Jehovah's Witnesses 

Founded: 1870

Membership [U.S.] 1,029,652 in 11, 930 congregations (2003)

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The Jehovah's Witnesses are among the most zealous religious bodies in terms of promotion of their beliefs. Meeting in Kingdom Halls (not in churches), members witness and publish their faith in testimony and in a remarkably comprehensive missionary effort. They do not believe in separation into clergy and laity, since "Christ Jesus did not make such a separation," and they never use titles like "Reverend." All members are expected to give generously of their time in proclaiming their faith and teaching in private homes. Called "publishers of the Kingdom," they preach only from the Bible. Pioneers, or full-time preachers, are required to give at least seventy hours per month; special pioneers and missionaries donate a minimum of 140 hours per month and are sent to isolated areas and foreign lands where new congregations can be formed. All pioneers provide for their own support, but the society gives a small allowance to some in view of their special needs. This missionary activity has made Jehovah's Witnesses one of the most widely known (although not widely understood) churches in the U.S.A. 

It was Charles Taze Russell (1852-1916) who established the Witnesses, and until 1931 they were known as Russellites, Millennial Dawn People, or International Bible Students. Russell, the first president, is acknowledged not as founder (there is not human founder), but as a general organizer. Witnesses claim to have been on earth as an organization for more than five thousand years (based on Isa. 43:10-12; Hebrews 11; John 18:37). 

Russell was deeply influenced by Adventist thought, which captivated American attention around the middle of the nineteenth century. He developed his own Adventist ideas based on personal study of the Bible, and his lectures attracted huge crowds. To date, some thirteen million copies of his books have been circulated, and they have profoundly influenced the Witnesses. The first formal Russellite group was organized in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, in 1870, and soon after a board of directors was elected by vote of all members who subscribed ten dollars or more to support the work (a practice discontinued in 1944). In 1884 Zion's Watch Tower Tract Society was incorporated. In 1939 the name of this corporation was changed to Watch Tower Bible and Tract Society of Pennsylvania, and it remains one of the world's largest publishers.

When Russell died in 1916, Joseph F. Rutherford (1869-1942), known widely as Judge Rutherford, became president. He had been a lawyer and occasionally sat as a circuit court judge in Missouri. His numerous books, pamphlets, and tracts supplanted those of Russell, but his neglect of some aspects of Russell's teaching brought dissension.

The vast literature of the Witnesses (all circulated without bylines or signatures) quotes extensively from the Bible and relates the eschatological teachings of the church. Witness theology is based on the idea of theocracy, or rule of God. It teaches that there is only one God, Jehovah; Jesus is not God. In the beginning, the world was under the theocratic rule of the Almighty. At that time al l was "happiness, peace, and blessedness." but Satan rebelled and became the ruler of the world, and from that moment, humankind had followed his evil leading. Then, as the prophets had predicted, Jesus, the first creation of Jehovah, came to earth as a human being, "the beginning of the creation of God" (Rev. 3:14, KJV) to end Satan's rule.

Witnesses maintain that Jesus's heavenly rule, after he paid the ransom sacrifice of his death on earth, began in 1914. Russell had seen World War I as the final apocalyptic struggle that would usher in the return of Christ. When that did not happen, Rutherford reorganized the movement and announced in 1918 that Christ then "came to the temple of Jehovah." With Jesus now enthroned in the temple of Jehovah, the rule of Satan was nearly over, so Rutherford began to send out his followers to preach the good news in the final days. 

God, according to Witness belief, will take vengeance on wicked human beings in our time. God is now showing great love by "gathering out" multitudes of people of goodwill, to whom God will give life in the new world that is to come after the battle of Armageddon. This is to be a universal battle; Christ will lead the army of the righteous, composed of the "host of heaven, the holy angels," and they will completely annihilate the army of Satan. The righteous of the earth will watch the battle and the suffering of God's enemies, but they will not participate. 

After the battle, Witnesses teach, the believers in God and God's servants will remain on earth. Those who have proven their integrity in the old world will multiply and populate the new earth with righteous people. A resurrection of the righteous will also take place as an additional means of filling the cleansed earth with better inhabitants. After the Great Tribulation, "righteous princes" will rule the earth under Christ, "King of the Great Theocracy." One special group - the 144,000 Christians named in Revelation 7 and 14 - will become the "bride of Christ" and rule with him in heaven.

Administration of the group changed during Rutherford's presidency. The governing body today is in the hands of older and more "spiritually qualified" men who based their judgments on the authority of Scripture. This is not considered a governing hierarchy, but an imitation or early apostolic Christian organization. Under direction of the leaders at headquarters, local congregations of Witnesses (always called congregations, never churches) are arranged in circuits, with a traveling minister who spends a week with each congregation. Approximately twenty congregations are included in each circuit, and circuits are grouped into districts, with more than forty in the U.S.; circuit organization are now found in 235 countries and islands around the world.

The headquarters is located at Bethel Home in Brooklyn, New York. Staff engage primarily in editorial and printing work and receive an allowance of [$130] a month, in addition to room and board. They write, print, and distribute literature in almost astronomical proportions. The official journal, The Watchtower, has as circulation of 25,600,000. More than one billion Bibles, books, and leaflets have been distributed since 1920; they are made available in more than 290 languages.

Although the predictions of Armageddon have repeatedly been disappointed, Witnesses maintain their belief in its imminence. They have been especially active in opposing what they consider the three allies of Satan; false teachings of the churches, tyranny of human governments, and oppression by big business. This "triple alliance" of ecclesiastical, political, and commercial powers has misled humankind, the Witnesses claim, and must be destroyed at Armageddon before the new world can be born. They refuse to salute the flag, bear arms in war, or participate in the political affairs of government, not because of pacifist convictions, but because they desire to remain apart from what they consider expressions of Satan's power over humankind.

This attitude has brought them into conflict with law enforcement agencies; they have also endured whippings, assaults by mobs, stonings, being tarred and feathered, the burning of their homes, imprisonment, and detention in concentration camps. All of this they have accepted in a submissive spirit. their position is that they will obey the laws of the earth when those laws are not in conflict with the laws of God.

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