Cole Andrews

I have been told by JWs that only the 144,000 are in the new covenant, - that Jesus is only their mediator. I know that JWs state that all of their beliefs come from the bible. However I have asked a few JWs that I have met and none of them have been able to answer my question which is "where in the bible is the new covenant limited to the 144,000".

The passages of scripture clearly indicate that the appearance was a physical presence and that is was Jehovah God Almighty who appeared.

Do you agree with this scripture? If you don't then who do you say appeared to Abraham?

I have been trying to find out more about JWs and have been asking some questions and have come up something that I don't understand.

First I asked how you know Jesus returned in 1914. The answer was basically bible chronology and signs of the end times. Not as concrete as I was hoping for but that was the answer.

Then I asked when JWs knew that Jesus would be returning or had returned in 1914. The answer was roughly 4 decades prior to Jesus' return around 1876.

Then I found some information that really confused me. According to the Watchtower magazine as late as 1924 JWs were teaching that Jesus returned in 1874 not 1914. And as late as 1929 in other JW publications JWs were teaching the same thing. So my question is, if Jesus returned in 1914 and JWs new about it 40 years prior, and bible chronology and end times signs pointed to 1914; why were JWs teaching that Jesus returned in 1874 up to a decade or more after 1914?

I have included a couple of the quotes here.

1924 Watchtower , 1-1, p4 paragraph 10

The fact that Christ Jesus would return and receive unto himself his bride, the church, is definitely fixed by the above scripture. The time of his coming the Scriptures clearly indicate would be in A. D. 1874. Prophecy now fulfilled, which we call the physical facts, shows that his second presence dates from that time.

I asked a question about how JWs know that Jesus returned in 1914, the answers I got basically boiled down to bible chronology and signs of the end times.

If this is the case, when did JWs realize that Jesus had returned in 1914, before during the time of is return (I believe 1914-1918) or after?

I asked a question about how JWs know that Jesus returned in 1914 (/question/index?qid=20140... The answers I got basically boiled down to bible chronology and signs of the end times. If that is the only way you know that Jesus returned in 1914 then how do you know that he evaluated the world religions from 1914-1918 and then chose JWs as his organization?

This question is to JWs.

As I understand it JWs teach that Jesus returned invisibly in 1914 and that those with 'eyes of understanding' saw him.

Basically I am looking for some clarification on what I have heard. What is the official JW teaching on how they know that Jesus returned in 1914, was it through determining the date through bible study, did he appear to certain people? What is the evidence that gives such a strong confirmation that Jesus returned in 1914.

Thanks,

I noticed in the new revision of the NWT that in Colossians 1:16,17 the word 'other', which appears 4 times, is not longer in brackets. The older editions of the NWT had the word 'other' placed in brackets - [other] - so as to distinguish that it was inference from the translators and not actually represented in the text. The issue being that the insertion of the word 'other' significantly changes the content of the text. With the new addition, the brackets have been removed so as to imply that 'other' is actually found in the literal translation of the text. Why did they make this change?

I was recently talking with two JWs at my house and was asking them some questions to make sure I understood what they believed. However, when I asked them the above question, they had no answer. They directed me to a couple of articles on the jw.org website:

http://www.jw.org/en/jehovahs-witnesses/faq/who-sa...

http://wol.jw.org/en/wol/d/r1/lp-e/2008814

From what I read, the article says that you don't have to be a JW to be saved. So am I missing something? Could you please answer why I NEED to be JW? I am not trying to be rude I am just trying to understand your beliefs and your motivation.