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Jehovah Witnesses
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- Published on Tuesday, 21 June 2011 16:22
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Jehovah Witnesses
- Inspired by the teachings of the 7th Day Adventists
- Believe that Jesus Christ is a created subordinate god and is actually the Archangel Michael
- The born again salvation plan of Jesus Christ is no longer taught or practiced
Inspired by the teachings of the 7th Day Adventists
The history of Jehovah's Witnesses begins in 1869, in Allegheny, Pennsylvania, when Charles Taze Russell began a Bible study which led to this separate movement. The name "Jehovah's Witnesses" (based on Isaiah 43:10-12) was not adopted until 1931. Charles Taze Russell was brought up a Presbyterian, and indoctrinated from the Catechism. In 1870 after dropping in on a Second Adventist Bible study conducted by Jonas Wendell, Russell organized his own Bible study with a circle of friends who came to regard him as their pastor. Although Russell believed that the Second Adventists were "called of God" and he never renounced them (Russell still maintained his association with the Adventists and credits some preachers with teaching him much), a miscalculation concerning the Second-Coming of Christ caused him to re-evaluate Adventist teachings (Hoekema pg. 224, Penton, pg. 15). In response, Russell, together with his organized Bible study group, determined that Christ's return would be an invisible or spiritual one. He later wrote a booklet entitled "The Object and Manner of the Lord's Return" to describe his new ideas and views on the issue. When he read similar ideas in N.H. Barbour's The Herald of the Morning, Russell joined him in editing the periodical. Both agreed that the Adventists had been mistaken in awaiting Christ in the flesh. In 1877, Russell and Barbour wrote and published Three Worlds and the Harvest of This World (Hoekema, p.224-25; Penton, p.18-19). (49. Jehovah's Witnesses—Who Are They? What Do They Believe?)
Believe that Jesus Christ is a created subordinate god and is actually the Arc Angel Michael
The Jehovah’s Witnesses believe that Jesus Christ is actually the Archangel Michael. The Scripture that they use for this theory is Proverbs 8. Here they say that Jesus Christ was a created being. However, Proverbs 8 clearly refers to wisdom as a she. She (wisdom) was created before the foundations of the earth were made. Clearly this passage does not apply to Jesus Christ because He wasn't born female. There is no scriptural reference for Michael being Jesus. (50. The Bible:Proverb 8:1-36) Other errors include the belief that 144,000 have already been chosen and that they, the Jehovah Witnesses are among the 144,000 that are saved in the Book of Revelation. These 144,000, according to the Bible, are Jews out of the 12 of the tribes of Israel. It isn't speaking of Gentiles or non Jews at all.
The born again salvation plan of Jesus Christ is no longer taught or practiced
Jehovah Witnesses do not preach what Jesus Christ nor what His Apostles preached in the early church. They do not baptize in Jesus name, nor seek for the in filling of the Holy Spirit of God because they believe that the Holy Spirit is simply some kind of force and not Christ in you the hope of glory as is mentioned in Col. 1:27. The principal self-defining characteristics of Jehovah's Witnesses are: learning the official doctrines, showing willingness to proselytize actively, participating in all congregational meetings, and being baptized into the Watch Tower faith (Beckford, p.70)