Jehovah's Witnesses And Salvation
Jehovah's Witnesses teach that salvation is possible only through Christ’s ransom sacrifice and that individuals cannot be saved until they repent of their sins and call on the name of Jehovah. Salvation is described as a free gift from God, but is said to be unattainable without good works that are prompted by faith. The works prove faith is genuine. Preaching is said to be one of the works necessary for salvation, both of themselves and those to whom they preach. They believe that people can be "saved" by identifying God's organization and serving God as a part of it.
The Witnesses reject the doctrine of universal salvation, as well as that of predestination or fate. They believe that all intelligent creatures are endowed with free will. They regard salvation to be a result of a person's own decisions, not of fate. They also reject the concept of "once saved, always saved" (or "eternal security"), instead believing that one must remain faithful until the end to be saved.
Regarding whether non-Witnesses will be "saved", the religion's publications have stated: "Only Jehovah's Witnesses, those of the anointed remnant and the 'great crowd,' ... have any Scriptural hope of surviving the impending end of this doomed system" but that God has committed the responsibility of judging such ones to Jesus.
Read more about Jehovah's Witnesses And Salvation: The 'anointed', The 'other Sheep' and The 'great Crowd'
Famous quotes containing the words jehovah, witnesses and/or salvation:
“Then did they to Jehovah cry
When they were in distress:
And therupon he bringeth them
Out of their anguishes.”
—Bible: Hebrew Psalm CVII (Bay Psalm Book)
“My tendency to nervousness in my younger days, in view of the fact of a number of near relatives on both my father’s and mother’s side of the house having become insane, gave some serious uneasiness. I made up my mind to overcome it.... In the cross-examination of witnesses before a crowded court-house ... I soon found I could control myself even in the worst of testing cases. Finally, in battle.”
—Rutherford Birchard Hayes (1822–1893)
“A few ideas seem to be agreed upon. Help none but those who help themselves. Educate only at schools which provide in some form for industrial education. These two points should be insisted upon. Let the normal instruction be that men must earn their own living, and that by the labor of their hands as far as may be. This is the gospel of salvation for the colored man. Let the labor not be servile, but in manly occupations like that of the carpenter, the farmer, and the blacksmith.”
—Rutherford Birchard Hayes (1822–1893)