Jehovah Witnesses beliefs?

[Nicea325]

The following passages come directly from:

towerwatch.com/Witnesses/Beliefs/their_beliefs.htm

How truthful are these passages?

Associates

Jehovah’s Witnesses are not allowed to associate with non-Witnesses including family. Exceptions are made if the non-Witness family member is living in the same household.



Trinity

They do not believe in the Trinity. Instead, they follow a strict monotheism, in which: Jehovah is the Supreme Being. Jesus is the Son of God, a created being. Christ is believed to have originally existed in a pre-human state as the Archangel Michael. He later took human form as a man like any other person, except that he was sinless at birth and remained so throughout his earthly life. Jehovah’s Witnesses do not believe in the bodily resurrection of Christ. They believe that after the crucifixion, Christ died and was resurrected as an invisible, non-material, glorious, spirit creature. They believe that Jesus appeared on earth after his resurrection in a special body that Jehovah created for him.

The Holy Spirit they believe, is not a separate entity, but is simply a force: the method by which God interacts with the world.

A FORCE? :bigyikes:

 

[GEddie]

Can’t say for sure about the 1st, but points 2 and 3 are spot-on.

ICXC NIKA

 

[the_phoenix]

My first post here on CAF dealt with what I should do about a Jehovah’s Witness friend who had been deceiving me for many years about what her religion was, then dumped me when she finally told me the truth about herself and I politely informed her that I would not convert to her religion.

Apparently, she took a liking to me, which was the reason for her deceit … What I’ve heard is that if a Witness asks a person to convert and the person says “No,” that person is then considered a “goat” or a “bad association” and is to be shunned. So, she avoided asking me if I would convert. That way, she could still be friends with me, still tell herself that she could “witness” to me in the hopes I might someday convert, and meanwhile enjoy our phone conversations … It was a long-distance friendship.

BTW, since she was disabled, what I’ve heard is that the time she spent on the phone trying to “convert” me counted as “door-to-door” mission work. She could keep track of how many hours spent talking on the phone with me and then report to her Elders so she could get mission work credit for those hours.

Given the long distance and the disability, I never questioned why I didn’t receive a birthday or Christmas card from her over the years. I always figured she was too ill to send me anything. Turns out Jehovah’s Witnesses don’t celebrate birthdays or Christmas.

Best to keep JWs in our prayers.

 

[Stjudeprayforus]

Given the long distance and the disability, I never questioned why I didn’t receive a birthday or Christmas card from her over the years. I always figured she was too ill to send me anything. Turns out Jehovah’s Witnesses don’t celebrate birthdays or Christmas.

Best to keep JWs in our prayers.

My moms next door neighbors are JW… they have 2 little kids that dont get to celebrate ANYTHING.

Its odd to say the least.

 

[Miriam1947]

JWs tried to convert my sister. My mother who knew the Bible inside out, told them she would be at any meetings they had with my sister. She used to get visits from JWs when they still had the phonographs they would take door to door. She threw them out so fast, well really, it would make your head spin. Quite the woman.

Amazingly, they never came back. (Of course my mother, God rest her soul and I hope she is in Heaven, could be an extremely intimating person.)

My mother had issues with the Catholic Church but I figure if she is in Heaven (and I pray that she is) she is a Catholic now.

 

[T_More]

Nicea, those are all true. Point #1 is the culmination of them taking what James said in his Epistle in Chapter 4 verse 4. They consider anyone who is not a JW to be of the wrold, hence they call them “worldly”.

I find this website the best out there for research on JW’s.

jwfacts.com/

 

[Trevor_Stamm]

Nicea, those are all true. Point #1 is the culmination of them taking what James said in his Epistle in Chapter 4 verse 4. They consider anyone who is not a JW to be of the wrold, hence they call them “worldly”.

I find this website the best out there for research on JW’s.

jwfacts.com/

I thought they believed Jesus reincarnated into another body rather then " They believe that after the crucifixion, Christ died and was resurrected as an invisible, non-material, glorious, spirit creature." Is the former “old light” and the latter “new light”?

 

[Benadam]

I became close friends with a lady who was ‘marked’ for her decision to not live with her abusive husband. She said she was a pioneer. This being some sort of rank in JW society. Her grandparents? Parents? she is 60 now. Anyhow they were among the original followers before the founder passed away. She apparently was a JW with deep roots. I mention this because of her peculiar response to Catholic teaching.

Also, a few years ago my former brother in law died and she was his girlfriend of two years. She was very disturbed by his death due to some of the circumstances surrounding it. She confided in me during this time to help her sort things out and we became good friends.

She knew JW teaching and history from it’s first followers. She told me that even though she felt she was wrongly judged by the JW community she still considered herself a JW.

Needless to say there were lengthy discussions between us about our respective beliefs.

She was incredibly honest intellectually. Not once did she deny reason when it didn’t support JW beliefs. Over the course of time she had denied most of the truth of JW doctrine in light of the truth of Catholic doctrine.

This change in her beliefs didn’t change anything. I eventually asked her "So you believe the Catholic teaching that you are familiar with now is true? She said “yes”. After a long pause I then asked. " Believing that they are true means that you don’t believe in JW teaching nay more? She said " No I don’t believe JW teaching, how could I ? I asked further " doesn’t this make you not want to be a JW? This is the peculiar part, she answered,
I will always be a JW. I can’t leave it even though they have kicked me out. What they teach is wrong but I can never convert to another religion.

She was the wife of a high ranking JW. She wouldn’t lie about some illegal or unethical business he was involved in. As his wife it was her duty to back her husband no matter what and her position on the matter was considered to be open rebellion against her husband and the JW community. Yet she say’s she will always be a JW.

 

[codefro]

The following passages come directly from:

towerwatch.com/Witnesses/Beliefs/their_beliefs.htm

How truthful are these passages?

Associates

Jehovah’s Witnesses are not allowed to associate with non-Witnesses including family. Exceptions are made if the non-Witness family member is living in the same household.



Trinity

They do not believe in the Trinity. Instead, they follow a strict monotheism, in which: Jehovah is the Supreme Being. Jesus is the Son of God, a created being. Christ is believed to have originally existed in a pre-human state as the Archangel Michael. He later took human form as a man like any other person, except that he was sinless at birth and remained so throughout his earthly life. Jehovah’s Witnesses do not believe in the bodily resurrection of Christ. They believe that after the crucifixion, Christ died and was resurrected as an invisible, non-material, glorious, spirit creature. They believe that Jesus appeared on earth after his resurrection in a special body that Jehovah created for him.

The Holy Spirit they believe, is not a separate entity, but is simply a force: the method by which God interacts with the world.

A FORCE? :bigyikes:

My Mother’s whole side of the family currently being practicing Jehovah’s Witnesses, and my mom getting out of the religion, I was raised with Jehovah’s Witness ideas of God and Christ. Each of those factors you listed are truly what JWs adhere to doctrinally. They have no concept of the trinity (in fact they will freak out and practically turn their brains off if you even mention the word). They are frightened by images of the Cross as they believe the image of the cross to not only be idolatry, but that Jesus was hung on a wooden pole, and not a cross.

Jehovah’s Witnesses are very similar to Moromon’s in their heretical beliefs (but not exactly). Where both are full blown cults, Jehovah’s Witnesses do not hide their ecclesiastical control over their congregants. They are not to speak to people outside of their own faith. Like any religion though, JWs can be hypocritical and “pick and choose” who they want to break the rule with, and who to enforce it on.

Birthdays are supposed to be considered idolatry, but they find ways around that. Instead of celebrating a birthday on the special day, they may have just a simple “gathering” with food and drinks (but not label it a birthday celebration). They make this exception for people within the religion, but not for people outside the religion. Even though I had a good relationship with my Grandmother, my grandparents on that side along with extended family had to maintain their distance and keep barriers up towards my family because we were not in the religion. They felt they couldn’t go to my mother’s wedding to my father, because she was marrying a Catholic. I have had very recent conversations with Jehovah’s Witnesses, and while the religion is not as dominating (compared to what it was), the members are trained not to seeks answers outside the religion and are to be careful of not asking too many questions. It is sad when people are trained to be naive and cannot exercise the minds that God gave them. Maybe in that case, they would all become Roman Catholics.

Anyways, if you have any other questions hit me up. I have years of knowledge on JW’s and how it can very between believers of that religion.