Ancient Sodomites get resurrected?

by Fatfreek 14 Replies latest watchtower beliefs

  • Fatfreek
    Fatfreek

    The last position about a resurrection (or not) for those in ancient Sodom and Gomorrah, in Watchtower literature, is from the following 1989 publication. There, they are clear in their spirit-directed teaching that there will be none.

    Newly revised You Can Live Forever in Paradise on Earth (1989), Chap. 21, p. 179:
    Will such terribly wicked persons be resurrected during Judgment Day? The Scriptures indicate that apparently they will not. For example, one of Jesus’ inspired disciples, Jude, wrote first about the angels that forsook their place in heaven to have relations with the daughters of men. Then he added: “So too Sodom and Gomorrah and the cities about them, after they in the same manner as the foregoing ones had committed fornication excessively and gone out after flesh for unnatural use, are placed before us as a warning example by undergoing the judicial punishment of everlasting fire.” (Jude 6, 7; Genesis 6:1, 2) Yes, for their excessive immorality the people of Sodom and of the surrounding cities suffered a destruction from which they will apparently never be resurrected.—2 Peter 2:4-6, 9, 10a.

    However, several years ago, the following publication may have reversed that teaching. Am I reading this correctly?

    What Does the Bible Really Teach? pp. 214-215 (2005)
    According to the apostle John’s vision, “scrolls were opened,” and “the dead were judged out of those things written in the scrolls according to their deeds.” Are these scrolls the record of people’s past deeds? No, the judgment will not focus on what people did before they died. How do we know that? The Bible says: “He who has died has been acquitted from his sin.” (Romans 6:7) Those resurrected thus come to life with a clean slate, so to speak. The scrolls must therefore represent God’s further requirements. To live forever, both Armageddon survivors and resurrected ones will have to obey God’s commandments, including whatever new requirements Jehovah might reveal during the thousand years. Thus, individuals will be judged on the basis of what they do during Judgment Day.

    That said, who (if any), would not be included in a resurrection?

    Len Miller

  • stillajwexelder
    stillajwexelder

    I believe they have flip-flopped on this teaching more than any other

  • Exterminator
    Exterminator

    What's very typical of WT's style in these flip-flops is the cold doctrinal approach and the complete lack of concern for what paradise would look like with such sex predators around

  • Mary
    Mary
    Stilla said: I believe they have flip-flopped on this teaching more than any other

    Yep....I believe you're right Stilla:

    • 1879 - Will be resurrected
    • 1955 - Will not be resurrected
    • 1965 - Will be resurrected
    • 1967 - Will not be resurrected
    • 1974 - Will be resurrected
    • 1988 - Will not be resurrected
    • 1988 - Will be resurrected
    • 1989 - Will not be resurrected
    • 2005 - Sounds like they just might get a resurrection after all.

  • stillajwexelder
    stillajwexelder

    I am embarassed t osay I was once taken in by all this horseshit

  • Alpaca
    Alpaca

    So, it looks like the paedophiles both past and present get a free pass!!!

    Beautiful.....why not, the organization 'perfectly reflects Jehovah's standards'....

    Horseshit is right, JWexelder!!!

    Who cares anyway, it's pointless speculation about something that is never going to happen one way or the other.

  • Fatfreek
    Fatfreek

    Stilla: I believe they have flip-flopped on this teaching more than any other

    Yes, I think this is the king of them all. I didn't know all of these till just recently. When I was in I was only aware of one reversal, that of the Superior Authorities. Turns out, that one had a total of 3 positions, two flip-flops.

    Mary: 1965 - Will be resurrected
    1967 - Will not be resurrected

    Hmmm ... I think I've seen these two dates before but haven't been able to confirm the reversals with WT quotations. Can you help us on these, Mary?

    If not, we've still got a total of 7 positions -- 6 flip-flops -- an astounding quantity if you think about it. If I were still in, I'd start to do some serious question-asking. Perhaps a letter to the Society. Let's see how we'll word that one:

    Dear Bros,

    Since 1879 I understand you've changed your teaching position on a resurrection of ancient Sodomites 6 times (yes, no, yes, no, yes, no, yes) -- other folks like to use the unkind term, flip-flops. You like to use previous points of view. As I can confirm all of these positions (except the first) on my WT library CD, please tell me what to convey to the next householder who asks me about them. Until I hear from you, I've got a few ideas.

    1. The new light switch keeps flickering?
    2. We've got more where they came from?
    3. We love to keep the flock guessing?
    4. Be assured that we'll never exceed 7 times (get it? the perfect number!)

    Len

  • Fatfreek
    Fatfreek

    Nope -- apparently that 2005 quotation at the top of this thread is invalidated with the following, also a 2005 quotation:

    *** w05 7/15 p. 31 Questions From Readers ***
    The Scriptures speak of only two possibilities for the dead—the temporary state of nonexistence and the state of eternal death. Those who are judged unworthy of a resurrection are pitched into “Gehenna,” or “the lake of fire.” (Matthew 5:22; Mark 9:47, 48; Revelation 20:14) Among these would be the first human pair, Adam and Eve, the betrayer Judas Iscariot, and certain ones who died when God executed judgment upon them, such as the people in Noah’s day and the inhabitants of Sodom and Gomorrah.

    Or maybe this one is invalidated by that one -- oh, I give up.

    Len

  • Spectre
  • besty
    besty

    Ancient resurrectites get sodomized?

    Now thats a thread everybody would open...:-)

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