Many people may not know what Jehovah’s Witnesses are about and may know little about their faith. Many are familiar with Jehovah’s Witnesses through door-to-door solicitations and spreading the word of God, but what do they actually believe? Here are a few facts about their core beliefs and some insight into the group which branched from orthodox Christianity back in the late 1800s.
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What Year Was Jehovah’s Witnesses Founded?
Charles Taze Russel led Bible studies back in 1870 in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. It is here where the Jehovah’s Witness movement was born and many people would follow. The Bible Student movement, also founded by Taze helped form the basis for Jehovah’s Witnesses. The movement is where he would come to dispute many of the traditional Christian beliefs. The disagreements led to the separation from traditional Christianity and Jehovah’s Witnesses were created.
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Jesus and Jehovah’s Witnesses
The idea that Jesus is God, is not one that Jehovah’s Witnesses believe. They consider Jesus not to be equal with God and instead believe that Jesus was created by God. They also believe that Jesus and God did not co-exist. Orthodox Christianity speaks to the opposite of this belief, making this one of the major differences between the two groups. “We take Jesus at his word when he says that the Father is greater than I am" (John 14:28). This explains how Jehovah's Witnesses view Jesus and his relationship to God.
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Jehovah’s Witnesses and The Holy Spirit
Jehovah’s Witnesses don’t consider the Holy Spirit as equal to the Father, similar to their view of Jesus. They believe that the Holy Spirit is God applying a force. They state that the Holy Spirit is “impersonal.” Many passages from the Bible such as (Exodus 15:8, 10) and (Luke 11:13) show that God’s spirit is compared to other various things like water and the association to faith and knowledge. All of the comparisons made show the Holy Spirit in an impersonal light according to their beliefs.
