Recently I talked to someone I care about who is in the JW group and stated I feel that believing billions of people are going to die when Armegedon comes and only a JWs will survive would be unloving of a god. The response is one that I've also noticed others have experienced. In short the answer is something like the following: "We don't believe that, only Jehovah can read hearts." Why do some respond this way? This is what I'm trying to understand and examine.
So I start by first looking at wol.jw.org to see what the literature has recently said. Consider the following Watchtower quote:
Jehovah has wisely made sure that the “good news of the kingdom” is proclaimed far and wide, in hundreds of languages. People everywhere are being given the opportunity for survival and salvation. (Matthew 24:14; Psalm 37:34; Philippians 2:12) Those who respond favorably to the good news can survive Armageddon and live forever in perfection on a paradise earth. (Ezekiel 18:23, 32; Zephaniah 2:3; Romans 10:13) Is this not what one would expect from a God who is love?—1 John 4:8. 1
Hmm. This statement suggests to me that those that do not respond favorably to the good news that Jehovah's Witnesses preach will not survive Armageddon (the inverse of what they state). Thus, if God destroys them, he is still being loving because he, after all, did warn them.
NOTE: I am aware of the logic fallacy called Denying the Antecedent 2 (or inverse fallacy). However, you will find as you continue reading, that this inverse is indeed what is often taught and believed by Jehovah's Witnesses. If I'm wrong, please correct me and I will happily say my arguemnt here is invalid becuase I then would be Denying the Antecedent. I aim for intellectual honesty!
This has always been problematic for me. I was raised in this religion, but I often thought that had I not been, I probably would never have become one. Why? Likely becuase I would not have taken the religion seriously and probably would not have looked into them. I would likely have not seen them much different than any other non-mainstream religion. In fact, I likely would have been inclined not to gravitate to religion (or spirituality, or metaphysical explanations) at all, favoring scientific explainations for things. I have always wondered, how many people that JWs attempt to preach to feel a similar way (with the not take this religion seriously part, I know many do believe in God). How many really think that not listening means they will die for not responding to the message?
Nonetheless, the article quoted does have the following caveat a few paragraphs earlier:
Only Jehovah is capable of waging a truly just and truly selective war during which righthearted individuals, wherever they may be on earth, will be preserved. (Matthew 24:40, 41; Revelation 7:9, 10, 13, 14) 3
So there is the escape hatch JWs resort to when facing the question: do they believe they are the only ones that will survive Armageddon? I think this is the logic fallacy called Special Pleading 4 . In the link to special pleading it gives the following example:
Yes, I do think that all drunk drivers should go to prison, but your honor, he is my son! He is a good boy who just made a mistake!
Explanation: The mother in this example has applied the rule that all drunk drivers should go to prison. However, due to her emotional attachment to her son, she is fallaciously reasoning that he should be exempt from this rule, because, “he is a good boy who just made a mistake”, which would hardly be considered adequate justification for exclusion from the rule.
Let's change this to use the argument JWs make:
Yes, I do think that all those that respond favorably to the good news will survive Armageddon, it's a loving provision of Jehovah to warn people and give them an oppurtunity to make the steps needed to come to Jehovah's Organization to survive. But wait, I know there must be people out there that truely have a good heart, they just are being mislead, just don't believe what we preach, or have been been turned off to religion and just can't accept any form, etc. Thus, we can't say God won't save these people too as it only makes sense a loving God would.
How does such an emotionally pleading thought have anything to do with the general thought (written or not) of JWs that to survive one must respond favorably to the preaching work of Jehovah's Witnesses (that responding means taking the steps to come to Jehovah's Organization). I've heard it said if someone starts studying and truly is making a conversation when Armageddon/Great Tribulation comes he will survive. I've heard spoken of me (I'm DF'd) that if I repent and turn around and take steps to return but the end comes before I officially get reinstated, that God could still spare me at Armageddon. Basically the thought is one has to be taking steps to come into the organization. This is how one respnods favorably.
If this wasn't a requirement, and a person could get "saved" based on just having being honest-hearted, then why do JWs bother preaching at all? Why view all other religions and those part of them as divinely marked for destruction? Why say lives are at stake? Why say one could be bloodguilty if he doesn't preach? Why do they liken their work to trying to save people out of a burning building? If God could just save people based on his own assement (which the special pleading suggests), why put so much emphasis on the preaching work being the opportunity for survival?
1 "Armageddon—A Happy Beginning?" Watchtower 1 December 2005: 4-7.
2 Bennet, Bo. "Denying the Antecedent." Logically Fallacious. 19 Sept. 2012 <http://www.logicallyfallacious.com/index.php/logical-fallacies/75-denying-the-antecedent>.
3 "Armageddon—A Happy Beginning?" Watchtower 1 December 2005: 4-7.
4 Bennet, Bo. "Special Pleading." Logically Fallacious. 19 Sept. 2012 <http://www.logicallyfallacious.com/index.php/logical-fallacies/164-special-pleading>.