Looking for help on JW Doctrine on Paradise Earth

by insearchoftruth 14 Replies latest watchtower beliefs

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  insearchoftruth

  I believe that it is fear of impending Armegeddon that is the 'gravity' that is acting on my wife by the JWs, and I know a lot of that is due to the media and the portrayals of the current world conditions. She has asked me about the Lutheran view of Armageddon, which frankly I am not sure of, since it is not a focal point of the faith (so I need to do some homework on this) and also she keeps bringing up the Paradise Earth doctrine, and asks me if 'Jehovah' did not mean for man to inhabit the earth, why was it created.

  What would her come back (or should I say the JW comeback) be if I pointed her to the many places in the bible where it talks about a new earth, the destruction of the present earth and similar??
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  insearchoftruth

  bttt
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  insearchoftruth

  Sending to the top one more time, any resources or commentary on this doctrine of theirs would be very helpful, for example, scripture to refute or support, other organizations with similar thinking, where they derived this doctrine from and any thoughts why this has become such an appealing cornerstone of the faith.
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  Awakened at Gilead

  Glad I saw this...

  Here's a simple argument...

  "Paradise Earth" is a phrase that does not appear in the Bible...

  "Paradise" in the Bible is always associated with heaven, never with earth...

  Use the Insight book article to prove this...

  ***

  it-2p.574Paradise***

  PARADISE

  A beautiful park, or a parklike garden. The Greek word pa·ra´dei·sos occurs three times in the Christian Greek Scriptures. (Lu 23:43; 2Co 12:4; Re 2:7)

  Look up the 3 times that the word paradise appears in the Bible. Does it ever appear next to "earth"?

  This was a big point for me when I was waking up...
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  M.J.

  The official position of many churches and theologians is, in fact, that there will be a paradise earth. Most evangelical churches teach a future millennial kingdom on earth.
  
  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Millennialism
  
  Go through the above article and linked articles with her, such as "Christian Eschatology".
  
  Many commentators also teach that the ushering of the "New Heavens and New Earth" is when the earth will become one with heaven, and this is when it becomes a paradise. So although Christians die and their souls await the resurrection in heaven (i.e., Rev 6:9,10; 2 Cor 5:8), they will eventually be resurrected to this paradise.
  
  This is basically the position of a popular book called "Heaven" by Randy Alcorn available in any Christian bookstore.
  
  The JWs mistakenly believe that they are the only ones who teach a paradise earth. And this is compounded by the fact that many in the churches aren't aware of their own church's position on the matter.
  
  In any case, "the hereafter" isn't exactly laid out in the most clear and precise manner in the Bible, beyond the statements that there will be eternal life and "you will be with me in paradise" (the JWs teach that 99.9% of them WON'T be with Jesus, BTW). So naturally there are going to be varying interpretations. There is nothing wrong with this. To condemn people for holding a differing opinion on where or what the details of this paradise is to be overly dogmatic and arrogant, IMO.
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  M.J.

  ISOT,
  
  Check out this chart: (there may be better charts out there but it's a start)
  
  http://www.aracnet.com/~wing/esc_chrt.htm
  
  Also, see this helpful article:
  
  http://www.biblicalanswers.net/familiesInParadise.html
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  M.J.

  Here's an old writeup from Farkel on this subject:
  
  http://www.jehovahs-witness.com/12/89694/1.ashx
  
  To me, this writeup, aside from the irreverence (it's Farkel) demonstrates that there isn't a whole lot the WTS has to base its claims on. It's funny too.
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  jwfacts

  Try http://www.jwfacts.com/index_files/earthforever.htm as it shows that every description of paradise in the Bible is referring to heaven. The OT texts were referring to the Nation of Israel and there is no reason to believe they have a secondary earthly fulfillment.

  http://www.jwfacts.com/index_files/lastdays.htm discusses whether times are really worse than ever before. The facts are that we are in the greatest period of peace ever.
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  insearchoftruth

  Thanks MJ and JWfacts, great information, I had actually printed the 1914 article today with plans on reading tomorrow morning!
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  insearchoftruth

  and I think that the simple explanation of A@G is quite powerful, but may be a while prior to being able to use it!