Jehovah's Witness

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Lorrie

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What exactly is this religion?? The only thing I know for sure is that they are always coming to my home trying to give me pamphlets and stuff. What do they believe in?

P.S. - Don’t worry, I’m Catholic and firmly intend to stay that way for the rest of my life. I’m just curious. 🙂
 
I have done some research on the topic, but what opened the door was www.watchman.org. The information provide in this web site is about the many times the JW’s leaders/founders predicted the end of the world. When challenged with the information, the JW, could say, “there was never such a statement made in JW’s doctrine”. But the JW have a red book, this book is their version of the book of Revelation. The JW’s version on the book of Revelation has the basis for the argument, and its on page 209 second paragraph, and on page 105 top portion. In this pages they argue that their founder, Charles Taze Russell, was able to predict the beginning of World War I, but the material found in www.watchman.org clarifies the issue.
 
They believe that Jesus is Michael The Archangel
They think that everything from Voting to Christmas to Sports teams are Satanic and must be avoided
They corupt the scriptures and defile and blasphemy thw Word of God by adding in their own junk that was never there; reaserchers have called it “Amazingly mistranslated” and “Horrifyingly misinterpreted”.
They deny the Trinity
They address God as “Jehovah” while His name is really YHWH or Yahweh
They have mastered Brain Washing to a fine art
The Watchtower (their leaders the “prophets of God” in the last Days) is an evil organisation that mistreats the JWs and lies to them.
Just like The Mormons they claim that they restored the Church as it was before this “Great Apostasy”. Though Mormons sound much more convincing and give much more “proof” on this matter than the JWs.
They were fouinded by a madman named Charles Taze Russell and it started out as a small Bible study group called “The Watchtower Bible and Tract Society” and they somehow came to the conclusion that the Church suffered a Great Apostasy. Therefore, they started their own religion called the Jehovah’s Witnesses. Then after they got a couple thousand followers they realized some holes in their teachings that weren’t supported by the Bible so they wrote their own and claimed it was divinly inspried.
You can find out more about them here or the truth about them here
And here is an attempt to defend their Bible.
 
I love it when the JW’s and Mormons come by my home. It makes it easy to evagelize them from the comfort of my own couch! When the Protestants come by I only try to reconcile them, they are Christian after all, just not in His body, His Catholic and visible Church.
 
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Lorrie:
What exactly is this religion?? The only thing I know for sure is that they are always coming to my home trying to give me pamphlets and stuff. What do they believe in?

P.S. - Don’t worry, I’m Catholic and firmly intend to stay that way for the rest of my life. I’m just curious. 🙂
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Quick summation: Charles Taze Russell established a movment of “Bible Students”, convinced of the imment Second Coming of Christ in the year 1914. The onset of WWI seemed to give credence to that view, and the “Bible Students” prospered. They tended to be pacifistic and their opposition to participation in war led CT Russell and others to be jailed. Russell died in 1916 and one of his followers, Joseph “Judge” Rutherford, assumed the reigns of leadership. Over time they changed their name to “Jehovah’s Witnesses” and began teaching that Christ returned ‘invisibly’ in 1914.

Witnesses put a high emphasis upon the name of God–Jehovah–as well as on the Second Coming of Christ. They deny the Trinity and feel that all other religious organizations are corrupt, their adherents damned. They believe Jesus Christ is the First and Greatest of God’s creations but is not part of the Godhead. The Holy Spirit, to the Jehovah’s Witnesses, is simply a way of speaking of the power of God. Witnesses believe that all human beings experience ‘soul sleep’ upon death–the soul does not survive death but ceases to exist unless and until God resurects it. At the last day, 144,000 will be resurrected to go to Heaven as princes and rules with Christ. The rest of the Jehovah’s Witnesses will be resurrected, reunited with their bodies, and allowed to reside upon Paradise Earth. Non-Witnesses will be judged by Godaccording to how they received the message of God through the Jehovah’s Witnesses or earlier dispensations of God’s prophetic work Those who rejected God’s messengers will be utterly destroyed.

There are articles everywhere online with more information on the subject. Several links have already been offered.
 
Can someone clarify this:

I read somewhere that the term Jehovah was actually a mistranslation of Yahweh. That it never was a name for God.

The Hebrew language does not have vowels, hence, YHWH. When the vowels were added (in Greek?) the name became Yahweh but when further translated, there was no letter for Y so the letter J was used and I believe the same went for the letter W; therefore we have JeHoWaH (JHWH) or Jehovah.

Or something like that. Does anyone know of this translation error?
 
DianJo - you’ve got it basically right. The question is which, and where, vowels go in between the four letters of the Tetragrammaton - YHWH. It is said that “Jehovah” was originally come up with by a medieval Catholic monk in Spain, and perpetuated by Tyndale, etc. Many modern scholars do not recognize a vowel between the middle two letters, hence “Yahweh”.

Jimmy Akin has a good article on the whole subject here: cin.org/users/James/questions/q001.htm.

The pronunciation question can be an uneccesary diversion when dealing with JW information. The real questions should be:
** 1)** Why did they put “Jehovah” 237 times in the New Testament of the New World Translation, when there is NOT ONE ancient manuscript that supports it? Why didn’t they follow the practice of, for example, the New Jerusalem Bible, which correctly has the Name, but only in the Old Testament where there IS manuscript evidence for it?
2) Does their putting of “Jehovah” into the New Testament altar the meaning of the verse in places to favor their doctrinal system, such as Romans 10:13 (a quote from Joel 2:32) and
3) Is their use of the Name in accordance with the practice of the early Christians? What do the writings of the Early church Fathers show?

For those who really want to dig into it, here are some interesting links:
tetragrammaton.org/
tetragrammaton.org/itmdnnwt.htm
sthermans.ca/resources/tower/yahweh.html
sacrednamemovement.com/JesusSaidYahwehContents.htm
 
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DianJo:
Can someone clarify this:

I read somewhere that the term Jehovah was actually a mistranslation of Yahweh. That it never was a name for God.

The Hebrew language does not have vowels, hence, YHWH. When the vowels were added (in Greek?) the name became Yahweh but when further translated, there was no letter for Y so the letter J was used and I believe the same went for the letter W; therefore we have JeHoWaH (JHWH) or Jehovah.

Or something like that. Does anyone know of this translation error?
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Peace be with you!

It sounds plausible, but I’m not sure. There are letters that historically have been substituted for other letters. For example, in Latin there was no letter “u” so “v” was used for both letters (ie, “Petrvs”, “Mvsei Vaticani”). “I” was used in place of “j” (the Latin alphabet was basically adopted from the Greek alphabet, and “I” is the Greek equivalent to “j”). In some Middle English texts, “u” and “v” are switched around.

Anyone know for sure about the name Jehovah?

In Christ,
Rand
 
DianJo basically has it right. Since the original Hebrew had no vowels, and since the exact pronunciation of the Name has been lost, the question, partly, is: how many vowels go between the four letters of the Tetragrammaton, which vowels, and where?

“Jehovah” was come up with by a medieval Spanish monk; perpetuated, it is thought, by Tyndale, etc. By the time Jehovah’s Witnesses took their name in 1931, “Yahweh” had already become preferred by many scholars, and that trend among scholars has continued. (Notice the difference with “Yahweh” - no vowel between the middle two letters.) As any one familiar with a foreign language knows, the consonants “J” and “W”, and “V” and “W”, are somewhat convertable.

Jimmy Akin has a nice basic article on it here:
cin.org/users/james/questions/q132.htm

The eithor/or, Jehovah/Yahweh pronunciation question can be a distraction when dealing with JW issues. The real questions concerning the Name should be:
  1. Why did they put “Jehovah” 237 times in the New Testament of the New World Translation , when there is NOT ONE ancient manuscript to support it? Why didn’t they follow the practice of, for example, the Catholic New Jerusalem Bible which has the Name (in this case, as Yahweh) correctly in the Old Testament only, where there IS manuscript evidence for it?
  2. Does the inclusion of “Jehovah” in the New Testament of the New World Translation obscure or altar the meanings of some verses to favor their doctrinal system; for example Romans 10:13 which is a quote of a “YHWH” verse in Joel 2:32 and, as it reads in all other Bibles, clearly applied to Jesus?
  3. Is their practice in using the Divine Name in accordance with the practice of the early Christians, as evidenced in the writings of the Early Church Fathers?
For those who really want to dig into the subject, here are some interesting links:
tetragrammaton.org/
tetragrammaton.org/itmdnnwt.htm
sthermans.ca/resources/tower/yahweh.html
sacrednamemovement.com/JesusSaidYahwehContents.htm
 
Whoops. I meant to say “J and Y” are convertable, not “J and W”.
 
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Lorrie:
What exactly is this religion?? …P.S. - Don’t worry, I’m Catholic and firmly intend to stay that way for the rest of my life. I’m just curious. 🙂
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Annoying is what they are.
~ Kathy ~
 
People who are not very knowledgable about their faith can be easily sucked in by Jehovah’s Witnesses. They have a very clever way of answering questions which makes their religion sound like the true religion. I was a lukewarm Catholic for awhile, and I befriended many Jehovah’s Witnesses. The Witnesses are very friendly and are conditioned to have an answer for everything. When we would discuss religion, it seemed like their religion was perfect and their beliefs were perfect. It was very deceiving. My friendship with the Witnesses caused me to look deeper into my faith, and as a result I became a much more devoted and knowledgable Catholic. It’s funny to think that the Witnesses helped me become a better Catholic! 😃
However, my story is unique–most of the time a lapsed Catholic who is looking for answers will be drawn into a group such as the JWs.
 
Having come in contact with JWs at my door for years I have come up with my own reason why they are what they are. You know the old saying, “You can’t take it with you.” Have you ever notice the cars they drive up in? They aren’t clunkers. They’re high end sedans. Well…they want to take it with them. They want to take their possessions with them. The only way they can do that is to stay here in an “earthly kingdom.” IMO, their beliefs to them are aren’t important. It’s all about keeping what they have.
 
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badebop:
Having come in contact with JWs at my door for years I have come up with my own reason why they are what they are. You know the old saying, “You can’t take it with you.” Have you ever notice the cars they drive up in? They aren’t clunkers. They’re high end sedans. Well…they want to take it with them. They want to take their possessions with them. The only way they can do that is to stay here in an “earthly kingdom.” IMO, their beliefs to them are aren’t important. It’s all about keeping what they have.
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Hi Badebop,
You are correct, they do have typically drive very nice cars… they need one that can hold alot of people for the work they do going “door to door.” I can assure you though that other than the car, they live very modestly. Higher education is strongly discouraged so most JW’s have only a high school education at best. They don’t really care about having some high powered career because they believe the end of this system of things is going to happen any day now. Likewise with a fancy house. It just isn’t important or valued in the least. I knew very very few afluent JW’s and the one or two who were became JW’s later in life.

Although your theory is interesting, it just isn’t true based on my personal experience. To them it really IS all about their beliefs and having been brainwashed into thinking they are serving Jehovah God.

God Bless,
CM
 
Last week my cousin’s grandson died of heat stroke. The baby was four months old. My cousin is JW and so is the whole family. I saw all the police cars and ambulances and fire trucks outside and I went down to ask what was going on. The cops just told me they had taken my cousin to the hospital so I thought it was him as he is already 72 years old.I was crying my eyes out. Never occurred to me that it was the baby. I went to the Church and our priest offered to put them in the prayers of the faithful once I determined what was going on. My husband tried to speak to them, I called them on the phone, and I later found out it was the baby, I found out from the mailman. My JW cousins will not speak with me as I am a Catholic.
The baby died without Baptism. My cousins are up and about now- peaceful, calm everything as usual. They sent a ton of tracts over to my house the very next day that it happened. They see it as God’s will. They do not see any negligence on their part. I have not mentioned it to anyone else, but it was 108 that day, no air conditioning in their house and the baby sleeping in a terry cloth footsie pajama. I sometimes wonder how many times a day God gets blamed for utter stupidity. But I know my cousin well enough to know that he would appear extremely happy the day after the baby died as he would want to convince people that Jehovah’s are extremely happy always. Converts are always uppermost in his mind-even in profound tragedies.
 
Still searching,

What a very sad story!!! I pray that God has mercy on that innocent sweet baby.

I’m not suprised that your cousin would use that trigic opportunity to “witness” to others. That is so typical. It’s not uncommon for JW’s to read the obits in the paper & mail tracts to the survivors of the deceased. I don’t think it would be very comforting to get a tract in the mail stating that MY loved one isn’t in heaven.

I’m also sorry for you that your family are all JW’s and (thankfully) you are not. That must be so difficult for you, but stay strong & keep praying for them. Maybe you could drop the baby’s parents a note telling them that you are so sorry for their loss and that your priest included them his prayers. It probably won’t mean anything to them but you never know…

God Bless,
CM
 
carol marie:
Still searching,

What a very sad story!!! I pray that God has mercy on that innocent sweet baby.

I’m not suprised that your cousin would use that trigic opportunity to “witness” to others. That is so typical. It’s not uncommon for JW’s to read the obits in the paper & mail tracts to the survivors of the deceased. I don’t think it would be very comforting to get a tract in the mail stating that MY loved one isn’t in heaven.

I’m also sorry for you that your family are all JW’s and (thankfully) you are not. That must be so difficult for you, but stay strong & keep praying for them. Maybe you could drop the baby’s parents a note telling them that you are so sorry for their loss and that your priest included them his prayers. It probably won’t mean anything to them but you never know…

God Bless,
CM
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Oh, don’t misunderstand. My family is not all JW’s. He is an exception to the rule. Predominantly my family is Cahtolic but every once in a while we get one of these popping up. My family is huge. And Catholic, I’m certainly not alone in it. But I like to pay attention to the ones who are not Catholic. Currently, I have two members who are Scientologists, one who has left Scientology (a baptised Catholic) and has gone to Lutheranism, three who have left all Churches after being baptised Catholic as children, 15 still Catholic, one who decided to go Christian Science, and two that are mormons. And then of course this JW cousin I mentioned. Funny enough, the ones who either were or are now scientologists are all being treated for bi polar disorder. All of these were originally Catholic.
Family reunions of course are absolutely HELL.
But I do not think we are a unique family at all. I think this kind of thing is happening more and more.
 
Opps. My mistake. I’m glad you aren’t alone in a family of only JW’s - how lonely would that be, espeically at holidays?!

I bet the family reunions are interesting!
God Bless,
CM
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stillsearching:
Oh, don’t misunderstand. My family is not all JW’s. He is an exception to the rule. Predominantly my family is Cahtolic but every once in a while we get one of these popping up. My family is huge. And Catholic, I’m certainly not alone in it. But I like to pay attention to the ones who are not Catholic. Currently, I have two members who are Scientologists, one who has left Scientology (a baptised Catholic) and has gone to Lutheranism, three who have left all Churches after being baptised Catholic as children, 15 still Catholic, one who decided to go Christian Science, and two that are mormons. And then of course this JW cousin I mentioned. Funny enough, the ones who either were or are now scientologists are all being treated for bi polar disorder. All of these were originally Catholic.
Family reunions of course are absolutely HELL.
But I do not think we are a unique family at all. I think this kind of thing is happening more and more.
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