Resurrection Hope - People in the Future who think they have lived before

by VM44 46 Replies latest watchtower beliefs

• 

  VM44

  Russell mentions that a body replaces itself physically every seven years in the January 1915 Watch Tower [R5612 : pages, 20, 21].

  He even makes reference again to the "convolutions of the brain"

  THE RESURRECTION OF THE BODY

  The restoration of the bodies of the billions who have died would be a very absurd proposition. Scientists tell us that the human frame changes once in every seven years; that continually old matter is being replaced with new, so that a man who has reached the age of forty-nine years has had seven bodies during his lifetime. The change of the body did not affect the personality of the man, however. The sloughing off of a hand or a foot or the loss of an eye might have taken place, but the human soul continues; for it is this intelligent human being that has resulted from the union of matter and vitality. God's proposition is the restoration of this soul, this personality. Never does He speak of the resurrection of the body.

  The theory of the resurrection of the body has involved theologians in many difficulties. Some years ago a story went the rounds of the newspapers to the effect that the coffin of a man who had been buried at the foot of an apple tree had been unearthed, and the discovery made that the roots of the tree had penetrated the coffin and absorbed the body, and that at these roots there was something resembling a hand, an arm, a human limb, etc. In other words, the tree had been living upon that human body. The apples from that tree had been sold to various persons and shipped in all directions; some had been fed to hogs, etc. Those who hold to the theory of the resurrection of the body would have a knotty problem to solve in trying to fit their theory to these facts.

  There is not one statement in the Bible that declares that the same body that dies is to be brought forth in the resurrection. On the contrary we read, "Thou sowest not that body that shall be, but bare grain, it may chance of wheat or of some other grain; but God giveth it a body as it pleaseth Him." He will have no difficulty in making a body; Divine Power is equal to any emergency. The Sadducees doubted the Power of God.

  A STUPENDOUS MIRACLE

  We admit that to produce a body with the same convolutions of the brain, the same individuality, the same soul, the same sentient being, is a miracle so great that we cannot conceive of it. Yet it is that very thing which God purposes to do for the whole human family --thousands of millions in number.

  One might wonder as to who was the scientist that originally made the "seven years" statement concerning bodily replacement!

  There is a critical difference between a body's material being replaced gradually over time and its being replaced "all at once".

  I believe that continuity of being is the key concept to the preservation of personal identity that is missing from Russell's explanation.
• 

  Gopher

  I may not believe in "resurrection of the dead", but I do believe in "resurrection of the THREAD". If this thread were to go unanswered for three weeks, then somebody posted on it again, voila -- you have a resurrection.

  However, if you made a similar thread with the same ideas (and even the same posters) later, it wouldn't be a resurrection. You could probably call that a reincarnation.
• 

  Awakened07

  I wish I could contribute to the thread, 'cause I really want to! But everything has been said already. This topic intrigues me though.

  An exact replica will always be a replica. So, the future person will (if this were all true, of course) feel and think that they are the same person, but the person they were is still long gone! So - great for that future person; not so great for the guy/gal who was supposed to get eternal life.

  A JW will probably 'counter' that "anything is possible with Jehovah". But is it? I mean - perhaps it would be in theory, but JWs don't believe in a spirit that leaves the body when you die. Or do they somehow? Not sure they know themselves. But what is clearly said is that Jehovah will keep people in His memory until they are resurrected, and then the memories etc. are put back into a new body. In that scenario - with only "data" remaining from the original human - it won't matter if "Jehovah can do anything". If it's only the data about the personality that is 'remembered' and put back, then it is a clone, and not the original person.

  Had they believed in a soul, then it would work, 'cause then the person would leave the body at death and live on until it was put back into a future body, but they don't believe that. It's only data; memories, personality etc. that is kept and put back. Actually, most of our personality comes from our upbringing and experiences in this imperfect life, so how much of you would actually be put back into the future perfect human form, in a future, perfect paradise anyway? Would the future person even be a perfect replica of you? No, it would be a 'sanitized' version. A 'sanitized' version of you, that isn't actually you.

  It doesn't add up.
• 

  LockedChaos

  Really good topic
  Been examining all previous spiritual learnings
  Difficult
  Push back all preconceived notions
  Vigilance
  Easy to slip back into old thoughts
  Gets easier
  Mental discipline slow in coming
  
  Studying all manners of information
  with scripture
  
  Never could reconcile "Living Forever on Earth"
  Didn't want to under JW rules, regs, constraints
  Sounded like Hell on Earth
  
  Thinking there is different meaning
  Not yet reconciled such
  
  Anxious for others thoughts
• 

  White Dove

  Even as a dub, I've always felt that the resurection was a duplication, not a "here I am again" event.

  How can a person be resurrected as an original without the original soul?

  I hold that the resurrection is just another way of denying death forever.

  It came out of fear of death.

  I believe death is the same as before conception.

  We weren't alive then and we won't be alive after we die...maybe.
• 

  Satanus

  A more accurate desciption of the wt ressurection theory is CLONING. The rezzed ones are actually CLONES. Wt jehovah is the great CLONER, the CLONEMASTER.
  
  Funky uttered
  
  'But this idea has at least as many problems as the physical resurrection. Without the hormones and other chemicals of my body and the exact patterns of my neurons and synapses, whatever else that ethereal something is, it's not me. It won't think like me, it won't feel like me, it won't respond to stimulus like me.'
  
  Sounds like you're afraid of it. Heehee. 'Just you wait until you die, you'll see';) Boy, i haven't ever said that before;)
  
  S
• 

  tak

  Russell mentions that a body replaces itself physically every seven years

  Geeezzz... Can I have smaller thighs, no wrinkles, hmmmm... what else!
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  M.J.

  Don't forget the following scenario:
  
  If Jehovah can duplicate "you" AFTER you die, then technically He could also do it BEFORE you die!
  
  Then there would be two of you! But which one is the real you?
  
  It reminds me of that Arnold movie, "The 6th Day", where the main villain cloned himself and transferred his memories to the clone before he died.
  
  Jump to the sequence at 6:45 in the following clip.
  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Bn-QYm9RzU
• 

  mcsemike

  I've always been confused about the verse saying, "the former things will not be called to mind", or similar. Which ones? Just the bad ones? All of them? If someone living today, JW or not, dies before Armageddon, does he remember going to meetings, being part of a human family, etc.? Do those brutally killed get to forget those memories for eternity? I would think people who survive Armageddon (if that's how it works) plus those who died this year and maybe Armageddon is ten years away, would want to remember their children being born and the wonderful memories they have of them growing up (learning to walk, to talk, the whole works).

  How is all this going to be decided?
• 

  VM44

  I do not believe that Russell's and The Watchtower's concept of the resurrection is even Biblical!

  Its origin was Russell's attempt to find a materialistic explanation for something he did not understand.