the jehovah's witnesses religion

Philosophy Forums Religion and Spirituality
1

There are some things that have been bothering me and I’d like
to talk to everyone about them. I was born into the religion myself.
Some of my ideas have changed with time, some ideas have changed
again, while some ideas remain the same.
I believe I have a fairly good understanding of what the religion teaches
because of how much of the literature i was exposed to.

Some things I don’t like is how they consider every religion other than
their own as demonic. One elder said that ancient egypt was immersed
in demon worship at the time when moses and the jews left.
I’ve read some about egyptian religion and I really don’t think that
these people were trying to worship demons. They had their own beliefs
about gods and the way that reality works. Their ideas were different,
but they weren’t satanic. It was a polytheism, believed in souls and
the afterlife. These ideas have grounds, too. There is reasons for culture
developing certain ideas and views over much time.

The teaching that there were plagues from God in egypt. I didn’t like that
they said it was rightous when God killed the first born of every family
and animal group who didnt put the blood on their door post or whatever.
That’s not cool when ya kill millions of babies just for not listening to some
commands or rules or whatever. So in this case i believe the bible writers
were projecting human cruelty onto God. If i was God i would help people
i wouldn’t put plagues on them.

JWs believe in the old and new testimates both. They take the entire bible
quite literally and say that the whole thing is God’s intent and teachings.
I think the new testimate is better than the OT, because jesus never
killed anyone and he was very humble and forgiving.

JWs teach that the whole world system is going to end soon and that satan rules
the earth at this time. I don’t think the whole world is satanic or evil or wrong.
It has flaws but it isn’t purely bad. If it had some real help i think changes would
occur.

The founder of the JW religion wasn’t capable of any miracles and for years there
had been changes in the religious teaching and its leaders. They say they are the
only true religion and are backed by the creator of the universe but considering
their origins i really doubt that they are the top notch god’s mouth piece kind of
people. To them it might appear like they are God’s people but I have not seen
the kind of proof that jesus would have produced. Although even miracles
could be faked or have a non-divine power behind them. JWs teach that
miracles and prophecy has all stopped because of some reasons, but I dont
agree with that either.

I might write more on this later.
If any of you have any questions id be glad to answer them.
I don’t think this religion is evil but I don’t think it’s perfect either.

2

I’ve heard a lot of conflicting information about the Jehovah’s Witnesses, so I don’t know what to think about there organization. If I recall they don’t consider themselves as being Christianed based. So, this would make Jesus unimportant in their doctrine.

What do you consider their greatest attribute? Their weakest? I have invited some JW’s into our on occasion and asked about thier faith. The information seemed a bit ambiguous. Some of it didn’t ring true to what I understand of the Bible. I must say though their interest in going out telling of their religion and witnessing for it is impressive.

Any religion that helps put out the Word of God is of value. I would like to more about their doctrine if you can share it here.

3

You know, that doesn’t sound far fetched to me.
I mean, given the assumption that God himself established your religion and not the other ones, it kinda makes sense to think that the other ones would have been created by malicious beings for unholy purposes, no?
I mean, as opposed to assuming that these religions were started the same way urs was started: by [censored for slander – see Dan’s quote 2 posts down]

4

They teach jesus was God’s first creation, and then after that jesus and God both worked on designing reality and the beings which live in reality. They teach that it is wrong to worship jesus though, and say that we have to worship jehovah. Jehovah is their translation of YHWH or the tetragrammaton, and they consider that to be God’s true name.

They consider jesus to be our roll model and “the greatest man whom ever lived”, but because he was created and not the creator, they teach he should not be worshipped.

They forbit their followers from joining the army or fighting in a war.
This may not seem like a big thing to some people, some may disagree, but I think
if everyone followed that rule humanity would have a more certain future, and so,
i consider their rules on non-violence to be one of their greatest attributes.

Well they consider all other religions and governments to be basically satanic.
I think there’s a difference between being misguided and being satanic.
I think this is a weakness because for example buddhism isn’t satanic,
it teaches kindness and self awareness. World religions aren’t all evil even
if they are flawed.

They consider their religion to be a source of salvation by restoring true worship, as they call it.
Therefor they teach we must try to save everyone from their sinful ignorance of God’s word.

Well they consider some of the old testimate to be replaced by the new testimate.
For example we don’t need to be circumcised [i cant spell that word] and we dont
need to make animal sacrifices burnt, because that was something God gave the jews
as an intermediary before jesus helped to provide a ransom for human sin.
They still believe in the 10 commandments.
No sex out of marriage, no being gay.
No violence no swearing. There’s a list of no.
No smoking no excessive drinking. No gluttony. etc.

In the passed they had bible study groups then the main groups called bible students tried to refine
their understanding of the bible and re-translate an old copy of the bible for modern use.
As such, their own interpretation of the bible is considered the right interpretation.
So as time went on they have the new world translation that they use, and if i remember right
they usedto use the king james version of the bible before the NWT.

Some conflicting issues they may have would be for example not praying to the virgin
marry saying she was just a human being unworthy of worship. They teach we don’t have
a soul that lives on after death, and that only 144000 people will be going to heaven
to rule there during an up-coming theocracy after armageddon.

I’ve tried to summarize the basics.
I’m not able to quote exact scriptures as i dont remember numbers very well or names.

5

ur funy.

6

Thanks Dan~ for sharing. :slight_smile:

7

Am I the only one who caught that Humpty was using “you” in the general sense, rather than the specific one?

8

i caught that.

9

Of course it does. Nothing else can do, of a religion that posits exclusive authority in its own leadership. To admit that any other might be valid in that circumstance is to fatally undermine oneself.

That exclusion was a selling point, though, when JWism began, and until quite recent times, when mainstream denominations became minority followings. There was quite widespread dissatisfaction with denominations in the 1870s, due to improvements in democracy and literacy, and the growth of the state of knowledge, ending superstitions and common fallacies that denominations relied upon (and still do, in the USA). In 1859 Darwin had undermined the literalist interpretation of early Genesis that had been applied with fervency (probably to help support a ‘part time’ unconverted clergy who could manage only formal liturgy, on just one day a week). In 1870 the Vatican had been forced to invoke its own infallibility to try to ensure faithful belief in followers. In addition, in the USA, a vocal ‘evangelical’ tradition inherited from the Puritan fathers of the nation was too much for many, and an alternative that seemed Biblically based, but without the ‘heat’ of American so-called evangelicalism, was no doubt just what many wanted, who needed little persuasion to join the self-righteous new religion.

JWism is sometimes associated with Protestantism, partly because it relies on what is claimed to be the Bible, and partly because historically it has heavily criticised the RCC, in particular. But a careful study of its polity and theology shows that the Watchtower Society bears important similarities with the RCC leadership; and if it was originally inspired by Jesuits, it could be no surprise. It may be that the RCC, seeing it was losing ground in the face of modernity, devised another version of itself more able to withstand social and intellectual advances.