I am a Christian and although i do not have strong beliefs other religions have always interested me.. What they believe, how they pray etc. In this case i want to know what Jahovas Witneses believe.. All i know is they dont celebrate Easter or Christmas. Why? and what do they follow? please can somone fufil my curiosity?
2006-07-20 12:53:49 · 28 answers · asked by danny.edwards 2 in Society & Culture ➔ Religion & Spirituality
I am one of Jehovah's Witnesses and I can tell you that the only place you will find the truth about what we believe is to go to our web site: www.watchtower.org or contact your local congregation of Jehovah's Witnesses and ask for a bible study (they are free, at a time convenient to you and you can stop it whenever you want). We believe that Satan is trying to stop people learning the truth from Jehovah's Witnesses and so he influences people to spread hatred and lies about us, therefore to get the right understanding of Jehovah's Witnesses you must go direct to them.
A few quick noters though:
1. We believe we are true Christians but choose to call ourselves Jehovah's Witnesses to distinguish the difference.
2. Yes we have our own bible The New World Transalation of the Holy Scriptures but it is practically the same as the King James Version and is true to the original writings - it is not some strange made up book and it is available to all who want to check it!
3. WE ARE NOT A CULT! Please look up the definition of a cult in the dictionary. We are not a small group of fanatical people. We are a large organisation of over 6 million people world wide. We are supported through voluntary donations and ALL FUNDS are used to further the worldwide preaching and teach work. There are no persons in our organisation that are paid a wage to do their 'job' we all work out of love for Jehovah God.
4. We are a peace loving people who live according to the law of the land as long as it doesn't ask us to go against the laws of Jehovah God.
5. Our preaching work is a command from Jehovah and from Jesus (he spent his earthly life preaching also!) as it is a LIFE SAVING work. We believe that when we call on people we are trying to save their lives.
6. We believe that Jehovah has chosen 144,000 from mankind to go to heaven to be priests alongside Jesus. These will rule over mankind until the earth is returned to how Jehovah originally intended and then all things will be given back to Jehovah. Appart from the 144,000 the bible identifies 'a great crowd' of people that are declared righteous by Jehovah who will be saved at Armageddon but will live forever on the earth, turning it back into a paradise and living in peace, love and unity without sickness and death.
I hope this helps for now but please speak to your local Jehovahs Witnesses for more info and more indepth.
2006-07-20 22:35:03 · answer #1 · answered by Steph 2 · 7⤊ 5⤋
I understand. I would strongly recommend reading the Holy Bible first. Start in the New Testament with John...
The New Testament explains the Old Testament too. So, I would start there. Revelation is mostly symbolic so I would skip that until you understand the symbolism in the Old Testament. ((Just a suggestion)).
There's an awesome book to read up on "Religions A - Z" by James Beverley...Great insight!
They don't celebrate Easter because they don't believe in the resurrection the way Orthodox Christians do. They don't celebrate Christmas because they think that in the Bible only the evil Kings / Caesars birthdays are mentioned.
Also...they believe that the Father, Son and Holy Spirit are satanic. That alone told me they are a false religion.
Oh and they (JW) believe that Jesus died on a stake, not the Cross...
They also believed at one time that only 144,000 Jehovah's Witnesses were getting into heaven. Then their membership went above 144,000...and they backed off that. They also have predicted (and gave the specific years) over the last century that the end of the world was coming...
I read up on different religions out of interest too...and I'm glad I did. It reinforced what I knew to be true before I read up on them. That my relationship with Jesus Christ is right on the money. Religion is just that...religion.
Religion is man's way of trying to reach God.
Relationship is God's way of reaching us, through Jesus Christ.
Grace to you and God Bless!
2006-07-20 12:58:32 · answer #2 · answered by Salvation is a gift, Eph 2:8-9 6 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Jehovah's witnesses follow the bible and its principals very closely.
Easter and Christmas are NOT christian celebrations but pagan ones. They were introduced by the churches to attract more people. Christmas for example was originally the Winter Solstice. a pagan ceremony to celebrate the new sun - it took place round about the 21st december. the churches introduced the whole celebration of the birth of christ to make christianity more appealing. The exact date of christ's birth is unknown but it was most definitely not in winter - for one thing the shephards would not be out watching their flocks in such a cold season!
Other traditions at christmas - such as xmas trees - also have pagan roots (pardon the pun). In old times people would go into the woods and hang trinkets and such from the tree branches in order to ward off evil spirits, hence today the decorated xmas tree.
2006-07-20 13:04:21 · answer #3 · answered by headcage 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋
I have had problems with Jehovah Witnesses in the past, so I don't have much good to say about them. It so happens that the first problems I encountered with them was a neighbor of mine that her daughter married a Jehovah Witness and about two weeks later, the daughter stopped visiting her. This went on for months and months. She gave birth to a baby girl and didn't tell her mother about the birth. My neighbor had to go after her daughter to know how she was. Jehovah Witnesses tend to separate families if other family members don't belong to their religion. I couldn't believe this until my niece converted to the Jehovah Witness religion after her divorce. My niece would visit our home, with her husband and their daughters at least two times a month for many years and after she converted to the Jehovah Witnesses, about ten years went by before we knew of her again and it was because her grandmother (my mother) had died. At this moment that I am writing, its been about 8 years since I last saw her at her grandmother's funeral. She doesn't even call or visit her mother who was an alcoholic, but is not anymore for the past 8 years or brothers or any other family member that belong to another religion. I have also known of other friends that have had the same problems as I had with them. Jehovah Witnesses don't believe that Jesus Christ is God and other Christian beliefs. I believe in unity of Christians of all faiths, Jehovah Witnesses are the exception.
2006-07-20 13:21:06 · answer #4 · answered by ricardocoav 4 · 0⤊ 0⤋
a) Jahovah's witnesses believed that the personal name of God is Jehovah, which is not true, why? there's no letter "J" equivalent in the hebrew alphabet. The origin name of God is in Tetragrammaton four letters "YHWH" or "YHVH" no vowels on it and the exact pronunciation is not known today, and it was lost.
b) Jehovah's witness do not allow blood transfusion.
c) Jehovah's witness do not salute any national flag nor sing national anthem.
d) They believed that this earth we have now is the paradise that will be rewarded from god to its members through massive reconstruction, flattening through bulldozers, and building constructions. the members will live forever never dies and family generations to generations continue to live forever. This belief came after Jehovah's witness failed a series of pridictions regarding christ return to earth.
e) and many more....
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2006-07-20 13:41:17 · answer #5 · answered by jocel_gomez 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Walter Martin lays it out in clear, understandable language in his book, Kingdom of the Cults. The main thing you need to understand is that Jehovah's Witnesses absolutely deny the concept of Jesus as Lord.
Shamefully, many Jehovah's Witnesses are more literate in the Bible than Christians. If you are going to argue theology with them, I suggest you do your homework. It does prove, however, without a saving relationship with Jesus, the Bible is just a good book.
2006-07-20 13:08:29 · answer #6 · answered by Elwood Blues 6 · 0⤊ 0⤋
we pray to Jehovah God threw his son Jesus Christ. no we don't celebrate holidays. they are pagan and have nothing to do with Jesus. if you are interested go to a kingdom hall in your neighborhood or www.watchtower.org. we follow Jehovah God and Jesus Christ who is the head of the kingdom hall all around the world in 235 lands. by the way it is spelled Jehovah Witnesses. as far as the 144,000 it is in the king james bible also. they are anointed by Jehovah God not by man. so anyone who thinks they are anointed by man is not true. Jehovah God did not change his mind. the rest are the meek that will inherit the earth. I read what levi said about us going to the doctor or have surgery. that is not true. we get the best care. yes we don't take blood, even if I was not a witness I would never put that junk in my body. we are not a cult. I am tired of the slander from people who say nasty things about us. people who are disfellowshipped also.
2006-07-20 13:02:15 · answer #7 · answered by lover of Jehovah and Jesus 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
JWs believe that Jesus Christ is Michael the archangel and just the son of a greater Father Creator God. Also, the Watchtower Bible and Tract Society (now a huge and monied organization) rewrote the Bible in a new strange and bizarre Bible to try to dodge gumming up their doctrine so badly. That is about all I know so far.
2006-07-20 12:56:23 · answer #8 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
Well, here is a few tidbits. You would be better off looking them up on wikipedia or something though.
They don't believe in the Trinity.
They believe that only the Father is God.
They believe that Jesus was not God.
They believe that the Holy Spirit is just an impersonal "force".
They also believe that only 144,000 people will be saved.
2006-07-20 12:57:09 · answer #9 · answered by Dysthymia 6 · 0⤊ 0⤋
they are good sincere people who have come to understand that the churches have turned religion so far away from its true meaning that it would be totally unrecognisable to Jesus Himself. Easter and Christmas are not celebrated because, like so many other customs in the churches, they stem from paganism and were only taken on board to pacify the nations who were being conquered and forced to change their beliefs. all this can be verified in any encyclopedia. i would suggest you visit their very informative website at www.watchtower.org.
2006-07-20 23:23:18 · answer #10 · answered by andy 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋
at first i thought many people know the same things i know about them but obviously most of these idiots dont know what the jw's are about. you all think that they twist the bible just because you cant live to those high standards which by the way stablished by god not the jw's. and where does it appear in the bible the word trinity anyways? just read the whole chapter 17 of john and you'll know that jehovah and jesus are 2 different people. plus the bible clearly states that jesus was the first creation of god. ohh and somebody please answer the question!!!
2006-07-20 13:19:36 · answer #11 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋