The Launching Pad

LoisLane looking for Superman

When I was at The Farm, a few years past, the Bethelite referred to the grave yard area where Bro Franz and Bro Knorr are buried as the launching pad.

Was that "joke" how it was commonly referred to?

Just Lois

I've heard people come back from tours (not sure which site) and talk about seeing an area that was like a memorial spot for anointed ones who had made the jump to hyperspace. They said it was nicknamed 'The Launching Pad.'

It was a while back though, and the ol' memory may be patchy!

Bobcat

That's curiously interesting. Besides assuming that these ones were resurrected (they not being the judges of such ones), they also imagine such ones coming back to life in the vicinity of earth and then having to travel the distance (whatever it may be) to God's presence.

whathappened

Self righteous idiots up there in NYstate.

blondie

I heard that on a WT tour (by jws but not associated financially with WTS) and Bethelites at the "Farm." It is actually doctrinally inaccurate because the WTS teaches they go directly to heaven when they breathe their last (which i hope is not that field). The WTS teaches this began in 1918 (those who died up until 1918 "waited") but not those after....twinkling of an eye.

*** w82 4/1 p. 22 par. 8 The Kingdom and the Resurrection Hope ***

The Scriptures link this “first resurrection” with Christ’s “presence [Greek, parousia].” (1 Corinthians 15:23) The apostle Paul writes: “The Lord himself will descend from heaven with a commanding call, with an archangel’s voice and with God’s trumpet, and those who are dead in union with Christ [starting from the first century and up to Christ’s coming to the spiritual temple in 1918] will rise first.” Paul then goes on to say that the anointed Christians “who survive to the presence [parousia] of the Lord,” and who therefore die during the parousia, will be immediately resurrected and “caught away in clouds to meet the Lord in the air.” (1 Thessalonians 4:14-17) They do not have to “sleep” in the grave, awaiting the resurrection. At death they are “changed, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye.”—1 Corinthians 15:51, 52, Revised Standard Version.

zed is dead

The "launching pad" is a very common expression to Bethelites and those who have been there.

zed

tinker

True Story. Every Bethelite I've know, many, has a Launching Pad story w slide show. They like their 'inside jokes' and laugh and laugh as they share the clever saying. It's all about their arrogant supermacy in action

MC RubberMallet

When one gets accepted to bethel fulltime they sign documents that their bodies belong to the society after death. Once they die, that is where they are buried unless family seriously protests. Even when I described the "cool" nickname they gave the place to personal tour groups, i thought it was stupid because half the bodies there were other sheep.