Ukrainian Orthodoxy		Orthodoxie ukrainienne

Jehovah's Witnesses

Question:

I am considering becoming a Jehovah's Wittness so that I may survive God's War of Armageddon, never die,  and live forever in my body on Earth, where I have experienced much happiness.

I would like your advice--please reply.

Answer:

Very Reverend Ihor Kutash kutash@unicorne.org

I have to admit that I wonder where you are coming from. Are you an Orthodox Christian? Do you  have a Pastor with whom to discuss this? If so, I urge you to do so. I also urge you to pray about it. But God does share His work with His human (admittedly unworthy and quite fallible) servants and so godly advice would definitely be in order.  I will assume that yours is a genuine inquiry and so will attempt to answer you as well as I can.

First, let me say that I do not have any resentments against the folks who call themselves Jehovah's witnesses.  My saintly  mother got her first Bible from one such, as I understand.  I have had many hours of discussions with these folks and while I find their zeal and desire to live uprightly quite commendable, I definitely find their theology decidedly weak.

The aspirations you express are, I suppose, based upon promises which these folks have said can only be realized if you do become one of them, but by the way they would not say "a" Jehovah's Witness, but simply "Jehovah's witness".

That however is a faith statement based upon the interpretations and pronouncements of "God's organization" (as it used to be called when I last had longer chats with them), i.e. The Watchtower Bible and Tract Society of New York, Inc., which, as I understand, claims to be the true bearer of the Good News of Jesus in our days.

I am privileged to be a member (albeit very much far from worthy and/or perfect) of the Church which carries on and embodies His Good News to this day. This Church has survived things which may be just as horrible as the picture that is often portrayed of the Battle of Armageddon. Its members do not profess the hope that they will survive such horrors "in the body", although if God wills it it may so be. But we believe along with the Apostle Paul "that if the earthly house of our tabernacle be dissolved, we have a building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal, in the heavens" (2 Corinthians 5:1).

The Watchtowever Bible and Tract Society has a different understanding of what is meant by that and how it may come about. I believe (and also doubt, for faith implies the presence of doubt - otherwise it would be knowledge and not faith) and suppose that it means that when my present physical body is no longer capable of supporting the life essence of the person I experience myself to be, and I "die", as virtually all other similar persons have died or shall die, then God will give me a new and eternal body. I expect that it shall not be unlike the one I shall have to leave behind, but it shall be perfect in every possible sense of the word.  Above all, I shall be capable with it of being in continual, intimate, immediate communion with God and all righteous beings created and unfallen (the Angels), or created, subject to the Fall, but then redeemed, re-claimed and made perfect by the One Whose Incarnation has re-established our broken link with the Father.

One of the Father's many Names was revealed to Moses as "Yahweh", i.e. "I AM WHO I AM" - Exodus 3:14. That is not really a name, though, is it?  I believe (and this I do not truly doubt) that God's response to Moses recalled in this verse indicates that we can not really name God, for only he who is equal to Him could name Him and there is no human or angel even remotely equal to Him. But if one speaks of Him, one may refer to Him by this "Name". The Hebrews took this matter so seriously as to actually stone people who would use such an exalted Name carelessly or presumptuously. They replaced the tetragrammaton by saying "Adonai" in its place wherever it occured in the Bible, and I am told that today they do not even do that but simpy say "Ha Shem", i.e. "The Name".

This "tetragrammaton" (made up of the 4 Hebrew consonants - Hebrew has no vowels - Yod, He, Waw, He) was translated by those commissioned by King James of England at the beginning of the 17th century as "Jehovah" and Charles Taze Russell based the community he founded, the Jehovah's Witnesses (actually one of two groups - a much more successful one - which split from his original community in 1918) upon the necessity (and privilege, no doubt) of "publishing" that name, i.e. making it known. (By the way, you can find useful information about him here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Taze_Russell).

You may do as you choose, but I would advise profound caution in the choices you make.

Blessings in the Name of our Lord, God and Saviour Jesus the Christ,

Ihor, pr.

Please see the second question and answer on the subject

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