Can anyone tell me if the religion Jehovah's Witness is considered Christian?

Question

I am Baptist, and I have to compare and contrast Christianity to another religion for my college project.

Answer 1

Yes, Jehovah's Witnesses are Christians.

Sadly, some trinitarians repeatedly pretend 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

Answer 2

Jehovah's Witnesses consider themselves to be Christian. However, they do not worship Jesus because they believe the Trinity doctrine is pagan. Because they do not acknowledge the divinity of Christ they worship only Jehovah. They also demote the Holy Spirit to an energy force, a mere "it" and spell it holy spirit.

Since there's only 1 hour left to answer your question, I am unable to give you more on the theology. However, as a Baptist, we understand that to be Christian, one must acknowledge the triune nature of the Godhead and give Christ the glory, the praise and the worship he deserves. For this reason, if for no other, Jehovah's Witnesses cannot claim to be Christians.

Answer 3

You can consider Jehovah's Witnesses "Christian", only if you also believe that Jesus is not the eternal son of God, but another created being that the Father created named Michael the Archangel. The 2/1/1991 Watchtower on page 17 says: Jesus Christ further deserves honor because he is Jehovah’s chief angel, or archangel. Also, Jehovah's Witnesses think that they are the only true Christians because their organization is "God's channel of communication on Earth". This is what it says in the 9/1/91 Watchtower, page 18:
"That faithful and discreet slave is represented today by the Governing Body of Jehovah’s Witnesses, which has as its publicity agent the Watch Tower Bible and Tract Society. Most appropriately, that faithful and discreet slave has also been called God’s channel of communication."
Does the Watchtower organization consider itself part of Christendom? Consider the 5/1/2002 Watchtower at page 22: "By the end of World War I in 1918, Jehovah’s servants could see that God had condemned Christendom". What? The word Christendom means any church that considers ITSELF Christian, but I guess they must also believe that God condemns them too! If you would like more information, please contact me at: [e-mail]

Answer 4

hi bubbles,
I grew up as a Jehovah's Witness. I soon learned that this organization has mistranslated the bible - changed many of its beliefs - prophesied the end of the world (several times). Far worse than all of this, it also preaches a "different" Jesus to the Jesus we find in the scriptures.
Since I left this organization, my parents who are still Jehovah's Witnesses have refused any contact with me. This is what happens when a baptized Witness leaves. They are cut off from all other members including family. And they talk about love! No bubbles, they are not Christian.

Answer 5

We are. A Christian is a follower of Jesus Christ. We do. Everything we do believe is based on the Bible. We test beliefs on whether it matches the principles laid out in the Bible.

Pretending to be a policeman by wearing the uniform and trying to convince others is against the law. People like that get arrested because of the danger to the public they present.

Pretending to be a Christian is much the same thing. So when we see people claiming to be Christian but having pagan beliefs, why should we be silent?

We have a way of telling the difference between the two. True followers of Christ are called Christians. Pretend Christians are called Christendom.

Answer 6

What is a Christian? The scriptures aside a Christian:

Believes in obeying the law, even the inconvenient ones, such as speed limits when late for work;

Believes in paying taxes, even though there are many ways they could avoid them, as most religions do;

Believes in keeping their word, such as to the IRS that they will not promote politics in the church, and they actually mean it:

Teaches their youth that waiting until marriage is preferable to using protection, and for the most part, the youths actually believe it....As a result, their denomination has the lowest rates of out-of-wedlock births and STDs....Yes, there is the occasional ones who would rather have their fun now than wait, but there are far more who choose to wait;

Treats their youth with respect, not just "do what you're told!";

Teaches their children side by side with the adults, the Bible as a whole, and not just Bible stories....The very young may not understand what they are being taught, but by the time you reach the age of understanding, they have a good basic knowledge of the scriptures;

Tries to attend congregations that never get so large that the individual gets lost in the crowd and since everyone is taught the same, it is easy to start a new congregation, with a set of elders;

Knows everyone in their denomination, whether in the congregation, the city, or the county....When a disaster like Katrina happens, every member of the denomination living in New Orleans was accounted for and evacuated;

Attends a church that compliments a neighborhood, and not overwhelm it, with a lot of expensive decorative features;

Attends a church that has all their members read the whole Bible, repeatedly, and submit their thoughts on where the denomination is doing that is not in keeping with the Bible;

Wears out a Bible every few years, from use; and

Can tell you what actual day Christ observed the Last Supper on, the only day he said to keep in Memorial, without referring to the man made secular holiday.

Answer 7

Jehovah's Witnesses consider themselves Christians because they believe that Jesus is God's Son and was sent to the earth by Holy Spirit into the womb of a virgin and was born into the world to become it's redeemer, so salvation can only be obtained through the ransom sacrific of Jesus' blood. Many Chrisitans do not accept Jehovah's Witnesses as Christian because they do not accept the teaching of the Trinity, that Jehovah God is God, that Jesus is God and that the Holy Spirit is a person who also makes up the Godhead.

Answer 8

ANY faith that professes a belief in Jesus Christ as the savior is a Christian faith. Jehovah's Witnesses are part of the Christian club.

As suggested above, try Ba'hai, or Hinduism, or Judaism, or Islam, or Shintoism, or Wicca, or even Humanism or atheism. But you'll have to leave the Witnesses out of this paper.

Answer 9

Yes Jehovah's Witnesses are Christians.

Merriam Webster Dictionary

"Main Entry: 1Chris·tian
Pronunciation: \ˈkris-chən, ˈkrish-\
Function: noun
Etymology: Latin christianus, adjective & noun, from Greek christianos, from Christos
Date: 1526
1 a: one who professes belief in the teachings of Jesus Christ "

As for the claim about the New World Translation, please note that for many years we used other translations before the NWT was available including the King James Version and the American Standard Version.

Answer 10

Yes, I can tell you. Yes, Jehovah's Witnesses are Christian. Are they considered Christian by other 'christian' religions? Some, yes. Some, no. Are they considered Christian according to the scriptures? Most definitely. Are they considered Christian by Christ and his heavenly father? Absolutely.

Hannah J Paul

Answer 11

Dear Bubbles,

Christianity is having a Relationship with God through Jesus.

Watchtower Witnesses teach a man-made religion. They deny the deity of Jesus Christ, God-With-Us.

Trying to compare the two is like comparing real money with counterfeit money. Study the REAL to be able to distinguish counterfeit. Don't study the counterfeit.

One of your posters made the statement that they believe the Bible but even Satan knows God's Word better than most human beings.

For His glory,
JOYfilled