Do you have to be really religious to be a jehovah witness? or can you just say you are because you're born into it?
2007-01-27 09:33:39 · 18 answers · asked by Smushypooh 1 in Society & Culture ➔ Religion & Spirituality
Jehovah's Witnesses do not celebrate birthdays and holidays for religious reasons. Globally, nearly seven million active Witnesses agree with this bible teaching consistently; the ten million who merely associate themselves with Jehovah's Witnesses may demonstrate less-consistency on these matters.
Details about non-religious parties and "clubs" are left to individuals and families to decide for themselves. Opinions will vary widely depending on the reputation of "clubs" in each area, community sensibilities, and the maturity of the Witness(es) involved.
Jehovah's Witnesses tend to be careful to avoid "bad association".
2007-01-28 03:17:15 · answer #1 · answered by achtung_heiss 7 · 6⤊ 1⤋
no we don't celebrate holidays or birthdays. yes we do have many parties doing the year. didn't Jesus attend a wedding party? I was born Jewish and now I am a Jehovah Witness. you have to get baptized under water to become a Jehovah Witness. we are not a cult. we are a religion. we worship Jehovah and Jesus Christ. learn what a cult is. a cult worships man and live together, do everything and I mean everything together. we live in our own homes in 236 lands. we work. a cult does not work among you. we may be your next door neighbor. www.watchtower.org. I am tired of people calling us a cult. also we go to parks and go on rides also. we don't walk around with signs on, so you would not know that we are Jehovah 'witness are not. we are a worldwide family. we do not stop others from celebrating pagan holidays. before I became a Jehovah Witness years ago, there was one lady that was a Witness, we still celebrate holidays. of course she did not celebrate with us. now I know that I worship Jehovah and Jesus.
2007-01-27 09:41:30 · answer #2 · answered by lover of Jehovah and Jesus 7 · 6⤊ 2⤋
It is truly amazing how little people know about Jehovah's Witnesses even though they are not invisible people. It is true that we do not celebrate things like holiday. If you would do a little research, you might learn that holidays like Christmas, Halloween, and Easter have pagan roots. In fact, the cross is pagan too. It predates Christianity by thousands of years.
Jehovah's Witnesses do celebrate weddings and wedding anniversaries. They commorate what Jehovah started in the Garden of Eden with Adam and Eve.
Incidentally, no one is born one of Jehovah's Witnesses.
2007-01-27 11:19:23 · answer #3 · answered by LineDancer 7 · 5⤊ 1⤋
Technically you're not A witness (brother/sister) 'til you get baptized. We sometimes friendly use that term, bro./sis. to call pple but i'd say if you are involved in being a witness & come to meeitngs, you are a witness. the point of baptism is to show to others that it is what you want to do for your life & also to show jehovah. but if you disagree with most of our teachings & don't get involved, you aren't really a witness. You MAY not be living your life a a witness should. Its kinda like saying if I was born into a Catholic family but disagredd w/ cAtholcs, would i be a catholic? Pple. might say yes, but you're really not. PLz contact us & ask any more questions. oh and we MUST be careful when partaking at clubs/parties. If you're family is witnesses, go with them to one of our occasional get togethers. You'll see how fun & loving they are. Hard-core partying IS dangerous. Just look at the news & see what results from them.
2007-01-28 13:48:58 · answer #4 · answered by Anonymous · 3⤊ 1⤋
There are all kinds of things we enjoy! In our house, we have snow day, or balloon day, or polkadot day parties, where we just pick a day for no reason, invite family and friends over, and we play games and eat and exchange gifts. We cook out as a congregation, and we get together in smaller groups to do things like play cards, or go to the lake, or play basketball. Our young people get together often to play tag football, or swim together, or just go out and eat together. We have parties at weddings, graduations, baptisms, anniversaries... we're a pretty fun bunch of people who just don't indulge in the worlds view of fun.
And becoming a Witness takes work and study. You can be born into a Witness family, but your commitment to Jehovah is between you and Him, and is not a given just because you are born with Witness parents. First you have to learn about God, then about His plans for us as a whole, and His expectations of us as individuals, and THEN you decide if making a public commitment to Jehovah by way of baptism is for you. Being a Witness is not something you do sometimes. It's a full time commitment to obeying Jehovah.
You can find out more by contacting your local Kingdom Hall of Jehovah's Witnesses and talking to them one on one. They will be happy to answer your questions in your own home from your own Bible. Good luck!
2007-01-27 10:50:14 · answer #5 · answered by themom 6 · 6⤊ 1⤋
In this world that is under Satan's control at present, we have to be oh so guarded.
but the Bible says Jehovah is the happy God! Plenty scriptures show He wants us to be happy. But he also in His word tells us the things he hates or wants us to shun. We respect that, because we respect him as our God, and Creator, who knows whats best for us.
We indeed have clean gatherings where clean dress and clean dancing may occur to music that has been checked for content that is not immoral or suggestive. We have great times together, even with no alcohol!
Jehovah's Witnesses do not attend clubs or parties...because of the elements that are usually present besides the debased music,suggestive dressing , the over drinking, smoking of cigarettes and drug activity , the sexual atmosphere, the abusive speech and more.
Our worship to Jehovah God is very important to individual baptized Witnesses. We strive to think on Him in every decision we face in life, because we value our relationship with Jehovah God , and don't want to hurt Him, (Proverbs 27:11).
But we enjoy life, BUT not to the full !!
But yes, we have happy fun clean gatherings, get togethers, talent shows where children, old ones, married ones, males, females, attend together!
We are balanced. Spiritual people first and at all times, even during our gatherings and recreation together!
This would be true whether one was born a Witness and has chosen to stick to worship of the true God, or has learned through Bible study and decided to serve Jehovah God.
2014-03-21 05:01:26 · answer #6 · answered by yep! 4 · 0⤊ 0⤋
For an example, Christmas, is a Pagan celebration. You are correct, something simply not being in the Bible, doesn't make it inherently bad/wrong. However, while not always easy, it is usually possible to apply Bible principles to current activities. Example, guns weren't around back then either, but most/all people realize the Bible's stance on murder. So while one could kill someone with the gun, and say Guns aren't mentioned in the Bible, the principle of NOT committing murder IS in the Bible.
2016-03-29 05:24:46 · answer #7 · answered by Lorraine 4 · 0⤊ 0⤋
No not because you're just born into it, I was raised to be Catholic, I GREW UP seeing the hyposcricy and mad materialism. The I'm better than you attitude, I also watched the nuns go over to the priest's house late at night and return back at the convent early in the morning. i GREW up knowing God was not there. I went from one religion to another. Didn't take long to realize that God was not out there. I finally cried, and asked God where the h--- was he? the next day a woman came to my door, I told her I read the Bible, and I had, but, that I didn't understand it, she asked me if I would like to understand it. So she started studying the Bible with me. I swore I would never become a JW, but, it didn't take long and I realized that God's spirit was with these people and I wanted to be one of them. It took me three years to turn my life around from being a violent, smoking yucky person. But I have dedicated my life to Jehovah, and I am so glad I did. Also, we have parties, and we enjoy each others company, because we are family. A nice family
2007-01-27 09:45:55 · answer #8 · answered by Anonymous · 7⤊ 1⤋
I suppose that anyone can call themselves anything they want - but one is only considered a Witness when they are baptized - and we don't baptize our children until they are old enough to make the decision for themselves...lots (not most, but lots) of our children never do become witnesses. When our reports are given every year regarding the number of witnesses in the world, we only count the people that are engaged in door to door ministry and reporting such work. There are many, many other people that call themselves Witnesses (but aren’t, officially) and that associate with us at our meetings/special events etc.
It’s true that most of us really do know how to enjoy ourselves though.
2007-01-29 04:16:38 · answer #9 · answered by krobin 2 · 1⤊ 1⤋
An old friend of mine is a Jehovah's Witness. He's a DJ for trance clubs and raves. You can still enjoy life without celebrating holidays and other things.
2007-01-27 09:37:18 · answer #10 · answered by robtheman 6 · 5⤊ 2⤋