---
title: 1 John 2:19
url: https://jw-apologetics.app/verses/1-john-2-19/
markdown: https://jw-apologetics.app/verses/1-john-2-19.md
type: verse
perspective: Protestant (historic Nicene) response to Jehovah's Witness teaching
reference: 1 John 2:19
testament: NT
section: Letters
index: https://jw-apologetics.app/llms.txt
---

# 1 John 2:19

## Text (Berean Standard Bible)

> They went out from us, but they did not belong to us. For if they had belonged to us, they would have remained with us. But their departure made it clear that none of them belonged to us.

## JW Usage

This is one of the rs book's load-bearing verses (pp. 32-33). Reasoning From the Scriptures applies "they went out from us, but they were not of our sort" to mainline Christendom — the claim is that the fourth-century church fell away from the first-century true faith, and the Watchtower since 1879 is the restoration. The verse is used to dismiss every Protestant minister before the conversation begins: whoever "went out" is antichrist, and Christendom is the one who went out.

## Protestant Usage

Let John tell you who "they" are rather than importing a sixteen- centuries-later identification. In the same letter John defines his opponents twice — 1 John 4:2-3 ("every spirit that does not confess Jesus Christ as having come in the flesh") and 2 John 7 ("many deceivers have gone forth into the world, persons not confessing Jesus Christ as coming in the flesh"). The "they" of 2:19 are the "many deceivers" of 2 John 7: first-century docetists who denied Jesus took on a real physical body. Mainline Protestant confessions of every tradition affirm that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh, which by the verse's own stated test excludes us from John's category. The movement that actually fits "went out from us" historically is the Watchtower — a 1870s restoration with a brand-new Christology — while mainline Protestant Christology traces through the Reformation to the Nicene Fathers to the apostles. Ask your JW friend to read 1:1, 4:2-3, and 2 John 7 with you, and to say in their own words who "they" are.

## Arguments Using This Verse

- [Antichrist Is Whoever Denies the Son — And Your NWT Knows](https://jw-apologetics.app/arguments/antichrist-christendom-boomerang.md) — 1 John 2:22 / 1 John 4:2 / 1 John 5:20 [Deity of Christ]
- [The Apostasia Watchtower Thesis](https://jw-apologetics.app/arguments/apostasia-watchtower-thesis.md) — 2 Thessalonians 2:3 / 2:15 — The Antidote Was Tradition, Not a Future Restorer [Authority]