by The Searcher 43 Replies latest watchtower beliefs
It seems to me that you are trying to make sense of something which is such an entanglement of contradictions and irregularities that lack any kind of reason that you could spend your whole life searching only to find at the end of it all that it is nothing more than a blind alley which, ultimately, leads to disillusionment.
That is your choice to make.
I may not agree with it but I respect that it is your choice to make.
I wish you joy...
Hi Erbie,
The following Rich Man and Lazarus thread might prove of interest.
http://www.jehovahs-witness.net/watchtower/beliefs/198375/1/Rich-Man-and-Lazarus
Mary: If the literary form of the Luke 16 accounts are either "historical narration" or "parable", your point is well made. But I humbly submit that both naratives in Luke 16 are spoofs/parodies designed to make a laughingstock of common Pharisaic teaching and practice
Sorry, but if you read the preceeding verses, Jesus was already talking about money & wealth to the Pharisees. He would never have used a supposed 'false doctrine' in a parable, even if it was to make a point.
I'm sure most would agree that Jesus used non-historical material to illustrate truth. The question is, was He above using non-historical satirical material (i.e. biting irony) to make a point. I think the evidence suggests otherwise.
That Jesus did employ satire at times is quite evident in the gospels. Examples of this include, Matthew 9:13, where Jesus exempts the Pharisees from His redemptive plan because He only came for sinners, not “the righteous” and again in Luke 13:32-33 where Jesus ironically expresses that prophets cannot possibly perish anywhere except in Jerusalem.
32 And he said unto them, Go ye, and tell that fox, Behold, I cast out devils, and I do cures to day and to morrow, and the third day I shall be perfected. 33 Nevertheless I must walk to day, and to morrow, and the day following: for it cannot be that a prophet perish out of Jerusalem.
Of course, not all prophets perished in Jerusalem. Robertson identifies Jesus' proverbial statement here as; "a severely ironical indictment of Jerusalem."
Again, the preceeding account of the "crooked Steward" being commended by the Lord for looking after number one to the detriment of the Lord also represents satire. Of course "making friends with unrighteous mammon" does not earn heavenly merit. The opposite is true. This crooked steward story was actually an indictment against the Pharisees (as their reaction indicates in verse 14)
14. And the Pharisees also who were covetous, heard all these things: and they derided him.
