My Conclusion

Wow! What a wonderful project. I have learned a lot of information that I did not know in the past. My overall question was that what was the differences between the main stream Christian and the Jehovah Witnesses. By doing this project I have found that out. I have found out that there are some similarities between the two but a whole lot of differences. I think the way that I believe about my Christian beliefs is that they are socially constructed. I went into this project having ethnocentrism and I believe I came out the same way. The different things that I learned just didn't make since to believe. But I am not going to judge them I am going to pray for them because you can't change God's word and expect him to be pleased with it. I is either God's way or no way at all. When I say this I believe the people in my in-group will agree with me. This learning experience has been great, now I can tell someone about the difference between the two. This has helped me to become more informed about the world around me. I'm glad I understand what they believe, but I don't believe I am going to accept it. Once you have come to the knowledge of the truth it is hard to let it go.

The title of my Video was: What do the Jehovah's Witnesses teach? on youtube

Scholarly Article

I found an Article entitled "A Critical Look At the Jehovah Witnesses Bible"(The New World Translation). First, the watchtower society has said that their Bible was translated into English from Hebrew, Aramaic, and Greek languages. The only thing that is wrong is that the translators wished to remain anonymous because they were not seeking prominence for themselves. But article states that the reason that these translators did not want to give their names was because they did not have the schooling or the background to be critical bible translators. So what that is saying is that they could have just put anything that they wanted to in these Bibles and people will end up believing a lie. A man who is an ex Jehovah's Witness gave the names of the translators because he had a job working with them in the past. Frederick Franz one of the main Bible translators had a court trial in Scotland in 1954 about the time the translation the New World Bible was being translated and he was asked to translate a bible verse into Hebrew and he refused to do it. This is after he asked been asked if he was familiar with Hebrew. This article has opened my eyes to the validity on the Jehovah's Witnesses. It sounds like to me that this a man made religion.

http://www.focusonthefaulty.com/Pages/jehovahs.html
by M. Kurt Goedelman

Interviews

I conducted interviews over the phone with Marilyn Reed who is a Jehovah's Witness and another lady who I failed to get her name but she did tell me that she was 89 years old and she wanted me to talk to sis Reed because she was a younger person and could explain it better to me. The first question that I asked the elderly lady was that what was the Jehovah's Witnesses primary mission and she told me that it was to vindicate Jehovah's name. Then I went on to sis Reed and we talked about what they believed in and she told me that every thing that they say is scripture and that they believe the whole Bible. Of course their Bible is called the watchtower and not the Holy Bible. Another question that I asked was the what do they call their sermons and she said that they call them public discourse instead of a sermon. I was also told the their religion is in over 250 lands around the world. Basically I found out some more beliefs about the witnesses and how nice they were to give me time to find out information about my project. Outside of their belief I found out that they were good wholesome people who didn't mind treating people right. But when I think about it they do believe that you can be saved by works alone.
Here is the # to Sis Reed (919) 242-5569
She wouldn't mind talking to anyone about her religion and giving a warm welcome.

Event

Going to an event was really strange to me because after doing some study on what they believed and taught I was not being opened minded. First, they call their gatherings meetings and not church. What I seem to notice is that they seem to dress almost the same as regular churches but a little modest. They don't believe in having devotion or praise and worship. They sing congregational songs and to my opinion are really dry and not motivational. There is no dancing in the meetings and no speaking in other tongues which you can only do if you have the spirit of God. The things that they focus on the most is studying their bible and training people how to witness to other people. It was a strange event because it was different from what I was used to. A feeling of discomfort because it was almost like accepting what they believed. They have their meeting at least two times a week. This particular Kingdom Hall had two location one in the west which held services on Thursday and Sunday 10:00-12:00am and the East location on Tuesday and Sunday from 1:00-3:00pm.

Video

I have found a short video on you tube about other things that Witnesses believe. I learned that the Witnesses believe that Jesus was the first created and that he once was Michael the Archangel who turned into a man. A perfect man that did not sin. So this excludes Adam as being the first creation and denies the deity of Christ. Meaning that Jesus is not God. Also, the man that was talking about the Witnesses said that the Witnesses are a non Christian cult because they deny the deity of Christ and believe that you can be saved by works alone and not by grace through faith alone. In addition, they also believe that Jesus was not physically raised from the dead but was raised spiritually and ever since he was raised he has been ruling in heaven. Another interesting thing is that we have all heard the story that God created the world in six days and on the seventh day he rested. That is not the belief of the Witnesses, they believe that every day equals 1000 days and being that we believe that man was created on the sixth day, they believe that man was created 42,000 years later. Witnesses also believe that Jesus did not die for the sins of the world, but only for the 144,000 who are the only ones going to heaven. Not only that but Witnesses do not believe in taking communion because Jesus only died for the 144,000 and not the whole world. Another strange belief is that the believe that the devil was in charge of creating the world.

Website

I checked out a website titled Jehovah's Witnesses and here is some information that I found out.
First, they do not believe in the Trinity which would be the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. The main stream Christians believe in the Trinity. Witnesses believe that God is only one God and not three persons and the believe that serving the Trinity is polytheism. Basically they believe that God is the one and only Jehovah God. Most mainstream Christians today will tell you that Jesus was God in the fleshly form when he walked the earth. But the Witnesses don't believe that Jesus was God because there is but one God. Although Witnesses do believe that Jesus is God's only begotten son that died on a stake and not a cross. Witnesses only use the name Jehovah for God in order to distinguish between God and Jesus. Also, Witnesses believe that Jesus has been ruling from heaven since 1914 and that only 144,000 will only be able to make it to Heaven. There are only 8,000 people left of those 144,000 on the earth. So they believe that when you die Jesus will come and get you out of the grave in order for you to live a life on earth and not go to heaven. This place on earth is called paradise. Main stream Christians believe that all who live righteous lives will go to heaven when they die to be with Jesus in heaven. We believe in the rapture when the sky will be cracked and people will be caught up into heaven. Furthermore, Witnesses believe that if you don't live a life that is pleasing to Jehovah on the earth the only thing that will happen to you is that you will cease to exist. In other words you will not suffer and go to hell when you die. While the mainstream Christians believe that in fact if you do not do God's will on earth and live a sinful life and die you will definitely end of in hell and suffer torments day and night for not serving God.
Witnesses are also expected to go from door-to-door in order to spread their message and to have bible study in the homes of their converts. All of their meeting places are named Kingdom Hall where they hold bible studies from their watchtower bible. They were originally founded in 1884 and were known as Zion's watch tower until 1931. They claim to have a membership of six million with one million in the US. Witnesses are basically know for their refusal to serve in the military, to salute the flag, to celebrate holidays, and to give or accept blood transfusions.

http://www.rapidnet.com/~jbeard/bdm/Cults/jw.htm

Before I started

Before I started this project I really didn't know about searching out other groups. As I thought about it more I began to realize that I didn't understand the differences between the main stream Christians and Jehovah's Witnesses. So I decided to do a study on that group. Also, being a main stream Christian myself the church never explained the differences between the two groups. Being a Christian I always thought that we were right and everyone else was wrong because that was the way that I was taught to believe. I would always hear my parents and grandparents say don't answer the door when you see those people (Jehovah's Witnesses) come to the door and try to talk to you. I always thought that these people were strange because they were not accepted where I lived. Now I have the opportunity to understand what they believe and why. When I did this project I put all judgemets aside and listened to what they had to say.My overall question will be what is the difference between them and the main stream Christians and why they do what they do.