The Soul Ceases to Exist at Death
JWs teach that humans do not have an immortal soul. At death, the person ceases to exist entirely — there is no conscious intermediate state, no hell, and no heaven for most believers. The dead are 'asleep,' awaiting a future resurrection on a paradise earth. This denies the biblical teaching of conscious existence after death and the reality of eternal judgment.
If the soul ceases to exist at death, then Jesus' promise to the thief on the cross — 'Today you will be with me in Paradise' () — is meaningless, because neither Jesus nor the thief existed that day. Paul's desire 'to depart and be with Christ, which is far better' () becomes irrational — why prefer non-existence? And the rich man in is conscious in Hades, not annihilated. The Watchtower must rewrite or explain away every passage where the dead are depicted as conscious, which is exactly what the NWT's altered punctuation of attempts to do.