Help me understand the WTS/JW eschatology

by Doug Mason 19 Replies latest watchtower beliefs

  • Doug Mason
    Doug Mason

    I am seeking help as I attempt to understand the WTS/JW current understanding of the eschatological sequence of events. Please show me where my understanding is correct and where it is wrong:

    WTS/JW BACKGROUND

    · Jehovah God’s Kingdom Government was set up in 1914, which included the resurrection to spirit life by most of its 144,001 kingdom-priest rulers.

    · The group of 144,000 redeemed from earth receive eternal life since they are Born Again, Christ’s brothers, the Elect, Christians. Jesus Christ gave his life for them alone, and the majority of the Scripture’s promises apply solely to them.

    · Each person who is to make up the balance of this group is resurrected to spirit life in heaven when they die.

    · Everlasting Life upon earth for the remainder of humanity depends on acceptance of the Kingdom Government’s rule that is taught by its sole representative on earth, the Governing Body of Jehovah’s Witnesses (GB).

    · The President of the WTS provided the initial formulation of this Kingdom Government message in 1935. (It undergoes refinements, such as the creation of a Governing Body.)

    · There is thus a vast number of people who lived before 1935 who never had the opportunity to know the WTS’s teachings on the Kingdom. These are “unrighteous”.

    · The resurrected spirit-beings who lived before 1935 are not “unrighteous”, even though they never had the opportunity to hear the WTS’s Kingdom Message. They are “unrighteous” but they are not “evil”.

    · A number of people have heard their message but have rejected it. These are included with those who are deemed to be “evil”.

    · A number of faithful believers in the Kingdom message have gone to their graves, which are known as “memorial tombs”. These are “righteous”.

    WTS/JW SEQUENCE OF LAST-DAY EVENTS

    · God’s Kingdom Government towards earth was set up in October 1914, following the start of WW1.

    · Because Satan is no longer in heaven, he rocks the earth with greater calamities than before.

    · When the number of resurrected spirit beings reaches the assigned 144,001, war takes place between heaven and earth at a place called Armageddon, which results in billions being killed. Some were “unrighteous”; some were “evil”. Faithful followers of the WTS might survive the War.

    · At the conclusion of this conflict, the “righteous” are resurrected to life on earth. (Whether the resurrected “righteous” and the living survivors are known at that time as the Great Crowd or whether in prospect is not clear.) With great joy and singing in their hearts, men, women and children bury the billions of dead (including their non-believing relations), clean up the devastated cities and countries, and take over all infrastructure operations, including the supply of resources, energy, raw materials and skills needed for the massive printing program that lies before them.

    · Every day for centuries, the “unrighteous” are resurrected to life at various locations on earth. These include virtually all the people who lived before 1935 and most since that time. The evil are not resurrected, nor are Eve and Adam. Those who had already rejected the WTS/JW Kingdom message are not resurrected. (For nine billion resurrections, this requires fifty thousand additional “unrighteous” being resurrected each and every day for five hundred years. That is, about eighteen million resurrections every year for five hundred years.

    · Each resurrected “unrighteous” is given the opportunity to hear the Kingdom message they had missed out on. (For this to occur, every ancient language, dialect and idiom is mastered by the resurrected righteous while the resurrected unrighteous are able to accept the inventions of the modern era which are required by the righteous to get their message broadcast across the globe.)

    · Those who refuse to accept the Kingdom message live on, working in the cities and on the land, because at the end of 1000 years from the Battle at Armageddon they are still alive to take up arms against the Kingdom. Jehovah God murders them.

    · Those left behind to clean up this inherited mess are called the Great Crowd. They live eternally as they too have received the gift of eternal life.

  • agonus
    agonus

    i think you're making a fundamental mistake in assuming that their "eschatology" is even intended to be understood.

  • thetrueone
    thetrueone

    Re: Help me understand the WTS/JW eschatology

    Jesus sells.......thats about it

  • aSphereisnotaCircle
    aSphereisnotaCircle

    eschatology

    Jw's never use this word.

  • wobble
    wobble

    Thanks for your summary Doug, I cannot fault what you say ,looking at it as a JW.

    For me, 58 years in the JW's, there is a lot there that I did not accept, which I suppose is why I just had to leave.

    Looking at it all put down as baldly as that, it just looks totally mad.

    The JW's are not the only ones with weird End-Times theories of course, but I think they take the biscuit for believing they are so exclusive in God's plan.

    Wobble

  • agonus
    agonus

    yeah, sad that a group whose whole belief system is founded upon a particular eschatology have never even heard the word "eschatology"

  • agonus
    agonus

    you can't plumbth the depth of dumbth

  • Chalam
    Chalam

    agonus i think you're making a fundamental mistake in assuming that their "eschatology" is even intended to be understood.

    Indeed, I wholly agree.

    In fact, that goes for the whole of the WT "gospel". Even the basics are not what they seem, white is black and black is white.

    The whole thing is so complicated (by design) so the JW eventually gives up trying to comprehend it and swallows the WT teaching wholesale.

    Even if you could "understand" the WT doctrines, they will likely go changing it some time soon, so don't waste time trying to hard.

    They are like constantly shifting shadows, unlike the Lord.

    James 1:17 (English Standard Version)

    17 Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights with whom there is no variation or shadow due to change.

    Blessings,

    Stephen

  • agonus
    agonus

    somebody said something absolutely brilliant recently - the only way the WT can function is by literally tricking their adherents into not actually fully comprehending what they are supposed to believe. Classic lawyer trick - dump so much legalese on 'em they simply cry "uncle". How can you make a "conscience matter" decision on blood fraction rulings that literally require a degree in law to even delineate?

  • agonus
    agonus

    if it takes page after page after page to explain why something is acceptable or correct in God's eyes, is it even about God - or even morality - anymore?

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