Ever since I left the JW's I visited a few Born-Again Christian churches and I felt like I was sitting in a Kingdom Hall of JW's. Because born-agains are more like JW's then they want to admit. Both JW's and BA's think they know everything. Both JW's and BA's have a God-complex that what they say is straight from Almighty God himself. Both JW's and BA's think that their interpretation of the Bible is the only correct interpretation and all other interpretations are false. Both JW's and BA's think that when someone leaves their fold they are going straight to the Devil Satan. JW's feel if they say Jehovah, Jehovah, Jehovah, Jehovah 50 million times a day (which use to annoy the hell out of me when I was a JW) then they are safe just like BA's think if they say Jesus, Jesus, Jesus, Jesus, Jesus every other word (which is also annoying) means they are safe. JW's love to talk about "worldly" people who are doomed for destruction if they don't become JW's. BA's love to talk about the "unsaved" or so and so is "not saved". Both JW's and BA's love to label people even their own members. You will hear JW's talk about another JW and say "Sister Smith is "inactive" or Sister Smith is no longer in the truth" or Sister Smith is "Disfellowshipped or Disassociated". Why can't they just say Sister Smith without put on a negative label behind her name? Born-Agains do the same thing with their members. You always hear BA's say Sister Jones is a "backslider" or "backsliding christian. Or you may hear BA's talk about someone and say that person is the "anti-christ" or "man of lawlessness". These are just a few examples of how JW's and BA's are more alike then they both want to admit. I think they are going to fight even when they get to heaven or paradise earth. What do you think?
Jehovah's Witnesses and Born-Again Christians are too much alike its scary
by booker-t 41 Replies latest watchtower bible
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heathen
I always thought j-dubbies were born again . I don't think most born again churches even bother with the water baptism which is symbolic of being born again . Come to think of it I think the last time I talked to a j-dub they believed you could be saved without a water baptism as long as you were studying to become a j-dubby . I honestly don't know where they come up with crap like that .......
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LittleToe
Can you be a bit more specific about denominations?
I'm a "born-again" Christian, but far from orthodox. Even classifying me by the denomination that I would usually attend, would be inaccurate. There is, however, a WIDE variety of activity within the Christian "religion".
I've heard the term "backslider" before, but there's a HUGE difference in treatment. They aren't actively avoided, in fact many will go out of their way to help an individual (outwith the bounds of trying to bring them back to church), and there's certainly no announcement identifying them.
I would agree that some of the more fundamentalist-type denominations have some similar traits to the WTS, but they are still a far cry from them.
So I would ask you to be fair, to take off the cult-tinted glasses for a moment, and try to judge them from a more neutral position.
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heathen
It's hard to take off the cult tinted glasses when it's so obvious they are all cults . I did however find one non denominational born again church here in my neighborhood , they do not teach that the only way is their way ..... it's pretty rare to find a church like that .
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LittleToe
Heathen:You just contradicted yourself.
On the one had you say that they are "all" cults, and on the other you state that you found one that wasn't like that. Given that you've had finite opportunities to explore, would you say that it's feasible that there are more, given your current statistical evidence?
What denominations would you put in the category of "Born Again", as I understand that it seems to be more of a fundamentalist thing, than over here in Britain?
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Quentin
JWs, BAs, Baptists, Church of Christ, Assemblies of God, Four Square, and on and on the list goes. All are hardcore fundamentalist. If you do not accede to their worldview, or vision of God/Christ, you are of the Devil and lost as Hogan's goat. Even though doctrines are different from denomination to denomination the mind set is the same. We're holy and blessed and you sinner are gonna die/burn in hell.
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The Leological One
Um... say what?
I've never been a JW and have been a Christian the majority of my life, as a child started at a Methodist church, then Baptist, and then Pentacostal, as well as non-denominational. I've never heard of any announcement from any church like the disfellowshipping ones you mention or one demeaning another member in front of the church, saying something along the lines of someone is backslidden, etc., though I'll concede there are bound to be people that will notice if someone suddenly stopped going to church, and there are people who likely will gossip, as well. That, in itself, is lame, but where have you heard churches announce things like that? Maybe some do, but I've never heard of any of the standard denominations having such a practice.
Also, though surely each church likely feels it has a correct understanding of the Bible, I've never been to any church that specifically teaches only they have the correct understanding of the Bible or that they have a perfect understanding of the Bible, or that someone will go to hell if they leave that particular church. The ones I've gone to pretty much teach salvation is between God and each individual person, though they teach we should not forsake the gathering of ourselves together and that it is better to go to church somewhere. I've gone to churches that interact with other churches and sometimes members will start going from one to the other if it seems a little more to their liking, and I've never heard much in the way of gossip, etc. about it, though again there's likely someone somewhere who's not happy about any little changes. But nothing official regarding announcements, denouncements, etc...
If there are churches out there doing what you mentioned, I can't blame you for your point of view and would actually agree and surely not attend those types.
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The Leological One
JWs, BAs, Baptists, Church of Christ, Assemblies of God, Four Square, and on and on the list goes. All are hardcore fundamentalist. If you do not accede to their worldview, or vision of God/Christ, you are of the Devil and lost as Hogan's goat. Even though doctrines are different from denomination to denomination the mind set is the same. We're holy and blessed and you sinner are gonna die/burn in hell
The Baptist church I went to from a child to my teenage years as well as the other churches I mentioned in my last post as well as a couple Assemblies of God churches I've checked out a few times don't fit your description. They may be fundamentalists in that they believe the Bible, but that's not the same thing as saying you have to be a member of their exact church or denomination to be saved. Some churches I've been to have good things to say about other denominations and have had various assemblies and interactivity with other denominations and churches, i.e. the Pentacostal one I went to used to go and hang out with the members of an Assemblies of God church and play volleyball with them in their gym, attend services and have praise and worship together, etc...
Again, maybe some peolpe here have gone to some really strange churches or something. The stuff I'm hearing doesn't match up with my experiences throughout spending about 30 of my 35 years going to various churches. I don't want to seem judgemental towards you, as maybe you and the thread starter have different experiences than I do; if so, I wouldn't have a good thought about those churches, either.
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heathen
LT --- I only attended the church once but do have suspicions . I am not a member of the church as they do have church doctrine that I haven't looked at , they did say they were willing to baptize people that weren't members of the church but members of other churches . It just seemed like their message was come one and come all to hear what the pastor had to say . They did seem very nice tho as everytime I turned around someone was saying God bless you instead of the rude crap I normally get . LOL
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GentlyFeral
I agree, with one reservation:
I find mean-spirited born-agains to be more up-front than mean-spirited JW's.
BTW, LittleToe,
I'm a "born-again" Christian, but far from orthodox.
That's why I specified "mean-spirited", which you ain't Here in the US, near as I can make out, "born again" pretty much means "hardcore fundamentalist."
Leological One,
I've never been to any church that specifically teaches only they have the correct understanding of the Bible or that someone will go to hell if they leave that particular church.
This is more the domain of the extremist evangelists, and they get plenty of patronage from those who feel their pastor doesn't have sufficient balls to tell the truth. Gene Scott, Peter Popov, Jerry Falwell, and so many others, make "viewing with alarm" a national sport. True, it's not about one denomination, but they're both hysterical versions of "ex ecclesia nullam salus." Joel Osteen ain't in it.
gently f eral