.:I’M AFRAID OF BEING DESTROYED AT ARMAGEDDON — What If Jehovah’s Witnesses Are Right After All?
“I’m still one of Jehovah’s Witnesses, but I have many doubts and questions as to whether or not the Watchtower Organization is really ‘The Truth.’ I’m so confused, and I feel like I just want to walk away, but what keeps me here is the fear that Armageddon will come. I don’t want to be destroyed! I want to be on Jehovah’s side, but I’m so afraid. What if Jehovah’s Witnesses are right about Armageddon, after all? If I leave, will I be destroyed by Jehovah FOREVER? I don’t want to die! I just don’t know what to do … I feel so trapped!”
OUR RESPONSE
Dear friend,
My name is Anne Marie. I read your question and my heart just went right out to you! I understand your fear. I really do! I, too, was afraid of Armageddon coming for most of my life until I discovered that “Christians” do not have this fear. They also don’t seem to have the stress and the worries in regard to the future that I had as a Jehovah’s Witness. They had such peace and I wondered how they got it. Then, I discovered WHY I did not have peace about my future and why Christians are not afraid of Armageddon. I learned that ARMAGEDDON HAS NOTHING TO DO WITH US AS CHRISTIANS!
Most Jehovah’s Witnesses see themselves as being members of “the great crowd.” 1. But do you know where the Bible says that the “great crowd” will be when Armageddon comes? According to Revelation 7:9, they are in Heaven! Yes! They are standing “before the throne” in Heaven! Revelation 7:15 says that members of the great crowd rendering Him “sacred service day and night in his temple.” How can they serve Jehovah “day and night in his temple” in Heaven, 2. if the great crowd is somehow still upon the earth at this point? 3. It is not even until Revelation 16:16 that Armageddon is even mentioned in the Bible. Thus, the great crowd is already in Heaven and they are standing “before the throne and before the Lamb” when Armageddon breaks out upon the earth!
May I share with you what I have learned from these Christians? May I share with you what gave me a hope and a peace and a security and a joy that I had never known before? I hope that you will look at what I have to tell you because if I had known when I was younger what I know now about God and Armageddon, I would have been spared many years of stress, confusion, guilt, worry, and fear. I want to tell every Jehovah’s Witness who is afraid like I was why I no longer have any fear of Armageddon, why I now have a deep feeling of peace and contentment that I never had before, why I feel completely secure in God’s love no matter where I am, what religion, or organization I may, or may not, belong to!
Here is what I was shown from my own New World Translation of the Holy Scriptures by a very loving Christian. Did you know that Jehovah God actually has a plan of salvation for all of humankind? Jesus said,
“Come to me, all you who are toiling and loaded down and I will refresh you. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am mild-tempered and lowly in heart, and you will find refreshment for your souls, for my yoke is kindly and my load is light.” (Matthew 11; 28-30)
“He that hears my word and believes Him that sent me has everlasting life.” (John 5:24)
“You are searching the scriptures because you think that by means of them you will have everlasting life … And yet you do not want to come to me that you may have life.” (John 5:39. 40)
“Everyone that is on the side of the truth listens to my voice.” (John 18:37)
“Continue following me.” (John 21:19)
“And I give them everlasting life, and they will by no means ever be destroyed, and no one will be able to snatch them out of my hand.” (John 10:28)
“I am the light of the world. He that follows me will by no means walk in darkness, but will possess the light of life.” (John 8:12)
“You do not believe because you are none of my sheep. My sheep listen to my voice and I know them, and they follow me.” (John 10:26-27)
“Everyone that is living and exercises faith in me will never die at all. Do you believe this?” (John 11:26)
“Most truly I say to you, unless anyone is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.” (John 3:3)
“You people must be born again.” (John 3:7)
“For God sent forth His son … for the world to be saved through him.” (John 3:17)
“Everyone exercising faith in him might not be destroyed but have everlasting life.” (John 3:16)
“The one that comes to me I will by no means drive away.” (John 6:37)
And finally,
“I am the way, the truth, and the life.” (John 14:6)
Jesus was very clear. He always said exactly what He meant, and told us exactly all that we needed to know. Nowhere in the Scriptures pertaining to Jesus’ followers do we see anything about being concerned about surviving Armageddon. In fact, except for the final section of Revelation, the word “Armageddon” is completely missing from the entire Christian Scriptures! Thus, we immediately see that Armageddon is something that has nothing to do with us as God’s people!
If Armageddon was something for Christians to be concerned about, and if joining some special religion or organization, were required to be “saved,” don’t you think Jesus would have mentioned it? But let’s look at what He DID say!
Clearly, just from the few Scriptures quoted above, we are to “come to Jesus” for salvation, because He is truly “the way” of salvation, as is God’s arrangement. Also, we can see that nowhere in the Scriptures do we find any limit to the number of those who can find heavenly salvation through Christ. Rather, we find words such as, “the one that,” “he that,” “anyone,” “all,” “the one who,” “whosoever,” and “everyone.”
Furthermore, we see from these Scriptures that the one that comes to Christ “HAS everlasting life” (John 6:47). Even Jesus promised that He would not drive away ANYONE who comes to Him for salvation (John 6:37). He said that once we have come to Him for salvation, once we willingly belong to Him, no one will be able to snatch us out of His hand, nor His Father’s Hand (John 10:27-29)! So, we will by no means ever be destroyed by Jehovah and Jesus Who promises to keep us forever! We can take comfort in this promise:
“For I am convinced that neither death nor life nor angels nor governments nor things now here nor things to come nor powers nor height nor depth nor any other creation will be able to separate us from God’s love that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.” (Romans 8:38-39)
The Scriptures are plain. We are to “come to Jesus” in order to be saved, “put faith in Jesus” in order to be saved, and when we do accept Jesus as our Lord and Savior, the Holy Spirit of God and Jesus come into our hearts and we are truly “born again,” as Jesus promised, said that we needed to be. (See 1 Thessalonians 4:8; Colossians 3:11; 1 John 3:24; Ephesians 1:13-14.)
“And this is the witness given, that God gave us everlasting life, and this life is in His Son. He that has the Son has this life; he that does not have the Son of God does not have this life. I write YOU these things that YOU may know that YOU have life everlasting, YOU who put YOUR faith in the name of the Son of God.” (1 John 5:11-13)
Jesus died to set us free from the enslavement of the Mosaic Law, and from following any religious “law of man,” as shown by John 8:31-32, 36 where Jesus says,
“If you remain in my word, you are really my disciples, and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free. … Therefore if the Son sets you free, you will be actually free.”
Notice that first we must remain in Jesus’ word in order to “be his disciples,” and THEN we will “know the truth,” and THEN we will be “set free.”
But “free from what?” you may ask.
Well, free from fear, for one thing! 2 Timothy 1:7 says that God has not given us a “spirit of fear”! Paul says at Galatians 5:1, “For such freedom Christ set us free.”
The Watchtower put us under a “yoke of slavery,” telling us that the Scriptures cited about having salvation, and assurance of life, do not apply to us, and that we had to obey THEM (the Watchtower elders) as the only way to be “right” with God, that we had to believe and trust in THEM as the only source of pure “truth,” that we had to be loyal to THEM, and obedient to THEM in order to have any hope of everlasting life, but this teaching is NOT according to Jesus, nor is it according to God’s Word of truth (John 17:17).
The innocent followers of the Watchtower Organization live with the constant fear that they could lose everything due to some human shortcoming or “failure,” and even lose out on everlasting life itself by being DESTROYED by Jehovah at Armageddon. This fear of not being found worthy at Armageddon and of being destroyed by Jehovah on “the day of His wrath” is a constant threat to the true peace that we were meant to have in Christ. We were taught that we were not of the elite little flock that are supposedly the only ones going to Heaven, but that is another lie! Jesus clearly says at John 10:16 that all of His sheep would become “one flock,” and at Ephesians 4:4 we see that there is only “one faith” and “one hope” — a Heavenly hope!
The fear of Armageddon should no longer frighten us as if we were little children, scared of the dark. We must not be afraid to see what God’s own Word tells us. We must not be frightened by “doctrines of men” designed to deceive us and enslave us. (Galatians 1:6-9; 2:4, 5)
The Scriptures we were taught to use as Jehovah’s Witnesses when we preached the Watchtower’s “good news” concerning the re-establishing of God’s Kingdom had more to do with the nation of Israel and God’s covenant with the Jewish people rather that the real “good news” of Jesus Christ. Also, we need to understand that Jesus did not die to balance some scales of justice so that we would be free to WORK for our salvation, and then HOPE that we would be found good enough to be worthy of Jehovah “sparing us.” That is not what Jesus died for (Galatians 2:21)! Peter referred to the life Jesus gives us as the free gift of God at Acts 8: 20, and let us not forget the eunuch that wanted Phillip to explain to him who Jesus was and what the plan of salvation was all about; once he understood, he wanted to get baptized immediately and then he went “on his way rejoicing” (Acts 8: 26-39)! Now, would the eunuch have gone his way rejoicing if he couldn’t be baptized until he could answer approximately 80 questions on doctrine correction and had to “earn” his hope of salvation through LOYAL efforts to a religious organization? The Watchtower “good news” inserted into the story of the Ethiopian eunuch just doesn’t make any sense at all! Can you see why Armageddon is not for us as Christians to fear? Indeed, this is a Biblical fact!
FOR MORE INFORMATION SEE:
WILL THE “GREAT CROWD” BE ON EARTH WHEN ARMAGEDDON BREAKS OUT?
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1. All Scripture quotes are taking from the Jehovah’s Witness Bible, The New World Translation. Note: Some Bible translations use the term “great multitude” in reference to the “great crowd” at Revelation 7:9.
2. See Revelation 11:19 and 14:17.
3. Note: The Watchtower has suggested several arguments against the simple reading of Revelation 7:15 to try to reconcile their conflicting beliefs about the “great crowd” serving on Earth instead of in Heaven. Learn more by reading the following article: WILL THE “GREAT CROWD” BE ON EARTH WHEN ARMAGEDDON BREAKS OUT?
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