THE IRON BALLOON: PAROUSIA
“Up, up and away in my beautiful. . .balloon,” is the lyric of a popular song from the 60’s.
It captures an emotional exhilaration lifting us from everyday life way up into the sky away from all our cares and woe.
Can you feel it? Go ahead--try!
What creates the lift? Nothing but simple hot air from a gas jet beneath the large Nylon bag.
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BUT. . .
What if you changed just one little thing, such as a large bag made of IRON instead of Nylon?
Would that beautiful balloon be able to go “Up, up and away”?
Hell no! All the hot air in the world wouldn’t help it get off the ground.
What you are about to hear is just like that--how changing a nylon bag filled with hot air into an iron bag, marooned a proper understanding to its moorings, incapable of liftoff.
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IT’S ALL G(R)EEK TO ME
If you are one of Jehovah’s Witnesses, you’ve run into a lot of G(r)eek words in your readings from Watchtower printed materials. Do you know why that is?
The New Testament is called the Christian Greek Scriptures by the Watchtower Society. Knowing this is important to what I’m about to show you. Jehovah’s Witnesses pretend to understand the “true” meaning of Greek words.
Remember, it matters what the balloon is made of if it is going to lift us “Up,up and away.”
Right? Well, language is like that. Conveying exact meaning is like that.
Amateur “scholars” monkey with Greek
I’m now going to take you way back over 100 years to around the time the founder of the Watchtower Magazine, Pastor Russell, began writing about the (presumably) exact meaning of (Greek words in) Scriptures pertaining to the RETURN of CHRIST and the END TIMES.
But first, a Quick End Times history lesson:
An unschooled, self-taught Baptist, William Miller (1782-1849), preached that the Second Coming of Jesus Christ would occur some time between March 21, 1843 and March 21, 1844.
As many as one hundred thousand people were persuaded to believe his predictions.
His reckonings proved to be FALSE. This has been called THE GREAT DISAPPOINTMENT.
2. Others soon followed. Another Millerite, Nelson H. Barbour, came to believe that the correct date for Christ’s Second Coming was 1873, not 1844. Barbour published his version of End Times predictions as well. His reckonings failed.
3. One of Barbour’s readers, B. W. Keith, came up with a solution to this apparent “failure” of chronology. Having obtained a new translation of the New Testament, Benjamin Wilson’s The Emphatic Diaglott, Keith noticed a marginal alternative translation of Parousia, the Greek word normally translated ‘coming,’ namely ‘presence.’
4. Charles Taze Russell, being a wealthy young man, paid for Barbour to come down from New York to meet him in Allegheny, Pennsylvania, and during the conversation Russell was convinced that Christ had indeed returned invisibly in 1874 and was completely absorbed by the Parousia explanation. Russell started The Watch Tower and Herald of Christ’s Presence.
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THE IRON BALLOON: PAROUSIA
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What you are now about to consider should astonish you--IF you can understand it.
WHAT THE HELL IS AN OUSIA? (oo-see'-ah)
Ousia is not a machine gun! Ousia is Greek and its origins are rooted in Greek Philosophy.
That’s right--Pagan Greek philosophy.
Socrates, Plato and Aristotle concerned themselves with the true nature (substance) of reality as opposed to its mere appearance (essence).
Note:
Plato spoke of the objective reality of a thing or its inner reality as opposed to its outer appearance in the Allegory of the Cave. (Discussing men who can only see shadows and must infer their actual reality.) The Apostle Paul ripped off Plato’s analogy (Hebrews 10th chapter.)
Paul was from Tarsus. Tarsus was distinguished for the culture of Greek literature and philosophy, so that at one time, in its schools and in the number of its learned men, it was the rival of Athens and Alexandria.
(Note: between the 1st and 4th centuries C.E. over 30 Christian councils met in an effort to rid Christianity of Pagan Greek Philosophy and its insidious influences. Forbidding definitions containing ousia was considered the correct approach.)
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You should now want to know the answer to the following question: “Was any of this important to Christianity?”
Here is your answer: Yes. Christianity split into two pieces over it.
What we historically call Christianity divided into two parts, The Roman Catholic Church in the Western part of the Empire, and the Eastern Greek Orthodox branch, each had a separate leader, doctrine, and rituals. Why? They couldn’t agree on homoousious! (Was Jesus just a man or was he Divine?)
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THE NITTY GRITTY (i.e. “Where the rubber meets the road:)
Let’s take a closer look at ousia and its legacy, shall we?
In everyday life we know the difference between categories of things such as:
Animals
canines
dogs, wolves, foxes
Chihuahuas
my dog Pepito
These are listed from General to Specific. My dog Pepito is the Specific instance of the above General list.
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Timeline
4th Century B.C.E. Aristotle would say Pepito is the (hypostasis) substance and the categories are the (ousia) essence.
4th Century C.E. Christianity argued over the word homoousios (general essence of Christ)
19th Century C.E. Pastor Russell would argue about parousia being the “presence” of Christ Jesus; meaning: metaphorically rather than actually.
One might say, “Great Granddaddy is here with us today in spirit.”
This is how Pastor Russell explained the Return of Jesus and why He couldn’t BE SEEN WITH THE NAKED EYE. If Jesus returned in the flesh, there would be hypostasis.
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Where does this leave us?
The Terminator : “I’ll be back!”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kYt2HmAxHL4
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Where does this leave us?
Nobody would ask whether or not the Cyborg from the future meant “I’ll be back” literally or figuratively.
Why not? Because he actually came back! You could see him.
Charles Taze Russell and before him, Nelson Barbour, were trying to EXPLAIN why their chronology predictions weren’t False.
“Where is the evidence, we can’t see Jesus?”
“Aw, don’t worry about that--he meant parousia-essence and not hypostasis-substance.”
THIS IS THE IRON BALLOON.
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Here is a True or False question which is a test of your sanity.
“True or False: If you believe something hard enough, it becomes true; it is guaranteed to happen.”
Here is the Watchtower / Governing Body official proof of insanity.
Pastor Russell was “assured” in this delusional way of:
The Last Days began 1799
Jesus Parousia started 1874
Jesus started ruling in heaven in 1878
The Gentile Times would end in 1914
Judge J.F.Rutherford was “assured” of Armageddon in 1925.
They tested their own faith and proved their own insanity.
"In the year 1943 the Watch Tower Bible and Tract Society published the book "The Truth Shall Make You Free." This moved forward the end of six thousand years of man's existence into the decade of the 1970's. Naturally this did away with the year 1874 C.E. as the date of return of the Lord Jesus Christ and the beginning of his invisible presence or parousia. Page 324 of the above book positively says: "The King's presence or parousia began in 1914."" God's Kingdom on a Thousand Years Has Approached p.209
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The core beliefs of this religious organization have been tested again and again and the results have always been the same: FALSE PROPHETS produce excuses and not results.
Not know the difference and distinction between OUSIA and HYPOSTASIS has cost them and their followers countless suffering and embarrassments! Many have died, become disillusioned, lost their faith, and turned to atheism and have been targeted as enemy apostates.
It has all gone over like an IRON BALLOON which failed to launch.