Indian Christianity
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HISTORY OF CHRISTIANITY IN INDIA : M. M. NINAN<br />
Jehovah Witness<br />
Willian Miller(1782 - 1849)<br />
Miller was a farmer, justice of the peace, sheriff, and Baptist preacher, who, from 1831 to 1844, preached<br />
the immanent return of Christ. Miller predicted that Christ would return in 1844. When that second<br />
coming failed to materialize, many believers drifted away in the "Great Disappointment." The alternative<br />
was to keep the faith through new interpretations of doctrine. Thus rose the Jehovah witness tradition.<br />
Charles Taze Russell (1852-1916) established the Witnesses around 1870 in Pennsylvania, and the<br />
second president, Joseph F. Rutherford (1869-1942), gave the group much of its present administrative<br />
structure. Jehovah's Witnesses doctrine is grounded in Russell's teaching that<br />
• the Second Coming of Christ has already occurred (in a spiritual, invisible form) and<br />
• the visible form that will follow will include the establishment of Christ's millennial kingdom here<br />
on earth.<br />
Jehovah's Witnesses adhere to the Bible as their sacred text, though only the New World Translation is<br />
approved for use. The movement departs from traditional Christian teaching in several key points,<br />
including<br />
• a rejection of the Trinity only the Father, Jehovah, is God<br />
• a belief that Jesus is a created being and identifies Jesus with Michael the Archangel<br />
• the non-existence of hell<br />
• the annihilation of unsaved ,<br />
• the reduction of the Holy Spirit from a person to a force,<br />
• the mortality (not immortality) of the soul,<br />
The group took on the name "Jehovah's Witnesses" in 1931 under the leadership of Joseph Franklin<br />
Rutherford. Besides changing the name, Rutherford also created internal structure for the followers and it<br />
became a highly functioning organization. The movement departs from traditional Christian teaching in<br />
several key points, including a rejection of the Trinity and a belief that Jesus is a created being.<br />
Jehovah's Witnesses have continued to engage in strong evangelistic and missions programs as well as<br />
lifestyles based on a strict moral code of conduct. Members of local Jehovah's Witnesses congregations<br />
are expected to participate in door-to-door evangelism (including distributing books and the Watch Tower<br />
magazine) and attending meetings at the Kingdom Hall (church building).<br />
(http://www.patheos.com/Library/Jehovahs-Witnesses.html)<br />
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