JW's say Worldly People are Better Off DEAD

by UnDisfellowshipped 21 Replies latest jw friends

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  UnDisfellowshipped

  Jehovah's Witnesses and the "Better Off Dead" Doctrine

  For decades the official JW teaching was that "worldly people" (non-JWs) would be "better off dead" because "the wages sin pays is death" and once you have died, you have paid for your sins, so then Jehovah is free to resurrect you (as long as you had not committed the "Unforgivable Sin").

  Whereas, if you had NOT died and had remained a worldly "unbeliever" when Armageddon arrived, Jehovah would have destroyed you and doomed you to everlasting destruction in Gehenna.

  This "Better Off Dead" Doctrine never did make any sense to me. Why would Jehovah resurrect you if you died the day before Armageddon, but if you stayed alive until the next day you would be destroyed and doomed forever to the Lake of Fire? It was based on a terrible wrong interpretation of Scripture.

  I can see some twisted logic and reasoning coming out of this doctrine: "If Jehovah is automatically going to resurrect all worldly people that die BEFORE Armageddon, then why not speed along their deaths?"

  Also, I heard a JW a few years back say, "Those who died in 9/11 are better off now because NOW they will be resurrected."

  I wonder if this doctrine has contributed to any JW suicides, attempted suicides, suicidal thoughts, or thoughts of killing worldly people in order to guarantee their "eternal salvation"? (or at least to guarantee them a resurrection and another chance to earn eternal life in the 1,000 year Kingdom)

  Do the Jehovah's Witnesses still teach this doctrine? I know there was a Questions From Readers that came out a few years ago that said (paraphrasing): "Jehovah will treat the ones who have died in the past the exact same way that He treats the ones that are alive at Armageddon." So, in other words, if Jehovah was gonna destroy you at Armageddon, then He will NOT resurrect you, however, if Jehovah was going to resurrect you, then He WILL save you through Armageddon.

  Does anyone have any comments or experiences dealing with this unique JW doctrine?
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  John Doe

  For decades the official JW teaching was that "worldly people" (non-JWs) would be "better off dead" because "the wages sin pays is death" and once you have died, you have paid for your sins, so then Jehovah is free to resurrect you (as long as you had not committed the "Unforgivable Sin").

  I see quotation marks, but no citation. Got one?
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  144001

  People aren't better off dead?
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  A.Fenderson

  What's the JW consensus (if there is one) these days on what constitutes the "unfogivable sin?" I thought it had been speculated that it was suicide, but I'm not sure I was actually told that was a GB-approved interpretation.
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  Leolaia

  I had to deal with this growing up because my dad was an UBM. So that led to conflicted feelings about impending Armageddon and whether God would destroy him, which led to wishing that he could die the day before Armageddon.
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  White Dove

  Oh yeah, lots of JW's said this when I was in. If they died before A, then that was good because then they would be resurrected with a clean slate. If someone died before they were reinstated, however, they were doomed.
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  VM44

  Also, I heard a JW a few years back say, "Those who died in 9/11 are better off now because NOW they will be resurrected."

  According to JW doctrine resurrection means that a new duplicate body will be imprinted with the stored memory that Jehovah has of the person who died. Nice for the new being, but doesn't do the original any good. They are still dead.

  The Watchtower's concept of the resurrection is bankrupt.
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  dgp

  "destroyed and doomed forever to the Lake of Fire". How can you be forever in a Lake of Fire if you were destroyed first?

  Why would Jehovah create you for the purpose of destroying you?

  I understand that, according to this way of thinking, we despicable worldlies will be spared if we never get to know what the Watchtower teaches. That is the way out of the obvious question of what would Jehovah do regarding those who lived before the Watchtower existed. Yet, it solves nothing, because then we worldlies would be better off if no witness ever came to our door to tell us that we can also live forever on paradise earth. That way Jehovah would give us a second chance. Doesn't that sound like the moral thing to do is not to go out in field service? Millions Now Damned Would Have Been Spared, right?
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  Scully

  I wonder if this doctrine has contributed to any JW suicides, attempted suicides, suicidal thoughts, or thoughts of killing worldly people in order to guarantee their "eternal salvation"? (or at least to guarantee them a resurrection and another chance to earn eternal life in the 1,000 year Kingdom)

  I've heard JWs talk about deceased Worldly™ relatives - as if it were such a huge comfort - that "at least now they'll have a resurrection" since they died before Armageddon™.

  Dying before Armageddon™ is like picking up a Get Out Of Jail Free card in Monopoly.
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  blondie

  *** w56 7/1 p. 401 par. 18 What Dedication Means to Me ***So each one of you undedicated persons has today the same freedom to choose, a choice of life or death. If you deliberately refuse to dedicate yourself to Jehovah God in this judgment day of his in which we now are living,your life will end at Armageddon, if not before, as a condemned sinner without right to life and even without hope of a resurrection.

  CHANGED

  At one time the WTS taught that from 1914 to when the "great tribulation" broke out was a judgment period or a judgment day and non-jws who died during this period would not be resurrected but would descend into Gehena, everlasting destruction. They "reasoned" that the sheep and goats were being identified and separated since 1914. Of course, that teaching changed in 1995 when the WTS started teaching that the sheep and goats would be separated shortly after the great tribulation started and thus 1914 to now was not a judgment day or period during which people were being identified as goats worthy of eternal destruction. They had compared this time to the flood and Sodom and Gomorrah, periods during which people died and had no hope of a resurrection.

  With this change in WTS doctrine, it became beneficial then to die as a non-jw before Armageddon, their resurrection into the paradise was assured.

  Blondie