I participated in a Jehovah's Witnesses Bible study recently, and they taught that when you die, you cease to exist and know nothing. Then they say that all will be resurrected in a future day. This sounded strange to me, so I wonder are Jehovah's Witnesses truly Christian?
The Jehovah’s Witnesses (JWs) are not a Christian movement, and their teachings are not biblical. They preach a false gospel, and we strongly recommend you avoid their teaching.
The JW's views on the dead is a good example of their unbiblical teaching. It is easy to demonstrate from scripture that every human being continues to exist in a conscious form after death and does not “cease.” For example, in Luke 16 Jesus Himself told an account of what happened to men at death – both believers and unbelievers – prior to the resurrection of Christ. We recommend you read the account for yourself.
Also in Luke, Jesus says that after our body dies, we should be concerned over where our soul will live:
Luke 12:4 “I say to you, My friends, do not be afraid of those who kill the body and after that have no more that they can do.
Luke 12:5 “But I will warn you whom to fear: fear the One who, after He has killed, has authority to cast into hell; yes, I tell you, fear Him!
Notice Jesus says that after a person's body is gone, they still live on in soul form. Men do not cease to exist after death, or else men would have no reason to be concerned about Hell, yet Jesus says we should consider these things.
Furthermore, in 2Corinthians Paul taught that a believer in Christ moves directly in conscious form into the presence of the Lord at the death of the body:
2Cor. 5:6 Therefore, being always of good courage, and knowing that while we are at home in the body we are absent from the Lord —
2Cor. 5:7 for we walk by faith, not by sight —
2Cor. 5:8 we are of good courage, I say, and prefer rather to be absent from the body and to be at home with the Lord.
Finally, we find proof that unbelievers also live forever in conscious torment by the example of two men, who will deceive the world during the coming tribulation: the antichrist and the false prophet. The Bible says these men exist forever in the Lake of Fire (as will all unbelievers):
Rev. 20:10 And the devil who deceived them was thrown into the lake of fire and brimstone, where the beast and the false prophet are also; and they will be tormented day and night forever and ever.
To learn more about why JWs follow a false Gospel, we recommend you listen to God and Man, a recent preaching by Pastor Armstrong concerning JWs and their false views of Christ.
