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In part 2 we centered around what paradise earth will be like for Armageddon survivors. In part 3 we would like to discuss the final test ahead for mankind according to the Watchtower. After the 1,000 years is over and all have perfect bodies, including the survivors of Armageddon, the Watchtower says that there will be a final test for everyone. Only the survivors of that final test will receive eternal life. The Society also says that many will fail the test including an indeterminate number of the Armageddon survivors who have worked hard for 1,000 years to prove themselves worthy. In the Watchtower religion there is no guarantee at any time that you are accepted by God, no guarantee that you will be a survivor. A Jehovah's Witness can be disapproved before Armageddon, anytime during the 1,000 years or at the end of the millennium. A Jehovah's Witness never has the assurance that they are good enough to make it. Does the Bible give any qualifications and assurances that one can be a survivor? The Bible gives very simple instructions on how to be a survivor. Survivors will be those who are born again. 1 John 5:4 says "for everyone born of God overcomes the world..." Who are those that are born of God and overcome the world? 1 John 5:5 says "Who is it that overcomes the world? Only he who believes that Jesus is the Son of God." For one to be a survivor and enter into God's Kingdom it is imperative that one must be born again and put their faith in Jesus alone as the Son of God. How can one be born again? John 3:1-18 gives the story of Nicodemus, a very religious man, who came to Jesus at night. He was a member of the Jewish ruling council yet had no assurance that he was good enough to be approved by God. Since the Jews had made confessing that Jesus is the Christ a crime punishable by disfellowshiping (see John 9:22), Nicodemus came secretly at night in order to not be observed talking to Jesus. When Nicodemus confessed to Jesus that he believed that Jesus had come from God, Jesus told Nicodemus that the only way of survival into God's kingdom was to be born again. Nicodemus was dismayed for if the only way of survival into God's kingdom was by being born again, how could he ever qualify? How could he as a grown man enter back into his mother's womb to be born again? Jesus replied that Nicodemus' first birth was a natural, fleshly birth, but a second birth, a spiritual rebirth was needed. This new birth, this spiritual birth would come as a result of believing in and trusting in Jesus. Jesus said, "Just as Moses lifted up the snake in the desert, so the Son of Man must be lifted up, that everyone who believes in him may have eternal life. For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him. Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because he has not believed in the name of God's one and only Son." John 3:14-18. Everyone that is not born again will be condemned. Those who are condemned will not survive into the kingdom of God. Only those who have been born again by God's spirit, those who trust in Jesus alone to save them will survive. The survivors, those who overcome the world, are given the right to eat from the tree of life, (Rev 2:7) they will never be hurt by the second death (Rev 2:11), they will never have their name blotted out from the book of life (Rev. 3:5) they will inherit everything (Rev 21:7) Are you a survivor? |
