Did you ever think 2Pet3:9 "God is not slow" proved JWs wrong?

by jwfacts 5 Replies latest watchtower beliefs

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  jwfacts

  The concept that Jehovah is only going to save JWs always was an issue to me. I could never understand how to reconcil such a concept with 2 Peter 3:9;

  “Jehovah is not slow respecting his promise, as some people consider slowness, but he is patient with YOU because he does not desire any to be destroyed but desires all to attain to repentance.”

  n 2005 the global population increased by 215,000 people per day, whilst the net increase of Jehovah's Witnesses was a mere 230 people per day. If only Jehovah's Witnesses are worthy of salvation, each day God waits to bring Armageddon results in 215,000 additional people ready for destruction.

  Did you ever feel that this did not make sense?
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  peacefulpete

  Yes, I remember recognizing that the longer God waited the more he had to kill. When someone filled me in that 2 Peter was written a hundred years or more after the authentic Paulines it began to make sense why the author sought to discount critics of the failed apocalyptic doomsayers. By retrojecting the condemnation of criticism into the past by having "Peter" appear to preempt it, it made it all apear part of some greater prophetic plan.
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  Leolaia

  Interestingly, the Apocalypse of Peter also has a universalist impulse...in 2 Peter the focus is on Judgement Day, in the Apocalypse of Peter the focus is on hell, but in both God desires that all will come to repentance. Another striking similarity between the two works is the conflagrationist scenario of the end of the world .... heavens on fire, elements melting, etc. They seem to come from the same Petrine community....
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  under_believer

  The way it was always read, "as some people consider slowness" was always uttered in a sarcastic tone of voice, and then that phrase was used to "highlight" the idea that God operates on his own timetable, not on some human timetable, or according to human expectations. This was customarily followed up with Habakkuk 2:3, "For [the] vision is yet for the appointed time, and it keeps panting on to the end, and it will not tell a lie. Even if it should delay, keep in expectation of it; for it will without fail come true. It will not be late."
  My point is that there are two distict, irreconcilable viewpoints: a) that God is waiting for everyone who desires repentance to get in, and b) that the time is actually set in stone, and God isn't waiting, and everyone better get in.
  Which is it? Can't be both.
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  jwfacts

  Thanks, three excellent points.

  The Watchtower uses this scripture to explain how near the end is and I expect that as their growth slows more they will push it as proving the end is oh so close. However, you can only use such a concept for a short period of time before it stops making sense, and the Watchtower has used it for 130 years and an increase in the propulation of 5 Billion 'worldly' people.
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  Borgia

  Do you recall who Peter is adressing? Yes, he was talking to the congregation in general. So, With whom does God show patience? Not with the world outside, but the people inside the christian congregation. And by being patient with the Christians, all types of people may get saved.

  This can only be reconciled with the outside world if we picture the writer of 2nd Peter to be in the opinion that the end was very near, during his lifetime. Counting since then, alledgedly 1900 odd years. What should one think of Gods patience. It must be of enourmous proportions. Of a magnitude we cannot possibly comprehend.....Or........the WT, as imperfect man they are, got their figures not quite right.....Deja vu?

  Cheers

  Borgia