by TipToe 6 Replies latest jw friends
Hello everyone, I have a few questions if you don't mind...I would like to know what it is exactly that JW's believe in and how it differs from the catholic church? I might sound ignorant but no one has ever explained to me the basis of JW's beliefs. All I know is they seem to believe alot in satan from what I heard...but that's all I know.
I would also like to know what made you join this religion? Were you born a JW or you became it later on? What did you find appealing about it?
Thanks
Howdy Tip Toe.
Basically the Witnesses are an offshoot 19th century Seventh Day Adventists. They believe we are living in the last days and any minute Armageddon will occur. The only survivors will be Jehovah's Witnesses. They go door to door because they take literally Jesus' words in Matt. 28 ("This good news will be preached in the entire inhabited earth . . ."). They believe that God reveals the truth of the Bible only to the writers of the Watchtower magazine, which they call the "faithful and discreet slave".
Among their more peculiar teachings is no blood transfusions, a woman must scream before being raped or she will be guilty of fornication and there must be 2 eyewitnesses to an act of child abuse (if there no eyewitnesses the rapist goes free). They also believe that ex-Witnesses (whom they call apostates) are worse than a child molestor. Apostates are shunned, any Witness who even speaks to an apostate is immediately subject to being excommunicated (disfellowshipped).
I started studying when I was 9 because I was bothered by the hypocrisy of the Methodist church as well as the fact that they did not take my questions about the Bible seriously. I came from an abusive family and the Witnesses offered me the hope that one day (after Armageddon) all my problems would be solved and I would live happily ever after. They offered me simple solutions to my rather complex problems.
I left in 1989 over the 2 eyewitness rule regarding child abuse.
I became a JW at the age of 17 in 1974, because they convinced me that Armageddon (the end of the world) was going to occur in 1975.
Today, they deny ever having made that prediction. Fortunately for those of us who lived in daily anticipation of the "end" which never materialized, they left some proof behind in print. Here is an interesting web site you might have fun looking at:
I come from a long line of catholics myself but studied with the jw for about 6 months . One of the similarities between the 2 churches is the belief that there are only certain individuals that can understand the holy scriptures . The catholic church has it's clergy and the JW have what is called a slave class of anointed christians. There are some very strong disagreeance between the 2 churchs . The catholic church thinks the JW are a cult and the JW thinks the catholic church is the whore of babylon . The JW don't believe in an instant resurction to heaven at death and don't believe in hell fire for evil doers . The JW don't agree with the trinity doctrine and believe jesus was executed on a stake and not a cross. The JW believe that people can only be saved by selling magazines in a door to door "ministry". Both churches have interpreted the bible for themselves but came to many different conclusions .
Welcome, Tip Toe!
As a convert to Catholicism from the JW cult, let me note one very exceptional difference between the two. Catholics believe that humanity is something which God smiles upon, that is, the human capacity for reason, creativity, love, and industry are not things absolutely subservient to worship, but that these things in themselves can glorify God without being propagandized. Contrarily, Jehovah's Witnesses suppress all these things in utter distrust of them, unless these things are not utilized in a narrow (and often exclusive) way. Thus, Jehovah's Witnesses employ love and charity only within the parameter of their organization, and similarly with reason manifested as fundamentalism. In short, Catholics celebrate humanity while Jehovah's Witnesses manipulate it.
Vita Nuova.
Excellent summary Heathen! I hope one day to engage a Jehovah's Witness in a discussion on how faith in the Faithful and Discreet Slave/Governing Body is any different than faith in the Pope for divine inspiration. For a serious description of the differences between Orthodox Christianity (of which the Catholic Church belongs) and the Witnesses, I use the Apologetics Index, here:
I think the catholic church is also guilty of manipulation . It has been documented that the organized crime families were often called on to terrorize other religious groups. There are plenty other differences between the 2 churches such as no political involvement from the WT no praying to saints or to marry and no religious holidays like easter and christmas . 2 completely different worlds and it is very hard to see how christianity could be so diverse without thinking about where alot of the beliefs found and religion actually originated.
