Serious question about JWs?

Question

If God only lets 144,000 (or whatever the number is) into his kingdom, why do they work so hard at recruiting new members. That just decreases their own chances of making it in before its at capacity.

Answer 1

The preaching work is performed because Jesus commanded it, not because it benefits Jehovah's Witnesses personally or as a religion. As a side point,

Actually, Jehovah's Witnesses expect that many thousands of the 144,000 have never set foot in a Kingdom Hall or read 'The Watchtower'.

The fact is that the vast majority of Witnesses hope to enjoy life ON EARTH forever, rather than in heaven. Jehovah's Witnesses understand heaven to refer to the dwelling place of spirit creatures such as Jesus and the angels. They understand the Scriptures to teach that exactly 144,000 humans will join Christ Jesus as kings and priests to administer God's Kingdom (which will soon replace all earthly governments).
(Daniel 2:44) God of heaven will set up a kingdom... It will crush and put an end to all these kingdoms, and it itself will stand to times indefinite
(Revelation 14:1) Lamb [Jesus] standing upon the Mount Zion, and with him a hundred and forty-four thousand
(Revelation 20:6) they will be priests of God and of the Christ, and will rule as kings with him

The men and women who make up the 144,000 are selected by God from among two thousand years of Christians. Over whom will they rule? Over the vast majority of mankind, most of whom will have been raised from the dead after Armageddon.
(John 11:23,24) Jesus said to her: “Your brother will rise.” Martha said to him: “I know he will rise in the resurrection on the last day.”

Hell is NOT someplace/something mankind needs to fear; there is no suffering in the grave. Sometime after the resurrection, death and "hell" will themselves be destroyed.
(Ecclesiastes 9:5) For the living are conscious that they will die; but as for the dead, they are conscious of nothing at all
(Ecclesiastes 9:10) there is no work nor devising nor knowledge nor wisdom in Sheol ["hell"]
(Revelation 20:14) And death and Hades ["hell"] were hurled into the lake of fire


Almighty Jehovah God selects those few who have the heavenly calling. Each person "feels" his own hope and each person's hope remains unquestioned by his fellow Christians. Still the vast majority (literally more than 99.9%*) of Jehovah's Witnesses expect an EARTHLY hope, the same hope given to Adam and Eve.
(Genesis 1:28) God blessed them and God said to them: “Be fruitful and become many and fill THE EARTH and subdue it [caps added]
(Genesis 2:17) You must not eat from it, for in the day you eat from it you will positively die [so never eating from that tree means never dying]

Learn more:
http://watchtower.org/e/20001001/article_02.htm
http://watchtower.org/e/20001001/
http://watchtower.org/e/jt/

Answer 2

There cannot be a week go by without this question being asked. Sigh. The JW belief is that there's the heavenly kingdom, and there's the earthly kingdom. 144,000 people get to rule in heaven over the inhabitants of a paradise earth (after Armageddon, that is). Untold millions, billions, will populate this paradise as this is where and when the resurrection of the dead takes place. Because hardly any JWs are anointed with God's Holy Spirit, they have no desire to go to heaven. They are earthly - carnal, to use biblical language. Only those adopted into God's family long to be with Christ in heaven. So, do a little bit of basic thinking now... and, yes, you've got the answer to your own question! Well done!

Answer 3

Most of Jehovah's Witnesses are happy to live on earth. They do not have the heavenly hope.
The heavens are for the government. A heavenly government where only a few from the earth go to be kings and lords with Christ.
They are part of the government.
After Armageddon we will be like it was in the beginning. We will live in a Garden. We will have God rule. We will have all the animals in subjection. They will be tame. And satan will be gone. He and all the wicked evil ones will never tempt mankind again.
We will have an end less life to pursue any hobby we wish.
We can travel all over the world, learn a musical instrument. And oh yea, we'll be using all of our brain. Who knows what we'll be capable of.
The 144,000 will rule with Christ over us from heaven.
We will be obedient loyal subjects. And the bible says they will find their exquisite delight in the abundance of peace.
everyone will be cured and will drink from the waters of life.

And this is not about increasing our numbers....it's about helping others to gain life everlasting as we have been commanded to do.

Answer 4

(Matthew 24:14) And this good news of the kingdom will be preached in all the inhabited earth for a witness to all the nations; and then the end will come.

(Matthew 28:18) And Jesus approached and spoke to them, saying: “All authority has been given me in heaven and on the earth.

(Acts 20:20) while I did not hold back from telling YOU any of the things that were profitable nor from teaching YOU publicly and from house to house.

(Acts 5:42) And every day in the temple and from house to house they continued without letup teaching and declaring the good news about the Christ, Jesus.


Such an expression of exultant faith infuses in those who are of the great crowd of other sheep grand reasons for rejoicing. (Revelation 7:15, 16) Such ones need to keep in mind the hope of surviving Armageddon. Yes, look forward to seeing God’s Kingdom vindicate the universal sovereignty of Jehovah God and sanctify his glorious name by bringing the great tribulation, which will cleanse the earth of the wicked ones of whom the Devil has been god. What a joy it will be to survive that great tribulation!—Daniel 2:44; Revelation 7:14.

Concerning the great crowd, Revelation 7:17 says: “The Lamb . . . will shepherd them, and will guide them to fountains of waters of life. And God will wipe out every tear from their eyes.” Though this prophecy has a spiritual fulfillment now, the Armageddon survivors will see it literally fulfilled. How so? Well, what did Jesus do when he was on earth? He healed the maimed, made the lame walk, opened the ears of the deaf and the eyes of those blind, and he cured leprosy, paralysis, and “every sort of disease and every sort of infirmity.” (Matthew 9:35; 15:30, 31) Is that not what Christians today need? The great crowd will carry old-world disabilities and infirmities over into the new world. What do we expect the Lamb to do about that? The needs of the Armageddon survivors will be very different from the needs of those who will be resurrected. The resurrected ones will likely be recreated with whole, sound, healthy bodies, though not yet having human perfection. Because of the miracle of resurrection, they will evidently not thereafter need repair of any former disabilities by the miracle of healing. On the other hand, because of their unique experience of surviving Armageddon, miraculous repair is what many of the great crowd will need and will receive. Apparently, a major intent of Jesus’ healings was to portray for the encouragement of the great crowd the joyous prospect that they will not only survive but be healed thereafter. Such miraculous healing will logically take place among Armageddon survivors relatively soon after Armageddon and well before the resurrection begins. (Isaiah 33:24; 35:5, 6; Revelation 21:4; compare Mark 5:25-29.) Then people will throw away eye glasses, canes, crutches, wheelchairs, dentures, hearing aids, and the like. What a cause for rejoicing! How well such early restorative action by Jesus comports with the role of the Armageddon survivors as the foundation of the new earth! Disabling maladies will be moved out of the way so that these survivors can move forward with zest, looking eagerly to the marvelous activity of the Millennium stretching ahead of them, not dragged down by the afflictions that the old world may have brought upon them. And all during the Millennium, they will be rejoicing in the hope of reaching the very fullness of perfect human life by the end of those thousand years.

Answer 5

Humans and earth were created for each other. This is where we belong. Our problems with each other is due to Satan and his crew bringing out the bad qualities of man and earth.

The entire Bible is about Jehovah's purpose for the earth being done for the glory of His name. Right at the beginning, Jehovah's purpose for man was to fill the earth with his descendants and they were to expand Eden to fill the earth. Their lives were to go on forever. The only mention of death was as penalty for disobeying the one law they had.

The challenge to Jehovah's right to rule His creations was issued. His purposes always are accomplished. This challenge was only a minor delay. The rest of the Bible is about how Jehovah, using Adam's descendants, set things up to bring earth back for his original purpose to be done. Jesus sacrifice. A people loving Jehovah with true worship. Clearing away the wickedness that infests the earth. Finally, re-establishing that paradise that was in Eden.

That is what the Bible says in print. That is why we repeat it. We want as many people as possible to survive into that paradise. It is not about recruitment. It is about lives.

I live by a 2 lane road on a hill. 18 wheel fully loaded trucks shoot down that hill doing 70-80 mph. When I have visitors, do you think I keep my mouth shut about being careful going out the driveway? If I was like most of the answerers here, I would remain secretive and maybe hide under my bed if I had any visitors, relatives or not.

The people we talk to have been lied to for generations! Are we to just thumb our noses at such injustice? How can anyone be so selfish? Whether people use that information or not is not our problem. If a person stays in a burning building on purpose, refusing to leave after others best efforts to get them out, you just have to let them go. We don't force anyone, but we will inform them.

Answer 6

Those who make up the 144,000 will rule with Jesus over the earth for 1,000 years. The rest of us will be earthlysubjects of that heavenly government. We will have the prospects of living forever in paradise on a cleansed earth.

Answer 7

Only the 144,000 are going to heaven to rule over the earth. The earth is where everyone else will be. It's my hope to be here on the earth in the paradise.

Answer 8

the 144,000 are selected as leaders of the new world order, they supposedly sit with God and hand down his edicts to the people who remain in an Eden on earth.

Answer 9

they believe these 144,000 to be sons of god, but if you read Romans 8:15, it says for as many as are led by the spirit of God, these are sons of god NOTICE : as many are,they will instruct you to Revelations concerning the 144,000 but if that is the case who knows today what tribe of Israel they belong to? they will tell you that is symbolic no it isn't it states what tribe they will be taken from, those tribes are not symbolic!

Answer 10

This is something that I have debated with them. I haven't gotten any really good answers. But the ones I have talked to believe they are in the 144k.