do christians a jehovah witnesses share the same beliefs ?? if not what is the difference please xxx
2007-04-10 10:19:32 · 15 answers · asked by sunpat 2 in Society & Culture ➔ Religion & Spirituality
Jehovah's Witnesses are Christians; there is no biblical difference.
Sadly, trinitarians repeatedly propagandize that Jehovah's Witnesses are not Christian. Trinitarians use an artificial, trinity-specific definition of the term "Christian" which excludes anyone who does not believe that Jesus is God Himself, rather than the Son of God. Interestingly, pagans in the first century pretended that Christ's followers were Atheists(!) because the Christians had a somewhat different idea from the pagans about the nature of God.
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! Both secular dictionaries and disinterested theologians acknowledge that Jehovah's Witnesses are a Christian religion.
The Trinitarian arguments are intended to insult and demean Jehovah's Witnesses, rather than to give a Scripturally accurate understanding of the term "Christian".
In fact, 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
So why do anti-Witnesses try to hijack the term "Christian" and hide its Scriptural implications? Because anti-Witnesses recognize that it is the preaching work that 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/e/ti/index.htm?article=article_04.htm
http://watchtower.org/e/20050422/article_02.htm
http://watchtower.org/e/pr/index.htm?article=article_04.htm
2007-04-11 02:48:26 · answer #1 · answered by achtung_heiss 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Jehovah's Witnesses are Christian because they follow Jesus as their Saviour, but they don't believe in the Trinity - God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit.
Jehovah's Witnesses are against anything pagan, which is typical of most Christian religions. Their services are discussion-based rather than emotional demonstrations.
Jehovah's Witnesses believe that Jerusalem fell to Babylon in 607BCE and that 2520 years passed until, in 1914AD, Christ's Kingdom began to rule in heaven. They believe then that Christ's Second Coming has already begun.
They believe in living a clean life according to the Bible's commands and disfellowship congregation members if they don't show themselves repentant to the elders of the congregation.
Jehovah's Witnesses believe that other Christian religions are pagan because they celebrate Christmas, Easter, birthdays etc. They do not participate in interfaith or ecumenical gatherings. They sometimes don't participate in school sports and will possibly not send their children to school camp. Their education is for the purpose of becoming a Kingdom preacher usually from door to door.
2007-04-10 10:38:25 · answer #2 · answered by Christian person 3 · 3⤊ 1⤋
Well we Witnesses are Christians. I would say the easiest common denominator would be belief that the Bible is God's word and that we should strive to follow it.
EDIT We Witnesses do not believe in the concept of Hellfire AT ALL.
2007-04-10 17:48:57 · answer #3 · answered by Ish Var Lan Salinger 7 · 1⤊ 0⤋
watch for the PBS special titled KNOCKING. It was done by an independent documentary film crew, and though it has been available for viewing since last September, none of the anti witness types have been able to come up with an independent crew to do a response video.
2007-04-10 18:32:51 · answer #4 · answered by Anonymous · 1⤊ 0⤋
Christians believe Jesus is God, Jehovah's witnesses don't. That is the major but there are more, Jehovah's witnesses have their own bible, don't believe in celebrating birthdays/Christmas and believe only 144,000 people will go to heaven. Christians believe as many as receive Christ will go to heaven, we don't have a problem with celebrating Christmas/birthdays, and we have the standard Bible.
2007-04-10 10:23:51 · answer #5 · answered by Rossonero NorCal SFECU 7 · 2⤊ 3⤋
No, the Jehovah Witnesses have their own study bible to learn from. They don't salute the flag, serve in war or take blood transfusions.
2007-04-10 10:24:36 · answer #6 · answered by ? 7 · 2⤊ 2⤋
Jehovah Witnesses do pretend to be Christian but they follow The Watchtower, an organisation that strictly controls them, and they do not follow Jesus Christ.
2007-04-10 12:19:03 · answer #7 · answered by Jake M 3 · 1⤊ 3⤋
Some of their beliefs are scriptural-such as soul sleep- and others are not- such as denying the divinity of Christ. Also, JW believe the verse condeming the practice of eating blood applies to transfusions, that only 144,000 will go to heaven- and they will only be JW, and that secular holidays, such as birthdays, Christmas, and Easter, are not to be celebrated.
2007-04-10 10:30:01 · answer #8 · answered by James F 3 · 2⤊ 2⤋
probably the biggest thing is that Jehovah's witnesses believe that they will stay on the earth forever instead of going to heaven and they believe that when go to hell you just burn up and that is the end Christians believe if you go to hell it will be forever
2007-04-10 10:24:28 · answer #9 · answered by YoungChief 3 · 1⤊ 2⤋
No, these are different beliefs
2007-04-10 12:02:24 · answer #10 · answered by felipelotas1 3 · 1⤊ 2⤋