It is difficult to pinpoint what exactly Jehovah’s Witnesses believe. This is list of beliefs on their official site, www.jw.org. However, it’s not the full story. The doctrines of Jehovah’s Witnesses change. It’s been changing since the days of Charles Taze Russell, the founder of the religion. If you have ever encountered a Witness and asked them what they believe, likely they would have told you they believe in God whose name is Jehovah, Jesus who was the son of God (not God in flesh), and that when Armageddon happens the earth will be transformed into a literal paradise earth.

Faithful subjects of Jesus’ Kingdom will enjoy life without end in a restored paradise on earth. (John 3:16) Some will enter Paradise by surviving the destruction of the present wicked system of things. Others will enter by resurrection.

-November 1, 2013 Watchtower page 3

This is the most basic structure of JW ideology. While the majority of Christians believe in Heaven, Hell and Purgatory, Witnesses reject all but two forms of afterlife. They also reject a “soul.”

The Bible thus makes clear that humans are not created as individuals with a soul that is immortal. Rather, each individual is “a living person.” That is why, search as you may, you will not find any Bible text that uses the expression “immortal soul.”

-Number 4 Public Watchtower “What the Bible Says About Life and Death”

Since God is the Giver of life, his Word says that when a person dies “the dust returns to the earth just as it happened to be and the spirit itself returns to the true God who gave it.” (Ecclesiastes 12:7) At death the life force eventually leaves all the body cells and the body begins to decay. All conscious thought and actions end. (Psalm 104:29 [103:29, Dy]) How, then, does the spirit ‘return to God who gave it’? Does the life force literally leave the earth and travel through space to God’s presence? No, but it returns to God in the sense that now the future life prospects of the person rest entirely with God. Only God can restore the spirit, causing the person to live again.

-Truth that Leads to Eternal Life Chapter 5 Paragraph 16

So what’s the deal with the “two forms of afterlife?” Let’s start with the question “What happens to me when I die?”

What happens at death is no mystery to Jehovah, the Creator of the brain. He knows the truth, and in his Word, the Bible, he explains the condition of the dead. Its clear teaching is this: When a person dies, he ceases to exist. Death is the opposite of life. The dead do not see or hear or think. Not even one part of us survives the death of the body. We do not possess an immortal soul or spirit. After Solomon observed that the living know that they will die, he wrote: “But the dead know nothing at all.” He then enlarged on that basic truth by saying that the dead can neither love nor hate and that “there is no work nor planning nor knowledge nor wisdom in the Grave.” (Read Ecclesiastes 9:5, 6, 10.) Similarly, Psalm 146:4 says that when a man dies, “his thoughts perish.” We are mortal and do not survive the death of our body. The life we enjoy is like the flame of a candle. When the flame is put out, it does not go anywhere. It is simply gone.

-What Does the Bible Really Teach Chapter 6 Paragraphs 5, 6

Essentially what this means is, when you die, Jehovah has a record of your existence and will resurrect you into the post-Armageddon paradise at his discretion. But that’s only one form of the afterlife. What is the other one, and what does death mean for them?

Only 144,000 share in the first resurrection. Jehovah began selecting them at Pentecost 33 C.E., shortly after he resurrected Jesus. All of them have “[Jesus’] name and the name of his Father written on their foreheads.” (Revelation 14:1, 3) Hence, they are not selected from many different religions. All are Christians, and all proudly bear the name of the Father—Jehovah. When they are resurrected, they receive an assignment of work in the heavens. The prospect of serving God in such a direct way is simply thrilling to them.

-January 1, 2017 Watchtower Page 28 Paragraph 8

The number of 144,000 is taken from the highly symbolic book of Revelation. Jehovah’s Witnesses interpret this number literally. This group of 144,000 are selected to go to heaven upon death. Let’s look at the paragraph right before 8 in the same page.

Paul’s words show that Christians anointed with holy spirit must die before they can receive their heavenly reward. At their death, their earthly body returns to the dust. (Genesis 3:19) At God’s appointed time, they are resurrected with a body of a kind suitable for life in the heavens. (1 John 3:2) God also grants them immortality. That is not something they possess from birth, as if a so-called immortal soul were breathed into them. “This which is mortal must put on immortality,” says Paul. Immortality is a gift from God, “put on” by those who share in the first resurrection.—1 Corinthians 15:50, 53; Genesis 2:7; 2 Corinthians 5:1, 2, 8.

And so there you have it. Jehovah’s Witnesses believe in a two-tier salvation. The “first resurrection” is of the 144,000 anointed Jehovah’s Witnesses who will go to heaven immediately upon dying. The other class is the rest of all Jehovah’s Witnesses, who will enter paradise earth either from a bodily resurrection or by simply surviving Armageddon into it.

For my next post I will delve into the organizational matters of Jehovah’s Witnesses and their leadership, the Governing Body.