Part 2 here.
Part 3 here.
-------------------
So far, the doctrines of the Jehovah's Witnesses we’ve seen so far are quite destructive. But there is one that may very well be the most destructive of all. It’s their belief about Hell. They don’t believe in it, at least not in the way it’s written about in the Bible. They don’t believe that Hell is where those who deny GOD and who deny Christ will spend eternity. They believe in a form of “annihilationism.” That’s a big five-dollar word that means, “When you die, you're wiped out. POOF! You're gone!” At least as far as the unbelieving. But the Bible makes it perfectly clear that there is a real, literal, eternal, fiery Hell for those who do not believe.
One of the reasons Charles Taze Russell started Zion’s Watch Tower was because he did not believe in a literal, eternal Hell. Listen to what the Watchtower Bible and Tract Society says about Hell.
“Since the dead have no conscious existence, hell cannot be a fiery place of torment where the wicked suffer after death.” (Watchtower, July 15, 2002.)They teach that Hell is the “common grave for all the dead,” for believers and non-believers alike. As I mentioned earlier, you have to be real careful when you’re talking about the words translated as “Hell.” One of those words is the Hebrew “Gehenna,” the word that Jesus used to describe the literal, eternal, fiery place of those who deny GOD. “Gehenna” was a valley outside of Jerusalem. In this valley there was a huge garbage dump. Literally anything you could imagine was dumped there. They didn’t have Waste Management back in the day. Not only was this a garbage dump, but it was also where people who worshipped a god called “Molech” would sacrifice their children. And this dump was always on fire, and it was pretty useless trying to put it out, because it would just catch fire again. You can probably only imagine the smell. Jesus used this image to warn the people of a place where, as He said three times in Mark chapter 9, “…their worm dieth not, and the fire is not quenched.”
Matthew 25:46—“And these [the goats on His left] shall go away into everlasting punishment, but the righteous [the sheep on His right] into life eternal.”
2nd Thessalonians 1:7-9—Paul tells of the day …when the Lord Jesus shall be revealed from heaven with his mighty angels, in flaming fire taking vengeance on them that know not God, and that obey not the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ: who shall be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord, and from the glory of his power…
Now, this is where they come up with the idea that the wicked are wiped out. They take that phrase “everlasting destruction,” and they say that it means that you are destroyed forevermore, never to exist again. But that’s not what it means. It means that those who do not believe, those who deny GOD, and those who ignore the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ, shall suffer a destruction that will last forever. In fact that word “everlasting” really means “perpetual,” or ongoing, never-ending. One dictionary says, “Lasting or enduring for ever…existing or continuing without end…”
Those who deny GOD, and who reject the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ will spend all eternity in fiery torment. And if you want to demonstrate to someone what Hell is like, tell them to sit on a hot stove for about ten seconds. Then tell them to imagine that sensation all over their body. And for all eternity. Wanna know how long eternity is? Take all the water out of all the oceans. Then, fill that space with sand a thousand miles high. Every one thousand years, a bird comes and plucks a grain of sand. When all that sand is gone…you have just spent one minute in Hell. And you never run out of minutes.
Of all the doctrines the Jehovah's Witnesses hold, this one waters down the gospel more than any other. Because it was for this reason that Christ came. To rescue us from the curse of the Law, and from the curse of sin. 1st Timothy 1:15—This is a faithful saying, and worthy of all acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners… If there’s no reason to fear Hell, then why did He bother? If there’s no reason to fear Hell, then Jesus only came to heal a few people and make a few people see. If I'm just going to get **POOF** wiped out for not believing, then I have nothing to fear by not believing. I'll just go live my life any way I want to, not worry about whether what I’m doing is right or wrong. Why bother waking people up on Saturday mornings, knocking on their door, and getting them mad at me? And hey, I’ll just sleep in on Sunday mornings. I don’t have anything to worry about. I'll just enjoy my life, and when it’s over, it’s over. Of all the lies that Satan has introduced to the world, this is one of the most destructive. Paul said in 1st Corinthians 15:32—If, in the manner of men, I have fought with beasts at Ephesus, what advantage is it to me? If the dead do not rise, ‘Let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we die!’
They're wrong about death, they're wrong about Hell. Now let’s see what they have to say about Heaven. A few quotes:
- “How many will GOD take to Heaven to rule with Christ? According to the Bible, only 144,000…By far the vast majority will be resurrected to a Paradise Earth.” (Kowledge That Leads to Everlasting Life [chapter 9], WTBTS, Philadelphia, PA.)
- “David, Job, and John the Baptizer will receive a resurrection to life on Earth. In fact, all faithful men and women who died before Jesus died had the hope of living again on earth, not in heaven.” (You Can Live Forever in Paradise on Earth, 1982 ed. p. 122.)
- “Likewise…Jesus Christ is not the mediator between Jehovah GOD and all mankind. He is the mediator between His Heavenly Father, Jehovah GOD, and the nation of spiritual Israel, which is limited to only 144,000 members.” (The Desire for Peace and Security Worldwide, WTBTS, 1986, p. 10.)
- “In 1935…it was made known that the ‘great crowd’ of Revelation 9:9-17 was a group…whose destiny is everlasting life in a paradise earth.” (Watchtower, January 1, 1997.)
Remember the souls of those who were slain for preaching the gospel of Christ? They were underneath the altar of GOD. In heaven. Do you know that in the last 100 years, over a million people have been martyred for the name of Christ. And that in the 1,900 years before then, another million. That right there is over 2 million souls. So we take these, and we add them to the “multitude that no man can count,” and we have a number that’s quite a bit more than 144,000.
Now, let’s look at is this belief that there will be a separate heaven for the 144,000 and for the rest. The Bible doesn’t say anything like that. All of the redeemed of GOD will dwell together in that city of New Jerusalem which will come from above.
Revelation 21:1-5—And I saw a new heaven and a new earth…And I John saw the holy city, New Jerusalem, coming down from God out of heaven, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. And I heard a great voice out of heaven saying, Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and he will dwell with them, and they shall be his people, and God himself shall be with them, and be their God. And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes; and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain: for the former things are passed away. And he that sat upon the throne said, ‘Behold, I make all things new’.There won't be a separate heaven for this group or that group. There won't be 144,000 here and a bunch of other people there. Every single saint of GOD will be in the presence of Almighty YHWH in that city of New Jerusalem. I love what some songs say about that day.
LORD, we stand in the midst of the multitude of those from every tribe and tongue.
We are Your people, redeemed by Your blood, rescued from death by Your love.
Hallelujah, Hallelujah, Hallelujah to the Lamb
Hallelujah, Hallelujah, by the blood of Christ we stand
Every tongue, every tribe, every people, every land
Giving glory, giving honor, giving praise unto the Lamb of GOD!
Or this one:
It's the song of the redeemed rising from the African plain.
It's the song of the forgiven drowning out the Amazon rain.
The song of Asian believers filled with GOD’s holy fire.
It's every tribe, every tongue, every nation, a love song borne of a grateful choir.
We’ll be standing shoulder to shoulder with people from right down the street, across town, and from halfway around the world! It won't matter whether we’re white, whether we’re black, whether we’re Asian, or whether we’re from Canada or Africa. All who believe on the Lord Jesus Christ are all GOD’s children singing Glory, glory! Hallelujah He reigns!!
