Jehovah’s Witnesses—Proclaimers of God’s Kingdom, “Chapter 13: Recognized by Our Conduct”
“As a further forward step in consistent application of that Bible counsel, none who were still smoking were accepted for baptism from 1973 onward. During the following months, those who were actively involved in tobacco production or in promoting the sale of tobacco were helped to realize that they could not continue to do that and be accepted as Jehovah’s Witnesses.”
The organisation’s own history recounts that The Watchtower of 1 March 1935 barred tobacco users from the headquarters staff and from appointed representative work, that the 1 July 1942 issue extended the prohibition to all appointed servants, and that the 1973 change applied it to every baptised member.
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Hinweis zu Herkunft und Überprüfung for Jehovah’s Witnesses—Proclaimers of God’s Kingdom, Chapter 13: Recognized by Our Conduct
Hinweis zur Vertrauensangabe. Chapter opened on the Watchtower Online Library on 19 September 2026. The quoted paragraph sits between the page 181 and page 182 markers; the chapter runs pp. 172-187. The 1935 and 1942 Watchtower issues themselves were not opened and are recorded here only as the organisation describes them.
Untermauert durch. src-chg-p-kr-2014-ch11-tobacco
Notes. Note the chronology: appointed men from 1935 and 1942, everyone from 1973.
Abgerufen. 19. September 2026 · Quellenkennung. src-chg-p-jv-1993-ch13-tobacco