by exjw2814 37 Replies latest watchtower beliefs
People: God be praised !! The day has come, we will now have paradise !!
Jesus: What? dudes...what do you mean NOW? what have you been doing till now??
People: waiting for you to fix everything...
Jesus: WTF? Our Father gave you free will and all the tools to make Earth a paradise and you did what? WAIT for US to do it ???
People: Yeah...
Jesus: *Universal Bitch slap !!!!*
The Bible never uses the phrase "paradise earth". Just "new earth" and "new heavens" and "paradise" and "the earth".
The Bible never uses the phrase "paradise earth". I had to write that again, because it's important. *G*
An invented catch phrase pieced together from two different scriptures courtesy of the WTS, like "great crowd of other sheep". There's a "great crowd of worshippers in heaven" according to Revelation 19:1 "a great crowd standing before the throne" also in Revelation and "other sheep" mentioned in John 10, but never "the great crowd of other sheep".
Sneaky sneaky.
No indication that the "paradise" spoken of is ever a literal place on earth or the earth, for Christians.
The heavens where God lives is apparently a spiritual or metaphysical realm, but "the heavens and the earth" refers to our planet and the sky and literal spaces above it, obviously.
The interpretation that the new heavens and new earth represent spirituality transforming individuals gradually into a more peaceful society works for me as far as the actual planet earth goes.
The Bible speaks plainly over and over again that it's people who are the foundation of a more peaceful society. Christ taught universal brotherhood and living in peace and the benefit of that to all, not that only a few special people would benefit from his message.
The scriptures the Witnesses try to self apply in the book of Isaiah are about the Jews and the promised land, nothing more. Why don't they ever get the point that the Hebrew scriptures were about the Hebrews, for when they were written? argh. Even Jesus says that! They're FULFILLED, he says, first off, first discourse.
I believe it is both. Remember man was created to live on earth. After the fall, that didn't change, until Jesus came on the scene, and talked about heaven. However, heaven is not the reward for all good people. Heaven is only for those who will reign with Jesus during the 1,000 year reign. So only a select group of individuals become a part of the Little Flock. The rest of mankind will live on earth, and not just the JW's.
I believe it is both. Remember man was created to live on earth. After the fall, that didn't change, until Jesus came on the scene, and talked about heaven. However, heaven is not the reward for all good people. Heaven is only for those who will reign with Jesus during the 1,000 year reign. So only a select group of individuals become a part of the Little Flock. The rest of mankind will live on earth, and not just the JW's.
You have to ignore the scientific physical reality of the sun hydrogen cycle, cosmology, and other simple scientific facts to believe in an everlasting physical paradise earth like the JWs teach.
It is simply not any more credible than the idea that the creative days were 7,000 years long each.
If you choose to believe these ideas religiously, it makes more sense to me to look at them as allegorical of some kind of spiritual existence.
All of you above...
Will there be a heaven? Earth? Afterlife? Or not?
Will there be Armageddon? Nuclear destruction? Or for ever peace?
No one knows! Jus live your life now with respect for others, So treat them like you want to be treated youself.
All we need is love!
This is a very interesting topic. As a matter of fact, it is one that I’d like to do more research on in the future. You have all brought up man thought provoking comments. (Man!…this is a lot better than a WT study at KH).
I share “angus” ideas regarding the afterlife. I don’t want to be overly concern with the place where that afterlife will be (unless there really is a place of everlasting torment. Yikee!). I rather hold on to the promise that there will be a resurrection, that I’ll be reunited with my loved ones, where there’ll be no more suffering, death, sorrow, etc. But above all, that regardless of the location…that dwelling place will be in the presence of God.
One thing I do know for sure…there is more to life than this.
TJLibre
I read this a while ago...click on the link for more.
Eternal Life On Earth? You mentioned questions regarding life on earth. As for the manner of the resurrection and all the details, I don’t see reason for dogmatism. Likewise as regards life on earth. I am perfectly happy to wait to see what the eternal destiny of people will be according to God’s disposition, and I feel we are wise not to pretend to be so certain that we know all there is to know on the subject. When people write about this I usually respond that as to one’s hope, I can only urge that it be tempered with a willingness to recognize that our understanding is rarely something beyond adjustment or increase. When a promise is clearly and definitely stated in Scripture, we can not only hope for its fulfillment but have conviction of it, faith in it. That is true of the hope of forgiveness of sins, of the resurrection, of the hope of life everlasting. These hopes are spelled out clearly and extensively, even repeatedly, in the Christian Scriptures. Read more at http://www.commentarypress.net/cpn-essays/English/E604D794-E67E-42C0-BBE9-3DB26C420F6C.html
The Earth, the literal planet, simply cannot exist forever, so if humans could live forever, in a few billion years or so, they'd have to find a new home even if the planet were still habitable at that point.
When our sun goes nova, or changes to a white dwarf or whatever happens to a medium yellow start after a few billion years, earth won't be quite so cozy.
Actually, with the current predicted changes in climatology, the earth will probably before long be considerably hotter and wetter in some places, drier in others. We're going to lose a lot of our coastal features as the ice caps continue to melt, or in a few thousand years or so, have another Ice age.
Not sure I want to be around for that...our last Ice Age, the human population got pretty low, from what the Human genome project can figure. Maybe as low as only around 10,000 individuals on the whole planet.
Remember man was created to live on earth. After the fall, that didn't change
Is there any evidence of any part of this statement at all other than the fact that man presently lives on earth?
I'm looking at many assumptions there:
1. man was created; 2. he was created to live on earth; 3. there was some sort of literal fall; 4. subsequent to that fall assumptions #1 and #2 still stand
Man lives on earth presently. That goes without saying. Aside from that, do any of assumptions 1 through 4 have any real evidence?
