We have seen that Jehovah’s Witnesses hold that unregenerate men and women can exercise faith, live for Jehovah, and even perfect themselves without spiritual rebirth (regeneration). This teaching, of course, denies biblical grace—for if man can do all these, he certainly needs little or no "grace." Clearly, Jehovah’s Witnesses speak of "grace"— but not in a biblical sense. The Jehovah God of the Watchtower is said to be a God of "grace" because without Jesus’ death for our sins, no one would have the opportunity to merit salvation. It should be evident then that the word "grace" for the Watchtower Society simply means the chance to earn one’s own redemption.

Unfortunately, the problem with a salvation dependent on personal worthiness is that it must be maintained by great effort and can so easily be lost if one fails to meet the proper standards. Thus, if the 144,000 do not continue in service, good works, and obedience to the Watchtower Society (which is believed to equal obedience to Jehovah), they will lose their "justification" and become worthy of eternal death. In the following citation, observe how being "justified" (biblically being declared righteous apart from works—Titus 3:5-7) is dependent upon continued works and faithfulness. Obviously then, the 144,000 are not declared righteous by God; they are only given the opportunity to prove themselves righteous by maintaining a favored status before God. Their "present justification" may be lost at any time!

Obviously, this claim to being credited as righteous and having all ones sins forgiven is either not true or not believed by the Watchtower. If it were considered true, there would never be any legal or just basis for Jehovah to annihilate people. Thus, just like the claim to believe in God’s grace is disproved by their emphasis on works, so their claim to believe in justification and full forgiveness of sins (at least for the 144,000) is disproved by their emphasis on the requirement to maintain salvation. Thus, the 144,000 elect are chosen on the basis of their own worthiness, and then must maintain worthiness until death to be insured a spiritual resurrection, finally giving them immortality. The other Witnesses, as we shall see, must also do good works and remain faithful in this life and then both they and the rest of resurrected mankind must later attain sinless perfection if they also are to finally inherit "eternal life" on earth.

The Witness concept of salvation is also related to the ever-approaching "battle of Armageddon," the last great World War prior to the Millennial age of God’s theocratic kingdom. Only Jehovah’s Witnesses are survivors of this Great Tribulation. They will be joined on earth by the resurrected faithful saints² (the 144,000) and later by the resurrected unbelievers. These Witnesses will become the righteous example for the rest of resurrected mankind (the unbelievers, whether good or evil) who now have the opportunity to earn salvation during the millennium. Here we have an irony of sorts. Even the evil people in this life fare better than unfaithful Witnesses—even if the Witnesses had been faithful most their lives. Jehovah’s Witnesses can be faithful for most their lives and still lose their salvation—which relegates them to the "unfaithful" category. All "unfaithful" Jehovah’s Witnesses throughout history were forever annihilated when they died, while the evil unbelievers now get to be resurrected and are offered a second chance for immortality on earth. Obviously, it is preferable to be even an evil person in this life than an "unfaithful" Jehovah’s Witness.

But even faithful Jehovah’s Witnesses are not off the hook. The Watchtower teaches that Jehovah’s Witnesses who survived Armageddon had previously attained righteousness on earth, although not yet perfection. Hence their righteousness only provides them a privileged position in the millennial age. They must still earn their eternal life. The rest of earthly mankind must do the same. Thus, while Jesus and the 144,000 rule from heaven, everyone on earth must now attempt to perfect themselves. For the Jehovah’s Witnesses who survived Armageddon: "Jesus Christ… can do priestly service for them throughout the thousand years of his reign till at last they reach human perfection, if they are willing."³ For the remainder of mankind:

But that’s not all. Even after attaining perfection, no one is yet truly justified or a possessor of eternal life. All must yet pass the test spoken of in Revelation 20:7-9, the test that countless numbers are destined to fail:

According to Revelation 20:7-9, the number of the perfected class who will rebel against God are like the "sand on the seashore"—innumerable people. So, one wonders how these "perfect", "innocent", and "sinless" people could ever rebel against God in the manner spoken of? The answer biblically is because these people of the millennium are still sinners. But the Watchtower teaches that these individuals have sinless perfection and yet still rebel. Clearly, it would seem, this does not offer Witnesses much hope for their eternal future.

Thus, all the heroic efforts a Jehovah’s Witness engages in in this life only secures him a better political position in the New World. His many good works offer him precious little in relation to his spiritual position before God. Along with everyone else, including the wicked, Witnesses with a lifetime of good works and maintaining righteousness must now work even harder toward literal perfection and somehow attain it. Then, they must pass the final test before they can be counted among those with eternal life.

The "second death"—extinction—remains for those who fail the final test. Again, this eternal judgment is applied even though men have attained perfection, but yet somehow rebel against God. However, even from a Witness perspective, it hardly seems just. Although original sin bringing death was canceled by the atonement, perfect men can still die (be annihilated) by their own rebellion:

Here, people spend hundreds and hundreds of years striving and straining to attain sinless perfection during the millennium. Finally, they achieve it—and then find themselves annihilated for one transgression! Besides the fact that by definition perfect, sinless people do not sin, what was the point to all that effort if it could so easily be lost? (If countless people are lost at this point, the transgression itself, whenever it is, cannot be that difficult to fall into.)

Here we find illustrated another Achilles heel of Watchtower salvation—it is so fragile that it can be lost at any point, no matter how heroic the efforts on behalf of salvation up to that point. Of course, if human nature tells us anything, it is that a salvation dependent on us must, in the end, always fail. No one can ever perfect themselves or be good enough to merit God’s acceptance and salvation. Unfortunately, Jehovah’s Witnesses have little understanding of either the depth of human sin that reveals our predicament, or the depth of the grace of God that solves it. Again, sin is too deeply ingrained in our hearts and actions, even our good actions, for us to ever achieve sinless perfection, let alone merit God’s justification.

To be frank, the Watchtower doctrine of salvation leaves much to be desired. What the Watchtower requires of everyone—self-perfection—is an impossible burden to bear. Perhaps this may explain why different studies indicate mental illness among Witnesses is 4-16 times that of the general population—people break down over the strain.⁷ Has anyone in human history ever been able to perfect himself or herself? Has any Jehovah’s Witness ever given proof to the world that he or she has attained sinless perfection? And biblically, can anyone ever please God by good works and their own righteousness? Is there even a single person anywhere who can be considered "good" in God’s eyes? The Bible is clear that there is no one righteous before God as the following Scriptures demonstrate:

So who thinks they can please God and merit salvation by their own good works and personal righteousness? Here is the fundamental problem of Watchtower salvation—it constitutes the worst form of spiritual deception when it holds out to others a salvation they can never attain.

This is a very reason why Christ lovingly died—to make possible as a free gift what we could never earn on our own merits because of the depth of our sinfulness (Rom. 3:10-18). And the glory of God’s free grace is that the salvation once received is forever—it can never be lost.⁸ Again, the reason salvation by works is forever insecure is because it is dependent on what man cannot do. The reason salvation by grace is forever secure is because it is dependent upon what God can (and did) do.

Regrettably then, because even the 144,000 have only "the hope" of being a member of this elite class, the entire Watchtower concept of justification is largely irrelevant, if not worthless. How is someone to know he is justified, if in this life he can, at best, only "hope" it might come true? Unfortunately, no Jehovah’s Witnesses anywhere can have any assurance of their salvation. Former Jehovah’s Witnesses themselves have pointed out the uncertain and tenuous nature of their status before God:

And,

What a contrast with the Gospel— "He who has the Son has life; he who does not have the Son of God does not have life. I write these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God so that you may know that you have eternal life" (1 Jn. 5:12-13). As Jesus Himself emphasized, "I tell you the truth, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life and will not be condemned; he has crossed over from death to life" (Jn. 5:24).

To recapitulate and summarize, we may observe four categories of people. Note again that everyone must earn his or her own salvation:

The "resurrection of life" includes the "first resurrection," which is the resurrection to instantaneous perfection of life, spirit life, in which Jesus himself participated and in which only the 144,000 joint heirs participate with him.¹¹

The way to heavenly life involves more than just faith in Christ’s ransom sacrifice and works of faith in obedience to God’s instructions.¹²

Others who "did good things" in God’s sight and who will share in the "resurrection of life" will be those of the "great crowd" of sheeplike persons who may die before Armageddon; also the faithful witnesses of Jehovah who died before Pentecost A.D. 33…. Their resurrection will be early after Armageddon, because many of these will be made theocratic princes in all parts of the earth.¹³

This includes only resurrected unbelievers (non-Jehovah’s Witnesses). (Again, when the Millennium begins there are only two categories of people: the 144,000 who rule from heaven and the faithful Witnesses, who survived Armageddon. The resurrected unbelievers will join them later in the Millennium.) In the following, note again that the teaching here involves the opportunity for salvation after death. Speaking of the "resurrected" unrighteous we are told that Jesus Christ will provide:

This includes certain categories of people who are forever annihilated at death (they are never resurrected in the first place); the resurrected unjust who fail to attain perfection in the millennium (Jehovah’s Witnesses and non-Jehovah’s Witnesses), as well as all those deceived in the final test, whether faithful ("other sheep") Jehovah’s Witnesses, or non-Jehovah’s Witnesses.

Thus, in Life Everlasting we read, "Jehovah God will justify, declare righteous, on the basis of their own merit all perfected humans who have withstood that final, decisive test of mankind."¹⁷