What do you think Jesus really meant when he said......

by EndofMysteries 11 Replies latest watchtower bible

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  EndofMysteries

  Mark 12:24-27. Forget answering the question about who marries who, but the statements he said....."Is not this why you are mistaken, your not knowing the scriptures or the power of God?" "But concerning the dead, that they are raised up, did you not read in the book of Moses, in the account about the thornbush, how God said to him, 'I am the God of Abraham and God of Isaac and God of Jacob'? He is a God, not of the dead, but of the living. You are much mistaken.'

  "He is a God, not of the dead, but of the living. You are much mistaken"

  Thoughts on what he was implying there.
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  Lozhasleft

  Doesnt it go on 'for they are all living to Him' ? I havent checked its what I seem to recall...which alters the meaning somewhat for me....in witness terms it meant that even while asleep in Hades people were 'alive' to Jehovah ...nowadays I'd need to ponder on what I feel it means if not that....sorry not much of an answer is it ?

  Loz x
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  cameo-d

  EoM: ""He is a God, not of the dead, but of the living."

  Um...if he is not still the god over those who have died....how can he resurrect them?
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  tec

  I'm still pondering this one. I'm also trying to keep in mind that Jesus often referred to spiritual death and spiritual life when he spoke. It just adds another element into trying to work this one out.

  Tammy
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  GLTirebiter

  That passage is saying that the dead are raised up--not to life on Earth, but to spiritual life. Abraham, Issaac, and Jacob are no longer alive on earth, but remain alive with God. Jesus is saying that the Pharisees' long, hypothetical trick question (12:13-23) is irrelevant because life of the resurrected is not the life we know on Earth. From KJV:

  [Mark 12:25] For when they shall rise from the dead, they neither marry, nor are given in marriage; but are as the angels which are in heaven. [26] And as touching the dead, that they rise: have ye not read in the book of Moses, how in the bush God spake unto him, saying, I am the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob? [27] He is not the God of the dead, but the God of the living: ye therefore do greatly err.

  Yes, this applies equally well to Rutherford's notorious "Millions now living..." heresy.
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  awildflower

  Maybe it means that "God" has nothing to do with death. That he is ONLY a God of life, that death is a man thing or something that comes from being seperate from our Source, like being unplugged. Jesus might have been expressing that those he was speaking to just didn't get that yet. It sounds very "spiritual" like Jesus knew far more or was speaking from such a place of awareness, than man would ever understand at the time. IMO, God/Source whatever we call it, IS life and death would not be part of any of that. I don't know where death comes from but it doesn't seem natural and it doesn't seem it's something the God I've come to know would be any part of. Just my thoughts, and like anything Jesus said, I look at it through awareness and it seems to make more since.
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  snowbird

  I like all the answers.

  Let's keep seeking.

  The answers are out there.

  Sylvia
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  Mad Sweeney

  The English seems pretty plain. The implication is that Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob were living at the time God spoke to Moses. I don't see any way around that unless you're willing to do Watchtowerish mental gymnastics.

  Now whether that "living" is figurative or literal is WIDE open to debate/discussion.
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  PSacramento

  It was a two fold response:

  One, God is not a God for those that are merely focusing on the afterlife, he is God for the living.

  Two, ALL are alive to God, even the "dead".

  The OT is clear, as is the NT, that when we die, our spirit returns to God and as such, we are alive in God, in the spirit.
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  Terry

  Premise: the Bible is the supreme intelligence in all the universe communication significant information to lowly humans.

  Reality. Some of the smartest and some of the lowliest of all humans have read the Bible and we are still scratching our heads.

  Conclusion: the premise is false.

  Perhaps it is time for a new premise: There is no "there" there.