Jehovah’s Witnesses and Mormons:
        A Guide to Marking Your Bible for Witnessing
                        James Walker

Does Revelation 14 teach that only 144,000 are going to
heaven as the Watchtower claims?  Was the Apostle Paul
recommending the Mormon practice of proxy baptism for the
dead in 1 Corinthians 15?

Christians are continually asking Watchman staff and
researchers these and countless similar questions.  It does
not take long for a tough question involving a difficult
passage to come up when believers are witnessing to Mormons
or Jehovah’s Witnesses.

This month’s Watchman Expositor provides a helpful guide for
Christians to make short notes in their Bibles covering many
key passages that are likely to surface when sharing with
Jehovah’s Witnesses and Mormons.  Beginning with Genesis and
ending with Revelation, this guide:

1. Quotes the biblical passage that is often used as a
“proof text” to support Watchtower or Mormon doctrine.

2. Provides the doctrine of belief that the Mormons or
Jehovah’s Witnesses are trying to “prove” with this Bible
passage (often with references to their literature).

3. Explains the passage, in context, from an evangelical
Christian position (often with cross-referenced passages to
help support or better explain the Christian position).

                    Where is That Verse?

“Be ready always to give an answer to every man that asketh
you” 1 Peter 3:15.

Probably every Christian who has witnesses to Jehovah’s
Witnesses or Mormons has experienced it!  They quote a verse
and ask you a question and then it happens – your mind goes
blank and you are left without an appropriate answer.

What was the context of that verse?  Where is that other
passage?  I can almost put my finger on it.

Then after they have left and it is too late, NOW you
remember the answer!

While we have all experienced the joy of the Holy Spirit
giving us the exact words to say when our minds fail us, we
do not want to ignore the Bible’s command to “study to show
ourselves approved” (2 Timothy 2:15).

Expositor readers are encouraged to use this guide to
familiarize themselves with some standard Watchtower and LDS
proof texts and to make appropriate notes in the margins of
their Bibles.

                          A Warning

I can tell you from past experience that if you prepare
yourself in the area of cult apologetics, the Lord will
probably give you an opportunity to use it!  You should know
that this guide does not contain all of the verses used by
the Watchtower or the LDS church, nor does it give the “only
true and complete” Christian answer to these verses.

This Expositor is not supposed to be a systematic theology
book or a Bible dictionary.  It is simply a guide to help
Christians begin to prepare themselves in this area.  This
guide, of course, does not provide everything one needs
biblically when witnessing.  The guide should be viewed as a
supplement to personal Bible study, the regular ongoing
teaching and preaching ministry of your church, and a
personal, biblical defense of the main doctrines o the
Christian faith.  These include the doctrine of the Trinity,
Deity of Christ, salvation by grace through faith,
inspiration and accuracy of the Bible, etc.

This month’s guide to marking your Bible is a different
focus for the Watchman Expositor.  If we receive a good
response from our readers, we are planning a special
expanded version of this approach in an upcoming Watchman
Expositor in 1993.  We hope to include other groups (such as
Armstronism, Christian Science, the New Age, etc.) along
with a more complete look at Watchtower and Mormon proof
texts.  So, if you found this issue both helpful and
enjoyable, be sure to let us know.