THE GOVERNING BODY’S NEW VIEW OF THE RESURRECTION IS CONTRADICTED BY THE SCRIPTURES

During the 21st century, the members of the Governing Body have presented a number of new interpretations of biblical subjects. Most of these are contradicted by biblical passages.

In some instances, the text of the Bible is trivialized, and it is made inexpressive, vapid, and inane. A typical example is found in the book Pure Worship of Jehovah — Restored at Last (2018), where the Governing Body instead of explaining the meaning of the text of Ezekiel gives as “food at the proper time” that which the text reminds the members of the Governing Body of.[1]

[1]. A detailed discussion of this book is found in the third edition of my book, My Beloved Religion — And The Governing Body,  pages 374-401.

Some writings show that the members of the Governing Body no longer believe in the full inspiration of the Bible. This is seen by the expressed view that great parts of the Hebrew Scriptures, such as the Song of Solomon, have no meaning for us today. Only some moral principles can be gathered from these accounts.

It is also seen by the rejection of Jesus’ words in Matthew 10: 14, 15; 11:20-24 that the inhabitants of  Chorazin, Capernaum, Bethsaida,  Sodom, and Gomorrah, will be resurrected from the dead.[1]

[1]. See my article, “The members of the Governing Body reject the full inspiration of the Bible” in the category “The Governing Body.”

At the Annual meeting in 2021, a new view of the resurrection of the dead was presented. Geoffrey Jackson gave the talk with the theme “Are you there?”, and this talk presented a new understanding of the words of Jesus in John 5:28, 29.

In The Watchtower of September 2022, two articles and Questions from readers presented the same viewpoints as Jackson expressed together with more details. I will now show that there are a great number of weaknesses in the arguments in these articles. The most important issue is the new interpretation of John 5:28, 29, and I will discuss different arguments related to these verses.

The thread that we could follow throughout the whole talk of Jackson was “the book of life,” and this phrase plays an important role in the articles in The Watchtower of September 2022 as well. I, therefore, start with a discussion of the book of life.

THE RANSOM SACRIFICE OR THE BOOK OF LIFE — WHICH IS RELATED TO THE RESURRECTION?

What is the book of life? This term occurs in Philippians 4:3, Revelation 3:5, and 20:15. The expression “your book” occurs in Exodus 32:32, “the book” occurs in Daniel 12:1. and “book of remembrance” occurs in Malachi 3:16. After mentioning these scriptures, Insight, volume 1, page 335, says:

 It appears that these are all basically the same, that is, they are all God’s “book” of remembrance with a view to rewarding with eternal life (in heaven or on earth) the ones whose names are written in it. God’s “book” evidently receives names conditionally, since the Scriptures indicate that a person’s name can be ‘wiped out’ of it.

This is a good description, and it shows that “The Book of Life” is the same as “God’s approval.” In the study edition of The Watchtower of September 2022, there is the article entitled “Is Your Name in “the Book of Life”? In this article, “the book of life” is connected with the resurrection of the dead, and the claim is that when Jesus spoke about “the resurrection of life” this included only those who were written in the book of life. This is a new interpretation that has no basis in the Scriptures.

The book of life is only mentioned six times in the Scriptures, and the term is not connected with the resurrection. However, the ransom sacrifice of Jesus Christ is mentioned scores upon scores of times in the Scriptures, for example in Romans 5:16-21. And this ransom sacrifice is the basis for the resurrection of all the dead. It is mentioned in 1 Corinthians 15:21. 1 Peter 1:3 and 3:21. Regarding the great crowd that will survive the great tribulation we read in Revelation 7: 13-17:

¹³In response one of the elders said to me: “These who are dressed in the white robes, who are they and where did they come from?” ¹⁴So right away I said to him: “My lord, you are the one who knows.” And he said to me: “These are the ones who come out of the great tribulation,  and they have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb. ¹⁵That is why they are before the throne of God, and they are rendering him sacred service day and night in his temple; and the One seated on the throne will spread his tent over them. ¹⁶ They will hunger no more nor thirst anymore, neither will the sun beat down on them nor any scorching heat, ¹⁷ because the Lamb, who is in the midst of the throne, will shepherd them and will guide them to springs of waters of life. And God will wipe out every tear from their eyes.”

The focus here is not that those who constitute this great crowd are written in the book of life. But the focus is on the ransom sacrifice of Jesus Christ and that he will shepherd and guide the members of the great crowd.

The prominent part that the Governing Body has given “the book of life” in connection with the resurrection is not warranted. And the connection between the words of Jesus about the “resurrection of life” and “the book of life” has no basis in the Scriptures. Below I will show this in detail.

THE “UNRIGHTEOUS” IN ACTS  24:15 ARE NOT IDENTICAL TO THOSE WHO ARE “PRACTICING VILE THINGS” IN JOHN 5:29

The verses I will discuss in this section are Acts 24:15 and John 5:28, 29:

¹⁵ And I have hope toward God, which hope these men also look forward to, that there is going to be a resurrection of both the righteous and the unrighteous.

²⁸Do not be amazed at this, for the hour is coming in which all those in the memorial tombs will hear his voice ²⁹ and come out, those who did good things to a resurrection of life, and those who practiced vile things to a resurrection of judgment.

The Question from Readers in the study edition of The Watchtower of September 2022 says:

John 5:28, 29 refers to the same two groups mentioned at Acts 24:15. Jesus says that “those who did good things” will come out “to a resurrection of life, and those who practiced vile things to a resurrection of judgment.” The righteous did good things before they died. They will come out to a resurrection of life because their names are still written in the book of life. However, the unrighteous practiced vile things before they died. They will come out to a resurrection of judgment. Their names are not yet written in the book of life, and they will experience a period of judgment, or probation. During that time, they will have an opportunity to learn about Jehovah and have their names written in the book of life.

I will show below that the basic conclusions in this quotation are wrong.

All persons who practice vile things are unrighteous, but all unrighteous persons are not practicing vile things.

Acts 24:15 says “that there is going to be a resurrection of both the righteous and the unrighteous.” The claim of the article is that “those who did good things” refer to those who “are righteous,” and “those who did vile things” refer to the ones who are unrighteous. The author of The Watchtower article and the members of the Governing Body who approved the articles in The Watchtower of September 2022 evidently did not realize that this comparison, in reality, devaluates and restricts the resurrection from the dead. And neither did they realize that “being unrighteous” and “doing vile things” have very different meanings and references. The words of Paul in Romans 9:10-13 drives home this point:

¹⁰Not only then but also when Re·bekʹah conceived twins from the one man, Isaac our forefather; ¹¹ for when they had not yet been born and had not practiced anything good or bad (phaulos), so that God’s purpose respecting the choosing might continue dependent, not on works, but on the One who calls, ¹² it was said to her: “The older will be the slave of the younger.”¹³ Just as it is written: “I loved Jacob, but Eʹsau I hated.”

The text says that Jacob and Esau were in the womb of their mother and they had not practiced anything good or bad. The word that is translated as “bad” is phaulos, which according to Mounce has the meaning “vile, refuse, evil, wicked.” But were Jacob and Esau in the mentioned situation righteous because they had not practiced anything bad? The answer is No because all humans inherit imperfection and sin the moment they are conceived. This means that Jacob and Esau were unrighteous at the time when they had not practiced anything good or bad. Thus, there is a difference between “being unrighteous” and “practicing vile things.”

Let us look at Romans 5:12 and 7:17, 18:

¹² That is why, just as through one man sin entered into the world and death through sin, and so death spread to all men because they had all sinned—. ¹³ For sin was in the world before the Law, but sin is not charged against anyone when there is no law. ¹⁴ Nevertheless, death ruled as king from Adam down to Moses, even over those who had not sinned in the same way that Adam transgressed, who bears a resemblance to the one who was to come.

¹⁵ For I do not understand what I am doing. For I do not practice what I wish, but I do what I hate. ¹⁶  However, if I do what I do not wish, I agree that the Law is fine. ¹⁷ But now I am no longer the one doing it, but it is the sin that resides in me. ¹⁸ For I know that in me, that is, in my flesh, there dwells nothing good; for I have the desire to do what is fine but not the ability to carry it out. ¹⁹ For I do not do the good that I wish, but the bad (kakos) that I do not wish is what I practice (prassō). ²⁰ If, then, I do what I do not wish, I am no longer the one carrying it out, but it is the sin dwelling in me.

Paul shows in Romans 5:12 that sin entered into the world through Adam and that all his descendants inherited sin. In 7:18, he shows that sin dwells in his flesh, and this means that from the moment a person is conceived and gets his flesh, in this flesh sin resides. Thus, any embryo or fetus has inherited sin and is unrighteous. But no embryo or fetus has practiced vile things. So, the Christian Greek Scriptures show that the claim in the quotation from The Watchtower above that the unrighteous persons who will get a resurrection according to Acts 24:14 belong to the same group as those who practiced vile things according to John 5:29 is wrong.

The difference between “practicing bad things” and “practicing vile things”

The view of the members of the Governing Body is that the name of those “who practiced vile things” are not written in the book of life, and therefore they will get “a resurrection of judgment,” i.e., they will experience a period of probation. There are several problems with this viewpoint, including the position of the apostle Paul. We are certain that his name was in the book of life, and he confirms this at the end of his life in his words in 2 Timothy 4:7, 8. But let us compare his words in Romans 7:19 with Jesus’ words in John 5:29

19 but the bad (kakos) that I do not wish is what I practice (prassō).

29 those who practiced (prassō) vile things (phaulos) to a resurrection of judgment.

If those who practiced vile things will get a resurrection of judgment, why should Paul who practiced what was bad get a resurrection of life (heavenly life)? Both groups that are mentioned “practiced” something, but there is a difference in what they practiced. The difference is the Greek words kakos and phaulos, and we are interested in the different references of these words.

The adjective phaulos occurs only five times in the Christian Greek Scriptures, while kakos occurs 45 times and is a more general term of what is bad. According to Louw and Nida the meanings of the words are:

kakos — pertaining to having experienced harm — ‘harmed, harm, injured; pertaining to being harsh and difficult — ‘bad, harsh, difficult; pertaining to being incorrect or inaccurate, with the possible implication of also being reprehensible — ‘incorrect, wrong; pertaining to being bad, with the implication of harmful and damaging — ‘bad, evil, harmful, harshly.’

phaulos — pertaining to being evil in the sense of moral baseness — ‘mean, bad, evil.’

Paul had a heavenly hope, and therefore he would get a heavenly resurrection and not be present on the earth on judgment day, which is the Thousand Year Reign of Jesus Christ. This means that the final judgment of Paul and the other anointed Christians would be based on what they did when they were on earth. Paul says in 2 Corinthians 5:10 :

¹⁰ For we must all appear before the judgment seat of the Christ, so that each one may be repaid according to the things he has practiced (prassō) while in the body, whether good (agathos) or bad (phaulos).

The comments regarding phaulos in the study note in the margin of the online NWT13 are excellent:

Bad: Or “vile.” The Greek word here rendered “bad,” or “vile,” Is phau’los. In some contexts, it may convey the idea of “being evil in the sense of moral badness.” Paul shows that the choice put before humans is to practice either what is good or what is bad, that is, to live by God’s standards or to ignore them.

Paul and the other anointed Christians were  judged on the basis of whether they had practiced what was good (agahtos) or vile (phaulos), and not whether they had practiced what was good (agahtos) or bad (kakos). So, we understand that Paul could practice bad things (kakos) without receiving an adverse judgment and his name being removed from the book of life. On this basis, we need to know what the difference is between “practicing what is bad (kakos)” and “practicing what is vile (phaulos).”

Greek adjectives such as kakos and phaulos have  large semantic ranges, and they can have different meanings and different references in different contexts. Therefore, we cannot say, “this is the meaning of kakos” and “this is the meaning of phaulos.” We can only learn the meaning of these two words on the basis of their contexts. And fortunately, the contexts give us clear meanings. I will again quote Romans 7:19, 20:

¹⁹ For I do not do the good that I wish (thelō), but the bad (kakos) that I do not wish (thelō) is what I practice (prassō). ²⁰ If, then, I do what I do not wish (thelō), I am no longer the one carrying it out, but it is the sin dwelling in me.

The Greek verb thelō has the meaning, “to desire, to want, to wish” according to Louw and Nida. In Romans 7: 18, 20, Paul speaks about the sin he inherited from Adam. He says that what is not good dwells in his flesh and that “the sin [is] dwelling in me.” The important point is that Paul was “practicing what was bad (kakos) against his will because of inherited sin. Therefore, he could not be held responsible for his practice of what was bad. In verse 20 he says, “I am no longer the one carrying it out, but it is the sin dwelling in me.” So, it was his inherited sin that was responsible for his actions that were bad (kakos).

Louw and Nida defined phaulos as, “pertaining to being evil in the sense of moral baseness,” and the study note in NWT13 said, “In some contexts, it may convey the idea of ‘being evil in the sense of moral badness’.” These definitions show that persons “who are practicing vile things (phaulos)” are personally responsible for these actions. They cannot just refer to the sin they have inherited. But their actions are conscious actions of their choice, actions that they are desiring (thelō).

The apostle John uses the adjective phaulos two times in his Gospel, and his use of the word corroborates the definitions in the previous paragraph. John 3:19-21 says:

¹⁹ Now this is the basis for judgment: that the light has come into the world, but men have loved the darkness rather than the light, for their works were wicked. ²⁰ For whoever practices (prassō) vile things (phaulos) hates (miseō) the light and does not come to the light, so that his works may not be reproved (elenkhō). ²¹ But whoever does what is true comes to the light, so that his works may be made manifest as having been done in harmony with God.”

The words of John are strong indeed. The verb miseō has the meaning “to hate,” and John says that those “who are practicing vile things (phaulos)” “hates the light.” And the light that came into the world was Jesus Christ. The verb elenkhō has the meaning, “to state that someone has done wrong, with the implication that there is adequate proof of such wrongdoing,” according to Louw and Nida. Those who practice vile things hate the light because of a bad motive. They do not want that their vile actions shall be exposed and proven not to be done in harmony with God.

So, the real contrast is that “practicing what is bad (kakos)” means that a person does different bad things because he or she has inherited sin from Adam. But “practicing what is vile (phaulos)” means that this is a conscious decision that is not caused by inherited sin. It is a decision that is made because of a bad motive — the person hates the light and he or she does not want to act in harmony with God. This means that “practicing vile things” can possibly be equated with sin against the holy spirit. (Matthew 12:31, 32)[1]

On the background of the discussion above we can better understand the words of Jesus in John 5:28, 29:

²⁸ Do not be amazed at this, for the hour is coming in which all those in the memorial tombs will hear his voice ²⁹ and come out, those who did (poieō) good things (agathos) to a resurrection of life, and those who practiced (prassō) vile things (phaulos) to a resurrection of judgment.

Because Jesus in chapter 3 applied the phrase “practicing vile things (phaulos)” to those who hated the light and wanted to cover their bad actions, we must draw the conclusion that he used the same reference in John 5:29. This means that the claim in the study edition of The Watchtower of September 2022 that “the unrighteous” in Acts 24:14 are the same group as “those who practiced vile things” according to John 5:29 clearly is wrong. The claim that “the unrighteous” who will get a resurrection “practiced vile things (phaulos) before they died” is completely unfounded. Only the relatively few persons among the unrighteous ones who sinned against the holy spirit can be said “to have hated the light” and “to have practiced vile things before their death.” This will be elucidated in the next section.

The devaluation and restriction of Paul’s words in Acts 24:15

The verses I will discuss in this section are Acts 24:15 and John 5:28, 29:

¹⁵ And I have hope toward God, which hope these men also look forward to, that there is going to be a resurrection of both the righteous (dikaios) and the unrighteous (adikos).

²⁸ Do not be amazed at this, for the hour is coming in which all those in the memorial tombs will hear his voice ²⁹ and come out, those who did good things to a resurrection of life, and those who practiced vile things (phaulos) to a resurrection of judgment.

I have shown above that the expression “practiced vile things (phaulos)” refers to actions that may represent sin against the holy spirit. So let us look at the history of mankind to find those who have not been “practicing vile things.” I have already quoted Romans 9:11 where Paul says that Esau and Jacob were not yet born, and they “had not practiced anything good (agathos) or bad (phaulos).” But I pointed out that because of inherited sin, both of them were unrighteous while they were in the womb of their mother. Who else in addition to unborn children are unrighteous and “have not practiced anything bad”?

Today, the population of the world is about eight billion. Of these, there are two billion children below 14 years of age. These children are unrighteous because of their inherited sin, but most of them have “not practiced vile things.” By this, I mean that they are in the same situation as the apostle Paul who, according to Romans chapter 7, did many things he did not want to do because of the sin in his flesh. But Paul was not responsible for his own imperfection, and in spite of this imperfection, his name was written in the book of life. Most of the two billion children must be seen in the same way; only a few of them had consciously violated the law of God and “had practiced vile things,” This means that if the view of the Governing Body is correct that “those who practiced vile things” that are mentioned in John 5:29 are the same group as the unrighteous who will get a resurrection, most of the two billion children and numerous billion of other children who have lived and died since the time of Adam, are not included in the “unrighteous” who will get a resurrection according to Acts 24:15— these have not practiced vile things.

There are also 400 million persons living today with mental health disorders, and it is obvious that these 400 million persons and other numerous billion of similar persons who have lived and died since Adam, cannot be held accountable for “having practiced vile things.” To these numerous billion of children and persons with mental health disorders, we may add a great number of adults according to the words of Paul in Romans 2:4-16:

¹⁴ For when people of the nations, who do not have law, do by nature the things of the law, these people, although not having law, are a law to themselves.¹⁵ They are the very ones who demonstrate the matter of the law to be written in their hearts, while their conscience is bearing witness with them, and by their own thoughts they are being accused or even excused. ¹⁶ This will take place in the day when God through Christ Jesus judges the secret things of mankind, according to the good news I declare.

Verses 14 and 15 indicate that persons who do not have any knowledge of the true God follow many of his laws without knowing about them because of their conscience. These verses have been discussed many times in the Watchtower literature. But verse 16 about the day of judgment has only been quoted two times since 1930, in The Watchtower of 1936, page 84, and in Awake! of May 22, 1963, page 28. The Awake! article has the theme, “Resurrection — for whom?” Regarding those who will not get a resurrection the article says:

There will not be a resurrection for the willfully, deliberately, incorrigibly wicked, those without the slightest spark remaining of conscience or love of righteousness.

This is a very good description of those who will not get a resurrection, and we can add that this is a description of sin against the holy spirit. In contrast of this the article says:

That heeding or failing to heed the voice of one’s conscience will have a bearing on one’s destiny even apart from knowledge of God is apparent from the scriptures: ^“ Whenever people of the nations, who do not have law, do by nature the things of the law, these people, although not having law, are a law to themselves. They are the very ones who demonstrate the matter of the law to be written in their hearts, while their conscience is bearing witness with them and between their own thoughts they are being accused or even excused.  This will be in the day when God through Christ Jesus judges the secret things of mankind, according to the good news I declare.

According to Acts 17:31, there will be “a day” when Jesus Christ will judge the inhabited earth, and Acts 10:42 shows that he will judge the living and the dead. Thus, “the day” mentioned in Romans 2:16 “when God through Christ Jesus judges the secret things of mankind” must refer to Judgment Day, which is the Thousand Year Reign of Jesus Christ. According to verses 14 and 15, “the secret things” are connected with the conscience of individuals, and the issue is whether these individuals have followed their conscience even though they did not know God.

The persons who followed their conscience and tried to do what was good were imperfect just like the apostle Paul, and they did many things they did not want to do like him. But clearly, they did not “practice vile things” because they tried to follow their conscience. As verse 16 shows, these persons, who evidently count numerous billion, will be resurrected on judgment day.

The claim of The Watchtower of September 2022 was that “the unrighteous” who will get a resurrection are identical to those who “practice vile things” and will get “a resurrection of judgment,” according to John 5:28, 29. The argument of the article is that all the mentioned “unrighteous ones” have “practiced vile things.”

The Watchtower has calculated that between 20 billion and 27 billion persons have lived on earth since Adam.[2] Of these, there are several billion children and several billion persons with mental health disorders who “have not practiced vile things.” In addition, there are several billion persons who have not known God, but who have followed their conscience and neither “have practiced vile things.” All these billion of Adam’s descendants are among the unrighteous who, according to Acts 24:15, will get a resurrection. The claim that all the mentioned “unrighteous ones” “have practiced vile things” is clearly wrong. And this claim is a devaluation and restriction of Paul’s words that unrighteous persons will get a resurrection because the members of the three mentioned groups are among the unrighteous that will get a resurrection. But they have not practiced vile things.

Who among Adam’s unrighteous descendants are not among “the unrighteous ones” who will not get a resurrection?

We note that the substantivized adjectives dikaios (“right, just”) adikos (“unjust, unrighteous”), which are the keywords in Acts 24:15, do not have any preceding article. Therefore, a literal translation would be. “a resurrection is about to be of righteous and unrighteous ones.” The lack of articles means that the adjectives do not refer to a previously defined group. If we take the substantivized adjective adikos, the lack of article means that either all unrighteous persons or a part of all unrighteous persons will get a resurrection. The only way to find the correct reference of adikos is to look for expressions in the Christian Greek Scriptures where resurrection is discussed.

According to Luke 20:35, Jesus said:

but those who have been counted worthy of gaining that system of things and the resurrection from the dead neither marry nor are given in marriage.

This means that not all of Adam’s unrighteous descendants will get a resurrection. But only “those who have been counted worthy” will get a resurrection. The verb “to be counted worthy” is rendered by NWT13 as English perfect, and this could indicate that the action of counting some persons worthy was completed when Jesus spoke the words. The verb is aorist passive participle, and many Bible translators believe that aorist represents past tense. However, aorist is not a tense but an aspect, the perfective one. Most aorists are rightly translated with English past tense. But aorist can also be translated as present, perfect, future, and future perfect.[3]

In Luke 20:35, Jesus clearly uses a retrospective perspective. He positioned himself at the point of time in the future when the resurrection occurs, and then he looks back on those who prior to this time “have been counted worthy” of being resurrected. I would therefore translate the first part of the verse with English future perfect: “but those who will have been counted worthy.”

I will now return to the resurrection of righteous and unrighteous ones. Where in the Christian Greek Scriptures do we find information about unrighteous persons who will not be resurrected? We find this information in Matthew 12:31, 32:

³¹ “For this reason I say to you, every sort of sin and blasphemy will be forgiven men, but the blasphemy against the spirit will not be forgiven. ³² For example, whoever speaks a word against the Son of man, it will be forgiven him; but whoever speaks against the holy spirit, it will not be forgiven him, no, not in this system of things nor in that to come.

In my article entitled, “The members of the Governing Body have devalued and restricted the ransom sacrifice of Jesus Christ” in the category “The Governing Body” I discuss what sin against the holy spirit means. This sin represents actions that cannot be ascribed to our inherited sin, actions that a person continues to do because of his or her wicked decisions. A good example of this sin that cannot be forgiven is John 3:19-21 that I have discussed above. Sin against the holy spirit can be committed by unbelievers and believers. Matthew chapter 12, verse 24, shows that the Pharisees committed this sin. Hebrews 6:4-8 shows how Christians can commit sin against the holy spirit by rejecting the ransom sacrifice of Jesus.

In the Christian Greek Scriptures, most examples of sin against the holy spirit relate to Christians. But most of these examples are misunderstood by the members of the Governing Body. And I show this in my article about the restricting the ransom sacrifice that is mentioned above.

For example, the members of the Governing Body believe that the sheep in Jesus’ illustration in Matthew 25:31-46 refer to Jehovah’s Witnesses, and the goats who will “depart to everlasting cutting-off” are all other human beings that will be eternally destroyed in the great tribulation. However, in order to be adversely judged because the goats did not do good to the least of Jesus’ brothers, they had to know these brothers, the anointed Christians, and be a part of or in some way be related to the Christian congregations. Most of the humans in the world have no idea of the identity of Jesus’ brothers, and they cannot be judged for something that they do not know and be identified as goats.

There is a similar situation in the illustration of Jesus in Matthew 13:24-30, 37-42. The angels “will collect out from his kingdom all things that cause stumbling and people who practice lawlessness.” We note that the persons are collected out from his kingdom, and therefore they must have been inside his kingdom. This indicates that the persons who “are collected out from” are Christians or persons who have a close relationship with the Christians. This is not the case with most of persons living today.

An example of non-Christians who will be eternally annihilated is found in 2 Thessalonians 1:7-10. The Watchtower has applied these words to all those who are not Jehovah’s Witnesses. But the context shows that the persons who “will undergo the judicial punishment of eternal destruction” are persons who persecuted the Christians in Thessalonica. By implication, the verses may be applied to persons who live when the great tribulation starts and who have followed the same pattern of persecuting Christians. But these constitute a small part of the world population of eight billion. I give a detailed analysis of these verses in my article on the restricting of the ransom sacrifice.

Because of inherited sin, all Adam’s descendants are unrighteous. The conclusion we can draw on the basis of the Christian Greek Scriptures is that only those who have sinned against the holy spirit will not get a resurrection. These are the Pharisees who in their wickedness rejected the work of the holy spirit, persons who have persecuted the Christians, and Christians who have rejected the ransom sacrifice of Jesus Christ. I will one time more quote the excellent characteristics of these persons that are found in Awake! of May 22, 1963, page 28:

There will not be a resurrection for the willfully, deliberately, incorrigibly wicked, those without the slightest spark remaining of conscience or love of righteousness.

In view of the way the Christian Greek Scriptures mention such people and the number of times they are mentioned, it is likely that those who have sinned against the holy spirit only constitute a small part of the between 20 and 27 billion who have lived on the earth. This means that “righteous ones” who will get a resurrection according to Acts 24:15 include most of the unrighteous descendants of Adam who have lived on earth.

[1]. See my article, “Drunkenness” in the category “The eleven disfellowshipping offenses.”

[2]. See the section, “The destiny of those who are ignorant when Jesus comes as a judge in the great tribulation” in my article, “The members of the Governing Body have devalued and restricted the ransom sacrifice of Jesus Christ” in the category, “The Governing Body.”

[3]. In Jude 14, the verb erkhomai (“come”) is aorist active indicative. Jude tells that the words of Enoch were a prophecy about the future. Therefore, the verb erkhomai must correctly be translated with English future, as “The Lord will come.” And there can be no doubt that the aorist in this verse has future reference.

THE “RIGHTEOUS” IN ACTS  24:15 ARE NOT IDENTICAL TO THOSE WHO ARE “PRACTICING VILE THINGS” IN JOHN 5:29

The verses I will discuss in this section are Acts 24:15 and John 5:28, 29:

¹⁵ And I have hope toward God, which hope these men also look forward to, that there is going to be a resurrection of both the righteous and the unrighteous.

²⁸Do not be amazed at this, for the hour is coming in which all those in the memorial tombs will hear his voice ²⁹ and come out, those who did good things to a resurrection of life, and those who practiced vile things to a resurrection of judgment.

The Question from Readers in the study edition of The Watchtower of September 2022 says:

John 5:28, 29 refers to the same two groups mentioned at Acts 24:15. Jesus says that “those who did good things” will come out “to a resurrection of life, and those who practiced vile things to a resurrection of judgment.” The righteous did good things before they died. They will come out to a resurrection of life because their names are still written in the book of life. However, the unrighteous practiced vile things before they died. They will come out to a resurrection of judgment. Their names are not yet written in the book of life, and they will experience a period of judgment, or probation. During that time, they will have an opportunity to learn about Jehovah and have their names written in the book of life.

I will show below that the basic conclusions in this quotation are wrong.

All persons who practice vile things are unrighteous, but all unrighteous persons are not practicing vile things.

Acts 24:15 says “that there is going to be a resurrection of both the righteous and the unrighteous.” The claim of the article is that “those who did good things” refer to those who “are righteous,” and “those who did vile things” refer to the ones who are unrighteous. The author of The Watchtower article and the members of the Governing Body who approved the articles in The Watchtower of September 2022 evidently did not realize that this comparison, in reality, devaluates and restricts the resurrection from the dead. And neither did they realize that “being unrighteous” and “doing vile things” have very different meanings and references. The words of Paul in Romans 9:10-13 drives home this point:

¹⁰ Not only then but also when Re·bekʹah conceived twins from the one man, Isaac our forefather; ¹¹ for when they had not yet been born and had not practiced anything good or bad (phaulos), so that God’s purpose respecting the choosing might continue dependent, not on works, but on the One who calls, ¹² it was said to her: “The older will be the slave of the younger.”¹³ Just as it is written: “I loved Jacob, but Eʹsau I hated.”

The text says that Jacob and Esau were in the womb of their mother and they had not practiced anything good or bad. The word that is translated as “bad” is phaulos, which according to Mounce has the meaning “vile, refuse, evil, wicked.” But were Jacob and Esau in the mentioned situation righteous because they had not practiced anything bad? The answer is No because all humans inherit imperfection and sin the moment they are conceived. This means that Jacob and Esau were unrighteous at the time when they had not practiced anything good or bad. Thus, there is a difference between “being unrighteous” and “practicing vile things.”

Let us look at Romans 5:12 and 7:17, 18:

¹² That is why, just as through one man sin entered into the world and death through sin, and so death spread to all men because they had all sinned—. ¹³ For sin was in the world before the Law, but sin is not charged against anyone when there is no law. ¹⁴ Nevertheless, death ruled as king from Adam down to Moses, even over those who had not sinned in the same way that Adam transgressed, who bears a resemblance to the one who was to come.

¹⁵ For I do not understand what I am doing. For I do not practice what I wish, but I do what I hate. ¹⁶  However, if I do what I do not wish, I agree that the Law is fine. ¹⁷ But now I am no longer the one doing it, but it is the sin that resides in me. ¹⁸ For I know that in me, that is, in my flesh, there dwells nothing good; for I have the desire to do what is fine but not the ability to carry it out. ¹⁹ For I do not do the good that I wish, but the bad (kakos) that I do not wish is what I practice (prassō). ²⁰ If, then, I do what I do not wish, I am no longer the one carrying it out, but it is the sin dwelling in me.

Paul shows in Romans 5:12 that sin entered into the world through Adam and that all his descendants inherited sin. In 7:18, he shows that sin dwells in his flesh, and this means that from the moment a person is conceived and gets his flesh, in this flesh sin resides. Thus, any embryo or fetus has inherited sin and is unrighteous. But no embryo or fetus has practiced vile things. So, the Christian Greek Scriptures show that the claim in the quotation above that the unrighteous persons who will get a resurrection according to Acts 24:14 belong to the same group as those who practiced vile things according to John 5:29 is wrong.

The difference between “practicing bad things” and “practicing vile things”

The view of the members of the Governing Body is that the name of those “who practiced vile things” are not written in the book of life, and therefore they will get “a resurrection of judgment,” i.e., they will experience a period of probation. There are several problems with this viewpoint, including the position of the apostle Paul. We are certain that his name was in the book of life, and he confirms this at the end of his life in his words in 2 Timothy 4:7, 8. But let us compare his words in Romans 7:19 with Jesus’ words in John 5:29

19 but the bad (kakos) that I do not wish is what I practice (prassō).

29 those who practiced (prassō) vile things (phaulos) to a resurrection of judgment.

If those who practiced vile things will get a resurrection of judgment, why should Paul who practiced what was bad get a resurrection of life (heavenly life)? Both groups that are mentioned “practiced” something, but there is a difference in what they practiced. The difference is the Greek words kakos and phaulos, and we are interested in the different references of these words.

The adjective phaulos occurs only five times in the Christian Greek Scriptures, while kakos occurs 45 times and is a more general term of what is bad. According to Louw and Nida the meanings of the words are:

kakos — pertaining to having experienced harm — ‘harmed, harm, injured; pertaining to being harsh and difficult — ‘bad, harsh, difficult; pertaining to being incorrect or inaccurate, with the possible implication of also being reprehensible — ‘incorrect, wrong; pertaining to being bad, with the implication of harmful and damaging — ‘bad, evil, harmful, harshly.’

phaulos — pertaining to being evil in the sense of moral baseness — ‘mean, bad, evil.’

Paul had a heavenly hope, and therefore he would get a heavenly resurrection and not be present on the earth on judgment day, which is the Thousand Year Reign of Jesus Christ. This means that the final judgment of Paul and the other anointed Christians would be based on what they did when they were on earth. Paul says in 2 Corinthians 5:10 :

¹⁰ For we must all appear before the judgment seat of the Christ, so that each one may be repaid according to the things he has practiced (prassō) while in the body, whether good (agathos) or bad (phaulos).

The comments regarding phaulos in the study note in the margin of the online NWT13 are excellent:

Bad: Or “vile.” The Greek word here rendered “bad,” or “vile,” Is phau’los. In some contexts, it may convey the idea of “being evil in the sense of moral badness.” Paul shows that the choice put before humans is to practice either what is good or what is bad, that is, to live by God’s standards or to ignore them.

Paul and the other anointed Christians were  judged on the basis of whether they had practiced what was good (agahtos) or vile (phaulos), and not whether they had practiced what was good (agahtos) or bad (kakos). So, we understand that Paul could practice bad things (kakos) without receiving an adverse judgment and his name being removed from the book of life. On this basis, we need to know what the difference is between “practicing what is bad (kakos)” and “practicing what is vile (phaulos).”

Greek adjectives such as kakos and phaulos have  large semantic ranges, and they can have different meanings and different references in different contexts. Therefore, we cannot say, “this is the meaning of kakos” and “this is the meaning of phaulos.” We can only learn the meaning of these two words on the basis of their contexts. And fortunately, the contexts give us clear meanings. I will again quote Romans 7:19, 20:

¹⁹ For I do not do the good that I wish (thelō), but the bad (kakos) that I do not wish (thelō) is what I practice (prassō). ²⁰ If, then, I do what I do not wish (thelō), I am no longer the one carrying it out, but it is the sin dwelling in me.

The Greek verb thelō has the meaning, “to desire, to want, to wish” according to Louw and Nida. In Romans 7: 18, 20, Paul speaks about the sin he inherited from Adam. He says that what is not good dwells in his flesh and that “the sin [is] dwelling in me.” The important point is that Paul was “practicing what was bad (kakos) against his will because of inherited sin. Therefore, he could not be held responsible for his practice of what was bad. In verse 20 he says, “I am no longer the one carrying it out, but it is the sin dwelling in me.” So, it was his inherited sin that was responsible for his actions that were bad (kakos).

Louw and Nida defined phaulos as, “pertaining to being evil in the sense of moral baseness,” and the study note in NWT13 said, “In some contexts, it may convey the idea of ‘being evil in the sense of moral badness’.” These definitions show that persons “who are practicing vile things (phaulos)” are personally responsible for these actions. They cannot just refer to the sin they have inherited. But their actions are conscious actions of their choice, actions that they are desiring (thelō).

The apostle John uses the adjective phaulos two times in his Gospel, and his use of the word corroborates the definitions in the previous paragraph. John 3:19-21 says:

¹⁹ Now this is the basis for judgment: that the light has come into the world, but men have loved the darkness rather than the light, for their works were wicked. ²⁰ For whoever practices (prassō) vile things (phaulos) hates (miseō) the light and does not come to the light, so that his works may not be reproved (elenkhō). ²¹ But whoever does what is true comes to the light, so that his works may be made manifest as having been done in harmony with God.”

The words of John are strong indeed. The verb miseō has the meaning “to hate,” and John says that those “who are practicing vile things (phaulos)” “hates the light.” And the light that came into the world was Jesus Christ. The verb elenkhō has the meaning, “to state that someone has done wrong, with the implication that there is adequate proof of such wrongdoing,” according to Louw and Nida. Those who practice vile things hate the light because of a bad motive. They do not want that their vile actions shall be exposed and proven not to be done in harmony with God.

So, the real contrast is that “practicing what is bad (kakos)” means that a person does different bad things because he or she has inherited sin from Adam. But “practicing what is vile (phaulos)” means that this is a conscious decision that is not caused by inherited sin. It is a decision that is made because of a bad motive — the person hates the light and he or she does not want to act in harmony with God. This means that “practicing vile things” can be equated with sin against the holy spirit. (Matthew 12:31, 32)[1]

On the background of the discussion above we can better understand the words of Jesus in John 5:28, 29:

²⁸ Do not be amazed at this, for the hour is coming in which all those in the memorial tombs will hear his voice ²⁹ and come out, those who did (poieō) good things (agathos) to a resurrection of life, and those who practiced (prassō) vile things (phaulos) to a resurrection of judgment.

Because Jesus in chapter 3 applied the phrase “practicing vile things (phaulos)” to those who hated the light and wanted to cover their bad actions, we must draw the conclusion that he used the same reference in John 5:29. This means that the claim in the study edition of The Watchtower of September 2022 that “the unrighteous” in Acts 24:14 are the same group as “those who practiced vile things” according to John 5:29 clearly is wrong. The claim that “the unrighteous” who will get a resurrection “practiced vile things (phaulos) before they died” is completely unfounded. Only the relatively few persons among the unrighteous ones who sinned against the holy spirit can be said “to have hated the light” and “to have practiced vile things before their death.” This will be elucidated in the next section.

The devaluation and restriction of Paul’s words in Acts 24:15

The verses I will discuss in this section are Acts 24:15 and John 5:28, 29:

¹⁵ And I have hope toward God, which hope these men also look forward to, that there is going to be a resurrection of both the righteous (dikaios) and the unrighteous (adikos).

²⁸ Do not be amazed at this, for the hour is coming in which all those in the memorial tombs will hear his voice ²⁹ and come out, those who did good things to a resurrection of life, and those who practiced vile things (phaulos) to a resurrection of judgment.

I have shown above that the expression “practiced vile things” (phaulos) refers to actions that represent sin against the holy spirit. But in order to test the new view of the Governing Body, let us assume that “vile things” are bad actions that are practiced against the laws of God. I have already quoted Romans 9:11where Paul says that Esau and Jacob were not yet born, and they “had not practiced anything good (agathos) or bad (phaulos).” But I pointed out that because of inherited sin, both of them were unrighteous while they were in the womb of their mother. Who else in addition to unborn children are unrighteous and “have not practiced anything bad”?

Today, the population of the world is about 8 billion. Of these, there are two billions of children below 14 years of age. These children are unrighteous because of their inherited sin, but most of them have “not practiced anything bad.” By this, I mean that they are in the same situation as the apostle Paul who, according to Romans chapter 7, did many things he did not want to do because of the sin in his flesh. Paul was not responsible for his own imperfection, and in spite of this imperfection, his name was written in the book of life. Most of the 2 billion children must be seen in the same way; only a few of them had consciously violated the law of God and “had practiced what was bad,” This means that if the view of the GB is correct that “those who practiced vile things” that are mentioned in John 5:29 are the same group as the unrighteous who will get a resurrection, most of the 2 billions mentioned children and billions of other children who have lived and died since the time of Adam, are not included in the “unrighteous” who will get a resurrection according to Acts 24:15.

There are also 400 million persons living today with mental health disorders, and it is obvious that these 400 million persons and other billions of similar persons who have lived and died since Adam, cannot be held accountable for “having practiced what is bad.” To these numerous billions of children and persons with mental health disorders we may add a great number of adults according to the words of Paul in Romans 2:4-16:

¹⁴ For when people of the nations, who do not have law, do by nature the things of the law, these people, although not having law, are a law to themselves.¹⁵ They are the very ones who demonstrate the matter of the law to be written in their hearts, while their conscience is bearing witness with them, and by their own thoughts they are being accused or even excused. ¹⁶ This will take place in the day when God through Christ Jesus judges the secret things of mankind, according to the good news I declare.

Verses 14 and 15 indicate that persons who do not have any knowledge of the true God follow many of his laws without knowing about them because of their conscience. These verses have been discussed many times in the Watchtower literature. But verse 16 about the day of judgment has only been quoted two times since 1930, in The Watchtower of 1936, page 84, and in Awake! of May 22, 1963, page 28. The Awake! article has the theme, “Resurrection — for whom?” Regarding those who will not get a resurrection the article says:

There will not be a resurrection for the willfully, deliberately, incorrigibly wicked, those without the slightest spark remaining of conscience or love of righteousness.

This is a very good description of those who will not get a resurrection, and we can add that this is a description of sin against the holy spirit. In contrast of this the article says:

That heeding or failing to heed the voice of one’s conscience will have a bearing on one’s destiny even apart from knowledge of God is apparent from the scriptures: ^“ Whenever people of the nations, who do not have law, do by nature the things of the law, these people, although not having law, are a law to themselves. They are the very ones who demonstrate the matter of the law to be written in their hearts, while their conscience is bearing witness with them and between their own thoughts they are being accused or even excused.  This will be in the day when God through Christ Jesus judges the secret things of mankind, according to the good news I declare.

According to Acts 17:31, there will be “a day” when Jesus Christ will judge the inhabited earth, and Acts 10:42 shows that he will judge the living and the dead. Thus, “the day” mentioned in Romans 2:16 “when God through Christ Jesus judges the secret things of mankind” must refer to judgment day, which is the Thousand Year Reign of Jesus Christ. According to verses 14 and 15, “the secret things” are connected with the conscience of individuals, and the issue is whether these individuals have followed their conscience even though they did not know God.

The persons who followed their conscience and tried to do what was good were imperfect just like the apostle Paul, and they did many things they did not want to do like him. But clearly, they did not “practice bad things” because they tried to follow their conscience. As verse 16 shows, these persons, who evidently count billions, will be resurrected on judgment day.

The claim of The Watchtower of September 2022 was that “the unrighteous” who will get a resurrection are identical to those who “practice vile things” and will get “a resurrection of judgment,” according to John 5:28, 29. The argument of the article is that all the mentioned “unrighteous ones” have “practiced vile things.”

The Watchtower has calculated that between 20 billion and 27 billion persons have lived on earth since Adam.[2] Of these, there are several billions of children and several billions of persons with mental health disorders who “have not practiced what is bad.” In addition, there are several billions of persons who have not known God, but who have followed their conscience and neither “have practiced what is bad.” All these billions of Adam’s descendants are among the unrighteous who, according to Acts 24:15, will get a resurrection. The claim that all the mentioned “unrighteous ones” “have practiced bad things” is clearly wrong. And this claim is a devaluation and restriction of Paul’s words that unrighteous persons will get a resurrection because the members of the three mentioned groups are among the unrighteous that will get a resurrection. But they have not practiced vile things.

Who among Adam’s unrighteous descendants are not among “the unrighteous ones” who will not get a resurrection?

We note that the substantivized adjectives dikaios (“right, just”) adikos (“unjust, unrighteous”), which are the keywords in Acts 24:15, do not have any preceding article. Therefore, a literal translation would be. “a resurrection is about to be of righteous and unrighteous ones.” The lack of articles means that the adjectives do not refer to a previously defined group. If we take the substantivized adjective adikos, the lack of article means that either all unrighteous persons or a part of all unrighteous persons will get a resurrection. The only way to find the correct reference of adikos is to look for expressions in the Christian Greek Scriptures where resurrection is discussed.

According to Luke 20:35, Jesus said:

but those who have been counted worthy of gaining that system of things and the resurrection from the dead neither marry nor are given in marriage.

This means that not all of Adam’s unrighteous descendants will get a resurrection. But only “those who have been counted worthy” will get a resurrection. The verb “to be counted worthy” is rendered by NWT13 as English perfect, and this could indicate that the action of counting some persons worthy was completed when Jesus spoke the words. The verb is aorist passive participle, and many Bible translators believe that aorist represents past tense. However, aorist is not a tense but an aspect, the perfective one. Most aorists are rightly translated with English past tense. But aorist can also be translated as present, perfect, future, and future perfect.[3]

In Luke 20:35, Jesus clearly uses a retrospective perspective. He positioned himself at the point of time in the future when the resurrection occurs, and then he looks back on those who prior to this time “have been counted worthy” of being resurrected. I would therefore translate the first part of the verse with English future perfect: “but those who will have been counted worthy.”

I will now return to the resurrection of righteous and unrighteous ones. Where in the Christian Greek Scriptures do we find information about unrighteous persons who will not be resurrected? We find this information in Matthew 12:31, 32:

³¹ “For this reason I say to you, every sort of sin and blasphemy will be forgiven men, but the blasphemy against the spirit will not be forgiven. ³² For example, whoever speaks a word against the Son of man, it will be forgiven him; but whoever speaks against the holy spirit, it will not be forgiven him, no, not in this system of things nor in that to come.

In my article entitled, “The members of the Governing Body have restricted the ransom sacrifice of Jesus Christ” in the category “The Governing Body” I discuss what sin against the holy spirit means. This sin represents actions that cannot be ascribed to our inherited sin, actions that a person continues to do because of his or her wicked decisions. A good example of this sin that cannot be forgiven is John 3:19-21 that I have discussed above. Sin against the holy spirit can be committed by unbelievers and believers. Matthew chapter 12, verse 24 shows that the Pharisees committed this sin. Hebrews 6:4-8 shows how Christians can commit sin against the holy spirit by rejecting the ransom sacrifice of Jesus.

In the Christian Greek Scriptures, most examples of sin against the holy spirit relate to Christians. But most of these examples are misunderstood by the members of the Governing Body. And I show this in my article about the restriction of the ransom sacrifice that is mentioned above.

For example, the members of the Governing Body believe that the sheep in Jesus’ illustration in Matthew 25:31-46 refer to Jehovah’s Witnesses, and the goats who will “depart to everlasting cutting- off” are all other human beings that will be eternally destroyed in the great tribulation. However, in order to be adversely judged because the goats did not do good to the least of Jesus’ brothers, they had to know these brothers, the anointed Christians, and be a part of or in some way be related to the Christian congregations. Most of the humans in the world have no idea of the identity of Jesus’ brothers, and they cannot be judged for something that they do not know and be identified as goats.

There is a similar situation in the illustration of Jesus in Matthew 13:24-30, 37-42. The angels “will collect out from his kingdom all things that cause stumbling and people who practice lawlessness.” We note that the persons are collected out from his kingdom, and therefore they must have been inside his kingdom. This indicates that the persons who “are collected out” are Christians or persons who have a close relationship with the Christians. This is not the case with most of persons living today.

An example of non-Christians who will be eternally annihilated is found in 2 Thessalonians 1:7-10. The Watchtower has applied these words to all those who are not Jehovah’s Witnesses. But the context shows that the persons who “will undergo the judicial punishment of eternal destruction” are persons who persecuted the Christians in Thessalonica. By implication, the verses may be applied to persons who live when the great tribulation starts and who have followed the same pattern of persecuting Christians. But these constitute a small part of the world population of 8 billions. I give a detailed analysis of these verses in my article on the restriction of the ransom sacrifice.

Because of inherited sin, all Adam’s descendants are unrighteous. The conclusion we can draw on the basis of the Christian Greek Scriptures is that only those who have sinned against the holy spirit will not get a resurrection. These are the Pharisees who in their wickedness rejected the work of the holy spirit, persons who have persecuted the Christians, and Christians who have rejected the ransom sacrifice of Jesus Christ. I will one time more quote the excellent characteristics of these persons that are found in Awake! of May 22, 1963, page 28:

There will not be a resurrection for the willfully, deliberately, incorrigibly wicked, those without the slightest spark remaining of conscience or love of righteousness.

In view of the way the Christian Greek Scriptures mention such people and the number of times they are mentioned, it is likely that those who have sinned against the holy spirit only constitute a small part of the between 20 and 27 billion who have lived on the earth. This means that “righteous ones” who will get a resurrection according to Acts 24:15 include most of the unrighteous descendants of Adam who have lived on earth.

[1]. See my article

[2]. See the section, “The destiny of those who are ignorant when Jesus comes as a judge in the great tribulation” in my article, “The members of the Governing Body have devalued and restricted the ransom sacrifice of Jesus Christ” in the category, “The Governing Body.”

[3]. In Jude 14, the verb erkhomai (“come”) is aorist active indicative. Jude tells that the words of Enoch were a prophecy about the future. Therefore, the verb erkhomai must correctly be translated with English future, as “The Lord will come.” And there can be no doubt that the aorist in this verse has future reference.

THE UNDERSTANDING OF JOHN 5:28, 29 THAT ACCORDS WITH THE SCRIPTURES

According to John 5:28, 29 Jesus said:

²⁸ Do not be amazed at this, for the hour is coming in which all those in the memorial tombs will hear his voice ²⁹ and come out, those who did good things to a resurrection of life, and those who practiced vile things to a resurrection of judgment.

The talk of Geoffrey Jackson and The Watchtower of September 2022 present a new interpretation of these words, and Table 1.1 contains a comparison of the old and new interpretations of the words “resurrection of life” and “resurrection of judgment.”

Table 1.1 A comparison with the old and new understanding of John 5:28, 29

Old interpretation	The resurrection of life = Resurrection to everlasting life.
“	The resurrection of judgment = Resurrection to everlasting annihilation.
New interpretation	The resurrection of life = Resurrection of those who are written in the book of life, who are in line for everlasting life.
“	The resurrection of judgment = Resurrection of those who will be tested and whose names are not written in the book of life, and who are not in line of everlasting life.

The crucial points in verse 29 are the expressions “life” and “judgment.” The old understanding has a clear and concrete definition of “life” and “judgment,” while the new definitions are vapid and inane. And contrary to what The Watchtower claims, the old interpretation accords with the context while the new interpretation contradicts the context. My general comment to the new interpretation is that all the resurrected ones are in line for everlasting life, not only one group. The purpose of the resurrection of all is that they are offered the value of the ransom sacrifice so they can have everlasting life. Moreover, Revelation 20:13 shows that the dead who are resurrected in the Thousand Year Reign of Jesus will be “judged individually according to their deeds.” So, there is not only one group, those who are not written in the book of life, that will be “judged.”

Greek grammar and the meaning of the verbs in John 5:28, 29

I will first discuss the basic claims of Jackson and The Watchtower. The arguments are: Jesus did not say “they will do good things” and “they will practice vile things, but Jesus used past tense. So, these actions must have been performed by the persons before their death.

This is a fallacious argument, particularly for two reasons. First, the argument shows that Jackson and the other members of the Governing Body have no knowledge of Greek. They do not know that the Greek verb form of aorist is not a tense but an aspect, and they do not know the meaning and force of this aspect. This is shown in the way the members of the Governing Body have treated John 5:28, 29?

²⁸ Do not be amazed at this, for the hour is coming (erkhomai, present middle indicative) in which all those in the memorial tombs will hear his voice ²⁹ and come out, those who did (poieō “do” aorist active participle) good things to a resurrection of life, and those who practiced (prassō “carry out some activity” aorist active participle) vile things to a resurrection of judgment.

To what does Jesus refer when he speaks about “those who did good things” and “those who practiced vile things”? Does Jesus contradict Paul by referring to the actions the resurrected did before their death? The answer is No, and supporting this answer is John 5:25:

²⁵ “Most truly I say to you, the hour is coming (erkhomai “come,” present medium indicative), and it is (eimi “be,” present active indicative) now, when the dead will hear (akouō “hear” future active indicative) the voice of the Son of God, and those who have paid attention (akouō “hear,” aorist active participle) will live (zaō “live,” future active indicative).

The first present verb “come” in verse 25 refers to the future, to a time period after Jesus uttered the words. The second verb “be” most likely refers to the future as well, and the meaning can be “will now be/become.” The third verb “hear” is Greek future and should be rendered by English future. But what about the fourth verb “hear”? This verb is aorist active participle, and the aorist does not refer to past tense or to any other tense. But aorist is tenseless and represents the perfective aspect. This means that the aorist portrays an action from the outside with the inside details not being visible. The aorist form can refer to past, present, future, and future perfect with a preponderance for the past.

The first occurrence of the verb akouō (“hear”) in 5:25 has placed the situation in the future when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God. The fact that the following verb, which also is akouō, is not Greek future but Greek aorist shows that the time reference has changed. Jesus does not portray a situation where the dead will hear (akouō) his voice, then he again repeats that they will hear (akouō), and then they will live (zaō). But the change of aspect shows that the meaning is that the dead will hear (future), and those who will have heard (aorist) — those who have acted on what they heard — will live (future). I, therefore, suggest the following translation:

The dead will hear the voice of the Son of God, and those who will have heard will live.

This means that I take the second occurrence of the verb akouō in the aorist aspect as English future perfect. This is a retrospective viewpoint. First, we learn that the dead in the future will hear the voice of the Son of God. Then Jesus takes a step into the future beyond the point when the dead hear his voice, and he looks back retrospectively. He points out from his new vantage point that the dead who have heard his voice have taken a certain action, they have done something with what they heard. Then he again looks into the future and says that those who have taken the action will live. The important point in our context is that the action described by the aorist participle “will have heard” occurs after the time when they hear the voice of the Son of God.

I will again look at John 5:28, 29 in the light of John 5:25.

²⁸ Do not be amazed at this, for the hour is coming (erkhomai, “come,” present middle indicative) in which all those in the memorial tombs will hear (akouō, “hear” future active indicative) his voice ²⁹ and come out (poreuomai “come out,” future middle indicative), those who did (poieō “do” aorist active participle) good things to a resurrection of life, and those who practiced (prassō “carry out some activity” aorist active participle) vile things to a resurrection of judgment.

The first verb erkhomai (“come”) in verse 28 is Greek present and must refer to the future. The second verb akouō “hear” is Greek future and must refer to English future, and the third verb poreuomai “come out” is also Greek future and must refer to English future. The next two verbs poieō (“do”) and prassō (“carry out some activity”) are aorists and therefore must have a different time reference than erkhomai (“come”), akouō (“hear”), and poreuomai (“come out”). This must be a time that is past in relation to some vantage point.

In 5:25 the vantage point is clear because of the last future verb zaō (“live”). They will hear (akouō), and those who will have heard (akouō) will live (zaō).” In verse 5:29 there is no verb after the two verbs in the aorist, and linguistically speaking the vantage point is not clear. Because the two verbs in the aorist must have another time reference than the three first verbs in Greek present, future, and future, there are two possible vantage points.

The verbs poieō (“do”) and prassō (“carry out some activity”) can refer to the time before the dead will come out, and the actions (deeds) can refer to what they did before they died. The vantage point is then the verb “come out,” and the actions of the two aorist verbs happened before this vantage point. The alternative is a retrospective vantage point. Jesus puts himself at a point in the future and he looks back at those who have come out, those who have been resurrected.

The retrospective vantage point is very rare compared to a simple present vantage point. This means that if an aorist verb shall be translated by English future perfect, there must either be a syntactical and/or lexical reason for this. In 5:25 there is a lexical reason, namely, the two occurrences of the verb akouō with different time references. That there is a verb with a future meaning following the last verb akouō is a syntactical reason for the choice of English future perfect.

However, in 5:28. 29 there is neither a lexical nor a syntactical reason for the choice of English future perfect instead of simple past. Because of this, the simple past rendering of NWT13 of both verbs in the aorist is the best rendering. But this rendering does not exclude a retrospective viewpoint. On the basis of the view that the Bible is inspired by God and that all the Bible writers are in agreement, the words of Paul in Romans 6:7 exclude the possibility of the resurrected ones being judged on the basis of what they did before they died. This suggests that the vantage point for the words in John 5:28, 29 is retrospective. Supporting this is the retrospective vantage point in John 5:25.

Paul draws an important inspired conclusion in Romans 6:7:

For the one who has died has been acquitted from his sin.

This conclusion is far-reaching. All persons are sinners, and the wages they get are death. This means that at the moment a person dies he has received the wages (the judgment) for his sins, and when he is resurrected, he is acquitted of his previous sins. Therefore, he cannot be judged a second time for the sins he committed before he died. If we apply this to the words of Revelation 20:12, “The dead were judged out of those things written in the scrolls according to their deeds,” it means that “their deeds” must be deeds that they have done after their resurrection. They are judged according to what is written in the scrolls which are requirements they must fulfill in the Thousand Year Reign of Jesus.

The word “life” (zōē) with reference to the future always means “everlasting life”

Jackson said that the word “judgment” (Greek: krisis) could have other meanings than “adverse judgment,” and this is correct. Some of the meanings given by Mounce are: “distinction; discrimination; judgment, decision, award; a judicial sentence; an adverse sentence.” But Jackson’s claim that the context shows that “judgment” in John 5:29 is used in the neutral sense of a test and not in the sense of “condemnatory judgment” is clearly wrong.

Because the word “judgment” (krisis) has several different meanings, the best way to find the meaning of the word used in John 5:29 is to look at the word “life” (zōē) which is used as a contrast to “judgment” (krisis). According to Mounce, zōē only has two meanings, namely “life” and “living existence,” but the word zōē can have several references. What is important in this context is that when zōē is used with reference to the future, its reference is uniform.

When future life is mentioned by John, the reference is always “everlasting life.” This is seen by the fact that “life” and “everlasting life” are used as synonyms. In many instances, life is used alone, and the meaning clearly is “eternal life”:

John 3:36 Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life, but whoever rejects the Son will not see life, for God’s wrath remains on him.”

John 5:24    “I tell you the truth, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life and will not be condemned; he has crossed over from death to life.

John 5:39 You diligently study the Scriptures because you think that by them you possess eternal life. These are the Scriptures that testify about me, ⁴⁰ yet you refuse to come to me to have life.

John 6:33 For the bread of God is he who comes down from heaven and gives life to the world.”

John 6:53    Jesus said to them, “I tell you the truth, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you. ⁵⁴ Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day.

John 6:47 I tell you the truth, he who believes has everlasting life. ⁴⁸ I am the bread of life.

John 6:63 The Spirit gives life; the flesh counts for nothing. The words I have spoken to you are spirit and they are life.

John 10:10 The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full.

John 14:6    Jesus answered, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.

John 20:31 But these are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name.

1 John 1:1   That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked at and our hands have touched—this we proclaim concerning the Word of life. ² The life appeared; we have seen it and testify to it, and we proclaim to you the eternal life, which was with the Father and has appeared to us.

1 John 5:11 And this is the testimony: God has given us eternal life, and this life is in his Son. ¹² He who has the Son has life; he who does not have the Son of God does not have life.

Above are twelve examples in John and 1 John where “life” is used in the sense “eternal life,” either as a parallel with “eternal life” or because the context shows that the reference is “eternal life.” There is no example in John or in other books in the Christian Greek Scriptures of the use of zōē in the sense “written in the book of life” or “in line for everlasting life,” which is the sense applied to zōē in John 5:29 by Jackson and The Watchtower. Thus, the new meaning applied to “life” (zōē) in John 5:29 has no basis in the Scriptures.

What does the contrast between “life” (zōē) and “judgment” (krisis) mean?

When a Witness participates in the preaching work and discusses the issue of what happens when a person dies, he has an easy task of showing that humans do not have an immortal soul. But to demonstrate from the Scriptures that there is no hell and no eternal torment is much more difficult. One important Scripture to use in this respect is Matthew 18:8:

⁴³ “If ever your hand makes you stumble, cut it off. It is better for you to enter into life maimed than to go off with two hands into Ge·henʹna, into the fire that cannot be put out.

The argument is that “life,” and “Gehenna” are used as contrasts, and therefore “Gehenna” must be the opposite of life, that is “no life.” In connection with “life” and “judgment” in John 5:28, 29, Insight on the Scriptures, volume 2,, page 789, has the following comment:

If Jesus, in speaking of judgment, meant a trial the result of which might be life, then there would be no contrast between this and the “resurrection of life.” Therefore, the context indicates that Jesus meant by “judgment” a condemnatory judgment.

Jesus shows that there is a contrast between the phrases “resurrection of life” and “resurrection of judgment.” And because the use of the word “life” in the Christian Greek Scriptures with reference to the future always means “everlasting life,” as shown above, the word “judgment” must be the very opposite, namely, “condemnatory judgment,” or “eternal annihilation.”

Whether a person will get a resurrection of life or a resurrection of judgment depends on his or her actions, whether he or she did good things or practiced vile things. As I have shown, the argument of Jackson and The Watchtower that the verb is past tense and therefore the actions must have been done before the person died, is fallacious. This is so because the Greek aorist can refer to past, present, or future, and the members of the GB do not realize that there are absolute tenses and relative tenses both in Greek and English.

As already mentioned, the time when the persons did good things and practiced vile things is decided by the words of Paul in Romans 6:7:

 For the one who has died has been acquitted from his sin.

When a person dies, all his sins are blotted out, and he cannot be judged a second time after his resurrection for what he did before his death. This means that “doing good things” and “practicing vile things” refer to actions that will be done after the resurrection of the person.

I will now return to the new interpretation that was presented by Jackson: The resurrection to life means that the name of the person is written in the book of life, and the person is in line for everlasting life. The resurrection of judgment means that the resurrection is for a test; the name of the person is not written in the book of life, and he or she is not in line for everlasting life. The “judgment” means that the person will be tested and educated in the truth of Jehovah, and he will be evaluated. If he or she starts to serve Jehovah, he or she will be in line for everlasting life. If he or she refuses to serve Jehovah, the final outcome will be eternal annihilation.

The new definition of “resurrection of judgment” contradicts the words of Revelation 20:12, 13. In both verses, the verb krinō (to judge”) that corresponds to the substantive krisis (“judgment”), is used. The use of this verb describes a test. And who is judged or tested? All those who have been resurrected. This means the new interpretation of the Governing Body that those who are written in the book of life will not get a resurrection of judgment (to be tested) is wrong! The verses clearly say that all the resurrected ones will be judged.

The two verses show that all the resurrected ones will be judged individually according to their deeds. Because of Paul’s word in Romans 6:7, “the deeds” of which they are judged must be deeds they do during the Thousand Year Reign of Jesus. At the end of the thousand years, the final test will occur, as we read in Revelation 20:7-9, 15:

⁷ Now as soon as the 1,000 years have ended, Satan will be released from his prison, ⁸ and he will go out to mislead those nations in the four corners of the earth, Gog and Maʹgog, to gather them together for the war. The number of these is as the sand of the sea. ⁹ And they advanced over the whole earth and encircled the camp of the holy ones and the beloved city. But fire came down out of heaven and consumed them… ¹⁵ Furthermore, whoever was not found written in the book of life was hurled into the lake of fire.

There are two groups, those who support Jehovah, who will get everlasting life, and those who oppose Jehovah and who will be eternally annihilated in the lake of fire. After this final test, we can take a retrospective viewpoint. We can now see that some got a “resurrection of life” (everlasting life) and some got a “resurrection of judgment” (eternal annihilation).

The new interpretation of John 5:28, 29 joins the ranks of all the inexpressive, vapid, and inane new interpretations of the present Governing Body. And Geoffrey Jackson and the members of the Governing Body who made this new interpretation and approved it do not have a clear and accurate understanding of what the Bible says about the resurrection of the dead.

A DISCUSSION OF DANIEL 12:1-3

The Watchtower of September 2022 has the article, “Bringing the Many to Righteousness,” and this article discusses Daniel 12:1-3. I compare the comments of The Watchtower with the book, Pay Attention to Daniel’s Prophecy. Daniel 12:1 says;

 ¹ “During that time Miʹcha·el will stand up, the great prince who is standing in behalf of your people. And there will occur a time of distress such as has not occurred since there came to be a nation until that time. And during that time your people will escape, everyone who is found written down in the book.

Both the comments of the book Pay Attention to Daniel’s Prophecy and of The Watchtower agree that the “standing” of Michael, which is Jesus Christ, refers to his presence from 1914 to the great tribulation, and that the words “will stand up” refer to his rising to take special action and defend his people in the great tribulation. The interpretation of verse 2 regarding those who “will wake up” is different in the two sources

² And many of those asleep in the dust of the earth will wake up, some to everlasting life and others to reproach and to everlasting contempt.

Below I quote what the book, page 292, (above) and The Watchtower, pages 21, 22, (below) say about those who “will wake up:

⁹ Consider the context. The first verse of Da chapter 12 applies, as we have seen, not only to the end of this system of things but also to the entire period of the last days. In fact, the bulk of the chapter finds fulfillment, not in the coming earthly paradise, but during the time of the end. Has there been a resurrection during this period? The apostle Paul wrote of the resurrection of “those who belong to the Christ” as occurring “during his presence.” However, those who are resurrected to life in heaven are raised “incorruptible.” (1 Corinthians 15:23, 52) None of them are raised “to reproaches and to indefinitely lasting abhorrence” foretold at Daniel 12:2. Is there another kind of resurrection? In the Bible, resurrection sometimes has a spiritual significance. For example, both Ezekiel and Revelation contain prophetic passages that apply to a spiritual revival, or resurrection.—Ezekiel 37:1-14; Revelation 11:3, 7, 11.

¹⁰ Has there been such a spiritual revival of God’s anointed servants in the time of the end? Yes! It is a historical reality that in 1918 a small remnant of faithful Christians were subjected to an extraordinary attack that disrupted their organized public ministry. Then, against all likelihood, in 1919 they returned to life in a spiritual sense. These facts fit the description of the resurrection foretold at Daniel 12:2. Some did “wake up” spiritually at that time and thereafter. Sadly, though, not all remained in a spiritually alive state. Those who after being awakened chose to reject the Messianic King and who left God’s service earned for themselves the ‘reproaches and indefinitely lasting abhorrence’ described at Daniel 12:2. (Hebrews 6:4-6) However, the faithful anointed ones, making good use of their spiritually revived state, loyally supported the Messianic King. Ultimately, their faithfulness leads, as the prophecy states, to “indefinitely lasting life.” Today, their spiritual vitality in the face of opposition helps us to identify them.

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6 Read Daniel 12:2. What happens after the great crowd survive this time of distress? This prophecy is not referring to a symbolic resurrection, a spiritual revival of God’s servants that occurs during the last days, as we previously understood. Rather, these words refer to the resurrection of the dead that takes place in the coming new world. Why can we draw that conclusion? The expression “the dust” is also used at Job 17:16 as a parallel of the expression “the Grave.” This fact indicates that Daniel 12:2 is referring to the literal resurrection that will occur after the last days have ended and after the battle of Armageddon.

7 What does Daniel 12:2 mean, though, when it says that some will be resurrected to “everlasting life”? It means that those who are resurrected and come to know, or continue to know, and obey Jehovah and Jesus during the 1,000 years will ultimately receive everlasting life. (John 17:3) This will be “a better resurrection” than the one in the past that brought certain humans back to life. (Heb. 11:35) Why? Because those im- perfect humans died again.

8 But not all resurrected ones will accept Jehovah’s educational program. Daniel’s prophecy says that some will be resurrected “to reproach and to everlasting contempt.” Because they will show a rebellious spirit, their names will not be written in the book of life and they will not receive everlasting life. Instead, they will receive “everlasting contempt,” or destruction. So Daniel 12:2 is speaking of the ultimate outcome for all resurrected ones based on what they do after their resurrection. (Rev. 20:12) Some will gain everlasting life; others will not.

The old interpretation was that the phrase “those who sleep…will wake up” was that it referred to a symbolic resurrection during the time of the end. The new interpretation is that it refers to a literal resurrection on Judgment Day. The principle that I always follow is to take the words of a text in their literal meaning if the context does not clearly show that the words are symbolic.

I will compare the literal resurrection mentioned in Daniel 12:13 with the words of 12:2:

¹³ You will rest, but you will stand up for your lot at the end of the days.

² And many of those asleep in the dust of the earth will wake up.

The Hebrew word translated by “stand up” in verse 13 is ‘amad, whose meaning is “stand; stand up,” and it is used in contrast with “rest” (nūah). In verse 2, the contrast is between “sleep” (yāshãn) and “wake up” (qits). The verb form is hifil, so the meaning is “cause to wake up.” That the words in verse 2 are different from the words in verse 13 that refer to a literal resurrection does not prove that verse 2 does not refer to a literal resurrection. But if the word ‘amad had occurred in verse 2, that would have suggested a literal resurrection.

Whether the old interpretation that the phrase “will wake up” refers to a symbolic resurrection or the new interpretation that it refers to a literal resurrection in the Thousand Year Reign of Jesus Christ is correct, is difficult to know. But the argument of the book that chapter 12 refers to events during the time of the end, which is the same as the presence of Jesus Christ, and therefore a symbolic resurrection is referred to, is rather strong.

And the argument of The Watchtower that the words “the dust” prove that Daniel pointed to a literal resurrection has no weight whatsoever. The book refers to Ezekiel 37:1-14 which describes a symbolic resurrection. But the words used could be a description of a literal resurrection. So even if “the dust” refers to “the grave,” that would also fit a symbolic resurrection. However, the fact that “the time of distress,” which refers to the great tribulation, is mentioned in verse 1, is an argument in favor of the interpretation of a literal resurrection after the great tribulation.

As mentioned, we cannot with certainty know the real meaning of verse 2. But because the whole of chapter 12 discusses the time of the end, I find the explanation of a symbolic resurrection more likely. If the words refer to a literal resurrection, they support the old interpretation of John 5:28, 29 presented above that “a resurrection of life” refers to a resurrection giving the persons everlasting life, and “a resurrection of judgment” refers to a resurrection leading to everlasting annihilation. Verse 3 is also viewed differently in the two sources:

“And those having insight will shine as brightly as the expanse of heaven, and those bringing the many to righteousness like the stars, forever and ever.

Below I quote what the book, page 293, (above) and The Watchtower, pages 21, 22, (below) say about those who “will wake up:

¹¹ The next two verses of Daniel chapter 12 do even more to help us identify “the holy ones of the Supreme One.” In verse 3 the angel tells Daniel: “The ones having insight will shine like the brightness of the expanse; and those who are bringing the many to righteousness, like the stars to time indefinite, even forever.” Who are “the ones having insight” today? Again, the evidence points to the same “holy ones of the Supreme One.” After all, who but the faithful anointed remnant had the insight to discern that Michael, the Great Prince, began standing as King in 1914? By preaching such truths as this—as well as by maintaining Christian conduct—they have been “shining as illuminators” in this spiritually bedarkened world. (Philippians 2:15; John 8:12) Concerning them, Jesus prophesied: “At that time the righteous ones will shine as brightly as the sun in the kingdom of their Father.”—Matthew 13:43.

¹² Daniel 12:3 even tells us what work would occupy these anointed Christians in the time of the end. They would be “bringing the many to righteousness.” The anointed remnant set about gathering the remaining number of the 144,000 joint heirs of Christ. (Romans 8:16, 17; Revelation 7:3, 4) When that work was completed—evidently by the mid-1930’s—they began gathering the “great crowd” of “other sheep.” (Revelation 7:9; John 10:16) These too exercise faith in the ransom sacrifice of Jesus Christ. Therefore, they have a clean standing before Jehovah. Numbering into the millions today, they cherish the hope of surviving the coming destruction of this wicked world. During Christ’s Thousand Year Reign, Jesus and his 144,000 fellow kings and priests will apply to obedient mankind on earth the full benefits of the ransom, thereby helping all of those exercising faith to shed every last trace of sin inherited from Adam. (2 Peter 3:13; Revelation 7:13, 14; 20:5, 6) In the fullest sense, the anointed will then share in “bringing the many to righteousness” and will ‘shine like the stars’ in heaven. Do you value the hope of living on earth under the glorious heavenly government of Christ and his corulers? What a privilege it is to share with “the holy ones” in preaching this good news of God’s Kingdom!—Matthew 24:14.

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9 Read Daniel 12:3. What else will happen after the coming “time of distress”? In addition to Daniel 12:2, verse 3 refers to something that happens after the great tribulation.

10 Who “will shine as brightly as the expanse of heaven”? We find a clue in Jesus’ words recorded at Matthew 13: 43: “At that time the righteous ones will shine as brightly as the sun in the Kingdom of their Father.” In the context of these words, Jesus was speaking about “the sons of the Kingdom,” his anointed brothers, who will serve with him in the heavenly Kingdom. (Matt. 13: 38) So Daniel 12:3 must be referring to the anointed and the work they will do during the Thousand Year Reign.

11 How will the anointed bring “the many to righteousness”? The anointed will cooperate closely with Jesus Christ to direct the educational program that will be carried out here on earth during the 1,000 years. The 144,000 will not only rule as kings but also serve as priests. (Rev. 1:6; 5:10; 20:6) As such, they will assist with “the healing of the nations”—gradually bringing mankind back to perfection. (Rev. 22:1, 2; Ezek. 47:12) What a joy that will be for the anointed!

12 Who will be among “the many” brought to righteousness? These will in- clude those who are resurrected and also those who survive Armageddon to- gether with any children who may be born in the new world. By the end of the 1,000 years, all living on earth will be perfect. So at what point will their names be written permanently in ink and not in pencil in the book of life?

Both sources view the anointed Christians as those who “will shine brightly as the expanse of heaven.” However, the view of time is different. The book argues that during the time of the end the anointed Christians will have brought “many to righteousness.” But The Watchtower argues that it is during the Thousand Year Reign that the anointed Christians will “bring many to righteousness.” However, during the Thousand Year Reign the anointed Christians have received their heavenly resurrection, and they can only indirectly “bring many to righteousness.”

That Daniel 11:33 and 12:3 describe the same persons doing similar actions, and that 11:33 clearly refers to the time of the end, is the strongest argument in favor of the interpretation of the book that verses 2 and 3 in Daniel chapter 12 are fulfilled during the time of the end:

³³ and those having insight (shakhal, hifil participle masculine plural) among the people will impart understanding to the many (hārabbim).

³ And those having insight (shakhal, hifil participle masculine plural) …those bringing the many (hārabbim) to righteousness.

The Hebrew verb shakhal has the meaning “be wise, prudent, understanding.” Both in 11:33 and 12:3 this verb is used as the substantivized form participle. The rendering, “those having insight” is excellent. According to 11:33, they will “impart understanding” to “the many” (hārabbim), and according to 12:3, they will bring “the many” (hārabbim)  “to righteousness.” The two verses are clearly related because to “impart understanding” can lead “to righteousness.”

The time setting of 11:33 is the time of the end, and this suggests that the time setting of 12:3 is the time of the end as well, just as the rest of chapter 12. The comparison of the two verses argues in favor of 12:2 referring to a symbolic resurrection during the time of the end rather than to a literal resurrection during the Thousand Year Reign of Jesus Christ.

CONCLUSION

The Governing Body’s new interpretation of the resurrection contradicts the Scriptures, as most of the new interpretations that have been presented in the 21st century do. Geoffrey Jackson, who first presented the new view in a lecture, the person who wrote the Watchtower article, and the members of the Governing Body that read the article and approved it, show that they do not know Greek. This is one reason why the new conclusions of the Watchtower article contradict the Scriptures.

The words of Jesus in John 5:28, 29 about “a resurrection of life” and “a resurrection of judgment” are the focus of the new interpretation. The discussion gives strong evidence in favor of the old view that Jesus spoke about the final destiny of the resurrected ones, either getting everlasting life or experiencing eternal annihilation.