Animals, the Resurrection and the Future

by Cold Steel 5 Replies latest watchtower beliefs

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  Cold Steel

  Since Jehovah's Witnesses reject the notion the idea that human beings are spirits, what is the general thought in the community regarding animals? Are they considered intelligent? If so, are they covered under Christ's eternal atonement?

  When men are resurrected, do they return to what Adam and Eve were, and placed in a garden paradise forever? If so, there must be animals. But they might be new animals, animals that have never before lived. What about that?

  What, too, of the future? How long can man live in a paradise without being bored out of his collective mind? Will we build space ships and visit the stars?

  I've never heard anything concerning this and other questions. Has God ever created anything before He created man? Did He create the world in seven 24-hour days or are we to understand "days" are "eras"? And why did God create man a little below God Himself (elohim) if for all intents and purposes, angels have more power (such as the power to move from one place to another by mere thought)?

  When one considers the JW universe, how is it to be interpreted? We earthbound mortals used to believe in one galaxy until we discovered we were one of millions and millions of galaxies, each with billions of stars. Is man God's first creation or has He done this before?

  Those of us who have animals as pets know each has his and her own dispostion and quirks. Some of the early Christian fathers thought of them as mere autotrons, creatures who in every respect mimick life, yet are devoid of intelligence or wholly incapable of suffering or love. Anyone who's ever had a cat or a dog knows animals can love, get embarrassed, feel jelousy and suffer. But what do the JWs have to say about this? When our pets pass on, it that all there is for them?

  Even if you're not a JW, what are your views? Do animals have spirits? Are there other worlds? What are your views on the world to come (if there is one)? But I'm more interested to hear what JWs have to say or hear what they believe.

  Thanks!
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  shamus100

  Why hi there,

  Dirty filthy animals will still die in "The New System" (trademark). It will be up to perfect humans to clean up their poop, bodies, and other general business in the parklike surroundings - you know, the one where every house imagineable is perched right beside a waterfall.

  What is to come in the future with regards to their spirits? I think their spirits are going right back to where we are going - back to carbon.
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  Narkissos

  To your other questions on JW beliefs:

  I remember that they have occasionally toyed with ideas like space travel, populating other planets or even God creating new things after the millenium. It's usually a hypothetical half-sentence in WT literature with a warning against speculation which fuels speculation in the JW community for years...

  They do believe (against the text imo) that the "days" in Genesis 1 are eras; used to be 7,000 years periods (that was integral to the calculation of 1975 as last end-of-the-world date) but now it's only "thousands of years".

  JWs aside, an interesting view is the (proto-Sadducee?) one in Ecclesiastes 3: "I said in my heart with regard to human beings that God is testing them to show that they are but animals. For the fate of humans and the fate of animals is the same; as one dies, so dies the other. They all have the same breath, and humans have no advantage over the animals; for all is vanity. All go to one place; all are from the dust, and all turn to dust again. Who knows whether the human spirit goes upward and the spirit of animals goes downward to the earth?" This is actually a one-world view, which is incompatible with notions like "new world" (nothing new under the sun), paradise or resurrection.
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  designs

  Narkissos,

  Back in the late 60's the Society was promoting two views about the length of the creative days and the length of the 7th Day. Fred Franz was a huge proponent of septem-millenarianism which the Watchtower and Awake journals were heavily promoting, but the Aid Book had a different view calling the days 'The Bible does not specify the length of each of the creative periods', p.392. Fred won that ideological power struggle for a few more years.

  I was giving a lecture at a college in Los Angeles in 1969 to a comparative religions class and they asked about our view on creation and I blabbed on about the earth being 48,000 years old (classical Fredism) I tell you the collective laugh almost knocked me off the stage. What a journey.
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  Heaven

  If Egyptian Arabian horses aren't in the new system, count me out!

  Ok, seriously, it always disturbed me that animals would not be resurrected. I loved all my animals as much as I loved the people in my life. I can't imagine spending eternity without them.
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  Cold Steel

  I feel the same way about my cat. I recall the TWILIGHT ZONE episode about the old country guy who died with his dog, and they both headed down the long road together. The first gate they came to claimed to be heaven, but the dawg wasn't allowed inside. Then the man noticed the smoke blowing from around the bend. The dawg went crazy and urged the man on, and they eventually found heaven. There are similar mythological stories that are very similar.

  One of the thing that's always been interesting about the Witnesses is their inistance that all books of scripture are equal (as if each word was dictated by God). Thus, Ecclesiastes, a philosophical work, has the same weight as more positive eschatological works. Since Adam was slated to live forever, does the atonement simply mean that we'll be restored to what we were before the fall, nothing more or less? In other words, what is the "new system" going to be comprised of?

  Also, what is the relation of the creation of the Earth and the creation of the Universe? Were they created together, or did the Universe exist beforehand? Many Christian sects believe in creation from nothing, and I assume the JWs believe the same. Jehovah is God and He created the angels, the first angel being Michael (Jesus). Before all this, I suppose we can assume that Jehovah existed all alone. One wonders what He did during all those quazillions of years when nothing (but Him) existed. Being the same "unchangable" God, what was it that suddenly caused Jehovah to decide to create?

  Another question on time is why God would need seven periods to create when He could just speak the word and it would all come into being instantly? All religions have this problem to some degree or another, but ever since William Miller, some religions have boxed themselves in more than others. Catholics believe in the miraculous transubstantiation of the Eucharist, which can neither be seen, felt, tasted, smelled or felt, yet it's a "miracle" that occurs each time the emblems are blessed. Christ, according to the Witnesses, did something in 1914, though there is nothing at all that would indicate it other than opinions. No scriptures, no visions, no holy writ. It just happened.