why isn't everyone Catholic?
I mean if you are going to choose a religion, wouldn't you choose the religion that was founded by Jesus Christ?
Like:
Jehovah's Witness-Charles Taze Russell
Protestant- Martin Luther
Catholicism- Jesus Christ
by a man... or by Jesus?
2006-10-09 11:19:54 · 11 answers · asked by Captain705 1 in Society & Culture ➔ Religion & Spirituality
Catholics are not true Christians.
Jehovah's Witnesses teach that no salvation occurs without Christ, that accepting Christ's sacrifice is a requirement for true worship, that every prayer must acknowledge Christ, that Christ is the King of God's Kingdom, that Christ is the head of the Christian congregation, that Christ is immortal and above every creature, even that Christ was the 'master worker' in creating the universe!
Even so, the bible most closely associates being "Christian" with PREACHING about Christ and Christ's teachings. Review all three times the bible uses the term "Christian" and note that the context connects the term with:
"declaring the good news"
'teaching quite a crowd'
'open eyes, turn from dark to light'
"uttering sayings of truth"
"persuade"
"keep on glorifying"
(Acts 11:20-26) [The early disciples of Jesus] began talking to the Greek-speaking people, declaring the good news of the Lord Jesus... and taught quite a crowd, and it was first in Antioch that the disciples were by divine providence called Christians.
(Acts 26:17-28) [Jesus said to Paul] I am sending you, to open their eyes, to turn them from darkness to light and from the authority of Satan to God... Paul said: “I am not going mad, Your Excellency Festus, but I am uttering sayings of truth and of soundness of mind. ...Do you, King Agrippa, believe the Prophets? I know you believe.” But Agrippa said to Paul: “In a short time you would persuade me to become a Christian.”
(1 Peter 4:14-16) If you are being reproached for the name of Christ, you are happy... But if he suffers as a Christian, let him not feel shame, but let him keep on glorifying God in this name
Sadly, so-called "Christians" try to hijack the term "Christian" and hide its Scriptural implications. Yet, the preaching work makes it clear that the relatively small religion of Jehovah's Witnesses are by far the most prominent followers of Christ:
(Matthew 28:19,20) Go therefore and make disciples of people of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the holy spirit, teaching them to observe all the things I have commanded
Learn more!
http://watchtower.org
http://watchtower.org/e/jt/index.htm
http://jw-media.org/people/ministry.htm
http://watchtower.org/library/ti/index.htm
2006-10-09 15:31:16 · answer #1 · answered by achtung_heiss 7 · 3⤊ 0⤋
Rev 1:5 and from Jesus Christ, “the Faithful Witness,” “The firstborn from the dead,” and “The Ruler of the kings of the earth.”
So Jesus was the first Jehovah's Witness.
Heb 12:1 So, then, because we have so great a cloud of witnesses surrounding us, let us also put off every weight and the sin that easily entangles us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us,
All the pre Christians are a great cloud of witnesses.
So Jehovah's Witnesses go back the furthest.
2006-10-10 10:53:00 · answer #2 · answered by TeeM 7 · 2⤊ 0⤋
Jesus did indeed believe in organized religion; he was a faithful Jew when on earth and celebrated all the festivals and observed everything in the Mosaic Law. Christianity is the new Judaism; in other words, it is God's new representatives on earth. So he did change Judaism. Heb 10: 25 tells us not to forsake the gathering of ourselves together. In Revelation chapters 1-3 Jesus had messages for the various organized congregations that were around at the time. Jesus didn't start Catholocism, and C T Russel didn't found Jehovah's Witnesses. If he did, we would follow and uphold the teachings of Russel. We don't; we follow and uphold the teachings of Jesus.
***PFSHJ you make absolutely, positively no sense. Horrid? Good? Annoy God? How can we annoy God by doing something good? It annoys God that we DON'T want to kill people? That we want to be obedient to Him? What's more, how can you criticize us for not partaking in war, and then criticize the pope for supporting it? It is obvious your intent is only to ruffle some feathers and that making sense means nothing at all to you. I'm pretty sure everyone else can see that. Meanwhile, you helped prove some points about false religion that the JWs have been trying to get across; thanks.
***OK wester...I don't understand why you're asking if Russel is in heaven right now. I'm not saying that his teachings were different from Jesus'. He was a bible student amongst a religious world of lies and he seeked to find bible truth, along with his small band of associates. And since they were just starting out, they had certain things to learn over time. Again, they were, and we are, students. When you start school, and you're in kindergarten, do you already know everything that you are ever going to learn in school? Of course not. Russel's predictions were not shots in the air. They were based on misinterpretations. They were not his prophecies. And when he made predictions that didn't come true, of course, he had to go back to the drawing board to see why he was wrong. But this is what I'm saying, Russel is not our "holy man" and he is not even alive today. So when you say "the JWs did this, the JWs did that," it's in the past. It has nothing to do with what's going on now, unless you look at the fact that we learn from the past. The Bible doesn't change, God doesn't change, God is perfect. We are not. As christians we are supposed to be united as one as the "light gets brighter" until the END. True christians never stop learning about God. We don't have a set of rules that we adhere to no matter what. We go through changes as we learn more and more, just as the first century christians went through changes. This is what I look at with regards to my religion: they are dedicated to serving Jehovah with spirit and truth. As far as I can see with all the information that is available, what I believe now is the truth. If anything is proven wrong (and it's kind of strange you mention the "prophecies" and not the beliefs that everyone else holds on to that the bible students later found were false) and I mean ANYTHING, then we adjust whatever we are doing accordingly.
***What is your story? Were you around for some of the changes and you now resent them? Or have you read up on your Jehovah's Witnessism and now consider yourself an authority on the JWs? Or do you simply not understand why someone would be part of a religion that can't get them rich, or one that doesn't have a set of dogmatic views that they adhere to no matter what, even if it is proven unscriptural? Would you rather have ONE human leader that calls all the shots, whose rules can't be changed? We have the same organizational structure the first century christians had - a body of older men who pray on certain issues and reach a conclusion. The rest of the followers are to be one in mind - not because the governing body is always right, but because an independent spirit is satan's spirit. We don't want to have divisive sects. If they don't reach the right conclusion, Jesus will see to it that they do in due time, one way or another.
2006-10-10 11:19:49 · answer #3 · answered by Nothin wrong 1 · 1⤊ 0⤋
Catholicism wasn't started by Jesus Christ, it was started by Emperor Constantine, aside from that, why would I join a fake Christian club that prays to Mary and other dead people for intercessory prayer when the bible is clear that Jesus is the only intercessor. It's a cult, it's blasphemous, and it skews the word of God. No one needs religion, everyone needs Christ.
2006-10-09 11:25:17 · answer #4 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
Chris says that Jehovah's Witnesses don't follow and uphold the teachings of Charles Russell, but they follow and uphold the teachings of Jesus.
Charles Russell - do you think he's up in heaven, Chris? - must be astounded to know that you think his teachings are DIFFERENT than the teachings of Jesus. When he was on the earth, he wrote in the book The Time is at Hand, on page 17: "If we confine ourselves strictly to the Word of God, and avoid idle speculation, we are on safe ground".
That is what he claimed he (and the Watchtower Society) did - confined themselves to the Scriptures, not teaching personal opinions or interpretations, but only teaching what Jesus and the Bible taught.
He taught that Jesus returned invisibly to the earth in 1874 - and then he says he avoids speculation. Rutherford and all the WT leaders also say they don't speculate - they only teach the bible. Then when their prophecies fail, they have to backtrack, don't they?
The WT is still making that same claim, and still teaching the personal opinions and interpretations of the WT leaders - those are the teachings that JW's follow and uphold. The Bible doesn't change. The Watchtower does, and JW's change along with the WT instead of holding fast to the Scriptures. Because they are followers of men who are following in the footsteps of the original Watchtower-designated "faithful and discreet slave", Charles Taze Russell.
2006-10-11 07:54:42 · answer #5 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 2⤋
Actually Catholicism was founded by one of his disciples after his death. Of the Biblical accounts of Jesus, he did not believe in organized religion, if he had he would have just changed the one he was born into, he was born a Jew.
2006-10-09 11:25:05 · answer #6 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
Orrrrrr you could choose the religion you WANT to follow. Like say if you don't believe Jesus was the Son of God.
Why aren't you less stupid?
2006-10-09 11:28:46 · answer #7 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
Right, so when Catholics killed millions during the Crusades, the Inquisition, and various wars, they were acting just like Jesus, is that it?
http://i.xanga.com/TheVoice/InquisitionTortureChair%202.jpg
http://groups.msn.com/isapi/fetch.dll?action=MyPhotos_GetPubPhoto&PhotoID=nMAAAABAQTEfMdzTy1CQdKXqnFxuRgoT*GJBaMRgZKyiCchnLLNBAFb4ilp59nXOEVeyFKZPBDkSwKjkPKE8HDQAAAAAAAAAA
Meanwhile, those horrid JW's must really annoy the heck out of God with their goody-two-shoes conscientious objection to warfare.
http://jw-media.org/vnr/5263723221/618273.htm
http://jw-media.org/edu_videos/vcfi_e.htm
http://jw-media.org/edu_videos/vcut_e.htm
Hey, did you ever notice that the so-called pope's hat is shaped exactly like the hats of the pagan priests of Dagon?
http://i.xanga.com/PaintingPictures/DAGON%20WORSHIP%20CLEAR.jpg
http://i.xanga.com/PaintingPictures/DAGON%202.jpg
Here some other proud pictures for Catholics:
http://xb7.xanga.com/05100106d5cb15622521/b4821365.jpg
http://xfb.xanga.com/2bd01134500a85626304/b4824001.jpg
http://x5f.xanga.com/4dfb13624073325614398/z18034644.jpg
http://i.xanga.com/TheVoice/Cross%20Egypt%202.jpg
http://i.xanga.com/TheVoice/phallic%20cross%204.jpg
2006-10-10 18:06:47 · answer #8 · answered by PFSHJ 3 · 1⤊ 0⤋
I am not disagreeing with you at all, (I am Catholic- or at least its my basis of my Christian faith)....And where does it say or where have you heard that Jesus created Catholicism? Please tell ,I thought humans created it. I thought Jesus created Chrisitianity.
2006-10-09 11:26:45 · answer #9 · answered by E H 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Or you could choose Judaism, which had it's commandments handed down to it directly from God.
2006-10-09 11:26:57 · answer #10 · answered by Phil 5 · 0⤊ 0⤋