[AMA Series] Jehovah's Witnesses

Hello friends! Welcome to the next installment in the r/Christianity Denominational AMAs!

Today's Topic
Jehovah's Witnesses

AN INTRODUCTION

According to Wikipedia, Jehovah's Witnesses is a millenarian restorationist Christian denomination with nontrinitarian beliefs. Their article is fairly comprehensive if you're looking for a summary of the religion. Here are the basics if you prefer not to read an encyclopedia.

Jehovah's Witnesses emerged out of the Millerite movement (which also influenced the Adventists) during the 1870s and grew into the Bible Student movement founded by Charles Taze Russel until the official name Jehovah's Witnesses was adopted in 1931.

They do not believe in the trinity. Jehovah is the one true God, Jesus was his first creation (biblical references to the Archangel Michael, Abaddon (Apollyon), and the Word all refer to him) and the Holy Spirit guides the Governing Body here on Earth.
They do not believe in a hell of fiery torment. Instead, biblical references to hell (Hades and Sheol) refer to death and the only hope of resurrection is through following the doctrines of the Watchtower Bible and Tract Society.
They believe that only 144,000 will go to heaven and the rest of the faithful will be resurrected to live forever in a paradise on Earth. The Anointed (as the 144,000 are called) are the only ones who partake of the yearly Memorial offering of unleavened bread and wine.
They believe that it is their duty to witness to others by going door to door. Field service (as it is referred to among members) is an important part of their faith and members are expected to devote a minimum number of hours to it each month.
They do not celebrate holidays or get involved in politics. Jehovah's Witnesses believe they are supposed to 'be in the world but not of the world' and so reject anything with pagan origins or anything that requires allegiance to a government other than Jehovah's invisible rule with Jesus as it's King in heaven.

My personal involvement with the Jehovah's Witnesses began when my parents converted when I was a little girl. I spent most of my childhood and teenage years as a devout Witness, including getting baptized and pioneering (spending 60 hours a month preaching the Good News) every summer break. I left the organization when I was 18 although I have never been disfellowshipped. I volunteered to do this AMA because no one else had signed up yet and I did one last year. My goal is to answer every question as honestly as possible and try to shed some light on this fairly well known but little understood religion.

from u/HeedAK

Hi, I'm /HeedAK and I am a current 26 year old Jehovah's Witness who lives in Alaska. I was raised as a Jehovah's Witness along with my four siblings. Only my youngest sister and I remain Witnesses along with my mother. My oldest sister of two sisters is disfellowshipped and neither of my two brothers, the two oldest siblings of mine, were ever baptized as members of Jehovah's Witnesses.

I was leery about becoming a baptized member and no-one was really pushing me to make that commitment. When I was almost 18 I started telling myself that I had to figure out what I was going to do and I began studying other religions and holding them to the Bible. I came to the conclusion that Jehovah's Witnesses are very accurate in their principles with what the Bible asks of God's worshipers.

I made a personal dedication to Jehovah God by prayer and ended up publicly demonstrating this through baptism on July 15th, 2006. Shortly afterwards I lived in New Orleans where I used my electrician and other various construction skills to help rebuild in some disaster relief work after Hurricane Katrina. While I was helping rebuild I began 'pioneering' which is when a Jehovah's Witness dedicates him or herself to full-time preaching. I was preaching for 70+ hours a month for over a year at this time and learned a lot.

I am currently married to someone who recently converted to being a Jehovah's Witness from Mormonism. We have two kids together, two young boys, and are having quite an adventure raising them. Her immediate family is Mormon but all of her distant relatives are Neo-Pagans and Wiccans so I have learned a lot about their beliefs as well.

That's about it for the basic details of my past leading up to the present. I am aware of the current negative trend that JW AMA's have but would still like to answer any questions that you may have for me. I will be working on and off during my AMA but will be popping in and out throughout the day. Thank you for this opportunity and fire away!

*Note from u/HeedAK *: I am scheduled to work an emergency shift at work at 8AM. I live in Alaska so that is 12 PM (EST). I will be up getting ready for work when the AMA starts and won't have a whole lot of time to respond to anything. After 12PM when I am at work I am 'on-call on-site' but can check my phone periodically and respond at my convenience. Please just let people know that I will arrive around 12 PM (EST) and will be as detailed and thorough in my responses as my circumstances (and smart phone) allow. Thanks.


~~~We are a relatively small (nearing 8 million members) religion founded in america in the 1800s. Our only aim is to follow the bible to the letter, and this involves things that we are well known for, like our preaching. Some things that make us different are: We believe the date for Jerusalem's destruction is 607BC, we disfellowship people, we firmly believe that the world has gotten a lot worse since 1914, and we believe Noah's flood to be a global one.~~~

~~~Personally, I was converted at the door when I was 24 (a year ago) and got baptised 2 months ago at 25. I honestly don't really have any "history", so to speak, with the witnesses, so I don't have a lot else to say there.~~~

[u/frazzlemartini](/u/frazzlemartini), as many have suspected, is not really a Jehovah's Witness, but a former one.  I apologize, both to the subreddit and especially to the other panelists, for not vetting my panelists more thoroughly.

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Thanks to the panelists for volunteering their time and knowledge!

**As a reminder, the nature of these AMAs is to learn and discuss. While debates are inevitable, please keep the nature of your questions civil and polite.**

*Join us tomorrow when [u/fifteenwordsforsnow](/u/fifteenwordsforsnow) and [u/LonelyIguana](/u/LonelyIguana) take your questions on Oneness Pentecostalism!*

Posted Feb 5, 2014, 3:47 PM UTC · edited

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