Jehovah's Witnesses's teaching on the Church

Question

I just read a wiki page on Jehovah's witnesses, visited their official website, and was quite surprised that in the list of their believes there is a striking absence of the definition (or at least description) of their concept of the Church.

According to what I can see at the moment, they are only using the word "church" or plural "churches" in reference to the numerous religious groups in the main-stream Christianity (which they consider all to be in apostasy), while they themselves prefer to speak about the Kingdom, rather than the Church.

Is it a result of their special translation of the Bible (in which many words were translated quite differently from the way it is done in the majority of Bible translations, for example, in many places the word that is translated in other translations as "fellowship" in their translation is rendered as "sharing") or am I simply missing out on something here?

What's their concept of the Church? What's their teaching on the Church? When did it start? How long has it been around? Has it always existed since it was started or, perhaps, it was over at some time and then re-stated again?

Answer 1

The word church has various meanings. It can be used to refer to an physical building. Witness churches are called Kingdom Halls. It can also be used to refer to a group of believers in a specific area. For sense of the word, Witnesses use congregation, which I believe is quite common for many branches of Christianity.

But the word church has another meaning, and it is this meaning I think you're asking about. The "church" as the united body of all believers. For this sense, Witnesses don't have a direct word. They do use the word Christian in a very narrow sense, to refer only to themselves. Perhaps that's their nearest equivalent. And yes, they do believe that "true Christianity" essentially died out after the First Century, and (with the exception of a few brief flames here and there) was reborn with them.

The church may also be the organisation, the institution, as distinct from the individual members thereof. For that sense, the Witnesses use various words, notably, the word organisation itself. They may also talk of the "Faithful and Discreet Slave", which is the teaching body of the organisation (basically, the group that define the doctrine).

The finer points of how the Faithful and Discreet Slave is distinct from the Governing Body have now escaped me. I used to know that. I've forgotten.

Answer 2

In Jehovah's Witness theology, "the Church" is restricted to 144,001 humans who form the heavenly government, with the risen Jesus Christ as its head. The others (the 144,000) are humans from earth who are selected to go to heaven and reign with Christ in the heavenly aspect of God's kingdom, over the earthly aspect.

In their "Insight on the Scriptures" volume 1, they do not even have an entry under the heading 'Church'! You have to turn to page 497 to find the heading 'Congregation', with the sub-heading 'The Christian Congregation of God' before you can learn anything about what mainstream Christians speak of as the Church of Christ. There you learn how Jehovah's Witnesses claim the Jewish nation was rejected as the congregation of God, to be replaced with what you and I would call 'the Church' that Jesus Christ said he would build, that the gates of Hades would never overcome, over which he is supreme head. Jehovah's Witnesses speak of 'the congregation' instead of 'the church'.

They claim that it is limited in number to 144,000 humans who are specially chosen to join Jesus in heaven, Jesus being the head of this tiny group, 'the church' (see page 498 para. 3 and 4).

With regard to how Jehovah's Witnesses speak of what non-JWs call 'the church', they only speak of "Christendom". This is a somewhat derogatory term, as they view "Christendom" (in its entirety) as under the control of Satan. They view the genuine, biblical church today as being restricted to the 144,000, all of whom, they claim, are Jehovah's witnesses from the 1st century until today. This means that the millions of other JWs who are not anointed as evidence of being in the 144,000 class, are supporters of the church class, identifying themselves with it, but not technically members of it. They say the church [i.e. congregation] of Christ took over from the church [congregation] of Israel when Jesus died, and that this congregation is limited to 144,000 humans with Christ as its head (therefore, technically, member number 144,001.)

Now you might understand why their version of the Bible, the New World Translation, states in its 'Bible Word Index' (page 1559 1984 edition) CHURCH - See CONGREGATION. It almost seems as if the word 'Church' is a dirty word to JWs.

Answer 3

The word we use is "congregation" which is a group of worshipers which can be a few or millions, examples:-

NWT Acts 16:5 "Then, indeed, the congregations ("churches" KJV) continued to be made firm in the faith and to increase in number day by day."

The Greek word "ekklesia" means 'called out" (rendered "church" in a lot of Bibles) or people that have been "called out" from by Jehovah from Satan's world and now collect together to worship Jehovah as Jesus taught.

"Ecclesia (or Ekklesia) in Christian theology means both: a particular body of faithful people, and the whole body of the faithful. Latin ecclesia, from Greek ekklesia had an original meaning of "assembly, congregation, council", literally "convocation."-Google

It is not limited to a 144,000 but open to millions which will become billions yet to come in!!!