Swiss Priest Fails to Intimidate Witness

TO BEGIN with, the witness for Jehovah inadvertently called at the home of a priest. Promptly this clergyman began to cross-examine him as though he were a prosecuting attorney.

Said the priest: “Who sends you from door to door?”

The pioneer preacher replied: “Surely you know it is Christ that sends his disciples to preach the Kingdom!”

“Have you a permit of any kind?” next queried the priest.

“Oh yes,” replied the witness, “the same as Jesus gave his disciples to preach his kingdom to the uttermost parts of the earth!”

With this the priest moved to another line of attack. “Well,” said he, “do you recognize the Hierarchy?”

“Which hierarchy?” questioned the witness in reply.

“The Catholic Hierarchy, of course,” said the priest.

To this the witness of Jehovah stated, “The Bible teaches that the church is built up by Christ as its head and foundation cornerstone and with him his twelve apostles. There is no record of any other hierarchy.”

Smugly and confidently the clergyman proceeded, saying, “Of course, you don’t know the Scriptures. Did not Jesus Christ say to Peter: ‘On this rock I will build my church’? Accordingly, the pope is the successor of the apostle Peter and the Catholic Hierarchy alone is authorized to preach.”

The witness was not taken aback by this line of argument, though, for he quickly countered: “These words were spoken in the Aramaic or Syrian tongue. In this language they mean that the stone of which Jesus spoke applied to Jesus himself and not to Peter. Moreover, Peter confirms this himself in his first letter, 1Pe chapter 2, verse 4, showing that Jesus is the stone. But was it not Emperor Constantine, in the fourth century after Christ, who claimed to be Peter’s successor?”

The priest, embarrassed at this point, once again switched to another line of attack: “Have you a permit to go from door to door? I shall telephone the town president.”

“Well, then,” said the witness, “you will be acting just like the religious leaders who denounced Jesus to Pilate.”

A week later this pioneer minister returned to that same village and most people advised him that the priest had warned them against him. But others, eager to learn, accepted literature, and already they are making themselves free by a knowledge of the truth. Five regular Kingdom preachers have come forth from this village to join in the witness work.

Every tongue that shall rise against thee in judgment thou shalt condemn. This is the heritage of the servants of Jehovah.—Isaiah 54:17, Am. Stan. Ver.