Could you tell me how the WTS is like, Catholics, Mormons, etc....? (page 2)

jgnat

Here's a handy chart, but it doesn't have the JW's. It would be easy enough to add them.

http://www.religionfacts.com/christianity/charts/denominations_beliefs.htm

Another chart, listing some of the fringe cults/religions. http://www.iclnet.org/pub/resources/text/cri/cri-jrnl/web/crj0096a.html
A Doctrinal Comparison of Catholicism and the Cults

DOCTRINES RC JW LDS CS WCG[*] TWI UPC
+ -------------+------+------+------+------+------+------+------+
|All Theistic | | | | | | | |
|Attributes Of |affirm| deny | deny | deny | deny | deny |distor|
| God | | | | | | | |
|--------------+------+------+------+------+------+------+------|
| Triune | | | | | | | |
| Nature |affirm| deny | deny | deny | deny | deny | deny |
| Of God | | | | | | | |
|--------------+------+------+------+------+------+------+------|
| Personality | | | | | | | |
| Of The |affirm| deny |distor| deny | deny | deny |distor|
| Holy Spirit | | | | | | | |
|--------------+------+------+------+------+------+------+------|
| Two Natures | | | | | | | |
| Of Christ |affirm| deny |distor| deny | deny | deny |distor|
| (God-Human) | | | | | | | |
|--------------+------+------+------+------+------+------+------|
| The | | | | | | | |
| Virgin |affirm|affirm| deny | deny |affirm|distor|affirm|
| Birth | | | | | | | |
|--------------+------+------+------+------+------+------+------|
|Justification | | | | | | | |
| By |compro| deny | deny | deny | deny |distor|compro|
| Faith | | | | | | | |
|--------------+------+------+------+------+------+------+------|
| Sufficiency | | | | | | | |
| Of Christ's |compro| deny | deny | deny | deny |distor|distor|
| Atonement | | | | | | | |
|--------------+------+------+------+------+------+------+------|
| Christ's | | | | | | | |
| Bodily |affirm| deny |affirm| deny | deny |compro|affirm|
| Resurrection | | | | | | | |
|--------------+------+------+------+------+------+------+------|
| Eternal | | | | | | | |
| Conscious |affirm| deny |distor| deny | deny | deny |affirm|
| Punishment | | | | | | | |
|--------------+------+------+------+------+------+------+------|
| Literal | | | | | | | |
| Return Of |affirm|distor|distor| deny | deny |affirm|affirm|
| Christ | | | | | | | |
|--------------+------+------+------+------+------+------+------|
| An | | | | | | | |
| Immortal |affirm| deny |distor|distor| deny | deny |affirm|
| Soul | | | | | | | |
|--------------+------+------+------+------+------+------+------|
| Infallible/ |affirm|distor| deny | deny |distor|distor|distor|
| Inerrant | | | | | | | |
| Bible | | | | | | | |
|--------------+------+------+------+------+------+------+------|
| Authority | | | | | | | |
| Of The |compro|compro|compro|distor|compro|compro|compro|
| Bible | | | | | | | |
|--------------+------+------+------+------+------+------+------|
| Continuity | | | | | | | |
| Of The |affirm| deny | deny | deny | deny | deny | deny |
| Church | | | | | | | |
|--------------+------+------+------+------+------+------+------|
| | | | | | | | |
|Predestination|affirm| deny | deny | deny | deny | deny | deny |
| | | | | | | | |
|--------------+------+------+------+------+------+------+------|
| Salvation | | | | | | | |
| Outside |compro| deny |compro|compro|compro|compro|compro|
| Their Ranks | | | | | | | |
|--------------+------+------+------+------+------+------+------|
| Total | | | | | | | |
| |compro| deny | deny | deny | deny | deny | deny |
| Depravity | | | | | | | |
|--------------+------+------+------+------+------+------+------|
| Eternal | | | | | | | |
| Life In |affirm|distor|distor| deny | deny | deny |affirm|
| Heaven | | | | | | | |
|--------------+------+------+------+------+------+------+------|
|Consciousness | | | | | | | |
|In The Inter- |affirm| deny |affirm| deny | deny | deny |affirm|
|mediate State | | | | | | | |
|--------------+------+------+------+------+------+------+------|
| Final | | | | | | | |
| |affirm|distor|distor| deny |distor|distor|affirm|
| Judgment | | | | | | | |
+--------------+------+------+------+------+------+------+------+

[*]These positions more rightly reflect Armstrongism. The current Worldwide Church of God seems to have moved somewhat toward orthodoxy, but has yet to accept the Trinity and remains in a state of flux.

---------------------------------+--------------------------------- *Identifications*: | *Definitions:* ---------------------------------+--------------------------------- *RC:* Roman Catholicism | CRI distinguishes between | teaching that is *JW:* Jehovah's Witnesses | *aberrational* (a serious | confusion or compromise of *LDS:* Latter-day Saints | essential biblical truth) and | teaching that is *heretical* *CS:* Christian Science | (a continued outright denial | or rejection of essential *WCG:* Worldwide Church of God | biblical truth). | *affirm:* declare to be true *TWI:* The Way International | *deny:* declare to be untrue | *distort:* (distor) a serious *UPC:* United Pentecostal Church | change or negative alteration | *compromise:* (compro) an | unacceptable blending, | settlement, or concession -------------------------------------------------------------------

kristyann

That chart is great... thanks

TD

I grew up in a community with a very high Mormon population. I played with Mormon children, went to school with them, attended Mormon activities and services, worked both with Mormons and for Mormon business owners and have read the BOM several times So I'm not altogether unfamiliar with the LDS faith.

Susan has pointed out some differences between JW's and Mormons, but there are also some similarities as well:

Both the JW's and Mormons:

....have pyramidal authority structures. At the top, Mormons have the Council of the Twelve; JW's have the Governing Body. Below the twelve, Mormons have increasingly larger groups with correspondingly less authority, like the Quorum of the Seventy. So do JW's. Below the Governing Body are the various committess, like the Service Committee, Teaching Committe, etc. Climbing to the top layer in either organization is the work of a lifetime. Consequently, in both groups, the top layer tends towards the elderly. The next similarity arises as a direct result of this.

...have an aging and obviously fallible leadership that demands to be respected as more than such. The LDS leadership has both claimed and continues to claim plenary inspiration on certain important decisions. The JW's avoid claims of direct revelation, but at the same time, cloak every decision they make under the mantle of "spirit direction." Thus to disagree with the leadership of either group can well be percieved as disagreeing with God himself.

...have views of ancient history with little or no support from modern archaeology. Nether group can renounce these views. JW's can't let go of the idea that the second conquest of Jerusalem took place in 607 B.C. Similarly, the LDS faith can't let go of the idea that large, widespread cultures inhabited the North American continent with a knowledge of weapons, metallurgy, animal husbandry, farming techniques, architecture, and engineering that was as good, or better than what we know existed in the old world.

...have esoteric doctrines that depend on the fact that each respective group has vague ideas about the biblical source languages. Ask a Mormon how the word "synagogue" or how a Jamsian translation of the Greek idiom, amen amen legw umin each found their way into the BOM and they likely won't even see the problem. With JW's, a similar phenomonen exists although it usually takes the form of special pleading rather than out and out anachronisms.

But in the end, both the JW's and Mormons are all just people --many of them kind and good people. I suppose in that respect, they're similar to many faiths.

jwfacts

	Mormon	JW	7th day	Christadelphians
Origin	1800s America	1800s America	1800s America	1800s America
Founder	Joseph smith	Charles Russell	Ellen Smith	Dr Thomas
Trinity	No	No	yes	no
Narrow Salvation	only one true religion	only one true religion	only one true religion	only one true religion
Salvation requirements	faith, repentence, baptism continued righteousness	faith, repentence, baptism continued righteousness	faith, repentence, baptism continued righteousness	faith, repentence, baptism continued righteousness
Armageddon	not end of world	not end of world	not end of world	not end of world
Armageddon	destruction of most of mankind	destruction of most of mankind	destruction of most of mankind	destruction of most of mankind
Time prophecies currently underway	yes	Yes	yes	yes
Sabbath	yes	No	yes	?
soul mortal	?	Yes	yes	yes
Go to war	yes	No	no	no
Excommunicate	yes	Yes	yes	?
Strict moral code	yes	Yes	yes	yes

Could you tell me how the WTS is like, Catholics, Mormons, etc....?

ferret

jgnat

kristyann

TD

jwfacts

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