Surprises That Await 'Jehovah's Witnesses'

We wish we could reach every sincere, hard-working member of the Jehovah's Witness Movement with this simple word about some astounding surprises that they all will get, if they do not change their attitude toward the Word of God and learn to read and accept it as it is, instead of allowing others to emasculate it and rearrange their chosen passages into a deceptive jig-saw puzzle mixture of misused Bible and human ideas.

I do not write this because we begrudge the followers of Russell, Rutherford and Knorr the privilege of having their own movement or system of religious works. I have no desire to enforce the eccumenical delusion or to insist that all who have an interest in God or spiritual matters must join with us, or become united in one organization of any kind. Though thhere are many unfortunate and unnecessary evils associated with denominationalism and selfish sectarianism, there still is a need for groups that are independent of each other and which are free to differ in the interest of sincere convictions and to present a larger and more varied concept of doctrine and conduct than would be given if there were no critics or competitors. Fullness of truth and freedom of choice are more important than uniformity of thought or action. One of the most wonderful tthings that could happen to Sudbury district would be for the Spirit of God to bring true life and light to all the 'Jehovah's Witnesses' here and turn them in genuine repentance and faith to Christ and God the Father; so that the zeal and devotion that they now spend in making a misleading system rich and powerful would be devoted to the glory of the real Jehovah and the eternal benefit of other human beings.

History has never shown such a work as that accomplished; but it is not beyond the bounds of the all things that are possible with God, in reponse to true faith. If any or all of them are converted, let them stay as a distinct and independent body of believers, if God so wills, let them even use their zeal to smarten us up, by giving truth wherever they can, even in our homes, and I will rejoice.

We do not write in a spirit of religious competition, but in a sincere desire to help some of our Jehovah's Witness readers and to enable others to do more to enlighten and warn those whom we do not reach. We write because, as surely as God is true, these dear, zealous people are so sorely misled that they are going to get some shocking surprises about all-important matters that are so clear and sure that even heathen people are better informed about them than are the leaders of the 'Jehovah's

Witness' Movement.

We start with SOME SURPRISES JEHOVAH'S WITNESSES WILL GET AT DEATH, if they go on to that hour believiing what they now teach. When their physical eyelids close in death they will be amazed to discover that THEY ARE STILL IN CONSCIOUS POSSESSION OF ALL THE QUALITIES AND ATTRIBUTES OF PERSONALITY. They will still know who they are and where they are and will discover many things they will still be able to do, as well as some they will not be able to do. One of the basic doctrines that they most incessantly stress now is that man is a soul, but does not have a soul. Though they claim that man is a soul, they also argue that he is essentially the same as animals, in that he has only physical life and has no quality of life that suurvives death. Like the atheist, they believe that death ends all personal consciousness for the time being at least; but they will be surprised to find that only the body looses its natural powers at death and that the real man moves on in full possession of his ability to think, to remember, to communicate, to love, to hate, to wish and feel, just as well as when these functions found expression through physical faculties.

The Lord Jesus said that God was as real to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob after they died as He was before, (Matt.. 22:23-32). He described the former rich man in hell as being exactly the same, selfish dominating grabber that he had been on earth, (Luke 16:15-31). It will not do any good to contend that this is a parable and so does not count. All the Lord's parables used literal realities as the basis for the truth they taught and when He engaged in Luke 15 and 16, in showing human nature in its true light, He gave pictures from all walks of life, both here and hereafter; but they all were descriptions of literal conditions as He saw them. Samuel came back and delivered a message to Saul and, in it, he clearly said that he expected the King and his three sons to join him in God's presence the next day. The Old Testament Scriptures that tell of the parting of Abraham and other members of God's household from their bodies make it very plain that the real man did not cease to exist and did not go to the graves; but were 'GATHERED TO THEIR FATHERS'. (Gen. 25:8-10, 35:29 and 49:33). The thief who hung on the cross by the Lord Jesus and the apostle Paul are other cases in point, which show that when the body ceases to function the person who inhabited it, while it lived, goes on as Solomon said would happen, (See Ecc. 12:7). No amount of unbiblical thinking or arguing can change this fact. Man is not just a beast, even if Solomon in his backslidden state, thought he was; but is a creature into whom God breathed 'the breath of lives.' (Gen. 2:7) He was made, not in the likeness of the beasts, but in the likeness of God Himself. He was created as a combination of all the qualities that God has instilled into the angels and animals which were made before him.

The surprises at death will include the awakening to the fact that THERE ARE TWO LITERAL PLACES WHERE MEN CONTINUE THEIR EXISTENCE APART FROM THEIR FORMER BODIES. It is true that the words used for the world of the departed in the Old Testament are rather vague. Life and immortality had not yet been clearly revealed, as they were later by Christ, (See 2 Tim. 1:10) but both the Old Testament and the New give pictures and plain teachings which cannot be applied to the grave; but which can be understood only to mean that death ushers every person either into the immediate presence of Christ and His glorified people, or into the regions of continued sinning and the frustrations and other sufferings, which go with existence in that state. The Lord Jesus made it clear that for some the killing of the body was the ennd of suffering and the beginning of complete freedom from fear and abuse; but for others death was just the step into a state where eventually both soul and body will suffer unending spoiling. (Matt. 10:28 & 9:43-48) 'The wicked shall be turned into hell and all the people that forget God.' (Ps. 9:17). This, and many other Scriptures are utterly meaningless if hell is the grave. All bodies go to the grave, the just as well as the unjust, but only some go to hell.

Thank God some Jehovah's Witnesses will get a different kind ot surprise at death. THEY WILL, LIKE LAZARUS, BE BORNE BY ANGELS TO HEAVEN AND REST. They will discover then what false teachers keep them from seeing here, that their right to heaven was purchased for them by the Lord Jesus and that their own long hours of toil did nothing to better their claims. It is by grace, by favours for which we can never pay, that we are saved. It is God's mercy that opens the door to eternal favours, not our efforts. (Eph. 2:8-10, Tit. 3:5). They will discover then that their place in heaven and their right to be there were secured for them before they were born and by the sacrifices fo Christ, not by their sweat or toil. Yes, I believe that some of our Jehovah's Witness friends will be in heaven, even if now they are content to die and rot as beasts and then rise some day as earth-bound creatures. God's ways are so much better than ours and His mercy makes such allowances for our poor understanding that He will show His matchless grace by making good His covenant of grace, even to some whose heads carry many wrong thoughts about Him, but whose hearts still have a warmth toward Him, in spite of many false teachings. Death will be a great eye-opener for all of us, but especially for those whom God has reached and saved who are still with this confusing system. I hope to be in heaven before some of these friends and II shall wait with gladness to see the look of joyful surprise which shall shine from their eyes, when they first fall at Jesus' feet to thank Him for His provisions of grace.

But death will not end the surprises for either class of Jehovah's Witnesses. THEY WILL GET MORE CAUSES FOR AMAZEMENT AT THE GENERAL RESURRECTION OF THE DEAD BODIES OF ALL MANKIND. They are told now that 144,0000 of them will never get new bodies; but God says that all shall rise, that everyone shall receive his own body, that every mortal body must be changed into an immorttal state. He says that, "There shall be A resurrection BOTH OF THE JUST AND OF THHE UNJUST.' John 5:28. Theeir system tells them now that there will be a resurrection of others apart from the 144,000 that for some it will be to a return to high and rewarding privileges on this present earth and for some it will be for a further period of probation to determine whether they will submit to the terms and regulations of the earthly kingdom. They will have some surprises. First of all, God says in 2 Peter 3 that the resurrection will be accompanied and followed by universal convulsions which will result in the melting, dissolving or burning up of this whole created universe; that the future home of the children of God will be 'new heavens and a new earth', but that the Christ-rejectors will rise and be kept before the Lord only long enough to review the world's history and especially their own evil record and to be sent away, every last one of them, to the place prepared for the devil and his evil angels.

III

They all shall be surprised to discover also that GOD'S PLAN FOR THE FINAL JUDGMENT IS NOT WHAT THEY THINK IT IS. Jehovah's Witness teachers show and cause terrible confusion on the whole subject of judgment. They confuse the testings of this life with the future exposure and sentencing of sinfulness and sins. THERE IS A TESTING PROCESS going on now by which the attitudes and sincerity of men and women are shown. THERE IS A WORK OF CORRECTIVE AND SUBDUEING DISCIPLINE that God is doing now. THERE IS ALSO A DESTRUCTIVE TYPE OF JUDGMENT that God does now too; but none of these should be confused with the final, general assize, when the Lord Jesus will gather all men, both saved and lost, to give personal and complete account of their lives on earth. (See Matt. 25:32, Acts 17:31, Rom. 2:16, Rom. 14:12, 2 Cor. 5:10, Rev. 20:12). This future judgment will not be a process designed to test and separate the good and responsive from the bad. Matthew 25 says they will come as separate and distinct groups, will be dealt with as such and will go away as such. Proverbs 29:1 says that when a rebellious sinner is 'cut off, here and now he enters a state from which there is no remedy. In John 8:21 the Lord Jesus says that all who die in their sin are forever barred from His home and fellowship. Those who go to their graves as Christ rejectors will be raised in 'the resurrection of damnation'. As someone else has said, 'For all who refuse Christ and die in that state, there is no resurrection of probation and no resurrection of salvation, but only THE RESURRECTION OF DAMN A TION.' The unsaved are now in a state thatt affords NO HOPE. (Eph. 2:12 & 13) Paul implies that the death of some leads to a state where there is no hope. (1 Thess. 4:13) Any so-called hope or expectation that those who are not saved by God's grace may have, is only that which Solomon described when he said, 'The expectation of the wicked shall perish.' Jehovah's Witnesses deride the falsehoods of Romanism for unlawfully offering deluded sinners the promise of purging in purgatory; but their own system is just as cruel and dangerous when it infers that some will be saved from eternal damnation as a result of some event that they will experience after death. God says that there is judgment 'WITHOUTMERCY' for those who trample under foot the Son of God. (Heb. 10:26-29, James 2:13) They are reserved unto 'the blackness of darkness forever'. (Jude 1:13).

The Judgment Day will surprise these dear souls because they will find no provision for anyone changing sides and no inclination for any to change conditions. They will be surprised to discover that all who will be on God's side will be there because Christ secured that privilege for them and the Holy Spirit made them ready for it. They will be surprised to discover that all their praying, all their working, all their witnessing did nothing toward getting them acceptance with God; but that those who humbly take God's forgiveness and His gracious work of salvation as an unmerited gift of love will be given rewards over and above the gifts of love, for whatever service they rendered out of love and gratitude to God. They will be surprised to see that though all the past record of each child of God will be reviewed, it will only be to demonstrate to all how good and gracious Christ was in dying for us and how merciful the Father is in forgiving us, or how tenderly compassionate the Holy Spirit has been in enduring all our unworthiness while working unceasingly to transform us to God's likeness.

Yes, we shall all get some painful surprises as the Lord leads or forces us into the unseen rooms of future schooling; but if we would only take God's Word as it is and trust each and all three Persons of the eternal Godhead to do for us what the Bible promises, we shall not suffer the shock of being sent away from God forever, but we shall go on eternally sharing the blood-bought blessings which Christ secured for us, and we shall know that whattever new surprises that the endless ages hold for us in the new heavens and the new earth, will all be greater manifestations of mercy and fuller expansions of favour shown to us for Christ's sake and because of His merits that stand to our account.

"Day of judgment, day of wonders,

Hark the trumpet's awful sound.

Louder than a thousand thunders,

Shake the vast creation round.

Now the powers of nature shaken,

At His look prepare to flee,

Souls in sin's deep sleep must waken,

Summoned now His wrath to see."

—The Day of Judgment by John Newton

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