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Sender's name: Stephanie

My husband is starting to go to church with jehovah's witnesses and I know that I was taught differently. They are teaching him that when he dies, he will live forever but will just die and that is it. Also, they tell him that only 144,000 go to heaven. If this is true, then what is the purpose if you are not chosen. Please help

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This comes from the Book of Revelation, which traditional Jehovah's Witness theology does not understand. The genre of Revelation is written in Apocalyptic, which they do not take into account. Let me give you a modern day parallel. If you were to see a political cartoon in the newspaper with a donkey and an elephant in a boxing ring with boxes gloves on facing each other, you would know the message. It is not a literal donkey and elephant, but represent a political battle about to take place. The same sort of thing is happening in Revelation. The numbers and images in Revelation all have symbolic significance. I would recommend you go to the Bible Study outlines portion of this site and look at the introductory notes on the book of Revelation. They will give you a good overview of the meaning behind the symbols, which would have been common knowledge to the original readers of Revelation 2000 years ago. 144,000 is a symbolic number that signifies completeness intensified. In other words, everyone that belongs to God is accounted for.

For more on Jehovah's witnesses and their false teachings, I would recommend the web site: http://www.bible.ca/jw.htm

John Telgren

P.O. Box 452

Leavenworth, KS 66048

Web: epreacher.org/ask

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