Once again it is Memorial season in JW-Land. The women are shopping for their Easter, er, Memorial dresses. The kids look forward to, um, well, nevermind...they don't have anything to look forward to. They're not even allowed to 'touch' the wine glass as it's passed by. The men are looking forward to the NCAA basketball championship game the Monday before.
In years past we've asked perplexing questions meant to stimulate our minds as to how the WTS can justify their particular teachings about the Lord's Last Supper. Last year we focused on the discrepency of WT teaching vs Bible reading in regards to just when did Judas leave the room on that fateful night. It is imperative to WT doctrine that Judas left before the actual bread/wine being served. If Judas was in the room when this took place, then the entire symbolical meaning of the event is moot. If Jesus knew he was a traitor and allowed him to remiain, the symbolism is lost.
This year we go back even further. While it's easy enough to discredit the WT teachings about Judas being there or not and the number of anointed that are the only ones to partake of this symbolic flesh and blood, we can introduce yet another issue that can discredit not only the WT's stand on who is allowed to partake but the entire experience of even observing and bothering to show up at all...
Adam. That's right. The so-called first man, Adam. The man who was created pefect. The man who lost that perfection through sin and through him death was brought to us all. In JW theology, Jesus death is a ransom for what Adam lost. That is the import to why he had to die. And it's the import as to why "true Christians" must attend, observe and possibly partake at the JW Memorial of his death.
The only problem is... is it reasonable to believe in the Adam and Eve story? If archeological and scientific evidence points to man's existence lasting tens of thousands of years earlier than when Adam was supposedly created, shouldn't that create a conundrum for the WT doctrine of Adam's creation, sinning, dying and Jesus' subsequent arrival and death?
The WTS finds themself in a pickle here. As more and more is learned about man's history, the more and more the Adam and Eve story becomes a story for fairy tale books. But because the WTS has tied Jesus' death directly to Adam's death, they cannot deny the existence of Adam. Another damning doctrinal point about the WT teaching of Adam is that, even though not talked about these days - but never retracted, is that Adam was created a little over 6,000 years ago. That alone is ridiculous in face of what evidence of man's past there is.
So - if you go to the Memorial, pay attention to the first part of the talk and how everything is tied to Adam... and then contemplate on this: If Adam didn't exist, what exactly is the whole point of this exercise? And better yet...Why I am here in the first place?