Jehovah’s Witnesses, whose prayer meeting in Kochi was marred by devastating bomb blasts on Sunday in which two persons died and 51 others are seriously injured, is a Christian sect known for its evangelical work. The group does not identify with other religious groups and its members worship “Jehovah” as “the one true and Almighty God, the Creator” and do not believe in the Holy Trinity — the doctrine that God exists in three equal persons of the Father, the Son (Jesus Christ) and the Holy Spirit.
Sources told News18 that the group is an easy target, mainly due to their religious differences even within Christianity. Originating in the US in the 19th century, the sect does not identify as Protestants. The members’ convention is an annual gathering, where larger assemblies called ‘regional conventions’ take place for a period of three days (Friday to Sunday). These primarily consist of Bible-based talks, dramatisations and videos of preaching work.
Here is all you need to know:
Origins
The Christian religious group traces its origins to the Adventists movement in 19th century US. This movement began in the 1830s after Baptist preacher William Miller prophesied that Christ will return in March 1843. Miller gained around 50,000 followers through this but he kept pushing the prediction back – first to March 1844 and then October 1844. With each failed prediction, the movement splintered further.
According to historians, Jehovah’s Witnesses is considered an offshoot of the International Bible Students’ Association founded by Charles Taze Russell in Pittsburgh in 1872. According to Britannica, Russell propounded a theology that rejected the Holy Trinity denying the divinity of Jesus Christ, and that hell was a place of eternal torment. Until 1931, the Witnesses were known as “Bible Students”.
Their official website, jw.org, says Jehovah’s Witnesses “come from hundreds of ethnic and language backgrounds, yet we are united by common goals. Above all, we want to honor Jehovah, the God of the Bible and the Creator of all things”. The group states that it does its best to “imitate” Jesus Christ and is “proud to be called Christians”.
Christianity.com describes the group’s name to have been taken from the “personal name of God” as found in the Bible. Since Jehovah’s Witnesses focus on God the Father, their name is taken from the Tetragrammaton, written as YHWH or JHVH and articulated either as Yahweh or Jehovah. Their website states: “Jehovah is the personal name of God, as found in the Bible (Exodus 6:3; Psalm 83:18). A witness is a person who proclaims views or truths of which he is convinced.”
Practices and beliefs
Unlike mainstream Christian denominations, Jehovah’s Witnesses do not believe in the Holy Trinity (God, the Father; God, the Son – Jesus; and God the Holy Spirit) but worship Jehovah as the “the God of the Bible and the Creator of all things”. Followers see Jesus Christ as the son of God, and not God himself. They learn from the teachings and examples set by Christ; hence they consider themselves Christians.
They do not, however, celebrate Christmas, Easter or other feasts as these are traditionally rooted in paganism, which they see as a form of idolatry. They also don’t celebrate birthdays. The Witnesses do not use the cross during worship as they believe that the Bible portrays Jesus as dying on a simple stake and not on a cross.
The group follows certain strict social mores, which forbid them from receiving blood transfusions and prevent married couples from divorcing except in the case of adultery. Jehovah’s Witnesses members are also known for making efforts to spread their beliefs among people outside their group.
The Witnesses believe that traditional Christian churches have deviated from the true teachings of the Bible. It is a millennial faith, meaning its members believe that the end of the world is near and that God’s kingdom will soon rule over the earth. As their work is mostly based on preaching, they go door to door to spread their evangelical beliefs.
The group has millions of followers worldwide. Its governing body is in Warwick, New York, and the main body, which disseminates the sect’s doctrines, is called the Watch Tower Bible and Tract Society of Pennsylvania, also headquartered in Warwick.
Known for its decentralised structure, Jehovah’s Witnesses operates in local groups across various regions and lacks central leadership. The group is open to people of all faiths and castes with prayer meetings being all-inclusive.
Meetings are held twice a week in local ‘Kingdom Halls’, which typically begin and conclude with songs and prayers. ‘Kingdom Hall’ refers to a local meeting place where religious services are held. The members of the group believe that the Bible refers to worshippers — not the building — as the church. The Witnesses usually do not organise mass prayer meetings or gatherings. A body of elders supervises each congregation. The prayer meeting held at the convention centre in Kochi might have been a meeting of local members.
Relationship with science
The Witnesses reject modern evolutionary theory and also oppose blood transfusions, believing that blood is sacred. A handful of cases involving parents refusing to allow their sick children to receive transfusions have made headlines in the last 20 years.
In 2012, an Australian court ordered the parents of a four-year-old girl with leukaemia to allow her a life-saving blood transfusion after doctors said she had only weeks to live.
In 2008, a Canadian judge ruled against a Jehovah’s Witnesses couple who opposed blood transfusions for their premature sextuplets.
And in 2013, a 17-year-old Australian cancer patient went to the New South Wales Supreme Court in an unsuccessful bid to stave off a transfusion, which he argued would breach his relationship with God.
The Witnesses have also lobbied doctors to adopt clinical strategies that minimise the need for blood transfusions.
Jehovah’s Witnesses in India
The community in India boasts 947 congregations and more than 56,000 devoted ministers dedicated to sharing their interpretation of the Bible and promoting an understanding of God’s kingdom, as per the official website. Due to the evangelical nature of their work, in India its members have been accused of trying to “convert” people.
“Jehovah’s Witnesses have been present in India since 1905. They established an office in 1926 in Bombay (now Mumbai), and obtained legal registration in 1978. The Witnesses benefit from the guarantees of India’s Constitution, which include the right to practice, profess, and propagate one’s faith,” the website states.
The name of the group may be linked to a landmark Supreme Court case from 1986, ‘Bijoe Emmanuel & Ors vs State Of Kerala & Ors’. In it, three children belonging to the sect were granted protection after they were expelled from their school for not singing the national anthem.
The court held that forcing them to sing the anthem violated their fundamental right to religion under Article 25 of the Constitution. The children were siblings Bijoe Emmanuel, Binu and Bindu, who were students of Classes X, IX, and V in NSS High School, run by the Hindu organisation Nair Service Society. Their parents had pleaded before the Kerala High Court that their children could stand up in respect but could not sing the anthem since it was a prayer and their religious beliefs only allowed them to worship Jehovah.
In the news
Only in March, the religious group was in the news after a disturbed ex-member shot dead six Jehovah’s Witnesses in Germany’s Hamburg. He targeted the congregation at a meeting hall before turning the gun on himself.
The man, identified as 35-year-old Philipp F, was a businessman battling paranoia and had penned an apocalypse-themed book. On Amazon, he was promoting his self-published book, ‘The Truth about God, Jesus Christ and Satan’, a mix of business management advice and fundamentalist prose. The 292-page book presents the Covid pandemic and the war in Ukraine as divine punishments, and outlines fears of a third world war.
History of persecution
The movement claims to have over 8.6 million followers worldwide, from Finland to the Falkland Islands and Peru to the Philippines. The group’s status varies from country to country. In Europe, Jehovah’s Witnesses are given the same recognition as mainstream religions in Austria and Germany but are classed as a cult in Denmark and have been banned since 2017 in Russia, which considers them extremists and has given several members lengthy jail terms. In Germany, the Witnesses claim to have around 1,75,000 followers in 2,003 congregations.
The movement, which preaches non-violence and is politically neutral, has a long history of persecution. During World War II, Nazi Germany rounded up thousands of Witnesses and sent them to concentration camps, where hundreds died.
The Witnesses and other Christian movements were also persecuted during Joseph Stalin’s reign of terror in the Soviet Union, which outlawed the group and deported thousands of members to Siberia.
In France, thousands were jailed in the post-war era for their objection to performing obligatory military service before the service was scrapped in the 1990s.
(With agency inputs)
Comments
0 comment