Was Solomon apostate ?

Rummy1

It occurred to me that Solomon wrote at least 2 books of the Bible and part of Proverbs.According to JWs (and Bible) he later became "bad" and lost Jehovah's favour.As far as we know the situation remained that way ; i.e. he didn't repent and return to Jah like other Bible writers ( David etc ) . So why were his writings allowed as part of the Bible ? Is'nt this like an ex-jw or apostate being allowed to remain in Bethel writing articles etc ?

patio34

Hi Rummy,

Those are very good points and as far as i know he died 'apostate.' Plus, there isn't much in a negative way said about him in the bible. Right away when he became king, he married an Egyptian princess and built a temple for her. Doesn't seem to add up to the modern practices to me.

Pat

ashitaka

Somehow, Solomon was always one of my favorites of the Old Test. authors. I thought he seemed more real, and less perjured than the rest.

As for the question, Rummy, I think that some of fred's writing is still in existing publications...could be wrong though.

ashi

DakotaRed

Maybe the Watchtower views it as Good Apostates and Bad Apostates. From their "Insight" book, we find:

*** it-2 991 Solomon ***

Evidently his proverbs were uttered, and the books of Ecclesiastes and The Song of Solomon, as well as at least one of the Psalms (Ps 127), were written during his period of faithful service to God.

What I see is that what good you did, defined as what the Watchtower liked or what furthers their cause, is good and acceptable. But, since you leave off being a Christian, defined as no longer staying with the Watchtower, then all those "good deeds" are useful only to be used to mislead others into submitting their lives to the cult. You, on the other hand, still rot in the grave, deservedly by their reckoning, with no chance at ressurrection.

Boy, I'm sure glad that matters will be left in God's hands and not theirs!

If God's Spirit is filling a Kingdom Hall, how is it that Satan can manuever the ones within that Kingdom Hall at the same time?

ISP

Good point Rummy! The WTS do their best to distance themselves from those who leave.

For example, Ray Franz's 'Aid Book' was ditched for the 'Insight' Books. Ed Dunlaps...'James' book was used once in the early '80s and thereafter not referred to since following Ed's booting from Bethel.

ISP

Nemesis

You forgot the juicy bits, He [Solomon] had 700 wives and 300 whore concubines, and still he wasn’t satisfied! He also set up temples to the false gods, including Astoreth [Also associated with modern day Satanism]. Not to mention he was a slave driver and got all the credit for building the temple when there is no evidence he did any work at all, poor old Canaanite slaves got no thanks for their hard work!

“And King Solomon himself loved many foreign wives along with the daughter of Pharaoh, Moabite, Ammonite, Edomite, Sidonian and Hittite women, from the nations of whom Yahweh had said to the sons of Israel: “YOU must not go in among them, and they themselves should not come in among YOU; truly they will incline YOUR heart to follow their gods.” It was to them that Solomon clung to love them. And he came to have seven hundred wives, princesses, and three hundred concubines; and his wives gradually inclined his heart. And it came about in the time of Solomon’s growing old that his wives themselves had inclined his heart to follow other gods; and his heart did not prove to be complete with Yahweh his God like the heart of David his father. And Solomon began going after Ashtoreth the goddess of the Sidonians and after Milcom the disgusting thing of the Ammonites. And Solomon began to do what was bad in the eyes of Yahweh, and he did not follow Yahweh fully like David his father.”—1 Kings 11:1–6

Can you imagine one of us doing that and still getting good press and PR from the Watchtower like they do with Solomon? Even two wives and a mistress would get you damned as a “devil pervert”. Funny how they glamorize what was an extremely sex obsessed man, not to mention building satanic churches to satisfy his wives!