[Damon]

I was also curious about this (my mom is a Witness of Jehovah) and did some research about the origin of the cross. I found some good information in Vine’s Expository Dictionary of New Testament Words at http://www.menfak.no/bibel/vines.html

You may know that the New Testament was written in Greek. The Greek word used for cross is “stauros,” and this was the definition I found: – “Denotes, primarily, ‘an upright pale or stake.’ On such malefactors were nailed for execution. Both the noun and the verb stauroo, ‘to fasten to a stake or pale,’ are originally to be distinguished from the ecclesiastical form of a two-beamed ‘cross’. The shape of the latter had its origin in ancient Chaldea, and was used as the symbol of the god Tammuz (being in the shape of the mystic Tau, the initial of his name) in that country and in adjacent lands, including Egypt. By the middle of the 3rd century A.D. the churches had either departed from, or had travestied, certain doctrines of the Christian faith. In order to increase the prestige of the apostate ecclesiastical system, pagans were received into the churches apart from regeneration by faith, and were permitted largely to retain their pagan signs and symbols. Hence the Tau or T, in its most frequent form, with the cross-piece lowered, was adopted to stand for the ‘cross’ of Christ.”

So basically, Jehovah’s Witnesses do not agree that the cross orginates with the Bible, and that therefore, it should not be used as a part of Christian worship.

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Name : Damon, Gender : M, Race : Black/African American, Religion : Christian, Age : 24, City : Wyoming, State : MI, Country : United States, Occupation : Computer Programmer, Education level : 4 Years of College, 

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