How has Watchtower attempted to explain...

by N.drew 16 Replies latest watchtower beliefs

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  AnnOMaly

  w00 8/1 p. 6 Respect for Authority-Why Essential?

  Hymenaeus and Philetus are mentioned as men who subverted the faith of some and whose empty speeches 'violated what is holy.' One of their assertions was that the resurrection had already taken place, evidently either a spiritual or a symbolic one, and therefore there was no further resurrection in the future under God's Kingdom.-2 Timothy 2:16-18.
  
  Proclaimers, chap. 4 p. 34 The Great Apostasy Develops

  As the first century progressed, divisive thinking spread like gangrene. (Compare 2 Timothy 2:17.) By about 51 C.E., some in Thessalonica were wrongly predicting that "the presence" of the Lord Jesus was imminent. (2 Thess. 2:1, 2) By about 55 C.E., some in Corinth had rejected the clear Christian teaching regarding the resurrection of the dead. (1 Cor. 15:12) About 65 C.E., others said that the resurrection had already taken place, it being of a symbolic kind that living Christians experience.-2 Tim. 2:16-18.

  This view is pretty much in line with what other commentators have said. http://bible.cc/2_timothy/2-18.htm
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  N.drew

  Thank you Ann
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  Bella15

  I read this and gave me chills ...

  @ "They thought at the time that the old testament bible characters were coming back to earth in the flesh and supposedly built the Rutherford mansion for them to live in. Witnesses from that era told me that they would look around at assemblies and try to spot some old man with a beard - they were thinking that this could be Daniel, Ezekiel, or King David."
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  00DAD

  So Paul was telling Timothy that only APOSTATES would claim the resurrection had already taken place.

  Well it's interesting that the WT teaches that the anointed that have died in this "Time of the End" have all been resurrected "in a twinkling of an eye".

  I guess that identifies them as apostates since there is no proof for this assertion now just as in the 1st Century.

  One more piece of evidence disproving WT Theology.
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  james_woods

  I read this and gave me chills ...

  @ "They thought at the time that the old testament bible characters were coming back to earth in the flesh and supposedly built the Rutherford mansion for them to live in. Witnesses from that era told me that they would look around at assemblies and try to spot some old man with a beard - they were thinking that this could be Daniel, Ezekiel, or King David."

  Creepy, yes - and it really is true. Like I said, though - I don't know if Rutherford himself actually believed this or if it was just an excuse to build his big California mansion. But it was certainly a JW teaching of that era.
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  Disillusioned Lost-Lamb

  How has Watchtower attempted to explain?

  Easy, they don't!
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  stillstuckcruz

  I do find it fascinating

  *** w86 4/1 p. 31 Questions From Readers ***
  Do we have Scriptural precedent for taking such a strict position? Indeed we do! Paul wrote about some in his day: “Their word will spread like gangrene. Hymenaeus and Philetus are of that number. These very men have deviated from the truth, saying that the resurrection has already occurred; and they are subverting the faith of some.” (2 Timothy 2:17, 18; see also Matthew 18:6.) There is nothing to indicate that these men did not believe in God, in the Bible, in Jesus’ sacrifice. Yet, on this one basic point, what they were teaching as to the time of the resurrection, Paul rightly branded them as apostates, with whom faithful Christians would not fellowship.

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  "Our Lord's resurrection occurred three and a half years after his advent as the Messiah, in A.D. 29; and the resurrection of his body, the Church, we have seen, was due in the year 1878, three and a half years after his second advent, in October 1874." Thy Kingdom Come p.305

  "All the evidence indicates that this heavenly resurrection began in 1918, after Jesus' enthronement in 1914 and his riding forth to start his kingly conquest by cleansing the heavens of Satan and his demons." Revelation, It s Grand Climax At Hand! p. 103

  ....Contradiction much?