In heaven or on earth; which?
Article inspired by research by Isaac Austin
Jehovah’s Witnesses teach and believe that mankind has two possible destinies; heaven or earth. Any faithful men or women who lived and died before the time of Christ will be resurrected to life on earth, where they would still need to prove their faithfulness to Jehovah at the end of Christ’s thousand year reign. Those who live after 33CE can have the chance of eternal life as a king and priest with Christ in heaven. However, only 144,000 Jehovah’s Witnesses since Christ’s death and resurrection will be chosen.
Please consider carefully this text from Matthew 8:11;
But I tell YOU that many from eastern parts and western parts will come and recline at the table with Abraham and Isaac and Jacob in the kingdom of the heavens
The context shows that Jesus was speaking about the great faith shown by an army officer, a non-Jew. You can read several parallel translations of this verse here.
However, notice where Jesus places Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. Are they placed on earth or in heaven? Reason, please, for yourself where Jesus expected to find Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, three men with a proven track record of great faith in God (see Hebrews 11).
To the reasonable reader of Matthew 8:11, we take Jesus Christ, our Chief Agent of Life, at face value. He expects these men of faith to be in heaven and that they will be in the presence of other people of faith, like the army office Jesus was speaking about, people who died after Christ in 33CE.
This is a quote from the Watchtower magazine of 1962 (note; this is one of the very few references to Jesus’ words in Matthew 8:11 to be found in the Watchtower literature);
It is therefore evident that in Matthew 8:11 Jesus referred to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob figuratively. On the occasion when Abraham offered up his son Isaac, Abraham represented Jehovah God and Isaac represented God’s only-begotten Son Jesus Christ, who was offered up in sacrifice. Accordingly Jacob represented the spiritual Christian congregation, the “kingdom of the heavens” class; for, just as the congregation gets life through Jesus Christ, so Jacob got life from Abraham through Isaac. From this standpoint Abraham, Isaac and Jacob mentioned together in Jesus’ illustration would picture the great theocratic government, in which Jehovah is the Great Theocrat, Jesus Christ is his anointed representative King, and the faithful, victorious Christian congregation of 144,000 members is the body of Christ’s joint heirs in the Kingdom.
It is very important that we endeavour to be completely pragmatic about what we’ve read so far. First, we’ve read from God’s perfect and inspired Word, the Bible. Here we find the Word of God himself, Jesus Christ, stating in very clear and easy to understand language that Abraham, Isaac and Jacob will be in heaven. Then we’ve read from the Watchtower magazine where the writers, who admit they are not inspired of God, seem to contradict Jesus by saying Abraham, Isaac and Jacob will not be in heaven, but rather Jesus used those names figuratively.
Without wishing to be dogmatic, does it appear to you that Jesus was speaking in a figurative sense about these faithful men of old? How would those listening to his words have interpreted him? Jesus was speaking about Jewish patriarchs to Jews. When he talked about Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, the Jews listening to Jesus would only ever have understood him to mean 3 men indelibly written into Jewish history and theology. Are we really to believe that Jesus was talking about them figuratively, that what he really meant was the ‘spiritual Christian congregation’, something that didn’t even exist at the time? Jesus came to bring salvation to the Jews. Why would he complicate matters by figuratively referring to a group of Christians who wouldn’t appear until after his death?
Would it not be more simple, realistic and intellectually honest to take Jesus words at face value? Abraham, Isaac and Jacob will be in heaven.
It is so important that we don’t insert our ideology, beliefs, doctrine or opinion into God’s inspired Word of truth (John 17:17). The Holy Spirit is qualified to teach us and lead us into truth (John 14:15-21). We should never contemplate contradicting Jesus’ perfect words as recorded in the Bible. Doing so does him a great dishonour and if we dishonour Jesus, we dishonour Jehovah (John 5:22,23). Read the Bible with an open, receptive mind and ask Jehovah to always lead us into truth with the help of the Holy Spirit.
Further articles on this subject, in particular Hebrews 11:16
Thanks to Isaac Austin for his research into this article.
