The Watchtower teaches that the resurrection of the dead will be to two separate and distinct locations:

  1. Jesus and an “anointed” group of 144,000 Christian witnesses of Jehovah will be resurrected in spirit form and live in heaven. They will rule as kings and priests over the earth but will never come there physically. Most of them have died and are in heaven now in spirit form.
  1. Everyone else who is raised from the dead will be resurrected in bodily form and will live on the earth, which will then be a paradise. This group will never go to heaven.

But let’s look at what the Bible says about this.

Ask the Witnesses to go through the relevant scriptures with you and ask diagnostic stone-in-the-shoe questions.

Most likely, these will be questions they have never considered.

Be like Columbo, being puzzled by the Watchtower’s interpretations.

The 144,000

Ask one of the Witnesses to read aloud Revelation 7:1-4 regarding the 144,000:

After this I saw four angels standing on the four corners of the earth, holding tight the four winds of the earth, so that no wind could blow on the earth or on the sea or on any tree. And I saw another angel ascending from the sunrise, having a seal of the living God; and he called with a loud voice to the four angels to whom it was granted to harm the earth and the sea, saying: “Do not harm the earth or the sea or the trees, until after we have sealed the slaves of our God in their foreheads.” And I heard the number of those who were sealed, 144,000, sealed out of every tribe of the sons of Israel:

You can say:

  • I’m puzzled as to why you believe most of these people are in spirit form in heaven now.
  • It seems clear to me that the 144,000 will be on earth at this time.
  • Otherwise, why would there be a need to withhold judgment on the earth until they are sealed for their protection?

The Witnesses are likely to tell you that there will be a remnant of the 144,000 on earth who will need this protection.

Ask:

  • When will this sealing take place?

The Watchtower claims that this it has been going on since 1914 and will soon be finished.

Then say:

  • I don’t understand how that can be.
  • Revelation 7:1 says this sealing takes place after the cataclysmic events described in Revelation 6, and those haven’t happened yet, have they?

The great crowd

Ask one of the Witnesses to read aloud Revelation 7:9: “After this I saw, and look! a great crowd, which no man was able to number, out of all nations and tribes and peoples and tongues, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, dressed in white robes; and there were palm branches in their hands.”

Ask:

  • This says the great crowd is standing before the throne and before the Lamb.
  • God’s throne is in heaven.
  • The Lamb is Jesus, and he is in heaven.
  • So doesn’t this mean that the great crowd is in heaven?

The Witnesses will tell you no, that they are before the throne and the Lamb but that they themselves are on earth.

Then ask:

  • Doesn’t Revelation 19 say that the great crowd is in heaven?

Ask one of the Witnesses to read aloud Revelation 19:1: “After this I heard what seemed to be a loud voice of a great crowd in heaven. They said: “Praise Jah! The salvation and the glory and the power belong to our God…”

They will tell you that this is a different “great crowd” than the one mentioned in Revelation 7.

You can say:

  • That really seems confusing to me.

They will probably sympathize with you.

You can add:

  • You know, it seems to me that the confusion may be caused by the assumption that those who are must either be located in heaven forever or on earth forever with no travel back and forth.

The Witnesses will insist that this is the case because flesh and blood people couldn’t exist in heaven.

You can comment:

  • Angels are able to live in heaven and on earth and to travel back and forth.
  • Would it be impossible for God to enable human beings to do likewise?

 They will deny that this will happen because 1 Corinthians 15:50 says that “flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God.”

In response, ask one of them to read aloud Revelation 21:1-3:

And I saw a new heaven and a new earth; for the former heaven and the former earth had passed away, and the sea is no more. I also saw the holy city, New Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God and prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. With that I heard a loud voice from the throne say: “Look! The tent of God is with mankind, and he will reside with them, and they will be his people. And God himself will be with them.

You can say:

  • In this passage, God’s heavenly bride comes down out of heaven to a new earth and God himself will dwell with them there.
  • Since this is so, there won’t be an issue as to which class Christians belong to—a heaven-bound class or an earth-bound class.
  • It seems to me that this point, the distinction between heaven (the dwelling place of God) and earth will be abolished.

Summary

 They will consider Revelation 21:1-3 to be symbolic.

You are unlikely to persuade Jehovah’s Witnesses to agree with you at this point, but you can hope that your stone-in-the-shoe questions will trouble them.

Be praying that God will use what you have said to open their eyes to the possibility that the Watchtower is wrong.

 

 

 

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