In my daily Bible reading this jumped out at me:
“However, let none of you suffer as a murderer or a thief or a wrongdoer or a busybody in other people’s matters.16 But if anyone suffers as a Christian, let him not feel ashamed, but let him keep on glorifying God while bearing this name.” (1 Peter 4:15, 16)
Scripturally, the name we bear is “Christian” not “Jehovah’s Witnesses”. Peter says that we glorify God, that is, Jehovah, while bearing the name Christian. A Christian is one who follows “the Anointed One”. Since it is Jehovah, the Father, who did the anointing of this one as our King and redeemer, we honor God by accepting the name. “Christian” is not a designation. It is a name. A name, which according to Peter, we bear so as to glorify God. There is no need for us to redefine it as a designation so that we can adopt a new name, like Catholic, or Adventist, or Jehovah’s Witnesses. None of these have a basis in Scripture. Why not stick with the name Jehovah has given us?
How would your own father feel if you abandoned the name he gave you at birth for one of your own choosing?
I agree wholeheartedly and to be honest reached the same conclusion myself only recently. My default reaction in the past to avoid trouble would always be “I’m a Jehovahs Witness” and let’s be fair, it can be a real protection. However, the last time I was out with work colleagues and the majority wanted to do something unsavoury, it just popped out of my mouth all by itself “I don’t want to, I’m a Christian” and another guy in the group said “so am I” and convinced the rest of the group to abandon the seedy venue on my behalf.… Read more »
I agree with you Meleti – but I feel it is far more serious than we may realize. J.F. Rutherford effectively rebranded the Bible Students as JWs as a designer name – to distinguish them from the other Bible Student groups who abandoned him. Therefore, using the name Jehovah as a ‘brand name’ is taking God’s name in vain. Jehovah never even called the Israelites by His own name! We are, and should be, Witnesses for Christ – Christians! Matthew 10:18 – “YOU will be haled before governors and kings for my sake, for a witness to them and the… Read more »
Thank you so much Stewart, for taking the time to provide this exhaustive list of Scriptures supporting the idea that we bear witness of Jesus. How can we argue against this?
From ancient times, names defined the whole of ones character, the exact representation of ones very being. Names even got changed midlife when that character was changed. For example Abraham wasn’t always Abraham. Neither was Sarah always Sarah. Isaac was named after his mother’s laughter and Jacob was renamed Israel. Even Jehovah himself changed his name for Moses sake in Exodus 3:14-15 when He said, “This is what you are to say to the sons of Israel, ‘I SHALL PROVE TO BE has sent me to YOU.’” Note the footnote to vs. 14* —“I SHALL PROVE TO BE WHAT I… Read more »
The word jehovah means god of ruin, god of calamity, god of mischief. If the governing body really did recieve direction from God you would think they would have figured this out by now and changed the spelling of gods name to the correct one Yahweh
I don’t believe this is true. Yahweh is fine too, but that’s not true about Jehovah.
However, feel free to present any genuine evidence. Please just don’t post a link to an uninformed or biased YouTube video.
Actually The suffix “hovah” phonetically transliterated backwards into Hebrew carries that meaning but it would be a mistake to say that the meaning of our corrupted English word Jehovah is changed because of it. I looked at the website and it’s another one of those strong-in-opinion-but-weak-in-fact.
Another reason to separate the wheat from the chaff while surfing the net where the facts are sometimes like needles in a haystack of fiction.
sw
Good point. Some people have tried to make something of the fact that God spelled backwards is dog. Is it worth giving such reasoning the proverbial time of day?
I once saw a bumper sticker that read: “In Dog We Trust.” 🙂
Or the dyslexic devil worshiper who sold his soul to Santa.
Oh yeah, but that’s because he was that agnostic insomniac who used to lay awake at night wondering if there was a doG! ha ha
🙂 Can’t top that.
Yes we should be called christians not a member of st marks st pauls st peters church or jehovahs witnesses. Its sectarian and divisive. I remember a few years ago this struck me and when asked the queastion who are you I used to say I’m a christian and I had quite a few nice responses. The brothers didn’t like it though I was corrected a few times in front of the householder. I feel that the religion is based more on the old testament than the new sometimes
I agree. Just check out the calendar for 2014. Are we going back to the elementary things Chrisians left behind?
The “Who Are Doing Jehovah’s Will Today” ? brochure we are studying is annoying. It contains no “solid food” whatsover . Its just a brief intro to JW’s . Much like you would find in a welcome packet when you are hired for a new job.
I think we are a hybrid between Judaism and Christianity. Judeo-Christians comes to mind
Yes judeo christianity. Not exactly but the sort of thing Paul warned about in his letter to the Galatians but it doesn’t surprise me when the only time many are reading the bible in context is in the weekly bible reading. And we spend by far most of that time reading the Hebrew scriptures instead of what we should be doing studying the christian scriptures and grasping the realities rather than the shadow. Kev c.
And at the risk of repeating myself, I agree. The call to be Jehovah’s witness had extremely negative connotations.
With the danger of sounding boring, I’ll repeat a comment I made a while back on another topic. The name Jehovah’s Witness taken from Isaiah is NOT something we should be proud of. Read the whole of chapter 43 and notice the context. God was chastising the nation for being a poor witness to his name. He had called them to court to be his witnesses, but they were such poor witnesses that he condemned them. So when Jehovah said “you are my witnesses” it was in a pejorative sense. Further it was not said as a prophetic statement. Where… Read more »
I agree and respectfully disagree with your comment. While I agree the tone of the last few versus is different the majority of this chapter I think our perception of who each segment refers to is important. Some have came down on JW’s for using a snippet of a chapter as validation of certain points however sometimes in my opinion it works the other way as well since I’ve seen ones use one chapter to prove a point although the previous or next chapters seems to have a changed tone that might lead me to feel different about that scripture… Read more »
“the disciples also were divinely called first in Antioch Christians.” Young’s Literal Translation of Acts 11:26. Divine calling is not to be tampered with.
Once I saw this guy on a bridge about to jump. I said, “Don’t do it!” He said, “Nobody loves me.” I said, “God loves you. Do you believe in God?” He said, “Yes.” I said, “Are you a Christian or a Jew?” He said, “A Christian.” I said, “Me, too! Protestant or Catholic?” He said, “Protestant.” I said, “Me, too! What franchise?” He said, “Baptist.” I said, “Me, too! Northern Baptist or Southern Baptist?” He said, “Northern Baptist.” I said, “Me, too! Northern Conservative Baptist or Northern Liberal Baptist?” He said, “Northern Conservative Baptist.” I said, “Me, too! Northern… Read more »
Lol! I got my laugh in for today …too funny!
Very good Apollos – I really enjoyed that. My little story – I met a guy who was preaching in London (he was not a JW). We got chatting and used to meet from time to time. The remarkable thing, was that he texted me with the salutation, Brother. I of course was wondering who this brother was (ie another JW) then it dawned on me who it was. When I asked a JW brother in the congregation would he call someone outside of JW’s a brother, predictably the answer was NO!! Although that was just one persons response, I’m… Read more »
Brother Russell often referred to those of other faiths, even clergymen, as “brother.” I wonder if he would get in trouble today for doing so?
Andrew
One thing I ALWAYS had an issue with was the term “worldly” to identify anyone not a JW. “Worldly” to me is the most judgmental term EVER and when JW’s use that term it’s like scratching a chalkboard with me. When I think about love I think about Jesus talking with many, even breaking bread with ones many thought he should not. I think about the love of his apostles who risked their lives for not only one another but ones not familiar. I think about God referring to ones who were not of his direct people but were mentioned… Read more »
good comments mdwna I feel similar its not up to us to judge who is a christian and who isn’t. Some people have different beliefs based on their interpretation of scripture. I think those who take the bible seriously realise that sometimes its not easy to work out bible doctrine. I think the watchtower interpretation of 1 corinthians 1 v 10 that we should all speak in agreement on everything is out of context. The important thing is to follow christ not men. In fact the bible shows at romans 14 that we would have some differences of opinion. 1… Read more »
Good advive.
“So be careful not to jump to conclusions before the Lord returns as to whether someone is a good servant or not. When the Lord comes, he will turn on the light so that everyone can see exactly what each one of us is really like, deep down in our hearts. Then everyone will know why we have been doing the Lord’s work. At that time God will give to each one whatever praise is coming to him.” 2 Cor 4:5 (The Living Bible)
Sorry.
1Cor 4:5
Hi mdnwa, I think this is a great comment. We rightly should separate ourselves from the immoral standards of Satan’s world. But to classify individual people in such a binary fashion as our members are encouraged to do, is to encourage people to ignore Jesus important command not to judge. As an organization we are perhaps the most judgmental of any that exists. I cannot think of any “organizational mindset” that falls so foul of this particular command. There seems to be no question that this started with Rutherford. And he was the one that was intent on creating a… Read more »
Unfortunately, it was Rutherford’s choice to separate “true” Christians from the false, leaving us now with the nasty legacy of reconciling our ‘spirit directed’ beliefs with the spirit inspired text.
Russell did too….he gave us the “Bible Students” name. We are students of the Bible…. but still Russell gave us that name to set us apart. However, Russell’s beliefs on organized religion seem to be very different than what Rutherford’s ideas were . Rutherford was definitely interested in making a name for himself and us.
Notwithstanding I still remain a Bible student, albeit in character and not name only. Is a Christian ever not in danger of toeing a partisan line?
While Peter may have known the true “name” of God, holy spirit evidently did not see fit to record it in the Greek scriptures. Thus it cannot be restored to a place it never was. We do not have the divine name to call ourselves by, and if we think we are Jehovah’s Witnesses, then we are not yet in the right courtroom. That is, the legal matter that involves us is adoption as sons by brotherhood with the Christ. Only as sons can we come to know our heavenly father. Does placing a bumper-sticker on the back of the… Read more »
I agree with all of your thoughts 🙂 Paul’s inspired statement above quoted by Apollos, tells us how Jehovah feels about sects and divisions in Christ. There are basic beliefs that we should have based on scripture ,beyond that there is freedom on how we serve and worship . There is room for diversity not disunity. We can be individuals in Christ. However sects and divisions seem to be inevitable when people disagree with scripture….. We ( Christendom) can’t agree on who God is ! Nice thought Meleti!
Good points Meleti. Once we realize that we are wheat among the weeds we can identify sectarianism for what it is.
(1 Corinthians 1:12, 13) What I mean is this, that each one of YOU says: “I belong to Paul,” “But I to A·pol′los,” “But I to Ce′phas,” “But I to Christ.” 13 The Christ exists divided. Paul was not impaled for YOU, was he?