The Watchtower, Christianity and Cultism

Nickolas

If you want to upset a Jehovah's Witness, refer to the Watchtower as a sect. If you really want to upset a Jehovah's Witness, refer to the Watchtower as a cult. That's pretty much a conversation stopper.

The Watchtower denigrates the rest of Christianity. It doesn't even refer to the rest of Christianity as such, preferring the putdown of Christendom. But looking at it from the outside in, the similarities between the Watchtower and Christianity are far more numerous than their differences. One seeks to control the lives of its adherents more closely than the other, but only from the modern perspective. Christianity's been around for 2,000 years, after all. As much as modern Christians (including Jehovah's Witnesses) prefer to compare themselves to the first century Christian movement, what about all those centuries in between?

Who I am is not only the man I am today plus who I was as an infant but the person I was over the course of my entire life. When I'm a very old man and my days are dwindling down to a precious few I will look back over the course of my life and I will judge myself. This has nothing to do with an eternal hope, because I have none, but because I acknowledge responsibility for all the things I have done in my life, in particular the things I have done that hurt others. I am the sum of my parts. So is Christianity.

Christianity it is not defined by what it is today but by what it has been throughout the ages, and how it has affected the lives of countless billions of people. Christianity is not a modern phenomenon. Through the ages and even as recently as 50 years ago, the stewards of Christianity - the popes, the prelates, the kings, the emperors and the rest - were as or more oppressive in their control over the lives of people as is the Watchtower today. And when I look upon the works of Christianity, past and present, I see a picture that is not beautiful. So, the question I have to ask myself is, if the Watchtower is a cult, as so many people in here believe, is Christianity itself a cult?

jay88

If Christianity is a subsidiary of Judaism then what is Judaism?

Nickolas

Another cult, perhaps?

OUTLAW

If you want to upset a Jehovah's Witness, refer to the Watchtower as a sect.

If you really want to upset a Jehovah's Witness, refer to the Watchtower as a cult.That's pretty much a conversation stopper.....Nickolas

You can do one better..

The WBT$ has replaced Jesus as Mediator,with the exception of the 144,000..

Jehovah`s Witness`s follow an Anti-Christ organization..

Sacrifice Your lives and the Lives of your Children..

For the WBT$ AntiChrist..

.................. ...OUTLAW

jay88

Cult/Culture is inevitable,why can it not be seperated in our culture like aesop fables or stories written by Shakepeare....why does it have this tremendous placebo effect, which some call spirituality?

PSacramento

All religions are cults, yes.

–noun

1. a particular system of religious worship, especially with reference to its rites and ceremonies. 2. an instance of great veneration of a person, ideal, or thing, especially as manifested by a body of admirers: the physical fitness cult. 3. the object of such devotion.

RayPublisher

Here we go the atheists and haters are on the loose again...RUN FOR YOUR LIVES. But that avatar Nicolas has is de-evolving! Cool, didn't Devo get their name from that idea?

The last thing that it is politically okay to make fun of and ridicule openly: Christianity

;-)

godrulz

From an evangelical Christian point of view, Christianity is a relationship with the risen Christ. He is the founder, foundation, Head, cornerstone, etc. Our faith is in the person of Jehovah God in Christ (Jesus is YHWH), not a man, not an organization, not an angel. Cults and world religions deviate significantly from essential divine revelation embodied in Judeo-Christianity. Mormonism is a pseudo-Christian cult because they promote plurality of gods/polytheism vs biblical monotheism. They have a different gospel and jesus. WT also started around one man's interpretations that have no historical precedent. Again, it denies the essentials of the faith including the Deity and physical resurrection of Christ, salvation by grace through faith alone, etc. It is not pejorative to call JWs and Mormons a pseudo-Christian cult, not biblical, historical, orthodox Christianity.

WT defines cult in a narrow way as being small, fringe groups with authoritarian leaders, etc. They manage to exclude themselves by making a definition to suit their purposes, yet blind to their autocratic ways, heterodox beliefs and practices, etc. With their blood view and harsh disfellowshipping manipulation, they are one of the largest, most dangerous cults in the world, in the guise of 'Christianity'. They try to distance themselves from 'Christendom', but deny Christianity in the process.

BluesBrother

The WTS uses the word Christendom liberally and we all know what they mean - but what does it really mean in the dictionary?

- the collective body of Christians throughout the world and history (found predominantly in Europe and the Americas and Australia); "for a thousand years the Roman Catholic Church was the principal church of Christendom"
- Christendom, or the Christian world, has several meanings. In a cultural sense it refers to the worldwide community of Christians, adherents of Christianity. ...
- Traditionally, the part of the world traditionally dominated by Christianity: most of Europe, Australasia and the Americas, plus parts of the Third World. This ignores the social importance of migrant communities from non-Christian societies of the Third World.
- This derogatory term is used to refer to Protestant and Catholic groups, which are thought to have been established in the fourth century by the un-baptized Roman emperor, Constantine the Great.

InterestedOne

So, the question I have to ask myself is, if the Watchtower is a cult, as so many people in here believe, is Christianity itself a cult?

I've checked out a few ex-Christian forums, and I see people who are exiting Christianity referring to it as a cult. As an ex-Christian, I find myself also thinking of it that way. I recall an episode of "The Atheist Experience"

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0OCYhDFc42I

where at 00:50 Jeff Dee has a brief exchange with the Christian caller and says "what's wrong with you?"

I think Jeff's sentiments sum up one reason why I also tend to think of Christianity as a cult.

The Watchtower, Christianity and Cultism

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