From Adam to Zionism, there is no comparison.  Aside from ONE similarity, both being non-trinitarians, the similarities virtually end.  Most of the entire world of Christendom has given up the doctrine of eternal torment.  With hell fire long since quenched, that doctrine can hardly be used to link the groups any longer.


JW's (short for The Jehovah's Witnesses) are a religious organization.  The Bible Students are not an organization in any sense except that their meetings are conducted in orderly fashion.  The JW meetings and witness activities are directed from a hierarchy.  The Bible Students have no such hierarchy.  That in itself is a vast difference.  

With no clergy/laity relationship in place, it is incumbent upon INDIVIDUAL Bible Students to spread the Gospel in the time and manner of their own volition as they feel they are called and led by God.  The JW's activities meanwhile are strictly enforced, and thereby forcibly co-erced.  This point alone creates a chasm  between the philosophies of the two groups that can NEVER BE BRIDGED - unless of course the JW's should decide to stop the practice of literally taking their marching orders from Brooklyn New York, and dissolve the organization completely.

Christian liberty is only one area where not only are Bible Students and JW's not at all similar, they are in fact the POLAR OPPOSITE from one another.  
Bible Students have true Christian freedom and liberty. Gal 5:1  While the individual JW's may in fact want it, they aren't allowed to have it, as this all important doctrinal item was taken away from them long ago.  Gal 2:4  

This is perhaps the most common reason why Bible Students leave the JW organization, as well as leaving other worldly religions.  False religious systems espouse extra biblical teachings and impose undue yokes upon the faithful that are contrary to the very spirit of Christ. Jhn 8:36


Not intending to write a book on the subject at the moment, I will address the two aforementioned doctrinal areas, Adam and Zionism.   I'll leave the multitudinous differences in between for an alphabetical book in the future, perhaps.  

When it comes to Adam, there can be no greater difference between JW's and Bible Students.  Quite simply, JW's believe and teach that Adam is not redeemed, and will receive no resurrection.  Bible Students see this as a denial of the Ransom, which is the most precious doctrine of all Bible doctrines.  If Adam is not redeemed then neither are you, and neither are we.  

Briefly the Ransom doctrine as it involves Adam is this:  The first Adam, a perfect man, sinned.  Thus the need for the man Christ Jesus to take his place on the cross and bear the penalty of that sin.  1Ti 2:5  

Adam was the original father of the race, and Jesus took his place in undergoing the death penalty FOR him, thereby obtaining the right to be the father of the race , and becoming the second Adam. 1Cr 15:45  It is a simple economic transaction well documented throughout the Christian Bible, known as The Ransom doctrine - that by one man sin came upon all, so by one man the many were made righteous.  

Rom 5:19 For as by one man's disobedience many were made sinners, so by the obedience of one shall many be made righteous.

Jesus Christ tasted death for EVERY MAN. Hbr 2:9 The JW's not only deny this most fundamental doctrine of all, they go further out of bounds by insisting that THEY are the only representation of the body of Christ.  And they insist that ONLY the Christ can be saved, therefore if you don't join their earthly organization, you are outside of Christ and therefore not saved.


And what of those who are allegedly not "saved"?  The JW's, by their insistence on this most narrow view of salvation, would have us believe that in the loving wisdom and justice of our Almighty God's Holy Plan, 99.999% of all the human beings who have ever lived and ever died are to be eternally annihilated.  After Pastor Russell had only a few short decades earlier so beautifully and succinctly explained the truth of this matter, this number is the saddest of all to see. Gal 1:6-11

Bible Students meanwhile generally accept that the opposite is true. While accepting that a varying number will not accept the offer of eternal life and will be ultimately destroyed in the Second Death, Rev 20:8 they generally see that as a hopefully small number.  But nowhere in any way would a Bible Student ever teach that unless one accepts THEIR version of the Gospel that they will then end up destroyed with no hope of recovery, which is no less than a satanic belief.  


The differences between Bible Students and JW's are manifest.  To insist that the groups are somehow still related is to deny the facts, and to ignore doctrine.  While many are willing to do this, I for one am not interested in that sort of "sweep it under the rug" ecumenical effort.  I will instead take the side of the Pastor that the JW's have wholeheartedly and wholesale rejected, when C.T. Russell said "whosoever is not willing to defend the Truth is not worthy of it."  

It is obvious from this issue of the Ransom doctrine alone, and the number of people ultimately saved thereby, that the JW's have little or no "truth" left to defend.  But like all of Satan's counterfeits, there must assuredly be some truth somewhere in the movement, and there is, in the vague Kingdom message offered in the fourth grade reading level magazine, ironically titled "Awake!" when it really can put one to sleep - spiritually.  


Pastor Russell, the first and greatest true Christian Zionist who ever lived, astounded the world with his accurate predictions regarding (among other things) the re-gathering of Jews in the land of Israel, and the re-establishment of their national polity as a part of God's Plan for blessing mankind in the future Kingdom of God on earth.  As His earthly capitol, Jerusalem would be the very Seat of Yahweh.  There represented by the Ancient Worthies, the world of mankind will be required to apply to Jerusalem for assistance in making spiritual progress,  in their efforts to come up the highway of holiness in the Millennium.  Zec 8:23  Isa 35:8  Zec 14:16

It may have been astounding to the world to see Jews re-gathered in Israel, but not so to Bible Students who could PLAINLY SEE these things in the Scriptures.  Jer 16:14-15  Jer 23:7-8   But one Joseph "Judge" Rutherford committed one of the greatest crimes in history by engaging in what is commonly known as "replacement theology".  He stole from the hearts of his adherents the Jewish hope, and thus stripped virtually half of the Divine Plan of the Ages away with a single brutal stroke of anti-Semitism.  

He stole the very name "Jehovah's Witnesses" from the Jews, as it applies only to them.  And more importantly he removed the significance of the Jewish people and their trials and tribulations from the panoply of Christianity. Of course there were only a scant 20% or so of the original Bible Students remaining in the Watchtower Society by the time he wrote his infamous letter to Adolph Hitler, making his rejection of Jews known to the "Fuhrer."

With replacement theology in place, the Christian today is blind to the very signs of the times that Jesus Christ told us to watch for, as events unfold that will ultimately extol the name of Yah before the entire world. Eze 38:16   Mar 13:37

This will happen during events having solely to do with the Land of Israel, but those JW's who insist that Israel and the Jews are no longer a part of the Heavenly Father's plan not only miss the most crucial element in TRUE eschatology, they miss the chance at a deeper relationship to their God which can only be had with a proper view of God's plans and purposes, toward Christians, toward Jews, and toward mankind.  

The differences between JW's and Bible Students are manifest.  They are NOT the same, not even close.  And perhaps the most glaring difference that stands out after seeing the conversations on this web forum is that, while Bible Students, myself included, are almost always willing to reach out to our Jehovah's Witness friends, even calling them "brother" - the JW's will not reciprocate.  The feeling is not mutual, due an an entrenched and systematized prejudice.  Not only are they loathe to call us "brother" under any circumstances, they even go out of their way to avoid our houses.  What's more, they go even further out of their way to describe us in their literature and in conversation as "the evil slave" and "apostates", based not on any first hand knowledge, but on pure isolationist bigotry handed down from their hierarchical government.

So, that having been said, ask yourself just how similar do you think Jehovah's Witnesses and Bible Students are?

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