Christians believe that all of the dead will be resurrected in the end times either to live forever in paradise (the saved) or to experience everlasting conscious punishment (the unsaved).

The determination will be made by God based on whether or not in this life they repented of their sins and accepted God’s free gift of salvation purchased by Jesus Christ on the cross.

But the Watchtower teaches something quite different. 

Because Acts 24:15 states that “there is going to be a resurrection of both the righteous and the unrighteous,” the Watchtower acknowledges that many unrighteous people will be resurrected.

It claims there are two types of unrighteous people.

  1. Those “who failed to meet God’s standards but did not have the opportunity to learn and follow them.”

These will be resurrected into the millennial kingdom and receive a chance to obtain everlasting life.

  1. Those who are so wicked that they are beyond reform and will not be resurrected.

Instead, they will suffer permanent destruction with no hope of a return to life.

You can address this topic with Jehovah’s Witnesses by asking two opposite stone-in-the-shoe questions:

  • Why won’t God resurrect everyone?
  • Why will God resurrect any unrighteous people at all?

Take the questions one at a time and bring in related Watchtower doctrines.

Ask your first question:

  • Why won’t God resurrect everyone?

The Watchtower has a strange mistranslation of Romans 6:7: “For the one who has died has been acquitted from his sin.”

Ask the Witnesses to read aloud and explain this verse.

The basic idea is that “the wages sin pays is death” (Romans 6:23), so when a sinner dies, he has paid the penalty for the sins he committed in this life.

This will give him a clean slate.

If he is given a second chance by being resurrected into Christ’s millennial kingdom, he will be judged based solely on what he does after his resurrection.[1]

So why won’t everyone be resurrected and receive this opportunity?

One of the Watchtower’s primary proof texts for the existence of such a category of people is Hebrews 10:26-27: “For if we practice sin willfully after having received the accurate knowledge of the truth, there is no longer any sacrifice for sins left, but there is a certain fearful expectation of judgment and a burning indignation that is going to consume those in opposition.”

This gives you the chance to ask some stone-in-the-shoe questions:

  • Wait a minute. What about the Watchtower’s rendering of Romans 6:7: “For the one who has died has been acquitted from his sin”?
  • Why are some people acquitted from the sins they committed in this life while others are not?
  • It sounds like you’re saying that some are more acquitted than others.

The Watchtower’s answer is that “those who become so wicked that they are beyond reform will not be resurrected. When such ones die, they suffer permanent destruction with no hope of a return to life.”

Because the Watchtower believes the ultimate punishment is annihilation, it sees no point in God resurrecting someone who won’t reform only to pass judgment on him and immediately annihilate him.

But now ask your second stone-in-the-shoe question:

  • Why will God resurrect any unrighteous people at all?

Wintesses will say it’s based on his “undeserved kindness.”

But then you can ask:

  • If Jehovah knows that some people are “beyond reform” the moment they die, doesn’t he know with respect to every individual whether they will reform during the millennium or not?
  • Why not restrict the resurrection to those he knows will ultimately reform? That way, the millennial kingdom wouldn’t be marred by millions of executions of those who don’t obey.

Summary

  • If a person’s physical death acquits him of his sin, why don’t all who die receive a second chance?
  • But if God knows that some people are too wicked ever to reform, doesn’t he know how every person will respond?
  • Why does he simply not resurrect those whom he knows would waste their second chance?

Pray that these stone-in-the-shoe questions will lead Jehovah’s Witnesses to question the Watchtower’s entire theology of divine judgment.

[1] What Does the Bible Really Teach?, pp. 214-215

 

 

 

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