A friend recently read online that someone believed Jehovah’s Witnesses could be cut off even after they pass the final test after the 1000 years, and judgment, and have gained everlasting life.  Now my friend used to be a Jehovah’s Witness, but came to know the true Jesus Christ many years ago. He still has close relatives caught in the Watchtower organization.

He jumped into the conversation declaring that JWs do not believe that they can die–be cut off–after the final test, the judgment, and gaining everlasting life. After the 1000 years and the judgment when death is thrown into the Lake of Fire, he stated that they would still have everlasting life.  

Someone then sent him an article from the Watchtower Magazine section, Questions From Readers, p. 31, dated August 15, 2006.  Sure enough, the person was right!  It is possible for Jehovah to cut off rebellious ones.  It would not be an “Adamic Death” but an annihilation by Jehovah. They do not expect that to happen, but they claim it is possible.  He was taken aback by this contradiction to his understanding of a doctrine of an organization to which he once belonged.

He asked a close relative about this, but did not tell her about the Watchtower article. Her response was, no, they cannot lose their everlasting life. Then he showed her the article and she was speechless! 

So let me think this through … a Jehovah’s Witness has much to do in this life for Jehovah/the Organization. Armageddon comes and destroys all the non-JWs and ushers in the 1000 year millennium. Throughout the thousand years, they must continue to prove themselves worthy, that is perfect. Then comes a final test which they pass, then the judgment, then they receive everlasting life. Then a banana peel trips them up and, Poof!, they lose the prize they have spent a lifetime plus a thousand years earning, and are killed (cut off, annihilated) by Jehovah. So I then assume that not only is Jehovah a generous hypocrite, but he can revoke their everlasting life at any point during eternity, which, by the way, is a mighty long time.

Let’s see what Jehovah says in His Word:

For by grace you have been saved [past completed action] through faith; and this is not of yourselves, it is the gift [not earned] of God; not a result of works, so that no one may boast. For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand so that we would walk in them.

Eph. 2:8-10 NASB (The NWT departs somewhat from this translation, reading, “By this undeserved kindness … and we were created in union with Christ Jesus ….”)

And the testimony is this, that God has given us [past completed action] eternal life, and this life is in His Son. The one who has the Son has the life; the one who does not have the Son of God does not have the life. These things I have written to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, so that you may know [certainty!] that you have eternal life.

1 John 5:11-13 NASB (Reads similarly in the NWT)