Well, they do have similar roots in that they are both from this "Burned Over District" in upstate New York. It was a breeding ground for a lot of new religions, Smith was very influenced by these new religions cropping and they overwhelmed him as a kid and he didn't know which one was right which made him want to found his own since he eventually concluded that none of them were right. Mormons, Jehovah's Witnesses, and Seventh Day Adventists were probably the most successful. Infact, Seventh Day Adventists actually share a common ancestor with the Jehovah's Witnesses. See, there was this doomsday cult called the Millerites which believed that some year in the 1840s, the world is going to end, ironically, that was the year Joseph Smith died, but since the prophecy didn't come true and the world was still fine, the group split. One group followed Ellen White and formed the Seventh Day Adventists and the other followed Charles Tase Russell and eventually became the Jehovah's Witnesses (at the time known as the Bible Students)
Seventh Day Adventists are pretty chill though. They are for the most part generic protestants.
Fun fact about the Millerites: their founder William Miller proposed a couple different dates for Armageddon, the last one being October 22, 1844. The fact the world didn't end by then has been termed the "
Great Disappointment." Yes, people were disappointed the world didn't end! Not only were their delusions of elect status and special knowledge of God's plan destroyed, but a lot of Millerites had given away all their money and possessions in preparation of Jesus Christ coming down from Heaven and declaring them all cool dudes and dudettes.
Being one of the offshoots of Millerism,
the Jehovah's Witnesses have had a similar history of failing to accurately predict the apocalypse. Charles Taze Russell gave dates in 1878, 1881, 1914, and 1918 for major events in the End Times, all of which obviously failed to appear. In 1920 his successor J.F. Rutherford wrote a booklet titled
Millions Now Living Will Never Die, wherein he said the patriarchs would all be resurrected in 1925. The church built a mansion in San Diego to house said patriarchs upon their return (which Rutherford
coincidentally got to live in until then). The last date articles in the Watchtower floated as the end of the world as we know it (and I feel fine) was 1975. Since then the JWs have avoided giving more specific dates; there was a lot of vague speculation around the end of the 20th century, and now they seem to just go with Soon
.
One of my few encounters with JWs prior to my doing any personal research on them was back in May 2011, after
one of Harold Camping's failed apocalypse predictions. I got a call from an unknown number so I let it go to voicemail, and upon checking the message found out it was some Jehovah's Witness funded robocall denouncing Camping and quoting
Matthew 24:36. I didn't know back then just how ironic that was coming from a JW.
this is actually why hitler put JWs in camps during WW2 and even gave them their own triangle colour (purple)
Yep, even though Rutherford tried to shield the JWs from Hitler's wrath
by issuing a public statement that even though JWs were technically politically neutral, they were totally down with what Hitler wanted to do to the Jews, Catholics, etc. Rutherford was something of an anti-Semite himself, getting rid of all the former points of JW theology stating that Jews would be among the elect who would get into Heaven.
Oh boy! Witnesses!
Let's learn about the culture this guy came from, shall we?
Given his age, he would have grown up with
this book that was in like, every thrift store in the 90s.
I don't know how they got this many out there at the time. Did they give them away for free?
Oh wow, I remember seeing this book! I'm not sure how my parents got ahold of it as they were not JWs and so wouldn't have bought their literature, so I think you're right, the JWs must have been handing it out for free.
It's basically what
@NoReturn just said. They believe Jesus died on a "torture stake," because they believe
stauros can
only mean stake. Consequently, Watchtower artwork depicts as such. Although, I don't know if if
specifically calculated to avoid idolatry or they
actually believe it.
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I think some of JWs' insistence on a torture stake instead of a cross is them wanting to avoid any symbol that associates them with other Christians. Like many extremist Christian groups they think they are the only TRUE AND HONEST Christians and everyone else has been misled by Satan at best or knowingly worships Satan at worst. From what I've read, JWs also refuse to participate in any interfaith groups for similar reasons. A lot of their identity is wrapped up in being a separate persecuted minority from "Satan's Wicked System of Things" which includes all other Christian denominations and religions.
Also, I love how this moron complains that he engaged in cybersex because the JWs sexually repressed him. I mean, okay.... the JW's are controlling weirdos, but you were a married man when you did that. I think pretty much any Christian congregation would frown upon what you did.
Most people in general would frown on what he did. Even if you don't believe in a sky daddy or an afterlife, cheating on your spouse (especially with potentially underage girls) makes you a creep and an asshole. But that doesn't fit with this guy's holier than thou "enlightened" atheist persecution complex, so he has to blame his bad behavior on his religious upbringing rather than take responsibility.
Almost but not quite - British Israelism believers believe the Jews are indeed Jewish, but that the "ten lost tribes" (i.e. the descendants of the other sons of Israel that didn't become Jews and faded out of history) cruised over to Northern Europe. Brits are of Ephraim (Joseph's son), which would then extend to Americans too. Not sure if/how Manasseh fits
You've then got Nordic Israelism which emerged a little later as an add-on to the above. Finns are of Issachar (because the word for father in Finnish is Isa), Dan became the Danes and Icelanders are somehow connected to Benjamin for reasons I don't quite understand (also considering that in the bible itself the tribe of Benjamin splits from Israel with Judah to make the kingdom of Judaea, Benjaminites would have been absorbed into modern Jewry).
For those more interested in British/Anglo-Israelism, here's a video made by a guy who was raised in a Christian cult that believed in British Israelism (Worldwide Church of God) and later got out as an adult. He produces a lot of interesting religious and history related content on his channel, and has a Ph.D. in Religious Studies.
Honorable mention to the Mormon explanation of why there are native Americans - descendants of a bunch of Israelites who moved to America and turned against their God-fearing brethren. As punishment God turned their skin red from the previous "white and delightsome" (actual quote from the book of mormon that has since been revised to "pure and delightful" in the late 20th Century). Black people exist because they chose neutrality in the war between good and evil before being born on earth so that's their curse (those on team Jesus became white people. Satan's buddies became demons). Gross oversimplification, but they are now embarrassed by this theology and keep it on the down-low and show off how diverse their churches are.
Here's a cute cartoon explaining it all, though I don't care to check how accurate it is.
Here's another video from the same YouTuber as above, that goes into the fantasy genealogy of Israelites in the Americas that the Book of Mormon puts forth and which of them were "cursed" with not being white.
The comments all suspect it's Mark O'Donnell.
