~Please help answer this question about a Watchtower doctrine~ (page 3)

XQsThaiPoes

LL what about mel gibson movie? He has Jesus Ressurected in the same psuedo-gnostic fashion the watchtower promotes. His body disolves (the burial cloth deflates), and Jesus materializes beside the cloths. This may have been just a cheesy melodramatic hollywood sfx (looks more supernatural than jesus comming to life looking like the mummy), and nothing more, but in greater theological context do you know exactly where do the recreated vs resurrected religions stand.

FlyingHighNow

So in this instance, the Society's own doctrine of the soul appears to draw itself on ancient Greek philosophy.

Leo, thank you for such in depth thoughts and information. Your research is always amazing.

MJ, thank you for more comments.

XQs, I was too chicken to see Mel's movie. I was afraid it would upset me deeply. I always have cried when I read the account of the people spitting on Jesus' face. Maybe someday when I am feeling strong enough, I'll watch it.

Leolaia

M.J.....You could also refer to what Josephus says about the groups:

"For among the Judeans there are three forms of philosophy. Now the Pharisees are one sect, Sadducees another, and in fact the third, called Essenes, seems to be the most reverential discipline....Pharisees are those who are most skillful in the exact explication of their laws, and ascribe everything to fate and God. Yet they believe that the power to do what is right or wrong is principally in the hands of men, although fate does play a role in every action. They say that all souls are immortal, but that only the souls of good men are reunited into glorified bodies, while the souls of bad men are subject to eternal punishment. The Sadducees are those that compose the second order, and reject the concept of fate entirely, and believe that God is not concerned in whether we do what is evil or not. Instead they say it is merely a choice whether to do what is good or evil, so that any may act as they please. They also reject the belief of the immortality of the soul and the punishments and rewards of Hades" (Josephus, Jewish War 2.8.2-14).

"Now, for the Pharisees, they live meanly, and despise delicacies in diet; and they follow the conduct of reason; and what that prescribes to them as good for them they do....They also believe that souls have an immortal rigor in them, and that under the earth there will be rewards or punishments, according as they have lived virtuously or viciously in this life; and the latter are to be detained in an everlasting prison, but that the former shall have power to revive and live again...But the doctrine of the Sadducees is this: That souls die with the bodies; nor do they regard the observation of any thing besides what the law enjoins them; for they think it an instance of virtue to dispute with those teachers of philosophy whom they frequent...The doctrine of the Essenes is this: That all things are best ascribed to God. They teach the immortality of souls, and esteem that the rewards of righteousness are to be earnestly striven for; and when they send what they have dedicated to God into the temple" (Josephus, Antiquities 18.1.3-5).

M.J.

Thanks! OK it would appear that the WTS promotes a modern day version of the Sadducees' view of the afterlife (or lack thereof)--they have been able to resolve their Sadducee view with the clear Biblical accounts of eternal reward by tacking on their unique "recreation" doctrine. This is aided by modern analogies of floppy disk "memory" storage, etc.

Yet Paul clearly sided with the Pharisees, against the Saducees on the issue...

http://www.soul.host-ed.me/index.html

~Please help answer this question about a Watchtower doctrine~

XQsThaiPoes

FlyingHighNow

Leolaia

M.J.

Carmel

A Paduan

jonathan dough

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