Christian vs Jehovah Witness
The main difference between Christian and Jehovah’s Witness is in the kinds of Christ they believe in. It is true that Jehovah’s Witnesses and Christians are both following the teachings brought about by the words of Jesus Christ. Christians believe in the Holy Trinity. In Holy Trinity, the Christians present the three persons as one God: the Holy Spirit, the Son, and God the Father. While Jehovah’s Witnesses believe that Jehovah is the only God. For them, Jesus and the Archangel Michael are the same. This is where the difference between Christian and Jehovah’s Witness begins. Then the difference goes into other beliefs and practices of the two religions, as well.
Who is a Christian?
Christians have this faith that Jesus was sent by God here on Earth to personally give us His words of salvation. Christians believe that Jesus is the son of God and that God, Himself, sacrificed Jesus to save the humanity from their sins and impurities. Christians are also welcoming the thought that Jesus will come as a sign of the end the world. This specific time will be witnessed by everyone: the living and the dead. They believe that this will be the Day of Judgment wherein the good goes with Him to heaven, and the sinners will suffer in hell for all eternity. Certainty of when it would happen is not there, but their faith was kept untroubled through time. They confess their sins in their church. They are following Jesus’ ways so as to keep themselves acceptable when the moment the judgment comes to the Earth.
Who is a Jehovah’s Witness?
If it is about Christianity, Jehovah’s Witnesses do believe that they too are Christians. It is because they are also following the ways taught by Jesus on how to live a glorious life here on Earth. However, they have set some borderlines. Part of these is their belief that Jesus is not God and that he is one with Archangel Michael. They do not welcome the primary sign of Christians, which is the Holy Trinity. In fact, they look at it as something that holds people from recognizing the one and true God, which is Jehovah. Jehovah’s Witnesses are also solid with their belief that the world is ending little by little. For them, the end started on the exact year of 1914 and consequently it is still in the process of diluting.
What is the difference between Christian and Jehovah Witness?
• Christians believe Jesus Christ is one with His Father and Holy Spirit as God. Jehovah Witnesses believe that God is never made up of three persons but is only one and that is Jehovah.
• Christians believe that the Holy Spirit is God, Himself, but Jehovah’s Witnesses contradict this with their belief that the Holy Spirit is God’s way of interacting with His people.
• Christians are uncertain as to when the world would end, but Jehovah Witnesses are sure that the year 1914 started the end of it all.
• Jehovah’s Witnesses believe that they are true Christians. However, most Christians do not agree with that. In the same way, Jehovah’s Witnesses do not accept other Christians as true Christians.
• Jehovah’s Witnesses do not accept the existence of hell. Christians accept that there is a hell.
• Jehovah’s Witnesses have a different belief about heaven as well. Christians believe that those who do good go to heaven after death for an eternal happy life. Jehovah’s Witnesses believe that only 144,000 people will go to heaven, to be with God and Jesus. The remaining ones will enjoy a paradise on earth. This is a restored Garden of Eden. There is no old age, unhappiness, death or sickness there.
Both religions are Christians, but the difference between Jehovah’s Witness and Christian can be easily determined by the faith they are living with as they go on with their lives.
Images Courtesy:
- Resurrection of Christ via Wikicommons (Public Domain)
- Jehovah’s Witnesses are known for their preaching from house to house by Steelman (CC BY-SA 2.5)
Calvin375 says
Jehovah Witnesses are not Christians by neither definition of the word ” To be Christ-like” nor by the belief factor on Salvation in which you did not thoroughly research in your discoveries. Jehovah Witnesses do not believe in the Salvation of Jesus Christ so therefore, it is impossible for them to believe or even call themselves Christians when they reject the four (4) Gospels in its fullness. Instead, they just take them in parts as a way of doing good acts, instead of believing in faith.
Olga Lugvina says
They believes in the salvation of Jesus Christ! They did not reject 4 gospels! not true!
Lynda Wikoff Beckham Bisseger says
They have almost completely rejected and rewritten/deleted The Gospel of John. Also, much of Hebrews has been rewritten and or deleted. Much of the New Testament is not a translation of the original Gospels. And their practice of “shunning” is to reject and be friends with anyone not of their faith. Basically to deny that Jesus was the Son of God, was with God in the Creation of this Earth. And to give him the same status as Lucifer, with th difference being that Lucifer committed the sin of Jealously. Also, Exocus tells us not to eat the blood of animals, but to let the blood drain before eating. They have interpreted this as to not have a blood transfusion. But???? Were there even the medical possibility of transfusions in Exodus. Having worked with a Jehovah’s Witness, and watching her eat rare prime ribs, with blood running all over the plate, yet refuse a life saving blood transfusion, I have thought this a great contradiction.
Rob says
No they do not believe in the Salvation of Jesus. Just because they believe in Jesus doesn’t mean they believe he is the Son of God as part of the Trinity. This nullifies them as being a Christian.
Bob Marley says
This help me a lot about finding a differents
jim says
“Christians believe that those who do good go to heaven after death for an eternal happy life.” Ahem, if this is a Christian attempt at apologetics, you are seriously lacking. Christians believe that though we are sinners and no one does “good” but we are totally given to sin, (though we can do some acts of civic righteousness), we are thoroughly sinful from our conception, lost and condemned to Hell (a real place). However, believing and trusting solely in the merits of Christ through His atoning work and sacrificial death on the cross for our sins and the bodily resurrection from the dead, we are saved and will inherit eternal live with Christ in heaven for eternity. That trusting faith is a gift given to us by the Holy Spirit working through the gospel proclamation ie: the word of God, the Bible. That is the only way a Christian is counted as righteous in God’s eyes. His subsequent work and life that we call sanctification are the goods works that will be credited to us on judgment day ie: the last day when Christ returns to judge the living and the dead. Likewise, those who have not received Christ by faith will enter judgment and their deeds of unrighteousness will be counted against them. No tally of civic deeds and feeding the poor will be credited to them because they are outside of the body of Christ and are trusting instead their good works to save them in eternity. They will be eternally haunted for believing that lie. So this little screed is outlining basically law and gospel. If you are a Christian and you do not know what Law and Gospel are, you need to get a new church and pastor for they are the two main teachings throughout the entire Old and New testaments. SOS, kids. Law shows our sin. SOS gospel shows us our savior. Both are necessary.
Margaret says
I agree with Jim. It is a big mistake to think that Christians go to heaven because they are “good.” No one is good. Christians go to heaven because of Christ, because of accepting Christ’s atoning sacrifice on the cross for my sins. He suffered and died for me so that I can go free, declared not guilty, and qualified to enter heaven solely by what Jesus did. Nothing in my hands I bring, only to thy cross I cling.
Rebecca says
I had some very nice JW come by my home today. I know that as a Christian what I believe is totally different than what they believe. I decided to do some research on what “exactly” they do believe and I came across your page. It was a good read with, some useful information, but I need to clerify one statement you made. “Christians believe that those who do good go to heaven after death for an eternal happy life.” This statement is false. You do not get into heaven by “doing good’, you get into heaven by faith and by excepting that free gift of salvation. Not by works alone.
Ephesians 2:8-10…
8 For it is by grace you have been saved through faith, and this not from yourselves; it is the gift of God, 9 not by works, so that no one can boast. 10 For we are God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance as our way of life.…
There are going to be a lot of “GOOD PEOPLE” in Hell.
Romans 10:9 also says this:
9 that if you confess with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord,” and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. 10 For with your heart you believe and are justified, and with your mouth you confess and are saved.…
Thanks!
Lana says
My daughter is now a Jehovah Witness, she was baptized and studied King James Bible. My daughter will have nothing to do with me nor do I get to see my grandchildren. What am I supposed to do? I pray, my Pastor says that I can not believe the way she does just so I can see my grandchildren. I am so hurt and concerned about her Salvation. Pray for me.
Jo says
Aw Lana, I am sorry. I know from first hand experience how hard it is to have family that doesn’t agree on this fundamental issue. However, she doesn’t have to shun you. That is only for people who have been baptized in the JW organization and then left. Now, if you are bad mouthing or trying to convince her that they are a cult or that she is wrong, she will not be around you. It’s best for both of you if you can just “agree to disagree”…. this is where I am at with my family. We love each other. We are all good people and we all want to do God’s will and we are all just trying our best to learn…. it all boils down to the teaching and how much time we spend in the Word ourselves. God will work on willing hearts. So in the meantime…. you do you, and allow her to do her…. God will sort out the details. <3 I will pray for you and your daughter. Life is short…. let's just love people where they are.
Karalee Parsons says
Amen
Heather says
Lana depending on the state u live in there are grandparents rights check in to it! Praying for u
John Meyer says
Lana,
So sorry for your daughter being led astray from the truth into darkness by the father of lies, (all untruth and false doctrine is from the Devil himself, and it ALWAYS has as its goal the stealing of souls from the Savior). As a parent, this is a very hard thing to see happen. Remember though that this is a danger that we ALL are in peril of, but for the saving grace of God reaching out to each of us and the work of the Holy Spirit within us, first bringing us to the one true faith, and then continuing to strengthen us and keeping us in that one true faith. WE can’t choose to believe the truth, for we are all “DEAD in our trespasses and sins”, Eph. 2:4-5, Col. 2:13, God brings us to believe the truth, when we were spiritually unable to do so, 1 Cor. 2:14. However, responsibility for our loss of faith falls squarely on our own individual shoulders, and it is NOT out of a lack of God calling us or the spirit working in us that we fall from faith… it is purely out of our own sinful rejection of Him.
Let me ask you a rhetorical question (one that you only must answer for yourself. Do you love your daughter? And who do you love more, your daughter, or your Father in Heaven? Matt. 10:37.
With this verse held deeply within your soul, now understand what your Pastor is warning you against, when he says that “You cannot believe the way she does”, in order to “smooth the family waters”, so to speak.
If you love your daughter, you will NOT believe the way she does, for HER sake, as well as yours. Remember that what we believe is NOT a “choice”, it is a fact. We are all sinners, DEAD in our sins, and we have all “turned away” and are haters of God naturally, now that mankind has fallen into sin. “No one does good, no, not one.” Rom. 3:10-12
“Who shall deliver me from this body of death? I thank God, … through Jesus Christ.”……….. Rom. 7:24-25 (see 7:1-25) Jesus is our ONLY means and hope of salvation… “not of works, lest any man should boast”.Eph. 2:9
If you love your daughter and your grandchildren, and I am sure you do, then out of love, you CANNOT let her think that “all is well”, and as Jo and Karalee above suggest, “just love people where they are”, and “let her do her, and you do you”. Their eternal salvation is what is at stake here… and that certainly is far more important than our temporal relationships while we are here on earth. We are but a stranger here, heaven is my home. Certainly, you want heaven to be her home, and her children’s home, too.
If you love her, she MUST know, from you, that BECAUSE you love her, you want her to know that what she has been led into and now “believes” to be “the truth” is a lie, and if she believes what the Jehovah’s Witnesses teach, she will NOT be saved. To do otherwise is NOT love at all.
May God bless you in your outreach, and in your faithful journey. And may He bless your efforts to reach out in love to your daughter and her family as well.
John
Abel says
Lana just saying im a Christian and have a african mum. if i worshipped another belief than my mum she would kill the shit out of me. just saying
Madison says
Correction, Christians do not believe good people go to Heaven, they believe those who accept Jesus as their Lord and savior and who believe that Jesus died for our sins, who paid the ultimate price for our sins, which should be death for us all, and instead he died to give us eternal life.