Are Jehovah's Witnesses taught about the history of their church?

They have a history book. It's very, very watered down and leaves out the uglier stuff. So are they taught their history? Yes, a few details with a nice little spin. They aren't taught the real truth. There's simply too much their organization wants to keep hidden. They seem to be trying pretty hard to reinforce that JWs don't need to do anything but look at their most recent stuff because it's "updated" and their website, which only goes back to the year 2000. They want to eradicate the older publications that show what a liar they really are, *especially* where Russell and Rutherford are concerned. Lots of false predictions with those two.

One interesting fact they've tried to leave out is the utter obsession with pyramidology. They reject it now and call it Satanic, but they still hold onto the 1914 date, which came about from Russell measuring inside the Giza pyramid. He claimed the pyramid was from God and His stone witness.

Yes.

I have a close friend who is a Witness, and he brags to me about learning their history every time he does so, which I'd guess happens about once a year or once every other year. Just a couple of months ago they were given a new video/documentary of their own history.

Note that the history they are taught is limited in some...interesting ways. Sure, most histories are limited, but - for example - my friend never learned about the founder's (Russell's) religious teachings concerning pyramids, despite the fact that it was a very important component of Russell's teachings. (He wrote books on it, and he was buried beneath a pyramid monument-tombstone.) So: although any history is bound to be a selective one (not every minute detail included), the history of the Witnesses that Witnesses are taught seems to be selective for more reasons than mere conciseness.

Greetings,

Yes, Jehovah's Witnesses are taught the complete history of their church!

In fact, our history and even the mistakes made by early Witnesses are periodically covered publicly in our study magazine and most appear for all to see in our standard book on the history of the WTS. These meetings are open to the public. So, the facts and even mistakes made by Witnesses are readily available to every Witness, just as the mistakes made by Christ's apostles are documented in the Holy Bible.

Any claim that JW's are ignorant of these facts is a complete misrepresentation.

Further, to be a Witness you are REQUIRED TO talk to people of all religions who will challenge your beliefs and force you to continue to research your own beliefs and support them from the Bible. So, almost every Witness knows and has answered all the accusations and misrepresentations about the early Bible Students and the modern day Witnesses.

On the other hand, other religions do not trust their members to fully discuss their religion with Witnesses because, as a rule, their members do not have adequate knowledge of their own belief and definitely cannot use the Bible to support what they believe.

And most members of other religions do not know the past "bad" things their religion has done, or simply "dismiss" the facts.

How many Catholics and Protestants know that many of their preachers, most of the Early Church Fathers and even Calvin taught that Jesus was Michael? How many Protestants know that their founders, Calvin and Luther, tortured people by burning them alive and were vicious tyrants?

Are they ever taught their church history on this?

How many know that their religions taught that black people were cursed, that slavery was "Christian," and that racial intermarriage was condemned by the Bible.

How many know that at about the same time Witnesses were correcting their beliefs regarding hell and the soul, some of their own clergy were denying that women had souls, preaching against anesthesia during childbirth, and against childhood inoculations?

Witnesses regularly study our history, but, do other religions willingly tell their members about the crazy things their predecessors believed?

So, the false accusation that Witnesses do not know their history is extremely hypocritical.

Yours,

BAR-ANERGES

Yes we are required to study theocratic history as part of our educational programs.

We have a 715 page volume called JEHOVAH'S WITNESSES proclaimers of God's kingdom which covers the modern day history of Jehovah's Witnesses from Russel to modern day. This was complemented in 2014 by the JW latest release "God's Kingdom Rules" which again goes into the history of the organization from Russell through to Rutherford and beyond.

There have been two docu-dramas released by the Watchtower Society AGAIN covering history and regular interviews and broadcasts released on jw-tv (broacasting) the JW tv channel dealing with many aspects of the organizational history.

I have never read a statement from any of our literature discouraging learning about the history of our organization and would challenge those that say otherwise to produce a quotation stating the above if they can.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vp-QALeKSlY

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Yes and continually so. In our latest publication: let the kingdom come ( I think), once again, we read of the history.

It is all open for viewing; ones just have to have the zeal to read!

Oh and sorry for being so nitpicky but we call them: kingdom halls.

No, of course not. They are only taught the doctrines of Charles Taze Russell.

Probably but most likely not with accurate information, because if they had that information they probably wouldn't be JW

No, because if they were, they would not be members.