[3] A leadership dispute after Russell's death resulted in several groups breaking away, with Joseph Franklin Rutherford retaining control of the Watch Tower Society and its properties.

[24] The group's position on conscientious objection to military service and refusal to salute state symbols (for example, national anthems and flags) has brought it into conflict with several governments.

[33] The 2008 US Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life survey found a low retention rate among members of the denomination: about 37% of people raised in the group continued to identify as Jehovah's Witnesses.

[33] Throughout the 1970s and 80s, sociologists determined that cult was a reductionist label when applied to Jehovah's Witnesses, noting that new members did not undergo "sudden transformations" and made a rational choice to join the group.

[51] In June 1879, the two split over doctrinal differences, and in July, Russell began publishing the magazine Zion's Watch Tower and Herald of Christ's Presence,[52] saying its purpose was to demonstrate that the world was in "the last days" and that a new age of earthly and human restitution under Jesus' reign was imminent.

Some of these changes include advocating for door-to-door preaching, prohibiting celebrations believed to be pagan such as Christmas, the belief that Jesus died on a stake instead of a cross, and a more uniform organizational hierarchy.

In addition to the preexisting belief that there would be 144,000 people to survive Armageddon and live in heaven to rule over earth with Jesus, a separate class of members, the "great multitude", was introduced.

[84] As their interpretations of the Bible evolved, Witness publications decreed that saluting national flags is a form of idolatry, which led to a new outbreak of mob violence and government opposition in various countries.

[87] He also increased the use of explicit instructions guiding Jehovah's Witnesses' lifestyle and conduct as well as a greater use of congregational judicial procedures to enforce a strict moral code.

[91] Various Bible scholars, including Bruce M. Metzger[92] and MacLean Gilmour,[93] have said that while scholarship is evident in New World Translation, its rendering of certain texts is inaccurate and biased in favor of Witness practices and doctrines.

[94][95] Critics of the group such as Edmund C. Gruss[96] and Christian writers such as Ray C. Stedman,[97] Walter Martin, Norman Klann,[98] and Anthony Hoekema[99] say the New World Translation is scholastically dishonest.

[19] The Governing Body does not issue a single, comprehensive statement of faith, but expresses its doctrinal positions in a variety of ways through publications published by the Watch Tower Society.

[134] Sociologist Andrew Holden's ethnographic study of the group concluded that pronouncements of the Governing Body, through Watch Tower Society publications, carry almost as much weight as the Bible.

[145] Older books published by the Watch Tower Society such as those by Charles Russell and Joseph Rutherford are usually unfamiliar to a modern Jehovah's Witness, although some congregations have these publications in their libraries.

Members are discouraged from formulating doctrines and "private ideas" reached through Bible research independent of Watch Tower Society publications and are cautioned against reading other religious literature.

[175] Jehovah's Witnesses believe that some people who died before Armageddon will be resurrected, taught the proper way to worship God, and then face a final test at the end of the millennial reign.

[238] Other serious sins involve accepting blood transfusions (which does not require a judicial committee),[90] smoking,[90] using recreational drugs,[90] divorce (unless a spouse committed adultery),[200] celebration of holidays[239] or birthdays,[240] abortion (which is considered murder),[241] and political activities such as voting in elections.

[263] Andrew Holden believes that most members who join millenarian movements such as Jehovah's Witnesses have made an informed choice,[264] but that defectors "are seldom allowed a dignified exit",[233] and describes the administration as autocratic.

[33] Bryan R. Wilson believed that Jehovah's Witnesses conflict with society at large, impose "tests of merit on would-be members", have strict disciplinary procedures, and expect absolute commitment.

[266] Sociologist Ronald Lawson has suggested that the group's intellectual and organizational isolation, coupled with the intense indoctrination of adherents, rigid internal discipline, and considerable persecution, has contributed to the consistency of its sense of urgency in its apocalyptic message.

[270] Beckford also identified the group's chief characteristics as historicism (identifying historical events as relating to the outworking of God's purpose), absolutism (conviction that Jehovah's Witness leaders dispense absolute truth), activism (capacity to motivate members to perform missionary tasks), rationalism (conviction that Witness doctrines have a rational basis devoid of mystery), authoritarianism (rigid presentation of regulations without the opportunity for criticism) and world indifference (rejection of certain secular requirements and medical treatments).

[272] Critics believe that by disparaging individual decision-making, the group's leaders cultivate a system of unquestioning obedience[150][273] in which members abrogate all responsibility and rights over their personal lives.

[279] Some Jehovah's Witnesses describe themselves to academics as "Physically In, Mentally Out" (PIMO); these individuals privately question certain doctrine but remain inside the organization to maintain contact with their friends and family.

[293] The Watch Tower Society provides pre-formatted durable power of attorney documents prohibiting major blood components, in which members can specify which allowable fractions and treatments they will accept.

[326] The religious group became especially unpopular after 1940 due to their political neutrality in the second world war, prompting people to write to government officials about the names and addresses of known members.

When Hector Charlesworth banned this activity as well, he was "indirectly attacked" in an issue of the Golden Age and Jehovah's Witnesses launched a petition to regain their licenses that resulted in 406,270 signatures.

[344] A similar outcome was reached in Greenlees v. A.G. Canada, where the judge decided that Jehovah's Witnesses could not be ministers because they considered every member to be one and that they did not have an organizational structure independent of the Watchtower Bible and Tract Society.

[366] Historian Sybil Milton writes, "their courage and defiance in the face of torture and death punctures the myth of a monolithic Nazi state ruling over docile and submissive subjects.

[380] In 1941, all publications by the Watch Tower Bible and Tract Society of Pennsylvania were banned, as a result of Jehovah's Witnesses' persistent refusal to enlist in the Allied Forces in World War II.

[391][392] In 1943, the Supreme Court ruled in West Virginia State Board of Education v. Barnette that requiring students to salute the flag was a violation of their First Amendment rights.