'Paradise Earth' makes absolutely no sense!

navytownroger

The JW idea of 'Paradise Earth' seems to be full of holes. Will babies of baptized JWs also be in the New System? If not, how could the child's parents consider it 'paradise' without their children? If there are babies there, will they continue to mature into adults.....& to what age? Will young adult couples in their 20s be able to procreate in Paradise Earth? If not, won't they be denied the joy of having children of their own? Will babies who died in ages past be resurrected as babies or adults?? Given the GBs apparent disdain for children, I expect they'll soon institute a 'No Children' policy regading Paradise Earth. Somehow this so-called Paradise Earth idea makes no sense to me.

Robert7

There were SO many holes in the stories. When I brought any up, the typical answer was "Just make it there, and you can worry about the details then"

Gopher

There's many other problems with the concept, as I posted awhile back in this thread: http://www.jehovahs-witness.com/12/104879/1.ashx

The Watchtower Society has, for about seven decades, been attracting new ‘volunteer workers’ for its ‘field ministry’ with the promise of life forever on a paradise earth. Even the titles of its main study books since 1968 bear the promise: “The Truth that Leads to Eternal Life”, “You Can Live Forever in Paradise on Earth”, and “Knowledge that Leads to Everlasting Life”.
How logical is this hope that leads people to entrust the Watchtower with their time, energy and worldly possessions?
Examine the premise that the earth will become a paradise where people will live forever. It sounds so good on the surface! Let’s define “paradise” as a world without evil people and where harm comes to nobody.
Does the phrase ‘paradise earth’ appear anywhere in the Bible? The Watchtower teaches the idea, citing Psalms 37:29 where the righteous possess the ‘earth’ and live in it ‘forever’. Other translations, however, use ‘the land’ instead of earth, and ‘time indefinite’ instead of ‘forever’. Such translations make it appear that this verse applied to the restoration of the Hebrews to their own land, to dominate over it for an unspecified period of time. Anyhow, it is arbitrary to say that Psalms 37:29 MUST apply to a paradise earth. Other verses such as Matthew 5:5 speak of the righteous inheriting the earth, but again no paradise is mentioned. Revelation 21 speaks of ‘death being no more’, but again no paradise is mentioned. Anyone who gets paradise earth out of Revelation 21 is reading more into it than is there.
Would a paradise earth where people live forever be physically possible or emotionally satisfying? Jesus is recorded as saying ‘the road to destruction is broad, … whereas cramped is the road and narrow the gate leading to [everlasting] life’. The Watchtower responds to that verse by teaching that Armageddon will wipe out most of the people you see on earth today. Is the prospect of forever serving a God who is said to love mankind but anxious to wipe out the majority a cheerful one? Would you be relaxed in such a ‘paradise’, or nervous about getting on this God’s bad side?
Then consider this. What happens if the earth (in such a paradise) reaches the point of overpopulation, meaning there are not enough food and other resources available for continued growth? The Genesis account says that the first humans were told to ‘fill the earth’. What would happen once it is filled?
There are three possibilities, all of which are speculation and nowhere mentioned in the Bible. (Remember, God, I mean the Watchtower, doesn’t want us to speculate too much on the conditions in paradise.) God gives new laws restricting or prohibiting procreation. This means that there would be no more children, not to mention the major change in adult relationships. Is this anyone’s idea of emotional satisfaction? The Bible, in its book of Psalms, says that God would give to all the desires of their hearts (someday), so this idea is in conflict with the Bible’s own definition of paradise. God will put a halt to the natural procreation process. So people would go on getting married and having adult relationships, but God would make it impossible to conceive more children.
or:
God will transport the excess residents of paradise to a new earthlike planet elsewhere in the universe. The Watchtower actually speculated about this in one of its publications used in the Congregation Book Study about 20 years ago. This is the most interesting possibility. If living forever would make it necessary to move some people to another planet, that would contradict the idea that the righteous would live forever ON EARTH. Since heaven is defined as anyplace beyond earth’s atmosphere, by definition any other planet would be ‘in heaven’ in relation to earth, where all the issues raised in the Bible are supposed to be settled.
It seems the idea of living forever in paradise on earth has no solid Biblical support, and it also is physically impossible and would be ultimately be emotionally unsatisfying.

kool aid man06

This is a great subject to examine. It is true that no where in the Bible does it use the words "Paradise earth". Even Adam and Eve did not live on Paradise earth. They lived in a garden called Eden. They were also never told that they would live on "Paradise earth" if they obeyed God. They were simply told that if they disobeyed God they would die. Genesis 8:22 says: "While the earth remains, seedtime and harvest, and cold and heat, and summer and winter, and day and night shall not cease." (NASB) Isaiah 65:17 "For behold, I create new heavens and a new earth". (NASB) and the list goes on. Jesus promised eternal life to all who believed on him and that where He is they may be with Him (John 17:24. The Watchtower organization leadership know this is all true but, if they told the real truth, they would lose millions of followers and billions of dollars. They are not willing to give up all they have worked for in place of telling people the Real Truth!

Mrs. Kool Aid Man

Flash

The JW idea of 'Paradise Earth' seems to be full of holes. Will babies of baptized JWs also be in the New System? If not, how could the child's parents consider it 'paradise' without their children? If there are babies there, will they continue to mature into adults.....& to what age? Will young adult couples in their 20s be able to procreate in Paradise Earth? If not, won't they be denied the joy of having children of their own? Will babies who died in ages past be resurrected as babies or adults?? Given the GBs apparent disdain for children, I expect they'll soon institute a 'No Children' policy regading Paradise Earth. Somehow this so-called Paradise Earth idea makes no sense to me.

Do yourself a big favor, DON'T mix bible teaching with GB speculation. The GB doesn't have any idea how life will be in the kingdom, yet they will will spout off as "experts." Jesus taught us to pray for the Kingdom to come on the EARTH as it is in the heavens. Just focus on that reality and let the rest be revealed by Him when we're IN the Kingdom.

wobble

Didn't Jesus teach us to pray for God's Will to be done on the earth (as in Heaven)? no direct saying that the Kingdom is on earth,just"Your Kingdom come" .

Love

Wobble

B_Deserter

I actually can't think of one scripture that literally describes a paradise earth where no one gets sick and dies. The scriptures that talk about lions that eat straw and babies playing with cobras are actually referring to the return of the Israelites to their homeland after being freed by Cyrus. The living forever parts are in Revelation and never refer to that living forever being done on earth.

Domina

I always had issue with the Lion eating straw teaching. Because the animals were not to live forever, who would do the clean up? I mean, if vultures are not meat eaters anymore, what were we supposed to be doing with the animals that died? Burn em? It seemed like such a small issue, but when small issues pile up on small issues, even a small thing can become insurmountable.

greenhornet

Loins or any animal can not eat straw. Animals can eat hay but never straw. There is no nutritional value to eating straw. Straw is used for bedding and building.

Darklighter

I believe it was Mark Twain who, referring to sex, said some thing along the lines of, 'It's a strange thing that man leaves his most sought after pleasure out of his most sought after paradise.'

And on the paradise earth bit, yeah, that makes no sense to me either. The "Ressurrection of both the righteous and the unrighteous" is what threw me, considering that an estimated 20 billion people have lived on earth so far. The "Society" claims that all who havn't had a reasonable chance to become ~~indoctrinated~~ worshipers of Jehovah will be resurrected. Even today when the preaching work is at it's (supposed) pinnacle, the vast majority of people alive don't know who Jahovah's Witnesses are, and if they do they don't know what they teach. So, if they're all resurrected, where will we put them all? The word "dystopia" comes to mind.

Conservatively, if only 10 billion of those people are "deserving" of a second chance, then over the course of Christ's thousand year reign there would be 27,397 persons resurrected per day. And then they're supposed to be educated too?

Imagine trying to "educate" a resurrected archaeologist or historian who happens to be an expert on ancient Mesopotamian writings, and trying to explain to him that Jerusalem was destroyed in 607 not 586 b.c.e. He's doomed to everlasting destruction.

Yeah, Paradise Earth = bull$h*t... Biblically and logically.

'Paradise Earth' makes absolutely no sense!

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