What Jehovah’s Witnesses Teach
Jehovah’s Witnesses teach that there are two types of resurrections. 1) 144,000 Jehovah’s Witnesses who will be resurrected to life in heaven and 2) the rest of Jehovah’s witnesses will be resurrected from death to life during the 1,000-year kingdom. Jehovah’s Witnesses believe that they are the successors of what they call “the first Christian congregation,” so that they become a kind of “second Christian congregation” in history. Only people from these two groups are resurrected, but Jehovah’s Witnesses are open for the possibility that other people may come to life, especially if they have studied with Jehovah’s Witnesses but have not had time to get baptized.
Jehovah’s Witnesses believe that those who go to heaven rise to life when they die, while those who rise to life on earth rise gradually during the Messianic 1,000-year kingdom. Their doctrine specifies that those who died last rise first. Jehovah’s Witnesses believe that those who rise to life during the 1,000-year kingdom gradually become sinless (perfect) and they will not have to die or become sick during the 1,000-year kingdom unless they oppose Jehovah during the 1,000-year kingdom. They also believe that the 1,000-year kingdom will be a time for the restoration of the earth, so that the earth will be a perfect paradise.
None of these teachings have a Scriptural basis.
What the Bible Teaches
People don’t resurrect gradually
The Bible does not teach that humans resurrect to life gradually throughout the 1000-year kingdom. Nor does it teach that anyone has a heavenly hope or that they would receive heavenly life as they died.
Revelation 20:4-6 is clear that people only rise to life in two stages. The first resurrection occurs after the 1,000-year kingdom has begun. Verse 4 says that these persons will sit on the throne after Satan is bound and after the 1,000 years have begun to run. If they were gradually resurrected than they would not be able to rule in 1,000 years, maybe only 500 or 800 years depending on the time of resurrection. Therefore they will all resurrect before the 1,000-year kingdom starts, not gradually. All other dead are not resurrected until the end of the1,000-year kingdom, as shown in verse 5. This is not to be misunderstood. This rules out the possibility of a resurrection between 1914 and the present, as Jehovah’s Witnesses teach.
Those who are resurrected after the 1,000-year kingdom
Satan is released from his prison at the end of the thousand years. If there is to be any reality in people being tested by Satan after a thousand years have ended, then the “righteous and unrighteous“ must have time to resurrect before Satan begins to challenge them (Acts 24:15 and Rev. 20:5). These are then raised to judgment based on how they have lived (John 5:28,29). Another condition for Satan’s trial to have any reality is that resurrected humans must live for a while after Satan is released. If not, it would hardly be possible to make a real assessment of how they reacted to Satan’s trial.
People will still die during the 1000-year kingdom
There is no Scriptural basis for claiming that death ceased during the 1,000-year kingdom. Since death is the last enemy to be destroyed, and since God’s enemy Satan is removed after the 1,000-year kingdom, humans will be mortal until death is removed sometime after the 1,000-year kingdom (Rev. 20:14). This applies to all people living during the 1,000-year kingdom, except for the ones who will rule as kings with Jesus.
The members of the government will not suffer eternal death
Those who are resurrected in the first resurrection are freed from death for the duration of the 1000-year kingdom. This is clearly written in Revelation 20:6. The Bible text says that “second death” (everlasting death), has no power over persons in the first resurrection.
The fact that the second death no longer has authority over the first group of resurrected does not necessarily mean that they have received their eternal reward already. It only means that they cannot be hit by eternal death as long as they rule as kings together with Messiah (Rev. 20:7-10; 21:4). Their task is to rule with Jesus for a thousand years, and they cannot do this if they die along the way. It is therefore likely that they live for at least a thousand years. They are also present in the holy city that is attacked by Gog of Magog after the 1,000-year kingdom.
All other people living in the 1,000-year kingdom will die consecutively. When it comes to death the situation for humans in the 1,000-year kingdom will be quite the same as today.
There will be sickness and sin in the 1000-year kingdom
There is no Biblical basis for claiming that people living in a 1,000-year kingdom will be free from disease and sin. They are not freed from the Adamic sin until the judgment after the 1,000-year kingdom has been decided, as shown in Revelation 21:4, cf. Isaiah 33:24; 35:5,6. The Bible does not explicitly say that those who are part of the first resurrection are freed from sin or sickness, but they certainly cannot be so sick that they are unable to carry out their ministry for a thousand years if that is the case.
The 1,000-year kingdom is not the kind of paradise-like place that many of Jehovah’s Witnesses may envision. Neither the earth nor humans are renewed during this period.
First, the restoration of the earth into paradise will occur only after the 1,000-year kingdom. It says in Revelation 21:1 that the former earth has passed away and that there will be a new earth, and in verse 5 that He who sits on the throne “making all things new.” These are events that take place after the 1,000-year kingdom and after the judgment.
Second, Revelation 21:8 shows that during the 1,000-year kingdom there will be people who are “cowards and those without faith and those who are disgusting in their filth and murderers and the sexually immoral and those practicing spiritism and idolaters and all the liars, their portion will be in the lake that burns with fire and sulfur. This means the second death.” Humans will therefore not be very different from today, because the judgment of human individuals has not yet taken place. The only thing that separates the 1000-year kingdom from this system of things is that human governments have been replaced by Jesus’ government. The people are mainly in the same states as before Armageddon, and there is no reason to believe that they will suddenly change. On the contrary, Revelation 20:8 says that “The number” of those who join Satan at the end of the 1,000-year kingdom is “as the sand of the sea.”
Nowhere does the Bible say that the Messiah or his fellow kings will rule from heaven, and this is a human interpretation. On the contrary, Revelation 20:9 says that “the camp of the holy ones and the beloved city,” which Gog of Magog attacks, are on earth. Christ’s government has a city on earth where he will rule from. This city is called the new Jerusalem.
If the government was meant to be in heaven, it would be more natural to use angels to rule. Hebrews 2:5 says that Jesus did not use angels, but made Jesus “a little lower than angels” by making him the “son of man” in connection with the coronation as king, cf. verse 7. If Jesus were still a spirit creature when he was crowned King, he would not be “a little lower than angels” nor called “son of man.” Jesus becomes a physical man again when he returns to earth, as he was the first time he was on earth. He uses physical people who are created to be on earth to rule with him. The Bible nowhere says that Jesus ever returns to heaven again.
The Bible does not give the order in which the second resurrection occurs in relation to Satan’s release. In many Bible translations, the sentence about the second resurrection is in parentheses, and some Bible scholars believe that this mean it is not chronological, but an interjected explanation. Since the resurrected are also to be tested, it is natural that their resurrection takes place before the attack of Gog of Magog (King of the North).
Life in Connection with the 1,000-year kingdom
Establishment of the 1,000-year kingdom
The appointed times of the nations ends and human governments are removed. Satan is then hurled into the abyss, a kind of prison for spirits. Jesus will then resurrect the apostles, who will rule as co-kings. Jesus will come down to the earth to replace all present governments with his own Messianic Kingdom (Revelation 20:1–6). Jesus will prepare a holy city called the new Jerusalem with houses for the members of his government.
It is not only Jesus and the apostles who live in New Jerusalem. Isaiah 2:2–4 says that the nations will “stream” to “the mountain of the house of Jehovah,” which is geographically “firmly established above the top of the mountains.
During the 1,000-year kingdom
Not all humans settle in the New Jerusalem, but there is a biblical basis for concluding that some who are not members of the government flee to the city during the 1,000-year kingdom. Ezekiel 38:8 says that people have been “collected together out of many peoples onto the mountains of Israel.” They flee from the “ravages of the sword” taking place around them during the 1,000-year kingdom. According to verse 8, “the land” recovers. “The land” appears to refer to New Jerusalem on Mount Zion, where there will be safety and peace. This is confirmed by Ezekiel 38:11, where Gog of the land of Magog wants to attack a people who live in the city.
Even though humans will not yet be free from sin, sickness, or death, there will be a change among the animals. Isaiah 11:6–9 says that the animals become tame and that they will no longer hunt one another. Verse 8 says that the animals will not harm humans. Verse 8 also mentions that humans are born during the 1,000-year kingdom.
After the 1000-year kingdom
Ezekiel chapter 38 prophesies about the time after the 1000-year Kingdom. Several of the places mentioned in Ezekiel chapter 38 are named after historical places. Examples of this are the mountains of Israel, Meshech, Tubal, Persia, Ethiopia, Cush, Put, Gomer, Togarmah, Saba/Sheba, Dedan, and Tarshish. The land of Magog, however, is a new place name.
None of the events described in Ezekiel 38 has ever taken place historically.
Ezekiel 38:4 says that Jehovah will “put hooks in your jaws” in order to bring out Gog, the chieftain of the land of Magog, together with his entire army. Daniel 11:44 says that the king of the north will hear reports from the east, and that this disturbs the king so that he goes on the attack. The motive for the attack is that they want to become rich and “to take much spoil and plunder” (Ezekiel 38:12, 13).
New Jerusalem looks like easy prey because it has neither gates nor walls. But Jehovah himself will stop the attack, and He will destroy Gog’s “vast army” (Ezekiel 38:4, 22). The Bible illustrates how powerful this army is, since the inhabitants of New Jerusalem can use the weapons as fuel for seven years. This is clear proof that Isaiah 2:4 and Micah 4:3, 4 about “beat their swords into plowshares” is not fulfilled in the 1000-year Kingdom. There are enormous quantities of weapons after the 1000-year Kingdom. It takes seven months to bury all the dead from Gog’s army. Men are appointed to travel throughout the land to mark those who are to be buried, so that those who have been given the burial role can carry out the assignment. This may indicate that those who die are not only right outside the gate, but are located throughout the land, which only makes sense if there are also faithful humans around the earth outside New Jerusalem.
Ezekiel 38:20 says that at this time there will be earthquakes, and Jehovah will punish the enemies with “pestilence and bloodshed.” These are events that are also described in Matthew chapter 24.
New heaven and new earth
Revelation says that after the judgment there will be “a new heaven and a new earth” because “the former heaven and the former earth had passed away” (Revelation 21:1). In the original text, the word gē is used for the earth, a concrete term for earth or land, not the cosmos, which is otherwise used for the human world or the world order. Similarly, ouranos is used for the sky. The wording therefore points in the direction of an actual new heaven and an actual new earth, not just an improved social order. The wording is clear, and we must have good biblical evidence to deviate from the wording. We have not.
Whether it is a physically new earth and heaven is not important for belief in the resurrection and it makes little difference whether it will be a completely new earth or a renewal of the old one.
Don’t miss this related study ↓
↑ Back to Top