by Band on the Run 65 Replies latest watchtower beliefs
I have seen evidence of an unbroken line of believers in Christ Alone. Jesus promised his believers that he would be with them "alway" until the end. The Greek work for alway indicates inclusivity of both ends... a time period.
They had many different names though. You can learn about them here: http://www.bibleready.com/History.html
William Miller had such great success in his predictions that the JWs are proud to follow in his footsteps! The JWs, though, are adamant that they're the only true religion although they have no predictive scriptures...even though none of their leaders was called or ordained by God, or was visited by angels or received revelation.
The three basic forms of Christianity today are Catholic, Protestant, and Restorationist. The Catholics consist of the churches which came out of the seven ecumenical councils: Catholicism and Orthodoxy. Orthodox Christians don't like to be put into that category, but I'm using the term as "universalist." The Protestants came out of Catholicism and were part of it. Unlike the Catholics, the Protestants mostly chose to minimize the issue of whether authority in the ministry was necessary for a church to have legitimacy. After all, if the Catholics had it, they were apostates, so the only way they could claim legitimacy was to announce that it wasn't needed. And they reasoned that all Christians held this authority. Luthor, Knox, Calvin and others towed this line.
The Restorationists were those who believed that Christianity couldn't be "reformed" -- that it needed a reboot. It needed to be restored to its pristine biblical purity. Alexander Campbell, who founded the churches of Christ around 1830; Joseph Smith, the prophet of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints; Ellen G. White, who was the cornerstone of the Adventist movement, which included the Seventh Day Adventists, Radio Church of God (later just Church of God), founded by the inimitable Herbert W. Armstrong, and various cousins and break-offs; the Watchtower Society of Jehovah's Witnesses in 1881, which like to be classed under the "millennialist restorationist" banner; and the Christian Restoration Association founded in 1922 by Sidney S. Clarke. This group says: "The uniqueness of this group lies in its desire to restore the church of the New Testament." Of all these groups, only two believed that they were called and commissioned of God by revelation to restore the primitive Christian faith; and these were the LDS or "Mormon" movement by Joseph Smith in 1830 and the White Adventist movement by Ellen G. White in 1844.
The Restorationist movement, also known as the Second Great Awakening, mostly believed that Christianity could be restored only by a tenacious study and dogged return to the New Testament scriptures. Yet Campbell, Russell, Clarke and Armstrong all came up with different doctrines they championed; and the two revelationist restoration groups, headed by Smith and White, each had different doctrines allegedly revealed by God.
There's no doubt that Charles T. Russle and the Watchtower church he helped produce, were significantly influenced by the Congregationalist Church. Two beloved practices, disfellowshiping and shunning, both came from that church. But where each congregation was self governing in the Congregationalist Church, the Watchtower group started fairly independent and then started down a long path to consolidation. Is it Protestent or Restorationist? Although it shares a number of doctrines with the Adventists, no one in the Watchtower group ever claimed any revelations, visions or prophecy (unless one counts the repitition of wrong dates). But since it claims to have been "restored" by a careful study of the Bible, as Campbell, Clarke and Armstrong claimed, and since it claims to be God's only true religion, I'd put them in the third group. Spiritually, though, they are Protestant in that he protested just about everything everyone else ever did. My dad once told me he didn't know what Jehovah's Witnesses were for, but that they were against everything! It was an old country joke.
I understood that Protestant describes those churches formed during the Reformation. Anglicans are not true Protestants. I believe there is a technical definition and more common usage, non Roman Catholic churches.
It is interesting that most of these groups started around the same time period. There must be a reason for that.
Probably need to include in the lineage the pacifist groups.
The HISTORY channel on Cable TV sez that SDA Seventh Day Adventist and Jehovah's Witnesses are the spiritual descendants of William Miller great disappointment fallout spin offs.
It really becomes a minor point the basis of doctrines adopted by the Bible Students, since they were taken over by Freemasonry and the Illuminati early on and became a puppet to them.
Remember how Russell bragged about not having to collect donations for anyone? He noted that they were supported financially independently. Who was that? It was Illuminati-controlled B'nai B'rith, a Jewish underground Illuminati organization which also created many other "Illuminati" groups including groups like the KKK and the NAACP. Now note the influence! Ever wonder about why the WTS was promoting "ZIONISM"? That's right. That's rather striking about Russell's message, which was that the Jews were supposed to return to their homeland and thus rightfully be granted their homeland. The Bible Students, while certainly focussing on chronology were also "Zionists"! So basically, you have smart Jews finding some charismatic leader like Russell, who was deep into "Illuminati" goals himself, becoming a Christian sect promoting Zionism and the right of the Jews to reclaim their homeland. And they, of course, had the funds to do it. Anyone can see a conflict of interest in doctrine when someone is paying all your bills and promoting your religion.
So it is not so much of where they came from but what they became. They became Zionists, directly paid by Jews to promote Zionism.
Satanism is directly linked with pyramidology. What on earth does pyramidology have to do with Christianity? It's an abomination. Am I a conspiracy theorist? Maybe. But is the seeing-eye pyramid we see on the dollar bill and at Russell's grave part of my delusion? Can we separate Russell from Satanism when the WTS built that pyramid at his grave? No. The Nazis noted that as well. The Nazis didn't persecute the witnesses because they didn't believe the trinity. They thought the JWs were spies and being used by the secret Jewish underground, which had a direct connection to the witnesses! The Nazis thought JWs were Jewish spies.
So part of the "birth" of the WBTS has to be connected with where they first got that huge infusion of funds to help establish themselves. That money came from Illuminati Jews.
Of course, in later times, we find Jews setting up the UN and the WTS joining the UN in 1991. So JWs have to be considered an ultimate puppet of Judeo-Illuminatism. How can we conclude otherwise when they were funded by them in the beginning and promoted Zionism, which is rather a political stance as well, right?
So ask as well, Why did the Bible Students become Zionists? "Zion's Watchtower"?
When you examine the Judeo-WTS connection, you understand more about their ascendancy and "birth." The WTS was founded in Freemasonry. Look on the cover of those old books, the winged-sun-disk? What does that have anything to do with Christianity and not everything to do with Satanism and paganism?
Please.
Yes, open your eyes, but don't just look at one thing. Turn around and look at the entire picture.
I think you may find that the origins of JW-type thinking can be found much earlier than the Reformation.
The Anabaptisits believed much that is recognisably a precursor of Russell's thinking, such as re-baptism of converts, no military or nationalistic participation, no swearing of oaths, and even a form of shunning can all be found in groups going back into the early Middle Ages.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anabaptist#Medieval_Forerunners
i rather think it all goes back even earlier. Elements of their teachings are reminiscent of the Albigensians and Cathars,
http://www2.kenyon.edu/projects/margin/cathy11.htm
in a line that ultimately goes back to the Gnostics. There are more groups that I can't call to mind at the minute, but I'll try to get back to this and post them if they come to me.
If you look at this sideways, it looks like a Menorah! That proves it, and there are 10 arrows, representing the 10 lost tribe of Israel! Wow the things you learn on JWD
JGNAT love the graphics of the Adventists.......the root of the WTS.
Okay, let's get real!
There is a pattern to religious group formation you have to catch on to.
Take Early Judaism as an example.
Judaism is usually thought of as one religion. In reality there was always dissent, disagreement, opinion and sectarianism.
Orthodox Judaism
Pharisee, Saducee
Chasidic Orthodox Judaism
Haredi Orthodox Judaism
Conservative Judaism
Traditional Judaism
Reform Judaism
Reconstructionist Judaism
Secular Humanistic Judaism Jewish
Renewal Alternative Judaism
Karaite Judaism
Samaritains
Chrisitianty itself began as a division or sectarian branch of Judaism. Call it messianic Judaism, if you like.
Among the Early christians were hundreds of sects.
Each of those sects had writings...holy writings, too!
Hundreds of holy writings!
Now let's start with that AWARENESS!
That is what I meant by getting REAL.
The Catholic church battled what they termed "Heresy". What it actually was--was "other" sects such as Gnostics.
When it came time to create a firm CANON of "actual" holy writings considerable disagreement as to what was what came to crisis.
Stop right there!
We don't have to go into all that.
Suffice to say this: It was all compromise and asserting authority.
READ: http://freetruth.50webs.org/B2b.htm THINGS THEY DON'T TELL YOU ABOUT CHRISTIANITY
The monk Martin Luther split fellow christians away from Catholicism and substituted a New Idea instead of the Magesterium of Papal authority and tradition.
Martin Luther's idea was termed Sola Scriptura. In short, it meant anybody can read the bible and understand it for themselves with holy spirit whispering in their ear!
Hundreds and hundreds of new interpretations, sects and denominations sprung up that we all know about today: Baptist, Calvinist, Arminian, Methodist, etc.
The Watchtower Bible and Tract Society was a branch of Adventist thinking.
Adventistism was nothing more or less than a DO-IT-YOURSELF date-setting gimmick.
William Miller had no education as a Baptist minister. He was an amateur. He pulled his ideas from everywhere assembling a house-of-cards theology of date specific.
IT FAILED UTTERLY!
More and more do-it-yourself Adventists took over and made the pile of shit higher and smelly-er!
Charles Taze Russell got advice from yet more Adventist offshoots of offshoots of offshoots of Adventist ideas.
All of this and none of this is better or worse than the same I THINK I KNOW BUT OTHERS DON'T KNOW school of amateur quackery.
From the beginning of religion it has come down to know-it-alls, amateurs and do-it-yourself "experts".
Whoever can convince somebody else THEY HAVE INSIDE KNOWLEDGE acquires the power over the group.
Orthodox Judaism
Modern Orthodox Judaism
Chasidic Orthodox Judaism
Haredi Orthodox Judaism
Conservative Judaism
Traditional Judaism
Reform Judaism
Reconstructionist Judaism
Secular Humanistic Judaism Jewish
Renewal Alternative Judaism
Karaite Judaism
Samaritains
Read more: http://wiki.answers.com/Q/What_is_a_list_of_the_various_Jewish_sects#ixzz2DHDWllt7 Orthodox Judaism
Modern Orthodox Judaism
Chasidic Orthodox Judaism
Haredi Orthodox Judaism
Conservative Judaism
Traditional Judaism
Reform Judaism
Reconstructionist Judaism
Secular Humanistic Judaism Jewish
Renewal Alternative Judaism
Karaite Judaism
Samaritains
Read more: http://wiki.answers.com/Q/What_is_a_list_of_the_various_Jewish_sects#ixzz2DHDWllt7 Orthodox Judaism
Modern Orthodox Judaism
Chasidic Orthodox Judaism
Haredi Orthodox Judaism
Conservative Judaism
Traditional Judaism
Reform Judaism
Reconstructionist Judaism
Secular Humanistic Judaism Jewish
Renewal Alternative Judaism
Karaite Judaism
Samaritains
Read more: http://wiki.answers.com/Q/What_is_a_list_of_the_various_Jewish_sects#ixzz2DHDWllt7
