Our new neighbors are Jehovah's witness......?

Question

We have some new neighbors that I have found out are of the Jehovah's witness faith. I know very very little about their beliefs but I do know that it is drastically different from anything I am familiar with. I now know (after inviting them to a birthday party - ooops) that they do not celebrate birthdays or other holidays but I am not sure why. I would like to know what the basics of the religion are and such so as not to possibly offend them accidentally or invite them to something else that is against their faith. Most importantly I need to be able to educate my kids as well about what they believe and why. We have sons the same age that play together and my son made a comment during the birthday party conversation that was not particularly nice because he doesn't understand and I can't explain it if I don't know either.

oops I meant to post this in religion but clicked the wrong place...sorry

Answer 1

Jehovah’s Witnesses are controlled by a "Governing Body" which they claim is the "faithful and discreet slave" spoken of at Mathew 24:45. This group consists of 10 to 15 mature men that, Jehovah’s Witnesses are told, have direct guidance from God. The Governing Body in turn instructs followers with this guidance through the pages of the Watchtower and other publications. Jehovah’s Witnesses are told by this "Governing Body" that Scripture alone is insufficient to understand the things of God. One needs the Watchtower Society and the literature it publishes to properly understand the Bible. ("Jehovah God has also provided his visible organization, his "faithful and discreet slave," made up of spirit-anointed ones... Unless we are in touch with this channel of communication that God is using, we will not progress along the road to life, no matter how much Bible reading we do. Watchtower, December 1, 1981 p.27) They are the instruments God is using to teach the world the deeper things of the scriptures. People are not to think for themselves but instead submit to the Watchtower Society teachings. (" But a spirit of independent thinking does not prevail in God’s organization, and we have sound reasons for confidence in the men taking the lead among us. Watchtower September 15,1989 p. 23) Jehovah's Witnesses believe they are the only people on earth that are serving God and the only ones that will be saved. They dare not question the teachings of the Watchtower Society; one who questions the Watchtower Society is considered to be weak in faith and could be disfellowshipped.

Most Christian churches have a system of moral oversight, but their systems are set up to help individuals with problems. Only after extensive effort over a period of time is action taken. Jehovah's Witnesses claim that Disfellowshipping is a loving act but in fact it is their most important control mechanism. It allows the Watchtower Bible and Tract Society to control its members with guilt and fear.

The Watchtower Society makes a lot of rules, based on their interpretations of various scriptures, that all Jehovah's Witnesses must follow. Members are taught that that they must turn each other in for any rule violations. If they observe another Jehovah's Witness breaking a rule and do not report him or her to the elders they are as guilty as the offending party. Anyone breaking any of the Watchtower Society rules is called before 3 elders in a private meeting that is conducted like a trial. The elders become judge and jury deciding whose is repentant and who is not.

Members who are found to be unrepentant of violations of Watchtower rules by these elders, are disfellowshipped. Jehovah’s Witnesses can be disfellowshipped for a number of rule violations: premarital or extramarital sex, using alcohol excessively, using tobacco products, celebrating Christmas, reciting the pledge of allegiance, lying, stealing, joining the military, speaking to a disfellowshipped Witness, reading religious material not published by the governing body, or running for political office just to name a few. Fellow members are then required to shun him/her completely, having no contact even if the disfellowshipped person is a family member. (Some allowances are made if the family member is living in the same household). Disfellowshipping has a devastating effect because the individual's entire religious, family and social life are rooted in the Society. Keep in mind Jehovah’s Witnesses who are disfellowshipped are no longer part of the Watchtower Society and have, therefore, lost all hope of salvation until they can prove themselves worthy of being accepted back into the Watchtower Organization by their works. Elders in the congregation are the ones who decide when an individual has earned the right to come back into the fold, and the Watchtower Organization instructs elders that it would be very rare for one to earn their way back in less than a year. In order to earn their way back they must attend meetings regularly, sit in the back of the church -Kingdom Hall- while everyone in the congregation ignores them, if anyone did dare to speak to them they could be disfellowshipped themselves. They must do this with the knowledge that if Armageddon should come before they have earned their way back they will be destroyed. Sad to say Disfellowshipping has resulted in suicide. Those who leave on their own are treated just as a disfellowshipped one. Once you join their group there is no easy way out.

If a member is guilty of breaking a minor rule such as associating with a worldly person (one who is not a Jehovah's Witness) that individual could be marked. This means that other Jehovah's witnesses may only speak to them at the Kingdom Hall (the name Jehovah's Witnesses use for their churches). Jehovah's Witnesses are not allowed to associate with a marked individual in a social setting.

Jehovah’s Witnesses are not allowed to accept blood transfusions for themselves or their children, believing that this is the same as eating blood and is forbidden by the Bible. Many of Jehovah’s Witnesses have died because of this restriction the Watchtower Society has placed upon its followers. In the past the Watchtower Society has forbidden its followers to get vaccinations or accept organ transplants, many people died needlessly before the Watchtower Society changed its rules and allowed these procedures. They still hold fast to the prohibition of receiving blood transfusions. See the web site "New Light on Blood"

Jehovah’s Witnesses are not allowed to salute the flag of any nation, recite the pledge of allegiance, stand for or sing the national anthem, run for public office, vote, or serve in the armed forces.

Jehovah’s Witnesses are not allowed to associate with non-Witnesses including family. Exceptions are made if the non-Witness family member is living in the same household.

They do not believe in the Trinity. Instead, they follow a strict monotheism, in which: Jehovah is the Supreme Being. Jesus is the Son of God, a created being. Christ is believed to have originally existed in a pre-human state as the Archangel Michael. He later took human form as a man like any other person, except that he was sinless at birth and remained so throughout his earthly life. Jehovah’s Witnesses do not believe in the bodily resurrection of Christ. They believe that after the crucifixion, Christ died and was resurrected as an invisible, non-material, glorious, spirit creature. They believe that Jesus appeared on earth after his resurrection in a special body that Jehovah created for him.

The Holy Spirit they believe, is not a separate entity, but is simply a force: the method by which God interacts with the world.

Jehovah’s Witnesses believe that a person is the soul the Bible speaks of, and when a person dies nothing lives on, the person is dead and is conscious of nothing. When the time comes for God to resurrect them from the dead He will create a new body for them from His memory.

They totally deny the existence of the traditional Christian view of Hell. Satan is regarded as having created the concept of Hellfire in order to turn people against God. They believe that hell is the "common grave of mankind" where people go when they die. They are not conscious there. Unbelievers simply cease to exist at death. Believers remain in death until the resurrection.

The Heavenly Kingdom took effect in 1914 with the invisible enthronement of Christ as King. A little flock or Anointed Class of about 135,300 people currently occupies it. All were selected after Christ's ascension into heaven at Pentecost (33 AD) and during subsequent centuries. The selection of the full complement of 144,000 was completed in 1935. Some 8,700 are still living on earth. They will spend eternity as spirit creatures in heaven with God and Christ and will rule over the other Jehovah’s Witnesses who remain on earth. Those spending eternity on earth are what Jehovah’s Witnesses call the Great Crowd or Other Sheep.

Salvation requires that one accept Bible doctrines as interpreted by the Governing Body, be baptized as a Jehovah's Witness and follow the program of works as laid out by the Governing Body.


Jehovah’s Witnesses claim that they believe in the grace of God and that one does not earn salvation by their works. While they give lip service to God’s grace, their actions indicate differently. Consider the policy of making a disfellowshipped person earn their way back into the congregation. Remember you must be a Jehovah’s Witness "in good standing" to survive the end times, and to remain in good standing you must follow the rules and works set out by the Watchtower Organization. If someone breaks a rule, the elders decide whether that person is repentant or not, if they decide they are not repentant they are disfellowshipped. A disfellowshipped witness will not survive the time of the end. Think about it, they are deciding who deserves God’s grace and who does not.

Wherever you find the word grace in most Bibles you will find the term "undeserved kindness" in their Bible. While this may or may not be an acceptable translation of the original Greek word, it gives them a great deal of latitude in their teaching. In the December, 1993 issue of The Kingdom Ministry (a publication for members only) in an article titled "Sow Bountifully but With Discernment" the Watchtower Organization printed this thought "We want to give deserving ones the opportunity to learn of Jehovah’s undeserved kindness and the Kingdom hope". This brings to mind some serious questions: How can anyone deserve God's undeserved kindness if it's undeserved? And just what methods would mortal man use to discern who deservers God's undeserved kindness and who does not, are not God's thoughts higher than man's? This statement really shows the attitude of The Watchtower Bible and Tract Society—not all people deserve God’s grace and it is the job of Jehovah's Witnesses to discern who does and who does not. Jehovah's Witnesses constantly boast that they alone are "preaching the good news of the kingdom in all the inhabited earth". Are they preaching in all the inhabited earth or just to the ones they deem deserving?

They reject the traditional symbol of Christianity, the cross, as being of pagan origin. They translate the Greek word from the Christian Scriptures "stauros" as "torture stake", and believe that Jesus was crucified on a single upright wooden stake with no crossbeam. They view the cross as an Idol and wearing or displaying one is considered idol worship.

And just for name sake BEWARE!!!!!(they sometimes go to peoples door trying to get you to convert to there religion) nothing is wrong with their religion its just how people interpret the bibles themselves.

Answer 2

Ok, whew you certainly have gotten some "interesting" answers detailing my religion. I love the way people either make things up or repeat what someone else made up and feel proud of them selves and then say I am being brainwashed.
Anyway putting aside the rude comments made.
First, thank you for not wanting to make You, Your children, or your neighbors feel bad. I think the best thing to do is, as others suggested, ask them what they believe. They can tell you better than anyone what they feel about a certain situation. Thank you for not feeling it your duty to force your holidays on them. If anything seems strange about what they say. Ask them about it. The first and foremost purpose of life as a Witness is to learn about Jehovah aka God. Years ago we celebrated birthdays, believed Christ died on a cross, we even thought he had no beard. Thourough Bible study helped us see mistakes and change them. My point is questioning our beliefs is fine. As long as you are respectful I see many years of happy neighbors.

PS There are MANY mistruths typed by some of the answerers on our beliefs. I will try to check by here periodicaly and correct some.
We can drink alcohal. Jesus would not have turned the water in to Wine is alcohal is BAD. We do feel that drunkuness is wrong. Yes we do not smoke.
It is true we do not celebrate Christmas and Easter. This is because of the nonChristian origins of these holidays.
We do not believe that through out all of history only Jehovah's Witnesses will do to heaven. For that matter we believe only 144.000 are going to Hesven. The rest will live on the Earth returned to paradise.
Yes we do use our own Bible. It is known as The New World Translation. It is as direct a translation of the original Greek and Hebrew as we can do. As for the Watchtower being the real religuos literature we follow. Many an article has been on the different meanings of Greek and Hebrew words.
I know some of these things seem odd if people are unwilling to try and understand them.

Answer 3

From what I could tell, there were only a few actual comments from Jehovah's Witnesses. As was mentioned, you also got a bunch of people who dislike Jehovah's Witnesses and therefore slander us. Also, the only place to find out what we really believe is to go to the official website of Jehovah's Witnesses.
http://www.watchtower.org/
Anyother website is more than likely from someone who is distorting what we believe.
I can tell you a few things that you can expect having Jehovah's Witnesses as neighbors. People you can trust, they aren't checking out what you have so they can steal it. They aren't cooking meth in their back room. They will do their best to be there if you need help. If ever you have a disagreement, which does happen with the best of neighbors, they will be quick to want to fix it. You won't hear screaming and abusive speach coming from over the fence. Their children will not be spray painting graffitti on your fence or the side of your house. They will be attending their Christian meetings 3 days a week.

Don't worry about offending them by accidentally intiving them to any parties. If they can't come, they will simply explain to you, using the scriptures, why they don't. So please don't be surprised if they do that, because everything we do is based on what the Bible says.

If you choose not to check out the official website, please, don't hesitate to ask your neighbor what it is they believe. They will explain it to you, even give you some printed information about what we believe so that you can explain it to your children in a way that you feel comfortable doing.

But please, do not believe all the cult garbage. Jehovah's Witnesses do not fit the criteria of a cult, no matter how hard people who hate us try to put us there.

Answer 4

You can click onto Jehovah's Witness.com it's weird! I know a wee bit about their beliefs: It's a C U L T and feel Certain alot will agree!! As for them being your neighbors now, well I'd kindly invite them to whatever you would to anyone else! Why not, what better way to show them that you are nice and Not the enemy. Right? It may somehow help them to wake up and get out of the Cult they're in. Right? Could not hurt. I'd treat them no different than anyone else and if you accidently offend them- so what? They're certainly not going to worry about offending you. Children are just that: Children. Right? They hate each other one second then love and adore each other the next. I'd treat that also just like any other situation. Anyway be yourself!
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GOOD LUCK, and GOD BLESS YOU

Answer 5

I wouldn't stress too much about offending them as most people who practice this religion are aware that most people don't understand what it is about. They don't celebrate birthdays, Xmas, Easter etc. etc., They don't drink, smoke or basically par take in any of these things most would consider bad for you anyway. They do believe in God but they use a different version of the bible then most religions. That is about all I can tell you. My daughter had a friend that was Johovah's and the best way I could explain it to her was to explain that not everyone believes in the same things and the religion they believe in doesn't let them do ........ When in doubt when my daughter asked a specific question about their religion if I didn't know the answer I asked her friends Mother. I told her that my daughter was asking questions and I didn't want to give her false info or insult their beliefs so how what would she be comfortable with me telling her. If you are respectful towards them they will happily answer your questions.

Answer 6

The first thing you need to keep in mind is that when you ask a question like this, you'll get the ignorant nutcases coming out of the woodwork offering you their ignorant and slanderous comments about Jehovah's Witnesses that don't have a shred of truth to it.

If you want an ACCURATE understanding of their beliefs, including why they believe and/or reason on certain things the way they do, you shouldn't just go by the comments that people will post in here, but you should go to the proper source: the Jehovah's Witnesses themselves, which you can do by going to their official website: www.watchtower.org. In that site, you can have all of your questions answered, truthfully and without the ignorant bias and prejudice that taints most of the answers you're being given here.

** If you want ACCURATE information, by all means AVOID every single one of the sites listed by "gilbert" below. Each one is filled with lies and slander and nothing but mis-information. **

Answer 7

Mila , thanks for your wonderful article on Jehovahs Witness. Very thorough.

I too, would not worry about offending Jehovahs Witness because they truely do not care if they offend you and they do not respect any one else's religion, except their own.
I was told by one Jehovahs Witness that she would rather die, than get a blood transfusion and that meant she would be willing to let her children die, rather than ever let them get a blood transfusion, if ever they were in a position that was life threatoning and needed one.
What kind of religion would brain wash its followers into thinking this is wrong?
And no, they do not celebrate Christmas and Easter, because those are the holidays that represent Jesus and they do not recognize him as being important. They also think its wrong to celebrate birthdays. Imagine not being able to have a birthday for your child, to say how happy you are that this child was born, on his or her special day.
This religion also has a lot of people that research the bibles and rewrite it for their followers. They follow a bible that is different than the regular one most christian religions use, such as King James and other standard like it. Jehovahs Witnesses will argue bible passages till you are blue in the face with their own twisted interpetations of it, because they have been taught differently. And they blindly follow what they are taught and do not question.

I also have trouble with an orginization that believes that they alone are worthy of being saved to spend eternity with God in heavon and that everyone else , who is not Jehovahs Witness will cease to exist.

Can you imagine, all the great people , from centurys past, who were not Jehovahs witness's, not worthy of heavon? Such as the great scientists that discovered cures for polio and other diseases that saved so many lives, the medical doctors that pioneered new surgical procedures that now routinly save lives, those wonderful humans that created glorious art, great music, great humanitarians, etc.
So many people worthy of heavon that made life better for humans in this life. Deemed not worthy by Jehovahs witnesses.

What arrogence this religion has, what blindness. How any one with a brain , could follow the teachings of this religious cult, is beyond my understanding.

Answer 8

Best thing would probably go sit down with the parents. They know better than any what they believe. I used to work with a girl with that faith, but she was so goofy that it didn't matter. If we messed up she would say somethin smart.

Best thing would be to talk to them. Even have the kids sit with you all and explain everything. Could be the start of a great friendship!

Answer 9

J.W.s are VERY fundamentalist about the bible and practice what they belive to be true very devoutly. For example they were the first
group to sue the government of the pledge of alegiance becuase
it meant they were promising to be faithful to a government instead of God.

That being said, most J.W.s although pushy about thier faith are very nice people. If you tell them that you may from time to time offend them not understanding their beleifs they will proabably take you at your word. But you will also have to let them know up front that you would rather not be preached to. (if thats your desire)
It will be difficult for them not to since their religon calls for them to witness to others.

Answer 10

You need to really educate yourself on your own faith if you are Christians because these people have major brainwashing in the heresies of their faith. If you do not know the Bible well they will confound you. You need to know backwards and forwards on why we believe that Jesus is God because they don't(this is a tenet of ALL true Christian faiths from Catholic to Baptist to Assembly of God). They also do not believe in the Trinity and in Original Sin(Without original sin we would not have needed a Savior).

You need answers for your kids sakes too. Don't try to argue with them I have found this pretty fruitless. But just be good examples to them of the way life can be good in a home where they have holidays .

Answer 11

Boy good luck because my son also just got engaged to a girl whose family is Jehovah witnesses and hes now going to spend the rest of his life trying to make up for everything she never had such as parties Christmases ect./ Invite the kids anyways its not your job to tell them no it is their parents position to explain why they are being left out of the things other children do on a day weekly and yearly bases. If your worried about stepping on toes may I suggest you be more concerned about hurting the kids feelings and not the parents.