New change in Jehovah's Witnesses Doctrine?

Question

Once again, "new light" has been received from the Watchtower Society.

Jehovah's Witnesses, who claim to be God's channel used to teach that only 144,000 would go to heaven and that those people were chosen by the year 1935. The rest of us would live on a paradise earth. Now they are dispensing with the 1935 teaching and are saying that ANYONE can now have the heavenly hope. They are also tossing their 1914 doctrine by claiming the "generation of 1914" is not literal but is a representation of those who have the heavenly hope.


I grew up being taught that the "generation of 1914 will not pass away". Meaning Armageddon would come before people who were aware of the events of 1914 would die.

The year is now 2007. Armageddon hasn't occurred. The Watchtower keeps changing it's doctrine because they know they are wrong. They are covering their butts. They are nothing but false prophets. (Deut. 18:22)

So, why do you Jehovah's Witnesses keep following a false prophet?

I am not disfellowshipped.

Two people mention that I am wrong in saying that anyone can now have the heavenly hope. By dispensing with the teaching that the Anointed were sealed in 1935 they have opened the door to anyone (meaning a baptized JW) having the heavenly hope. It seems obvious to me. I even asked an elder and he agreed with me.

This is proven by the fact that the 4 newest Governing Body members are all too young to have been baptized in 1935. So how am I spreading blasphemy?

For any who don't know, this announcement was made at the Annual Meeting of Jehovah's Witnesses, discussed at this week's service meeting and there will be a Watchtower on it in January.

Answer 1

Before I answer your question, did you know that from January 2008 there will be TWO editions of the Watchtower? One will be for the public and will NOT contain the study articles. The study articles will be available to non-Witnesses who go along to the Sunday Watchtower study. A JW told me this is because the terminology used by JW's in their study articles are not understood by the public and have to be explained, and that they are trying to cut down on the cost of printing. Hmmmmm.

You make an interesting point that if they are going to dispense with the claim that Christ's second INVISIBLE coming (oops, sorry - they say PRESENCE, not coming) happened in 1914, then that must mean the heavenly calling has not stopped, although they said the chosing of the 144,000 ended in 1935. Yet there are currently some 8,000 JW's who claim to have a heavenly calling.

So what does that mean for all the millions of JW's who swallowed the line that the Holy Spirit was not inculcating in them a desire to go to heaven? Is the Holy Spirit now going to reverse everything? Did the Holy Spirit get it wrong? All JW's who are not of the elite 144,000 anointed class and not fully anointed by the Holy Spirit are not in the new covenant inaugurated by Jesus 2,000 years ago. That means the shed blood of Jesus Christ does not cover them. That means they have no assurance of salvation. Just think about the awful consequences of being left out of the new covenant.

Back to the JW teachings about the end of 6,000 years of human existence (which preceeds Armageddon). My parents became Witnesses in the 1940's and they were totally convinced that they were in that promised generation that would not pass away. The died disappointed.

However, did you know that the original date was much earlier than 1914? Pastor Russell said (in Zions Watch Tower, February 1881, page 188) "Well, 1873 came, the end of 6,000 years, and yet no burning of the world, etc. But prophecies were found which pointed positively to 1874 as the time when Jesus was due to be present..." It was around this time when they change the words in Matthew 24:37, 39 from Christ's second coming to 'presence'. This was to support their theory that Christ would come INVISIBLY. It follows, therefore, that Christ must come three times, because he is yet to come visibly, in great glory, in the future. Not surprisingly, I cannot find that anywhere in my Bible.

Why do they continue to follow a false prophet? Because they don't know any better. They choose to remain in blissfull ignorance of the history of the Watch Tower Society and its founders. They claim anyone who exposes the falsehoods in their theology is an apostate, that they hate JW's, that they are being persecuted. Utter poppycock. Pray that the Holy Spirit will work in their lives to reveal to them the true gospel, that they will be set free from slavishly following the Governing Body.

Answer 2

Oh???? Can it really be? You don't say!

I grew up hearing the same thing about the generation of 1914, verbatim.

Now, here is the real crux of the matter: if the WTS is God's chosen organization and the only truth, then why is there so much doctrinal flip-flopping? Was Jehovah wrong then? Or is He wrong now? Was He lying before? Or is He lying now?

It's really funny, because I distinctly remember the Bible saying that:
1. God is the same, yesterday, today, and forever--He never changes

And,

2. IT is IMPOSSIBLE for God to lie.

So, what's the deduction?

That it is only man who is fallible, liars, makes mistakes and misinterpretations, deceived, covers their butts, etc.

The only reasonable conclusion of the matter, then, is that the WTS is merely another man-made, human error run org. that operates independently and outside the will of Almighty God. There's no two ways about it.

And they call Christendom false. Go figure!

EDIT: Bambi, your 1 John verse speaks of the Father and Son. The lack of mention of the Holy Spirit in no way negates Him, He is just not central to the point of this particular verse. This is just more Scripture twisting that is so typical within your org.

Furthermore, are you saying that you don't believe in the Holy Spirit? That would figure because Jesus said that the Holy Spirit--also called the "Spirit of truth"-- would lead us into ALL TRUTH (John 16:13), which shows us that if someone doesn't have the Holy Spirit they cannot be led into all truth. Clearly so, in view of your comments.

If anyone denies the Son, it is the WTS who denies His diety and falsely teaches that He is merely an angel. Can't get much more in the spirit of the anti-Christ than that, dear.

Answer 3

You have to understand what the Bible teach about the 144,000.

Luke 18:10 states “Two men went up into the temple to pray, the one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector”

In this illustration, is the number Two literal or figurative, is the Pharisee only applied to Jews? And is the praying figurative or literal?

In just one sentence, you can see that some words are meant to be literal, some are meant to figurative.

Rev 6:10-11 states “. 10 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?” 11 And a white robe was given to each of them; and they were told to rest a little while longer, until the number was filled also of their fellow SLAVES and their brothers who were about to be killed as they also had been.”

These SLAVES of God, where later sealed in their foreheads in Rev 7:3 “3 saying: “Do not harm the earth or the sea or the trees, until after we have sealed the SLAVES of our God in their foreheads.””

Rev 7:4 states that these slaves of God number 144,000.

If the prophecy in Rev 6:10 happened in the earlier centuries, then how come the “judgment” of their blood upon those who dwell on the earth has not arrived yet? The judgment is still in the future.

That 144,000 is being CONTRASTED to a huge number, that no man was able to number, means that 144,000 is a small number and literal. Rev 7:9


2 Cor 5:10 talks about the people who will be judged.

10 For we must all be made manifest before the judgment seat of the Christ, that each one may get his award for the things done through the body, according to the things he has practiced, whether it is good or vile.


The 144.000 will be kings with Jesus and part of the FIRST resurrection and are given favor in the judgment itself.

Rev 5:10 states “ and you made them to be a kingdom and priests to our God, and they are to rule as kings over the earth.”


Dan 7:22 states “22 until the Ancient of Days came and judgment itself was given in favor of the holy ones of the Supreme One, and the definite time arrived that the holy ones took possession of the kingdom itself.”

Rev 20:5 states “This is the first resurrection. 6 Happy and holy is anyone having part in the first resurrection; over these the second death has no authority, but they will be priests of God and of the Christ, and will rule as kings with him for the thousand years.”


The 144, 000 doesn’t have to be a literal Jew, it can have literal Jews, but not all.

He is not a Jew that is one on the outside, nor is circumcision that which is on the outside upon the flesh. But he is a Jew that is one on the inside, and his circumcision is that of the heart by spirit, and not by a written code.” (Rom. 2:12-29, NW)

Answer 4

This is a somewhat lengthy response to another accusation but if anything at least read my last paragraph.

You have made a serious error in one aspect. Jehovah's Witnesses have and still maintain that 144,000 annointed will have a heavenly resurrection.
Revelation clearly identifies the 144,000 that will be seated before the throne of God and that the 144,000 will have been bought from the earth.

Revelation 14:1-3
And I saw, and, look! the Lamb standing upon the Mount Zion, and with him a hundred and forty-four thousand having his name and the name of his Father written on their foreheads. 2 And I heard a sound out of heaven as the sound of many waters and as the sound of loud thunder; and the sound that I heard was as of singers who accompany themselves on the harp playing on their harps. 3 And they are singing as if a new song before the throne and before the four living creatures and the elders; and no one was able to master that song but the hundred and forty-four thousand, who have been bought from the earth.

Not all the annointed were selected by 1935 as there are still roughly as of 2007 around 8000 who continue to partake in the emblems at the memorial Jesus Christ.
Matter of fact in 1935 it announced at a convention in Washington DC that people of the earthly hope (the Jonadab class) was the same sheep of Matthew 25:33.
There is not a single society documentation that says that all the annointed were selected by 1935. You are wrong on that point.

Many millions of people who do not even know what a Jehovah's Witnesses and never even seen a Bible will be resurrected on the earth and have the hope of living on a paradise earth forever.
That basic teaching from Jesus's prophetic words found in Matthew 5:5 “Happy are the mild-tempered ones, since they will inherit the earth" is the same today as it has been for many decades.

The organisation has made mistakes in the past but has over the years refined sharply some of what it thought it meant to some scriptures. But they do not stubbornly refuse to budge but instead admit they have made mistakes. They do not make a tradition to continue to teach past errors. Though these are getting extremely small now and for the last 25 years virtually no teaching has change to any real significance. The 144,000 will co-rule with Christ in heaven as spoke in Revelation. The greater crowd will inherit the earth that God did not form for nothing but to be inhabited (Isaiah 45:18).

Jehovah's Witnesses still preach the good news of the kingdom to all the nations of the inhabited earth in Matthew 24:14

Nothing has changed to what the questioner as accussed not for many years. He can hardly claim to be stumbled and know something new that no other Jehovah's Witness worldwide has ever read or heard of.
If there was a drastic change in teaching we would know it first.

Lastly....
Charlie636 wrote: "For any who don't know, this announcement was made at the Annual Meeting of Jehovah's Witnesses, discussed at this week's service meeting and there will be a Watchtower on it in January."

I would invite ANY PERSON worldwide to go and take his challenge up and go right ahead and read the coming January edition of the Watchtower and try and find this wild claim this man is making.

Answer 5

I was at this last week's service meeting, no mention of what you speak.

Our understanding of the Bible has needed fixing over the years, but we still firmly believe that the heavenly hope is for 144,000 and that in general the hope for mankind is living forever on the Earth.

Answer 6

These people critical of the JWS need to spend as much time researching their new religions as they do their old. Consider it patience on the part of God if Armageddon has not come.

Answer 7

False statements.
Why would you want to make such false statements.
2Corinthians 4:4 applies to many of, such of those who make these false statements!
Progressive, organization changes
Walking in the Path of Increasing Light
“The path of the righteous ones is like the bright light that is getting lighter and lighter until the day is firmly established.”—PROVERBS 4:18.
WHO can better describe the effect that the rising sun has on the darkness of the night than the very Source of light, Jehovah God? (Psalm 36:9) ‘When the morning light takes hold on the ends of the earth,’ God says, ‘the earth transforms itself like clay under a seal, and things take their station as in clothing.’ (Job 38:12-14) With increasing light from the sun, earth’s features take shape and become clearer, just as soft clay undergoes a transformation upon receiving an imprint from an emblem on a seal.
Jehovah is also the Source of spiritual light. (Psalm 43:3) While the world remains in dense darkness, the true God continues to shed light upon his people. With what result? The Bible answers: “The path of the righteous ones is like the bright light that is getting lighter and lighter until the day is firmly established.” (Proverbs 4:18) Increasing light from Jehovah continues to illuminate the path of his people. It refines them organizationally, doctrinally, and morally.

Answer 8

Not anyone can have a heavenly hope. Not sure where you got this from. So many lies perpetuated by blasphemers. The thing that I realize though is that these ones would be so prominent in the last days. I see this is so truly daily.

Answer 9

Generation has nothing to do with a certain time, it has to do with certain events. The events that will by no means pass away until these things occur are located in the book of Matthew Chapter 24.

JWs aren't stating that anyone can have a Heavenly hope, which you are completely wrong in.

Answer 10

I will pray that the Holy Spirit continues to work on your heart so that you will continue to see the truth about this evil organisation. It worked for me.