Jehovah's Witnesses
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When you hear the term "Jehovah's Witness", typically you think of a Evangelical Christian who knocks on your door, handing you out a copy of the Jehovah's Witness magazine. What is it they believe though? Where did they come from? Are they really Christian?
I'm going to divide this discussion into several parts to make it easier to understand. Here we go:
Introduction
Lets start with the factor the Jehovah's Witnesses believe that God first created Michael the Archangel, who through Michael made everything else like the universe, the Earth, life, Adam and Eve and so forth. This creative work didn't take the 6 days it takes in the Bible, but rather 42,000 years in total time.
Now originally the Jehovah's Witnesses church, also known as "The Watchtower" taught that God ruled the entire universe from a mysterious place around the Pleiades star system ("The Big Dipper").
Then years later "The Watchtower" decided this concept wasn't a good idea anymore (since God magically can change facts and history like that), saying:
"Pleiades can no longer be considered the center of the universe and it would be unwise for us to try to fix God's throne as being at a particular spot in the universe."
Watchtower 11/15/53, page. 703
There are various other contradictions the Jehovah's Witnesses will make with their own beliefs, but lets not get off subject.
Back to what Jehovah's Witnesses' believe..
So right back when Adam and Eve sinned by eating the forbidden fruit the paradise the God created for them obviously had been ruined. God then decides to make a system of redemption, which was revealed in the Bible and would end up obviously with the crucifixion of Jesus to have all sins atoned for. The problem though was that God needed a church here on Earth for His teachings and so that people would know of Him. Prophets like Noah, Israel, Moses, King David, and so on were all actually Jehovah's Witnesses according to the Jehovah's Witnesses.
According to Jehovah's Witnesses though, it wasn't until the late 1800's when a man named Charles Taze Russell started organizations called "The Watchtower" and also "The Tract Society". Now according to the new organization, "The Watchtower" and "The Tract Society" were the only true channel of the "Truth" of God's message since no individual outside has the brain capacity to seriously comprehend the Bible.
Jehovah's Witnesses believe that "The Watchtower" and "The Tract Society" are actually directed by angels and in itself (the church) is a prophet of God.
So anyways when it came for the savior to be born, Michael the Archangel became human, and was who we know as Jesus. Jehovah's Witnesses explain Jesus' life story the same as most Christians, but when Jesus died it actually wasn't on the cross, but instead a torture stake where he bore the sins of some of mankind, which didn't include Adam and Eve's sins. After this Jesus rose from the dead not in the flesh, but as a spirit since his corpse was vaporized and taken away by God. The spirit of Michael/Jesus then would appear randomly and temporarily constitute a physical body for people to see and touch.
Now this information all obviously contradicts the Bible, but as I pointed out, a Jehovah's Witnesses is taught that they cant seriously comprehend the Bible so they are discouraged from actually reading the thing and putting their solid faith in the church, since the church said that it was governed by God through his angels.
The Self-Righteous Stuff
Throughout the history of the Jehovah's Witnesses, Jehovah's Witnesses have extended their own definition of "The Truth". All people who follow the Trinity, or also known as "Christendom" are actually enemies of God. I want you to keep noted that everyone from Lutherans, Baptists, Catholics, us, and so forth are all apart of this "Christendom". Jehovah's Witnesses believe that Christendom was actually made by Satan and God allowed this to test people's faith in Him.
Basically what I'm getting at here is Jehovah's Witnesses believe that all of Christianity is false and actually only the Jehovah's Witnesses are correct, which is really just an organization of several (for some random reason) very wealthy men in a single building in Brooklyn, New York.
The crazy stuff doesn't stop there though. In 1914 Jehovah's Witnesses claim that Jesus randomly appeared to the elite elders in "The Watchtower' in Brooklyn, New York. It was so important that only these wealthy heads of church would know the amazing information. Jesus even warned them that doomsday/the rapture would happen in 1975, but it never did. Ouch! Some other information included is when Jesus will return and set up his kingdom on Earth for 1,000 years. During these years people will be resurrected and have a second chance to get eternal salvation by becoming Jehovah's Witnesses and following the institution on Earth God established, being the Watchtower building in Brooklyn, New York. Wow!
After the 1,000 years those who reject God and the Watchtower will all be killed off and cease to exist. The rest of the faithful Jehovah's Witnesses who have faithfully followed God's Watchtower organization on Earth will live as immortals on a Paradise, fantasy land version of Earth. For the really super good Jehovah's Witnesses, which will be a select few the Watchtower chooses (not God, since God isn't getting the donations), the elite will go to Heaven. Only 144,000 people will be allowed to go to Heaven, so Jehovah's Witnesses do whatever they must to do what they can for the Watchtower to be deemed holy enough to get into Heaven. Have you figured out why all the heads of the Watchtower are filthy rich yet?
(Thank you to Mapquest.com for the image)
Their Rules
You can't even become a Jehovah's Witness by accepting Jesus alone. It takes a minimum of 6 months and have to answer tons of questions from panels of elders. Men cant have long hair or beards and women must dress in 'modest apparel'. They cannot vote, salute to the flag, sing any song they has remotely anything to do with a country (like the "Star Spangled Banner"), celebrate holidays (even Christmas and their birthdays), take or do blood transfusions, and they cant join the military. Drinking is cool but if you smoke it is a sin since smoking is polluting the air (but driving cars isn't?). You are put on a schedule of door-to-door harassing, or excuse me, I meant to say canvassing of random people where you give out all the junk that Jehovah's Witnesses will give you.
A man is always right over a woman. If a Jehovah's Witness accuses another Jehovah's Witness of a crime or sin to the elders (its a sin to do so to the police or government that can get excommunication) without 2 or more witnesses, than the accused is innocent. My point on this subject matter is more clearly outlined within the videos below which I recommend you view.
It is recommended that a Jehovah's Witness doesn't read the Bible since they are just mortals and cant understand the Bible (then why was it written?!!). Instead the original Bible is shredded up and nearly rewritten from scratch incase a Jehovah's Witness gets curious and picks up the Bible, not knowing that the Jehovah's Witness version of the Bible is a Bible with all the verse titles, but completely different wording.
Instead of the Bible they are recommended to read copies of "Watchtower" and "Awake!" magazines, both of which I have copies of.
Their Predictions
Note: I didn't write the information in the following link, but the information I agree with and I link to the source of the people who did write it to give them credit.
Conflicts with the Bible
Note: I didn't write the information in the following link, but the information I agree with and I link to the source of the people who did write it to give them credit.
Downloadable Videos
The following videos is a Dateline episode which explains a lot of what I did in this entire article and how the Watchtower covers up illegal and immoral actions of Jehovah's Witnesses. There is a large scandal with child abuse cases within the Jehovah's Witness religion, but the scary part is how the Watchtower deals with it. It's a very interesting view!