Jehovah's Witnesses in the context of "Excommunication"

⭐ In the context of excommunication, Jehovah's Witnesses are distinguished by their use of…

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⭐ Core Definition: Jehovah's Witnesses

Jehovah's Witnesses is a nontrinitarian, millenarian, and restorationist Christian denomination, stemming from the Bible Student movement founded by Charles Taze Russell in the nineteenth century. Russell co-founded Zion's Watch Tower Tract Society in 1881 to organize and print the movement's publications. A leadership dispute after Russell's death resulted in several groups breaking away, with Joseph Franklin Rutherford retaining control of the Watch Tower Society and its properties. Rutherford made significant organizational and doctrinal changes, including adoption of the name Jehovah's witnesses in 1931 to distinguish the group from other Bible Student groups and symbolize a break with the legacy of Russell's traditions. In 2024, Jehovah's Witnesses reported a peak membership of approximately 9 million worldwide.

Jehovah's Witnesses are known for their evangelism, distributing literature such as The Watchtower and Awake!, and for refusing military service and blood transfusions. They consider the use of God's name vital for proper worship. They reject Trinitarianism, inherent immortality of the soul, and hellfire, which they consider unscriptural doctrines. Jehovah's Witnesses believe that the destruction of the present world system at Armageddon is imminent, and the establishment of God's kingdom over earth is the only solution to all of humanity's problems. They do not observe Christmas, Easter, birthdays, or other holidays and customs they consider to have pagan origins incompatible with Christianity. They prefer to use their own Bible translation, the New World Translation of the Holy Scriptures.

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👉 Jehovah's Witnesses in the context of Excommunication

Excommunication is an institutional act of religious censure used to deprive, suspend, or limit membership in a religious community or to restrict certain rights within it, in particular those of being in communion with other members of the congregation, and of receiving the sacraments.

It is practiced by all of the ancient churches (such as the Catholic Church, Oriental Orthodox churches and the Eastern Orthodox churches) as well as by other Christian denominations; however, it is also used more generally to refer to similar types of institutional religious exclusionary practices and shunning among other religious groups. The Amish have also been known to excommunicate members that were either seen or known for breaking rules, or questioning the church, a practice known as shunning. Jehovah's Witnesses use the term disfellowship to refer to their form of excommunication.

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Jehovah's Witnesses in the context of Christianity in Greece

Religion in Greece is dominated by Christianity, in particular the Greek Orthodox Church, which is within the larger communion of the Eastern Orthodox Church. It represented 81 to 90% of the total population in 2022 and is constitutionally recognized as the "prevailing religion" of Greece. Religions with smaller numbers of followers include Islam followed by different communities of Greek Muslims (now comprising only 2% of the population), Western Catholicism (comprising 1% of the population), Greek Catholicism, Judaism, Evangelicalism, Hellenic paganism, and Jehovah's Witnesses. A number of Greek atheists exist, not self-identifying as religious.

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Jehovah's Witnesses in the context of Christianity in Italy

Christianity in Italy has been historically characterised by the dominance of the Catholic Church since the East–West Schism. However, the country is also home to significant Christian minorities, especially Orthodox Christians, Protestants and Jehovah's Witnesses.

The country's patron saints are Francis of Assisi and Catherine of Siena.

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Jehovah's Witnesses in the context of Christianity in Slovakia

Religion in Slovakia is predominantly Christianity, adhered to by about 68.8% of the population in 2021.

The Catholic Church is the major Christian tradition in the country, followed in 2021 by 59.8% of the population, a majority of whom (55.8%) were of the Latin Church and a minority of whom (4%) were of the Slovak Greek Catholic Church. About 9% of the population were mostly followers of Protestantism, and a minority of Eastern Orthodox Church and other Christian denominations; the major groupings are the Evangelical Church of the Augsburg Confession in Slovakia (5.3%), the Reformed Christian Church in Slovakia (1.6%), the Orthodox Church of the Czech Lands and Slovakia (0.9%), the Jehovah's Witnesses (0.3%), and other smaller Christian denominations (0.9%). In 2021, about 23.8% of the population declared themselves not religious, an increase from 13.4% in 2011. An additional 1.2% of the population were followers of other religions or beliefs; small religious minorities in Slovakia include Buddhism, modern Paganism, Islam, Judaism, Jediism, Hinduism

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Jehovah's Witnesses in the context of Christianity in Georgia (country)

In 2020, 85.84% of the population in Georgia adhered to Christianity (mainly Georgian Orthodox), 11% were Muslim, 0.1% were Jewish, 0.04% were Baháʼí and 3% had no religious beliefs. Other religious groups include Jehovah's Witnesses and Yazidis. Orthodox churches serving other non-Georgian ethnic groups, such as Russians and Greeks, are subordinate to the Georgian Orthodox Church.

A Pew Research Center study about religion and education around the world in 2016, found that between the various Christian communities, Georgia ranks as the third highest nation in terms of Christians who obtain a university degree in institutions of higher education (57%).

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Jehovah's Witnesses in the context of Arianism

Arianism (Koine Greek: Ἀρειανισμός, Areianismós) is a Christological doctrine that rejects the traditional notion of the Trinity, teaching that Jesus was created by God and is therefore distinct from God. It is named after its proponent Arius (250 or 256 – 336) and is regarded as heretical by most modern mainstream branches of Christianity. Arianism is held by a minority of modern denominations, although some of these groups espouse related doctrines such as Socinianism, and others avoid the term "Arian" because of its historically negative connotations. Modern denominations sometimes associated with the teaching include Jehovah's Witnesses, some churches within the Churches of Christ (among them the movement's founder, Barton W. Stone), and certain Hebrew Roots Christians and Messianic Jews, although many Messianic Jews adhere to Nicene Christianity. The Arian view is also held by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, although the theology is more distinct in key ways.

It is first attributed to Arius, a Christian presbyter who preached and studied in Alexandria, Egypt, although it developed out of various preexisting strands of Christianity which differed from later Nicene Christianity in their view of Christology. Arian theology holds that Jesus Christ is the Son of God, who was begotten by God the Father with the difference that the Son of God did not always exist but was begotten/made before time by God the Father; therefore, Jesus was not coeternal with God the Father, but nonetheless Jesus began to exist outside time.

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