what would be so wrong in calling it a church anyway?

londonlady

i write this in the back of a cab,being driven through london. and driven very badly i migjht add,this cab.driver has a love affair with his brakes! im getting very car sick. ananyway. we just went past a kingdom hall. obviously purpose built amd emblazoned with a huge sign saying 'kingdom hall of jehovahs wittnesses'. there are many other churches im passing all with names like 'the glory of christ! church of the saved!' which clearly shows that its a religous church. anyone passing would be in no doubt. as to this funtion. but the kingdom hall looks like it could be anything a freemasons hall,a social private club. anything. what would be so wrong in calling it a church so that everyone would know what it was about?anyway going t o get out of the cab now .had quite enough of the driving!

blondie

I don't connect your post with the thread title. In the bible "church" refers to the people not the building but that blurs in the minds of many. The WTS likes to quibble about words and misses the real point, the identification of Christians per Jesus is the love they show others. It's a case of straining out the gnat and gulping down the camel.

Fernando

Their attempts to differentiate themselves and stake out a supremacist position make them more virulent promoters of sectarian divisions in the worldwide body (ekklesia, congregation, church) of followers of Jesus.

One body

one spirit

one hope

one Lord

one faith

one baptism

one God and Father

of all [persons], who is over all and through all and in all (Ephesians 4:4-6).

Amelia Ashton

In Spain the Spanish witnesses when speaking English refered to the KH as a church.

It felt wrong and I felt obliged to correct them each time but then another witness said that it wasn't really a big deal as long as you didn't refer to it as a church to witnesses in England.

shopaholic

JWs don't call it a church because it refers to those that will go to heaven and most JWs are not planning on going to heaven. Also, it's just another thing to separate them from everyone else but it doesn't work because most people call it 'the Jehovah Witness church' anyway.