The Watchtower of 1 June 1973 ruled that baptised Witnesses who would not give up tobacco “should therefore be removed from the congregation”, and that people still using tobacco did not qualify for baptism.
Claim ID claim-doctrine-chg-tobacco-1973Concerns 1 June 1973Explicit statement
The Watchtower of 1 June 1973 ruled that baptised Witnesses who would not give up tobacco “should therefore be removed from the congregation”, and that people still using tobacco did not qualify for baptism. Source: The Watchtower, 1 June 1973Source: God’s Kingdom Rules!, 2014
The organisation’s position or later explanation: The organisation calls the 1973 decision “a further moral refinement” and acknowledges that those who refused “were to be disfellowshipped”.
1 June 1973 · p.341 · par. 24 · Watch Tower Bible and Tract Society
“If persons already baptized are not willing to abandon their addiction to damaging and enslaving products, what then? Then they show that, like Esau, they do not ‘appreciate sacred things,’ preferring such habits to the privilege of being part of Jehovah’s clean people. They should therefore be removed from the congregation due to such conduct unbecoming a Christian.”
The article that made tobacco use a ground for removal from the congregation, arguing from the Greek word pharmakia that tobacco belongs with addictive drugs, and also barring unbaptised smokers from baptism.
Provenance and verification note for The Watchtower, Keeping God’s Congregation Clean in the Time of His Judgment
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-1973-0601-tobacco-removed
2014 · p.112 · chap. 11, par. 13 · Watch Tower Bible and Tract Society
“In 1935, The Watchtower called tobacco “the filthy weed” and noted that no one who chose to chew it or smoke it could remain a member of the Bethel family or serve as a representative of God’s organization in the pioneer work or the traveling ministry. In 1973 a further moral refinement came. … Those who refused to give up the misuse of tobacco were to be disfellowshipped.”
The organisation's own account: before 1973 tobacco disqualified a person from headquarters service, pioneering and the travelling ministry, but not from membership.
Provenance and verification note for God’s Kingdom Rules!, Moral Refinements—Reflecting God’s Holiness
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-kr-2014-ch11-tobacco
A direct link to this claim is https://jwtruth.org/evidence/claim-doctrine-chg-tobacco-1973/. Every source above opens the original document or the best available copy. If you believe the wording, date or context is wrong, report an error.