Salvation
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The way of salvation according to Jehovah’s Witnesses |
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Here is
what Jehovah’s Witnesses teach about salvation. Because of Adam’s sin all men
have inherited physical death and inborn sin. Jesus Christ made atonement for
us and thus removed for believers the results of Adam’s sin. They explain the
word atonement by saying that the word atonement is drawn from the expression
at one, and means that what makes
satisfaction for another thing which has been forfeited must be ‘at one’ with
that other thing, that is, must be exactly equivalent to it. When applied to
the work of Christ, atonement means that ‘the human life that Jesus Christ
laid down in sacrifice must be exactly equal to that life which Adam
forfeited for all his offspring; it must be a perfect human life, no more, no
less’ (You May Survive Armageddon,
page 39). This human life which Jesus sacrificed for his people is called a
ransom. In other words, Jesus sacrificed His human body in order to atone for
the sin of Adam, which means that He renounced His body permanently and did
not take it back again. His human body was the ransom He had to pay, so he
could not take it back through the resurrection. That’s why God did not raise
Him from the dead as a human Son, but as a mighty immortal spirit Son (thus,
the physical resurrection of Jesus is denied). |
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So God
provided through Christ a redemptive price whereby ‘those of men who have
faith in God’s provision may come into harmony with him and, serving him faithfully,
they may receive the gift of life, being freed from inherited sin and from
eternal death as a result of sin’ (Let
God Be True, page 113). It should be noted at this point, that according
to Jehovah’s Witnesses, the penalty for Adam’s sin was physical death which
was to be followed by annihilation, thus the purpose of Christ’s death was to
rescue men from the annihilation in which they would otherwise have remained
after death (Jehovah’s Witnesses deny the existence of an immortal soul
inside man’s body which after death goes either to heaven or to hell). |
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For whom
did Christ make this atonement? Not for everyone. For Adam is not included
among those ransomed nor are included among those ransomed all those who
remain eternally dead and are thus permanently annihilated (Cain, those who
died in the flood, the people of |
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Who will
benefit from the ransom of Christ? Two classes of believers, that is, the
anointed class and the other sheep: ‘All who by reason of faith in Jehovah
God and in Christ Jesus dedicate themselves to do God’s will and then
faithfully carry out their dedication will be rewarded with everlasting life
(Romans 6:23). However, that life will not be the same for all. The Bible
plainly shows that some of these, that is, 144,000, will share in heavenly
glory with Christ Jesus, while the others will enjoy the blessings of life
down here on earth (Revelation 14:1,3; Micah 4:1-5)’ (Let God Be True, page 298). However, the way of salvation is not
the same for both classes. |
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The
anointed class |
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Let us
first look at the doctrine of salvation as it applies to the anointed class
or 144,000. How do they obtain salvation? They must first believe and repent.
Obviously, they must believe that Jesus is not God, for faith in the Divinity
of Christ is a false faith. This faith must be followed by a change of life. |
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True faith
and true repentance require that one should give up one’s selfish course and
dedicate oneself to do God’s will, just as Jesus did. Since Jesus publicly
confessed His dedication to do His Father’s will by being baptized, everyone
who has agreed to do God’s will should be baptized (by immersion), as a
symbol of his dedication. |
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We are
told that God declares such people righteous because of their faith in
Christ’s blood, so since they exercised faith in Christ’s blood before their
baptism, we should come to the conclusion that when they were baptized they
were already justified. However it appears that this justification takes
place after their baptism or dedication. Here is what we read in Let God Be True: ‘Christ Jesus then
[after one has exercised faith and has dedicated himself to God] acts as an
advocate, covering the sins of such a dedicated one by the merit of his
sacrifice. The dedicated one is now in position to be justified or declared
righteous by God, and thus he has access to God through Christ Jesus. He has
an acceptable body and the right to perfect life on earth, and all this can
be presented for sacrifice with Christ Jesus’ (Let God Be True, page 299). What does ‘one is now in position to
be justified or declared righteous’ mean? It means that their justification
will take place at the close of the earthly life of the 144,000, for in order
to be declared righteous they must prove to be faithful imitators of Christ
to the close of their earthly life: ‘For their [the members of the anointed
class] proving faithful imitators of his Son to the close of their earthly
life, making their calling and their being chosen certain, Jehovah God will
pronounce them righteous’ (New Heavens
and a New Earth, page 167). So their justification is based on works and
not on faith. Jehovah’s Witnesses claim that the fourth chapter of the
epistle to the Romans, where Paul speaks of justification, applies to the
justification of the anointed class. |
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What happens
after baptism? God causes His active force (that’s how they call the Holy
Spirit for they deny His personality
and deity) to act upon them so as to bring them forth as
spiritual sons with the hope of life in the heavens and God acknowledges them
as His sons. They become members of Christ’ body, and are made kings and
priests of God. However, they do not yet have eternal life, for they will
receive it if they maintain their integrity until death. In other words, they
will obtain the right to share heavenly life with Christ after death if they
gain it through their own sacrifice. Here is what the Watchtower Society
says: ‘To gain that incorruptible prize they must be loyal to God even at the
cost of their human lives’ (This Means
Everlasting Life, page 121), and again: ‘Before such members of Christ’s
body can receive their heavenly inheritance they must be set apart more and
more from this world and to the holy service of Jehovah God, demonstrating
their dependability by carrying out their dedication faithfully until death’
(Let God Be True, page 301). In the
light of their teaching, therefore, the members of the anointed class must
earn their own way to heaven! They don’t obtain salvation by the grace of God
when they believe, for salvation is something which they will receive at the
end of their earthly course if they are faithful to God or rather to the
Watchtower Society. |
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At this
point I need to speak of the first resurrection in order to understand how,
according to the Jehovah’s Witnesses, those who belong to the 144,000 are
enabled to share heavenly life with Christ after death, for, as you know, Jehovah’s
Witnesses deny the existence of an immortal soul which continues to live
after death. First of all, they affirm that in 1918 Christ
came to the temple, that is, the Jehovah’s Witness organization, to cleanse
it of rebellious members. A very short time after the temple’s cleansing,
still in the year 1918, the members of the anointed class who had died by
that time were ‘raised’ with spiritual (that is, non-physical) bodies, and
were placed on the throne with Jesus Christ. That was the ‘first
resurrection’. Now, since a remnant of the anointed class is still alive
today (they are in the Watchtower Society, of course), when the members of
this remnant die it happens that they undergo the ‘first resurrection’ at the
moment of their death. Immediately at death they enter into an eternal spirit
existence! They are resurrected in the spirit, are changed instantaneously to
spirits immortal, incorruptible, and they go to heaven with Christ!! ‘…. At
death they are changed from human to divine, incorruptible, immortal,
spiritual, in but a moment or twinkling of an eye’ (New Heavens and a New Earth, page 320). The 144,000, during the
millennium (which will start after the battle of Armageddon) will reign with
Christ (in heaven and not on the earth). We are told that, during the
millennium, they join Christ in dispensing the benefits of Christ’s ransom
sacrifice to the believers of mankind during the thousand years of the
kingdom rule (cf. This Means Eternal
Life, pages 274-275). |
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The other
sheep |
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How do the
other sheep obtain salvation? They, too, need to have faith in God and in
Jesus Christ; they, too, must dedicate themselves to do God’s will and must
faithfully carry out their dedication; they, too, must be baptized by
immersion as a symbol of their dedication. However, the other sheep are not
justified by God – at least not during their present existence -, nor are
they regenerated by God, for they cannot be born again, nor are they made
kings and priests, nor are they sanctified by God. There are great
differences, therefore, between the members of the anointed class and the
other sheep. However, one thing must be clear; the other sheep can’t affirm
that they have been saved either, for they need to work very hard to deserve
to be saved; to be saved from what? Above all from Armageddon. However, the
fact is that even though the other sheep do all their efforts to be counted
worthy to survive Armageddon, they are not sure they will be saved at
Armageddon. William J. Schnell, who was a Jehovah’s Witness for thirty years,
has affirmed that during his years with the movement the other sheep were
told that if they stayed close to the Watchtower organization, listened
attentively to its indoctrination, went out regularly to distribute
literature, and rigidly reported the time spent in doing so, they might be saved at Armageddon (that is,
perhaps they would be saved at Armageddon)!! I have personally realized this,
for I have talked with many members of ‘the other sheep’ who have told me
that they are not sure they will be saved at Armageddon; they hope to be
saved but they can’t affirm that will surely be saved!! To support this
‘hope’ with the Scripture they quote the following Bible passage: “Seek
righteousness, seek humility; perhaps you will be sheltered on the day of the
Lord’s anger” (Zephaniah 2:3 – NIV). |
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Now, you
may ask: ‘Since only the members of the anointed class go to heaven at the
moment of their death (through an invisible resurrection!), for they alone
are worthy to reign with Christ in heaven, what happens to the other sheep
when they die?’ Well, they remain in the condition of non-existence, into
which death has plunged them, till their ‘resurrection’, which will take
place during the millennium (which will start just after the devastation of
Armageddon). Their resurrection is called ‘resurrection of life’ (as a matter
of fact it is a recreation because they were totally annihilated when they
died), and through this ‘resurrection’ they will be enabled to live again on
this earth during the millennium. Besides the other sheep who died before
Armageddon, many other people will be raised during the millennium: the Old
Testament people who were faithful to God and those who lived at the time of
Christ but died before Pentecost. These people also will take part in the
‘resurrection of life’. There are still many other people who will be raised
during the millennium: they are those whose hearts may have been wanting to do right but who died without ever having
had an opportunity to hear of God’s purposes or to learn what He expects of
men. However, the resurrection of these people is called ‘resurrection of
judgement’. All those people who will be raised during the millennium (that
is, both those who will take part in the ‘resurrection of life’ and those who
will take part in the ‘resurrection of judgement’) will be physically raised
but not with perfect human bodies. The following people, however, will not be
raised during the millennium: those who are killed at Armageddon, those who
knowingly and deliberately did wrong, those who have sinned against the Holy
Spirit, Adam and Eve, Cain, those who died in the flood, the people of Sodom,
Judas Iscariot, and the religious hypocrites of Jesus’ day. |
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Now let me
explain to you what Jehovah’s Witnesses teach about the millennium. The
millennium is called ‘Judgement Day’ because all those who will be on earth
during the millennium (that is, the survivors of Armageddon and all those who
will be raised from the dead during the millennium) will be judged by Christ.
In other words, they will be tested by God, in that the millennium is a
thousand-year day of test. The basis for this judgement will not be the lives
people have lived before they died, but the works they perform during the
millennium! Those who pass the judgment-test will receive the right to
eternal life. In other words, they will receive eternal life if they deserve
it; once again you can see that salvation is by works even during the
millennium. However, though the ‘day of judgement’ extends throughout the
millennium, this is still not the last judgement; the final judgment will not
come until the end of Christ’s thousand-year reign. At the end of the
millennium Satan and his demons will be loosed or released from the abyss in
which they have been confined for a thousand years. Satan will use some sly
appeal to selfishness, making people think they will be better off if they
follow him. This attempt of Satan will be a final test of obedience which
everyone on earth will have to face. Satan, his demons, and his followers
will assault the camp of the holy ones, but fire will come down out of heaven
and devour all those who follow Satan. All human rebels, all the demons, and
Satan himself will be cast into the lake of fire, which means that they will
be annihilated and they will be as if they had never existed. Those who don’t
yield to Satan’s temptation however, and who thus pass the final test, will
be declared righteous by God and will be given the right to perfect life on
the earthly paradise forever. Listen to what the authors of You May Survive Armageddon say: ‘God
will be vindicated as true by their unbreakable steadfastness and he will
judge them worthy of the right to everlasting life in the earthly paradise.
He will accordingly justify them [the other sheep], and the names of these
unchangeably righteous ones will be ‘written in the book of life’ (page 360).
As you can see, the members of the ‘other sheep’, both those who will survive
Armageddon and those who will be raised during the millennium, need to pass a
test which will last one thousand years before they can say that they have
been justified and they have eternal life!! |
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Confutation
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Jesus took
back His body |
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First of
all, I want to affirm that according to the Scripture after Jesus offered Himself
for our sins, that is to say, after He died on the cross to make atonement
for our sins, He rose again physically. His physical resurrection took place
on the third day. We affirm that His resurrection was physical because when
Jesus appeared to His disciples His body was made of flesh and bones and had
the prints of nails on it (consequently, He could not be a spirit). Here is
what Luke says: “And as they thus spake, Jesus himself stood in the midst of
them, and saith unto them, Peace be unto you. But they were terrified and
affrighted, and supposed that they had seen a spirit. And he said unto them,
Why are ye troubled? and why do thoughts arise in
your hearts? Behold my hands and my feet, that it is I myself: handle me, and
see; for a spirit hath not flesh and bones, as ye see me have. And when he
had thus spoken, he shewed them his hands and his feet. And while they yet
believed not for joy, and wondered, he said unto them, Have ye here any meat?
And they gave him a piece of a broiled fish, and of an
honeycomb. And he took it, and did eat before them” (Luke 24:36-43). David
foretold the physical resurrection of the Messiah centuries before it took
place, saying: “My flesh also will rest in hope. For You will not leave my
soul in Sheol, nor will You allow Your Holy One to see corruption” (Psalm
16:9-10 - NKJV). Jesus had to be raised physically in order to destroy death
and put away sin. Therefore, it is true that He gave Himself as a ransom for
us to redeem us from our transgression, but in order to complete His work of
redemption, and thus to redeem us, He had to rise again with the same body
that He had offered on the cross for us. Therefore, Jesus renounced His body
temporarily, that is, for three days and three nights, to take it back. Glory
be to His name forever. Amen. |
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Jesus died
and rose again to save us not only from sin but also from an everlasting
torment |
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The
Scripture teaches that one does not cease to exist totally when he dies for he has
an immortal soul which lives on. The soul of a man goes either
to heaven or to hell after death depending upon the spiritual state of the
individual at death. Heaven
is a wonderful place of rest (cf. 2 Corinthians 12:1-4), while hell
is an awful place of torment (cf. Luke |
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Therefore,
Jehovah’s Witnesses are wrong when they deny the
existence of an immortal soul which continues to live after death as well as
when they deny the existence of a place of torment where the souls of the
wicked go. Furthermore, they are wrong also when they affirm that not
all men will be raised from the dead and that the wicked will be
annihilated. |
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The people
of God is not divided into two classes |
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Those who
have believed in the Lord are not divided into two classes of believers with
two different kinds of hope, that is, those who were appointed to reign in
heaven and those who were appointed to live on earth. There is one people, one Church, one body, according to the
Scripture. And all the members of the |
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Jesus gave
Himself for all men so that they might be justified by His grace |
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As we have
seen, according to Jehovah’s Witnesses Jesus died in order to enable those
who believe on Him to be justified through their good works. It should be
noted, however, that while the 144,000 will be justified (declared righteous)
if they prove to be faithful imitators of Christ to the close of their
earthly life, the ‘other sheep’ will be justified not during their present
existence but at the end of the millennium if they are counted worthy to be
justified (in that they will be ‘raised’ from the dead to be tested for a
thousand years at the end of which if they pass the test they will be
justified forever and live forever on the new earth!) By the way, among those
who will be tested during the millennial reign there is even Abraham, for he
was not a member of the 144,000! Now I will refute their teaching on
justification. |
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The ‘anointed class’. |
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The
teaching on the justification of the 144.000 taught by Jehovah’s Witnesses is
false for the following reasons. |
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The
Scripture teaches that justification is obtained by faith alone before water
baptism, as it is written: “The just shall live by his faith” (Habakkuk 2:4 -
NKJV), and not after water baptism. Furthermore, the Scripture teaches that
all those who have repented and believed in Jesus Christ have been justified.
Paul did not make any difference between the 144.000 and the ‘other sheep.’
To him all those who have believed have been justified, for he said to the
Jews of Antioch in Pisidia: “Therefore let it be known to you, brethren, that
through this Man is preached to you the forgiveness of sins; and by Him
everyone who believes is justified from all things from which you could not
be justified by the law of Moses” (Acts 13:38-39 – NKJV). As you can see, the
expression ‘everyone who believes’ nullifies the doctrine on justification
taught by the Jehovah’s Witnesses, because it shows that all those who
believe, and not just some of them, are justified. However, they are
justified when they believe, and not after water baptism (because faith
precedes water baptism), not after mouths or years or after one has shown
through his life his faithfulness to God. For the Scripture says that when
Abraham believed God, God accounted it to him for righteousness at once, as
it is written: “And he believed in the Lord, and He accounted it to him for
righteousness” (Genesis 15:6 - NKJV). Therefore, Abraham was justified on the
same day he believed; not some time later, such as when he was circumcised or
when he offered his son Isaac, but on the same day he believed in the Lord.
The example of Abraham shows how and when God declares a person righteous in
His sight: He does declare a person righteous by his faith and not by his conduct;
consequently when he believes and not some time after he has believed. All
this because justification is obtained by faith alone apart from good works,
as it is written: “…. knowing that a man is not justified by the works of the
law but by faith in Jesus Christ ….” (Galatians |
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As for
Abraham, I want to say the following things to refute the Jehovah’s
Witnesses. Now, according to them, Abraham was not a member of the anointed
class (the 144000), and thus he was not justified fully (for they say that
even Abraham will have to be tested during the millennium before he can be
justified); however, strange to say, the Jehovah’s Witnesses affirm that the
teaching on justification which is in the fourth chapter of the epistle to
the Romans applies to the 144000! Therefore, I ask these people, ‘How is it
that Paul, in order to speak about the justification of the 144000, took as
an example Abraham who was not a member of the anointed class? If Abraham was
not justified for life (the justification for life is the kind of
justification which is received by the members of the anointed class), as you
say, and thus he also must be tested during the millennial reign in order to
be justified for life, how is it that the justification he received applies
to the justification of the 144.000, who don’t have to pass the millennial
test?’ Furthermore, I ask you this, ‘How is it that the father of all those
who believe was appointed by God to live on earth, while his children were
appointed to live in heaven? Why should his children (the 144000) be in heaven
and their father on earth? And why from heaven should they rule over their
father?’ The truth is, Jehovah’s Witnesses, that even though Abraham does not
belong to the 144000 (however, not for the reasons you say), he was fully
justified by his faith, and he had a heavenly hope because he wanted to go to
his heavenly country, for in the epistle to the Hebrews it is written that
Abraham and others “confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the
earth” (Hebrews 11:13 – NKJV) and now “they desire a better [country], that
is, a heavenly country” (Hebrews 11:16 – NKJV). And we, who have believed in
Christ, also have been justified as Abraham, who is our father, and we too
desire a better country, that is, a heavenly country, as did Abraham, Isaac
and Jacob. I will say something else about our father Abraham: even though he
is not a member of the 144.000, he is in the kingdom of heaven for one day
Jesus said: “And I say unto you, That many shall come from the east and west,
and shall sit down with Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob, in the kingdom of
heaven” (Matthew 8:11). |
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I want to
remind you that when God declares a man righteous through his faith, He gives
him eternal life as well, so he who is justified has the assurance that he
has eternal life, as it is written: “These things I have written to you who
believe in the name of the Son of God, that you may know that you have
eternal life” (1 John 5:13 – NKJV), and also: “ ….
That having been justified by His grace we should become heirs according to
the hope of eternal life” (Titus 3:7 – NKJV). However, such an assurance is
foreign to the theology of the Watchtower society, for nobody can say that he
has eternal life! Not even the members of the anointed class can say they
have eternal life! For they must offer themselves in order to obtain eternal
life. According to what I have read in their books, a man can’t receive
eternal life as a gift from God because of the merits and the sacrifice of
Christ, but rather men can receive eternal life on account of their own
merits and sacrifices. Works, works, works, they
speak always of good works, as if God put eternal life up for sale! Their
message is the same as the message of the Roman Catholic Church, that is, ‘We
must earn eternal life!’ But they are greatly mistaken, for eternal life is
the gift of God in Christ Jesus our Lord, which is obtained by faith alone,
as it is written: “He who believes has everlasting life” (John |
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I want to
remind you also this. When a person is justified by God through his faith, he
is also saved; so he can say that he has been saved. For the apostle Paul
says to the Ephesians: “For by grace you have been saved through faith ….”
(Ephesians 2:8 – NKJV). However, Jehovah’s Witnesses can’t affirm that they
have been saved. Not even the members of the ‘anointed class’ can say such a
thing. Why? Because, in order to be saved, they (the 144000) must obey God
till the end of their life. To them, if someone who has believed in the Lord states
that he has been saved, he is a presumptuous person! But how can a person be accused of being presumptuous when he says that he possesses
what God in His great mercy has given him freely? |
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The ‘other sheep’ |
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The
teaching on the justification of the ‘other sheep’ is false for the following
reasons. |
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The
Scripture unequivocally states that when a person repents of his sins and
believes in the blood of Christ is justified by God at once. When God
justifies a man, He imputes to him the righteousness of God which is in
Christ Jesus; Paul says that Christ became for us righteousness from God (cf.
1 Corinthians |
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If we
consider carefully this teaching on the justification of the ‘other sheep,’
we will notice that it attacks the atonement made by Christ, because
according to this teaching the blood of Jesus is not able to blot out all
sins from a Christian’s conscience when he believes in Christ and,
consequently, it is not able to justify him nor to reconcile him to God
during his present existence. For the full reconciliation between believers
and God will take place at the end of the Millennium!! While the Scripture
clearly states that all our sins have been taken away by the blood of Jesus Christ
and we have been reconciled to God through Christ. For the author of the
epistle to the Hebrews says: “For if the blood of bulls and of goats, and the
ashes of an heifer sprinkling the unclean, sanctifieth to the purifying of
the flesh: How much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal
Spirit offered himself without spot to God, purge your conscience from dead
works to serve the living God?” (Hebrews 9:13-14); and Paul says to the
Corinthians: “And all things are of God, who hath reconciled us to himself by
Jesus Christ, and hath given to us the ministry of reconciliation; To wit,
that God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto himself, not imputing
their trespasses unto them; and hath committed unto us the word of
reconciliation” (2 Corinthians 5:18-19), and to the Colossians: “And you, who
once were alienated and enemies in your mind by wicked works, yet now He has
reconciled in the body of His flesh through death, to present you holy, and
blameless, and above reproach in His sight” (Colossians 1:21-22 – NKJV). |
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All those
who believe in the Lord are born of God |
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As we saw
before, according to the Jehovah’s Witnesses only the 144.000 are born again;
however, that’s not true, because the Scripture says: “He came unto his own,
and his own received him not. But as many as received him, to them gave he
power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name: Which
were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of
man, but of God” (John 1:11-13), and again: “Whoever believes that Jesus is
the Christ is born of God ….” (1 John 5:1 – NKJV). Therefore, in the light of
the Word of God, all those who believe that Jesus is the Christ, are born of
God, and consequently when they die they will enter the |
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The first
resurrection has not yet taken place |
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According
to the Jehovah’s Witnesses, in 1918 the members of the anointed class who had
died by that time rose again with non-physical bodies and were placed on the
throne with Christ. That’s untrue, for, according to the Scripture, the first
resurrection is a bodily resurrection and it will take place when Jesus is
revealed from heaven. Here is what Paul says: “For this we say unto you by
the word of the Lord, that we which are alive and remain unto the coming of
the Lord shall not prevent them which are asleep. For the Lord himself shall
descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with
the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first: Then we which are
alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet
the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord” (1 Thessalonians
4:15-17). After the dead in Christ are raised and the living
are changed, the Millennial Reign will start. And all the saints will
reign with Christ on the earth, as it is written: “And I saw the souls of
them that were beheaded for the witness of Jesus, and for the word of God,
and which had not worshipped the beast, neither his image, neither had
received his mark upon their foreheads, or in their hands; and they lived and
reigned with Christ a thousand years. But the rest of the dead lived not
again until the thousand years were finished. This is the first resurrection.
Blessed and holy is he that hath part in the first resurrection: on such the
second death hath no power, but they shall be priests of God and of Christ,
and shall reign with him a thousand years” (Revelation 20:4-6) |
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It follows
that it is not true that when the members of the remnant of the 144.000 die,
they undergo the first resurrection. For when Paul says: “Then we which are
alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds” (1
Thessalonians 4:17), he does not refer to the invisible and spiritual
resurrection of the members of the remnant of the 144.000, but rather to a
completely different thing, that is, he refers to the fact that the body of
the saints who are alive and remain till the coming of the Lord will be
transformed that it might be conformed to the glorious body of Christ, which
is a physical body and not a spiritual body for Jesus rose from the dead physically
and not spiritually. |
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The
resurrection of life and the resurrection of judgement, according to the
Scripture |
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According
to the Bible, the resurrection of life, of which Jesus spoke, is the
resurrection of the just, which will take place at the return of the Lord. It
is also called the first resurrection, and those who will take part in this
resurrection will reign with Christ on the earth, as it is written: “Then I
saw the souls of those who had been beheaded for their witness to Jesus and
for the word of God, who had not worshiped the beast or his image, and had
not received his mark on their foreheads or on their hands. And they lived
and reigned with Christ for a thousand years …. Blessed and holy is he who
has part in the first resurrection. Over such the second death has no power,
but they shall be priests of God and of Christ, and shall reign with Him a
thousand years” (Revelation 20:4,6 - NKJV).
Therefore, all those who take part in the resurrection of life, will obtain
an immortal and incorruptible body and will reign with Christ during the
Millennium. They will not be raised to be tested by Christ. When they are raised,
they will appear before the judgement seat of Christ that each one may
receive what is due him for the things done while in the body, whether good
or bad (cf. 2 Corinthians 5:10). Therefore, they will be rewarded for what
they have done in their body (that is, in the present existence). |
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Instead,
the resurrection of judgement (or condemnation), of which Jesus spoke, is the
resurrection of the unjust which will take place at the end of the
Millennium, as it is written: “But the rest of the dead lived not again until
the thousand years were finished. …. And I saw a great white throne, and him
that sat on it, from whose face the earth and the heaven fled away; and there
was found no place for them. And I saw the dead, small and great, stand
before God; and the books were opened: and another book was opened, which is
the book of life: and the dead were judged out of those things which were
written in the books, according to their works. And the sea gave up the dead which were in it; and death and hell [Hades] delivered up
the dead which were in them: and they were judged every man according to
their works. And death and hell [hades] were cast into the lake of fire. This
is the second death. And whosoever was not found written in the book of life
was cast into the lake of fire” (Revelation 20:5,11-15).
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As you can
see, those who will take part in this resurrection will be judged according
to their works done during the life they have lived before they died, and
they will be sentenced to the second death, which does not stand for
everlasting destruction, but for everlasting torment for it is written that
they “will go away into everlasting punishment” (Matthew 25:46 – NKJV), and
they will have no rest day or night (cf. Revelation 14:11). |
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All men
will be raised |
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As for the
teaching that not all men will be raised from the dead, it is false because
Jesus said that “the hour is coming in which all who are in the graves will
hear His voice and come forth ….” (John 5:28-29 - NKJV). |
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Men will
be given no second opportunity to accept the Gospel after death |
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As for the
teaching according to which during the Millennium many sinners will be raised
and they will be given the opportunity to become part of the sheep of the
Lord, it is false because Jesus said that “he who does not believe will be
condemned” (Mark 16:16 – NKJV), and the author of the epistle to the Hebrews
says that it is appointed for men to die once, and after this the judgement
(cf. Hebrews 9:27). They died in their sins, so they will be raised from the
dead to be judged and cast into the lake which burns with fire and brimstone.
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The
Millennium is not a judgement day |
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The
teaching of the Watchtower about the Millennium has nothing to do with the truth, it is a heap of nonsense. The Millennium is a
period of time which will last a thousand years, during which the saints
(both those who will be raised from the dead and those who will be changed at
the coming of Christ) will reign with Christ on the earth (cf. Revelation
20:1-4). It is not a ‘Judgement day’ at all. |
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The Day of
Judgement |
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The
Judgement day of which the Watchtower Society speaks has nothing to do with
the Day of Judgement of which the Bible speaks. For the Day of Judgement is a
day on which all the sinners will be raised from the dead and appear before
the throne of God to be judged according to the works done in this life, and
they will be cast into the lake of fire (Revelation |
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Conclusion |
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According
to the Word of God, justification is by grace through faith in Christ. All
those who have believed in the Lord Jesus Christ, therefore, have been
justified by God, and consequently they have been reconciled to God through
Christ. They are sure that their sins have been purged from their conscience
by the precious blood of Christ. They have eternal life, and shall not come
into judgement, but have passed from death into life. So when they die, they
will go to be with the Lord in the kingdom of heaven where they will wait for
the resurrection from the dead. Then, when they are raised from the dead,
they will reign with Christ on the earth for a thousand years. |
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Beloved,
let no man deceive you with empty words. |