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On
the home page it says "non-Christian churches such as...Jehovah's
Witnesses". They are Christians. They believe in the Christ
and follow all of his teachings. Mainly the comission to preach
to all the nations of the earth.
Our Answer:
Hello ________:
Thank you for
your email.
To be a Christian
one must believe in Jesus Christ. Although Jehovah's Witnesses believe
in someone called Jesus Christ, whoever it is that they believe
in, it is not the Jesus Christ that is the fullfillment of Biblical
prophesy and is described in the New Testament.
People are free
to call themselves whatever they wish, so Jehovah's witnesses may
call themselves Christians, but giving yourself a name to something
does not make it true.
For example,
Jesus taught us and showed us that salvation is a free gift of God
based upon Jesus Christ's work on the cross. In Jehovah Witness'
theology, salvation is by works. Charles Russell (the founder of
Jehovah's Witnesses) wrote, "They must
be recovered from blindness as well as from death, that they, each
for himself, may have a full chance to prove, by obedience or
disobedience, their worthiness of life eternal."
(Studies In Scriptures, Vol 1, p. 158)
Jehovah's Witnesses
believe they have to "work" their way to eternal life
through obedience to the leader's of the Jehovah's Witnesses. By
the way, Jehovah's Witnesses who do enough good works still don't
go to heaven--they spend eternity on earth. Only the 144,000 "chosen"
go to heaven.
The Bible teaches
we are saved by grace through faith alone. Man's good works can
never contribute to his salvation. The Bible says: "For
by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves,
it is a gift of God; not as a result of works, that no one should
boast." (Ephesians 2:8-9 NASB).
"He
saved us, not on the basis of deeds which we have done in righteousness,
but according to His mercy."
(Titus 3:5 NASB)
The difference
between Christianity and the Jehovah's Witnesses are extensive.
For example, Jehovah's Witnesses do not believe in the existence
of hell as a place of everlasting punishment for the wicked; they
do not believe in the Holy Spirit; they do not believe that Jesus
Christ was God--but instead they claim that Jesus was created by
God the Father. But, the Bible makes it clear God the Son was the
creator who made the universe and who is sovereign over creation.
One thing that
Christians and Jehovah's Witnesses do agree on is that the way to
identify whether a prophet is a true prophet or a false prophet
is to observe whether their prophecies have come true. Check the
prophecies of the Jehovah's Witnesses -- although it only takes
one false prophecy to prove a prophet is not from God, the Jehovah's
Witnesses have a perfect record of having NOT ONE TRUE PROPHECY.
For example, not only was the well-known prophesy about 1914 wrong,
so were the similar prophecies about 1918, 1925 and 1975.
I'm sorry, but
although they use the name Christian, and do have some beliefs in
common with Christians, the Jehovah's Witnesses are not Christian.
Thank you for
writing. I appreciate your taking the time to raise this question.
Yours in Christ,
Steve
Mission to America
web site: http://www.mtainfo.com
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