Quite a few of my family members are JW's, and I attended the meetings until I was 7 years old when my mom was disfellowhipped. I have always had an interest in God but I truly don't know where I feel I belong church-wise. I agree mostly with the JW, but there are still things that I don't agree with, and to attend the Kingdom Hall, knowing that I don't agree with them 100% feels wrong. But I have not found my place in any other religion either. I have a family member that was trying to preach to me, so I made a list of all the questions I had, and I haven't heard from her since. I don't know if she was affended or just couldn't provide answers. Truthfully, I have always considered myself more spirtual than religious. To me, if you live your life by the bible, and do God's will, you should be one of the "true religion". I don't feel like it depends on whether you call yourself a catholic, christian, buddist, etc. Not that I agree with all practices done by those religions but I have done ALOT of research and I can see where each religion is right in their beliefs. I've known people who were not raised as witnesses, yet they seemed more pure in their practices, than the witness's I've met. Ok, so I'll list my questions and I am hoping that some of the witnesses here can answer them for me.
1. Why do JW's choose not to celebrate birthdays? I understand that the bible lists 3 birthdays that all ended in disaster, but just because the bible listed those, does it mean we are not supposed to celebrate them? I mean, is it written anywhere that we must ABSOLUTELY not celebrate them? Or just because it doesn't tell us to or say it's ok to, we're not supposed to? If the bad things happening on birthdays in the bible are what we are supposed to go off of, then what about all the other things that aren't mentioned in the bible? I know that people are killed/die on their anniversaries, during birth, on their wedding days...but even if these accounts aren't spoken of in the bible, are they ok to celebrate? And why is it ok to celebrate the upcoming arrival of a baby with a shower and then gifts at birth, but you can't celebrate that it's already been here for a year? Why can you celebrate being with someone for a year, but not having a child for a year? I know that God commanded us to celebrate Jesus' death, but where did he say to NOT celebrate his birth?
2. Why do Jehovah Witnesses think that women can be apart of the 144,000? In revelations, it says that the 144,000 are virgin "men" who have not defiled themselves with women. Why would women be considered apart of that group? I've been told that the witnesses believe that it is just metaphoric for people who haven't lived their life in sin, but why would the witnesses believe things are metaphoric? Why not take the bible as it is written? If it was men and women, why wouldn't it say that? And being that the Jehovah's Witnesses religion has only been around since 1870, how can a correct estimate of how many of the 144,000 members are still here on earth be made? What about the people who had received the Holy Spirit before Charles Taze Russell founded his beliefs and began counting?
3. Also with Hell. In revelations, it says that the devil will be hurled with the beast into the lake of fire, where they will be tormented for eternaty. Why is it that every other religion takes it for what it actually says, but witnesses don't believe that hell is a fiery pit where you will be tormented for ever? If Jehovah wanted it to mean "cease to exist", why wouldn't he just have had the person who wrote revelations say that?
4. Why don't the witnesses read from the missing parts of the bible? As an example, the Apocrypha was the Inter-Testament that falls chronologically between the old testament and the new testament. Why don't the witnesses read this to learn all the words/stories of God?
5. I had a family member get upset with me because I called the Kindom Hall a church. She felt I was associating her religion with other religions. But truthfully, they are all connected. JW's read from the King James Bible which was a revision of the Bishop's bible, (with new manuscripts added). The Bishop's bible was published in 1568, and originated from the Roman Catholic religion. So if witnesses get so upset about being compared to other religions, why would they read from a bible that originated from another religion?
6. What if someone who was disfellowshipped, became baptised into another church? Are they still to be ignored and casted out? My mom said that it would be the same as still being disfellowshipped...but why? Isnt the point of being baptised to promise your life to God and doing his will? If thats the case, why would it matter which church you were in when you did it, as long as your heart was truly set on serving God? Basically my question is...are you baptized to devote yourself to God or to the church?
I think that's about it. Please offer any answers that you can. Thank you.
Sara