Jehovah’s Witnesses are associates of a Christian-based religious movement. The religion was founded in the United States around the end of the 19th century. The religion was founded by their leader, Charles Taze Russell. Russell set up the headquarters of the Jehovah’s Witnesses in New York. Since its inception, the movement has grown to 6.9 million active Jehovah’s Witness members in over 235 countries throughout the world, with over 1 million members in the United States and 130,000 in the United Kingdom.
Jehovah’s Witnesses are popularly known for their door-to-door evangelical work, often wearing short sleeved white work shirts and black slacks, while riding around bicycles. Witnesses go door to door offering Bible literature in an attempt to recruit and convert people to what they believe to be the truth.
The Jehovah’s Witness movement is based around the Christian religion; however they believe the traditional Christian Churches have strayed away from what they believe to be the true teachings of the Bible and are not practicing God’s true work. Because of their feelings, the Jehovah’s Witnesses are often looked down upon and not seen as a traditional mainstream Christian denomination.
The belief structure of the Jehovah’s Witnesses is based around the text of the Bible and does not subject to what they consider to be human speculation or religious creeds. They follow what they believe to be the absolute word of God through reading the Bible, and believe that the 66 books that make up the Bible to be absolute and divine inspired, and also completely historically true and accurate.
Jehovahs Witness members reject what they consider to be the sinful values that are bestowed upon the world while maintaining a certain level of seclusion – not ‘in the world’, but not ‘of the world’. Jehovah Witness members do not conform to Pagan customs and beliefs, and therefore do not celebrate Easter or Christmas, and point out that Jesus never asked for his birthday to be celebrated by his followers.
