Why do Jehovah's Witnesses believe the soul dies?

Question

If the soul dies when the body dies, how could the "souls" of Revelation 6:9-11, who were of those who had been "slain", cry out "with a loud voice, saying, How long, O Lord..."?

to conundrum: you did not address the passage in question.

I get a real kick out of you guys.

Answer 1

Because they are very good at ignoring the truth of the Bible.

Answer 2

There are OVER 100 Scriptures In ANY Bible that says that the soul dies ! ! !

And NOT ONE Scripture in ANY Bible that says that the Soul Can Never die ! ! !

Actually the subject of Pagan Belief in the Immortality of the Soul is the EASIEST way to Prove that Jehovah's CHRISTIAN Witnesses have THE TRUTH ! ! !

JUST READ THE BIBLE ! ! !

p.s. The Only Reason that Jehovah's Witnesses believe in anything is because the BIBLE TEACHES IT !

p.s.s. Your quote of Revelation to TRY TO prove your point is PRETTY DESPERATE considering that everybody knows that is a book of Symbols

Just go back to the first book of the Bible where in Genesis Abel's Blood is Spoken of CRYING OUT OF THE GROUND about the fact Abel had Been Murdered; When God pronounced sentence against Cain. Blood doesn't LITERALLY Cry out and NEITHER Do the Souls that were slain LITERALLY Cry out to God !

Answer 3

“And they cried with a loud voice, saying: ‘Until when, Sovereign Lord holy and true, are you refraining from judging and avenging our blood upon those who dwell on the earth?’” How can their souls, or blood, cry out for vengeance, since the Bible shows that the dead are unconscious? (Ecclesiastes 9:5) Well, did not righteous Abel’s blood cry out after Cain murdered him? Jehovah then said to Cain: “What have you done? Listen! Your brother’s blood is crying out to me from the ground.” (Genesis 4:10, 11) It was not that Abel’s blood was literally uttering words. Rather, Abel had died as an innocent victim, and justice called out for his murderer to be punished. Similarly, those Christian martyrs are innocent, and in justice they must be avenged. (Luke 18:7, 8) The cry for vengeance is loud because many thousands have thus died. Compare Jeremiah 15:15, 16.

World religions have developed a bewildering array of beliefs about the Hereafter, most of them agree on one basic idea: Something inside a person is immortal and goes on living after death.

Acording to the “Holman Illustrated Bible Dictionary, often the soul is equated with the total person.” For instance Gen. 2:7 states: God proceeded to form the man out of dust from the ground and to blow into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man came to be a living soul.” The first man, Adam, was a soul.

The whole person is supported by other scriptures. The Bible speaks of a soul's doing work. Lev.23:30, Soul spoken of as being impatient, irritated, sleepless, fearful, depressed. Judges 16:16, Job 19:2, Ps.119:28, Acts 2:43, Thess. 5:14. At 1 Peter 3:20 it says: “In Noah's day, a few people, eight souls, were carried safely through the water.” Nothing in these scriptures indicates that the soul is some immaterial entity that lives on after death.

The Bible states: “The soul that is sinning, it itself will die.” Eze.18:4, the prophet Elijah “began to ask that his soul might die.” 1 Kings 19:4, Jonah “kept asking that his soul might die.” When he was in the belly of the large fish. The soul dies when the person dies; it is not immortal. Since a person is a soul, to say that someone died is to say that his soul died.

The Bible shows what man is. He does not have a soul; he is a soul. And because of what mn is, his nature, any hope for future life for the dead depends on a resurrection, a raising up. The promise of a resurrection, not the teaching of the immortality of the soul, is the basis for real hope for the dead.

Answer 4

Immortality is a reward for faithfulness. eternal soul idea is a variation of Satan's lie that if you disobey God you will not die, Genesis ch. 3. The parable of the rich man and Lazarus is a story not fact. It is directed to the scribes and Pharisees (they loved riches), showing that they (the rich man) were about to lose their favored position, and that the "common people" Lazarus were going to receive God's favor. When you read the Gospels you see that the Scribes and Pharisees were tormented every time Jesus spoke. The fact that the soul dies (Ez 18:4) shows that the parable can't be literal. Kurt was correct when he said that Lazarus was sleeping, as you pointed out, he was referring to a different account.

Answer 5

These are the questions that spring from a mind that is incapable of grasping metaphor.

How should we understand Genesis 4:10, where God said to Cain after he killed his brother: "Listen! Your brother's blood is crying out to be from the ground?" Are we to suppose that the red blood cells possess some capacity we are not aware of that allows blood to silently communicate with God? More reasonably, isn't that simply a graphic way of saying that Abel's spilled blood demanded God to establish justice in his case by avenging his murder?

Since that is obviously the case, Revelation 6:9 uses that same sort of allusion to symbolize how Jehovah must eventually avenge the deaths of his anointed sons at the war of Armageddon.

Answer 6

How does the souls "cry out"?

Since the Soul has blood (Genesis 9:4), the blood of the innocent victims will cry out until justice is served. Abel's blood was "crying out" to God to when Abel died (Genesis 4:10).

How are they still crying after so many years? The Whore of Babylon (Satan's organization) is still functioning, and "she" is still drinking the blood of the holy ones, the witnesses and of the prophets of old.

Revelation 17
6 I saw that the woman was drunk with the blood of the saints, the blood of those who bore testimony to Jesus.

Revelation 18
24 In her was found the blood of prophets and of the saints, and of all who have been killed on the earth."

They are still waiting for justice to be served, and this will only happen when the Son of God arrives in his glory. (Luke 18:7,8)

Further in the Book of Revelation, the blood of the holy ones, prophets ect. have all been avenged once the Whore of Babylon is cast down.

Revelation 19
2 for true and just are his judgments. He has condemned the great prostitute who corrupted the earth by her adulteries. He has avenged on her the blood of his servants.

So they aren't literally crying, just crying out of blood guilt and waiting for vengeance.

Answer 7

Why do Jehovah's Witnesses believe the soul dies?.. The Bible Says so Greg.
Any soul that does not listen to that Prophet will be completely destroyed.” (Acts 3:23)
“The soul that sinneth, it shall die.”—Ezek. 18:4, 20.

Answer 8

‘Slaughtered Souls’ Rewarded

GOD’S Kingdom rules! The Rider of the white horse is about to complete his conquest! The red horse, the black horse, and the pale horse are galloping through the earth! Indisputably, Jesus’ own prophecies concerning his royal presence are being fulfilled. (Matthew, chapters 24, 25; Mark, chapter 13; Luke, chapter 21) Yes, we are living in the last days of this system of things. (2 Timothy 3:1-5) That being so, let us pay close attention as the Lamb, Jesus Christ, breaks open the fifth seal of that scroll. In what further revelation are we now to share?

2 John describes a moving scene: “And when he opened the fifth seal, I saw underneath the altar the souls of those slaughtered because of the word of God and because of the witness work that they used to have.” (Revelation 6:9) What is that? A sacrificial altar up in heaven? Yes! It is the first time that John mentions an altar. Already, though, he has described Jehovah on His throne, the surrounding cherubs, the glassy sea, the lamps, and the 24 elders carrying incense—all of these resembling features of the earthly tabernacle, Jehovah’s sanctuary in Israel. (Exodus 25:17, 18; 40:24-27, 30-32; 1 Chronicles 23:4) Should it, then, surprise us to find a symbolic altar of sacrifice also in heaven?—Exodus 40:29.

3 Underneath this altar are “the souls of those slaughtered because of the word of God and because of the witness work that they used to have.” What does this mean? These could not be disembodied souls—like those believed in by the pagan Greeks. (Genesis 2:7; Ezekiel 18:4) Rather, John knows that the soul, or life, is symbolized by the blood, and when the priests at the ancient Jewish tabernacle slaughtered a sacrificial animal, they sprinkled the blood “round about upon the altar” or poured it “at the base of the altar of burnt offering.” (Leviticus 3:2, 8, 13; 4:7; 17:6, 11, 12) Hence, the animal’s soul was closely identified with the altar of sacrifice. But why would the souls, or blood, of these particular servants of God be seen underneath a symbolic altar in heaven? Because their deaths are viewed as sacrificial.

4 Indeed, all those who are begotten as spirit sons of God die a sacrificial death. Because of the role they are to play in Jehovah’s heavenly Kingdom, it is God’s will that they renounce and sacrifice any hope of life everlasting on earth. In this respect, they submit to a sacrificial death in behalf of Jehovah’s sovereignty. (Philippians 3:8-11; compare 2:17.) This is true in a very real sense of those whom John saw under the altar. They are anointed ones who in their day were martyred for their zealous ministry in upholding Jehovah’s Word and sovereignty. Their “souls [were] slaughtered because of the word of God and because of the witness work [mar·ty·ri´an] that they used to have.”

5 The scenario continues to unfold: “And they cried with a loud voice, saying: ‘Until when, Sovereign Lord holy and true, are you refraining from judging and avenging our blood upon those who dwell on the earth?’” (Revelation 6:10) How can their souls, or blood, cry out for vengeance, since the Bible shows that the dead are unconscious? (Ecclesiastes 9:5) Well, did not righteous Abel’s blood cry out after Cain murdered him? Jehovah then said to Cain: “What have you done? Listen! Your brother’s blood is crying out to me from the ground.” (Genesis 4:10, 11; Hebrews 12:24) It was not that Abel’s blood was literally uttering words. Rather, Abel had died as an innocent victim, and justice called out for his murderer to be punished. Similarly, those Christian martyrs are innocent, and in justice they must be avenged. (Luke 18:7, 8) The cry for vengeance is loud because many thousands have thus died.—Compare Jeremiah 15:15, 16.

6 The situation may also be likened to that in apostate Judah when King Manasseh came to the throne in 716 B.C.E. He shed much innocent blood, probably ‘sawing asunder’ the prophet Isaiah. (Hebrews 11:37; 2 Kings 21:16) Although Manasseh later repented and reformed, that bloodguilt remained. In 607 B.C.E., when the Babylonians desolated the kingdom of Judah, “it was only by the order of Jehovah that it took place against Judah, to remove it from his sight for the sins of Manasseh, according to all that he had done; and also for the innocent blood that he had shed, so that he filled Jerusalem with innocent blood, and Jehovah did not consent to grant forgiveness.”—2 Kings 24:3, 4.

Answer 9

I'm not a Jehovah's Witness and I don't adhere to their doctrine especially with regard to the divinity of Christ. However, with regard to the state of the dead...the Bible clearly states that we are physical beings created by God who has breathed the Breath of Life into us. We live, move and have our being through Him. Let me address the verse you just gave and allow me to ask you to really look at it...

9And when he had opened the fifth seal, I saw under the altar the souls of them that were slain for the word of God, and for the testimony which they held:

10And they cried with a loud voice, saying, How long, O Lord, holy and true, dost thou not judge and avenge our blood on them that dwell on the earth?

11And white robes were given unto every one of them; and it was said unto them, that they should "REST yet for a little season, until their fellowservants also and their brethren, that should be killed as they were, should be fulfilled"

Now examine if you will how a persons blood becomes the testament to their faith and that when you die, your being and awareness are gone but your Creator knows you by your unique design...your blood...your genetic imprint...where you are and all about you even long after you are gone.

Matthew 23:35
That upon you may come all the righteous blood shed upon the earth, from the blood of righteous Abel unto the blood of Zacharias son of Barachias, whom ye slew between the temple and the altar.


Luke 11:51
From the blood of Abel unto the blood of Zacharias which perished between the altar and the temple: verily I say unto you, It shall be required of this generation. (The Alter is the symbolic of the earth and the temple is the Body of Christ and the following generation of the early Church would see rightious blood being spilt - that all the blood of those saints down through the ages is what is being symbolically represented in Rev 6)

Hebrews 11:4
By faith Abel offered unto God a more excellent sacrifice than Cain, by which he obtained witness that he was righteous, God testifying of his gifts: and by it he being dead yet speaketh. (It was Abel's rightiousness that calls to God...Abel's faith which testifies as witness that God hears.)

Hebrews 12:24
And to Jesus the mediator of the new covenant, and to the blood of sprinkling, that speaketh better things than that of Abel. (Christs blood speaks better things of that than Abels because Christ as resurrected and living gives us our hope in that resurrection.)

Our hope is in the resurrection which will occur only once. Would God call up all the "souls" out of "hell" and bring down all the "souls" out of "heaven" for the purpose of judgement only to re-dispensate them back? What about the soul that died 4000 years ago? Would a just and fair God leave a soul twisting in the wind wallowing thought for that long? We, in fact are not immortal beings. We do not have each of us an individual spirit. We will be resurrected to eternal life and recieve our immortality at that time or...we will face eternal death when all things not belonging to God are destroyed including this alter (the world) where no more sacrifices could be made. By the way...examine the term altar..er however ya spell it...are you picturing some table where you lift up the cloth and see what...thousands or millions of souls milling about...Alters are built from stone, rock and earth...so even if they were under the alter they would still have to be underground...so would a just and merciful God leave people alert and aware suffering in the dark? As with all prophecy while being literal it is also alagorical...means its true but symbolic of the truth..which means that God loves you and when you die, if you belong to Him, your name is written in the book of Life, your blood has been cleansed with that of Our Lord and Savior, your being, your soul, you as an individual will be called into existance again...that is our Hope. He...is our Hope. I have mass scripture that supports this if you would like to see any of it. Love in Christ, ~J~

Answer 10

Hello? Metaphor? Try: Eccl. 3: 19; 9: 5,10; Ezekl. 18: 4; Job 14: 12-15; John 11: 11-14

I hope this proves food for thought. Please consider: if the dead have already recieved their reward (or punishment) then how does one explain the need for a future resurrection?

Answer 11

excellent question.
How could Matt 25 & Rev 18-22 be true?
They are true.