Jehovah's Witnesses

Jehovah's Witnesses
RELATED TOPICS	Beliefs - Jehovah's Witnesses: Jesus, Blood
SERMONS, ESSAYS AND OPINIONS	* What do Jehovah's Witness teach? (carm) Jehovah's Witness in a nutshell (carm) Jehovah's Witness history (carm)
CONTENTS

Jehovah's Witnesses are members of a religious movement who, although identifying themselves as Christian, are not generally considered as Christians by mainstream Christianity because they are non-trinitarian. They number around seven million. Their headquarters are in New York, USA. It is an international organization known for its extensive preaching and publishing activities. They are well known for their rejection of blood transfusions.

History of Jehovah's Witnesses

Jehovah's Witnesses had their modern-day start in the late 1870's when a small group of sincere men and women started a Bible study group led by Charles T. Russell. When this group studied the Bible extensively, they found that many teachings of mainstream Christianity did not fit in with what was in the Bible namely the Trinity, Hellfire, and who is going to Heaven.

Beliefs

There is only one true God-Isaiah 43:10; 44:6; John 17:3; 1 Corinthians 8:5, 6

God is named Jehovah (or Yahweh)-Exodus 3:15, 16; 6:3; Psalm 83:18

Jesus is God's son-John 10:36; 20:17

Jesus was created by God-Colossions 1:15; Revelation 3:14

Bible is God's Word and only truth-2 Timothy 3:16; John 17:17

Christ lived a perfect life-1 Peter 2:22

Christ died for all mankind-Matthew 20:28; 1 Timothy 2:5, 6; 1 Peter 2:24

Christ only had to die once for all man-Hebrews 9:25-28

Jehovah's Witnesses: Jesus

Jesus was created by God. He came to earth and lived a sinless life. It ultimately ended in his death, which was a sacrifice for all sinful humans. The teachings of Christianity are based off of the life of Jesus Christ.

Views on Blood Transfusions

God told Noah and his family that "...blood, you shall not eat." (Genesis 9:3-4) He then reiterated this in the Law of Moses, or the Mosaic Law. (Leviticus 7:26; 17:10; Deuteronomy 12:16) Many believe that after the Mosiac Law was abolished by Christ's death that the Law against blood does not apply. The Jehovah's Witnesses believe that drinking blood as well as receiving blood transfusions are immoral acts.

• Basic Argument Against Blood Transfusions: In a list of things that Christians were forbidden to do, since there was confusion because the Law had been abolished, the disciples said that Christians were supposed to abstain from blood. (Acts 15:28, 29) To illustrate: If a doctor told a man that he was to drink no more alcohol, would it be okay for the man to insert the alcohol into his veins? Hardly. Since God told man to abstain from blood, inserting it into your veins would not be abstaining from blood.

• Basic Argument for Blood Transfusions: The Law only prohibits drinking blood, not blood transfusions, because (a) blood transfusions were not in existence in Biblical times, and (b) ingesting blood can be very unhealthy (hence why it was prohibited by God). However, blood transfusions are not unhealthy, and in fact have saved millions of lives. The argument from the "alcohol analogy" is a false analogy, because whether drinking alcohol or directly injecting it into one's body will have the same physical effect (both are unhealthy), whereas receiving a blood transfusion will have a different effect from drinking blood (the former is healthy, the latter is not).

Jehovah's Witnesses Today

There are around 7,000,000 Jehovah's Witnesses on Earth today. They spend billions of hours preaching every year and hold millions of Bible studies in an effort to teach people what the Bible really says. They have the most extensive publishing operations in an effort to print Bibles and Bible aids in every language to reach all people with the Gospel. Their international operations are surprisingly impressive.

Links

• Wikipedia - Jehovah's Witnesses
• Official website - www.watchtower.org

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