LONG POST

I admit, this may be just to stroke my ego, but my mom sent me an email after I moved (was kicked) out. I told her one of my main problems with jdub's teaching was that 99.9% of the human population would die in Armageddon, and that they had no choice in the matter. Today she sent me this email, in part it reads:

"You say you are not okay with 99% of the population dying. You imply that Jehovah is the cause of their demise. I want to address that scenario.

God is not the one who will kill 99%. The majority will do it to each other, as they are right now. They kill each other over nationalism, racism, tribalism, political ideology and religion. They kill each other over food, gas, oil and gold. Some of them kill for a pair of shoes, a parking spot or because of a perceived insult. There is no end to the excuses that are made to justify the killing. It is violence for violence sake, bloodshed for entertainment on Facebook and You Tube.

They blow each other up, gas and poison each other and drop nuclear hell from the sky. How many have died in the 20th century wars? How many of those did Jehovah kill? ZIP, ZERO, NONE. How many are dying right now? Millions in Iraq alone, and now Syria. Maybe Korea again. Jehovah doing it? - NOPE.

Killing is the choice they are making - escalating on a daily basis until it becomes GREAT tribulation. What will you do to stop them? Become like them, arm up? You fault Jehovah for not stopping them and then demand your right to choose your own life course. So do the murdering hoards. It can't be both ways.

They will continue until there are only those left who refuse to kill. That is when Jehovah HAS to step in - for his name, for his unchangeable purpose, for what's left of the children of Adam and Eve who have tried their darnedest under every kind of hardship only to fall a thousand times and get back up. The meek will inherit the earth. Are you saying you are not okay with that?

No, as one of Jehovah's Witnesses, I am not okay with 99% of the population dying. Neither is Jehovah - hence the ministry. You say it's doing no good? 8 million now, less than 2 million when I got baptized. Except for me, maybe, Witnesses didn't breed their way up to those numbers. Perhaps you think 99% should respond. Even Jesus Christ himself didn't get those kind of numbers. Only 120 showed up at Pentecost, out of a city of over a million." End email.

I've got a few ideas in my head as to what to reply, but I'm a little too emotional to formulate my thoughts. Can any of you help me articulate this? Thanks.

Edited for formatting.

Double edit: Thanks for all the suggestions. Here's what I have so far.

"So, when Jeremiah 25:33 talks about those slain by Jehovah being from one end of the Earth clear to the other, it's not Jehovah who will be doing the killing? Armageddon will not be a man-made disaster. Those billions who die will die by God's hand. 2 Thessolanians 1:8 " As he brings vengeance upon those who do not know God and those who do not obey." And when Jesus gave the illustration about the wheat and the weeds, so many weeds were planted so as to outnumber the wheat 1000-1?

Had the end come in 1975, around 3.8 billion people would've died. Still too many. If the end comes tomorrow, 6.7 billion will die.More people will die now than would have 40 years ago. Go back through the growth percentages in the Yearbooks. Do the math and you'll find that the work has tremendously slowed down.

Because 2 humans challenged God's authority, then he allowed Satan to twist his word so much so as to create thousands of different "false" forms of Christianity. Satan has convinced more people to follow the bible than God has.These people were never asked whether they support God's sovereignty. In fact, if asked, many would say unwaveringly that they are. 30% of the population is Catholic. They firmly believe that they are worshiping the God of the bible in a way that pleases him. But because they were "deceived" they deserve to die at Armageddon? Why make my sole means of direct communication with the human race a book that could be so easily misconstrued?

As for my deserving of death, I'm not talking about Armageddon. Why do we die? Because we sin? Why do we sin? For reasons literally out of our control. We inherited imperfection from Adam. No one can choose not to sin and die. So because of something we have literally no control over, we have to beg for forgiveness just to keep our lives? And we don't even deserve forgiveness for what we have no control over? It's an "undeserved kindness just to be spared death? I've made mistakes, sure, everyone has. But I do not deserve death simply because I've made mistakes. Neither do you. Neither does the lesbian couple who adopts terminally ill children. Neither does the Catholic who firmly believes that she has followed Jesus and been blessed for it her entire life. Billions of humans have grown old, suffered, and died in the last several thousand years all because 3 people, only 2 of which were even human, challenged God's authority?

The funniest thing is, this 6,000 year challenge won't even prove anything! It will prove that imperfect humans, under the influence of Satan, with interference from God, cannot rule themselves. I could still say "What about if we were perfect, and didn't have interference from spirit forces? Maybe humans could rule themselves then?"

And what of the animals? What causes them to age and die? Are they sinful? Satan and the demons are imperfect, why are they still alive? So God's creation isn't perfect? Does the law of sin=death not apply for animals or spirit creatures?"

I know I can find a better ending, but I could really use some feedback.