Are Jehovah's Witnesses Christian?

As a child I grew up thinking that Jehovah's Witnesses (JW's) were just another branch of Christianity, they talked about God and Jesus and invited people to what I thought was church.

This Easter I was approached by two clean cut, finely dressed, middle-aged gentlemen and given a flyer advertising the celebration of Jesus' death, and various service times of other events they held. This lead me to research a bit about what they believe for myself. Below is just a tiny taste of what I discovered. I hope this helps you understand JW's more.

So are JW's Christian? Put plainly, no they're not. Why? Well because a lot of their core beliefs and teachings differ from that found in the Bible and orthodox Christianity. For example, they do not believe in the Trinity, and the deity of Jesus. Concerning Jesus they actually believe He was Michael the archangel. What? Yeah I know. You might be thinking how is it that they have different core beliefs from Christians? Don't they read the Bible too? Yes they do but that's not all they read. They feed on the Watchtower Bible and Tract Society literature, founded by Charles Taze Russell in the 1800s. He was a guy who didn't like the idea of the doctrine of eternal hell so he scrapped it and started the Watchtower Society. Bible buffet is it? According to JW's the Watchtower alone can interpret scripture correctly. In other words no interpretation of the Bible is correct outside of what the Watchtower Bible and Tract Society interpret. You see if you read the Bible alone, you will not come to Watchtower theology. You need to be immersed in Watchtower theology as well. That's why when you study with the Jehovah's Witnesses, you agree to attend five weekly meetings where you are taught from Watchtower literature.

 Also the Bible they read isn't the same as a Christian Bible. They've constructed their own Bible called the New World Translation. In this they have changed certain verses that speak of the deity of Jesus, so it fits conveniently with their Watchtower way of thinking. Stay away from this one.

It seems that the Jesus that JW's speak of is not the Jesus of the Bible, but the Jesus of the Watchtower teachings. Only through Jesus (of the Bible) alone can a person be truly forgiven of their sin and it's horrific consequences. JW are you trusting in the true Jesus? I hope so.

So if a JW (or anyone else for that matter) starts talking to you about Jesus and it doesn't sound like the Jesus of the Bible, it's probably not.

"Click here to watch - Which Jesus do you follow?"

Check out http://carm.org/jehovahs-witnesses for a more in depth look.