CULTPSYC.001
"Who's That Knocking At My Door?"
Written For CfC by Gary L. Tittle

Door-to-Door witnessing is an experience for all  believers;  and
yet  there is a "door" experience that many believers don't quite
know what to do about.  It usually happens that you open the door
to be greeted by two people representing themselves to be  either
Bible Students,  or Christian Missionaries with a desire to share
literature and information with anyone.

My favorite visits are those of the Jehovah's Witnesses.  In this
series I am going to present to you verbatim the  information
from the JW witnessing/answers manual and let you be the one to
do the scripture work to set up your own replies.  In addition, I
will offer suggestions on asking them INSIDE and setting up a
Bible Study as a cult ministry.

In addition, there are a number of books that will be necessary
to  obtain.   The best place to obtain them?   Directly from  the
representative who comes to your door!  You will be instructed
what  to  mark,  how to mark it (working from a fresh  copy),  to
present  the claims of the gospel from their own  literature,  in
such  a way as to either stop their visits or actually  win  them
away from the cult to the LORD.

In  this  series  we will also deal with the question  of  Mormon
Missionaries  and  how to deal with the questions that  arise  to
stir you to win them to the LORD also.

I  suggest that you take a look at the file "What Is A Cult?"  on
the CfC download area before you proceed, if you have not already
downloaded it and done so.  Also, you need to study "A Catalog of
Cults" from this board.

First of all,  Who IS that knocking at your door?  It is a sinner
that  Christ  has  died for who has fallen into the  trap  of  an
authoritarian structure with it's basis in doctrinal error.  Some
of the language that you will encounter will present what appears
to be "strong scriptural argument".   The key to unraveling  this
argument  structure  is the examination of it's very own  points.
For example,  it has been stated to me by an "authority" that the
Book  of  Mormon  has  gone to press time  and  time  again  with
manuscript errors for over 80 years with the same errors up until
1982 when they were finally corrected.

In actuality,  the purport for the perpetuation of an error  over
80 years is NOT a bad one.  In Acts of the Apostles, for example,
the  error  "EASTER"  in place of the  greek  word  "PASCHA",  or
passover has been printed in the KJV since 1611.   The particular
error  that I am referring to however would have the word "white"
be  rendered "pure"...quite a linguistic feat!   (See the  modern
1982 and forward rendition of 2 Nephi 30:6,  compared to that  of
editions from 1930 and back).
Just as fundementalist Christianity has it's apologists,  so does
the  major  cult groups of today.   One of my favorite  works  of
apologetics  goes  to a two 6 hour VHS tape presentation done  by
the Unification Church, in an effort ot "promote understanding of
the goals of Sun Myung Moon among the churches".

While  Sun  Myung  Moon  was in Federal  Prison  for  income  tax
invasion,  this epic video presentation was mailed to pastors all
over  the  United States as an effort to clean up the image  that
the   Unification   Church   was   suffering   from   after   the
incarceration.

A look at the literature of the cult groups reveals that it is of
sufficently  high  quality  and low expense  to  promote  extreme
circulation of the material.   Watchtower Bible and Tract Society
has  one of the most modern printing plants in the entire  world.
It  works at a furious pace churning out the  Watchtower,  Awake,
single fold tracts, and hard-bound volumes, all of which are sold
or given away door-to-door in one of the most succesful exercises
in mass advertising known.

One  point that should be made here is that such efforts are  not
confined to the mainstream cult groups.  However, sticking to the
mainstream  cult  groups for now,  Bookcraft  and  Deseret  Press
publish  titles  other than those of strictly  doctrinal  nature.
Such  publishing (the aforementioned two presses are Mormon owned
and  operated)  ventures that mix general titles  with  doctrinal
titles  stand  a far better chance to  place  doctrinal  catalogs
within homes in the "LDS missionary field".

Case in point, Ambassador College Press, in Pasadena, California,
of  the  Worldwide Church of God,  publishes  about  the  highest
quality  slick  magazine  available.   The Plain Truth  and  it's
sister  publications make offers within articles  for  additional
information.   As a general rule, you should know that the Church
of God meets privately in halls and on the Sabbath, as opposed to
on Sunday; also that they consider themselves the "true church".

The  WWCoG perpetuates the innocuous doctrine of  Anglo-Israelism
as  a  clencher to infatuate it's members.   (See Catalog of  the
Cults).   In my collection of Anglo-Israelite literature is  some
of  the  most fascinating theories and ethnological studies  that
anyone could possibly hope to read, but nonetheless; for the most
part the theories of the Anglo-Israelite are based on conjecture.

In  this introduction we have taken a brief look at  major  cults
and  mentioned the resources that are used by them.   In the next
unit  we will take examples from a field guide used by  Jehovah's
Witnesses in door-to-door work.  As we look at the "questions and
answers" I hope that you will see that it is a carefully  planned
ministry that is designed to lead the person who answers the door
into  finally  coming  to Kingdom Hall and becoming  a  Jehovah's
Witness.
(NEXT FILE: CULTPSYC.002)
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