whats the difference between a greek orthodox christian and a Jehovah's Witness?

Question

i want to know the difference between a Jehovah's witness and a greek orthodox christian.

Answer 1

Jehovah's Witnesses are relatively unique among self-described Christians in that they understand the Scriptures to teach that God's Kingdom by Christ Jesus is a real government which will soon replace all earthly governments.
(Daniel 2:44) God of heaven will set up a kingdom... It will crush and put an end to all these kingdoms, and it itself will stand to times indefinite

That Kingdom will rule over the vast majority of mankind, most of whom will have been raised from the dead after Armageddon.
(John 11:23,24) Jesus said to her: “Your brother will rise.” Martha said to him: “I know he will rise in the resurrection on the last day.”
(Acts 24:15) There is going to be a resurrection of both the righteous and the unrighteous.

Until that resurrection, there is no suffering in "hell", or the grave. Sometime after the resurrection, death and "hell" will themselves be destroyed.
(Ecclesiastes 9:5) For the living are conscious that they will die; but as for the dead, they are conscious of nothing at all
(Ecclesiastes 9:10) there is no work nor devising nor knowledge nor wisdom in Sheol ["hell"]
(Revelation 20:14) And death and Hades ["hell"] were hurled into the lake of fire

While a limitted number of humans will be resurrected to heaven to share in ruling over mankind, the vast majority (literally more than 99.9%) of Jehovah's Witnesses expect an EARTHLY hope, the same hope given to Adam and Eve.
(Genesis 1:28) God blessed them and God said to them: “Be fruitful and become many and fill THE EARTH and subdue it [caps added]
(Genesis 2:17) You must not eat from it, for in the day you eat from it you will positively die [so never eating from that tree means never dying]

Interestingly, the Scriptures are full of references to this earthly hope.
(Psalms 37:11) 'the meek will possess the earth'
(Proverbs 2:21) 'upright will reside in the earth'
(Isaiah 45:18) 'God formed the earth to be inhabited'
(Matthew 5:5) 'the mild will inherit the earth'
(Revelation 21:3) The tent of God is with mankind

Learn more:
http://watchtower.org/e/lmn/index.htm?article=article_10.htm
http://watchtower.org/e/rq/index.htm?article=article_06.htm
http://jw-media.org/beliefs/trueworship.htm
http://watchtower.org/e/jt/

http://watchtower.org/e/dg/index.htm?article=article_11.htm

Answer 2

Part of the differance is that Orthodox Christianity (not just Greek, btw) is a far older denomination than the Jehovah's Witnesses (who if memory serves were first incorporated in the early part of the 20th century).

But one of the most important differances that I have found is in the fact that the JW do not accept any previous translations of the Bible as accurate, and Orthodox Christians use a Bible based on the Septaguint texts for the Old Testament and the portions of the New Testament agreed upon by the councils of Nicea in the 5th century. The Greek Orthodox in particular still use the same Greek biblical texts as were in use over 1000 years ago so I would consider their texts to be more relable than the translations that the JW have made in the last century.

As for the aggressive "missionary" work of the JW, that is a practice that the Orthodox do not engage in.

Answer 3

I do not know what Greek Orthodox christians believe so I can not comment on their beliefs, only my own. As one of Jehovah's Witnesses, I believe in and serve Jehovah as my creator and the sovereign of the universe. Jesus Christ is the son of God and my Lord and savior. He is the head of the Christian congregation of Jehovah's Witnesses.

Answer 4

Greek For Witness

Answer 5

Greek Orthodox, or Eastern Orthodox (Eastern meaning Eastern European) split from the Catholic church before the Protestants did. It was a dispute over whether or not the little statues of holy figures you see around churches were 'idols' or not. They still have priests, and confessions.

Jehovah's Witnesses by comparison are a relatively new group of evangelical Christians. Part of their doctrine is actively converting new believers (witnessing): if this is also part of Orthodox doctrine, I haven't seen one doing it.

Answer 6

The Orthodox Church was founded by our Lord Jesus Christ and is the living manifestation of His presence in the history of the mankind. The most conspicuous characteristics of Orthodoxy are its rich liturgical life and its faithfulness to the apostolic tradition. It is believed by Orthodox Christians that their Church has preserved the tradition and continuity of the ancient Church in its fullness compared to other Christian denominations which have departed from the common tradition of the Church of the first 10 centuries. Today Orthodox Church numbers approximately 300 million Christians who follow the faith and practices that were defined by the first seven ecumenical councils. The word orthodox ("right belief and right glory") has traditionally been used, in the Greek-speaking Christian world, to designate communities, or individuals, who preserved the true faith (as defined by those councils), as opposed to those who were declared heretical. The official designation of the church in its liturgical and canonical texts is "the Orthodox Catholic Church" (gr. catholicos = universal).

The Orthodox Church is a family of "autocephalous" (self governing) churches, with the Ecumenical (= universal) Patriarch of Constantinople holding titular or honorary primacy as primus inter pares (the first among equals). The Orthodox Church is not a centralized organization headed by a pontiff. The unity of the Church is rather manifested in common faith and communion in the sacraments and no one but Christ himself is the real head of the Church. The number of autocephalous churches has varied in history. Today there are many: the Church of Constantinople (Istanbul), the Church of Alexandria (Egypt), the Church of Antioch (with headquarters in Damascus, Syria), and the Churches of Jerusalem, Russia, Serbia, Romania, Bulgaria, Georgia, Cyprus, Greece, Poland, Albania and America

There are also "autonomous" churches (retaining a token canonical dependence upon a mother see) in Czech and Slovak republic, Sinai, Crete, Finland, Japan, China and Ukraine. In addition there is also a large Orthodox Diaspora scattered all over the world and administratively divided among various jurisdictions (dependencies of the above mentioned autocephalous churches). The first nine autocephalous churches are headed by patriarchs, the others by archbishops or metropolitans. These titles are strictly honorary as all bishops are completely equal in the power granted to them by the Holy Spirit.

The order of precedence in which the autocephalous churches are listed does not reflect their actual influence or numerical importance. The Patriarchates of Constantinople, Alexandria, and Antioch, for example, present only shadows of their past glory. Yet there remains a consensus that Constantinople's primacy of honor, recognized by the ancient canons because it was the capital of the ancient Byzantine empire, should remain as a symbol and tool of church unity and cooperation. Modern pan-Orthodox conferences were thus convoked by the ecumenical patriarch of Constantinople. Several of the autocephalous churches are de facto national churches, by far the largest being the Russian Church; however, it is not the criterion of nationality but rather the territorial principle that is the norm of organization in the Orthodox Church.

In the wider theological sense "Orthodoxy is not merely a type of purely earthly organization which is headed by patriarchs, bishops and priests who hold the ministry in the Church which officially is called "Orthodox." Orthodoxy is the mystical "Body of Christ," the Head of which is Christ Himself (see Eph. 1:22-23 and Col. 1:18, 24 et seq.), and its composition includes not only priests but all who truly believe in Christ, who have entered in a lawful way through Holy Baptism into the Church He founded, those living upon the earth and those who have died in the Faith and in piety."

The Jehovah's Witnesses are a bunch of heretics who like to believe Jesus was the Archangel Michael, when He died he evaporated into some vapourous gas, i've forgotten the other fairytales.

Answer 7

The word "orthodoxy" - Ortho (correct) doxy (belief) - should tell you all you need to know...

An Orthodox Christian believes in the Nicene Creed - and the Creed declares that Jesus is God.

JW's deny the Creed, practice the Arian Heresy (that the Council of Nicea condemned) and believe that Jesus is a created being.

That is all the difference there needs to be.

One is "ortho" (correct) "doxy" (belief) - the other...is not.

Answer 8

I know that the Greek Orthodox priests HATE the JW's here. That's enough reason for me to like the Witnesses. When I see priest spewing hatred and threatening remarks on these peaceful people (one actually started preaching about how they were demons while he was blessing machine guns for the national holiday!) I get naseaous.

Answer 9

Honestly I don't know what you consider the beliefs of GOC to be. I often have found that when someone of another faith tries to explain the my faith.

I tell you what, since you know your beliefs, your best bet is to talk with a Witness, Bible in hand, and compare your beliefs with ours, or if you wish you can go to http://www.watchtower.org and you can get a basic idea of our beliefs and do the comparison.

Answer 10

EASY...the Orthodox believes THE TRINITY!!