by unbaptized 47 Replies latest watchtower beliefs
Heathen,
I respect your view of Heaven, but I know that Heaven is and will never be on earth. The Heavens were God dwells is a place of unapproachable light. The book of Revelations shows that Heaven is the place were God and his angels dwell. The spirit realm.
There are two folds of sheep. One fold has a Heavenly hope and the other has an earthly hope.
It depends on how you look at it unbaptized . The apostle Paul is the one that wrote about the" rapture" and says people will be changed in the twinkling of an eye (1st corinthians 15:52 ) and be changed and that which is corruptable must put on incorruption and that which is mortal shall become immortal in vrs 53. Sounds to me that the meeting in the lord in the air is what the angels told the apostles about how jesus would return as he ascended into the clouds . There are scritpture that support my view as I believe the kingdom of the heavens is the city of new jerusalem mentioned in revelation and in some other new testament scriptures as the jerusalem above thus people will become as the angels and dwell in it for the millenium . The WTBTS did a good job in showing the detail in the grand climax of what it will look like . I'll give them that much.
unbaptized,
Please read John 9:40-10:18.
Jesus was talking to the Pharisees. There were other sheep who were not in the fold of the Jews (there were, infact, two other folds—Samaritans and Gentiles) but the eventual fate of ALL the sheep, regardless of fold, is the same. They all become one flock. A little flock in comparison to the world, but one flock nonetheless. The sheep do not remain separated in different folds, they are combined into one flock.
Respectfully,
AuldSoul
There are indeed to folds of sheep and they each have a different hope. There are those who are called to be Kings and Priest in Heaven. There are those who will find everlasting life on earth as subjects of this new Kingdom. The bible says that 144,000 will be taken from mankind to rule with Christ for a thousand years. As far as new Jerusalem is concerned there will be no literal temple made of gold and elements known to man, but the 144,000 anointed brothers of Christ will make up that temple. They will become God's and the Christs temple. A temple made of 144,000 spiritual beings. Oh yeah, I read those scriptures and I still have a different understanding.
Baptism has nothing to with anointing, its not knowledge that qualifies one to be anointed, in fact the ones choosen, were choosen at the founding of the world, pre-selected, pre-ordained, but predestened. The borg is the one that does the head count and they dont know. There are those of the anointed that partake because of the ostrosyism of the borg.
I know that knowledge does not qualify a person. I also know that God is the one who chooses the people for this fold. As far as the WTS is concerned they can keep a head count all day long and still not have the accurrate count for the Holy ones.
Baptism does have a lot to do with being anointed. The anointed are baptised with the Holy Spirit and baptised with water. So an anointed one can be baptised by Holy Spirit even before water baptism.
I think in Acts it's written that Peter agreed to baptize Cornelius and his whole household, seeing as they were filled with holy spirit all at the same time. (before they'd been baptized)
Frannie
unbaptized,
The sheep from the different folds came OUT of the folds they were in (see the Kingdom Interlinear direct translation of the Greek for John 10:16, published by the Watchtower Bible and Tract Society) and went INTO one flock. They are no longer in separate folds once they are in the same flock.
Respectfully,
AuldSoul
