RELIGION: 101 PART EIGHT

Knocking, knocking who is knocking on my door. It is early on any given Saturday morning and here they come knocking on your door. Almost everyone knows the aggressiveness of the door-to-door Jehovah’s Witnesses. The group they represent known as the Watchtower Bible & Tract Society [WTB&S] stresses end time prophesy. JW’s are prohibited from taking part in many common activities such as celebrating holidays and birthdays, voting, flag saluting, and military service.

Charles T. Russell founded the JW movement. As a teenager he rejected his Presbyterian roots and joined a liberal Congregational Church but soon left this church also. He denied the deity of Christ and biblical teachings on hell and eternal punishment. He had no formal Bible training, but built his beliefs on various teachings that were popular at that time: denial of hell, that Christ had returned invisibly in 1874 and 1914 was the year the world would be destroyed and the millennium would begin.

With no formal training in theology or biblical languages Russell claimed he was the only person with the truth and he condemned all other Christian religions.

Russell continued to attract people with his prophesies that Armageddon would strike in 1914. When it didn’t happen he changed the date to 1915. Russell died in 1916 leaving his followers doubting and disillusioned by his failures.

Joseph Rutherford then came over the organization, following pretty much on the same path that Russell had been on. His date was 1918 that God would destroy churches and millions of their people. He claimed that by 1920 every kingdom would be swallowed up in anarchy. Rutherford taught the only means of escape was to join The Watchtower organization. With his death came a new leader.

Now we have Nathan Knoll. Knoll put aside date setting for a time and switched to a different strategy. JW publish their own translation of the Bible, called the New World Translation. The committee responsible for the NWT was kept anonymous except Frederick Franz. He was chairman of the committee and had studied Greek for two years without graduating and was only self-taught in Hebrew. After Knoll’s death Franz became the new President of the Society.

Growth in the organization slowed down and WTB&TS introduced a new book and a new date for the end of the world. Autumn of 1975 would mark the beginning of the seventh period of history. Membership grew by the thousands; some even sold their homes and property, and were praised by leaders for doing so. With the autumn of 1975 came and went members were told to “adjust their viewpoint.”

Witnesses continue to grow in numbers, publishing massive amounts of literature. The WT Society demands complete loyalty and still predicts Armageddon is coming soon. There will be sure annihilation for anyone who does not join the organization or leaves its ranks.

Other beliefs are: WTB&ts claims to be the only true religion, and the sole source of correct Bible teaching.

Teaches that teaching the divine nature of God is inspired by Satan and teaches that Jehovah, the name of the one true God, corresponds only to God the Father.

They claim Jesus is not God.

The Holy Spirit is merely God’s active force, similar to electricity.

Jesus is a created being who existed as Michael the archangel before being born as a perfect man. After Jesus died and was buried, God disposed of his physical body. He was raised a spiritual creature and “materialized” to make himself visible. Now he is in heaven once again know as Michael the archangel.

Only an elite group of Witnesses, the 144,000 or anointed ones are presently credited with God’s righteousness. Only those 144,000 are born again and expect to reign with Christ in Heaven. For the remaining JW’s known as other sheep or the great crowd the atoning sacrifice of Christ only provides a chance at eternal life on earth.

Salvation will depend on one’s works. A person must first come to Jehovah’s organization for salvation and then comply with everything they teach.

WTB&TS teach the soul cannot exist apart from the body. Death ends all conscious existence. The grave is hell and those whom God ultimately judges will be annihilated and simply cease to exist.

The Bible can only be interpreted by the Watchtower Society and no individual can learn the truth apart from them. The Bible is an organizational book and cannot be understood by individuals no matter how sincere they are.

AIC’s, African Independent Churches, African Indigenous Churches, African Initiated Churches, African Instituted Churches, these are Christian bodies in Africa that were established as a result of African initiative, rather then on the part of foreign missionary organizations.

In the 19th century missionaries from Western Europe and North American went to most of the sub-Saharan Africa. These missionaries tried to set up local groups and churches along the lines of what they were familiar with in their own countries. By the end of the 19th century many African Christians has formed independent denominations.

During the colonial period, many black converts to Christianity were unable fully to reconcile their beliefs with the teachings of their church leaders, and split from their parent churches. The reasons for these splits were usually either:
Political - an effort to escape white control.
Historical - many of the parent churches, particularly those from a Protestant tradition, had themselves emerged from a process of schism and synthesis.
Cultural - the result of trying to accommodate Christian belief within an African world view.

Other groups commonly called Zionists in South Africa trace their origin to the Catholic Church in Zion, Zion City, Illinois. They had an emphasis on divine healing and building of holy cities. They were later influenced by American Pentecostal Missionaries though the period of contact were short-lived and within a few years they were short lived. Most of the expansion of Christianity in Africa in the 20th century has been the result of the missionary efforts of the African Independent churches.

There are thousands of African Initiated Churches (more than 10000 in South Africa alone) and each one has its own characteristics. Church historians, missiologists, sociologists and others have therefore tried to group them according to common characteristics, though there have often been disagreements about which characteristics are most significant, and which taxonomy is most accurate. Though it is possible to distinguish groups of denominations with common features, there is also much overlap, with some denominations sharing the characteristics of two or more groups.

Many AIC's share traditions with Christians from other parts of the Christian world, and these can also be used in classifying them. So there are AIC's of Anglican, Methodist, Roman Catholic, Pentecostal and Orthodox traditions. Some are Sabbatarian, some are Zionist, and so on.

I hope tomorrow to finish up the last four on our list. Then I will show you the beliefs and traditions of one of the newest up and coming groups in the world, including a film.

God Bless
rECj/LJG