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Jehovah’s Witnesses: Who Are They?

The vast majority of Jehovah’s Witness at your door will be very genuine people. They will be zealous for the truth that has been learnt from their relationship with the ‘organisation’-the Watchtower Bible &Tract Society. The individual will be calling on you as part of their ‘mission field.’ They will feel in doing this that they are serving Jehovah.Watchtower_Magazine_English_issues
Most will attend five weekly meetings each lasting an hour, spend 10 hours a month on the doors, prepare for four of the weekly meetings; reading the latest book and 32 page weekly magazine; personal study and family study. There is little time for activity independent of the Society.
History
The Organisation started in Pittsburgh USA in the early 1870′s when several young people began studying the Bible to discover the date of Christ’s return. Today, it is not as it originated with the founder Charles Taze Russell; in those days there was room for differences of opinion and expression. Their second President, Joseph Rutherford, made many changes to the Witnesses and, by the time he finished, it is doubtful if Russell would have recognised the group he started. Many did not like the changes that Rutherford made and left to start their own splinter groups. Some of these still survive today although they are very small in comparison. One change that Rutherford suggested in 1931 was to call them Jehovah’s Witnesses, whereas previously they were called International Bible Students or ‘Russellites’. The third President, Nathan Knorr was the one who worked hard to bring the unity to the organisation and the recognition of the central headquarters at Brooklyn New York. The fourth President Fred Franz died in December 1992, succeeded by Milton Henschel. Today the Governing Body is not longer the legal head of the organisation but regard themselves as the ‘spiritual’ head. This means that they do not need to get embroiled in the various court cases taking place.
Witnesses believe that the Watchtower Society is the only channel Jehovah is using on this earth today. The Governing Body, twelve men living in Brooklyn, New York, is the mouthpiece of that channel… (Read More on the Reachout Website…)

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