I couldn't help but notice all the noobs posting so many negative topics on the subject of Jehovah's Witnesses. There seems to be some sort of 'weird sect' image surrounding the religion, and nobody seems to have the slightest clue exactly what it IS they believe in.
I'm not trying to start another true/false debate here (99% of the topics in this forum), but I figured I could at least try to clear up a few things for whoever might be curious to know, without having to deal with the fundamentalists that come knocking...
What are Jehovah's witnesses? Basically, Christians. Just like Mormans, 7th Day Adventists and a whole bunch of other minority groups, they were founded by christians who came up with a radical idea that wasn't accepted by the mainstream church.
In this case it was a guy called Charles Taze Russell, who in 1914 came to believe that the prophecies in the book of revelation pointed to WW1 (nation will rise up against nation, etc).
In effect, that's pretty much it. Someone came up with a new idea which wasn't accepted as truth by anyone else, so you take your followers and form a new religion. Nothing crazy, just your usual christian beliefs incorperated with what you percieve as truth.
Some of the things that set them apart:
-They don't believe in Hell
-Not everyone goes to heaven, only a selected 144,000
-They believe God and Jesus are 2 seperate people
-They don't believe in re-incarnation
-They don't believe in the trinity
-They don't believe that Armageddon is the destruction of the earth, rather, all EVIL on earth
-They don't take the 7 creation days to be *literal* days
Meh. I'm really too tired to keep on with this, but I hope you've got some sort of idea about what exactly they are. If anyone has any questions that nobody can give you a straight answer too I can surely help you out.
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