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by Perryman on February 22nd, 2010

Perryman

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Why do Jehovah's Witnesses stand out as different from all other religions?

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  • by Texasescimo on September 23rd, 2010

    Texasescimo

    Many differences but I think one of the main differences is that JW’s actually really believe the Bible and what it says about God and Jesus even when it is not popular in their Country or area.
    Another main differences is that JW’s would rather die than kill other innocent people while some others would rather kill their brothers over national boundaries, race or politics rather than hold to the scriptures especially when faced with the threat of death.
    http://www.ushmm.org/wlc/article.php?lang=en&ModuleId=10005394
    http://www.answerbag.com/a_view/3146930
    It takes true faith to let yourself be killed rather than join in the slaughter of innocent people.

    http://fcit.usf.edu/Holocaust/people/VictJeho.htm
    The Nazis also began to suppress several Christian minorities whom they felt were subversive to their goals. Even before the war, Jehovah's Witnesses had been considered heretics by other Christian denominations and individual German states sought to limit their activities. In the early 1930's, Nazi storm troopers broke up their meetings and beat up individual Witnesses. After the Nazis came to power, the persecution of Jehovah's Witnesses intensified.

    http://www.ushmm.org/research/library/bibliography/?lang=en&content=jehovah
    Jehovah’s Witnesses endured intense persecution under the Nazi regime. Actions against the religious group and its individual members spanned the Nazi years 1933 to 1945. Unlike Jews, Sinti and Roma (“Gypsies”), and others persecuted and killed by virtue of their birth, Jehovah’s Witnesses had the opportunity to escape persecution and personal harm by renouncing their religious beliefs. The courage the vast majority displayed in refusing to do so, in the face of torture, maltreatment in concentration camps, and sometimes execution, won them the respect of many contemporaries

    http://fcit.usf.edu/Holocaust/people/VictJeho.htm
    The children of Witnesses also suffered. They were ridiculed by their teachers because they refused to give the "Heil Hitler" salute or sing patriotic songs. They were beaten up by their classmates and expelled from schools. The authorities took children away from their parents and sent them to reform schools and orphanages, or to private homes to be brought up as Nazis.

    http://religious-persecution.suite101.com/article.cfm/clergys_opposition_to_jehovahs_witnesses
    Roman Catholic Hierarchy of modern history had formed alliances with nationalistic dictators, such as that of the Lateran Treaty with Benito Mussolini in 1929 and the Concordat with Adolf Hitler in 1933, regarding which Cardinal Faulhaber wrote to Hitler: “This handshake with the Papacy ...is a feat of immeasurable blessing...may god preserve the Reich Chancellor (Hitler).”

    Winston Churchill, in his book The Gathering Storm, published in 1948, tells how Chancellor von Papen further used his reputation as a good Catholic to gain church support for the Nazi takeover of Austria. In 1938, in honor of Hitler’s birthday, Cardinal Innitzer ordered that all Austrian churches fly the swastika flag and pray for the Nazi dictator.
    Catholics and Protestants heard their clergy urge them to cooperate with Hitler, if they resisted, they did so against orders from both church and state.

    http://www.euaggelion2414.com/En%20camps%20de%20concentration.html
    I 've never met a survivor who had forgotten the Witnesses , and they all say the same thing about them: A small group of people , clearly identifiable. They tell us they wore the purple triangle on their uniforms - they tell us how they shared their food and took soint each other , and they tell us how they were easily affordable , ready to assist and support other prisoners . This seems to have etched in people's memories .




    I have seen several mainstream Christians on AB in one thread condemn JW’s for not killing in war and then in another thread tell Atheist that Christians do not go to war and that all wars in the Bible were in the “Old Testament”.

    Obviously not everyone interprets these scriptures the same way JW’s do:
    http://www.answerbag.com/a_view/9620307


    Although I don't agree with everything on the following websites, the pictures speak volumes.
    http://www.ushmm.org/wlc/en/article.php?ModuleId=10005206
    http://www2.dsu.nodak.edu/users/dmeier/Holocaust/hitler.html
    http://www.religioustolerance.org/curr_war.htm
    http://www.jesusneverexisted.com/1000years.htm
    http://www.nobeliefs.com/nazis.htm
    http://emperors-clothes.com/vatican/cpix.htm
    http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1252/is_13_128/ai_76915684/
    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rwandan_Genocide#Religion


    Involvement in wars is part of the apostasy that developed the death of the apostles:
    http://www.answerbag.com/a_view/9625809

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  • by Strength on February 24th, 2010

    Strength

    I don't know but they certainly do.

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  • by Perryman on March 24th, 2010

    Perryman

    —We stick to the Bible rather than personal opinions: We worship Jehovah God “with spirit and truth,” just as Jesus Christ said to do. This has meant rejecting religious falsehoods and complying with God’s written Word.—John 4:23, 24; 2 Tim. 3:15-17.

    —We go to people rather than wait for them to come to us: We have accepted Christ’s commission to preach and to teach, and we imitate his example of searching out honesthearted ones. We look for them at their homes, on the street, or wherever they may be found.—Matt. 9:35; 10:11; 28:19, 20; Acts 10:42.

    —We provide Bible instruction for everyone without charge: We freely expend our resources and energy, devoting over a billion hours each year to God’s service. Impartially, we study the Bible with all kinds of people.—Matt. 10:8; Acts 10:34, 35; Rev. 22:17.

    —We are well trained to help people spiritually: By means of our personal study of the Bible and the instruction provided at congregation meetings, assemblies, and conventions, we receive a priceless, ongoing theocratic education, which enables us to enlighten others spiritually.—Isa. 54:13; 2 Tim. 2:15; 1 Pet. 3:15.

    —We take the truth seriously, applying it in our daily lives: Because of our love for God, we make changes, bringing our lives into harmony with his will. Our Christlike new personality attracts others to the truth.—Col. 3:9, 10; Jas. 1:22, 25; 1 John 5:3.

    —We endeavor to live and work with others in peace: Cultivating godly qualities helps us to guard our actions and speech. We “seek peace and pursue it” with all persons.—1 Pet. 3:10, 11; Eph. 4:1-3.

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  • by vew573 on March 2nd, 2012

    vew573

    I can tell you some of the ways they stand out as different, and this will also answer the question as to why?
    1--They have no clergy class.
    2--Their elders, teachers, and missionaries are unsalaried.
    3--They neither tithe nor take up money collections at their places of worship. Known as Kingdom Halls.
    4--All their activities are supported by anonymous donations.
    5--They remain neutral with regard to politics.
    6--They advocate peace and do not participate in warfare.
    7--They are globally united in their faith and Bible -based beliefs.
    8--They are fully integrated, with no social, ethnic, racial,or class divisions.
    9--They are not affiliated with any other religion, whether Catholic, Orthodox, or Protestant.
    10--They believe that there is only one true God, whose name is Jehovah.
    11--They do not believe that Jesus Christ is Almighty God, nor do they believe in the Trinity Doctrine.
    12--They follow the teachings of Jesus and honor him as the Son of God.
    13--They do not venerate the cross, nor do they use idols in their worship.
    14--They do not believe in a fiery hell where all bad people go after death.
    15--They believe that God will bless obedient mankind with perfect everlasting life in an earthly paradise.

    Jehovah's Witnesses believe that they have successfully reestablished first-century Christianity, the form of Christianity that Jesus' apostles practiced.

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  • by Clockwerk Beetle on February 22nd, 2010

    Clockwerk Beetle

    Because they are a stereotype of everything that is wrong with every religion. It's like if someone took everything that was moronic and hypocritical about everything, and crammed it all together.

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  • by Texasescimo on February 18th, 2012

    Texasescimo

    JW’s are different in that they really believe the Bible and understand why things are happening the way they are.
    (Revelation 1:1-3) A revelation by Jesus Christ, which God gave him, to show his slaves the things that must shortly take place. And he sent forth his angel and presented [it] in signs through him to his slave John, 2 who bore witness to the word God gave and to the witness Jesus Christ gave, even to all the things he saw. 3 Happy is he who reads aloud and those who hear the words of this prophecy, and who observe the things written in it; for the appointed time is near.
    (Daniel 8:17) So he came beside where I was standing, but when he came I got terrified so that I fell upon my face. And he proceeded to say to me: “Understand, O son of man, that the vision is for the time of [the] end.”
    (Daniel 12:4) “And as for you, O Daniel, make secret the words and seal up the book, until the time of [the] end. Many will rove about, and the [true] knowledge will become abundant.”
    (Daniel 12:9) And he went on to say: “Go, Daniel, because the words are made secret and sealed up until the time of [the] end.

    (Matthew 24:6-9) YOU are going to hear of wars and reports of wars; see that YOU are not terrified. For these things must take place, but the end is not yet. 7 “For nation will rise against nation and kingdom against kingdom, and there will be food shortages and earthquakes in one place after another. 8 All these things are a beginning of pangs of distress. 9 “Then people will deliver YOU up to tribulation and will kill YOU, and YOU will be objects of hatred by all the nations on account of my name.
    (Luke 21:9) Furthermore, when YOU hear of wars and disorders, do not be terrified. For these things must occur first, but the end does not [occur] immediately.”

    I found the following article by the religious historian Christine King interesting:
    Leadership lessons from history:
    Jehovah's Witnesses
    Christine King
    Staffordshire University, Stoke-on-Trent, UK
    http://xa.yimg.com/kq/groups/8683429/289031623/name/KING%20CHRISTINE%20IJLPS%202011%20Leadership%20lessons%20from%20history%20J

    Abstract
    …. Hitler and the Nazi leadership managed to conduct a programme of unthinkable acts, including institutionalised murder on a gargantuan scale, with seemingly limited internal challenge or resistance. Subsequent analysis undertaken in the aftermath of the Nuremberg and Eichmann trials argues that the majority of people will carry out instructions if these are given by an authority figure, even if their action harms others. However, as Professor Milgram and his successors have also shown, not everyone will behave in this way; some people refuse to obey orders which contravene their moral sense or values. This paper aims to summarise the story of one group of people - Jehovah's Witnesses - who, during the Third Reich, refused to comply. …

    Learning lessons from the past
    … In my area of research, the Third Reich, we are familiar with the debate about
    Adolf Hitler and prominent and middle ranking Nazis as leaders of a nation, a political
    party, a state and a programme of genocide. Questions are asked about how they
    gained and maintained power. These questions are inseparable from those publicly
    raised at the Nuremberg Trials, first, about what this means for the responsibility
    members of a society or organization bear for what is done in their name and second,
    why large numbers of people seemingly were willing to obey orders which involved
    them in torturing and killing fellow citizens on a mass scale. …

    Leaders need followers
    … To understand what makes a "follower", it is perhaps helpful to look at the
    behaviour and motivation of some of those individuals who, during the Third Reich, refused to follow. These are people who managed to stay firm to their principles and to oppose or refuse to collude with what they thought was wrong. Their "moral leadership" is implemented by example. It is based on recognising a moral conflict and being prepared to act in line with personal beliefs and principles rather than the dominant culture, even at great personal risk and cost.


    Jehovah's Witnesses - unexpected heroes
    …What caught my attention was the fact that in Germany and occupied Europe members kept their faith and practices intact in spite of the fact that these were anathema to the Nazis.
    Their story is different. They did not resist by forming underground groups nor did they act in resistance as separate individuals, as did some Catholics or Protestants.
    As a group virtually all members refused to bend the knee and stood prepared to take the consequences which turned out to be bitter.
    Rather than the story of an individual, therefore, I am sharing the story of a small group of people. For me, they demonstrated exceptional moral courage in a context where their lives were at stake and indeed where they were forced to witness the torture, imprisonment and execution of many fellow members….

    Can we find some answers within the beliefs of these individuals?
    … However, it is still illuminating to reflect on the amount of time and energy the Nazi authorities expended on the Witnesses and to ask why they should have chosen to do this.
    The Witnesses, as we have seen, were statistically insignificant. They were not popular, being classified by the mainstream churches as heretics….

    What happened?
    … Having refused publicly to accept the Nazi claim to total control over all aspects of their lives, including their faith, conflict was inevitable. What might have been expected and certainly was expected by the Gestapo was that the Witness movement, "this little brood", as Hitler called them, would be swiftly eradicated. …

    Tested under extreme pressure
    …..Unlike the majority of prisoners, the Witnesses had a precious possession with them. They carried with them an understanding of what was happening, even though it meant bitter and humiliating tortures and maybe even death. This was their living evidence of Satan's rule and they were called upon to fulfill their role as Witnesses in the midst of it all. Their suffering was known to God and had been predicted in their scriptures.
    Where they were housed together, they shared meager rations, organized prayer time and hymn singing - even though they were subject to the tortures of Schutzstaffel (SS) officers.
    ….
    As "Aryan" Germans, male Witness prisoners at Buchenwald were offered their freedom, should they agree to enlist. They were told that one in every 40 would be shot until the whole group submitted. After 40 had been shot, the shooting was halted and the "experiment" was deemed to have failed.
    Every Witness had the opportunity to purchase their personal freedom and to return to their homes and families. All that was needed was a signature on a document called "the declaration" which constituted a commitment not to preach their faith. A very small number were unable to resist this temptation but the vast majority refused to sign. …

    How do we explain this?
    Critics, particularly those who see the Witnesses as religious heretics speak of the Witnesses as "brainwashed". There is no evidence of such a phenomenon operating in relation to this group. Indeed, contemporary scholarship on new religious movements challenges the cold war affection for the concept of "brainwashing". Each individual had to make his or her own decision in the light of what seemed right and possible.
    Indeed, camp life and the restrictions on meetings and on the distribution of literature meant that individuals, whilst they sought comfort from each other, were isolated from their congregations, their journals and the sources of their instruction. What each individual did, he or she did as a result of beliefs and faith; no one was pulling the strings.
    Nor is it accurate to describe the Witnesses as seeking martyrdom. No Witness sought to or wanted to die. Most of the Witnesses in camps had family members on the outside and wanted nothing more than to be reunited. Nothing more, that is, than to obey what they saw as the wishes of their God….

    (Revelation 2:10) Do not be afraid of the things you are about to suffer. Look! The Devil will keep on throwing some of YOU into prison that YOU may be fully put to the test, and that YOU may have tribulation ten days. Prove yourself faithful even to death, and I will give you the crown of life.


    There is some interesting information in regards to 3 Prophecy’s under the subheading “Events You Are Soon to See Happen” on page 9 of the February 2011 Watchtower entitled:
    Armageddon – What is it? When will it come?
    It should be downloadable from http://www.jw.org/index.html?option=QrYQZRQVNZNT until July or you can request a copy from JW’s next time they come to your door.

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  • by AIRBALL on June 1st, 2011

    AIRBALL

    theey are the only ones to rewrite teir scripture as they see fiot for current situations
    and where inly a select few powerfull decides how everything is to be interpreted


    its a cult

    and it messes up people
    aslo they hate black people

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  • by Bridget_D8547 on March 17th, 2011

    Bridget_D8547

    The reason JWs stand out is they deny the very One whom they profess to worship: Jehovah. They deny that he is Jesus Christ. After that, you might as well just toss out your whole belief system, because you are denying that the Lord God himself is our Savior. Making up some fiction about a "created creature" becoming our Savior is ridiculous. There is no question that there was no man or created being who could offer us salvation. It was God himself. And he didn't shove the work off on somebody else. He himself put on the helmet of salvation and none else.

    To testify that the Lord Jesus Christ is *not* our Almighty God is to put yourself in direct opposition to the testimony of the Holy Spirit. Now, whom should we obey, God's voice or that of men? God's voice testifies that he is Lord, God, and Savior, and that there is none else to redeem us.

    Men can pit their voices against that of the Good Shepherd, but those who know the Lord will follow him. He is Jesus Christ, the Mighty One of Jacob, and he is might to save!

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  • by Perryman on October 28th, 2010

    Perryman

    STRUCTURE

    - They have no clergy class.

    - Their elders, teachers, and missionaries
    are unsalaried.

    - They neither tithe nor take up money
    collections at their places of worship,known as Kingdom Halls.

    - All their activities are supported by
    anonymous donations.

    - They remain neutral with regard to
    politics.

    - They advocate peace and do not participate
    in warfare.

    -They are globally united in their faith
    and Bible-based beliefs.

    - They are fully integrated, with no social,
    ethnic, racial, or class divisions.

    - They are not affiliated with any other
    religion, whether Catholic, Orthodox, or
    Protestant.

    DOCTRINE
    - They believe that there is only one true
    God, whose name is Jehovah.

    - They do not believe that Jesus Christ is
    Almighty God, nor do they believe in the
    Trinity doctrine.

    - They follow the teachings of Jesus and
    honor him as the Son of God.

    - They do not venerate the cross, nor do
    they use idols in their worship.

    - They do not believe in a fiery hell where
    all bad people go after death.

    - They believe that God will bless obedient
    mankind with perfect everlasting life in an earthly paradise.

    When Jehovah’s Witnesses visit your home in January, please ask them for the January 2011 issue of Awake! Magazine which will show you even more about how Christians “should be separate from this world.”.
    (These points are quoted from that issue)

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  • by thatsJustme on September 23rd, 2010

    thatsJustme

    thats their goal, to stand out and seem #1......but if anything a person needs to know 'their' John 1:1-3....and remember what the WORD says of who prophecy falsely.....
    but there is a lot more that goes against Scripture....no alms to poor, widows, or fatherless..it all goes to their HEAD /Watchtower.......etc....there is lots, too much to mention.....

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  • by Doc on September 23rd, 2010

    Doc

    Its easy to get in but theres a price to pay to get out. The believe only the
    NWT Bible.
    They believe only 144,000 Jewish Jehovah Witness men and women are going/gone
    to Heaven.
    They believe an Angel is a mighty god and a creator instead of a creature.
    They have a governing body that believes they control the destiny of Jehovah Witnesses even to the extent of making them not exist. They dont believe humans have a soul except maybe the 144,000 because if they didnt what went to heaven?
    Their beliefs have changed a lot over the years and some have changed back an forth a few times. I have no idea why they would state they are Bible believers.
    that is a stretch of the imaganation. They don't believe most the New Testament
    pertains to them.

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  • by Doc on March 22nd, 2010

    Doc

    They believe some how if they can stay in the good graces of the 8
    men in Brooklyn they will some how survive Armeggidon and live on
    to rebuild the earth. They aren't assured of their salvation until the final
    test after the 1000 years are over.
    They teach Jesus returned in 1914-1919 and the resurrection began
    in 1918.
    They teach that Michael assumed the name of Jesus after the resurrection
    and was promoted to a mighty god.

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