by stillAwitness 61 Replies latest jw friends
My cat just told me she wants to live forever..........
She meowed how she was amazingly made and that the 16 to 20 years of life felines live is not enough time to develop her hunting skills... If she lived to 200 years she said that even I could become her prey........
But then she hastly turned around and started liking her but..........
Oh well
our body is designed to live forever
This just reminds me of how the logic of the witnesses flip flops between different issues.
For example, animals have teeth and claws built for very efficiently biting through flesh, but we're told their bodies are not supposed to be that way in a perfect world...
but our bodies, they themselves prove we were meant to live forever!
One of the most transformative things I learned was this: "Your beliefs are not gospel."
This is a hard pill to swallow at first, even for an average person who was never been a Witness, but especially for someone who was and who believed that virtually all of their beliefs were gospel. When you realize the full extent of truth of that statement, you can finally see the reality that everything we have been taught has been the result of where we happened to be born.
If you were raised in a small island somewhere in the Pacific where no one ever heard of the Bible, you would have very different basic ideas about the nature of reality. But if you are that person on the small island, you don't need anyone to come save you from your "predicament". You'll do just fine without ever knowing about some savior that you supposedly need, you probably would believe in many gods or in an entirely different concept of God.
So paradise earth? No, not likely. I'm with DannyBloem...if you want your life to be a paradise, if you want the world to be a paradise, then it's all up to YOU to make it that way. Waiting for someone else to fix our problems doesn't allow us to take full responsibility for ourselves and our lives and our world. I'm not going to spend the rest of my life worrying so much about what's going to happen after I die that I forget about the importance of living NOW. I think there is greater freedom, love and peace in abandoning any strict ideas about the nature of what is real.
A question I would always pose to family who guilted me for "giving up my everlasting life"...how long does a life have to last for it to be truly meaningful and worth living? 20 years? 80? 100? A billion? I don't think we can even yet, if ever, understand the nature of time and human consciousness.
Nicely put Sentient
Do you know how many times Paradise is spoken about in the bible? Only three times. If this was to be the destiny of God's saved people, don't you think it would be used more often?
Ken P.
Very good discussion,
When I asked my bible study conductor why those Jesus resurrected didn't live forever, he said because the ransom sacrifice hasn't been paid yet. Also he said that Jesus performed his miracles (healing the sick, resurrecting) to give people a glimpse of the kingdom that would come.
Regarding Matt 8:11, I'm sure the jw response would be that since Jesus will be ruling at the time, earth would fall under the juristiction of his Heavenly kingdom,
I never did understand how lions were ORIGINALLY meant to all eat grass. But then there's Isaiah 11:7-9 says literally that THEY WILL. So I dunno,
Every time I think I get it, I have another thought, then suddenly I don't get it,
Crank,
This is a hard question. Honestly I think thoese of the first century should have been fully aware of their eventual death. Aparently though many believed the end would come within their lifetime, which it never did. Now whether they had any view of a future earthly paradise, its difficult to say. The idea is their if you look for it but then so is their acknowledgement that their course would be heavenly. I think it is one of thoese issues that are open for interpretation and can be viewed from different angles. I feel their would have to be a purpose for the earth in lines with the thought of creation.
Ticker
We know that "With God, all things are possible", but 1] Does the Bible anywhere, clearly and unequivicably promise a paradise earth? 2] if one were to follow the teachings of Jesus, what hope did he give his followers? 3] Does not the teaching of the paradise depend entirely on the interpretation placed on the Scriptures by the WTS?
Dave's post above (Seven 006) contained excellent reasoning, You have to 'think outside the box' although I know it can sound sooo convincing.
THERE WILL NEVER BE A PARADISE BECAUSE WE ALL HAVE DIFFERENT IDEAS OF WHAT PARADISE IS. WILL WE ALL GET ARE OWN INDIVIDUAL PARADISE.
Even if you didn't age you would still wear out your body, not everything magically regrows. Your teeth don't grow, they would wear out and youd probably eventually die of some form of cancer.
