@MadCornishBiker Said 
Very good question. How long is a piece of string?
That's something no-one can ever know because it varies from person to person. Try asking any JW who calls on you about how they came into God's organisation, and you will get a number of different answers. I doubt you will come across any who came in the first time they were spoken to.
Such is the influence of Satan's system most of the time people don't listen, and if they don't listen they aren't informed, bit more often than not something happens in their lives that makes them stop and think.
Sometimes it is something simple, sometimes it is something very painful that has made them ask serious questions about life, questions that only the bible can provide satisfying answers to.
There are very important scriptures to consider, as welll as very important questions.
Ask a Police negotiator when he or she gives up trying to talk someone down off a roof or bridge when they are threatening to kill themselves? I think you will find that the answer is that they don't stop until either that one has come back down, whether it be the preferred route or the quick, and fatal one.
It is the same for Witnesses. They don'y give up on trying to save people's lives until there is no alternative; and it is a matter of saving lives, not just this current pale imitation, but the Real Life that is to come.
People do change their minds. There would be very few Witnesses if people didn't. I probably wouldn't have been one myself, because I was far too busy listening to the detractors to bother finding out the truth, like many on here are. However something happened that changed my mind. In fact I was basically forced to look into it by a challenge, and pride. I could rarely resist a challenge.
And that is where the important scripture I mentioned earlier comes in.
Why do people not listen? Well like it or not we are all subject to the influences of Satan and his system. So why do people change their minds?
The answer is a lot simpler than you may think.
(2 Corinthians 4:1-4)?That is why, since we have this ministry according to the mercy that was shown us, we do not give up; 2 but we have renounced the underhanded things of which to be ashamed, not walking with cunning, neither adulterating the word of God, but by making the truth manifest recommending ourselves to every human conscience in the sight of God. 3 If, now, the good news we declare is in fact veiled, it is veiled among those who are perishing, 4 among whom the god of this system of things has blinded the minds of the unbelievers, that the illumination of the glorious good news about the Christ, who is the image of God, might not shine through.
Satan does blind people's minds because he does not want them to come to an accurate knowledge of the truth about God and Christ, hence my "battles on here with those who "............have a zeal for God; but not according to accurate knowledge" (Romans 10:2) especially now. He knows he is condemned and like a spoiled child who has broken his own "toy" he is going round trying to destroy everyone else's so they can't enjoy them either.
So what chance do we have>? Well the simple answer is that if God sees any hope in you He will remove that veil. Maybe not when you would like Him to, but at a time#which He feels is best for you. What criteria does he use to chose amongst us all. (John 4:23-24) "23 Nevertheless, the hour is coming, and it is now, when the true worshipers will worship the Father with spirit and truth, for, indeed, the Father is looking for suchlike ones to worship him. 24 God is a Spirit, and those worshiping him must worship with spirit and truth".
That is why we need to ask ourselves, with brutal honesty, do we really have honest hearts that accept truth however painful, or are we, more likely, looking for "truths" that we like? If we are truly honest hearted ones God will open our eyes as and when He sees fit.
So earlier you conceded that you just want them informed, and now they are not informed until they agree with you, so basically, you admit hounding them until they agree with you or die. So basically informed decision means in agreement with you. Gotcha
Mar 16, 2012 @ 17:35:13
