The Watchtower, ““Seek Peace and Pursue It””
“The Scriptures, backed up by the modern-day experience of Jehovah’s Witnesses, make it plain that it is inadvisable for individual Christians to carry, or have in their possession at home or in other locations, a firearm or other lethal weapon for use against human attackers or intruders. … Anyone who thus continues to carry personal arms or otherwise equips himself to become “a smiter” would cease to qualify for special privileges in the congregation.”
The article deals with firearms, the martial arts and armed employment. It says ‘most of Jehovah’s Witnesses avoid such employment’ but treats the employment question itself as a personal decision.
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Provenance and verification note for The Watchtower, “Seek Peace and Pursue It”
Confidence note. Article opened on the Watchtower Online Library on 19 September 2026. Paragraph 11 sits before the page 25 marker and paragraph 16 after it; the article runs pp. 21-26. The two quoted passages are paragraphs 11 and 16, joined here by an ellipsis.
Corroborated by. src-chg-p-w-2005-1101-qfr-armed-employment
Notes. Recorded because the organisation’s own index lists this article under the year 1983 with the entry ‘guns, violence: w83 7/15 25’. The wording that stood before 1983 was not located, so no comparison pair is offered.
Accessed. 19 September 2026 · Source ID. src-chg-p-w-1983-0715-seek-peace-firearms