Jehovah's witnesses

How do you view them?

 

Funny, nice people (the ones I have meet). They believe everything is pure, but talk about the influence of Satan. Must be an acquired sense of humor, sorta like having a palette for Scotch. I went to a kingdom meeting stoned, and the middle of the sermon was about how weed was evil. I got a kick out of that, and still do, although I did feel slightly alienated until I remembered that part of the sermon was about not succombing to the pressures of the world (peer pressure) and stand up for what you believe to be right.

Pretty silly stuff.

 

They know the importance of spreading the gospel. I will give them that.

 

My husband was raised as a Witness, but has been separated from the religion since he was 18 years old (he is now approaching 31 years of age). He adamantly disagrees with the vast majority of the teachings, and from what I have heard from him and read about it myself through curious research, I don't agree either. I honestly can't comprehend a lot of what they believe, it just seems bizarre in my opinion.

 

I like to greet them with Satan Rules!!! and then refuse to listen to their fantastic arguments.


wake up.

(btw, satan is no better.)

 

I've been talking with them on a weekly basis for some time now cause I have nothing better to do. The vast majoirty of their beliefs come right from scripture. There is nothing that bizzare about it, unless of course you consider scripture to be bizzare, which some people do.

They are all very nice folks, at least all the ones that I have met.

 

no, I know, they're nice people. They're just too damn pushy. Don't infringe on me!

 

I like them, they sorta crack me up. Like this one, Pam, stops by my place about once a week and talks to me, and has invited me to a couple of their meetings. I talk to her about a lot of stuff, and we seem to agree on some things, and maybe not on others, but I think she is joking when she disagrees with me about something (like saying something is evil).

Like I said before, she agrees with the scripture statement "To the pure, all things are pure, but to those who are corrupted and do not believe, nothing is pure. In fact, both their minds and consciences are corrupted. "

 

I view them from behind. As they run away. While my 140 pound male rottweiller chases them down the street. And I laugh and laugh and laugh...

 

funny coming across this thread.... I just recently had my second visit with two lovely ladies who are full on believers even though at times I think thier age might work against them .. for they get quite confused sometimes on what it is they are talking about and believing in.....but as I said they are lovely and even though I don't really understand all of it it is always nice to hear someone elses idea of paradise (heaven,or what have you) ...... good thoughts from good people.. and I hate turning people from my door

 

I see

 

I disagree with probably everything the Jehovahs witnesses stand for. Including...

Blood transfusions
They don't believe in blood transfusions because (mainly) of one line in The Bible saying do not eat meat with blood in it. This is just silly in my opinion. Letting people die because of a tenuously derived instruction from one line of The Bible is crazy. instructions in The Bible are to help us, not to kill us!

Don't celebrate Christmas
They don't celebrate Christmas because of its pagan origins. This again seems incredibly silly. It's like refusing to sing a hymn that was adapted from a non-Christian song!

No crosses
Everyone knows Jesus died on the cross. Denying the cross is just silly, and ignorant.

Special Bible
Any religion based on ignorance cannot be a good thing. Followers are prohibited from reading any Bible other than the 'special' one written by the founders of the religion. In other words, they are predisposed to be ignorant. To me, this seems like sheer oppression.

Jesus not God
Well if you're reading a special bible with those bits taken out, it's easy not to believe Jesus was God.

Satan was kicked out of heaven in 1914
Ha ha ha! Sorry, this is just such a funny concept! The idea that heaven is not beyond our universe, but a physical place, in the sky, running in parallel to our own, and they have a calendar up there on the wall!

144,000 people will be saved
Ha ha ha ha ha! Sorry for laughing. Sorry. I just can't begin to explain how wrong this is. Yeah, ignore everything Jesus said and pay attention to a solitary line in The Revelation which is based on a dream, and make another tenuous inferrence from it. So... only a tiny fraction of Jehovah's Witnesses will be saved? Why bother being one, then?

It's important to get God's name right
According to the Jehovah's Witnesses' 'special' Bible, Romans 10:13 says "anyone who calls God's name will be saved". Actually, that's not what the text says. The text merely says anyone who calls out to God will be saved. And their belief in this quite clearly contradicts the 144,000 being saved thing. And also, if it's so important to get God's name right, why don't they refer to Jesus by his real name ('Yeshua')?

Earth will be transformed into 'heaven'
The Jehovah's Witnesses believe that there are two heavens: heaven where God lives, and heaven on Earth, which will happen in the future when the dead come back to life and live in heaven on Earth. The problem with this is that there are many places in The Bible that clearly say heaven is nothing like life on earth. And I'm not aware of any distinction in The Bible between two different heavens!

If any Jehovah's witnesses are reading this. I'm sorry to scoff. I do actually take these things seriously. But I believe Jehovah's Witnesses have just really, really got it wrong. I share your faith, but I urge you to reconsider your religion! A few years ago I was praying and I was shown a vision of a cross. That in itself tells me any religion that denies the cross is the wrong one. Do yourself a favour and read some different Bibles! Challenge the words of your religion and make sure you are certian!

 

I'm am not a Jehova's witness, but you really do need to get your facts straight. You speak continually of the ignorance of Jehova's witnesses, but you own ignorance is appaling.

Now they do believe in some things that seem a bit odd. Making a big deal out of the cross or "torture stake" (as they call it) thing is one. We know that the Romans used a variety of things to crucify people on, sometimes crosses, sometime stakes; bible referrences can be translanted either way. It really does not matter what the thing was shaped like. Getting upset about this either way is pretty stupid and pointless.

Christmas. Well they don't celebrate Christmas for several reasons. One, it is a dressed up pagan holiday like it or not. And by the way I don't remember reading anything about Santa Claus in the Bible. Never anywhere in the bible is celebrating of Christs birthday mention, celebration of it has nothing at all to do with being a "good Christian". Jesus was not born on December 25 anyway, he was most likely born sometime in June. The wtinesses teach that "God does not approve of them (beliefs) if they come from false religion" they site matthew 15:6 And honour not his father or his mother, he shall be free. Thus have ye made the commandment of God of none effect by your tradition."

Special Bible Their "special Bible" is essentially your garden variety modern translation, they did not take anything out or add anything. They did not take out passages where Jesus says that he is God for the simple reason that there are no such passages to begin with. Jesus says that he is the "Son of Man", the "Messiah", that God is his father, that he is the "way, the truth, and the life" but never that he is himself God.

Jesus was not God. To state merely that they believe that Jesus was not God is misleading in the extreme. What they do believe is the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are three distinct and wholly separate entities. They do not believe in a triune God, which makes sense since the dogma of a triune God is pure fantasy and has no scriptural backing whatsoever. They believe that Jesus (the Son) is not Jehova (the Father). Yeshua (Jesus) was Jehova's "only begotten son" not "Jehova himself". John 3:16 says "For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life" You will notice that the passage says "only begotten son" and not "himself"

Satan Kicked out of Heaven in 1914. The book that witnesses use a teaching tool for their basic beliefs says "In 1914, Jehova gave Jesus the authority He had promised him. Since then, Jesus has ruled in heaven as. . . king. . . As soon as Jesus became King, he threw Satan and his wicked angels out of heaven."

Blood Transfusion There are two Bible passages that the witnesses use to support the idea that blood transfusion are wrong, acts 21:25 As touching the Gentiles which believe, we have written and concluded that they observe no such thing, save only that they keep themselves from things offered to idols, and from blood, and from strangled, and from fornication. and matthew 16:25 For whosoever will save his life shall lose it: and whosoever will lose his life for my sake shall find it. The acts passage is fairly ambiguous, while the matthew passage is totally irrelevant, yet the witnesses use it anyhow, I don't know why.

Only 144,000 will be saved. No, they do not believe this. Somebody has been telling Dizzyman some lies. What they do believe is that only 144,000 will live in heaven with Jehova. They believe that an "uncountable multitude" will be saved and will live forever on paradise eath after the great tribulation and such.

God's name God's name is not "God" it is "Jehova" which is why they call God "Jehova". I don't really know why they don't call Jesus "Yeshua". Maybe it is because "Jesus" is a "name-to-name" translation of "yeshua. That is to say that the name "Yeshua" is translated as "Jesus" in English. It is like translating the spanish "Carlos" as "Charles". Jehova's witnesses who speak languages other than english tend to use whatever translation/pronounciation of "Yeshua" is used in their native language. Now translating "Jehova" as "God" is a "name-to-title" translation, it would be like translating the French "Louis XII" as "King". The problem here is obvious.

Earth transformed into heaven. They do not believe this. The Bible says that the earth will be transformed into a paradise (not into heaven) at the second coming. Therefore the Jehova's witnesses believe that the earth will be transformed into a paradise at the second coming. Never do they claim that there will be two heavens, their position is that there is heaven and there is earth. They also think that there is a hell of some kind. I really don't see why that is so difficult to understand.

If you really want to know what the Jehova's witnesses believe then go and find some Jehoav's witnesses to talk to. And stop beliveing anti-Jehova's witness propaganda.

p.s. I will edit this post tomorrow to add srciptual referrences and such, but right now I am tired and it is time for bed.

p.p.s. I have now done this editing

 

Professor Jumbo,

Thanks for clearing up those points! I'll admit I'm not too well-informaed about Jehovah's Witnesses. The only Jehovah's witnesses I've ever met are my two grandmothers, one of which is now dead and the other I rarely see as she lives a long way away. My information on Jehovah's witnesses comes more or less from conversations with them.

I used to make it my business to know a lot about other religions, but since I had my vision of the cross, I don't really care as much about investigating alternative religions, since I'll never change my mind!

There's no need to add scriptual references for my sake, by the way. Everything you said makes perfect sense without it.

There are some things I still dispute...

Cross

I agree that it doesn't matter. But since it's a plain historical fact that crucifictions used crosses, I think the Jehovah's Witnesses are too stubbornly clinging to their myth, almost for the sake of being different.

Christmas

I don't see how this could possibly be a reason not to celebrate it. The pagan holiday was transformed into a Christian holiday and it's all about Christ. It is not celebrated for pagan reasons. It is called Christmas. The fact that something ungodly has been transformed into something godly is all the more reason to celerbate the occasion and be joyous, since it represents the death of something bad and the birth of something good. How can that possibly be a bad thing? As I said, it's like standing in church and refusing to sing any hymn that has non-Christian origins (and there are quite a few).

Santa Claus is only a modern commercial tradition. It is by no means fundamental to the celebration of Christmas. Listing Santa Claus as a reason not to celebrate Christmas is like listing chocolate eggs as a reason not to celebrate Easter.

People don't celebrate Jesus' birthday because they are instructed! I have never celebrated anyone's birthday because I was instructed; it's done only out of love.

Dates don't matter. Christ didn't actually die at Easter, did he? But if you're celebrating something every year, you have to set a date for it. I don't think Jesus minds if we get the date wrong, given we don't know the date.

Special Bible

I dont' know too much about this, but I suspect that if they're not allowed to read any other Bible, there has to be something fundamentally different about this version. For one thing, I know that all references of Jesus being God are removed.

Jesus was not God.

But Jesus says in The Bible that he is God!

According to The Gospel, Jesus was both God's son and God himself. Jesus was God in human form, but God could never actually "leave" heaven and inhabit the earth, hence Jesus is also his own separate person, but directly representing God.

Only 144,000 will be saved.

Okay. My mistake. I'm sure I've heard it said that Jehovah's Witnesses believe only 144,000 will be saved. Guess I was misinformed?

God's name

I totally understand why people would call God 'Jehovah', but Jehovah's Witnesses believe that you won't be saved unless you address him with the correct name. And this is based on a bad translation of the Greek Gospel (as I explained). Also, it doesn't really matter what you call God because the name 'Jehova' is just a Greek name. More importantly, it's just a human word. If God himself has an actual name, it's unlikely to be one that a humans could speak. Jehova is just a name used to refer to God, just like Jesus is just a name used to refer to Yeshua. Neither of these names actually is the thing it describes — it's just a name.

The Gospel refers to The Lord with many names. Sometimes he's called God. Sometimes he's called David. And of course, these are all just English names. Many call God Allah. They're all just human words. Clearly, the name used is not important. Jesus never gave us specific instructions on what to call his dad, so it can't be too important.

Earth transformed into heaven.

Thanks for clearing that up. I'd got that totally wrong. Although in my defense, I'm sure my grandmother referred to this earthly paradise as 'heaven'. Chances are, she was mistaken herself.

I have never heard or read any anti-Jehovah's Witness 'propaganda'. The only things I know about Jehovah's Witnesses, I learnt from my grandmothers who are Jehovah's witnesses. And I've been to Jehovah's witness websites a few times. As for anti-Jehovah's Witnesses (as in people who strongly disagree with their beliefs), I've never encountered any, other than myself. My opinions on the Jehovah's Witnesses' beleifs are all my own.

Were it not for my grandmothers, I would probably have no idea what the Jehovah's Witnesses believe.

By the way, I think their name sucks. Having to refer to Jehovah's Witnesses each time by writing "Jehovah's Witnesses" is a real pain. Why can't they just have a nice short collective name, like Jews? And referring to their religion is even more annoying. To my knowledge, the only way to refer to their religion is to say "Jehovah's Witnesses". As in, I like the Christian faith, but I don't like the Jehovah's Witnesses' faith. How bloody long-winded!

 

My parents are JW's (I have never been baptised and have never "practiced" myself) and I didn't bother reading anything past Jumbo's last post (which I rushed through....hehe I'm feeling lazy) But good on ya Jumo! Anytime I hear someone talking about the witnesses it's usually something completely off base and untrue. The truth is, as you have said, there is nothing weird or strange about it at all and all their beliefs come straight from scripture. Ask them anything and they will open the bible to find you the answcer....trust me I know. And I am pretty sure they do not believe that satan was "kicked out of heaven" in 1914. Then again, I'd have to ask my parents for what the deal is with 1914 but Jumbo you did say you are talking with them which is something I've not really done in detail in a long time. And no, they do not believe in "hell" so to speak. Atleast not the way most everyone thinks of "hell". If I am not mistaken, "hell" is just a word for grave. Or in other words...where you go when you die. But it is by no means a firey damn nation or whatever. I plan on studying with them soon, and I have alot of questions and alot of personal reservations as well. It's always been an internal struggle for me because it's hard for me to decifer whether or not I am partial to it because *I AM* or because it is the teaching I was brought up with. Will be interesting.

edit: yeah jumbo you were correct on the 1914 thing. my bad.

 

So I edited that post a bit, not a lot. Mostly significantly I have cited Jehovas witness literature confirming their belief that Satan was kicked out of heaven in 1914 as well as their arguments fornot doing blood transfusions. I added some other stuff too.

 

So... since we all agree that December 25th is NOT Christ's birthday, can we start calling it "yule" again?

Thanks in advance.

 

historical note:
there weren't a large number of JWs in europe in the early 20th century, but when hitler came to power in germany, he sent the JWs off to the death camps with the jews (& the slavs, & negroes, & gypsies, & communists, & mentally ill, & mentally retarded, & other folks deemed "eugenically unfit"...)

~

anyways, most christians will insist that JWs are not christians; & most JWs will insist that "christian churches" are not houses of god...
(there was a movement in america in the early 1800s predicting the world's end, & in 1844 many folks sold or gave away their posessions, donned white robes, & ascended to hilltops "to await His return" -- guess what? they all had to walk back down the hillside when judgenment day didn't arrive on schedule (google: "russellites 1844)...

america is an interesting country in its excesses, dontcha think?

 

Here's a good commentary on the JW's "special" Bible:

http://www.iclnet.org/pub/resources/text/cri/cri-jrnl/web/crj0049a.html

and the Watchtower organization:

http://www.iclnet.org/pub/resources/text/cri/cri-jrnl/web/crj0157a.html

 

Well, I guess "yule" call it whatever you want. Hahaha, get it "yule"/you'll, hehe I'm so funny.