Jehovah's Witnesses are known as a Restorationism religion, what is it that they feel
In light that the Holy Spirit has always been with us, here on earth. Was it God's plan that we lost whatever, and the Jehovah's Witnesses restore all that was lost and become the Faithful and Discreet slave?
They've restored God's name, Jehovah, to the Bible. It was originally in there 7,000 times
They've restored understanding of the "Kingdom" - a real government with real leaders and subjects.
They've restored a knowledge of what that govt will accomplish (remove all ineffective man-made covets and restore the earth to a paradise, restore all humans to perfection as was originally intended before Adam's sinning)
"Let no one in any way deceive you, for it [Jesus' return] will not come unless the apostasy comes first, [...]" (2 Thess. 2:3, NASB).
In Matthew 13: 24-43 Jesus warned of a corruption of his work very close to his int ital ministry (later reported by the first century writers as "already at work") that would continue right down to the "conclusion of the system of things". This apostasy started in the apostle Paul?s day accelerated once the apostles died and their restraining influence disappeared. (2?Thessalonians 2:6-12).
What emerged during the 2ND and 3rd centuries (and developed down through the ages) was a corrupted form of "Christianity" influenced by Greek philosophy, pagan beliefs, man made traditions and a distorted structure. What Christianity "lost" was any notion of truth in connection to the biblical teachings upon which they should have been founded.
While many groups emerged at the end of the nineteenth century attempting to reexamine traditional beliefs in the light of scripture, only Jehovah's Witnesses fully completed this process.
Jehovah's Witness, and Jehovah's Witnesses alone have restored an organized religion that fully reflects first century model.
No, Jehovah's Witnesses are not living God's plan, they are living their organization's plan. The first they taught that one person was the discreet and faithful slave, but they changed it to be that the certain class is the faithful and discreet slave. But they have not been faithful to God nor discreet.
I find Sunshine's answer very "scripted". She defends the organization no matter what, and honestly I don't even think she gives any real thought to what she writes before she writes it.
NOWHERE in the bible does it tell us that somewhere down the line a "true religion" would pop up out of nowhere. Furthermore, she defends the organization even though she is quite aware that when they first came on the scene, they were teaching all types of blatantly incorrect things. Yet all that doesn't matter, because people are supposed to believe that they are teaching things correctly now.
Furthermore, it always amazes me when I see JW's quote scriptures and point those Scriptures at other religions, but never give a second thought to the possibility that that very scripture could be talking about their own organization.
Surely, when the Jehovah's Witnesses religion was first establish, it was nowhere near "the truth" (that is if you consider what they teach now to be truth). Therefore, there is NO WAY God would have approved of a religion that was so far "over the hill" with their teachings. Surely there were other religions who were teaching things that were more in line with scripture at that time, but we are supposed to believe that Jesus passed up all those religions to choose a organization lead by a man. Who was teaching that God presided in some constellation, Jesus was to be worshiped, and smoking and celebrating birthdays was okay. Even though JW's no longer believe any of those things.
It could very well be---but I'm sure Sunshine would never consider this--that the JW organization is nothing more than a continuation of that "great apostasy" spoken of in the scripture she quoted.
Jesus never told us to be on the watch for anything other than the "HOLY SPIRIT". He told his followers that the HOLY SPIRIT would come and teach them everything they needed to know.
Now unless the organization is the 'HOLY SPIRIT' then they have no business claiming they are representatives of God, because there is no biblical support for this.
And before they even mention it--because i know they will---Jesus NEVER ONCE said "look out" or "be on the watch" for some "faithful and discreet slave". If this "faithful and discreet slave" was just as important or even remotely important wouldn't Jesus have been telling his followers to look out for this person (or group of people). Instead of constantly talking about the HOLY SPIRIT.
Surely he would have.
But, once again JW's seem to take the words of the organization as if they were "new teachings" from Jesus. Because many of these teachings are not ones that Jesus taught. Including this idea that Jesus has an organization on earth.
For a group who weren't there to see 'Jehovah', even the name is delusional. It is impossible to restore an ancient religion as much would have been written to include culture that no longer exists. They are missing far too much necessary information backing their claims to be taken seriously by other Christians.
Jehovah's Witnesses believe that Christendom has lost true religion. They believe they are the only Christians on the planet who now have true religion. The implications are far reaching because this means that shortly after the death of the apostles, false religion was introduced and, if the J.W. answer is to be believed, the Holy Spirit must have been impotent to prevent it happening. Also, that makes a mockery of Jesus' statement that the gates of Hades could not overcome his church. If, as J.W's say, they are the only true religion, then we've had almost 2,000 years of false religion.
It was never God's plan that his church would be riddled by false doctrine and that we would have to wait till the late 1800's for Charles Taze Russell to start up his own religion. Neither was it ever God's plan to pick out one religious denomination (in 1919) and select it to be his sole channel of communication. And God has never fed false information to anyone, so if Jehovah's Witnesses were this faithful and discrete slave they wouldn't have got their chronology and dates so wrong.
In their booklet, 'What Does The Bible Really Teach?' on page 146 they state that God's servants base their teachings on the Bible, that true religion is not based on human views or tradition and that God's people today do not teach their own ideas. That must mean that for almost 2,000 years there was no true religion to be found, because they disagree with almost every fundamental Christian doctrine that has existed since the time of the early Christian church.
I think the last word should go to God: "Let God be true, and every man a liar. As it is written: 'So that you may be proved right when you speak and prevail when you judge'." (Romans 3:4) God is faithful to his promises, and no amount of protestation or denial will ever make him out to be a liar.
1. God's name restoration,
2. First century Christianity restoration,
3. Claim of bible only restoration,
4. Earth to paradise restoration ,
5. Physical body to perfection restoration.
1. The Watch Tower has placed Jehu HOV a polluted name throughout the New Testament with absolutely no true justification.
2. It is obvious that the Watch Tower does not follow the format of the early church nor the apostles. The leaders of the early Christians went into synagogues and public forums declaring the Good News of the Kingdom. The leaders of the Watch Tower do not go into churches nor do they go to public forums and declare themselves or the Good News of the Kingdom. Today's public forums include the Internet.
3. The Watch Tower actually pollutes and abuses the text of the bible even further than the source of the texts that they claim to use. Westcott and Hort homogenized and pasteurized manuscripts and combined these. The Watch Tower resorts to using obviously non and anti Christian sources to support their doctrines.
The Watch Tower even states that people, their own people, that read the bible alone return to believing the teachings of 100 years ago.
Obviously the Watch Tower has to continual feed their doctrine to the Jehovah's Witnesses through books, magazines, tracts, and meetings or they lose them.
4. This is not a restoration as the JWs often describe. In my discussions with the JWs it appears the JWs have fantasies about paradise. Each person thinks it a little different, some alto different.. What has been claimed is that the congregations of the Watch Tower are pedofile paradise.
5. The bible teaches to be in the flesh is to be separate from God and that the flesh is corruptable. The Watch Tower teaches error with the same temptation of satan the snake tempted and promised Eve in the garden saying, "ye shall live forever".
It takes real arrogance and a feeling of superiority to espouse the Jew view of God and his kingdom.
Rutherford had all of those traits in spades, coupled with 16 cylinder Cadillac's, silk shirts, body guards, booze makers during Prohibition, mansions on Staten Island and San Diego. A work force of slave labor all living together in one building in Brooklyn New York. That work force willing to jump 'how high' when ever he beck and called.
Applying an obscure scripture in the book of Revelation that makes mention of 144,000 too themselves, and then claiming those same 144,000 would be ruling in heaven with Jesus is the absolute highest form of self aggrandizement.
Selfish, pontificating Judge Joseph Rutherford who invented most of this dogma, was in every sense a man overly impressed with himself and the religion he invented.
Jehovah's Witnesses are known as a Restorationism religion, what is it that they feel
