It is an interesting view of what goes on. I have always believed JWs to be very nice people. Unfortunately, they deny the deity of Christ, so it’s a no go.
“I grew up thinking the Jehovah’s Witnesses were a cult.”
And you weren’t wrong.
Why no windows?
That's what I'll be asking unless someone here can tell me.
Freedom of religion is just that. I don’t agree with Russell and Rutherford, but I have an uncle who is confined to a rest home and can’t leave his bed. He lives on the other side of the country, suffering from muscular dystrophy.
The witnesses come and fellowship with him every week and of course, study with him. No one else does. God bless the witnesses for that.
I was hoping he(she?) was going to go bang on their door and demand that the people inside drop everything they were doing so he could try to convert them.
Kind of a pessimistic way to go through life...
I attended a few JW Sunday Services but their Wednesday meetings were more interesting. Part of those meetings are for practicing their door to door skills.
They are a very studious group and the reason many Christians are scared of them is that most Christians don’t study their Bibles 1/2 as much as JW’s study their doctrines. So the “JW is a cult” mantra is more out of fear than fact.
Like them or not, they will not behead you for failing to agree with them.
The thing to ask a Jehovah’s Witness is: “When did Jehovah God die?” -
The JWs believe that upon death, we go to the grave and lie in the ground awaiting the final judgment. I'm not sure if they believe we have a soul or not but they sure believe that upon death, it's all over until who knows when. No afterlife, no judgment, no heaven or hell, nothing. Just a kind of dormancy or suspended animation.
So you take them to the passage where Jesus is dying on the cross and the Good Thief has just asked Jesus to be merciful and Jesus says to him "I tell you truly, today you will be with me in paradise".
Well JW, Jesus says that this man will be with Him in paradise today. That pretty much sinks your idea, doesn't it?
Oh no, says the JW smiling, you've got the comma in the wrong position. It should be " I tell you truly today, you will be with me in paradise". The comma comes after "today", not before. IOW, Jesus is telling the thief today (as opposed to yesterday or last week) that he will be with him in paradise at some future date as yet unknown.
True story.
JW-ism was invented to lure the confused, easily deceived and downright ignorant.
There are JW's in the military? I thought that was against their beliefs.
I've always had a soft spot for the JW's. Aside from having had some JW relatives at one time in the past I admire them for being so decidedly un-liberal that they'll have nothing to do with anyone else (no ecumenism here!). And their "Theocratic anarchism" used to appeal to me back when I didn't want G-d implicated in the world as it exists today. They refuse to participate in any human government because they believe human government is a plot of Satan and G-d is a sort of "once and future king" Who is going to fix things one day if we'll ever humble ourselves enough to admit we can't do it and stop trying. In fact, their "the governments are all run by Satan" actually was an influence on me joining the conspiracist John Birch Society. It turns out there's no connection whatsoever between JW Theocratic anarchism and JBS conspiracism (the latter believe that human government is splendid idea that was sabotaged only relatively recently). Of course this whole thing is based on a false dualism that turns Satan into a "gxd," which he isn't.
The JW's are also the only thoroughly integrated Fundamentalists and they deserve a kind word just for this.
(And as they did, the sound of rustling pages swept across the globe almost simultaneously on the hour...the JWs are one group that studies the exact same thing worldwide every Sunday...talk about strict boundaries of conformity.)
Jesus, on the other hand, didn't have all dozen disciples or all 70 extended disciples with Him everywhere He went to ensure they received spiritually robotic discipleship. Sometimes, He had a few; sometimes more; sometimes 12. Sometimes 70. Sometimes the crowds-at-large.
But what do JWs really know about Jesus? (They can't seem to make up their minds about whether He was a man, an archangel, a god with a small "g," or a resurrected spirit -- no body -- or some or all of the above @ different times...kind of a form of Jesus modalism).
They seemed to imply Jesus falsely prophesied when He promised He would raise His own body. Yet their organization falsely prophesying that Jesus would return first in 1874, then 1914, then 1915, then 1918, then 1925, then early to mid-1940s, then 1975...is all either glossed over, covered up, or redefined.
Here, people can see false prophecies in JWs' own publications for themselves: WhatJWsBelieve
Well, let's do a quick run-down comparison vs. Christianity:
1. That Jesus is a created being – a creature.
2. That Jesus is actually Michael the Archangel.
3. That Jesus was not resurrected bodily, but as a spirit being.
4. That Jesus returned invisibly in 1914 (secretly to the Organization).
5. That Jesus was only a man when on earth, not “the Word become flesh.”
6. That the Holy Spirit is only an active force, not the Person of God.
7. That hell is simply the grave.
8. That heaven’s doors are open to only 144, 000 people.
9. That the majority of Witnesses must remain on earth.
10. That salvation is found only through the Organization.
11. That salvation can be maintained only by energetic works for the Organization until the end, when one may then merit eternal life on a paradise earth.
12. That Satan is the author of the doctrine of the trinity.
13. That Jesus cannot be given worship, but only honor as Jehovah’s first creation
Source: Freedom in Christ.net: JWsVsChristianity
I grew up thinking the Jehovah’s Witnesses were a cult.
They are. No matter how nice, they worship the wrong god. Doesn't mean I'm going to torch their building or drive them out of town.
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I’ll bet s/he didn’t spend any time staring out the window.