jehovah's witness?

Question

i am a jehovah's witness, and well alot of people have...lets just say, "strong opinions" on us, so im curious to what everyone thinks...

i dont like doing capitals on anything, lol i type faster without having to do that haha and yea i realy am one

so far, this seems to be very interesting, you guys are bringing up points i never thought of, i was raised a Jehovah's witness, so i never have herd the other half of the story..

Answer 1

Jehovah's Witnesses have a remarkably satisfying, bible-supported theology which frequently seems to almost literally "have all the answers"; yet isn't that what one would expect from true Christianity?

Jehovah's Witnesses are unique for their rejection of paganisms, use of God's personal name, and global preaching by every active adherent. No other religious organization can claim such purity of worship.

These facts about Jehovah's Witnesses are perhaps relevant to this question. The more one compares this Christian religion with others, the more remarkable it is shown to be.

1. Jehovah's Witnesses have no paid clergy. Yet they remain tightly organized with more than 6.5 million active Jehovah's Witness preachers (about 16 million associate themselves with the religion). Even fulltime preachers and workers at their branch offices are unpaid volunteers.

2. There is no elite class among Jehovah's Witnesses. Even the few 'anointed' among them enjoy no special privileges in their congregations on earth. An anointed person (one of those relative few with a heavenly hope) is not elevated above his fellow congregants in any way, and he may not even qualify for appointment as a simple 'deacon' or elder. There are no titles; EVERYONE is addressed as 'brother' or 'sister'.

3. No person benefits economically from the Christian Congregation of Jehovah's Witnesses. Even the 8 to 20 men who serve on their Governing Body receive simply room, board, medical care, and reimbursement for certain personal expenses according to the exact same provision as every other branch volunteer.

4. About a hundred men have served on Jehovah's Witnesses' Governing Body committee during the past 125 years or so. The vast majority of them have spent the vast majority of their adult lives volunteering for their organization's purposes, and the vast majority have died faithfully and near-pennilessly while still under their legal 'vow of poverty'.

5. Amazingly, Jehovah's Witnesses did not splinter as a sect from some other religion. Instead, a truly tiny but sincere group of bible students studied only the Scriptures to determine the will of God. Thus their religion remains absolutely independent of and not carrying the sins of Christendom's history, yet carries the authority of Christ's teachings.

6. Despite the distortions of anti-Witnesses, throughout their modern history Jehovah's Witnesses have refused to claim divine inspiration or infallibility for their teachings. They have pointed to the bible (and not any particular translation) as the only inspired infallible means of knowing God's thoughts. For over 125 years, their teachings have been presented as merely the results of sincere bible research by imperfect but godly humans.


Learn more:
http://watchtower.org/e/jt/index.htm?article=article_07.htm
http://watchtower.org/e/20040601/article_02.htm
http://jw-media.org/people/who.htm
http://jw-media.org/people/statistics.htm

Answer 2

I like your open mind, its always good to hear an outside view.
I really respect several aspects of your religion. Your devotion to study, bible knowledge, pioneer work and closeness within your group are things that I admired. One of my friends is a jw and she's a wonderful person. She wanted me to join, but I didn't; Im a B-A Christian and I simply can't believe that the WT was the FDS in 1919. I did alot of research coz I realy wanted to help her, and I found much more than the Proclaimers book told me. But I think jws are beautiful zealous people. I have to agree with the other guy that the WT doesnt seem to allow much questioning for the baptized, but questioning the WT is not questioning God. We need to examine what we believe and make sure of all things.

.Hey, Im curious too, what do Jehovah's Witnesses think about Christians? Plz let me know- [e-mail]
Thanks

Answer 3

I think the biggest difference between Jehovah's Witness and mainstream Christian theology has to do with the early creeds and confessions of the Christian church. I believe it was the Athanasian creed that made an official statement about a heresy that had begun to creep into Christianity, and Jehovah's Witnesses see that creed itself as an "invention" of man, as if it was out of the blue.

This creed taught the concept of the Trinity, and therefore the deity and personhood of Jesus and the the Holy Spirit. You deny this, of course, with a plethora of verses to prove your point.

Jehovah's Witnesses can state their case, and can be quite adept at manipulating scripture to their own meaning, but often use logical fallacies and verses take out of context to do so. Too often I've heard "show me one verse" when it's really an overarching concept that is involved from inference that is not accepted by the JW.

And so the two sides of the fence disagree with and desperately try to convert each other to their point of view. I enjoy a good debate, but the few I've had with JWs have been completely without resolution. I simply look at the Bible differently than you do, and knock on my door all you like, I believe you are in error. And error should not be embraced but rather refuted at every turn.

Answer 4

Jehovah's witnesses recently came to my door and handed me a pamphlet stating, "all suffering to end"

On the cover in a grass field were two african americans, a moose, several other misplaced animals and a cornucopia of foods.

I'm sure you guys have lots of great values and spirtuality I believe is very important . . . BUT . . . you guys sell the whole thing waaay wrong, and the whole door to door thing makes it like a cult.

Also, I've heard some strong opinions about the rest of the world from the jehovah's witnesses . . . don't try and push religion on people. I personally believe we're all just energy and our consciousness is just evidence that the universe is becoming aware of itself. Is that true? well just because I believe it to be so doesn't mean I'm going to knock on other peoples doors and try and get them to believe what I believe.

No ill will to you my friend. This was my honest opinion.

Answer 5

You are going to have to be more specific. For example:

What are my opinions on Russellite "translation" of the scriptures?

What are my opinions on the accuracy of Russellite prophecies?


I have no strong opinions on you personally, I don't know you. I am sure you are a perfectly wonderful person because you seem to be open to discussion.

--edit I find it sad that your fellow JWs (Russellites) feel the need to oppress you (2Q&Learn) when you simply ask a question which appears to be a desire for open dialogue. I would fear any religion which condemns you for questioning.

What are people like 2Q&Learn afraid will happen if JWs begin to ask quesitons? Be careful they will start threatening you saying that you will become apostate by opening up what you believe for questions.

If what you believe can't stand up to questioning maybe you should look elsewhere.


I also find it sad that I get the thumbs down from them before I actually say anything about JWs at all.

Answer 6

Why are you giving opportunity for haters of JWs to voice their hatred?
Don't you realize that you become partly responsible for their posts & the effects that they have on readers feelings--both for God & for JWs? If you really are a JW, you already know the varied feelings about us. They are no different on Y!As than in the rest of the world. Some like, some respect, some tolerate, & some outright hate JWs...
Personally, I find you --JW or otherwise-- immature, irresponsible, & without self-awareness...
JWs don't ask people in general the kind of questions that you have been asking, at *any* age. Your claim to being a JW doesn't sound plausible, to me. Raised around JWs, perhaps, but, serious JWs go to the Bible, JW parents, & JW elders for answers, not the world ingeneral.

(This is what I would have sent via email,
if you were allowed to have it, at 15yo.)

I hope that you are responsible enough to remove your Q.
This is the real world...

edited:
Do a search on Y!As,
which will turn up whatever hasn't been deleted yet.

Not capitalizing names is disrespectful, & says something about you!
You don't care about the impression that you make on others?
That's definately irresponsible.

Being raised by members of any religion,
does NOT make the child of that faith.
Just knowledgeable, if they've been listening.

Answer 7

I for one am glad that you have asked a good question and I really hope you will be able to see the truth that is only found in the bible.
I will say one thing that firstly I think Jehovah's Witnesses are very good people who are mislead by the stuff they hear in there meetings and assemblies. The bible is always right and they say there is no Hell and no devil but this is all written in the bible.
The main thing that I cannot understand is why do Jehovah's witnesses are blind to their own history. The founding Pastor Russell suggested a test to determine which prophets we should not follow
"Jehovah, the God of the true prophets, will put all false prophets to shame either by not fulfilling the false prediction of such self-assuming prophets or by having His own prophecies fulfilled in a way opposite to that predicted by the false prophets. False prophets will try to hide their reason for feeling shame by denying who they really are."

This is amazing that he said this because how many prophecies have been said by the Jehovah's witnesses and have never come to pass.
Brief Summary of Watchtower dates:

•1872 Beginning of the millennium. Wrong! Watchtower publications later changed the date to 1975, another date in which it did not happen.

•1874 Christ's second coming. Nothing happened. The Bible says His second coming will be seen by all.

•1914 All world governments to be overthrown. God will glorify His people and govern the world.

•1915 When man's governments were not replaced by God's in 1914, the date was changed to 1915. The Watchtower Society later admitted these prophecies "had not been fulfilled."

•1918 End of Gentile times, the churches to be destroyed.

•1920 The mountains, republics, and kingdoms were to disappear.

•1925 The kingdom was to be established in Palestine. Faithful men of the Old Testament were to return. It was later admitted that this and the 1918 prediction were wrong.

•1929 A house was built for the return of the Old Testament faithful. It was sold in 1948 because they did not return.

•1932 The Watchtower stated that the date for the overthrow of Christendom had been moved up from 1925 (previously 1918) to 1932 and that the overthrow did not happen in 1932 either.

•1975 Since the Millennium had not begun in 1872, the date was changed to 1975. Again nothing happened.

This should make people wake up that this is not a Christian religion and it has false prophets and they should go and look in the bible for answers. There is a true Church that has been built on the proper foundations and it has existed throughout the ages and no one has been able to stop it because it is built on Jesus Christ as the foundation. Catholics tried very hard to destroy them but they survived and many did die for there faith.

Answer 8

the only thing I really don't like about the beliefs is the whole "blood shall not pass from man to man" thing.

I think it's kind of silly that you'd be lying on your deathbed in need of a transfusion and deny it.


Then again; i've heard you're allowed to give blood and reserve it for yourself?


Edit:

all I said was that the meal she made was good enough for Jehovah!

Jehovah! Jehovah! Jehovah!

Answer 9

As far as everyone Pushing the fact that they (Witness) are pushing the religion on others, need to think about ...the be headings you get, when you don't convert to Islam...At least you guys don't threaten death...i guess it's not so bad after all....

Answer 10

I for one was a practicing Catholic for 30 years. I had soooo many questions about what the Bible said and what others tried to tell me. I really wanted to learn the truth but to my sadness was always disappointed from my church and the priests that where preaching from the bible. I read that idols worship was wrong but in a church it was ok to have idols of Mary and the apostles. The Bible taught you should not worship no other but God but then they worship Mary and Joseph and Jesus. Jesus always taught to worship God. He never took glory to himself but to God his father only. I prayed to God to help me find the path to him and yes you guessed it one of Jehovah's Witnesses came to my door. I was shocked to think of all religions it was the Witnesses that came to my door not the Catholics, not the Mormons not the Pentecostals but Jehovah's people came to my door....do the math all of you who dought. I was a septic till I listened to what they believed and all of it I had already read long before the even said it so I came to the conclusion on my own they just reaffirmed what I had already learned on my own.