This post is part of a series of posts summarising chapters of the Jehovah Witnesses' booklet, "What does the Bible really Teach?", and seeking to evaluate those chapters against Scripture somewhat briefly. Those posts were introduced at the Introduction, and a contents page will be added to that entry once this run of posts has finished.
Chapter 7: Real hope for your loved ones who have died
Death is a real enemy pursuing us, but God is stronger than death.
When a loved one dies: Jesus was genuinely grieved at the death of Lazarus, but that does not mean that he had not hope.
“Lazarus, come on out!”: Jesus (acting in Jehovah’s strength) raised Lazarus, one of 9 resurrection accounts in the Bible. Yet these people all died again.
Learning from the resurrection accounts: These accounts confirm that death is non-existence (Lazarus could not give an account of where he had been). They prove that the dead are raised. This is not unrealistic: God is powerful and knows each person, and he longs to raise them from the dead
“All those in the memorial tombs”: All in their tombs will be raised. The righteous (those we read about in the Old Testament, and the servants of Jehovah today) will be raised to paradise; the unrighteous will be raised to live for a thousand years in which they will learn to serve God. That thousand year period is “judgement day”. Those who would never learn are in Gehenna, and will never be raised.
The heavenly resurrection: “The Bible also refers to another kind of resurrection, one to life as a spirit creature in heaven. … God resurrected Jesus, but not as a human.” (73) He won’t be the last, he promised to prepare a place for his faithful followers in heaven, and Revelation 14:1 tells us there will be 144,000 of them. When do they get raised? During the period of Christ’s presence, which is now, so any today who are amongst this number are instantly raised to heaven. The rest must wait for paradise on earth.
Evaluation
First, let us acknowledge that the resurrection miracles recorded in Scripture are valid pointers to a future general resurrection, and are also different from it in that those raised would have died again.
There is a big problem with the 3-way future on judgement day. The Bible does not know of a category of person who will not be raised on judgement day. John 5 speaks of “all who are in their graves”. This is not meant to exclude those who did not have a proper burial, neither is it meant to exclude the irreformably wicked. It is everyone. There is no Gehenna for those who will not be raised.
Second, those who are not righteous are not raised for a period of reformation, but “to be condemned” (John 5:29) This is more clearly seen in the parable of the sheep and goats (Matthew 25:31-46).
Third, the idea that the “thousand years” of Revelation 20:4-6 is a period of reformation for the unforgiven is not borne out by that text. There is considerable debate about the purpose of that thousand years, but we can note (Revelation 20:5) that those who are in Christ are raised to reign with him during that period, but that others are not raised until it is finished. That precludes the idea that everyone is raised, just to a different quality of life.
Finally, we need to refute the idea that some ascend to heaven immediately, and that this is the 144,000 spoken of in Revelation. The place to start is with Christ’s resurrection. He was raised as a human, “for a spirit does not have flesh and bone as you see that I have” (Luke 24:39). Just as a man (Adam) started the spiral of death and decay, so a man (the resurrected Jesus) is the one to start the resurrection (1 Corinthians 15:21).
The two texts cited to support the idea that only a small number out of Jesus’ followers go to heaven with him are Luke 12:32 (the “little flock”) and John 14:2 (going to prepare a place for you). The “little flock” of Luke 12 conveys a picture of fragility, but there is no sense in the context that Jesus is contrasting a small group, who have one destiny, from the larger flock that have a different one. John 14 simply says that Jesus goes to prepare a place in heaven; that tells us that Jesus’ followers will go to be with him one day. Nothing in the text says that this is only so for a certain number of them. That would have to be imported from elsewhere.
That leaves the idea, from Revelation, that 144,000 people have a different destiny awaiting them from the rest of God’s people. We note, first of all, that the book of Revelation contains many numbers that have a symbolic significance. We don’t have understand the significance of every one of these numbers in order to appreciate that it is arbitrary to take 144,000 literally. A number that is 12 multiplied by 12, multiplied by a thousand is an especially good candidate for having symbolic significance. Something like: The twelve tribes of Israel, and the New Testament people (led by the 12 apostles), as they are found throughout the world, would be a good guess.
The 144,000 are mentioned in 14:1,3 and also in 7:4. In chapter 14, John looked and saw the 144,000 standing with Jesus. In chapter 7, he heard that there were 144,000 (Revelation 7:4), then looked and saw the innumerable multitude from every nation (7:9). That would suggest that these two groups are the same: The 144,000 is another way of speaking of the multi-national, innumerable people of God.
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