Confusing details in "What Does the Bible Really Teach?"

by WingCommander 15 Replies latest jw friends

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  WingCommander

  I've gotten through this entire booklet and have post-it notes on nearly every page. I know this is a "study brochure" for newly interested persons, but the sugar-coating and glossing over of history, facts, and some of the outright lies I've discovered in it are astounding.

  Here is a "for instance":

  On pages 214-215, it talks about the resurrection and how people will be judged. Reading this makes it seem very "Seventh Day Adventist", because they basically state that DEATH has paid for our sins, and that everyone will be resurrected, allowed time to change and follow God's laws, and THEN be judged by Jesus, as the 1,000 years are really "Judgement Day." This is completely astounding to me, as I, being brought up a JW, was NEVER taught this way. It was grilled into us that ONLY JW's would be resurrected, and of course those in the past who did not have the opportunity to hear Jesus' message. No other Christians would be resurrected, especially Pagan Christians like Catholics, etc...only people like Martin Luther and Calvin who were given "New Light" during their time. Yes, people who died before ever hearing of Jesus, etc would have to live accordingly during the 1,000 year reign, but these paragraphs give the impression that ALL people who died are now free of sin and have yet ANOTHER chance at following YHWH's laws. To be honest, this certainly sounds like something a merciful God would do, instead of just condemning everyone to Gehanna because Satan tricked them. But again, this is NOT how things were presented to me growing up.

  I have to say again this is an incredible concept for me. I mean, if death pays for our sins (remember in the Bible it says somewhere that the wages that sin pays is death) and Jesus died for our salvation (eerrr....the 144,000, sorry) then wouldn't EVERYONE over that span of 1,000 years be resurrected, given the chance to worship correctly, and then be judged according to their deeds during that 1,000 years?? That is another thing....these pages DIRECTLY state that our deeds that we did BEFORE we die don't count, that it is our deeds DURING that 1,000 years that we are to be judged on. Again, this contradictory to what I was taught.

  I really have a hard time wrapping my mind around what I was taught for half my life, and now these concepts found on these pages. It does however match up with the current flip-flop of the sheep and goats NOT be seperated by the door-to-door ministry (as was held for years and years), and now the seperating is to be done by Jesus after Armaggedon.

  What say all of you? Is this a flash of "New Light", or merely sugar-coating what they really believe??? Also, Armaggedon had better hurry up and get here, as we are nearly 100 years into Jesus' 1,000 year reign, and I imagine there's alot to be done afterwards?

  - Wing Commander
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  PSacramento

  Ah, Revelation, gotta love that book...

  Certain groups tend to favour highly symbolic and subjective books to base their doctrine on, interpreation of such being hard to prove one way or another.

  We need to remember this, the words of Jesus superceed anything else written in the OT or the NT books and letters, what he said in the Gospels pretty much is the key to the rest.

  Revelation is a book that is overly symbolic and as such leaves close to everythign open to interpretation, heck even the WT has flipped'flopped over parts of revelation over the years.
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  carla

  If death pays for our sins then the r & f have no need whatsoever for Jesus do they?They really need to get on the good side of the 144,000 not Christ Himself, hence all the work for the org, not out of love of Christ. (by Christ I mean Jesus not 'The Christ' as jw's see christ)

  We are nearly 100 years into Jesus' 1000 yr reign?! what has He been doing according to jw's? jah hasn't actually handed any real power over to Him yet, correct? So they have a 'king' , 'exemplar', whatever, who has no power at the moment and who they are not allowed to talk to? but only use His name as somesort of magic mantra at the end of their prayers?
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  PSacramento

  Matthew makes it clear that, in Jesus's own words, from the moment of his ascension, Jesus has been ruling at his fathers right hand.
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  bluecanary

  Sorry, WC, but that's not new light. That's what I remember being taught for the last 20 years.
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  linp24

  Thank you Wing Commander for asking that question. It is the question that I have been wanting to ask but could not articulate it. You did it for me. What are their teachings about the resurrection of the dead. Can someone please elaborate. I am an "outsider" and have only shallow understanding of their beliefs........but this forum has been enligtening me.
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  joelingeorgia

  the teaching has always been that everyone that died before armageddon, except for Adam and Eve and the residents of Sodom and Gomorrah would be resurrected. there has always been a distinction between dying and being destroyed by Jehovah. only those destroyed by Jehovah are not in line for a resurrection.

  my argument has always been, then well, it would have been better to have lived in the 18th or 19th century and died and be resurrected to a paradise earth without all the pressures people are under today. of course you can't have sex, since you are like the angels. but hey, always a price to pay.
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  bluecanary

  of course you can't have sex, since you are like the angels. but hey, always a price to pay.

  That's something I've heard several times on this board, but never when I was in the b0rg. Did they say in print that resurrected people would not get to marry? I thought the scripture about "angels in heaven" only meant that a person's marriage in his previous life would be severed.
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  linp24

  Thanks for the explanation joelingeorgia. It really cleared things up. Wonder what they think of the bible statement, "He by the grace of God tasted death for EVERY MAN." Their resurrection teachings not exactly "good tidings of great joy."
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  WTWizard

  The teaching I was taught since the late 1980s was that everyone that died, except those who were witlesses and left, or those who directly sinned against the Holy Spirit, would receive resurrections and be given that chance to become witlesses during the Millennium. As for those who were alive at Armageddon, initially I was told that one needed to be on the way in, or already in and making a reasonable effort to stay in, or in a mental condition not conducive to making a stand through no fault of one's own, to survive.

  Of course, they altered that once I got in (and the "new" information), to indicate that even most of those in would not make it through. One had to be doing more than one could actually do, harboring no "secret sin", and totally sincere if one was to have any chance of making it. One could die merely for hoping for a blizzard to cancel a boasting session or going in from field circus at 4 PM when Jehovah thought you could have stayed out until 4:01 (and "saved" one more life, which is now on your hands). Additionally, you could die for stumbling others. However, if you died prior to Armageddon, you were assured a resurrection unless you already were a witless and then did not meet the standards, or you were outstandingly wicked (even Hitler has a better resurrection hope than someone that was a witless and did a "secret sin").