Jehovah's Witnesses splinter groups

A number of splinter groups have separated from Jehovah's Witnesses since 1931 after members broke affiliation with the Watch Tower Bible and Tract Society of Pennsylvania. Earlier group defections from the Watch Tower Society, most of them between 1917 and 1931, had resulted in a number of religious movements forming under the umbrella term of the Bible Student movement.

After 1931, certain Jehovah's Witness groups in times and places isolated by persecution sometimes came to distrust "outside" instruction; a handful of such groups preferred their autonomy even after persecution and isolation abated, such as in Germany following World War II, in Romania following Nicolae Ceauşescu, and in the former USSR following the Cold War. Beginning in the 1990s, other former Witnesses used Internet technologies to group themselves around shared ideas such as numerical analysis of the Bible, or a wish to embrace some but not all Jehovah's Witness beliefs and practices.

Germany, postwar

During the Nazi regime, scholars estimate that about half of all Jehovah's Witnesses in Germany were incarcerated in prison or concentration camp. At the time, they were represented by several geographical Bible Students Associations, each of which considered itself affiliated with the Watch Tower Society despite little contact with their Brooklyn (USA) headquarters. When contact was re-established, a minority of German Jehovah's Witnesses either preferred their autonomy or disagreed with the doctrinal changes that had occurred in the meantime.^{[citation needed]} Later, the Communist-influenced East German government campaigned to fabricate and disseminate counterfeit "evidence" and "scholarship" specifically to discredit Jehovah's Witnesses^{[citation needed]}; scholars^[who?] agree the plot was at least partially successful. Some disassociated themselves from the Watch Tower Society and some individual members established contact with non-Jehovah's Witness Bible Student groups.^[1]

Romania, USSR, 1962

In 1948, the Romanian government imposed a ban on Jehovah's Witnesses in Romania that lasted until 1989. Many Witnesses were arrested and sent to prison or labor camps and members of the religion had limited communication with other Witnesses and studied largely from older books and magazines.^[2] When in 1962 The Watchtower altered its doctrine on the "superior authorities” of Romans 13:1, identifying them as human governmental authorities rather than God and Jesus Christ as previously thought, many Witnesses in Romania balked at the change, with some suspecting it was a Communist fabrication intended to make them totally subservient to the State.^[2] After the Romanian ban was lifted, members and representatives of the Governing Body of Jehovah's Witnesses were able to meet thousands of long-separated Romanian Witnesses, but some Romanians still rejected certain changes and preferred their autonomy, forming The True Faith Jehovah's Witnesses Association in 1992.^[3] This "splinter" organization has never claimed more than 2000 adherents, while Jehovah's Witnesses report nearly 40,000 active members and over 80,000 at their Memorial commemorations in Romania.^[4]

Some Jehovah's Witnesses in the USSR also had difficulty believing that the 1962 "superior suthorities" explanation had actually been given by the Watch Tower Society, suspecting it had been originated by the KGB. This led to their discontinuing use of Watch Tower Society publications printed after 1962. Some of these splinter groups in Russia, Ukraine and Moldova still exist, calling themselves the Theokratic Organisation of Jehovah's Witnesses and claiming to seek contacts with Witnesses in other countries.^[5] The group does not publish any statistics regarding numbers of congregations or adherents, and has little or no public presence. By contrast, over 300,000 in Russia, Ukraine, and Moldova actively worship in association with the Christian Congregation of Jehovah's Witnesses.^[4]

Internet-era departures

In 1993, mathematician Gordon Ritchie requested baptism by Jehovah's Witnesses and almost immediately began advocating disagreements with their teachings. He claims he was expelled for apostasy in March 1996.^[6][7] Ritchie contends that Jehovah's Witnesses constituted true religion until 2004, but that his own group of "Lord's Witnesses" is now the sole form of true worship.^[8] The group claims several hundred adherents, and argues that their mathematical analysis of the Bible contains divine revelations that Jehovah's Witnesses have ignored.

In 2007, Jehovah's Witness apologist and author Greg G. Stafford, author of "Defending Jehovah's Witnesses" (Elihu Books), formally disassociated from the religion, while insisting on describing himself and his followers as "Jehovah's Witnesses".^[9] Stafford continues to publish information about Jehovah's Witnesses, and defends many of their unique and central beliefs, such as nontrinitarianism.^[10] In 2007 Stafford introduced the term "Christian Witnesses of Jah" to describe individuals who believe many of the same things as Jehovah's Witnesses,^[11][12] but who may not embrace the organization or all of its theological teachings.^[13]

Other Groups

• Associated Bible Students
• Dawn Bible Students Association
• Christian Millennial Fellowship
• Layman's Home Missionary Movement
• Lord's Witnesses
• Pastoral Bible Institute

Defunct Groups

• Bible Student's Fellowship?
• Hirsho-Kittenger Movement
• Olson Movement
• Ritchie Movement (led by A. I. Ritchie, vice-president of the Watchtower Society under Pastor Russell)
• Servants of Yah
• Sturgeon Movement

See also

• Bible Student movement
• History of Jehovah's Witnesses

References

External links

• Pastor-Russell.com
• Dawn Bible Students Association
• Chicago Bible Students
• Bible Student Ministries
• The Bible Standard magazine
• Christian Millennial Fellowship
• Christian Witnesses of Jah
• Friends of the Nazarene
• Layman's Home Missionary Movement
• Lord's Witnesses
• Pastoral Bible Institute
• The Theokratic Organisation of Jehovah's Witnesses.
• The True Faith Jehovah's Witnesses Association