![]() ![]() They believe that Christmas and Easter have pagan purposes and are thereby sinful to acknowledge. They do not celebrate birthdays or other holidays. God will allegedly destroy all other churches except for Kingdom Halls in the future.Īnother noteworthy aspect about Jehovah’s Witnesses is their sense of separateness in the world. Overall, a Jehovah’s Witness will argue that their expression of faith represents true Christianity, while all other Christians are condemned. They also believe other people outside the 144,000 will also experience life, too, but the others will live on earth outside of the heavenly realm after the earth has been purified. These chosen people will rule in heaven as kings and priests alongside Jesus. This is a strict interpretation of Revelation 14:1-5. Regarding heaven and hell, Jehovah’s Witnesses believe that only 144,000 people will make it to heaven. They believe that Satan currently controls all governments, and so likewise Jehovah’s Witnesses are taught to not participate in politics. They believe that Satan arrived on earth on October 1, 1914. Jehovah’s Witnesses also have unique views about Satan. This nontrinitarian belief is profoundly different from mainstream Christianity and church teaching from the past 2,000 years. ![]() Jesus is simply viewed as a king or ruler in Jehovah’s kingdom who will oversee rule in the future. Yet they are forbidden from worshipping Christ-only Jehovah is to be worshipped. They do believe that God created Jesus, he existed on earth, and that he died for the world’s sins. They focus more on Jehovah as God than they would Jesus. They reject the belief that God is revealed in three persons-Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, as taught by scriptural tradition and the historical creeds of faith like the Apostles’ and Nicaean-and simply worship Jehovah alone. One of the most notable differences between Jehovah’s Witnesses and Christianity is their views on the trinity. Their faith is further exercised by distributing literature, notably The Watchtower and Awake! pamphlets and magazines door-to-door. They require adult baptism and argue that baptisms from all other denominations/religions are invalid and no good. They are what is known as an apocalyptic religion, believing that doom will befall earth in the very near future. They emphasize accepting Jehovah in order to survive the impending destruction of the world. Members are required to devote so many hours a month to evangelize by passing out Jehovah’s Witness printed material in public on street corners and throughout local neighborhoods.Īs the name implies, Jehovah’s Witnesses believe that God is known as Jehovah. Jehovah’s Witness Kingdom Halls (local congregations) are led by about a dozen men with an acting president. Jehovah’s Witnesses have actually been persecuted in many tragic periods of history, including the Holocaust.Įventually the Jehovah’s Witness moved their headquarters to New York and have roughly 8.5 million adherents worldwide today in about 120,000 congregations. He firmly believed that Jesus was about to return back to earth any day, and that humans were living in the “last days.” His followers spread the message and planted congregations all across the world. Russell formed what was known as the Watch Tower Society and began to extensively publish his thoughts. He denied the immortality of the soul, the physical return of Christ, and the concept of the trinity. He worked as a Christian minister and bible scholar in early adulthood, but soon began to reject many mainstream teachings of Christianity. Russell had a background in the Presbyterian and a Congregationalist churches. The religion was founded by a man named Charles Taze Russell in Pennsylvania in 1870. The history and evaluation of this movement is somewhat controversial, with many Christians alleging that Jehovah’s Witness is actually a cult, rather than an individual denomination of Christianity. Jehovah’s Witness was a new religious movement created during the late 1800s. For many reasons, I believe it’s important for Christians to understand other religions, from being able to communicate with evangelism to understanding what Christianity itself teaches.Īnyways, here’s a write-up I did for him based off several religious encyclopedias and reference books. He was interested about what they believed, and if they were considered a part of Christianity. He was curious about Jehovah’s Witnesses, as his grandmother occasionally took him to a Kingdom Hall growing up. For this week, I thought it would be nice to share some research I had done for an inmate in the prison program I do at Tucker. ![]()
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