Do JW's still believe this?

ctrx

I remember overhearing a discussion my parents had in the mid 1970's. It was about who would be resurrected after armageddon. Supposedly, those who heard of "the truth" and rejected it were dead forever, but those who had never had a chance to hear it would be resurrected for a second chance to submit to Jehovah/The Watchtower Society.

Anyway, that is what made my parents quit doing the field service. They decided that since they never converted anyone, all their field service work was just going towards making people hear of "the truth" and guarantee that they could not be resurrected.

So I am wondering how widespread this belief was back in the seventies, and if the JW's still make this distinction between those who have and haven't had a chance to hear and reject them.

DJK

I dont think it applied to people who said not interested at the door. This is what I was taught in the 60s up to 74.

Zico

They believe if you die before Armageddon, you'll get a resurrection, even if you weren't ever a JW.

If you're alive during Armageddon, you (and your children) will be killed by Jehovah if you are not a JW.

Nathan Natas

As I recall, that is a pretty accurate statement of what was believed back then. I was raised a Dub beginning in the mid 1950s and I left in the mid-to late 1970s. To put a bit finer point on it, the thinking was that any people who died at Armageddon (whenever THAT comes) would have received their divine judgement and would therefore not merit a second chance.

It seems to me that your parents giving up on the d2d work was for HUMANITARIAN reasons - it seems they found the idea of participating in any-one's eternal destruction a repellent one. If so, I salute them for that. The vast majority of Dubs were just chomping at the bit to see their neighbors die.

Armageddon it still "just around the corner" but time is a straightaway.

OnTheWayOut

Supposedly, those who heard of "the truth" and rejected it were dead forever, but those who had
never had a chance to hear it would be resurrected for a second chance to submit to Jehovah/The Watchtower Society.

I would look it up, but there are so many thoughts that touch on this without answering.
They say to the outside world that they are not the judge of people and that it is not
an absolute that only JW's will survive Armagedddon, but they tell JW's that only JW's
will survive Armagedddon.

They say that only Jehovah and his appointed judge, Jesus, can judge people and determine
if there is a chance of resurrection. I think they just give hope to JW's as their non-JW
relatives die- "Now he has an opportunity at the resurrection." I am sure I will hear that from
my mother now that both of her parents are dead.

Your question- that is generally the understood (if not written) policy. It still goes back to
blaspheming the Holy Spirit, which is having a willful opposition to the operation of God's
spirit. Again, only God and Jesus could judge that.

Anyway, if I thought the dubs were right, I would agree with your parents.

....my parents quit doing the field service. They decided that since they never converted anyone,
all their field service work was just going towards making people hear of "the truth" and guarantee
that they could not be resurrected.

avidbiblereader

It is always changing, who really knows what they believe, I know that the Bible says this and if they would stick to the Bible they wouldn't have to change a thing,

Matt 7:1,2 “Do not judge others, and you will not be judged. 2 For you will be treated as you treat others. The standard you use in judging is the standard by which you will be judged.

abr

nvrgnbk

As zico mentioned, now your best bet at everlasting life, short of becoming a regular literature distributor for the Christian Congregation of JWs, is to die before the Big A. This has to do with the "new light" regarding the separating work. For the same reason we quit calling the lying, fornicating goats goats. Now any self-respecting dub would say such non-Witnesses are simply showing a goat-like disposition by rejecting our message but in the end only Jesus can call them what they are..................GOATS!

Once again I apologize for the sarcasm. I just can't help it.

greendawn

Supposedly, those who heard of "the truth" and rejected it were dead forever

That's a measure of the arrogance and grandiose mentality of the dubs, they are simply neither fitted nor assigned to the purpose of separating the world into sheep and goat. One can find a myriad good and valid excuses for refusing to associate with the WTS.

OnTheWayOut

nvgnbk said

.....now your best bet at everlasting life, short of becoming a regular literature distributor
for the Christian Congregation of JWs, is to die before the Big A.

It's a good thing we all are going to die before the WTS's Big A arrives.

ctrx

OnTheWayOut said:
>>>It's a good thing we all are going to die before the WTS's Big A arrives.

Way back when I was a child at the KH it was a near certainty for 1975. Most of the elders at our congregation even had it narrowed to the Autumn season.

I vaguely remember them foisting some little fold-up pamphlets instead of Watchtower mags on the door-to-door victims for a few months. A lot of people in the cong believed that distributing these pamphlets was going to, in some way, help guarantee the swift arrival of armageddon.

(Sorry, couldn't figure out the real way to quote.)

Do JW's still believe this?

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