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Doctrine changes · Claim record

For roughly seventy years the organisation taught that Jesus had sat down as King in 1914 and had been judging people as sheep or goats ever since, with everlasting life or permanent death already being decided.

Claim ID claim-doctrine-chg-sheep-goats-since-1914Concerns 15 October 1995Later reinterpretation
Later reinterpretation · 15 October 1995 Verified

For roughly seventy years the organisation taught that Jesus had sat down as King in 1914 and had been judging people as sheep or goats ever since, with everlasting life or permanent death already being decided. The Watchtower, 15 October 1995

The organisation’s position or later explanation: The organisation states this former teaching in its own words in the article that changed it.

Show the evidence (1 source)
Primary JW publication Verified

The Watchtower, “How Will You Stand Before the Judgment Seat?”

15 October 1995 · p.19 · par. 4 · Watch Tower Bible and Tract Society

“We have long felt that the parable depicted Jesus’ sitting down as King in 1914 and since then making judgments—everlasting life for people proving to be like sheep, permanent death for the goats. But a reconsideration of the parable points to an adjusted understanding of its timing and what it illustrates.”

The organisation states its own previous teaching and announces the change in the same paragraph.

Official source

Provenance and verification note

Confidence note. Document opened on wol.jw.org on 19 September 2026; the wording was read in full and the page number taken from the library's own page markers.

Accessed. 19 September 2026 · Source ID. src-chg-d-w-1995-1015-sheep-goats-adjusted

Claim page

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