Many Witness arguments begin with a mis-representation of what Christians actually believe.

Witnesses claim that God never even thought to use fire against people. Scripture shows that God already used fire in past judgments.

Witnesses would have you believe that a loving God is incapable of extreme wrath.

If Hell is not a place of eternal conscious torment, then it would be impossible for God to judge sinners according to their deeds.

Understand the context in which a verse is quoted.

The fact that Jesus took his own life back after he died is proof that his consciousness did not cease to exist.

Differences Between Jehovah Witnesses and Christians
Jehovah Witnesses do not believe in Hell as Evangelical Christianity understands it. Evangelicals believe that the unsaved are punished eternally and are consciously aware of their punishment.  Jehovah Witnesses believe that Hell is a figure of speech representative of the final destruction of the wicked. When the wicked are destroyed, the Witness believes, they will no longer be conscious of their punishment.  This view is often referred to an annihilationism—the view that sinners are destroyed and cease to exist rather than continue to consciously exist in their eternal punishment.  It is a belief Jehovah Witnesses share in common with some more orthodox Christian denominations such as Seventh Day Adventists.  The founder of of Jehovah Witnesses, Charles Taze Russell, was a former member of the Seventh Day Adventist movement, and is likely to have arrived at this doctrine through the church's influence.  But the modern Jehovah Witnesses movement claims to base its Hell doctrines on Scripture. 

When dealing with Jehovah Witnesses, the reader should know that Jehovah Witnesses do not properly understand what Evangelical Christianity believes about Hell.  In their book Reasoning From the Scriptures, the writers state (p. 169)

...in both Christendomand in many non-Christian religions it is taught that hell is a place inhabited by demons where the wicked, after death, are punished (and some believe this is with torment).

What the writer above has correct is that Evangelicals believe Hell is a place of eternal torment.  Evangelicals do not believe that Hell "is a place inhabited by demons." Rather, Hell is a place of punishment for demons.  Satan, the prince of demons, is thrown into Hell ("the Lake of Fire" Revelation 20:10); he is not lording over Hell. As you read through the following Jehovah Witnesses quotations, pay close attention to how often they misrepresent the beliefs of Evangelicals and the evidence that supports them.

Most Jehovah Witnesses arguments against Hell tend to revolve around the following kinds of arguments

1. How could a loving God eternally punish the wicked for a finite period of sin?
This style of argument is found in the Jehovah Witnesses publication Reasoning from the Scriptures (p. 174)

Is eternal torment of the wicked compatible with God's personality?
    Jer. 7:31: "They [apostate Judeans] have built the high places of Topheth, which is in the valley of the son of Hinnom, in order to burn their sons and their daughters in the fire, a thing that I had not commanded and that had not come up into my heart." (If it never came into God's heart, surely he does not have and use such a thing on a larger scale.)
    Illustration: What would you think of a parent who held his child hand over a fire to punish the child for wrong-doing? "God is love." (1 John 4:8)  Would he do what no right-minded human parent would do?  Certainly not!

Jehovah Witnesses would like you to believe that God "never" thought to have anyone burned in fire under any circumstances. But what "never" entered into God's mind is that parents, who were supposed to protect their children, would be the very ones to burn their children alive to foreign gods. This Jehovah Witnesses argument is an example of framing the facts in order to force a conclusion without reviewing all the evidence.^[1]  Contrary to what Jehovah Witnesses would have you believe, fire was used in many of God's judgments: Aaron's sons, Nadab and Abihu, were burned alive by God for using unauthorized fire in the tabernacle (Leviticus 10:1-2); If a man married both a woman and her mother, he was to be burned in the fire (Leviticus 20:14); If a priest's daughter became a prostitute, she was to be burned in the fire (Leviticus 21:9).  All of these punishments incorporated the unspeakably horrific death by fire that God himself commanded the Israelites to carry out.  The reason for these punishments was so that no wickedness would be among God's chosen and holy people (Leviticus 20:14b).  God abhors evil so much, that his abhorrence became the basis of such harsh punishments. 

As to why God would punish people eternally for a short time of evil, if God is eternally minded in regards to rewards and punishment, it should not surprise us that his punishments are both severe and eternal. Hell is both severe and eternal—"the Lake of Fire" that burns "for ever and ever" (Revelation 20:10-15).  It can easily be argued that Hell perfectly represents the personality of God in his zeal to punish the wicked. 

2. God is love
The most often used trump card in the debate about Hell is that "God is love" (1 John 4:8). Since God loves, the argument goes, he couldn't possibly wish to torment those he loves...especially not in Hell!  Notice how this argument appears in the Witness publication, Reasoning from the Scriptures (p. 174)

Illustration: What would you think of a parent who held his child hand over a fire to punish the child for wrong-doing? "God is love." (1 John 4:8)  Would he do what no right-minded human parent would do?  Certainly not!

Again, God's nature is not accurately represented. Does God ever hate people?  The answer is yes. A quick survey of the following verses will demonstrate this:

You must not live according to the customs of the nations I am going to drive out before you. Because they did all these things, I abhorred [hate] them.
Leviticus 20:23

The arrogant cannot stand in your presence; you hate all who do wrong.
Psalm 5:5

The LORD examines the righteous, but the wicked and those who love violence his soul hates.
Psalm 11:5

There are six things the LORD hates, seven that are detestable to him: haughty eyes, a lying tongue, hands that shed innocent blood, a heart that devises wicked schemes, feet that are quick to rush into evil, a false witness who pours out lies and a man who stirs up dissension among brothers.
Proverbs 6:16-19

Because of all their wickedness in Gilgal, I hated them there. Because of their sinful deeds, I will drive them out of my house. I will no longer love them; all their leaders are rebellious.
Hosea 9:15

While it is true that God would never send those he loves into Hell, he does send those he hates to Hell. God's love is unconditional to the saved, yet this love it applies only to those who are saved and to those who are yet to be saved for which Christ died, but it does not apply to those who have died unrepentant and unsaved.

Think of the disproportionate justice that would occur if men like Hitler, who never knew the kinds of suffering many Jews endured, were punished with simple annihilation.  The annihilationist viewpoint allows such men to escape suffering the same kind of grief they inflicted upon others.  In short, annihilationism offers no proportional justice in these situations.  Annihilationism is a one-size-fits-all judgment that does not allow for people to be judge in proportion to the sins they have committed.  Contrary to Jehovah Witness theology, the judgments of God are not one-size-fits-all. According the Scripture, some people are punished with a greater punishment than others for precisely the reason that God judges sinners "according to what they had done" (Revelation 20:12). From those who know better and still sin, a greater punishment is required. Hell will not be entirely the same for everyone.  Jesus explained in Luke 12:46-48

That servant who knows his master's will and does not get ready or does not do what his master wants will be beaten with many blows. But the one who does not know and does things deserving punishment will be beaten with few blows. From everyone who has been given much, much will be demanded; and from the one who has been entrusted with much, much more will be asked.

If all the wicked are to be annihilated, how can one receive "many blows" while the other a "few blows"?  In order for justice to be proportional there can be no annihilation of the wicked.  It is true that God is love, but his love is not contrary to punishment of the wicked.  The wrath of God is a demonstration of the love God has for the Church.  Out of love for his own, God will repay those to bring harm upon the Church.  In fact, just knowing that God repays the wicked allows us to endure hardships without seeking revenge.  Paul writes

Do not take revenge, my friends, but leave room for God's wrath, for it is written: "It is mine to avenge; I will repay," says the Lord.
Romans 12:19

The proper understanding of Hell brings hope and perseverance—we endure hardship knowing that God will judge rightly (1 Peter 2:21-23).  The wrath of God is a demonstration of his justice to those who belong to him. Paul made this point when he wrote

What if God, choosing to show his wrath and make his power known, bore with great patience the objects of his wrath—prepared for destruction? What if he did this to make the riches of his glory known to the objects of his mercy, whom he prepared in advance for glory— even us, whom he also called, not only from the Jews but also from the Gentiles?
Romans 9:22-24

I have personally been able to encourage victims of abuse to endure patiently through hardships by sharing the knowledge that God will repay those who abuse them. Often the abused ask, "Why should I have to be the only one doing good when no one else is doing what is right?"  To remind them that God does not let the wickedness of their abusers go unpunished brings great joy and patience through hard times. The author of Ecclesiastes understood this, reminding people that while from our perspective "under the sun" the wicked appear to succeed, there is a God who will judge men in the end (Ecclesiastes 12:13-14).  The doctrine of Hell is a manifestation of God's love for those who endure patiently and allow God to avenge the wickedness of the unsaved.

3. The Bible says the dead know nothing
If there is one passage that has stumped the unprepared more than any other it's Ecclesiastes 9:5-10.  Witnesses use it prolifically in support of their belief that once a person dies, they cease to have any conscious existence. The passage reads

 For the living know that they will die, but the dead know nothing; they have no further reward, and even the memory of them is forgotten.
  Their love, their hate and their jealousy have long since vanished; never again will they have a part in anything that happens under the sun.
  Go, eat your food with gladness, and drink your wine with a joyful heart, for it is now that God favors what you do. Always be clothed in white, and always anoint your head with oil. Enjoy life with your wife, whom you love, all the days of this meaningless life that God has given you under the sun— all your meaningless days. For this is your lot in life and in your toilsome labor under the sun. Whatever your hand finds to do, do it with all your might, for in the grave, where you are going, there is neither working nor planning nor knowledge nor wisdom.

The Witness publication Reasoning from the Scriptures (p. 169) argues

Does the Bible indicate whether the dead experience pain?
  Eccl. 9:5, 10: "The living are conscious that they will die; but as for the dead, they are conscious of nothing at all...All that your hand finds to do, do with your very power, for there is no work nor devising nor knowledge nor wisdom in Sheol,* the place to which you are going." (If they are conscious of nothing, they obviously feel no pain.) (*"Sheol," AS, RS, NE, JB; "the grave," KJ, Kx; "hell," Dy; "the world of the dead," TEV.)

A quick word about context. Ecclesiastes is written about the futility of life as seen from the perspective of "under the sun." The expression "under the sun" is found about 25 times throughout the book.  A list of references is as follows:  1:3, 9, 14; 2:11, 17, 18, 19, 20, 22; 3:16;  4:1, 3, 7, 15; 5:13, 18; 6:1, 12; 8:9, 15, 17; 9:3, 6, 11, 13; 10:5.  The point of the entire book is to teach the reader how meaningless life seems when you only saw things from the perspective of man without God. Solomon himself states, "No one can comprehend what goes on under the sun.  Despite all his efforts to search it out, man cannot discover all its meaning." (Ecclesiastes 8:17)  Verse 9:5 is right in the middle of intentionally false statements about life as perceived by the man without God.  Within the immediate context of Ecclesiastes 9:5, the following false statements are found

In verse 9:3
"This is the evil in everything that happens under the sun: The same destiny overtakes all."

In verse 9:6
"...never again will they have a part in anything that happens under the sun."

In verse 9:9
"...all the days of this meaningless life that God has given you under the sun— all your meaningless days. For this is your lot in life and in your toilsome labor under the sun."

In verse 9:11
"I have seen something else under the sun:
The race is not to the swift
or the battle to the strong,
nor does food come to the wise
or wealth to the brilliant
or favor to the learned;
but time and chance happen to them all."

Every other statement in this passage is written to illustrate hopelessness from our perspective "under the sun." To quote 9:5 as authoritative pertaining to the afterlife, when everything around it is written in a sarcastic manner is poor biblical interpretation.  The statements are intentionally false in order to make the point of how life without God has no meaning.  One of those statements, the one Witnesses quote as truth, is verse 9:5—"the dead know nothing."  Yet opposite of what the Witness believes, verse 9:5 was to be understood as intentionally false. Solomon, who wrote this book, was quite aware that nothing happens by chance or without purpose. In Proverbs he wrote "Many are the plans in a man's heart, but it is the Lord's purpose that prevails" (Proverbs 19:21).  Did Solomon really believe that time and chance happen to everyone, or was he making another point—that life without God in the picture seems pointless?

It is easier to believe that if the surrounding statements are false, then Ecclesiastes 9:5 is also false for the purpose of showing how meaningless life appeared without God.  The way Witnesses interpret this verse is a perfect example of how careful one must be when dealing with context and the intentions of the author.  Hunt and peck selections of verses can be misleading.  For example, one verse from the Bible reads, "[Judas] went away and hung himself" (Matthew 27:5) and another reads "Go and do likewise" (Luke 10:37).  If we haphazardly duct taped verses with no regard for context the same way Witnesses do, we could come up with all kinds of false teachings!  It's no wonder why so many people say, "You can make the bible say anything."  Theology applied in this manner is no more sophisticated than the kidnapper who clips out letters from a newspaper to make his demands letter say what he wants.

Other ways to test Jehovah Witness theology regarding death is to ask

(1) Does this belief force me to ignore or disregard other Biblical evidence?
(2) Does this belief contradict other passages?
(3) Am I framing the facts in a way that fully represents all available evidence?

If death means the cessation of conscious existence, how could Christ make the following claim?

 "No one has taken it away from Me, but I lay it down on My own initiative I have authority to lay it down, and I have authority to take it up again. This commandment I received from My Father."
John 10:18

How does Jesus take his own life back if his death means he ceased to have some form of existence after death?  If the Witness claim about death is true, then what Jesus says here has no meaning. Yet the fact that Jesus had the ability to take his life back implies his conscious activity in doing so while his spirit was still separated from the body.  Then there is Judas--Jesus says of him

"The Son of Man will go just as it is written about him. But woe to that man who betrays the Son of Man! It would be better for him if he had not been born."
Matthew 26:24

If death means cessation of existence as Witnesses claim, why would it be better for Judas if he had not been born. If death means annihilation of the person, then Judas was returning to the same state he was in before being born.

For those who are saved, Paul speaks of death as preferable.

"Therefore, being always of good courage, and knowing that while we are at home in the body we are absent from the Lord—for we walk by faith, not by sight—we are of good courage, I say, and prefer rather to be absent from the body and to be at home with the Lord.
2 Corinthians 5:6-8

What else is Paul talking about if he is not referring to the spirit leaving the body and going home to be with the Lord. If we cease to have conscious existence upon death, why would we look forward to this? There must be a surviving spirit.

Revelation also tells of people who have died and whose spirits have traveled to Heaven to await the completion of God's judgment upon the earth in the final days.

 "When the Lamb broke the fifth seal, I saw underneath the altar the souls of those who had been slain because of the word of God, and because of the testimony which they had maintained; and they cried out with a loud voice, saying, 'How long, O Lord, holy and true, will You refrain from judging and avenging our blood on those who dwell on the earth?'

"And there was given to each of them a white robe; and they were told that they should rest for a little while longer, until the number of their fellow servants and their brethren who were to be killed even as they had been, would be completed also."
Revelation 6:9-11

Those "who had been slain" are "underneath the altar" are clearly without their bodies before God in heaven. Notice that they are given "white robes" because they were martyred. Similarly in Revelation 7 (below), "a great multitude" (beyond the 144,000 that Witnesses say will belong in Heaven) is "standing before the throne and the Lamb" in heaven wearing "white robes."

After these things I looked, and behold, a great multitude which no one could count, from every nation and all tribes and peoples and tongues, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed in white robes, and palm branches were in their hands; and they cry out with a loud voice, saying, "Salvation to our God who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb."

And all the angels were standing around the throne and around the elders and the four living creatures; and they fell on their faces before the throne and worshiped God, saying, "Amen, blessing and glory and wisdom and thanksgiving and honor and power and might, be to our God forever and ever Amen."

Then one of the elders answered, saying to me, "These who are clothed in the white robes, who are they, and where have they come from?"

I said to him, "My lord, you know." And he said to me, "These are the ones who come out of the great tribulation, and they have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb. "For this reason, they are before the throne of God; and they serve Him day and night in His temple; and He who sits on the throne will spread His tabernacle over them.
Revelation 7:9-15

Notice that this great multitude is both (a) dead and (b) standing before the throne of God which is in Heaven. If death means that people cease to be conscious, how is it that they "serve [God] day and night in His temple"?  Witnesses offer the following argument to dismiss that the "great multitude" (which they term "great crowd") is literally in Heaven. The Witness publication Reasoning from the Scriptures (p. 167) argues

Do those of the "great crowd" referred to at Revelation 7:9, 10 also go to heaven?
    Revelation does not say of them, as it does of the 144,000, that they are "bought from the earth" to be with Christ on heavenly Mount Zion.--Rev. 14:1-3.
    The description of them as "standing before the throne and before the Lamb" indicates, not necessarily a location, but an approved condition. (Compare Revelation 6:17; Luke 21:36.)  The expression "before the throne" (Greek, e-no'pi-on tou thro'nou; literally, "in sight of the throne") does not require that they be in heaven.  Their position is simply "in sight" of God, who tells us that from heaven he beholds the sons of men.--Ps. 11:4; compare Matthew 25:31-33; Luke 1:74, 75; Acts 10:33.

In the argument above, the Witness appears to have overlooked that those in "white robes" are those "who had been slain because of the word of God" in the previous chapter (Revelation 6:9). The Witness has no objection to seeing Revelation 6:9-11 as actual conscious living beings in Heaven since in one of their very own publications, Revelation Its Grand Climax At Hand!, they write (pp. 102-103)

...they [the souls in Revelation 6:9] are raised to be part of the group of 24 elders that worship before the heavenly throne of God.  There, they are before the heavenly throne of God.

Those people died and must have been conscious during death because of their ability to ask the question, "How long, Sovereign Lord, holy and true, until you judge the inhabitants of the earth and avenge our blood?" (Revelation 6:10)  Similarly, the great crowd of people are also wearing white robes and said to be "before the throne" of God. 

The author above also argues from the "not necessarily" position to making the following positive statement--standing "before the throne" is "not necessarily a location, but an approved condition."  This is like trying to argue that the statement "I am to your left" does not necessarily mean a literal left because the word left can also be used to mean a state of being like "left behind" or "left all alone." No explanation is given as to why we must understand the Greek to mean "an approved condition" rather than a literal location, it's simply thrown out as fact. By contrast, true Greek scholars are trained to look at the intended meaning of a preposition as the context demands or affects its meaning.  Some meanings of words in the Greek can be affected by (a) context, (b) case of surrounding nouns (object of the preposition, in this case), (c) declension, (d) etc.  The meaning that makes the most sense is always to be preferred. The author above argues that the Greek words for "standing before" literally mean "in sight of the throne". Yet in Greek, when discussing prepositions no one ever says, "this preposition literally means such and such."  Instead scholars look at the context of a prepositions use to find grammatical clues as to its intended meaning.  For example, the Greek word dia can mean either "through" or "by means of" or "because of".  No Greek scholar ever says, "dia literally means through."  The reason is because the intended meaning of the word must first be discovered through the grammar of the sentence and the context.  In the same way, we in English cannot say that the word "right" literally means "to the right side of" because it can also mean "correct."  The word "right" changes meaning based on its grammar and context--"you are right!" or "stand to the right of that tree."  Can the Greek word "e-no'pi-on" mean "in sight of" as the author above alleges?  Yes.  But the question isn't whether it can have that meaning, but whether the author of Revelation intended it to mean "in sight of".  The answer is no.  The reason comes in a few ways, but is very easy to explain.  First, the great crowd isn't the only one said to be "before the throne" (e-no'pi-on tou thro'nou), the following are also said to be "before the throne" in Revelation 7:11:  (a) The four living creatures and (b) the twenty four elders. These figures are mentioned starting from Chapter 4 on and never once is there any doubt as to their physical location--they are "in heaven."  In fact, ever since Revelation 4:1 John is taken up to heaven. John said that "in heaven" he saw "twenty four elders" (4:2-4) and "four living creatures" (4:6).  After John sees the great multitude "before the throne" (7:9) he also sees the elders and living creatures "before the throne" (e-no'pi-on tou thro'nou).  These same elders earlier are said to "lay their crowns before the throne [e-no'pi-on tou thro'nou]" (4:10)  In each of these locations, the expression "before the throne" refers to a physical location "in heaven" (4:2).  Why when it comes to the great multitude ("great crowd" NWT) does it change meaning to mean "approved condition"?  It doesn't.  Just as "before the throne" has been used by John to denote a physical nearness to God in heaven for the four creatures and twenty four elders, it also means that the great crowd are literally in heaven standing before God. Never is there any indication that "approved condition" is intended, the Jehovah's Witness author above is simply applying a conveniently fabricated "rule" that fits his theological viewpoint.

The other reason we can strongly suspect that "before the throne" refers to a physical location is because the Greek word "before" occurs in conjunction with nouns of the genitive case.  In short, this is a grammatical clue to scholars that the preposition e-no'pi-on is to be understood that way. It's first-year Greek grammar. The surprising lack of such an explanation in Witness literature is further evidence that we are not reading the work of a real Greek scholar.  This rule is so well known that it appears in the most popular textbook for first year students in Biblical Greek.  In Dr. William Mounce's first year Biblical Greek textbook, Basics of Biblical Greek Grammar, we read in the opening page of chapter 8 (p. 56), "In Greek, the meaning of a preposition depends upon the case of its object."  The sentence occurs italicized in its original context and is the first entirely italicized sentence of this chapter.  Why?  Because it is the very first and most important rule any Biblical Greek student is going to learn about prepositions. It is what you first hear, first practice and first memorize about each preposition.  

Mentioning Greek words, is a common tactic Witness authors employ. It leaves the impression that the reader is dealing with fully qualified Greek scholars who know what they are talking about. It is necessary to mention at this point that Jehovah Witnesses have no Greek scholars.  Often you will hear a Witness state, "We have true Greek scholars," but when asked to produce names of individuals with their academic qualifications, none are ever forthcoming.  By contrast, Evangelical Greek scholars are well known and have formal training from reputable universities.  Names like Dr. Bruce Metzger, Dr. Dan Wallace or Dr. William Mounce are easily recognized among Christian academics and are easy to produce.  The failure of Witnesses to produce actual Greek scholars from among their ranks has been a problem since their inception. Charles Taze Russell, the founder of the Jehovah's Witness movement, was found to possess no translation abilities when tested in court.  Former Witness president, Frederick William Franz, also failed to demonstrate the ability to translate Hebrew when questioned in court (a language he claimed to have the ability to translate!)  Franz is claimed to have had formal training in Biblical Greek, but the source of this appears to only exist in the Jehovah's Witness publication Jehovah's Witnesses - Proclaimers of God's Kingdom (chapter 9). Other sources, listed in the notes below, cast significant doubt on his training.^[2] The following are a quick compilation of diverse links related to this topic confirm the same facts I have mentioned above

http://www.letusreason.org/JW39.htm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Taze_Russell
http://www.watchman.org/jw/jwcourt.htm
http://www.freeminds.org/history/NWTauthors.htm
http://www.cephasministry.com/jw_facts.html

4. Death can't involve a conscious spirit leaving the body because the Bible says that not even King David went to Heaven.  Death only means that a person ceases to be conscious of anything.  If this is true, how can unconscious people go to Hell and be tormented?
This is another very common argument Witnesses use.  If David was God's chosen king and a righteous man, why didn't he go to Heaven? The argument is found in Reasoning from the Scriptures (p. 162)

Do all good people go to heaven?
    Acts 2:34: "Dave [whom the Bible refers to as being 'a man agreeable to Jehovah's heart'] did not ascend to the heavens."

The point the Witness author above is trying to make is that the spirit does not survive the death of a person as a conscious entity of any kind.  This is why David, the Witness argues, did not go to heaven because he ceased to be a conscious living being.  The Acts 2:34 argument is another perfect example of how Witnesses use verses with no regard for context.  To begin with, let's review the larger context of what Peter was saying in Acts 2:22-36

²⁵David said about him:

         'I saw the Lord always before me,
         Because he is at my right hand
         I will not be shaken.
    ²⁶Therefore, my heart is glad and my tongue rejoices;
         my body also will live in hope,  
    ²⁷because you will not abandon me to the grave,
         nor will you let your Holy One see decay.
    ²⁸You have made known to me the paths of life;
         you will fill me with joy in your presence.' 

²⁹"Brothers, I can tell you confidently that the patriarch David died and was buried, and his tomb is here to this day. ³⁰But he was a prophet and knew that God had promised him on oath that he would place one of his descendants on his throne. ³¹Seeing what was ahead, he spoke of the resurrection of the Christ, that he was not abandoned to the grave, nor did his body see decay. ³²God has raised this Jesus to life, and we are all witnesses of the fact. ³³Exalted to the right hand of God, he has received from the Father the promised Holy Spirit and has poured out what you now see and hear. ³⁴For David did not ascend to heaven, and yet he said,
 
        " 'The Lord said to my Lord:
        "Sit at my right hand
    ³⁵until I make your enemies
         a footstool for your feet." '

³⁶"Therefore let all Israel be assured of this: God has made this Jesus, whom you crucified, both Lord and Christ."

If we read the entire passage, the emphasis is on two facts about the Christ

(1) That the soul (Greek: psukes) of the Christ was not abandoned in "the
     grave" (Greek: Hades) and
(2) That the body of the Christ would not see decay

Peter points out that "David died and was buried, and his tomb is here to this day." (vs. 29)  Many Jews thought that the passage Peter quoted from Psalms referred to David, but it clearly could not.  If it did refer to David, why was his body still in the grave?  Peter offered this explanation: "Seeing what was ahead, [David] spoke of the resurrection of the Christ, that he was not abandoned to the grave [Greek: Hades], nor did his body see decay.  God raised this Jesus to life, and we are all witnesses of the fact." (vss. 31-32)  The Psalms did not refer to David, but was a prophecy concerning the Christ who rose from the dead.  Only after this explanation Peter says, "For David did not ascend to heaven, and yet he said..." (vs. 34)  What did Peter mean by the word "ascend"?  Up to this point, Peter has been making the contrast between David who (1) has died and is still buried and (2) whose body has undergone corruption and Jesus who (1) has died but has come back to life and (2) whose body has been resurrected.  It was in this bodily form that Jesus ascended into heaven.  This David did not do.  So when Peter says, "David did not ascend to heaven" he was further emphasizing his earlier point that that David was still dead and his body was in the grave.

The passage quoted above has so far been from the NIV.  Looking at verses 27 and 31 in the Greek, we observe some words the NIV leaves improperly translated.  Verse 27 should read, "...you will not abandon my soul in Hades." (see more technical translations such as NASB, ESV)  Even the Witness own Bible (the NWT, which is not a real translation, but was copied from the RSV) has the more proper translation of "soul in Hades".  This is an important distinction from the NIV that reads, "you will not abandon me in the grave."  Until the death of Christ, Hades was the dwelling place for a man's spirit upon death.  The Greek word for soul is psukes and it appears in Revelation 6:9 where John sees souls in Heaven and says, "And I saw the souls [psukes] of those who had been slain because of the word of God and the testimony they had maintained."  The Witness has no objection to seeing Revelation 6:9-11 as actual conscious living being in Heaven since in one of their very own publications, Revelation Its Grand Climax At Hand!, they write (pp. 102-103)

...they [the souls in Revelation 6:9] are raised to be part of the group of 24 elders that worship before the heavenly throne of God.  There, they are before the heavenly throne of God.

In Jehovah Witness theology, a soul is not the same thing as a spirit.  A soul is analogous to saying, "living being."  A soul can die (that is "cease to exist" in Witness terminology), but when reference to a soul is made in Scripture, then it is to be understood as a living being (see. Reasoning from the Scriptures, pp. 375-380).  Verse 27 becomes problematic for the Witness, since the Christ's soul is mentioned as being in Hades.  Any Witness will object at this point saying, "The soul being in Hades represents that the person has died." By contrast, Jesus taught that the soul in Hades was capable of reasoning and even dialoguing with others.  In Luke 16:19-31 we read the Parable of the Rich Man and Lazarus where, after dead, both are brought by the angels into two regions of Hades. Both are capable of feeling, thinking and even speaking to each other (something only living souls can do).  If Hades represents the death of the soul, why does Jesus mention two fully conscious people in Hades?  The Witness will object that Luke 16 is only a parable and should not be taken literally, but when one considers that every parable Jesus spoke had to do with real-life scenarios, there is no compelling reason to believe that Luke 16 should be any different.  The Witnesses objection is another conveniently fabricated argument.

There is another reason to understand that when Jesus died, his spirit remained conscious: Jesus claimed to have the ability to take his own life even after he died.  In John 10:17 Jesus says

The reason my Father loves me is that I lay down my life--only to take it up again.  No one takes it from me, but I lay it down of my own accord, I have authority to lay it down and authority to take it up again.  This command I received from my Father.

If Jesus was able to take up his life again even after he died, he must have been consciously able to do so.  The problem for the Witness is that he believes when Jesus died, his soul ceased to be conscious of anything.  Yet here, Jesus clearly claims to have the ability to take his own life back after laying it down.  If he was dead in the way Witnesses understand death, then he wouldn't be capable of making such a claim.  The only solution is to accept that after Jesus' death, though his body had died, he remained a conscious being capable of raising himself from the dead.  This is perfectly inline with Acts 2, since both the soul and body are treated separately.  Peter said, "he [the Christ] was not abandoned to the grave [Greek: Hades], nor did his body see decay." (Acts 2:31)  Both he and his body are mentioned separately--(a) he was not abandoned to Hades and (b) his body did not see decay. 

Misrepresentation of what Evangelicals believe
One final note needs to be added for people dealing with Jehovah Witnesses.  Witnesses often misrepresent what Evangelicals teach about Heaven, Hell and eternal life. It is not uncommon for a Witness to share with you a "common belief Evangelicals have" and then prove that "belief" to be wrong.  The idea is if they can convince you that your pastor is teaching something erroneously, you will be more likely to trust the Witness. A common example is when Witnesses say, "Most Evangelicals teach that after the resurrection people will live in Heaven forever, but the Bible says that God's people will live on the earth forever." While it is true that a few uninformed Christian pastors expect to live in Heaven forever, the Bible does teach that God's people will live on the new earth forever.  This is by and large what most trained Evangelical pastors teach. Evangelicals do not teach that God's people will live forever in Heaven. So if a Witness attempts to tell you that Evangelicals teach false doctrines, don't take their word on it, ask your pastor what he teaches on the topic. Often you will find that Witnesses misrepresent Christian beliefs in order to cast doubts in your mind as to the trustworthiness of your church.  It is usually the case that the Witness is the one who does not have the facts straight.

Conclusion
In conclusion, Jehovah Witnesses have produced no convincing argument in favor of their position.  By arguing for annihilationism they must ignore passages that contradict their viewpoint.  When they attempt to explain "rules" of translation, such rules are found to be self defeating or embarrassingly fabricated for the occasion of their use. Witnesses ignore context and use verses haphazardly.  Their literature is littered with erroneous grammatical "Greek rules" or else it demonstrates a lack of knowledge where such knowledge should exist.  The Witness cannot produce names and qualifications of their translators because they have none. Furthermore, the god of the Witness is unjust and incapable of punishing the wicked according to their own deeds because all the wicked receive the exact same punishment--annihilation. 

By contrast, the God of the Bible produces hope and endurance in the believer because we He is just. He will avenge and bring justice to the wicked. Hell, as understood by Evangelicals, is most representative of God's personality--one who zealously defends His name against the wicked and who defends his Church by pouring out wrath against those who oppose the children of God.  Wrath and anger are fitting for any loving father that must act to defend his children against the wicked.  God is love but he is also just and jealous. The Bible also clearly portrays a conscious existence of the spirit after death. The fact that Jesus was able to take back his own life after he died is a demonstration of this fact and a major obstacle to the Witnesses belief. There is no escape from God's justice for the wicked who die in their sins. God will judge the wicked according to their deeds and will reward his people according to their deeds.