JWs and the 144,000

[scooterfanatic]

Just wanted to clear something up I heard about Jehovah's Witnesses on the show a few days ago. I don't get to listen at work so I'm late at getting this. The one guy that called in and said it was like a roster where only the best 144,000 JWs get in had no idea what he was talking about. I was raised a Jehovah's Witness but am no longer one. Here's the real scoop on the 144,000:

JWs believe that 144,000 of a class they call the "annointed" will be the rulers over the earth from heaven after armageddon. The rest of the JWs believe that during Armageddon God is going to kill everyone on earth except for the witnesses, after which the witnesses will turn the entire world into the garden of eden and live forever on that "new earth."

The number 144,000 comes from Revelation 14:1 where it does talk about 12,000 from each tribe of Israel, but the witnesses argue that these are not literal Jews. I don't know why they interpret everything in those verses as figurative except for that number. It doesn't really make much sense. None of what they teach does and that's a big part of why I left.

[plungerhand]

Soooo, this isn't a sign up sheet??? DAMMIT

[scooterfanatic]

Soooo, this isn't a sign up sheet??? DAMMIT

Nope, sorry. Pretty much all you have to do though is get baptized as a Jehovah's Witness (it's really easy, study for a while then they ask you three sets of questions from a book that actually gives you the answers. All you gotta do is paraphrase them reasonably well), and then after a while, just claim you're "annointed" and start drinking the wine and eating the bread at the passover thing they have every year. Most of them won't believe you, but they won't challenge you on it, either.