What is the history behind the beliefs of Jehovah's Witnesses?

Answer 1

The way this question is worded makes it difficult to know exactly how to answer. The beliefs of Jehovah's Witnesses are based upon The Bible. Not a part of the Bible, but upon the entire 66 books of Holy Scripture, taking ALL of it into context. In other words, whenever a subject is studied, all Scriptures related to that subject are considered. We do not just accept the ones that we agree with, while rejecting the rest. Rather, we accept all of them, and if there are some that seem to contradict others, then we must dig deeper to see which ones are in harmony with the rest of the Bible. Just one example: Many religions teach that all good people go to heaven, while all bad people burn in hell forever. That is based on just a couple of misinterpreted passages, and contradicts a great number of passages. * Some people will live on the earth forever. (Matthew 5:5; Psalm 37:9-11, 29) * To burn in hell forever requires one to live forever. However, life is a gift from God; sin results in death. At death we are freed from sin. (Romans 6:7, 23) * The soul that sins will die. - Ezekiel 18:4 & 20. * The dead are asleep, unconscious. (Ecclesiastes 9:5-10; Psalm 146:4; John 11:11-14) * The wicked will be destroyed, not tortured. (Psalm 37:38; 2 Thessalonians 1:9) That is just one example of how a careful consideration of all the Scriptures dealing with a specific subject helps us to see what the Bible Really Teaches. Check out the links below for some of our basic beliefs, and the Scriptures upon which these are based. The asker of this question alluded to the 'history' of our beliefs. This leads me to believe that the asker is viewing the matter from a starting point, as if to assume that we base our beliefs on what a 'spiritual leader' or a 'founder' may have taught. While it is true that the modern day association of Jehovah's Witnesses had to have a starting point, and this requires a person to have served as a catalyst to begin with, we do not look to our 'start' or history for our beliefs. Our beliefs are progressive, and continually being adjusted as new understanding of matters and fullfillment of Bible prophecy continues to make things clearer. Therefore, our beliefs in this, the year 2009 may have in many ways been adjusted, and our understanding may be somewhat different than it was a few years ago on some matters. This is in line with the scriptures, for Proverbs 4:18 says that the "path of the righteous ones is like the bright light that is getting lighter and lighter until the day is firmly established." Because of this, our modern day start was in the late 1800's, but the 'history' of our beliefs is still in progress.