Question for Jevovah’s Witnesses or ex Witnesses

[Jozephine]

Not really an AIBU, but not sure where to ask this. I’ve got friends who are JW. The know I don’t believe, and are very closed about their beliefs to me and just shut down conversation if I talk about religion. So my question is around death and funerals.

my friends were recent converts and none of their extended family or friends are JW. There have been a number of funerals in their family recently. As these family members were not JW will the belief be that they will be burnt in the eternal fires at judgement day? I can’t square it with my friend saying that her dad is now ‘at peace’ if she believes that’s going to be his fate? If I believed the things JWs claim then I would be a mess thinking of all my dead loved ones who would have such a fate waiting for them. How does it work?

Jehovah’s Witnesses don’t believe in hell they do believe that when people die that’s it what they do believe is when the end of the world comes the people dead will be resurrected and they will get a chance again to know the truth and if they then decide to reject it they will be killed and that’s it. They will be gone from eternity. Actually, when they talk about the end of the world, they also say that the people alive at that point it’s gonna be really bad and they will be killed as well for rejecting the truth.

JWs don't believe that all JWs go to heaven. I know a JW who hates being a JW and he said only a certain amount of JWs get in and no non-JWs get in.

Maybe your friend means her dad is at peace as in not in pain any more?

Not quite true 144000 people go to heaven the rest don’t because they get to go into Paradise Earth because earth isn’t going everywhere after the great tribulation basically the end of the world which means when God has had enough of the wickedness

Thank you.

So let me get this straight. If I die a non believer of JW doctrine, I am just dead until the day of reckoning. Then I get one last chance to become JW and if I decline to believe it’s burning for all eternity. Or do I do a non believer and that’s it too late?

My understanding is that no one 'burns for all eternity'. Either you are part of the 144,000 who go to heaven; you are resurrected to live forever in paradise on earth; or (for non-believers) you die and know nothing more (as an atheist would view death - no afterlife, not even a hellish one).

I'm not and never have been a JW but once had a (nice) neighbour who would have liked to convert me and we used to have detailed talks about the JW theology. Failed to sway me from agnosticism.

You are wrong let me explain. The person had actually got it nearly right basically nobody burns in eternity but they will not get to live in Paradise. They will just die that’s it. They’re gone. She is right to suggest they get one chance to entertain the truth when the end of the world comes then after that when he has a chance and Satan is castaway for a bit, which is what happens he then gets released again and that is when these resurrected people get a chance and a test to prove Faithful they are to God if they then don’t do that they die forever they get killed and die forever?

Yes, that's what I thought I'd said.🤔

My mum who I don’t speak to anymore is a Jehovah’s Witness I was brought up in it since a little girl I left when I was about 16 so I understand it very well but I think I need to clarify a few things. It’s not quite as simple as what a few people have said.
So there is 144,000 which many of them are very very old and I’ve already died and are in heaven it’s too complicated to explain why. However, there is the great crowd which is everybody else that’s Jehovah‘s witnesses.
Just because you were Jehovah’s Witness, there is no guarantee you will be saved.
so in revelations it predicts the end of the world coming very much like the king of the north against the king of the South sometimes when I hear about China uprising against America there’s a lot to that that has been predicted and the fall of the United Nations it’s all predicted in the Bible.
So when the great tribulation starts because Satan knows his time is coming where God is going to imprison him he’s going to a lot of hell on Earth and destruction and really test peoples faith that’s what it says in the Bible.
So anyway, God will then see that people are being wicked will destroy the wicked people make way for a paradise earth where everything is living in harmony the animals that eat meat eat vegetarian stuff because they don’t kill other animals so you get it so harmonious place, you can cuddle the animals, et cetera
This time Satan is putting in jail and then people will be resurrected that have died before this so you could be seeing people from very old times, including some of the old disciples. I think many of them probably go to heaven but anyway, any old person from historical facts
Then everybody has time to get to know the truth if they’ve never been preached before.
The Bible does say I can’t remember after so long Satan is released again which then leads to holy hell on earth because obviously he just wants to go mad and try to encourage badness again but God will allow it to go on as long as he did this time, and he will just wipe out the wicked and he will literally destroy Satan that is it and then everybody else left lives on paradise earth and if the ones are in heaven they’re in heaven

The reason why this has happened is because right from the very start Satan thought he knew better than God was there when God told Adam and Eve you cannot eat from that one tree otherwise you become imperfect and the rest of the people behind you becoming perfect too, which is why we have a lot of sadness and stuff going on in this world. . God created people to be perfect he didn’t want people to die and he didn’t want people to have diseases so anyway Satan in the disguise of a serpent goes up to Eve and says is it really so that that God has told you you can’t eat an apple from that tree and she was like yeah so anyway he convince her to do that which then leads mankind to imperfection.
So then fast forward Jesus has to come down to earth to as the only perfect being cleanse sins by his death making way for a promise that nobody will die again that people won’t suffer again and that’s why the whole thing about the great tribulation and the paradise Earth exist

Myself, I don’t know if any of this is true. I do know that my family was destroyed in part by it.

I'm so sorry, I know this sounds like a stupid question or like I'm taking the piss but I genuinely don't know the answer and would like to know. If JWs believe that god didn't want Adam and Eve to eat the apple because then they would be imperfect but a serpent convinced them and that led to mankind's imperfections, do JWs eat apples or is it part of their religion that they can't eat them?

Yeah people eat apples because God made loads of apples on loads of trees they could’ve picked from it might not even be an apple. I think it’s just a fruit the point was it wasn’t even about the tree. It was more a symbol of luck if you obey God, he’s just asking you to do one little thing.

I see! Thanks so much for answering.

I've just seen your last post and I'm so sorry to hear about your family, that's awful.

It's not an apple, they ate the fruit from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. There were 2 trees in the Garden that god didn't want Adam and Eve to eat from, the tree of knowledge of good and evil and the tree of life. The Devil, in the guise of a serpent, convinced eve to eat from the tree of knowledge, she then gave it to Adam to have a try. This disobedience was the sin which caused the fall from grace. God chucked Adam and Eve out of eden so that they didn't have access to the tree of life, because if they ate that fruit, they would become Gods themselves.
The apple thing comes from representations in art.

JWs believe 144,000 anointed "faithful servants" go to heaven when they die. There, after the great tribulation, they will rule as co rulers with Jesus because the Kingdom of Heaven will be an actual government.
Everyone else who has ever died up to then, will be resurrected and taught "the truth" during Christ's 1000 year rule. If, on knowing the truth, they still choose to disobey or reject Jehovah God, they will be zapped and be dead forever. No heaven, no hell just dead.
During the tribulation, things will be very bad because Satan and his minions are running amok on earth causing chaos. Jesus and the heavenly armies will basically come and wipe them and everyone else who is not faithful enough to Jehovah out. So that's everyone who is not a JW and those who are but haven't tried hard enough. There is no resurrection for these folk because they have all already had the chance to learn The Truth, i.e. Christianity according to the Governing Body of JWs.
Eventually, after Armageddon, Jehovah will restore the earth to its original paradise state and everyone who survives both Armageddon and the Millennial rule will life perfect lives forever.
Basically, it's a very literal, very harsh eschatology based around the idea of the new creation.

Leave them to it. If they want to believe that it's their business.

There is no mention of an apple in the Book of Genesis. The fruit that is said to have caused all the trouble is the fruit of the tree of knowledge of good and evil.

Thank you everyone, I appreciate you all answering my question 😊

We all have our own beliefs.
I think we live we die we're reborn but what you do in this life will follow you to the netx.
JW i never understood them never will.
A lode of crap.
But if i do come back to earth i want a family that wants me and loves me also i want to be a hansom gay man netx time.
Because i dont want any periods or the menopause.
Or any of the crap that gets thrown at women.

JWs believe 144,000 anointed "faithful servants" go to heaven when they die. There, after the great tribulation, they will rule as co rulers with Jesus because the Kingdom of Heaven will be an actual government.

A celestial civil service? Interesting....but why would an omnipotent being need 144,000 co-rulers, or any co-rulers?

What are the odds that any single JW (who ever lived) will be among the 144,000 ?
Must be like ... 1 in a thousand? Or 1 in 10,000 ? 1 in 100,000 even?
I admire JWs for rejecting concept of Hell, but making it so impossible to be one of those who gets eternal life, that is hardly fair.

Living forever must be dull, don't U think? Like Barbieland maybe.

working out some maths... 8.6 million JWs now, in world, says Google.
1/144000 would be just 1 in 60 of those.
Include all the JWs that ever lived...  Must be at least the same number, right?

If end of world comes tomorrow odds no better than 1:120 I suppose of being one of the chosen.

You’ve got it wrong the fact is this earth was meant to be our home and we wasn’t meant to be in heaven so the vast majority of people after the great tribulation basically the end of the world we live on paradise Earth only 144000 which are made up of Will stay in heaven to rule with Jesus

That’s why it’s called the great crowd will stay on earth

Control control control.

If only 144,000 get the golden ticket - why are they always trying to recruit others?

Genuine question?

I think I'd be trying to put everyone off and better my own chances