I can’t tell you how excited I am to have been given this opportunity to debate one of Jehovah’s Witnesses in audible format. To be honest, I don’t think this has ever happened in history whereby such a debate was recorded and made available. JW’s are usually quite shy to ever give a second thought to such an opportunity for various reasons. I’m hoping this debate will encourage more JW’s to consider doing debates like these for the sake of the audience. I have no desire to debate to “win” or anything like that. My desire is to provide the audience with both sides of the arguments to allow an opportunity for them to evaluate and decide for themselves which position can best stand up to scrutiny. Don’t get me wrong, I don’t think a debate is sufficient in accomplishing this task. However, I do think it provides an excellent educational experience whereby one can begin thinking more critically about a particular topic and subsequently venture into further study. Furthermore, I hope this debate will prove that non-JW’s and JW’s can get together and discuss these matters in a respectful manner.
Thankfully, my friend Chris Date has agreed to moderate this exchange on his podcast (which I highly recommend subscribing to!). Because I wanted the arguments from both sides to be the best they could be, we agreed to a modular format whereby each section is pre-recorded and posted accordingly. I’d really like to use this format for my future debates, as it will prevent either side from being unprepared, nervous, or whatever excuse they might make. The only thing that was “live” in this debate will have been the cross examination section and audience Q&A.
Anyway, as posted on the Theopologetics website:
Debate topic: “All Christians in the New Covenant will live forever in heaven with Christ.” Fred Torres is a Jehovah’s Witness and affirms. My friend Mike Felker of The Apologetic Front denies. Fred and Mike have been recording a modular debate; they each recorded and sent me their opening statements and rebuttals separately over a span of weeks, with live cross-examination and listener-submitted Q&A. This episode contains part 1 of the debate, including opening statements and first rebuttals. A future episode will contain part 2′s cross-examination. Please email me your questions to Fred and Mike for the third installment’s second rebuttals, Q&A and closing statements.
The first section of the debate can be downloaded HERE.
