Do Jehovah's Witnesses die very miserable?

Question

Since, among other things, they don't believe in a heavenly afterlife it must really piss them off to know, on their deathbed, that they will miss Armageddon. Surely the major draw of a faith is to have something to look forward to after death. I don't understand a faith which rejoices as it sees the world falling apart because it thinks second coming must surely be nigh.

Some of these answers are really interesting, especially those from the Witnesses themselves. I see now that I have misunderstood something crucial: I thought that if you died before Armageddon you just missed the boat and wouldn't see Paradise. I stand corrected. Perhaps I'm beginning to understand why this Armageddon had better come sooner rather than later, otherwise Paradise on Earth will be just as overcrowded as it is pre-Armageddon with all those ressurrected!

Papa Bear, are you sure you're not Robert Wyatt?

Answer 1

A false hope is no hope at all, but for as long as a person is convinced it is right, they will rejoice in it. A bit like believing the earth is flat, so that if you don't sail out in your boat to the horizon, you will be utterly safe. And happy. And you'll exhort everyone else to believe what you believe so that they don't fall off the planet.

I had an elderly JW relative who died recently, and she was the most unhappy, disappointed and bitter person I've ever seen. She'd devoted over 55 years to the Watchtower Society, kept herself poor in the process (because even the poorest don't get a penny from the Society for their prosyletising). She sold her house and moved to a place where "the need was great" prior to 1975 (as did a whole host of JWs - most of them now dead), convinced Armageddon was due in 1975. Mind you, she also thought Armageddon would come before her children saw primary school (in the early 1940s); or before they were conscripted; or before they got married; or before they had children; or before her grandchildren saw primary school; or before they got married; or before her great-grandchildren saw primary school, and so on. She was utterly convinced Armageddon would come before she died. It did not. And she was miserable, but too proud to admit she had been misled.

That brings us to the silly ideas some JWs have just made about Lazarus and the rich man. Read Jesus' words again, folks, but without your Society's interpretation swamping it. Jesus spoke to Jewish people who believed in an intermediary place for the dead to inhabit until the Day of Judgment. Only those who had found God's favour in their earthly life-time went to rest "on Abraham's bosom", which is where Lazarus went. Jesus did not say those Jewish ideas were wrong! He went right along with them! Those suffering torment realised an unpassable gulf was between them and God because they chose to ignore God's commands (not because they were rich). Jesus warned us that even if someone rose from the dead to warn people on earth as to what awaited them, they still would not believe. Well, before Jesus rose from the dead he told his believers that he was going to prepare a place for them IN HEAVEN, and that they would be with him there. JWs refuse to believe this is the one hope, the one calling, of all Christians, so they are in for an almighty shock when they die. Please God, that Christians will fearlessly speak the truth, in love, to them, and get them to look only to Jesus for their salvation, and not a man-made organisation.

Answer 2

Interesting question. As you have noted, they are not scared as they do believe in a resurrection, only it is onto earth, not heaven. However, for over 100 years they have been told that Armageddon was to come in their own life time, so I know many that were very dissappointed to be on their death bed and not to have survived through Armageddon.

The JW mindset is so controlled that they actually think they are the only ones with a real hope, and everyone else, worldly people, have no hope.

Watchtower 1954 5/1 p. 285 While all of Jehovah’s witnesses desire to live and preach as long as Jehovah wills, they do not fear death. At the death of their loved ones Christians are not like others. They do not sorrow overmuch. While recognizing death as an enemy, they do not go beyond natural love and affection and permit sadness to affect their integrity-keeping course in Jehovah’s service. Rather, they continue more firmly, knowing that faithful service will assure them of a place in the new world, so they will be able to see their loved ones again in the resurrection.

Awarke 1988 7/8 p. 11 “I Don’t Fear Death!”
True Christians (JWs) are just as different today. They do not toy with Greek philosophy, falsely attributing to man an “immortal soul.” Rather, they draw strength from Jesus’ declaration that ‘those in the memorial tombs, upon hearing my voice, will come out.’ That is the basis for Christian faith—the resurrection of those in God’s memory from death to life on a paradise earth.

Answer 3

Jehovah's Witnesses don't rejoice at seeing the world falling apart, as you say. To the contrary. It makes us very sad. But we know that no man can straighten out what is happening. Only Jehovah's kingdom in the hands of his Prince of Peace can correct earth's affairs. We do not look forward to dying. Instead, most of us look forward to living forever on a paradise earth after wickedness, sickness, and death have been eliminated. If we should die before that is realized, we know that our God will bring us back to life in his due time. Jehovah's Witnesses do not die miserably.

Answer 4

Jehovah's Witnesses do NOT die miserably, but typically with satisfaction that they have completed a faithful life's course and so seem assured of a resurrection to paradise earth, with a new human body free from the aches and pains of imperfection, sickness, and old age!

There is no concern whatsoever that the restored paradise earth will be overpopulated. Jehovah's Witnesses understand that the Creator of heaven and earth has the ability to help humankind to colonize the bottoms of the oceans, the caverns of the mountains, and perhaps even other planets. Jehovah's Witnesses are excited to see exactly how Jehovah's will and purposes will be manifest in the millions of years in the future.

Learn more:
http://watchtower.org/e/20001001/
http://watchtower.org/e/jt/article_08.htm
http://watchtower.org/e/dg/article_10.htm
http://watchtower.org/e/20040415/article_02.htm

Answer 5

My parents are walking their final paths in life. They are in their 80s and in failing health. My stepfather had a stroke a year ago. My mother does not plan to replace the battery in her implant when it runs down.

Their plans are to be cremated and the ashes scattered. They do not fear death, as they firmly believe in the resurrection. I find it interesting how those who believe in going to heaven still fear death, as if it is the end of all things. Witnesses look forward to seeing their long passed family members, as well as people who passed away millenniums ago, such as the architects of the great pyramids.

As for a full Earth, God created a whole universe of planets for us to live on. Earth is only the beginning. Once it is converted back into a Paradise, than I imagine we will begin doing the same on the other planets. Since we will have the complete use of our mental capabilities, we may even do this with just the power of our minds.

What I wrote about my stepfather in 2005:
http://www.uexpress.com/dearabby/?uc_full_date=20050619

Answer 6

Hi, Steve. The short answer to your question is no - JW's are not miserable and no-one in their right mind would look forward to Armageddon. I do agree with your point about them rejoicing as they see the world falling apart. Four weeks ago I had the pleasure of talking to two JW's when they came round with a leaflet entitled 'The end of false religion is near!' In their book "Babylon the Great has Fallen" they claimed false religion fell in 1919. Another speculative date was 1975. Now they imply this is a future event, and are looking to the year 2034!!! (Watchtower 15, December 2003).

I take exception to their claim that they, and only they, have the true religion and that every other religon on earth is false. Such arrogance. And so wrong. Let me try to explain why everyone should treat them with caution.

Their expectation that Armagedon is iminent has been around since 1876. Here is an extract from the JW book, 'Bible Examiner' Vol XXI, Number 1 (October 1876) page 27. The article was written by JW founder Pastor Russel, and entitled 'Gentile Times: When do they end?':

"At the commencment of our Christian era, 606 years of this time had passed, (70 years captivity, and 536 from Cyrus to Christ) which deucted from 2520, would show that the seven times will end in AD1914; when Jerusalem shall be delivered forever...... When gentile governments shall have been dashed to pieces; when God shall have poured out of his fury upon the nations, and they acknowledge him King of Kings and Lord of Lords." In the JW book "God's kingdom of a thousand years has approached" page 186, "Seven Times - the times of the Gentiles", they refer to the above article and clearly state that Russell said: "The seven times will end in AD 1914."

BUT WHY WAS RUSSELL'S QUOTE STOPPED SHORT?

Could it be due to his prediction that Armageddon would come in 1914 with the deliverance of Jerusalem and the nation of Israel and victory over earth's kings? That was a false prophecy. Russell did not believe (as JW's do now) that 1914 merely marked a 'legal' point before God. JW's long stopped believing God would deal with lIteral Jerusalem and the physical nation of Israel. They have "spiritualised" all that. Now they think 1914 was the INVISIBLE second coming of Christ and that he is to come a THIRD TIME, visibly, sometime during the future great tribulation and ARMAGEDDON WON'T HAPPEN TILL AFTER THEN.

Another example of changing the goalposts can be found by comparing paragraph 8 of The Watchtower, January 1 1989, when they said that the "work WOULD BE COMPLETED IN OUR 20th CENTURY" to the same article published in their Watchtower Bound Volume 1989 when, at the end of 1989, that same article read the "work would be completed IN OUR DAY." The 20th century has been and gone and the work has not been completed. So now they have changed the original article to give them more time.

Dont' get me wrong - JW's are decent, law-abiding, God fearing, Bible believing people. Trouble is, they've been seriously misled. They don't understand the true Gospel message. Only 144,000 get to go to heaven? They take that from the book of Revelation but although everything in it is symbolic, they claim the number is literal. You poor, misguided things. God doesn't have two levels of salvation. Why settle for second best? You don't have to earn your salvation by going from door to door for x number of hours per week. SALVATION IS A GIFT! IT CANNOT BE EARNED.

I seem to have wandered off at a tangent, Steve, so I will close by simply praying that JW's will start to ask questions and delve into the history of their organisation and check it out. Every 30 years or so the organisation has to backpedal and change it's dates. The light is not getting brighter, brothers and sisters, as the end approaches. A true prophet does not have to keep changing the dates. Wake up and start to demand answers.

Answer 7

Jehovah's Witnesses do not fear death.
We know that death is like sleeping.

At death, the next thing we will see and know is Jehovah's paradise.

Imagine waking up and seeing your loved ones, knowing that war, sickness, old age, crime has been done away with.

Imagine waking up and knowing that you will be able to go anywhere on earth and meet people who love you and want to get to know you.

Imagine waking up and deciding that you want to build a piece of furnature made of oak, so you plant an acorn. knowing that you will have the time for the tree to grow and mature.

No death is not to be feared. But I also have the hope of never having to die, in which case I will continue to live and see the above promises of Jehovah.

Answer 8

Nice to see you have asked a question and actually wanted an answer from Jehovah's wittiness, as you have said you misunderstood that part of our religion, i think you will find that most people who knows a JW will tell you we are a happy bunch, mainly due to our hope for the future

Answer 9

There is ONE verse in the bible that describes the afterlife as being a NOTHINGNESS. but they reject that Jesus taught that if a man dies and is in Hell can Call upon the name of jesus and be SAVED even as if they were alive.
I came to the conclusion that there are times when a soul will die and become nothing, just as if they had Fallen asleep of everlasting nothingness. But, at the same time those peoples that believe in God can be born again in the spirit and have an existence that goes beyond death and into the grave. i personally believe that this is what happens when a person becomes "born again"

Answer 10

I look forward to life in perfection, here on a perfect earth... just as Adam and Eve looked forward to and then lost. And Armageddon is the Holy war that Jehovah will use to rid the earth of evil, much as He used a flood to do it in Noah's day. After Armageddon, Jehovah will allow the earth to be returned to a paradise for obedient makind to occupy. Psalms 37:29 tells us that the righteous will possess the earth, and they will reside forever upon it. I believe that the heavens God has for Himself and His spirit creations. The earth was formed for mankind to inhabit ( Isaiah 45:18 says that God did not create the earth for nothing, He formed it even to be inhabited) and I love the thought that I will be perfect, live forever on a perfect earth, using my perfect brain to learn EVERYTHING I possibly can! :) So I have PLENTY to look forward to!! :)