2007-06-05 13:24:00 · 20 answers · asked by Anonymous in Society & Culture ➔ Religion & Spirituality
Taken from CARM:
The Jehovah's Witnesses consider themselves to be Christians because they believe they are serving the true and living God. Like many cults, they think they are the only true church on earth. Yet, they deny the Trinity, the deity of Christ, the personhood of the Holy Spirit, Jesus' physical resurrection, and salvation by grace through faith.
The Jehovah's Witnesses are discouraged from looking into Jehovah's Witness history or old Watchtower literature which is replete with contradictions, altered doctrines, and false prophecies. Instead, they are indoctrinated repeatedly against basic Christian doctrines (Trinity, deity of Christ, etc) and into the notion that they alone are the true servants of God and that all others are either in "Christendom" or simply unbelievers.
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To add my .02, their Bible distorts John 1:1 by saying that the word was A god, not that the Word was God as original manuscripts say. That is a red flag right there.
2007-06-05 13:28:48 · answer #1 · answered by lifeinreturn 2 · 3⤊ 5⤋
Quite a few things (the following are but a few)
1) That Christ already returned. Sort of. But not all the way. But he'll try again later. Ask them about their doctrine of 1875, 1889, 1914, 1925 and so on...in each of those years they prophesied his return for THAT YEAR.
2) That Christ was not resurrected but rather was destroyed and recreated.
3) That the Holy Spirit is not a member of the godhead.
4) That Jesus is a lower god, not the One True God.
5) That people (some, not all) will become gods like Jesus.
6) That their Governing Body of people is inerrant.
7) That only 144,000 people will have everlasting life, and none of those will be of Jewish descent
Keep in mind that any "Christian"-based religion that teaches that people become God is a so-called "cult". They have departed from mainstream Christianity. People are not God, and can not become God in mainstream Christianity.
Not true in Mormonism, Jehovah's Witness, the Moonies, Hindu's, Branch Davidians, and so on.
In each of those, people become God's of their own right...
2007-06-05 20:40:52 · answer #2 · answered by Just David 5 · 1⤊ 2⤋
Jehovah God is the Father, Jesus Christ is the son, and the Holy Spirit is Jehovah's active force. we do not believe in the trinity. we are not harassing anyone, we do what Jesus Christ commanded us to do at Matthew 28 verse 19 and 20. we celebrate Jesus Christ memorial once a year since he died on the passover and since passover is once a year, that is when we do it. we are a worldwide brother and sisterhood in 236 lands. we are not a cult as many people keep saying. a cult worships man and live together. we live in our own homes, and many work. if you want to learn more about Jehovah Witnesses see the website at www.watchtower.org. the watchtower is a magazine that we read on sunday. we did not make up the bible. our bible is easy to read, but we can use the king james bible also.
2007-06-05 20:41:38 · answer #3 · answered by lover of Jehovah and Jesus 7 · 2⤊ 1⤋
That Jesus is Michael the archangel, that there is a distinction between a heavenly class and an earthly class of Christians (and lots of other things entailed with that), that blood transfusions violate the imperative to refrain from eating blood, that celebrating Christ's birth and resurrection are displeasing to Jehovah, and that Jesus returned invisibly in 1914.
2007-06-05 20:28:54 · answer #4 · answered by Jonathan 7 · 2⤊ 1⤋
Among other things, they believe that Jesus died on a "tree", not a cross; but they cannot explain how Jesus was crucified on a tree; they do not believe in the Trinity; they don't believe in observing and celebrating Christian Holy Days (or holidays). They believe in their publication, The Watchtower Bible and Tract Society, in their own translation of the Bible, The New World Translation, they believe in the false teachings of their first leader, egotistical fraud: C.T. Russell, founder of Jehovah's Witnesses.
2007-06-05 20:47:28 · answer #5 · answered by trebor namyl hcaeb 6 · 0⤊ 3⤋
They believe that Jesus is the created arch-angel Michael and not the eternal Son of God who was with God and is God as it is written in John 1:1.
Joh 1:1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God....14 And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, (and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father,) full of grace and truth.
They have a New World Testament and they have changed that verse to read that the word was "a god". The "a" is not there in the Greek rendering of the passage and they justify the insertion of "a" to make it "was a god" instead of "was God" by pointing out that there is no linking word between "was" and "God" and so the insertion of "a" is for gramatical purposes. The problem with that is that this is bad Greek and bad grammar. If they followed the same rule in that first verse in the rest of the chapter of John they would have verses 6 & 12 reading like this.
Joh 1:6 There was a man sent from 'a' god, whose name was John.
Joh 1:12 But as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of 'a' god, even to them that believe on his name:
2007-06-05 20:42:56 · answer #6 · answered by Martin S 7 · 1⤊ 3⤋
They reject the trinity; the Father (Creator) is God alone, Jesus is only His son, and the Spirit is God's force not a person.
They believe in annihilation, that those who die without faith perish for all eternity without condemnation in hell because they don't believe in hell.
Also, they believe that only 144,000 will get to dwell in the New Jerusalem.
There are many other differences as well.
2007-06-05 20:31:15 · answer #7 · answered by Holy Holly 5 · 2⤊ 2⤋
To add to your list, JWs do not believe that foreign blood should be put into ones own body so blood transfusions/organ donations are out of the question. They don't celebrate JC's birth. I have friends that could go on and on with this list...
2007-06-05 20:30:24 · answer #8 · answered by Anonymous · 4⤊ 2⤋
They happened to show up at my door this morning and I told them I wasn't Christian, I was wiccan. They seemed to have no idea what I was talking about. I was very nice to them and they seemed very nice, but I let them know I was not going to convert.
2007-06-05 20:39:40 · answer #9 · answered by Amy 4 · 0⤊ 2⤋
- they do not believe in the Trinity
- they believe blood doning/transfusions are wrong
- they believe the Holy Ghost is just a force
- they don't believe in being born again
- they don't celebrate birthdays or holidays to my knowledge
- probably don't get baptized, not sure
2007-06-05 21:16:40 · answer #10 · answered by Hey, Ray 6 · 1⤊ 3⤋