Why a paradise earth is so appealing to JWs?

by Lady Lee 57 Replies latest watchtower beliefs

• 

  bluebell

  I think it is appealing to them because it means that they don't need to help make the world better NOW. Gives them a get out clause. God is going to put everything right, it's not our responsibility
• 

  Lady Lee

  The whole world would be like Bethel!

  OMG Ain't that the truth. That is a scary thought when we consider what many have said about their time at Bethel.

  We know that Bethel farms take care of Bethel and Patterson. They have tried to create their own little paradise. But even that required some form of power to work the machinery.

  It really is such a vague idea sold to JWs with no real idea of how it would happen.

  Glad to know I'm not the only one who wondered about how all this would happen.

  Pre 1975 I went so far as to learn how to do many things that we might need later on.
• 

  XJW4EVR

  I once read a story based on the future J-Dub paradise earth. I do not recall if it was on this forum or another, but it painted a rather gloomy picture. Perhaps someone will find it before I do.

  On thread: I never quite bought in to the paradise earth, but then again I was always questioning things, my biggest problem according to my father. Every answer I was given to questions such as, "With no communication, how will direction be given from Brooklyn?" was Jehovah will take care of it. Not very satisfying. I often heard that the women should learn how to cook without a stove or an oven. That women need to learn how to sew, of course they never mentioned how the women should learn how to raise flax in order to make linen, or how to shear sheep for wool, etc. etc. With all the work the women had to do, I often wondered what the janitors would do?
• 

  sammielee24

  I think Jehovahs Witnesses are selfish, cruel and arrogant in their disregard for the world and it's people to even begin to believe that they are somehow the chosen few..however..now that I've gotten that off my chest - I believe it is fear and a comfort in the belief that THEY know what comes next that is appealing. If only they were capable of looking at the world they live in now as being paradise and the hereafter just another level of this paradise, they might be happier and healthier. The smartest people in the world are not always the strongest so while I don't believe that all JW's are stupid, I think most have weak spirits at some level that they use the watchtower and these beliefs to fill up. They don't have to live for today and be part of the solution..sammieswife.
• 

  startingover

  Someone here posted this, but I can't tell you who. If John was privy to a vision of this time period as recorded in the book of Revelation, then perhaps we could have a vision of what the future would be like if the "new system" actually happened. Perhaps it would go something like this ... I set there in a vision of the night and I looked around me and I was in the calm of days, and all was perfect. People were standing around talking, children were playing and smiles were on their faces. I knew from what I had been told that this must be the "new system of things" and the old system had indeed passed away. I walked around and all of the people seemed so happy in their faces, and all just seemed ten times better then I could have ever expected. None of the people seemed to notice me, so I went to a man holding what looked like small clippers working on the lawn. "Excuse me sir, can I ask you a question?" The man paused for a minute and looked up with a huge smile on his face, "sure, why not." Then he set down on the lawn to speak to me. I started out by explaining who I was, "I am here in a vision from Jehovah to see this time period and tell people what it is like, to build their faith in what the word of his organization has promised", the man did not seem phased by this and I figured miracles were probably second nature in this new world. So I continued, "first, how many years has it been since Armageddon?" The man gave it some thought and answered, "I would say about 100,000 or more" while he still kept that big smile on his face. "Really, 100,000 years, that is amazing. I heard of living forever so much, but hearing you say 100,000 years is just the most faith enriching statement I have ever heard." I was filled with joy. I continued in my questioning, making sure to take as much advantage of this moment of vision that I could. "So tell me what has it been like?" The man took a deep breath and spoke again, "Well in the beginning, it was amazing. Seeing all the events happening just like we were warned and all the people dying. I remember being a old man and instantly I started growing younger after the big day. I was in my 20's again when the first resurrections happened and I was so happy seeing my wife coming forth from the grave, and my mother. Of course, my father was never a Witness so he never made it. Then we had the time of cleaning up the mess. I really got sick of all those diapers people left behind from the old system, that they thought would degrade in time. I had dinner with Moses for the first time about 500 years after the "big day" and he was a "hoot". Then the 1000 year reign came to the end and it was messy. Tons of people wanted the old back and we had to gather them together to be killed. It was a complete slaughter, I have never seen a more gruesome sight. He continued on about a few more details, all the while having that huge smile. I spoke for a minute, "this is amazing, you are speaking about things from the past, that I have only heard about at the Kingdom Hall, as things that would take place in the far off future." He continued to speak, "after all those bad days were behind us, and my wife was dead again for wanting to go with Satan and the demons. We started really focusing on making the world a garden again and living life to the most. I did everything I could do, to experience this "new system of things" life, I climbed every mountain, swam across the seas and even studied every animal and insect first hand. I spent two centuries just counting all the leaves in the Amazon jungle, to see if it could be done." I set stunned at all of this, "this life must be so amazing, and you have done so much. What else have you done?" He still kept that smile, "Well about 95,000 years ago I had done everything. I wanted to read books, but all the "old system" books were destroyed and only the ones available were written by the "princes." They never said anything new though, so soon I just stopped reading. One day I decided I would write something, and perhaps record new stories and adventures to share with others, in hopes that they would do the same with me. Instead, everything I wrote would just edit itself to be in line with Jehovah's thinking, right before my eyes, and nothing would last long enough for others to read or if it did, it made so little sense, no one understood it. One day I woke up about 85,000 years ago and just wanted to die. Something that is not easy to do now! I climbed to the top of a cliff and jumped, but I bounced like a beach ball without a scratch. I found a old Chevy, we used as a planter, and drank some battery accident, but it tasted like lemonade, and I chained my foot to a large rock and jumped into the middle of the Pacific Ocean only to have to wait 125 years for the chains to rust away and have me float to the surface. That was some dark and lonely times, trust me, and let's just say I did not want to take a bath or shower after that for a decade." I stopped him from speaking, "Are you saying you attempted to kill yourself? Why?" The man stood, but still had that smile, "Oh you wouldn't understand, you have not done everything like I have. You know, when I heard about living forever and having all the time in the world. I never thought about something, maybe that is too much time and maybe we might actually want to die." I set there puzzled though, he was still smiling, so I asked, "are you not happy right now though, working on this garden, you look happy?" He laughed, "Do you know what I am doing? I am cutting each blade of grass one at a time to pass the time, I am so bored I spent 50,000 years cutting this grass over and over and over again. Because there is just nothing I haven't done, nothing I have not seen, no conversation I have not covered. We don't even speak to one another anymore, as we all know each others thoughts so well. We end each others sentences, and even tell each others stories. I sometimes don't know what stories are mine, and what stories are the ones I heard a million times before. It is all just done over and over again, nothing new." "But you are smiling though," I said with a confused tone. He set up again, "Well recently one of the brothers located something we never cleaned up in South America, in which there was a calender that had a time line as to when the sun would burn out and destroy the earth. It was a great day of excitement and news traveled quickly, we all celebrated the news that soon we would get a second chance to die and get out of this promised eternal life of paradise." Then I looked up and the sun was getting really bright, brighter then I could ever imagine. It was huge, and growing and growing. The people were all cheering and yelling "kill me" "kill me" and the man I was speaking to, jumped to his feet screaming with excitement. The sun seemed bigger and bigger and I could feel my skin burning, the wave was nearly upon us and then "Boom" it went back to normal again. The man bent over in pain, landing on the ground and pounding it with his fist, "Damn, Damn, Damn, we are trapped ... it never ends!", and all the people were crying out "no", "no", "I want to die, I want it to end." Men could be seen holding crying woman, and animals are seemed to look a little sad as well. I was so confused, what message was I suppose to take from this. I thought it would be something wonderful and enlightening. Instead I saw people smiling with a hope that they would die and cheering that they were going to be burned up, and then crying when they learned they would still live forever. I am so confused. The man passed me a note, and then walked away, with a look that could only be described as complete emptiness. Suddenly I was back to my own time, and sitting up in my bed. Wow, what a nightmare I thought, and reached for a drink of water. I then laid back down and felt something on my back. I got up and looked and it was a note. I opened it and it was from the man in my vision. I read it out loud ... "You think it sounds so good, at this time in your life, to live forever. You think it sounds like such a reward. Yet think about all that that means, and all that you have done in only the short years you have been alive. This thought of living forever is not a reward that can be cherished, but a place of torment you could never escape. If we can not get out of this life everything that we need in the 80 or so years we have, then do not think 100,000 years will ever make it any more fulfilling. With a timetable in life, in which you know you only have a few years, you have a reason to prioritize and learn to do what you can. With the ability to live forever, nothing matters anymore. Please do me this last favor and give me a second chance to learn this before it is to late. Find this man in your time, who is me, and go to this address and get him out of the religion. Get him out of this path to torment." I looked at the bottom of the paper for the name and address of the man I saw in this vision of the night, and read it to myself. I dropped the paper and nearly fell off the bed. The name on the paper was me!
• 

  heathen

  LOL@vomit , I don't think it's a cube tho since height doesn't match length and width.. It's a spirit city not a literal physical city so that people are changed into spirit beings to enter it . IMO The bible gives it's dimentions in cubits but nobody really knows what a cubit is anyway.

  LMAO @ how people think an earthly paradise would be boring , nobody really knows all there is to about that . I think that the GC survive by entering the city for the millenium and God destroys all earth with fire and who knows what , meteor shower? volcano? earth quakes? I don't think it's left to people to do that . I think my belief makes more sense than theirs on how to survive the tribulation .
• 

  greendawn

  They are semi ignorant fools, they just believe that jehovah with his superhuman power can do anything to remove any unpleasant possibilities from occuring. Of course their version of earthly paradise is not Biblical but at least it's something they can relate to and desire unlike a life in the great and unknown beyond.
• 

  aligot ripounsous

  To me, paradise earth is appealing because it's the only notion I can grasp, I haven't the faintest idea of what life would be like in heavenly spheres. It is only too obvious (that's why it has been repeated so often) that man is meant for the earth and the latter for man, how can we possibly lose sight of that ? Another evidence (sorry if we find the idea in the WT litterature) is that man, elaborate as he is, deserves more than a mere 80 year passage on earth, otherwise what a waste of resources, it just doesn't make sense.

  Granted, notions of limited earth and eternal life don't tally and with our limited current abilities and short sighted outlook we find it difficult to imagine we could live forever without being bored, but hasn't jehovah assured us that he will satisfy the desire of every living being ? Christians, of whatever denomination they are, can't just shove aside this promise. By the way, wouldn't the bore problem be the same in heaven ? So I gather that the altenative is either paradise earth or nothing.

  I'm not sure that many JWs would consider living under a WTlike iron rule during eternity as real paradise, but Jah's promise is beyond WT promise and paradise must mean paradise. A sensible guy was saying once that the amount of knowledge between the most learnt man and the total ignorant is nought as compared with all that we don't know. Has anyone a proposal that will offer a better prospect than an absurd life ?
• 

  Narkissos

  Bonjour aligot ripounsous

  It is only too obvious (that's why it has been repeated so often) that man is meant for the earth and the latter for man, how can we possibly lose sight of that ? Another evidence (sorry if we find the idea in the WT litterature) is that man, elaborate as he is, deserves more than a mere 80 year passage on earth, otherwise what a waste of resources, it just doesn't make sense.

  I think any good reason why man can be said to be "meant for the earth" (the reverse being more debatable imo) is also a reason why he is meant to die. Why on earth (!) would he deserve anything else? Biologically, death is simply the other side of sexual reproduction. Our inflated ego may not subjectively like the idea but it is objectively a very good thing for mankind, as for any other species: it's the way of renewal.

  About everything that makes us relatively "elaborate" has to do with our (individually unpleasant) dealing with death. Language, symbols, communication, education, culture, that is our way of getting around it. Without that nobody would think of "making sense" of anything.
• 

  truthseeker

  Narkissos,

  While I see your point, I do not agree that death is a good thing. Having lost loved ones myself, there is nothing pleasant about the situation.

  I myself do not want to die. If I could live longer than my allotted 70 or 80 I would.

  We don't live long enough to see any of God's promises come true.

  The fact that many dubs live normal lives, in spite of the WT's message of doom and gloom, is proof that we would rather enjoy life now than in some temporal future of our imagination.