Why do some people say Jehovah's Witnesses are brainwashed?

Thanks for your thoughtful statements. When I started studying over 30 years ago, I would go into all different translations because I wanted to make sure. 1 Thes. 5:21

I think it is two different scenarios: First, they do not want to take the time to study the Bible that thoroughly. They just listen to what others tell them and think that is the truth without even proving it wrong. Second, they do not want to face up to the fact that their parents or religion has let them down! They cannot believe that they have been lied to. They have the foolish notion of believing that if it was good enough for their parents, and grandparents, so it is good enough for them. YET, is that true? This article may change some peoples' minds.

Exposed: Six Myths to Christianity
http://www.watchtower.org/e/20091101/article_02.htm

Oh, PS: It isn't a bad thing to have your brain "washed"; sometimes it needs cleaning, lol

Haters will claim anything to attempt to stop the work we do. It never matters if there is any truth to what they say. [Hey! One day some bit of truth may fall in.]

There is also the profit motive. Consider now, with what you have seen proven to yourself to be true, would you continue to pay the clergy for all the lies they have told and continue to tell? The Bible speaks of "the light of truth". We make it shine by exposing what the clergies have hidden away.

That makes them angry, of course. Just as Jesus made the Jewish clergy want to kill him. So they are skilled at scaring people. They simply use that to scare people from going anywhere near Jehovah's Witnesses. The more lies are repeated, the bigger they get.

The only thing to do is to continue to obey the directions of Jesus. How about you? Do you now understand more than before you began your study? More importantly, of what you know, can you now prove it from your Bible? Could you have done that before?

We are brainwashed in a way. Washed and rinsed of the lies and filth we were once all loaded down with. Like dirt clogging a filter.

Notice some of the lies told here. They do not understand the lies as that is all they have been told. Like we do not believe in Jesus. Nor trinity held dear. Or going from house to house ministry is horrible. How about the one that says we don't believe in governments?

Is it either funny or sad they simply have no knowledge of the Bible, whatever the translation. Certainly we obey everything Jesus has ordered including the world wide public ministry from Matthew 24:14; 28:19-20. Trinity, which version? House to house ministry horrible? Really? Then why did all 1st century Christians participate in this at Acts 20:20? "while I did not hold back from telling YOU any of the things that were profitable nor from teaching YOU publicly and from house to house." Now what was Paul doing here?

Not believing in governments is funny. They exist. They serve a function necessary for human survival for now. We obey all laws and pay taxes as long as they do not conflict with Jehovah's higher laws. What government do we support? Since Jesus is our Leader and he is the King of God's Kingdom government in heaven, that has our full support. All human governments are in opposition to that heavenly government. When Satan tempted Jesus with all the kingdoms of the world, Jesus never said he could not offer them. They were already his.

I'm not a JW and I don't think they are brain washed. No one in R&S should be abused by constant childish insults for raising legit question(s).

I'm a Christian who believe as long as you know the Lord, denomination doesn't matter.

Some people say that Jehovah's Witnesses are brainwashed because that is the propaganda they wish to put out.

But the right thing to do is what you are doing, investigate matters for yourself, rather than listen to the opinions of biased, intolerant, or envious people.

That is the way approved of by the Scriptures:

"Now the Bereans were of more noble character than the Thessalonians, for they received the message with great eagerness and examined the Scriptures every day to see if what Paul said was true. Many of the Jews believed, as did also a number of prominent Greek women and many Greek men." -- Acts 17:11, 12, New International Version

As those verses show, many believed in the Gospel that Paul preached, but only after comparing what Paul preached with what the Bible said.

Our personal relationship with Jehovah God and Jesus Christ is too important to be left to someone else's opinions.

Jehovah's Witnesses will always encourage you to listen to what the Scriptures say.

Many people spread lies or rumors because they are either misled or they do not completely understand our beliefs. Just like in ancient times, Jehovah's people have been exposing the lies and hypocrisy in false religion. It's no wonder so many hate us, trying to come up with all sorts of things about us. In fact, we are honored to be treated as such because our leader Jesus went through the same treatment! He even said that people would hate us just because we teach the truth like he did. John 15:17-19: “These things I command YOU, that YOU love one another. 18 If the world hates YOU, YOU know that it has hated me before it hated YOU. 19 If YOU were part of the world, the world would be fond of what is its own. Now because YOU are no part of the world, but I have chosen YOU out of the world, on this account the world hates YOU.

So, keep studying the truth and ignore the venom of this world. You will be rewarded by Jehovah and receive numerous blessings!

People who cannot refute what the witnesses show from the Bible, but still can't bring themselves to accept it, turn to name calling.
You know, if you can't attack the thought, attack the speaker.

simply because they wish to stop Honest hearted people like you studying the bible

The truth of the matter is that a great majority of J.W's used to belong to the churches of Christendom.(false religion) But when J.W's came to our door and showed us with the Bible (any Bible ) what the Bible really teaches. Then we found out that we had found the truth. Plus there are 100's or 1000's of people from Christendom that are converting to J.W's every week.

usually its ppl that don't understand what we believe in. other religions criticize us because we try to live by the standard of God that are in the bible.

it obviously not easy but its not impossible with Gods help.

as jw we don't mind showing ppl the truth even with their bible. all bibles are the same. the only difference in NWT is that it uses a more modern words to make it easier to understand for the reader. feel free to compare to any bible. most bibles don't use Jehovah's name they substitute it for lord or god when in the original manuscripts it shows the name of God

the best advise is put your decisions under prayer. ask God to help you make the right decisions.
ask you grandma to give you the bible teach book if you don't already have it and read chapter 15.

I hope you don't listen to the nonsense on here. Basically, people hear things from others that are not true and it spreads. As jesus said we would e objects of hatred.
Eg: someone answered that we don't believe in Jesus. That is a common misconception as you would know. Just because we don't believe in the false teachings if the trinity, doesn't mean we don't believe in Jesus our Saviour.

I suggest you don't put more questions like this on here because it just starts more hate.

If you would like to know more information about Jehovah's Witnesses and our beliefs, feel free to email me and I will help you out. My email is [email protected]. I am a witness in QLD Australia.

I see no reason why they would be brainwashed....
PLEASE BASE YOUR ANSWERS ON SOMETHING.

Because almost every christian has been brainwashed since youth to believe in nonsense.

I don't know about brainwashed, but I do know that JW's have two things especially going for them that I don't believe.They don't believe in the Trinity, which is an important part of God's Word. Number one..they don't believe in the Government, which really concerns me, they don't believe in Jesus, They've altered Armageddon, and They have altered the entire Bible to suit what they want to believe. Now, it's up to you how you believe, I'm just telling you there are many reasons folks feel like they are a cult, as in Mormons and LDS. Good Luck and I hope you are as happy in your God as I am in mine.

Did you use one of your own bibles, or theirs? They changed many things in the New World Translation, in order to make their theology work. Is your grandmother's bible a NWT? Then it was changed and the mainstream bible scholars would not agree with the changes.

JW's are in a cult, driven by money and power. Go get a book written by a former JW and you will see what I mean.

They have a higher authority in their cult than God. His name is Charles Taze Russell and they are not Christian in any way.

Please see scenario below. The only possible answer is they they are brainwashed. They come up with many reasons why this happened. The answer is they are following a false prophet and can't get out of it. Their families and friends will disown and shun them if they leave the JWs. I love the JWs, but hate their false teachings!

1897 "Our Lord, the appointed King, is now present, since October 1874," (Studies in the Scriptures, vol. 4, p. 621).
1899 "...the 'battle of the great day of God Almighty' (Revelation 16:14), which will end in A.D. 1914 with the complete overthrow of earth's present rulership, is already commenced," (The Time Is at Hand, 1908 edition, p. 101).
1916 "The Bible chronology herein presented shows that the six great 1000 year days beginning with Adam are ended, and that the great 7th Day, the 1000 years of Christ's Reign, began in 1873," (The Time Is at Hand, forward, p. ii).
1918 "Therefore we may confidently expect that 1925 will mark the return of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob and the faithful prophets of old, particularly those named by the Apostle in Hebrews 11, to the condition of human perfection," (Millions Now Living Will Never Die, p. 89).
1922 "The date 1925 is even more distinctly indicated by the Scriptures than 1914," (Watchtower, Sept. 1, 1922, p. 262).
1923 "Our thought is, that 1925 is definitely settled by the Scriptures. As to Noah, the Christian now has much more upon which to base his faith than Noah had upon which to base his faith in a coming deluge," (Watchtower, Apr. 1, 1923, p. 106).
1925 "The year 1925 is here. With great expectation Christians have looked forward to this year. Many have confidently expected that all members of the body of Christ will be changed to heavenly glory during this year. This may be accomplished. It may not be. In his own due time God will accomplish his purposes concerning his people. Christians should not be so deeply concerned about what may transpire this year," (Watchtower, Jan. 1, 1925, p. 3).
1925 "It is to be expected that Satan will try to inject into the minds of the consecrated, the thought that 1925 should see an end to the work," (Watchtower, Sept., 1925, p. 262).
1926 "Some anticipated that the work would end in 1925, but the Lord did not state so. The difficulty was that the friends inflated their imaginations beyond reason; and that when their imaginations burst asunder, they were inclined to throw away everything," (Watchtower, p. 232).
1931 "There was a measure of disappointment on the part of Jehovah's faithful ones on earth concerning the years 1917, 1918, and 1925, which disappointment lasted for a time...and they also learned to quit fixing dates," (Vindication, p. 338).
1941 "Receiving the gift, the marching children clasped it to them, not a toy or plaything for idle pleasure, but the Lord's provided instrument for most effective work in the remaining months before Armageddon," (Watchtower, Sept. 15, 1941, p. 288).
1968 "True, there have been those in times past who predicted an 'end to the world', even announcing a specific date. Yet nothing happened. The 'end' did not come. They were guilty of false prophesying. Why? What was missing?.. Missing from such people were God's truths and evidence that he was using and guiding them," (Awake, Oct. 8, 1968).
1968 "Why are you looking forward to 1975?" (Watchtower, Aug. 15, 1968, p. 494).

A JW might say that the organization is still learning. If that is so, then how can they trust what they are taught now by the Watchtower? Will what they are being taught now change also?
A true prophet of God won't err in prophesying. Only a false prophet does. The Jehovah's Witness organization, that claims to be a prophet of God, is really a false prophet. Jesus warned us by saying, "For false Christs and false prophets will appear and perform great signs and miracles to deceive even the elect -- if that were possible" (Matt. 24:24).

If you call the people that follow Harold Camping brainwashed - then yes, Jehovah's Witnesses are brainwashed. Russell started the religion EXACTLY like Camping, only with Pyramids as his guide.

If you call Americans that followed along with McCarthyism brainwashed - then yes as well.

Since the teachings are quite fringe, they had to clamp down on those who dissented by shunning anyone with a differing opinion. This means they went from quaint followers of a man to intellectually isolated followers of a society. But all with the same result.

I am a christian, that's my faith, you have yours I respect, but seems like all religions have bigotry and finance to those in charge, best be the believer, not the deceiver. xxx

The whole knocking at the door then talking to you one-on-one or two-on-one is not something normal christians go for, as it is a rude really as an evangelistic technique. But it is used because of the known pyschological effects. Person is singled out, can't think much or get 3rd opinions, receives a lot of attention so psychologically likes the people. Then the person is very much tied into JW groups and discouraged from mixing with other people. So these techniques are rather manipulative. Then JWs get very heavily trained, and are very crammed with Watchtower information. They do use dodgy techniques I think.

All religions brainwash their people.

"Why do some people say Jehovah's Witnesses are brainwashed?"

Because they're brainwashed, you dildo!

No we at the instant are not brainwashed. we are taught what the Bible says and something is as much as us to settle for it or no longer settle for it. only using fact we do an indepth learn interior the Bible, it doesnt mean we are brainwashed. All our ideals are supported by scriptures. And the Bible is authentic and inspired of God. subsequently we've self assurance that our ideals are authentic. we don't obtain something while all of us has an analogous opinion for a bible learn. using fact we like human beings and want them to comprehend the reality approximately what the Bible says, we spend lots of our time, power and funds preaching. So that is not that we get something... that is any different way around. we don't tension human beings to transform nor will we obtain something while human beings substitute into JWs. that's as much as the guy.

they belive Jesus was only a man not God in a human body.

the facts are against the JW's being "Christian".
Their "bible" NWT, came from corrupt catholic MSS found
in a trash can in a catholic monk home by westcott & hort
which made it into the 1881 RV "bible", then the 1901 AV, then the NAV,
then the NASV, then the NIV, NKJV, NEB, and all 233 versions in the
"modern versions".
Thats a new "bible" every 6 months. Why?
hows about for $$$