if you believe you that you have an immortal soul, how could you die or even be resurrected, (the 2 step wt teaching) to go to heaven? Jesus went to heaven in a faked body, no such prop needed when in the wt- way, everything is happening invisibly.
WT addresses the "rapture" teaching.
by wifibandit 46 Replies latest watchtower bible
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Dagney
They started the verbiage in the late '90's. I asked a few elders...this is the rapture...or everybody is going to be on a bus...or the plane will go down.... No answer. -
blondie
I have lived in all but 2 states in the US, and 12 countries besides the US. I have researched and talked to many people of different religions....LDS believe that their physical bodies go to heaven.
The question to ask them is how their bodies change from physical to spiritual then....does their physical body die and their immortal soul go to heaven, are they transformed somehow....and the how is my question.
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Oubliette
Blondie: Oubliette, the WTS teaches that they have to die physically first and be resurrected as a spirit creature
I don't agree with this. The WT is deliberately and noticeably evasive on exactly how this happens, which is not surprising because frankly it's a bunch of "theological" mumbo-jumbo.
The current article says:
So those who will be taken to heaven will first need to be “changed, in a moment, in the blink of an eye, during the last trumpet.” ... Therefore, while we do not use the term “rapture” here because of its wrong connotation, the remaining faithful anointed will be gathered together in an instant of time.- The Watchtower, July 15, 2015, page 19, paragraph 15 - [Emphasis added]
The footnote for the first sentence quoted above reads: "The fleshly bodies of the anointed alive at that time will not be taken to heaven. (1 Cor. 15:48, 49) Their bodies will likely be disposed of in the same manner that Jesus’ body was removed."
Notice the use of the typical WT weasel word "likely" in reference to what happens to their body.
I'm not trying to debate what these words mean because there's no point in that. I also understand that, even among the churches that openly teach "The Rapture" doctrine, there is not monolithic agreement about what it means or how it will or will not happen.
My point is that not all churches that teach "The Rapture" believe that a physical body will go to heaven. It is intellectually and academically dishonest on the part of the WT writers to state that they do. That being said, there is no significant difference between what the WT currently (as of 7/15/15) teaches on this subject and many other Christian churches.
I firmly believe that the ONLY REASON they explicitly deny that this teaching is the same as what many other churches teach is a lame effort to differentiate themselves. Also, to acknowledge the similarities of belief would be tacit admission that other churches correctly understood this doctrine long before the WT leaders. That would make them look bad and we all know they never will stand for that.
Let's review: It's a cult!
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Splash
Does this mean their other teaching that some have already been resurrected since 1919 is also obsolete?
These ones were said to be involved in communicating new light down to the GB.
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prologos
The rulers in the kingdom have to be killed the "AX" Rev. 20. of what use is a body without the head? or is it healed like the ear at Jesus' arrest? healed on the way into heaven? expect a FDS GB bloodbath before Armageddon. -
Vidiot
cappytan - "I have to say, I have never met anyone in the ministry who believed in the rapture and believed that it would be their physical bodies taken to heaven."
The Left Behind movie sure seemed to suggest it.