After writing about faith from a Muslim perspective, I was thinking about other perspectives that other religions have too. I started searching for my next interview and somehow ended up searching for someone from the Jehovah’s Witnesses.
Thankfully, after some failed attempts at interviews, I was introduced to Emily.
Emily is a friend of my roommate who was so kind as to agree to do an interview with me. Because she is in Iowa, we set up a time to do an over-the-phone interview.
When I first started talking to her, I could tell that she was passionate about what she believed in. She explained to me that Jehovah’s Witnesses are Christian and believe in the bible.
She also explained how her church believes in what God says that they should do. For example, they come together to remember Jesus’s death because Jesus told his disciples that they needed to remember his death.
During our conversation, I realized how important the scriptures are to the Jehovah’s Witnesses.
More than once a week, they take time to study their scriptures and learn everything they can about God’s words then discuss with others what they have learned. It surprised me how many scriptures Emily knew by heart.
It reminded me of the Muslim woman’s definition of faith. How she said that faith is “devotion towards God”. It made me curious as to Emily’s definition of faith is.
“Hebrews chapter 11 verse one gives a beautiful definition,” she said. “It says that faith is the assured expectation of things hoped for but evident demonstration of reality is so not be held.”
She continued to explain that there are two parts to this doctrine. The first being the “evident demonstration”.
“Faith is based on evidence,” Emily stated. “It’s not just blind faith or something that we have a vague idea of but each person can only have faith because they’ve been convinced they have evidence of what they believe.”
Then she moved on to the second part: “the reality is so not be held.”
“‘the reality is so not be held,’ is that our faith is in something real, like our faith in gravity. We can’t see gravity but we know it’s there because it has an effect on us.”
Emily finished, “And that’s similar to our belief in God and Jehovah God. All of the things that he has done in the Bible, we have proof. It’s a reality even though we can’t see him.”
As Emily spoke, I tried to understand as best as I could. I understood that faith has evidence even if we can’t see the effect it has on us.
What I still didn’t know was what faith was in her eyes. I asked her how she expresses her faith.
Emily explained how in Romans 10:10, it talks about how faith moves us to speak. The biggest part about being a Jehovah’s Witness is that they “do witness about Jehovah.”
She said, “It’s important for us to share our faith with others because that’s really the work that Jesus wants us to do.”
“His last words, before he went back to heaven, were to go and make disciples,” Emily continued. “So an obligation that we are happy to fulfill is to share our faith with others in whatever way we can.
“So we try to help each other out and show love. And that is the basis of what Jesus did his whole life through, and then even his death.”
Emily shared another scripture with me, John 13:34 and 35. She told how Jesus told his disciples that he was leaving a new commandment and that commandment was to “show self-sacrificing love”. That they were not to only love their neighbors as thyself but to go one step further.
“Basically, there are many ways, but our faith moves us to action,” Emily said. “And so one of those actions would be are sharing what we know from the Bible with others in our ministry. And then the other action would be showing love to all people, but especially those in our congregation.”
When Emily finished teaching me, I knew that I found that definition.
“So, faith is action?” I asked.
“Yeah. Faith is action, exactly.”
Emily knows that faith is action. She has lived it many times.
There was one story that she wanted to share her experience with faith.
She told me that she had just barely moved to Iowa but in April she had met some friends that were learning Chinese to be able to teach the Chinese people that lived in their area.
Emily wanted to learn Chinese but she felt unsure about moving. She knew that she was needed where she was so she was hesitant.
A couple of weeks later, it was announced that there was going to be a class to learn Chinese. Her friends encouraged her to apply for the class. She prayed and studied her scriptures to know whether she should or not. She felt like Jehovah God was saying that it was okay.
She noted, “one thing that really convinced me was the Apostle Paul when he was in his ministry. At one point, he was told to step over into Macedonia, which was an Asian land that nobody had preached before. I had known that account but I learned that at the time he was leaving behind an area that also needed help.”
Emily learned that Paul was needed where he was, just like her, but he was also needed in this new land as well. She said, “I had evidence that I knew this direction and Holy Spirit would help. I would be blessed if I did this, and I would know what he wanted me to do.”
It was still an overwhelming decision for her to decide whether she was going to help out here, or whether she was going to go. Emily decided that she would move.
Emily said, “once I made that decision that I was going to do it, I felt like this huge load was lifted off of me.
“And in so many ways, looking back, it was great. It was good for me. And I feel like I am needed here.”
Emily had faith that she was doing the right thing and because of it, she feels the blessings around her.
Her definition of faith and her own faith has taught me a few things as well.
I have learned that I could do a lot better with my own scripture study, but most importantly I learned that while faith can be a devotion towards God, it can also mean action.
While Emily is a great example of action, she also knows that it is through that action that faith is strengthened. She has shared with me one last scripture that she thinks is applicable.
James 2:26, “Just as the body without spirit is dead, so also faith without works is dead.”
