JWs interpret the scriptures slightly differently than others, I don't think I would say that they are not Christians, because there are many different kinds of Christians each with their own interpretations.
Being an atheist, it personally doesn't matter to me who believe they are correct, because I think all of them is wrong, so that at least speak to my neutrality in regards to this topic
Personally, from reading the bible there are things which I agree with that JWs have gotten right. I do not think that the bible support a trinity and that JWs are correct that Jesus is the son of God. Jesus himself doesn't seem to think anything else and also the scriptures are written in a very strange way, if he were in fact God.
Whether Michael is suppose to be Jesus or not, I have no clue given that Revelation is such a weird text that I think almost anything goes in it.
The reason they reject the cross or any symbols as far as I know, is because God made it very clear that you are not to worship any idols, symbols etc. Also why you don't find Jesus on the cross or other things like that in JWs "churches".
Exodus 20:4-6
4 - “You shall not make for yourself a carved image, or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth.
5 - You shall not bow down to them or serve them, for I the LORD your God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children to the third and the fourth generation of those who hate me,
6 - but showing steadfast love to thousands of those who love me and keep my commandments.
So if Jesus is God, then clearly all other Christians are breaking God's command by having crosses and Jesus in the churches etc. So again, depending on how you interpret it, JWs are not wrong here, because the Bible does actually say that.
Hell as far as I know, comes from the word Gehenna. Which was a place outside Jerusalem where they burned stuff.
The word derives from the Hebrew: גי(א)-הינום Gêhinnôm (also Guy ben-Hinnom (גיא בן הינום) meaning the Valley of Hinnom's son. The valley forms the southwest border of ancient Jerusalem that stretches from the foot of Mt. Zion to the Kidron Valley. It is first mentioned in Joshua 15:8. Originally it referred to a garbage dump in a deep narrow valley right outside the walls of Jerusalem where fires were kept burning to consume the refuse and keep down the stench. It is also the location where bodies of executed criminals, or individuals denied a proper burial, would be dumped. In addition, this valley was frequently not controlled by the Jewish authority within the city walls; it is traditionally held that this valley was used as a place of religious child-sacrifice to Moloch by the Canaanites outside the city (comp. Jer. 2: 23).
Like Sheol, Gehenna is sometimes translated as Hell.
Whether that applies to all cases in the Bible I don't know, but it is also not impossible to imagine that the meaning changed over time, from what it originally referred to. And as far as I know, JWs do not believe in Hell for this reason, because they believe it refer to this place outside Jerusalem. Again, hell in the OT as we know it from the NT does not exist. So again, are they wrong or right, depends on the interpretation.
This argument you could use against any Christians, why did God wait to reveal himself to the Jews and not those before him?
Scripture says the word was God and the word became flesh and dwelt among Us. Scripture says not to make graven images, but then God commands Moses to create a graven serpent, and all of the Israelites have to turn to the graven serpent in order to be healed,.
God commanded the Israelites to create Golden Angels on the Ark of the covenant. The Temple of Solomon had graven images on the walls. The Bible contradicts itself , and was never supposed to be the Only rule of authority in deciding theological truths.
The first Christians were not Bible christians. Jesus Christ left the early Christians with a church, he didn't leave them with a bible.
Jesus Christ said " listen to the church," and if somebody does not listen to the church, let them be to you as a pagan or a tax collector.
Jesus Christ never said to listen to the bible. He did say listen to the church. The word of God is not limited to the bible, and nowhere does the Bible say which writings are the word of god.
There could be many texts floating around that contain the words of God , that never made it into the bible. Every word that God spoke through prophets was the word of god, and much of that never made it into the bible.
The first Christians did not know which writings were part of the New Testament canon. That was a decision made by the Catholic church at the councils of rome, carthage, and hippo.
Outside of the Catholic church is division, thousands of divided Protestant denominations. Solascriptura is the foundation of the Jehovah's witnesses existence.
Sola scriptura is a man-made Dogma that is not contained in the bible. Jehovah's witnesses were founded upon the Sola scriptura doctrine, which is a self-destructive Doctrine that blows itself up.
Jehovah's witnesses are a tiny denomination that might not even be christian.
Using the Bible as your final authority is very dangerous, because in the video I posted in the op, I mentioned that when I was in a psychiatric hospital in minnesota, there was a guy with no eyeballs.
He had a pornography problem and Jesus says " if your eye causes you to sin, pluck it out, better to enter Heaven maimed, than to have all of your body and be tossed into hell, where the worm death not die. " He plucked his eyes out like Jesus said.
Because so much of the Bible does not actually mean what it says, it is a very dangerous thing to be using it as your only or final authority.
Jesus Christ obviously knew that humankind and our brains, our lack of understanding, our sinful nature, our natural state of confusion, would have difficulty understanding the bible, so he built a church, an institution to settle disputes on faith and morals, and settle different interpretations of scripture, and he built that church on Peter the rock, and promised that the Gates of Hell shall not prevail against it.
Before the 16th century, other than the Orthodox churches (Which are almost Catholic), there was only one Catholic apostolic Church, and there is only one Church on the face of the Earth that dates back to the time of Christ.
The church is the bride of Christ, and that is very biblical, and it is biblical that the Holy Spirit would guide the church.
To not listen to the church is a very serious crime against God , according to the very teachings of Jesus Christ himself in the Gospels.
Jesus Christ said of the bread and wine after it was consecrated at the last supper: "this is my body, this is my blood." Jehovah's witnesses actually changed the wording of that.
St Paul declared again that the bread and wine is the body and blood of christ, and receiving it unworthily can get you killed by God, and that some people had died or gotten sick because they received it unworthily.
The early fathers of Christianity all declared that the bread and wine after consecration becomes the flesh and blood of christ.
The first time Jesus Christ lost followers, it was over his teaching that "unless you eat the flesh and drink the blood of the son of man, you have no life within you."
He didn't call those people back to explain that he meant something different.
So the bottom line is, Catholics are being actually far more biblical than Jehovah's witnesses are!
Jehovah's witnesses contradict the scriptures in many places, are a man-made religion, the very foundation and basis for their existence, the foundation upon which they are built upon, is an unbiblical man-made doctrine, and is a contradiction of what Scripture says about itself!
So, some of Catholicism goes against my conscience, and I wouldn't exactly call myself catholic, because I consider God very cruel, and I believe it would be better if he was supplanted and replaced by a human being, or a spirit who is actually kind, generous, and would actually show the world he loves them, end confusion, and give understanding to those who seek it
But I'm not going to deny the obvious: Jesus Christ founded the Catholic church. History shows this to be true. Jehovah's witnesses clearly do not have the truth, and are clearly unbiblical!
But some of the things Jehovah's witnesses believe are very biblical. And I think for the most part they are very good, peaceful, humble, charitable people, but some of the ways they judge and condemn, are very toxic.
Some of their bigotry bothers me. Some of the pride and arrogance of saying they know better than all those generations and centuries of Christians before them, and some of the ways they divide Christians, does a great disservice to Christ.
And if there is a devil, and the Catholic church is the bride of Christ, ...if I were the devil, I would want a group like Jehovah's witnesses doing precisely what they do, divide Christians and lead them away from the true sheepfold! That way I could divide and conquer, and confuse!
