JEHOVAH'S WITNESS

Jehovah's Witness: Why don't they celebrate civil holidays and abstain from blood transfusions

Jehovah's Witness: Why don't they celebrate civil holidays and abstain from blood transfusions

Jehovah's Witnesses believe that some time after the death of the last apostle, the Church gradually diverged, in a “Great Apostasy”, from the original teachings of Jesus in several major points. Influenced by Restorationism, they believe their faith is a continually improving, imperfect restoration of First Century Christianity. An example in The Watchtower states: “It was the 1900-year-old 'faithful and discreet slave,' [parable--Matthew 24:45] the old Christian congregation, that was entrusted with this precious Kingdom service … obedient in its centuries-old commission to be witnesses in the earth … the matured 'slave' as represented by a remnant now stood ready for new assignments of service.” (Wills 2006) They teach that this new assignment occurred in 1919 in fulfillment of scripture. Jehovah's Witnesses feel that true understanding of the scriptures began to be reassembled by Charles Taze Russell and his associates when they formed a Bible study group in the 1870s in Allegheny, Pennsylvania, and had until then been imperfectly represented since the Great Apostasy by a number of historical Christian groups.

From their beginnings, the “Bible Students” as they were known, focused their evangelizing work on proclaiming that Christ's Second Presence had begun invisibly in 1874. As part of the dawning of the Millennium, Christ was believed to have been enthroned as King in 1878, and the destruction of religious organizations and governments was expected by the year 1914, to be followed by the establishment of a world-wide paradise. Though their interpretation of prophetic dates has changed through the years, eschatology has remained a major focus. To this day, based on their understanding of Bible chronology, they believe that 1914 marked the beginning of the “End Times”, and that Armageddon is near, which drives the urgency in their preaching work.

Born into a Presbyterian family, Russell had nearly lost his faith until it was rekindled by contact with some Second Adventists (one of the spiritual heirs of the Millerites). Adventist ministers Jonas Wendell, George Storrs and George Stetson were early influences. In 1876 Russell met Nelson H. Barbour and subsequently adopted Barbour's understanding of biblical chronology. Russell provided financial backing for Barbour and became co-editor of Barbour's magazine Herald of the Morning. Breaking with Barbour in 1879 over the concept of substitutionary atonement, Russell soon began publishing his own magazine Zion's Watch Tower and Herald of Christ's Presence. Known as “Pastor Russell”, he formed a legal entity which developed into the Watch Tower Bible and Tract Society of Pennsylvania in 1881, and in 1884 it was incorporated with Russell as president. Over several years, many millions of copies of Zion's Watch Tower and Herald of Christ's Presence were distributed in several languages to proclaim Christ's presence and the dawn of his Millennium. In addition, his six-volume work, originally entitled Millennial Dawn but later changed to Studies in the Scriptures, established the fundamental doctrines derived from their Bible ...