Mike Felker Interview Transcript
The following transcript is from an Apologetics 315 interview with Mike Felker. Original audio here. Transcript index here. If you enjoy transcripts, please consider supporting, which makes this possible.
BA: Hello. This is Brian Auten of Apologetics 315. Today I am speaking with Mike Felker. Mike is a Christian who blogs on apologetics. And one of his special interest areas in apologetics has been interaction with Jehovah’s Witnesses, both in a personal context and online. The purpose of our interview today is to explore some of the beliefs of Jehovah’s Witnesses, the doctrines of the Watchtower Tract & Bible Society, and how Christians can better approach the task of communicating to those within this group.
BA: Well, Mike, I was anxious to speak with you, as recently I had the opportunity to talk to someone within the Jehovah’s Witnesses, and they were out distributing their literature. And throughout the whole conversation I had with them, which happened to last two hours or more in the park, I thought, “Wouldn’t it be great if my friend Mike Felker was here?”
The first thing I started studying was the whole issue of creation and evolution. I spent a couple of years doing that. And that really was the result of taking a lot of different science classes in college; so very interested in that. And I’ve really studied a whole array of apologetics, not really anything dealing with Jehovah’s Witnesses until maybe the past several days. But that’s basically my life in a nutshell as far as apologetics goes.
Now, you described it correctly when you said that they cease to exist. And that goes for believers and unbelievers, or Jehovah’s Witnesses and non-Jehovah’s Witnesses, I should say. So when a person dies, whether they believe what Jehovah’s Witnesses believe or not, they cease to exist. This means they don’t – their soul does not go to heaven. They just cease to exist. There’s nothing there. There’s no consciousness after death.
That was probably my experience with most Jehovah’s Witnesses. And if you’re on the Internet, you may not get Jehovah’s Witnesses that humble. But most of the time in my experience, I got Jehovah’s Witnesses that were pretty humble and they were able to admit that. So that’s lesson one that could really go a long way in your interactions with Jehovah’s Witnesses is to be humble. Have humility. Admit it when you’re wrong. There’s no point in going in there with a prideful and haughty attitude. That’s not going to go very far with Jehovah’s Witnesses.