize.

Ephesians 4:11-12 "And he gave some as apostles, some as prophets, some as evangelizers, some as shepherds and teachers, with a view to the readjustment of the holy ones, for ministerial work, for the building up of the body of the Christ."

Now go back and read those statistics again. If the JWs truly believe that they MUST preach to every house, even by their own standards, they are falling short of their own requirements, since they will never be able to cover that much ground anytime in the near future.

Coming from a religious group that has been teaching false doctrines to the public for decades, only to change them and then continue claiming that God is guiding them by means of the holy spirit, this is just one of many false claims made by the JWs.