Jehovah’s, << jih HOH vuhz, >> Witnesses are members of a Christian religious group that uses the Watch Tower Bible and Tract Society as its corporate body. They took their name from Isaiah 43:12: “Ye are my witnesses, saith Jehovah, and I am God” (American Standard Version).
The Witnesses believe there is one God, called Jehovah. They consider the resurrected Jesus to be divine in nature but, as God’s Son, not equal to God as Father. They consider Abel, the son of Adam and Eve, as the first of Jehovah’s Witnesses, and cite Hebrews 11 and 12:1 as their source. The Witnesses use the Bible as their sole guide to belief. They strive to give exclusive devotion to Jehovah, and they obey Jesus’s command to preach “this good news of the Kingdom” (Matthew 24:14). They believe God’s war of Armageddon will rid the earth of all wickedness in this generation.
The modern group now called Jehovah’s Witnesses was started in Pennsylvania in the 1870’s by Charles Taze Russell and his associates. The Watch Tower Bible and Tract Society was incorporated in 1884 with Russell as president. The group took its present name in 1931. The religious group’s magazine, The Watchtower, was first published in 1879. It is printed in many languages. Jehovah’s Witnesses conduct activities throughout the world. Headquarters of the society are in the Brooklyn section of New York City.
