What is the 'Jehovah Witness' religion and when was it started?

Answer 1

Jehovah's Witnesses are a group who worship only one God whose actual name is Jehovah. In 1870, Charles Taze Russell and others formed an independent group to study the Bible. Watchtowersupporters gathered as congregations to study the Bible.

The Jehovah's Witness organisation was started in the 19th Century by Charles Taize Russell. He set up the 'Watchtower' Society with the purpose of printing and selling religious tracts. Rather than believe all that the Church, the Bible, theologians, Bible scholars, and devout Christians had taught right from the time of Jesus himself, he revisited 'Arian Theology' which was deemed heretical even in the early Church. This belief refuses to accept Jesus as God iincarnate, but instead dismisses the Trinitarian nature of God as described throughout scripture, and expressly by Christ himself at the end of Matthew's gospel.

Jehovah's Witnesses believe that they alone are saved because they do 'God's will' and that all other religions (including Christianity) are the work of Satan and their believers damned to hell. They regard the Trinity as the work of Satan, and believe that they alone have the correct interpretation of scripture. They do not accept the divinity of Jesus Christ despite his own teachings and the history of the early Church, demoting him to a subservient god-like human rather than Divine. JWs, when asked, will always say that Jesus is the 'Son of God' but this has a totally different meaning to them from the divine meaning that is expounded in scripture and by Christ himself. When cornered by those who know their scripture and their Christian beliefs well, they soon fold and refuse to call back, but instead prey on the unwary and gullible so that they can add more converts to their fold under the guise of 'evangelism'. JWs, if found breaking the rules of their organisation, run the risk of the draconian punishment of disfellowshipping - which means that all the rest of their group shun them. This has a profound psychological effect - especially when those shunning you are your own family members within the cult.

Jehovah's Witnesses insist on calling God 'Jehovah' at every opportunity, despite this corruption of the Hebrew nane of God 'YHWH' never being used even by the most devout Jew. To the Jew, the name YHWH is deemed so holy that it is never uttered (they call it the 'unutterable name of God') so, to the Jew, the insistence of the JW of calling God Jehovah is the utmost in disrespect - a toousand times worse than, for example, calling Her Majesty the Queen Elizabeth II 'Lizzie' to her face. Instead, Jews replace YHWH with 'Adonai' meaning 'Lord' - the title that Jesus himself used. However, despite Jesus' overt claim to be identified with the God of the Old Testament, JWs refuse to accept this.

As stated above, the Jehovah's Witnesses were founded by a self-confessed charlatan Russell, in the 19th Century, who set himself up as a bible expert and pastor, despite having no education in Bible interpretation, having no training or calling to ministry, and having no understanding of either Hebrew or Greek necessary for correct scriptural understanding. As a charismatic leader, he drew the unwary to him so that his publishing of tracts under the Watchtower name created great wealth. JWs will deny this, of course, but the Jehovah's Witness organisation still tends to prey on those outside the cult and still distribute their tract material, and still peddle a bogus theology that is not only harmful, but unBiblical and wrong.

The Christian Church, however, can trace its roots back to Biblical times. On the whole it does not merely rely on scriptural interpretation for its doctrine, but also on the tradition it has enjoyed throughout the last 2000 years, back through countless eminent theologians, right back to the desert fathers and the early Church, many of whom could actually remember the apostles themselves as Christian doctrine of the divinity of Jesus Christ was formulated.

Despite minor differences between the denominations of the Christian Church, underlying all these differences there exists a belief in the Trinitarian nature of God (Father, Son and Holy Spirit). The Christian church worldwide regards Jesus Christ as Lord, and God the Son - Emmanuel - God with us - as God in human form. They regard God as a God of love so that any sin, except that which was described by Jesus Christ as the perpetual denial of the Holy Spirit - any sin, whether large or small, can be forgiven. Disfellowshipping does not exist in the Christian Church; members are called to love each other unconditionally.

Therefore, the great difference between the pseudochristian group called the Jehovah's Witnesses and the Christian Church as instituted by Our Lord Jesus Christ himself, can be summarised as being that the Christian Church, despite its faults, believes in the message that Jesus Christ came to teach, and can trace that teaching right back 2000 years to its very source. The Jehovah's Witness organisation, on the other hand, can be considered as little more than a cult, and one that can deceive and prey on the vulnerable and unwary.