For some reason I thought of this story this morning, and I thought you should enjoy it too.
A Jehovah’s Witness once came to the door of Dr. Don Fortson, one of my seminary professors. Dr. Fortson invited him in and they began to talk. JW’s, of course, do not believe in the Trinity, and so mistranslate John 1:1 to read “the Word was a god.” So they’re going back and forth on this, and of course Dr. Fortson’s not giving up any ground. After a while things start to get a little heated, and the JW gets agitated and exclaims, “Don’t you know the doctrine of the Trinity is a heresy invented by men in the 4th century?”*
You have to feel kind of bad for the guy at this point. Because he probably was just working his way down the street, and knocked on Dr. Fortson’s door because it was the next one up. He had no idea he was about to go head-to-head with a seminary professor. And when he trotted out the fourth-century line (which probably works on lots of Christians), he definitely had no idea he was talking to a professor of church history.
But anyway, he blurts out the line, and Dr. Fortson (who’s one of the nicest, most friendly people in the world) calmly responds, “I hope you repent of that statement before you meet your maker.” At which point the JW stands up, points, and says “You go to hell!”
Dr. Fortson replies, “You can’t tell me that. You don’t even believe in hell.”
I think that was the end of the interview, and Dr. Fortson probably doesn’t get many knocks on the door anymore.
*This is the standard Dan Brown take on the Trinity, but oddly seems to be pretty much the view of Rob Bell as well (minus the “heresy” part, of course).
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