What's the Difference between Mormons and Jehovah's Witnesses?

when you imagine two young men knocking on your door dressed in suit and tie you probably say to yourself hmm they must be Mormons or Jehovah's Witnesses and these two groups often get mixed together on the surface they seem quite familiar but in reality they are two worlds apart so let's take a look at 10 differences between Mormons and Jehovah's Witnesses so you don't get it mixed up once they inhibitedly show up at your doorstep the founder of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints also known as Mormons was Joseph Smith in the 1820s in Upstate New York young Joseph Smith received the vision from God and Jesus who instructed him to go find some Golden Plates which he would use to write the Book of Mormon Smith was now a prophet and he wanted to establish a New Jerusalem in North America to establish Scion first Smith moved his church into Kirtland Ohio then he attempted to establish Zion in Missouri but that didn't work out after facing hostility from the locals Smith moved his church to Nauvoo Illinois where he instituted plural marriage AKA polygamy but in the beginning it was only for him and his friends at this time Smith sent missionaries to Europe and many other comets would travel back to America to join the prophet in his quest to establish Scion Smith's followers would be known as Mormons after facing much hostility from their neighbor Smith was arrested and killed by a mob Brigham Young one of his followers became the leader of the church and the Mormon pioneers marched West to establish themselves in what is now Utah where the LDS church has its headquarters to this day and that was just a cliff notes version from its very Inception the LDS church was meant to function as a nation of its own both Smith and young acted as politicians Jehovah's Witnesses had a very different origin the founder of the Bible students Charles taste Russell did not set out to establish a new church like Smith and he never became involved in politics a talented businessman from Pennsylvania Charles was deeply influenced by Adventist preachers who were themselves influenced by the millerites Christians who expected the end times to come any day now to warn other Christians of the upcoming apocalypse Rosso established the Watchtower bible and track Society where he printed his signature magazine the Watchtower people that enjoyed Russell's work would gather together to study the Bible and they eventually formed congregations which Russell would routinely visit Rosso eventually hired full-time co-part tours to spread his magazines and the Bible student movement grew considerably from there we also moved his publishing headquarters to Brooklyn New York and after his death Joseph Rutherford would become the new president of the Watchtower bible and track Society he would later rename the Bible able students into Jehovah's Witnesses and the religion only grew from there so Joseph Smith was a politician at heart wanting to establish heaven on Earth Rosso was a publishing giant calling all Christians to be ready for Armageddon but despite their different Origins both the LDS church and jws are restorationist movements Joseph Smith believed he was re-establishing in the True Church of Christ on the earth since all other churches had been corrupted by the great apostasy Joseph Smith was called didn't believe it well it's true I did where I was out in the woods praying I was asking God if I should be a Protestant or a Catholic or what and suddenly God and Jesus appeared before me and they said I should start my own church because none of the others had it right and that's exactly how it happened you see you believe it now well yeah sure why would he make that up Joseph Rutherford used similar language to refer to Jehovah's Witnesses saying God took the Bible students out of Babylon the great the Empire of false religion and exclusively called them to be his people for example While most religions taught that man has a soul Russell and his associates concluded that man is a soul and that the soul can die and whereas christendom's churches teach that the Father the Son and the Holy Ghost are one person these students held that Jehovah is one God and not part of a trinity we only see light when it's Jehovah's time to reveal light and so this was at the beginning of Jehovah's time to lead his people out of Darkness into the wonderful light both jws and Mormons reject the doctrine of the Trinity as is understood by the Nicene Creed for this reason most Christian denominations cast these groups as not Christian Jehovah's Witnesses believe only Jehovah the father is God and Jesus Christ is subordinate to Jehovah the holy spirit is also Jehovah's active force and not a part of the godhead Mormons on the other hand have a much more fascinating view of God they believe in the godhead composed of the father Jesus and the Holy Ghost but these are three different entities both God and Jesus have bodies of Flesh and Bone but the Holy Ghost doesn't and to make it a bit more confusing the Jehovah of the Old Testament is actually Jesus God the Father also has a wife by the way called heavenly mother although Mormons don't really talk about her that much Joseph Smith also believed that God the Father used to be a man just like us flesh and Bone living in another planet and he attained godhood because of his virtue we can also attain godhood one day through the atonement of Jesus Christ so as you can see the Mormon view of God is quite unique in the world of Christianity so both jws and Mormons reject the Trinity but Jehovah's Witnesses would scoff at the idea of God having a body of Flesh and Bones or a wife since debut Jehovah as immaterial and unlike any other Charles Russo and his Newfound religious Seal wanted to study the Bible from scratch although he produced thousands of pages worth of essays he never claimed his work was of equal importance to the Bible itself which is a very Protestant approach to the scriptures Joseph Smith was the complete opposite he wrote the Book of Mormon another Testament of Jesus Christ which served as an expansion of the Bible a third Testament telling the story of how Jesus rebuilt himself to the natives of North America the LDS canning consists of the Bible the Book of Mormon Doctrine and Covenants and the pearl of great price these last two are commentaries written by Smith and His prophets today the president of the LDS church along with his Quorum of 12 Apostles are considered modern day prophets meaning they can pronounce infallible statements from time to time something similar to the pope another Testament of Jesus Christ comes from ancient America where God the Father introduced his son to the Nephites declaring behold my beloved Son hear ye him I also declare that Jesus the Christ lives that his church has been restored to the Earth complete with his power and authority with Apostles and Prophets the governing body of Jehovah's Witnesses at the time of this recording its nine men who are working from headquarters do not consider themselves infallible although in practice jws are expected to obey the governing body's direction as if it was coming from God himself and questioning the governing body can get you into a lot of trouble in the church JW's hold only the Bible as your holy book although they have printed their own version called The New World Translation which is heavily doctored and makes a few changes in the text to better suit Watchtower theology JW's also depend on materials produced by the Watchtower to interpret the Bible and this material is treated as absolutely true unless it is declared obsolete by the governing body most of Russell's and Rutherford's original writings are now considered obsolete but that's not a problem to JW's because because Russell was not a prophet to them but just a man used by God at the time the governing body could be likened to the voice of Jesus the head of the congregation so when we willingly submit to the faithful slave we're ultimately submitting to Jesus Authority and direction in his interpretation of scripture Russo was deeply influenced by Adventist preachers who denied the existence of eternal torment in Hell Russell believed all Christians would be called to heaven on Christ's second coming and he believed this would happen in 1914. later Joseph Rutherford introduced the teaching of paradise Earth and divided JW's between two classes a minority who was to ruin heaven with Christ and the majority who would live forever in a restored Paradise Earth all people who die in Armageddon will stay dead forever but all people who died without having had a chance to hear the gospel will be resurrected on Earth and be giving a chance to side with Jehovah if they reject them they will be destroyed after a Thousand-Year reign of Christ All Humans who passed this final test will then Live Forever on Paradise Earth [Applause] we will feel his love is sung in the new world to come Mormons as you can already guess have a totally different view of the afterlife in Mormon theology everyone had a pre-mortal existence we'd like to tell you that there is a purpose to your life we call it God's Plan of Salvation or the great plan of Happiness we lived with God as Spirits before we came to Earth we call this our pre-mortal life and when Sauls are reborn as humans on Earth they can hope to resurrect in one of three Heavenly kingdoms after they die in the lowest rank is a Celestial Kingdom reserved for people who never heard the gospel or anyone who willfully rejected it it's still heaven but just not as nice the terrestrial kingdom is for those who half-assed their religion those who accepted Jesus but not with their whole Hearts so sort of a middle heaven but the Celestial Kingdom is the top tier price it is where God and Jesus live and it's the reason why Mormon families perform ceiling serum in the temples together so they can live forever as a family in the Kingdom of Heaven only a handful of losers those who committed the unforgivable sin are cast out as sons of Perdition into a sort of Mormon Hell the place is not really talked about much [Music] so despite their differences Mormon and JW versions of the afterlife are quite similar in the sense that they're almost Universalist believing that most people will eventually be saved Mormons believe the vast majority of humanity will make it to one of these three tiers of heaven and jws believe that most of humanity will resurrect in Paradise Earth and eventually attain everlasting life both Mormons and jws are well known for their door-to-door proselytizing but if you find Mormons on your doorstep there will almost always be a pair of young men or women under two-year Mission retired Mormon couples can also engage in missionary I mean as missionaries although that's much more rare in recent years the LDS church has also used the internet to spread their message and who knows maybe you'll get an LDS advertisement during this video my name is Gabe Walter Paul Reed and I'm a Mormon jws are much more focused on personatizing than the Mormons preaching is expected of everyone no matter your age if you're too old or sick to go door to door you're expected to find other avenues of service such as letter writing or a cold calling a young Mormon can turn down his mission and keep a good standing in the church I mean at least in theory but a JW who doesn't report any Ministry hours will not have any church privileges in fact proselytizing is a requirement for baptism the main method of preaching used by Jehovah's Witnesses is going door to door although in modern days new preaching methods have been adopted such as literature cards informal preaching and Watchtower has been working with news stations to promote their website jw.org you can read the Bible and watch videos really busy kid foreign missionaries were a standard uniform the iconic white T-shirt and black tie in the case of the boys with a label showing their names Jehovah's Witnesses are also expected to dress in business attire for the ministry but they don't have a strict uniform like the Mormons and their attire changes depending on the local culture JW's and hot humid climate are not expected to wear ties or they may choose to wear their traditional clothing instead both Mormons and jws are prohibited in engaging in typical sinful Behavior no sex before marriage no drugs no Tick-Tock cringe but each group has their own quirky set of prohibitions as well Mormons are not allowed to consume hot drinks commonly interpreted as coffee or some varieties of tea also absolutely no alcohol or tobacco we can't we can't drink it can't smell it the JW prohibition list is much more extensive and most of these prohibitions can be credited to Joseph Rutherford who cast most Christian holidays as Pagan so Dad why don't we celebrate our birthday good question how would you answer that at school uh because Jehovah doesn't like it yes no birthdays no Christmas no use of the Cross no Easter no Halloween no blood transfusions no saying bless you after someone's niece and the list goes on jws are allowed to drink alcohol though and a lot of members are pretty much addicted to caffeine the LDS church encourages their young members to go to college in fact the church owns and operates three universities my name is Nick Shirley and today we are at Brigham Young University and we are doing a deep dive into the soaking scene and what does it mean to actually soak Mormons actually rank quite high in terms of household income in the United States Watchtower discourages its members from pursuing higher education as we saw in this leak a few weeks ago letting your daughters go to college could prevent you from keeping your congregation privileges as an elder since Jehovah's Witnesses expect Armageddon to come very soon any second now devoting four years to college is seen as a lack of faith putting the world before God and watched our leaders constantly talk down on those who choose to attend college instead young members are encouraged to pursue the full-time Ministry and live simple lives however it is one thing to work on a job with others and quite another matter to immerse oneself in an institution of learning Higher Learning can easily influence thinking and attitudes one mom I recalled asked me to try and help her son who was attending a prestigious name University in Rhode Island after visiting him I later had to inform her that her son now believed in evolution she refused to believe it until he finally told her himself how sad Jehovah's Witnesses rank Rock Bottom in terms of household income in the United States the complete opposite of Mormons Jehovah's Witnesses are strictly prohibited from engaging in politics no military service no voting no protesting even voicing your political opinion is highly discouraged we must immediately and completely reject any compromise of our political neutrality Watchtower has also never attempted to establish a Jehovah's Witness Outpost or anything similar in the case of Mormons as we have seen Joseph Smith's movement was as political as it was religious Mormons founded the state of Utah and they still remained very influential in the state although the church is not technically partisan most Mormons tend to lean to the right in the political spectrum and there are even some Mormons in the U.S Senate Mitt Romney even ran as a Republican Presidential nominee in 2012 something of practicing Jehovah's Witness could never even dream of attempting you know what you've raised that before Rick and uh it was true then no no it's true now Rick I'll tell you what ten thousand bucks ten thousand dollar bet I'm not in the betting business but okay there are around 16 million members of the LDS church although the numbers are a bit skewed because it includes all baptized members who were never excommunicated so the active member number could be much lower than 16 million Jehovah's Witnesses only count as members those who regularly report ours in the ministry whether they are baptized or not and that number is around 8.5 million but the number of people that attend Jehovah's Witness meetings that do not preach could raise this number considerably Mormons in the United States are overwhelmingly white most of them residing in Utah while jws are much more ethnically diverse both Mormons and jws have been incredibly successful in Africa Latin America and the Pacific and both groups have been restricted or banned in countries like Russia and China say what you want about the Mormons but they sure know how to make cool buildings 179 temples most of them sporting the iconic Angel Moroni on the top I've been to the main temple in Salt Lake City and it's quite impressive the city grade itself is designed around the temple and it's actually based on the original sketches by Joseph Smith temples are very important to LDS members because only in a temple can you perform the rights which will seal you for eternity endowment Celestial marriages and baptism for the dead sometimes we're accused of what are the secret things that you do in the temple they're not secret they're sacred and so we don't speak of them casually or lightly because to us they're so Central so fundamental and so important to how we live non-mormons can see the temples only during the open house session after inauguration after that only Mormons deemed worthy can enter the building temples are not available in all places so Mormons meet weekly in their local Awards which are much more modest buildings Jehovah's Witnesses also place a lot of importance on buildings but for very different reasons the main headquarters of Watchtower was in Brooklyn for close to a century but now it has been moved to Warwick in Upstate New York there are several Branch offices called Bethel spread all around the world these buildings are used to print Watchtower Publications produce videos and organize the preaching work in their respected territories so despite being named the house of God they're more like administrative centers instead of places of worship these facilities are very well kept but nothing extravagant and jws are encouraged to visit their local branch at least once in their life if possible the closest thing jws have to a religious pilgrimage hey Caleb remember our trip to Bethel we got to go to Bethel and I'm really really glad we all said it was the best time that our family [Music] during the week Jehovah's Witnesses meet in Kingdom Halls which resemble more classroom than they do at church there are no religious icons inside the Kingdom Hall and no rooms which can be considered holy spaces we could keep this video going for hours because we have barely scratched the surface of the two religions if I got something wrong or if I missed some important differences please let me know in the comments below this channel focuses almost exclusively on Jehovah's Witnesses but if you would like me to make more videos on the LDS church or other Christian denominations please let me know as well these videos will not be possible without the support of my beautiful patreon community and my channel members so if you would like to support my work please consider joining me on patreon or becoming a channel member thank you so much guys have a wonderful day and stay away from the tower foreign [Music] goodbye little sheep

Channel: ExJW Panda Tower

Views: 11,774

Keywords: Watchtower, Jehovah, jw, exjw, cults, mormons, joseph smith

Id: nFcK818S-8A

Length: 23min 30sec (1410 seconds)

Published: Fri Sep 08 2023