I like to write about the Jehovah’s Witnesses. They are a dangerous cult that preys on people’s ignorance of Scripture and Church history, so Catholics have to know how to refute their erroneous beliefs and sophistical arguments. We need to be able to defend ourselves and our loved ones from their false gospel, so we should have at least a passing familiarity with their distinctive theology and the reasons why they’re wrong.
Normally when I write about the Jehovah’s Witnesses, I focus on their denial of Jesus’ divinity, as that is their most well-known belief. It is often the first thing they talk about when they knock on your door. However, that is the most obvious but not the only false doctrine they teach. They also hold to a host of other erroneous beliefs, not the least of which is their denial of the afterlife. According to them, our souls lose all consciousness when we die, so there is no such thing as the afterlife as we typically understand it.
Heaven or Resurrection?
At first glance, that might seem ludicrous. Isn’t the whole point of Christianity that Jesus opened the gates of heaven for us so we can go there when we die? Well, yes and no. While that explanation isn’t wrong, it does not capture the fullness of our hope as Christians.
Yes, we believe that our souls live on after death, but what we normally think of as the afterlife is not really our ultimate goal. Rather, as we profess every Sunday at Mass, our ultimate goal is “the resurrection of the dead.” When Jesus comes again at the end of human history, the dead will rise just like He did, and we will enjoy eternal bliss with our bodies and souls reunited.
If we read Scripture carefully, we find that most of the time when it talks about our future hope, it is almost always talking about the resurrection, not a disembodied life in heaven (e.g., 1 Corinthians 15:20-23, 1 Thessalonians 4:14-16). Actually, it’s pretty tough to find passages that speak about what we call heaven, so the Jehovah’s Witnesses’ belief on this matter is not quite as ridiculous as it may seem at first. It’s understandable why they might think that the Bible teaches resurrection instead of disembodied life, rather than resurrection as well as disembodied life (before the resurrection).
Death as Sleep
In fact, there are even some passages that seem to deny any sort of afterlife before the resurrection. For example, the Bible often describes death as “sleep” (Acts 7:60, 1 Thessalonians 4:14), and there is even an Old Testament passage that explicitly says the dead are not conscious of anything:
For the living know that they will die, but the dead know nothing, and they have no more reward; but the memory of them is lost…Whatever your hand finds to do, do it with your might; for there is no work or thought or knowledge or wisdom in Sheol, to which you are going. (Ecclesiastes 9:5,10)
At first glance, these passages seem pretty convincing. If death is like sleep, and if the dead “know nothing” and have “no work or thought or knowledge or wisdom,” then they must be unconscious. Case closed, right?
Problems with the Arguments
Not exactly. While these arguments may appear strong at first, they are actually very thin. For starters, let’s look at the text from Ecclesiastes. If we take it literally, we would also have to deny that anybody even remembers the dead (“the memory of them is lost”), but that is obviously not true. We don’t forget about people right away when they die. It takes generations for someone’s memory to be lost, and in the case of famous people, it can take centuries or even millennia.
The author of Ecclesiastes knew that, so he clearly didn’t intend for us to take his words literally. Rather, he was simply speaking hyperbolically, exaggerating to capture the tragedy of death. If he was doing that in one part of the passage, it stands to reason that he was doing the same thing in the rest of it as well. He didn’t mean that the dead literally cease to exist or that they are literally conscious of nothing. He was simply exaggerating to emphasize how bad death really is.
When we turn to the passages that describe death as sleep, we find that the Jehovah’s Witnesses’ interpretation is shaky there as well. How do we know that “sleep” is not just a euphemism like our modern phrase “pass away”? We use that euphemism to soften the pain of death a bit, and it is entirely possible that the biblical authors did something similar. In fact, Scripture uses metaphorical language fairly often (for example, Jesus isn’t literally a door, despite what he says in John 10:9), so the mere fact that it describes death as sleep is inconclusive. It is consistent with either view, so if we really want to find out what happens after we die, we need to look at some other, less ambiguous texts.
The Good Thief
So what does the Bible actually say we can expect between death and the resurrection? Admittedly, it doesn’t say much, but if we read it carefully, it says more than enough to refute the Jehovah’s Witnesses. Let’s begin with arguably the most famous story in all of Scripture: Jesus’ crucifixion. The Gospels tell us that Jesus was crucified between two criminals, and one of them asked Him for mercy as they were hanging on their crosses (Luke 23:42). In response, Jesus promised him:
“Truly, I say to you, today you will be with me in Paradise.” (Luke 23:43)
This is a very simple statement, but it tells us everything we need to know. If the dead are unconscious and cannot experience sadness, happiness, or anything else, then Jesus was lying, and this man did not go to paradise that day. Instead, he went to sleep, and even after 2,000 years, Jesus still has not made good on His promise.
But we know that is not the case. Jesus was no liar, so if He said this man was going to be with Him in paradise that very day, it must have been true. This man’s soul must have gone to what we today call heaven, and he must have been able to experience the joys of being there with God.
“With Christ”
Next, let’s take a look at St. Paul’s teaching on the matter. Like the other New Testament authors, he too says very little about the state of our souls between death and the resurrection, but there is one passage in his letters that very clearly touches on this question. In the first chapter of Philippians, he says that he is torn between two desires. On the one hand, he wants to remain alive and help the churches under his care, but on the other, he also wants to die “and be with Christ” (Philippians 1:21-24).
The significance of this passage is easy to miss, so we need to read it carefully. St. Paul doesn’t explicitly say he will be conscious after he dies, but that is the only way to make sense of what he says. If not, why would he have an intense desire to die and be “with Christ”? That does not sound like he expected to be unconscious until the resurrection. On the contrary, it sounds very much like he believed he would go to heaven and experience the bliss of being with Jesus.
The Truth about the Afterlife
There are several other passages we could look at as well, but those two are enough to seal the deal for us. The clear teaching of Scripture is that our souls will remain awake and conscious after we die. The Bible does, of course, describe death as “sleep,” but that is just a euphemism, much like the way we say that people “pass away”. It is not a literal description, so on this point, the Jehovah’s Witnesses are wrong, showing once again that they simply distort the word of God to fit their false gospel.
20 thoughts on “What Jehovah’s Witnesses Get Wrong about the Afterlife”
JP
I’m thoroughly convinced that you will write anything to come to a conclusion that alines with Catholic tenets.
How do you interpret CCC 841, in light of the fact that Islam denies that Jesus is the Son of God and Muslims persecute Christians throughout the world?
This is completely off topic, and I’m not going to discuss it here. If you really want to discuss this, shoot me an email.
JP:
The iBeviary.com website is Catholic. I have heard similar prayers at Catholic funerals and consequently wondered how these prayers conflicted with RCC dogmas. Isn’t the fact that you don’t know anything about them irrelevant?
More importantly, aren’t these prayers in sync with the scriptures (which are the fundamentals of our faith)?
I’ve been thinking about that prayer a bit more, and I have an idea about what it might be getting at. It’s obviously focusing on the resurrection without seeming to take into account life in heaven before that time, and in doing so, I think it’s actually taking its cue from the New Testament. Not that the New Testament does exactly that, but it does similar things in other contexts. There are several times when a New Testament passage only gives one side of a more complex issue. For example, 2 Timothy 1:10 says that Jesus “destroyed death and has brought life and immortality to light through the gospel” even though, as you like to point out, St. Paul elsewhere seems to say that this will only happen in the future. Or look at John 14:28, where Jesus says “the Father is greater than I,” even though other passages clearly put him on the same level as the Father (like John 1:1). So if the New Testament can sometimes only focus on one half of a more complex truth, then so can Catholic prayers.
And what is the “half” of the complex truth about the afterlife that this prayer is focusing on? It’s all about the body. It’s talking about bodily death, bodily resurrection, and seeing God face to face in the body, so it’s not talking about the person’s soul. So much like some New Testament passages talk about Jesus’ human nature without mentioning his divine nature, and others talk about his divine nature without mentioning that he’s also God, this prayer focuses on bodily death and bodily immortality without mentioning the state of the person’s soul before the resurrection. So to answer your second question, yes, this prayer is totally in line with Scripture, both in its content and in the way that it only focuses on one half of a more complex truth.
Since your article is on someone’s belief about the afterlife, why is my point about Lazarus “irrelevant”? The fact that it is not there raises a question about the conclusion you have reached.
Or did Lazarus not have knowledge because he was dead for four days and had not received immortality (which takes place at the last trumpet according to a mystery shared by Paul in 1 Corinthians 15:50-58).
“For the living know that they are to die, but the dead no longer know anything”. “Anything you can turn your hand to, do with what power you have, for there will be no work, nor reason, nor knowledge , nor wisdom in the nether world where you are going”. Ecclesiastes 9
I don’t know anything about the history of that prayer, so I can’t say why it seems to ignore the soul’s life in heaven between death and the resurrection. But it’s not official Catholic teaching (or anything even close to it), so it’s not relevant.
As for Lazarus, I’m not exactly saying that your point is irrelevant to this discussion. I’m saying that what Lazarus may or may not have experienced when he was dead was irrelevant to John the evangelist’s concerns in writing his Gospel and in including that story in it, so we shouldn’t expect him to have recorded what Lazarus experienced during that time (and that’s assuming he even knew what Lazarus experienced). Like I said, the evangelists didn’t write their Gospels to entertain us or to satisfy our curiosity. They wrote in order to preach the Gospel to us, and what Lazarus may or may not have experienced is simply outside that purpose.
As for that quote from Ecclesiastes, I deal with it in my article, so if you want to discuss it, don’t just quote it. Refute my interpretation of it.
https://www.ibreviary.com/m2/preghiere.php?tipo=Rito&id=416#prayerovercommittal
JP:
An interesting Catholic prayer of committal at the grave site:
“Lord Jesus Christ,
by your own three days in the tomb,
you hallowed the graves of all who believe in you
and so made the grave a sign of hope
that promises resurrection
even as it claims our mortal bodies.
Grant that our brother (sister) may sleep here in peace
until you awaken him (her) to glory,
for you are the resurrection and the life.
Then he (she) will see you face to face
and in your light will see light
and know the splendor of God,
for you live and reign for ever and ever.
R. Amen.”
According to Paul (in 1 Corinthians 15), this takes place at His coming.
It is also noteworthy that you didn’t bring up John 11, which deals with Lazarus. Jesus, at first, states that his friend is asleep, but then proclaims that he is dead. When Jesus arrives at his grave, He calls him out of the grave after 4 days in the tomb. No mention of the soul of Lazarus going to heaven, hell, or purgatory.
Before I comment on that prayer, where did you get it from?
As for Lazarus, of course John 11 doesn’t mention heaven, hell, or purgatory. What Lazarus may or may not have experienced during those few days is completely irrelevant to the story, so we shouldn’t expect the text to mention it even if the evangelist John knew about it. The Gospels weren’t written to entertain us or to satisfy our curiosity. They were written to tell us the good news about Jesus Christ, and what Lazarus experienced when he was dead is completely irrelevant to that purpose. Consequently, even if John knew what Lazarus experienced, he didn’t have much reason to include it in his Gospel, so we shouldn’t be surprised at John 11’s silence about the nature of the afterlife.
Since Lazarus experienced death before Christ rose from the dead it makes sense (from a linear time perspective) that Jesus used the word “sleep” (assuming that’s an accurate translation of the word that was actually used). If Jehova’s Witnesses were around at the time Lazarus died (the first time) their belief might have been more applicable. However, after Jesus was risen, it is my understanding that His Resurrection opened up the gates of Heaven. What is less clear to me is whether or not we would be like Spirits in Heaven (God Willing our souls obtain that paradise) or have resurrected bodies if we die before Jesus’ 2nd Coming. However, we do know that Mother Mary was accepted into Heaven with her earthly body (presumably transformed into a resurrected body?). In the Old Testament it also mentions Enoch and Elijah being accepted into Heaven with their earthly bodies. This point might cause some confusion since this occurred before Jesus rose from the dead. However, since God exists outside time, perhaps Enoch and Elijah received their resurrected bodies “retroactively”? One might then ask why Lazarus did not receive a “resurrected body” retroactively like Enoch and Elijah. One could also argue that Elijah indeed did have a resurrected body, because he appeared on the mountain along with Moses during Jesus’ Transfiguration. Perhaps Lazarus was a special case because God knew that He would “revive” him, so maybe he was in some kind of “death sleep”. Maybe Lazarus experienced what many call a “Life after death” episode (albeit for several days instead of several hours). Many people who have died claim to have encountered the Lord and are returned to their bodies because they have a mission to continue in life. I would imagine that they did not have resurrected bodies during such a visit, rather their spirits (souls) were momentarily away from their bodies. God can do all things, so maybe this is what happened with Lazarus. My apologies if this sounds a bit silly. God bless you both!
One other point I would make is that it might be a bit harsh to call Jehova’s Witnesses a “dangerous cult”. Other religions and denominations of Christianity might consider Catholicism a cult. I think that it is better to say that their are many paths to God, but that we believe the Catholic Church’s path is the most accurate.
Steven, you’re right to point out that Jesus opened the gates of heaven for us, but that doesn’t mean that people who died before the time of Christ were simple asleep. In the parable of the rich man and Lazarus (a different Lazarus, of course), Jesus simply assumes (and also expects his audience to assume) that the souls of the dead are conscious and able to experience either torment or consolation (Luke 16:19-31). So even though they weren’t exactly in heaven just yet, “sleep” was still a metaphorical euphemism, not a literal description.
As for getting our bodies back, that only happens when Jesus comes again, and until that time, the dead are just disembodied spirits. Mary’s assumption was an exception, and Old Testament figures like Elijah and Enoch are simply mysteries. Scripture just says they were taken up into heaven, but we don’t know what exactly that entailed.
Finally, I get why you might be apprehensive about calling the Jehovah’s Witnesses a cult, but it’s an absolutely accurate description. It’s not just because of their false beliefs. They also control their members in a very cult-like way, a way that’s very different from anything we find in what we would normally consider “legitimate” religions.
And one last thing. It’s not quite accurate to say that there are many paths to God. The Catholic Church is the one path that God has set up for people to be saved, so in the strict sense, Catholicism is the only “path” to God. Granted, God is free to save non-Catholics as well, but he only saves them because of what Vatican 2 called “elements of sanctification and of truth” in their own faith, and these “elements of sanctification and of truth” rightly belong to the Catholic Church (Lumen Gentium 8).
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Another point to make is that in Ecclesiastes Jesus had not yet risen from the dead, because it occurred in the Old Testament. After Jesus died but right before the Resurrection He went to Sheol and freed those who were waiting. That is part of our creed: …”He descended into hell and on the third day rose from the dead”. I believe this is where the Jehovah’s Witnesses are getting hung up. They are thinking from the Old Testament point of view where the dead are waiting for Christ to rise. One might interpret that as being “asleep”. When our Beloved Lord was talking to the criminal on the cross who was kind to Him, He knew that He would be Resurrected and “free” the dead. Also in the Gospel you hear about many dead who were freed on that day.
In John 3 Jesus tells Nicodemus that no one has gone to heaven. Jesus also tells his disciples in John 14 that he is going to prepare a place for them and will return for them.
After Jesus ascended to heaven, Peter tells the Jews on Pentecost that King David is not in heaven.
Paul tells us in 2 Thessalonians 2 that our gathering to the Lord doesn’t take place until after the mass apostasy AND the revealing of the antichrist at the abomination of desolation (Matthew 24).
Daniel is told in Chapter 12, “Go take your rest, you shall rise for your reward at the end of days.”
Are there any scriptures that specifically state “souls” go to heaven, hell, or purgatory at death? If so, please share them with me.
Matthew 27:51-53
New Catholic Bible
51 And behold, the veil of the sanctuary was torn in two from top to bottom. The earth quaked and rocks were split apart. 52 The tombs were opened, and the bodies of many saints who had fallen asleep were raised. 53 And coming forth from their tombs after his resurrection, they entered the holy city and appeared to many.[a]
Read full chapter
Footnotes
Matthew 27:53 The phenomena that accompany the death of Jesus evoke the apocalyptic literary genre of the Day of the Lord. In fact, according to the evangelists, that day corresponds with the day of the death of Jesus, which signals the beginning of the new era. Because of the obscurity of this language it is difficult to determine the historicity of the resurrection of some dead people mentioned here. Some Fathers of the Church and exegetes believe this passage refers to the liberation from limbo of the just of the Old Testament, who then enter with Jesus into the glory of the heavenly Jerusalem.
Liberation from limbo of the just of the OT?
Daniel 12 and Acts 2 certainly refute this Catholic position.
In John 3, Jesus says that nobody went to heaven before He died, and that’s true. He opened the gates of heaven, so before His saving death and resurrection, the dead went to a place called Sheol, as the Old Testament tells us many, many times. But that doesn’t mean that people don’t go to heaven now. Saying “nobody has ever gone to heaven before” is very, very different from saying “nobody will go to heaven afterwards either.”
As for John 14, I explained that in the comments on my last article. I’m just going to copy and paste what I said there:
“Jesus says that His Father’s house has many “dwellings,” and in His subsequent discourse, He talks a lot about the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit “dwelling” in one another and in believers. In that discourse, He often uses the verb “to dwell” (14:10, 17; 15:4-7, 9-10) which is simply the verb form of the noun that He used for “dwellings.” But one time He even uses the exact same word that He used in 14:2. In 14:23, He says that He and the Father will come and make their “dwelling” (some translations use a different word, but it’s the same Greek word that He used in 14:2) with those who love Him. Now, the fact that He continues this theme of “dwelling” in His subsequent discourse means that there’s a clear connection here. He’s explaining what He means when He talks about the many “dwellings” in His Father’s house. He’s not talking about a place apart from earth. Rather, His Father’s house is just the communion of love that the Father, Son, and Spirit share. He’s saying that He’s returning back to the fullness of that communion, and after He rises from the dead (that’s when He comes back), He’ll incorporate His disciples into that communion as well.”
I also commented on Acts 2. Again, I’ll just copy and paste:
“Acts 2, which explicitly says that David didn’t go to heaven, doesn’t say that he didn’t go to heaven after Jesus opened it up to us through His death and resurrection. Peter’s point was about what happened to David immediately after death, not what may or may not have happened to him centuries later.”
2 Thessalonians 2 is talking about the resurrection, and it has nothing to do with what may or may not happen to our souls immediately upon death.
As for Daniel 12, rest is not the same as sleep. It simply means resting from earthly troubles and labors, so it doesn’t have to mean literal sleep. At best, that’s a possible understanding, but since it’s not the only way to take this verse, it’s inconclusive.
Next, you ask if there are any passages that specifically say that “souls” go to heaven, hell, or purgatory at death, and the answer is no. But there’s also no passage that says God is a Trinity of three persons in one nature, and there’s no passage that says that Jesus is one person with two natures. Those foundational Christian doctrines are deductions from what Scripture does say, but that doesn’t make them any less biblical. And it’s the same with the afterlife. Sure, the New Testament never explicitly says that “souls” go to heaven, hell, or purgatory, but that’s the only way to make sense of what it does say. Take the two passages I talk about in this article, for example. How could the good thief be in paradise with Jesus on that very day if our souls are unconscious between death and the resurrection? Or how could Paul have a burning desire to die because he wanted to be “with Christ”? Again, that only makes sense if he expected his soul to go to heaven. How do you explain those passages?
Finally, a bit about the limbo of the just. I already explained Daniel 12, but let me comment a bit more on Acts 2. At best, it says that David didn’t go to heaven, but that’s exactly what the idea of the limbo of the just says. The whole point is that the righteous dead couldn’t go to heaven before before Jesus died and rose again. Saying that David didn’t go to heaven is not at all the same as saying his soul didn’t go anywhere.
In fact, if we look in the Gospels, there’s actually evidence for this. In Luke 16:19-31, Jesus tells the parable of Lazarus (not the same Lazarus from John’s Gospel) and the rich man, and when they die, neither is unconscious. Lazarus experiences consolation (even though it doesn’t use the word “limbo,” it’s the same thing as what that word is meant to express), and the rich man experiences torment. Why would Jesus talk like this if the souls of the dead are unconscious and unable to experience anything? He wouldn’t, so this is more proof that your position is incorrect.
Another interesting twist is that they celebrate Good Friday but spurn the Resurrection.
Yup, they have all sorts of problems.