The Worldwide Church of God is very similar to JW teachings.It was started by that Armstrong guy(can't remember his first name,Herbert I think.)They don't celebrate Christmas and they will not allow their children to have vaccines.Similar to the JWs rejection of blood.
Similar religions to JW
by Quincy 19 Replies latest watchtower beliefs
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jwsons
According to Watchtower August,1st 1962 (page 11) it is Christadelphian, some beliefs as follow:
Paradise on earth
Non-Trinity
Non-Hellfire
non-Immortal soul
refuse miltary services (they even better than JWs, JWs pray for one side in WW1, they didn't. Have a look in Proclaim-book page 191; or clearer in JWs in the Divine Purpose(1955) page 92)
...Just a few, more similiar points can not mention all
OR United Universalism
OR Seventh Day Adventist (but believe in Trinity/ all other beliefs almost same, even Daniel's prophecies about 7 times, world kingdoms...)
jwsons
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minimus
What about Russellites? also the Romanian JW's that realized , after the fall of communism,that the present day JW's are nothing like the Rutherfordites.
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simplesally
The International Bible Students. They were followers of Russell and did not take the name Jehovah's Witnesses, rather retained that name when Rutherford (I think) decided to change the name.
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NeonMadman
OHappyDay:
Obviously, there are going to be some similarities between JW teaching and actual Biblical Christianity, because the JW's do use the Bible to support their teaching, even though, in my opinion, they handle it improperly and disguise its message.
Those are all points similar to Christianity itself. It was Jesus who said "I am the way and the truth and the life no man comes to the Father except through me." (Exclusive claim to truth)
Jesus certainly claimed to be the exclusive way to the Father, but JW's and other cults claim, in effect, to be the exclusive way to Jesus. There is no basis in scripture for such teaching. Jesus never advocated joining an organization, or said that it made any difference to God what organization we might belong to. He -personally - was the way to the Father, and salvation comes only through a personal relationship with him.
It was Paul who said "Remove the wicked man from among yourselves." (Disfellowshipping)
Paul did say that, and there might be an instance where a church needs to remove from membership someone who unrepentantly practices sin. However, the Bible provides for no secret judicial committee meetings, and for no extreme shunning as the JW's practice. Also, there is no biblical indication of a worldwide organization where such judgments would be enforced upon all Christians. Removing a sinner from fellowship was strictly a local matter.
The early Christians preached "from house to house." ( Community Ministry)
There is no indication in scripture that they did. The verses at Acts 5:42 and Acts 20:20 are not talking about door-to-door solicitor-type preaching, as the JW's do. Other translations use expressions such as "in private homes" rather than "from house to house". Particularly in Acts 20:20, Paul says to his fellow Christians, "I taught you [fellow Christians to whom he was speaking, not the general public] publicly and from house to house." There is nothing in scripture to indicate that all Christians in the first century regularly knocked on the doors of total strangers in order to preach to them, as is the case with JW's today.
Those who left were termed apostates and shunned. ("Do not share a meal with such a man or say a greeting to him.")
You've actually combined two scriptures in your parenthetical quotation. The part about not sharing a meal comes from 1 Corinthians 5, where Paul is discussing habitual sinners being removed from the congregation. Apostates are not mentioned in that chapter, rather Paul mentions a variety of other sins for which one ought to be avoided by the congregation members. Interestingly, in verse 11, Paul uses the phrase "quit mixing in company"(NWT) which, in the Greek, is synanamignysthai. Exactly the same expression in Greek is used at 2 Thessalonians 3:14, but there it is translated by the NWT as "stop associating". Odd that the NWT, which prides itself on translating the same word from the original languages in the same way throughout, would vary its translation of a single term that way. The key to the reason they do so may be found in the Thessalonians text, which reads, "But if anyone is not obedient to our word through this letter, keep this one marked, stop associating with him, that he may become ashamed. And yet, do not be considering him as an enemy, but continue admonishing him as a brother." So there is no justification in the use of that term - even in the instance in 1 Corinthians - for the sort of extreme shunning practiced by the JW's. I believe that the NWT translators knew this, and that is why they changed the translation of the word between the two verses.
The other part of your quotation, about saying a greeting, is from 2 John, and the context clearly shows that what is being discussed are false teachers who would attempt to enter into the house churches of the early Christians in order to teach them false doctrines. Such ones were to be given no platform for their deceptive doctrines.
Not even the NWT gives a basis for labeling Christians who have fallen away from the faith as "apostates". The term "apostasy" appears only twice in the Greek Scriptures of the NWT, once at Acts 21:21, speaking of an apostasy from Moses, and again in 2 Thessalonians 2:3, speaking of a future apostasy related to the "man of lawlessness". So I'd have to disagree with your statement that "those who left were termed apostates and shunned." The evidence just doesn't support that as being true, at least not in any way that resembles the practices of JW's today.
They were always looking for Jesus to come back soon. ("Little children, it is the last hour...Antichrist is already here." In Revelation Jesus says "I am coming quickly.")
Yep, they sure were. But they never set dates for it, and they never enforced their own opinions about it upon all Christians worldwide. They didn't present the results of some rickety chronology as being "the Creator's promise" or "Jehovah's prophetic word through Jesus Christ".
While some of the concepts and terminology may be similar between first century Christians and today's JW's, the practice of their faith is worlds apart.
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refiners fire
One that I learned about not too long ago is the International Church of Christ, which was originally based in Boston.
Boston church of Christ movement is a highly controversial movement run by a guy called Kip McKean. They practise a whole lot of nasty things.The members engage in endless preaching work, they think that preaching, and being a "disciple" are the hallmarks of the true faith. Their "discipling" method where everyone reports to a person above them and in direct control of them has been extensively condemned as a cultic method of controlling individuals.A kind of religious pyramid of control. Endless confession of feelings and doubts is part of the "discipling" deal.Often, in writing. You will know them if you ever meet them. They will probably be young, extremely pumped up, and very tired and strained looking. The word "disciple" comes out of their mouths constantly.
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refiners fire
Wish I had a scanner...
Boston members fill out a weekly "accountability sheet" (among many other things)
Here are some of the things on the accountability sheet....
"Did you, every day this week:
Pray with your spouse? Yes. No. Number missed.
Go to bed with your spouse? Yes. No. Number missed.
Get up on time? Yes. No. Number missed.
Go to bed on time? Yes. No. Number missed.
Have Discipling Partnership time with your children? Yes. No. Number missed.
Have time with all your DPs Yes. No. Number missed.
The list goes on. These things are to be marked every day, and this is just one of the many delightfull personal checks on members.
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refiners fire
It is scary, they live ready to fight (with guns and all!) when "Armageddon" happens! In 1999, they sold all their possessions and horded food expecting the end the minute the clock struck midnight.
Nikita. Sounds like an "identity" group. White supremacists. I was associated with an Identity group at the turn of the millenium. They had guns , candles and food stocked. Their expectation was that the Y2K computer thing was going to collapse the financial system. Took me 6 months to use up all the food I had hoarded.I would imagine your guys were thinking along the same line.
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refiners fire
With regard to adventism.
The adventist date of October 22, 1844 was absorbed into Russells "Parallel Dispensations"
1844 equals year 0 (christs birth)
1874 equals Christs Baptism (29ce)
1878 equals the crucifixion and ressurection (33ce)
1881 equals pentecost (36 ce)
and 1914 equals the destruction of jerusalem (70ce)
Of course there were expectations on all of these dates. The Witnesses current views regarding 1914, 1918 are a pale memory of Russells parallels.
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jcbeliever
The similarities between a belief in Jesus Christ as the Son of God and these other religions and cults are surface and only appear similar when the bible passages are taken out of context as you did. By the basic definition of TRUTH, two conflicting views cannot both be right, therefore either one is right and the other wrong or neither is right. It is very possible and even quite probable that there is in fact "one truth" (religion is man-made). Even if the core belief is right (Jesus' proclaimation that "I am the Way, the Truth and the Life, no man comes unto the Father except through me"), man's interpretation may be fallible, though many passages leave little room for differences in interpretation - such as the previous statement. You would be doing yourself a big disservice to disregard the seeming "excusivity" of Christianity without also viewing how encompassing Jesus' idea of what "Christianity" should be - and how it is open to anyone regardless of ethnicity, social standing, gender - because in His eyes, we're all on common ground - we're all sinners.