Upon what distinctive doctrines does the Watchtower Society base its claim that it is the ...?

Question

only true religious group??

Many different groups ( Watchtower Society, Mormons, Roman Catholics, Unification Church, etc ) claim that they are the only organization that properly represents Jehovah God on earth.

Obviously, not everyone can be right. Each organzation claims to be right and all other organizations are wrong. A group that claims to be God's exclusive channel of communication on this earth should have distinctive doctrines which no other group has.

Line Dancer: I do not follow any religion. Christianity is a personal relationship with Jesus. I have that. I do not need to go around and say that my religion is the true one because everyone who accept Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior will be saved. Jesus did not ask us to be religious, He actually came here to free us from religions and to teach us how to have a personal and life saving relationship with God. He still is the perfect example, not any organization or the church or the religion.

Your response makes it clear tht you do not understand that salvation is not a church related thing. Salvation is only thorough the mercy and grace of God to ALL of His people. You do not care to be in that group, because you rather follow your church, your organization and you falsely claim that your organization is the only true religion. If you want to get your credit for your works here, that would be all what you get: your organization's credit. And the only reason you do not get salvation by mercy is because you rejected it. So, it is wise to choose the group you belong to. My friends Pedi, Unsilenced Lamb, Sasi etc. we indeed belong to the same "church" = body of Christ regardless of our worship style

Yes, I am a non-denominational Christian but I do not go around telling that only non-denominational Christians do get saved.

You do not know me. You know " Nina" and currently " Nina" is concentrating on the Watchtower doctrines. Are not you happy that someone pays attention to them? I am not attaching. You just feel that way because you need to defend very odd doctrines. Yes, I am saved. Yes, I show that I have a personal relationship with Jesus. Otherwise I would not care if one follows false teachings. Line Dancer, you are a name caller and a back stabber, I guess all that with your organization's full consent. But you have a false security with your deeds, who are actually guite eveil when you see the big picture. You are trying to lead peole to hell...but you do not have to think about it,because you do not believe in hell. You have your free will. If you do not choose heaven, go to hell then. Hell is a real place.

Vot Anar: I am not bashing your religion. I do not believe it is the true religion.

You have a freedom to choose, you do not have to let your organization to dictate what you have to believe to be saved.

YOU can be saved outside of your organization!! And you do not have to join in to my church. You can find yourself a churich that teaches how to have a life savng relationshp with God, who is Jesus Christ. If you do not believe anything else, digest this. Why would you have to be Jehovah's Witness to be saved?? God loves you.

Answer 1

They may have distinctive doctrines, but that is not the key to being a chosen one of God. In fact, they are even further from the kingdom if they do claim that their distinctives makes them the chosen few. God hates this foolish game that religious people play. Because God, although being Omnipotent, is also gentle and humble in spirit (Matthew 11:29). This they don't understand, if they claim Him to be theirs alone. Why? Because they are blinded by the spirit of this world that tells them they must have some special position and/or power from within themselves, in order to be God's chosen (i.e., some form of works-righteousness, the "right" doctrines, etc.). Many trip over the stumbling block about the truth of God's kingdom being the exact inverse of the characteristics of the kingdoms of this world. This is why Russellites miss the significance of its "upside-downness" (actually it's right-side-up, and the world has been upside-down since the fall of man). Remember, Jesus said if one wanted to be great in the kingdom of Heaven, he must be the lowliest servant (the word actually is "slave") of all. (Mark 10:43-44) It is why they think that if Jesus really was Whom evangelical Christians claim Him to be, God incarnate, He never would've said that His Father is greater than Him, nor Paul never would have wrote that, ...being in the form of God, He didn't consider equality with God something to be grasped..." (Philippians 2:6) They sadly do not understand what these statements truly mean. Jesus never bragged by comparing Himself to others about His position before His Father, and neither should we. We must only brag about Him! Therefore, self or group-aggrandizement and bragadoccia about being the only chosen ones, for whatever reason, is actually one of the most evident examples of the spirit of not being the only ones chosen, but not being chosen at all!

Answer 2

The Watchtower Society was built and organized around teachings and "prophecies" that were long ago proven false, but they do have a number of distinctive teachings that continue to set them apart from other religious groups, as well as from authentic Christianity.

Only one church is known to have been founded by Jesus Christ, and only one church can trace it's beginnings directly back to Jesus, to St. Peter, the other "Rock", and to the apostles ... and that is the Catholic church ... which has continuously proclaimed the only complete and correct gospel message, all around the world, since the earliest days of Christianity.

And for at least the first 1500 years of the church, the gospel was indeed an exclusively Catholic message.

It was Jesus who promised to bless and keep his authentic church until the end of time, no matter what, and it was Jesus who assigned the Holy Spirit to his church, to make sure that authentic and truthful doctrines would always be taught and maintained.

Jesus never provided these types of divine assurances to any other person or group.

And in spite of all the obvious corruption over the years, both inside and outside the Catholic church, Jesus appears to have kept his word.

Check the facts, and you'll see that all of the above is true.

Answer 3

The four marks of the true church are: 1. One (basic doctrines are the same throughout the entire world). 2. Holy (Founded by Jesus Christ 3. Universal (It is open and available to everyone. No one can be excluded) 4. Apostolic (It can be trased back to the Apostles in history. The Roman Catholic Church qualifies on all counts. It also maintains that all can be saved through the Church (regardless of actual membership) by following a sincere, honest and informed conscience. However, it maintains that the best way to do this is by being an actual member. Basic doctrines are the Trinity, the seven sacraments including the Eurcharist (the Mass), and the articles of faith.

Answer 4

Sadly, the JW's, as others have made categorical claims about when Jesus will return. When Jesus didn't come to time they had to adapt their thinking, probably four times (if I remember correctly).

They failed to note that Jesus said, when asked, that only his Father knew the time of his return. So we can't get any better authority than that.

So, if my understanding is correct, they now say that Jesus is present invisibly in the world (playing on the word perusia/presence).

However, the word of God says that Jesus will return in his glory and every eye will see him. Also, as lightning shines from the east to the west so shall the coming of the son of man be. When Jesus was taken up into heaven the angels said he would return in the same way - visibly.

To answer other questions: It is not the name of any church a person belongs to but whether they take the word of God out of context.

This is not said to knock people but unwise doctrines.

Answer 5

What about your religion? Do you feel it is the one true religion? After all, does not Eph. 4:5 say that there is "One Lord, one faith, and one baptism." You claim to be a non-denominational Christian. Do your teachings agree with other non-denominational churches? The answer is a big fat NO! Each of your churches is a sovereign in itself, meaning that each church is free to teach and believe whatever it wants. The same goes for the Baptists.

So, do you believe that your religious splinter group is the one true religion? Jesus said to "go and make disciples of people of ALL the nations." Is your group making disciples WORLD WIDE or is it content just to serve the area where the local WalMart is?

What about you and your advocates, such as Sasi, Unsilenced Lamb, PediC, and Greg M? There is a good chance that you don't all belong to the same church. Tell me, do you ALL learn the same thing? NO! Do you ALL believe the same thing? NO! So, can ALL of your respective religions be right? Obviously NOT!

FYI, you DO follow a religion. Non-denomination "Christianity" IS a religion or denomination. Don't fool yourself.

"Jesus did not ask us to be religious, He actually came here to free us from religions."

Jesus DID free his disciples from FALSE religion. But he wanted them to be religious nonetheless. Jesus taught them the RIGHT WAY to go about it. Since religion involves WORSHIP, Jesus told his disciples at John 4:23 that the "true WORSHIPERS will WORSHIP the Father (NOT THE TRINITY) with spirit and truth." Jesus taught his followers to to be free from false religion, which you are a part of.

You say you have a personal relationship with Jesus? Are you showing it? Clearly, NO! Would a true Christian go out of her way to focus her attacks on ONE religious group, considering the fact that there are literally thousands of other religions in the world, all teaching and believing different doctrines? No. A true disciple of Christ prefers to focus attention on what the Bible says and then leave it up to the person to decide what to do with that information.

If you feel you have the true religion, why aren't you telling others what it is and what it offers to seekers of Bible truth? Obviously, you can't do that.

Answer 6

The problem with that is that we all (basically) use the same Bible and thus the same scriptures to support our claims. Unfortunately, the Bible can easily be misinterpreted because so many aspects of it are cultural--from a culture many people know nothing about. Now, specifically, Jehova's Witness (watchtower society) actually changed several verse within the Bible to mean something different and completely change the theology.

Kind of a funny tid bit of history regarding "Jehova." When God told Moses his name, the Jews thought it was SO sacred and SO Holy that they wouldn't use it casually, and in an effort to not do so they wrote his name in their scriptures without certain letters...the "oh-so-brilliant-people" who picked up their scriptures decided the missing letters spelled "Jehova" when in fact they spelled "Yahweh". Any religion that bases their name on a misinterpretation of a VERY important/sacred/holy name has some issues (inconsistencies I mean).

Answer 7

Any religion claiming to be Christian that has any 'distinctive' doctrines automatically rules itself out! The proof of a truly Christian group is that it has nothing new, nothing to add on top of what the 1st century disciples preached and practiced. It proclaims the old, old story of Christ's redeeming love, holds fast to the apostles' creed (as stated in Scripture) and continues the apostlic work of witnessing to Christ.

The Watchtower Society boasts of new revelation around 1919 that identified their leaders as 'the faithful and discreet slave,' with prophecies in Revelation applying to their religion as God's means of pouring out his wrath after Christ returned (invisibly) in 1914. Around the 1930s they introduced a two-tier 'Christianity' with two distinct hopes (destinations = a new 'good news' with only 144,000 to go to heaven. This included a novel twist that only the 144,000 need to be born again and can be anointed with 'holy spirit'.) Then in the late 1950s it introduced a new 'take' on a few verses about blood causing hundreds of thousands of JWs to die due to upholding this new teaching about blood transfusions. All its other 'distinctive doctrines' are actually more or less the same as all others found in pseudo-Christian denominations (no hell, no eternal soul, no Trinity etc).

Supremely, any group's claim that it is God's EXCLUSIVE channel today, shows breath-taking arrogance that immediately proves it to be God-dishonoring.

Answer 8

I admire your conviction. You're up against here, there's no doubt about that. People who never question their belief system and just take it for granted that they are right - the 'one true church' - if you will, really have no solid ground for attacking you. But attacked you will be, make no mistake about that. Briefly, people believe what they are told or what they 'feel' is right without ever questioning what the truth really is. We are commanded after all to 'prove all things'. I wish you well.

Answer 9

Hey, that's great you love your friends. Friends outside of family is a great and wonderful gift in a person's life. In fact sometimes friends love you more than family. I love my JW friend with all of my heart. I love her not for a moment or for an hour, but with every beat of my heart (she sleeps). Because that is the way Jesus commanded us to love. I hope this questions of yours is for your love to the JW's if you feel their doctrine is separating them from Christ Jesus and not for the satisfaction of your friends. God Almighty knows the difference; it is only Him that reads the heart. I pray for the Holy Spirit to come upon them to show them the truth of ALL Laws that are forgiven by Jesus our SAVIOUR & REDEEMER. They are NOT guilty of "blaspheme of the Holy Spirit" like some others that are. I never give up hope because I love Christ Jesus.

Answer 10

They by no skill formally predicted it. they simply heavily, heavily implied it. probable some bigger-united statesin the enterprise have been preaching it immediately however the enterprise itself by no skill left any written information of a definitive prediction that Armageddon could are available in 1975. by using that factor that they had failed sufficient cases to be extra careful, and fortunately (for the sake of all those they have below their sway) because then they have purely mentioned that it is "purely around the corner."