Jehovah's Witnesses splinter groups
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A number of Jehovah's Witnesses splinter groups have been formed since 1931 after members broke affiliation with the Watch Tower Bible and Tract Society of Pennsylvania.
Earlier group defections from the Watch Tower Society, most of them between 1917 and 1931, had resulted in a number of religious movements forming under the umbrella term of the Bible Student movement. One of the last schisms before the 1931 adoption of the name Jehovah's Witnesses was in 1928, when the Italian Bible Students Association in Hartford, Connecticut, led by Gaetano Boccaccio, withdrew its support from the Watch Tower Society and changed its name to the Millennial Bible Students Church, then to Christian Millennial Fellowship, Inc. In 1940 Boccaccio began printing The New Creation (magazine) for the Free Bible Students. The magazine continues to be published by Christian Millennial Fellowship, led by Elmer Weeks.
The German Bible Students Association had stayed affiliated with the Watch Tower Society but had no contact with its Brooklyn headquarters under the Nazi regime, during time members suffered persecution. When contact was re-established, the German Bible students disagreed with the doctrinal changes that had occurred in the meantime, and disassociated themselves from the Watch Tower Society. Some members established contacts with Bible Student groups.[1]
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[edit] Romania, USSR, 1962
In 1948, the Romanian government imposed a ban on Jehovah's Witnesses in Romania that lasted until 1989. Many Witnesses were arrested and sent to prison or labor camps and members of the religion had limited communication with other Witnesses and studied largely from older books and magazines.[2] When in 1962 The Watchtower altered its doctrine on the "superior authorities” of Romans 13:1, identifying them as human governmental authorities rather than God and Jesus Christ as previously thought, many Witnesses in Romania balked at the change, with some suspecting it was a Communist fabrication intended to make them totally subservient to the State.[3] After the Romanian ban was lifted, members and representatives of the Governing Body of Jehovah's Witnesses were able to meet thousands of long-separated Romanian Witnesses, but some Romanians still rejected certain changes and preferred their autonomy, forming The True Faith Jehovah's Witnesses Association in 1992.[4] This "splinter" organization has never claimed more than 2000 adherents, while Jehovah's Witnesses report nearly 40,000 active members and over 80,000 at their Memorial commemorations in Romania.[5]
Some Jehovah's Witnesses in the USSR also had difficulty believing that the 1962 "superior suthorities" explanation had actually been given by the Watch Tower Society, suspecting it had been originated by the KGB. This led to their discontinuing use of Watch Tower Society publications printed after 1962. Some of these splinter groups in Russia, Ukraine and Moldova still exist, calling themselves the Theokratic Organisation of Jehovah's Witnesses and claiming to seek contacts with Witnesses in other countries.[6] The group does not publish any statistics regarding numbers of congregations or adherents, and has little or no public presence. By contrast, over 300,000 in Russia, Ukraine, and Moldova actively worship in association with the Christian Congregation of Jehovah's Witnesses.[7]
[edit] Internet-era departures
In 1993, mathematician Gordon Ritchie requested baptism by Jehovah's Witnesses and almost immediately began advocating disagreements with their teachings. He claims he was expelled for apostasy in March 1996.[8][9] Ritchie contends that Jehovah's Witnesses constituted true religion until 2004, but that his own group of "Lord's Witnesses" is now the sole form of true worship.[10] The group claims several hundred adherents, and argues that their mathematical analysis of the Bible contains divine revelations that Jehovah's Witnesses have ignored.
In 2007, Jehovah's Witness apologist and author Greg G. Stafford, author of "Defending Jehovah's Witnesses" (Elihu Books), formally disassociated from the religion, while insisting on describing himself and his followers as "Jehovah's Witnesses".[11] Stafford continues to publish information about Jehovah's Witnesses, and defends many of their unique and central beliefs, such as nontrinitarianism.[12] In 2007 Stafford introduced the term "Christian Witnesses of Jah" to describe individuals who believe many of the same things as Jehovah's Witnesses,[13][14] but who may not embrace the organization or all of its theological teachings.[15]
[edit] Other Groups
- Associated Bible Students
- Dawn Bible Students Association
- Christian Millennial Fellowship
- Layman's Home Missionary Movement
- Lord's Witnesses
- Pastoral Bible Institute
[edit] Defunct Groups
- Bible Student's Fellowship?
- Hirsho-Kittenger Movement
- Olson Movement
- Ritchie Movement (led by A. I. Ritchie, vice-president of the Watchtower Society under Pastor Russell)
- Servants of Yah
- Sturgeon Movement
[edit] See also
[edit] References
- ^ Hesse, Hans. Persecution and Resistance of Jehovah's Witnesses During the Nazi Regime, 1933-1945. Berghahn Books, 1998. ISBN 3861087502
- ^ 2006 Yearbook of Jehovah's Witnesses, page 112-116.
- ^ 2006 Yearbook of Jehovah's Witnesses, page 112-116.
- ^ The Association The True Faith Jehovah`S Witnesses
- ^ http://www.watchtower.org/e/statistics/worldwide_report.htm
- ^ The Theokratic Organisation of Jehovah's Witnesses
- ^ http://www.watchtower.org/e/statistics/worldwide_report.htm
- ^ www.LordsWitnesses.us, Retrieved 2009-05-05
- ^ TrueBibleCode.com Retrieved 2009-05-05.
- ^ Official web site of Lord's Witnesses, Retrieved 2009-05-05
- ^ http://elihubooks.blogspot.com/2008_11_01_archive.html
- ^ http://www.elihubooks.com/data/in_medios/000/000/002/Worth_Another_Look_REVISED.pdf
- ^ http://elihubooks.com/images/CWJ_homepage_final.jpg
- ^ http://www.elihubooks.com/data/lampstand/000/000/007/Why_interested_in_JWs_REVISED.pdf
- ^ http://www.elihubooks.com/data/in_medios/000/000/015/Christian_Witnesses_of_Jah_REVISED.pdf
[edit] External links
- Pastor-Russell.com
- Dawn Bible Students Association
- Chicago Bible Students
- Bible Student Ministries
- The Bible Standard magazine
- Christian Millennial Fellowship
- Christian Witnesses of Jah
- Friends of the Nazarene
- Layman's Home Missionary Movement
- Lord's Witnesses
- Pastoral Bible Institute
- The Theokratic Organisation of Jehovah's Witnesses.
- The True Faith Jehovah's Witnesses Association
