I am a Jehovah's whitness and other people's religion don't make any sense. Please explain in short.
Responses (4)
First of all, there's no such thing as "christianism" it's called catholicism with a lower-case c. Second of all, Jehovah's witness is an offshoot of Christianity, which is based off a misinterpretation of a passage in the New Testament in the Bible (basically reading one verse and ignoring the second one, the 144,000 thing is referring to people from the original tribes of Israel). So go ahead, try to explain to me why *Christianity* (not christianism) is wrong. I'm curious what your opinion is, so please explain.
First of all, I myself am not a Catholic, but a Baptist and more specifically a Christian Humanist, so I have no idea what exactly the Catholic Hierarchy teaches, though I do know it promotes mission work. As a Christian, I believe in the Great Commission, or to go out and spread God's news in the world. I do have to disagree with you on the point of "spiritual" tribes though. Never does it say this, and nor does the original text suggest it (original language). You are right that it is almost impossible to prove who was a member of the original tribes, but I think we can both agree that God will have no trouble with that. In response, I'd like to ask you another question about Jehovah's witness (yes, I know Jehovah is a name for God): if you only believe in an earthly kingdom, do you believe in heaven? Or a life after death? Just curious because I do have a moderate knowledge of JH but I'm no expert, and from the looks of it I can consider you a reliable source, as you are JH yourself. Hope to hear from you soon!
I beleve it is wrong because they beleve that God, Jesus and the holy spirit is one thing. Please explain that to me. We beleve that 144000 people will go to heaven for 1000 years to help rule over the world. The devil won't be here and we will not sin. After 1000 years the devil will be free and only the people who stayed loyal to Jehovah will live on eath eternally in a paradice.
Well, so do Baptists. The Bible says they are three individual beings who are somehow one being at the same time. This is known as the Mystery of the Trinity, because even though it doesn't make sense to us it does to God, but then again, I think we can both agree he is so much higher than us and infinitely wiser and more powerful. According to the Bible at least people aren't going to temporarily, but permanently if the have accepted Christ as their Lord and Savior (or if they lived before Christ but followed God w/ all the Old Testament Stuff). If you read the whole passage in Revelations on the 144,000 (Rev. 7: 1-8), you see that it is talking about a select number who will be "sealed" or protected from all of the later events in Revelations. These people are either direct descendants or current members of the tribes of Israel, and are not the only people who will go to Heaven if you read all of Revelations, there are many groups. Much of Revelations is allegory though (like Narnia, Lord of the Rings or Star Wars) so it is often hard to discern with certainty the exact meaning of many of it's passages. However there are times where it explicitly mentions other groups besides the 144,000 go to Heaven. Besides that, in the old testament, God tells Abraham his descendants will be like the stars in the sky or the dust of the earth, and they will inherit the kingdom of *Heaven*, and there are many more stars and pieces of dust than 144,000, meaning those who go to Heaven will be in the millions, billions, or potentially even trillions depending on when Christ comes back. The bible says any who believe in and accept Christ as their Lord and Savior will go to Heaven, and more than 144,000 have truthfully done that (not counting those who are liars and false Christians). So that's what I believe in response to your comment. Please let me know how you feel on this or if you have any more questions about Christianity.
People are allowed to believe whatever they want and therefore you can believe stuff is wrong. She never demanded someone to defend themselves, she asked if anyone wanted to. Think of it as a friendly ideology debate.
Several issues that the JW's have with the Christian Bible that I am aware of...
1) What about the JW's modifying John 1:1 from ‘…was God to ‘…was a god (for grammatical reasons which of course changed the meaning of the verse). Again the statement that Jesus was the only begotten Son of the Father
Is stated again in John 1:14
2) The earth will last forever. ‘New Earth’ as stated in Isaiah 65:17
Isaiah 65:17
“For behold, I create new heavens and a new earth;
And the former shall not be remembered or come to mind.
The current world is passing away because of sin (Gen 1:31), as stated in
1 John 2:17
And the world is passing away, and the lust of it; but he who does the will of God abides forever. Also see Rom 8:21-22.
3) One God..
Deuteronomy 6:4
“Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God is one LORD.”
What the JW's misunderstand is that God the Father, Son and Holy Spirit are one in essence not absolute. For example, The key word “one” (Hebrew achad) is often used to denote unity in diversity. For example, when Eve was united to Adam in marriage, they were said to be “one flesh” (Genesis 2:24). Similarly, on the third day of creation, the waters were “gathered together unto one place,” yet this gathering together was called “Seas” (i.e., more than one sea, Genesis 1:9-10).
What do you say to these questions?
You have not demonstrated that you can prove Christianity ("christianism") is untrue, but I believe you. The Jehovah's Witness denomination is simply a type of Christianity, so since you have proven Christianity to be untrue, you will also know Jehovah's Witness, the religion of the Watch Tower Bible and Tract Society, to be untrue.
You can't have it both ways.
Jehovah's Witnesses are not an offshoot of Christianity or catholicism. When you read the Bible as a whole, you can see that the theme of the bible is God's Kingdom. From the first prophecy in Genesis to Revelation, God's Kingdom is shown to be the only way to bring about peace and unity on the earth. Jesus Christ taught his followers the "model"prayer, that they were to continually ask God to bring about his Kingdom. This would not be a condition of the heart, as taught by many denominations but an actual kingdom with a King and a government. See Daniel 2 v 44. This is the main activity of JWs, that of proclaiming the Kingdom of God. See Matthew 24 v 14. Does mainstream christianity do this? Does the Catholic hierarchy advocate that its adherents preach the good news?
The 144,000 is a literal number but does not refer to the literal jewish tribes. The jewish tribes are no longer identifiable since all records were lost in 70 CE when Rome destroyed completely the temple in Jerusalem. The 12 tribes referred to are spiritual tribes of Isreal. If you look at the 12 triples listed in Revelation you will see that they are not the same as the literal 12 tribes in Numbers.
As to the name Jehovah's Witnesses, this is quoted in Isaiah 43 verses 10 - 12.