Adam & Eve: Perfect but not everlasting life?

by pixel 17 Replies latest watchtower beliefs

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  pixel

  So I was watching Annual Meeting. Towards the end of Jackson’s talk, he says:

  “Perfection doesn’t automatically means someone will get everlasting life. Remember the case of Adam and Eve: They were perfect, but before the my could attain to everlasting life, they have to prove their obedience to Jehovah”.

  Where does this teaching comes from? I don’t remember it being mentioned in any of the publications. The way this dude mentions it sounds like A&E where in a trial period when they were created, and God’s creation was not complete since A&E had to work to obtain everlasting life.

  This cult is so messed up.
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  road to nowhere

  A tickled memory says it has to do with the tree of life. Had to qualify first to eat.
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  Simon

  One minute, fruit is sacred and everything to the story, then a few pages later and people are being "smite'd" for only offering up fruit and veg instead of a dead animal carcass.

  What a book. It's up there with "twilight" in terms of quality.
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  slimboyfat

  I think what they mean is that even when humans reach perfection they do not become immortal because they can still choose to sin and die as a result. (They quote the scripture from Isaiah 65:20 about a hundred year old man dying as a boy) In JW theology, only the anointed are granted immortality, a gift not even given to angels, or to the great crown, or even to resurrected Bible figures such as Abraham and David.
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  truth_b_known

  When I was 10 I asked my father about the Tree of Life in Genesis. He was an elder and the Presiding Overseer at that time. My father always seemed well read and up to speed on Watchtower doctrine.

  My father's theory was that Satan's full plan was to get Adam and Eve to eat from the Tree of Life after eating from the Tree of Knowledge. That way Adam and Eve would obtain immortality (aka "Everlasting Life") after "sinning" and Jehovah would have to let them win.

  Anything is nothing more than grasping at straws. Typical behavior from the Watchtower. Constantly overreaching.
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  pixel

  I’m not sure Jackson was talking about immortality here, since he said “before the could obtain everlasting life”, meaning, that whatever everlasting life entails, A&E could have reached it.
  The reality is that whatever he was talking about, is not from the Bible, is just opinions and dreams since the Bible doesn’t explicitly address that A&E had to do eat from the Tree of Life to obtain said everlasting life.
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  waton

  The tree of life was in the middle of eden, at the crossroads, probably a staple in their diet., not another forbidden or hidden item. They were kept from continuing that routine (12 harvests a year) by the rotating swords.

  If satan is so smart as wt pictures him, he would have A&E go into the ToL inc. seed business.

  a story hard to stomach. even jesus was perfect and he died. should have let him live a millenium to prove perfection.
  
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  TonusOH

  I find it odd, but many of the interpretations imply that the tree is so impossibly powerful that God couldn't reverse its effects. His only chance of foiling Adam and Eve was to prevent them from reaching it, as opposed to making the fruit poisonous. Or making the tree invisible. Or just destroying it with a snap of his fingers. Or just destroying Adam and Eve with a snap of his fingers. You know-- quietly murdering them and replacing them with replicas and threatening the angels so that no one would ever talk about it...

  Then again, we're talking about a guy who struck a man dead for the sin of trying to keep the ark of the covenant from falling when the oxen carrying it stumbled while crossing a river. Insanely violent overreaction seems to be his modus operandi. Thoughtful and deliberate plans are a bit too boring for a book chronicling your exploits, I suppose.
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  vienne

  Okay, I'm confused. Isn't the Watchtower's teaching that Adam and Eve, once they proved faithful, were to be granted "everlasting life" but not immortality?

  And in light of the grain and first fruits offerings mandated in the Law Covenant would not Yahweh's rejection of Cain's sacrifice be on grounds other than its nature. The verses note a difference between the two brothers' offerings. Able gave from the "first fruits" but Cain only "some of" his vegies. When God addresses Cain, he does not say, "Sorry Bud, but you should have offered something else." Instead he comments on Cain's mental health, his attitudes.

  Am I wrong?
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  RolRod

  I think he pulled it out his ass