onewithhim wrote: ↑Tue Jan 09, 2024 5:51 pm
Difflugia wrote: ↑Mon Jan 08, 2024 11:32 am
onewithhim wrote: ↑Sun Jan 07, 2024 6:13 pmYou feel that way even though Jesus himself went door-to-door
If he did, it wasn't recorded in the Bible.
Yes, Jesus instructed his disciples to go door-to-door in the Bible.
He didn't. Your references don't mean what you want them to.
onewithhim wrote: ↑Sun Jan 07, 2024 6:13 pm"Shortly afterwards he went journeying from city to city and from village to village, preaching and declaring the good news of the kingdom of God. And the twelve were with him." (Luke 8:1)
This is the closest you're going to get, but it's still not door-to-door, Witness style. Luke's Jesus went from village to village with his disciples, but the context a few verses later (8:4) make it clear that he was speaking to a crowd outside that followed them:
Now when a large crowd had gathered together with those who went to him from city to city, he spoke by means of an illustration:
Speaking to people that come to them (Jesus, disciples, or Witnesses) is how it should be. I've no problem with that.
Your Matthew reference has Jesus telling the disciples to find a single house with someone worthy and stay there while they preach. Again, not door-to-door preaching. You bolded that yourself in your quoted verses. An interesting side note is that your quoted verse is part of Matthew's Great Commission, which explicitly omits gentiles.
The quote in Acts isn't about door-to-door preaching. The phrase you have bolded and underlined is a Greek idiom,
κατ' οἶκον, that just means "at home" (check the
lexicon entry in the lower left corner of the linked page if you want) and refers to the homes of the Christians themselves. It's the same phrase used in Acts 2:46 that obviously means the same thing. I've no problem with Witnesses gathering in each others' homes, either, whether it's to preach or break bread.
"And every day in the temple and from house to house they continued without letup teaching and declaring the good news about the Christ, Jesus." (Acts 5:42)