World's Religion Report

World's Religions Report

Introduction to the Religion - Jehovah's Witnesses

Jehovah's Witnesses is a religion that is based on the denomination of the millenarian restorationist Christianity which does not believe in the concept of trinity and is quite different from the mainstream religion and beliefs of Christianity. The worldwide members of this organization have reported to be 7.78 million people who are involved in evangelism. I addition to this, an attendance of 12 million people has been reported for conventions and an annual memorial attendance of people has been above 19 million people. There is a group of elderly people of the Jehovah's Witnesses in Brooklyn, New York who are responsible for establishing the doctrines. It is proclaimed by this organization that their beliefs are based on the teachings of the Holy Bible and they prefer to use their own translation of the Holy Bible named as the New World Translation of the Holy Scriptures.

The Jehovah's Witnesses group came into being from the Bible Student Movement that was founded by Charles Taze Russell in the 1870s along with the formation of Zion's Watch Tower Tract Society (Fisher, 2005). This group was formed under obvious doctrinal and organizational changes under the leadership of Joseph Franklin Rutherford. The name of the group, Jehovah's Witnesses was decided on the basis of Isaiah 43:10-12 in the year 1931 which was aimed to differ this group from the other Bible Student groups and also to symbolize a break with the legacy of the traditions of Russell. The best practices for which the Jehovah's Witnesses group is known is the door to door preaching, blood transfusions, distribution of literature and the refusal of military services. It is significant about this group that they reject Trinitarianism and consider the name Jehovah essential for proper worship. In addition to this, this group also rejects the concept of hell fire and immortality of the soul because they consider these concepts to be unscriptural doctrines.

It is also studied that this group do not observe Easter, Christmas, birthdays and other customs and holidays because they consider having pagan origins which are not compatible with Christianity. It is also observed that the adherents refer their body of belief as the truth and consider themselves to be residing in the truth. In addition to this, they also consider the secular society to be under the influence of Satan and corrupt and also aim to restrict their interactions with the non Witnesses. There are a number of congregational disciplinary actions including disfellowship, shunning and formal expulsion. It is a disciplinary action that the people who are baptized and leave the group are considered disassociated by the group and is also shunned. This religion has also experienced conflicts with some governments because of their objection for saluting the national flags and the military services (McInerney, 2003). It is also observed that the activities of the Jehovah's Witnesses group have been restricted in some countries.

Kingdom Hall

The Kingdom Hall is a special place for worship that ...