Jehova's Witnesses

Sounds like a principle the Mormons cling to, as well. "Faith without works is dead." Nothing wrong with that, as long as it doesn't try to take the place of grace.

Very interesting. Is the belief that partaking of the unleavened bread and wine at the Memorial makes receiving the Holy Spirit happen, or is it just an indicator that it already has?

But surely more than 144,000 have participated in the ceremony, yes? Or is the 144,000 a figurative/symbolic number rather than a literal one?

Thanks for this, Muff. :xyzthumbs I've never gotten the chance to have such an indepth discussion with a JW. I talked to one for about 4 hours one Saturday, long before I became a Christian. Unfortunately, I've forgotten everything we talked about.

 

My Uncle and family are Witnesses. I spent about 3 weeks with them when I was about 11 years old and they took me to some meetings. I can remember sitting around with everyone taking turns reading scripture. I even read some when it was my turn and remember how much they liked that. I also went out with them one Saturday afternoon passing out literature. My cousin and me were given an inch thick stack of tracts and told to go door to door and pass them out. We went to 2 houses, got doors slammed in our faces, threw the rest down a storm drain and played hide and seek the rest of the afternoon. Personally I think they are a little too far away from the bible to be considered mainstream Christian. The watchtower publications appears to this outsider to to carry as much weight as the Bible.

 

I do not see how they can reconclie the 144k with stuff like "whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved".

 

read revelations.

 

Michael Jackson

 

We used to climb up on the roof of the house and throw pebbles at them when they came door to door in our neighborhood.

That is all.

 

They don't give or receive blood. There's a verse that talks about the life being in the blood.

 

There was a family that went to school with me. One of the boys was a really good athlete, but couldn't ever be on any of the school teams, I thought, because he was a JW.

 

Michael Jackson is not an athlete, that I know of. Plus, I don't think he's one of Jehovah's Witnesses anymore either. I just read where he's into the religion Madonna is advocating now.

 

It's already happened and the partaker is one of the chosen to reign in Heaven with Jesus.

It's a literal number from Revelation. From what I remember (it's been many years since I was 18...thanks for reminding me ) not many people partook of the bread and wine. No where near 144,000. You have to think about all the ones God chose way before our time, i.e. Abraham. Those faithful through history are believed to be part of the 144,000, so that doesn't leave too many openings for modern man.