Helsinki () is the capital city of Finland. Helsinki is the largest city in Finland. 604,380 (31.12.2012) people live in Helsinki, and 1,360,000 live in the Helsinki metropolitan area.
Helsinki is in the south of Finland, on the coast of the Gulf of Finland. The city is in the Uusimaa region. When one looks from Helsinki, Tallinn is on the opposite side of the sea, but it is too far away to see. A poetic name for Helsinki is "the daughter of the Baltic Sea".
In 1550, Swedish king Gustav Vasa commanded people to build a new city and move there. His idea was to build a new place to trade, which would be more popular than Tallinn. The idea did not work well, and many people returned from Helsinki to their homes. Later Sweden built the fortress Suomenlinna in Helsinki. After Russia had taken Finland from Sweden in several wars, they started developing Helsinki. Helsinki became the capital of autonomous province of Finland. When Finland became independent in 1917, Helsinki stayed as the capital city.
Helsinki spreads around several bays and over several islands. Some famous islands include Seurasaari, Lauttasaari and Korkeasaari - which is also the country's biggest zoo - as well as the fortress island of Suomenlinna (Sveaborg).
The metropolitan area of Greater Helsinki also includes two of Finland's biggest cities, Espoo to the west of Helsinki, and Vantaa to the north. These two cities, along with Helsinki itself and the small town of Kauniainen (which is in fact surrounded by Espoo), make up the Capital Region ("Pääkaupunkiseutu" in Finnish or "Huvudstadsregionen" in Swedish). There are other towns nearby that are part of Greater Helsinki, including Järvenpää, Kerava, Tuusula, Nurmijärvi, Sipoo, Kirkkonummi, Mäntsälä and Vihti. They have become popular places for Helsinki commuters to live.
The public transportation network in Helsinki and its area consists of
Helsinki Airport is located in Vantaa about 20 kilometers north of Helsinki city center. The airport offers both domestic flights within Finland and international flights to Europe, Asia and North America.
Helsinki offers several boat services to Tallinn and Stockholm every day, along with ferries to places including the island of Suomenlinna.
Jehovah's Witnesses
Jehovah's Witnesses are a religious group with more than eight million members around the world. They believe God, who they call Jehovah, will end crime, violence, sickness and death by destroying all wickedness in the world. They say that God's Kingdom (mentioned (thy Kingdom come) in the Lord's prayer) will restore God's original purpose for the Earth: bringing about peace for all humans who live by Bible standards.
Their beliefs are based solely upon the Bible. These beliefs were taught by Charles Taze Russell, a preacher who started a Bible study group in Pennsylvania in 1876. The goal of Russell and other Bible Students, as the group was then known, was to promote the teachings of Jesus Christ and to follow the practices of the first-century Christian congregation. Since Jesus is the Founder of Christianity, they view him as the founder of their organization.—Colossians 1:18-20. They later started publishing a religious magazine called "The Watchtower".
Some of their beliefs, especially about who God is and what his plans are for humans and the earth, are different from what is taught in most Christian churches. Jehovah's Witnesses believe that only 144,000 people will go to heaven and that all the other people who obey God will live forever on a paradise Earth. They do not believe that God is a Trinity. They believe Jesus died on a pole (also called '[torture] stake') rather than a cross. They teach that when people die, they remain in the grave until Jesus resurrects them after God's Kingdom, or government, is ruling over earth.
Jehovah's Witnesses are best known for preaching their beliefs from door-to-door and in other public places, and offering their magazines, "The Watchtower" and "Awake!" They are also well known for refusing to join armies and refusing blood transfusions.
In 1870 a young clothing shop owner named Charles Taze Russell heard an Adventist preacher speak. The preacher said the Bible contained clues that showed God was about to set up a kingdom, or government, over earth. He said the kingdom, which is mentioned many times in the New Testament of the Bible, would be based in heaven, and it would completely change the way of life for everyone in the world. Russell studied that preacher's teachings and looked through the Bible, and ended up with some new beliefs.
Using various Bible verses and events from history, Russell decided that God would soon call a group of "saints" to heaven to be kings there. Other faithful Christians who had since died would also make up a total of 144,000 kings in heaven. Churches at the time taught that humans were still waiting for Jesus to return to earth in his Second Coming, but Russell believed that clues in the Bible showed Jesus returned in 1874. Russell believed part of God's plan was to start Armageddon, which he thought would be a complete breakdown of law and order on earth, when governments and people would fight among themselves. He believed that God would then end sickness and death and allow obedient Christians to live forever in perfect health.
Russell believed it was very important that all Christians, including those who were attending churches, should learn those "truths". He believed these "truths" had been carefully hidden in the Bible for thousands of years. He started a publishing group called the Watch Tower Bible and Tract Society of Pennsylvania. He wrote several books, set up some Bible study classes for people to study his teachings, and started a magazine, "Zion's Watch Tower and Herald of Christ's Presence", which taught that Christ was already present. He wrote that God would bring about all those events by 1914.
By the time Russell died in 1916, he had written 50,000 pages, with almost 20 million copies of his books printed and distributed around the world. Joseph Franklin Rutherford, one of his followers, took Russell's position as president of the Watch Tower Society.
Rutherford wrote many books as well. He made some changes to Russell's teachings and required all the study groups, or congregations, around the world to agree to the teachings and rules set by the Watch Tower Society in New York. He told all members to no longer celebrate all holidays, singing at religious meetings was strictly prohibited and preaching from door to door about God's Kingdom and to distribute Watch Tower Society publications so more people would hear the message was manadtory. Many members did not agree with Rutherford's harsh changes, and some started their own groups. In 1931 Rutherford called his group "Jehovah's Witnesses" to tell it apart from the other groups. By the time Rutherford died in 1942, the religion had a worldwide membership of 115,000.
Some of the new teachings resulted in suffering for many Jehovah's Witnesses. Thousands were sent to prison, beaten or killed in several countries during World War II because they refused to fight. In Germany, many were sent to concentration camps because they would not support the Nazi Party. Later, in the United States, many of their children were expelled from schools because they refused to salute the flag, because they thought that God would not approve. Some countries still have laws against members practicing the religion. By 1977 they had more than two million members around the world.
From 1966, the religion suggested that God could bring Armageddon in 1975, and that the Kingdom would be set up very soon after. Some Witnesses sold businesses and homes, gave up jobs, delayed medical operations and decided against starting a family because they expected Armageddon to arrive. Many members that assumed Armageddon would come in 1975 left at the time, but many other people joined and the group kept growing.