The "new" scrolls are abandoned - No explanation given!

by The Searcher 13 Replies latest watchtower beliefs

• 

  The Searcher

  The September 1st Watchtower 2012, page 16, discards very quietly a false teaching first invented in 1985, and repeated 4 times since - "New Scrolls" - interpolating Revelation 20:12. Here is what it says;

  "The resurrected ones will be judged, not on the basis of what they did before they died, but on what they do when the contents of the "scrolls" mentioned in Revelation chapter 20 are revealed. (Romans 6:7) Among those who will come back to life and have the opportunity to learn about God are "both the righteous and the unrighteous," said the apostle Paul."—Read Acts 24:15.

  That's one myth out of the way; however, that same paragraph continues to perpetuate two more odious teachings, as if they are Bible truths.

  Firstly, "The resurrected ones will be judged, not on the basis of what they did before they died".

  Acts 10:42, Acts 17:31, Romans 14:9, 2 Cor. 5:10, 2 Tim. 4:1 & 1 Pet. 4:5 all claim that Jesus is going to judge the dead!! So in the New World, who are the dead whom Jesus is supposed to judge??????

  Secondly, Inserting a citation of Romans 6:7 and not commenting on it, is very revealing. The false teaching that this verse is to be taken literally, flies in the face of the context of the previous verses, and outrightly ridicules the ransom sacrifice of Christ, by declaring that a man's own death wipes out his sins!!!

  The lack of explanation indicates the reluctance to "dig the hole deeper", because it may elicit stronger reaction from some and give the elders more headaches.
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  jgnat

  myth?
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  blondie

  The WTS considers those that survive Armageddon and those resurrected to life on earth, are dead until they pass the final test from Satan at the end of the 1,000 year reign of Christ.

  *** w09 3/15 p. 12 par. 9 Keep Your Eyes on the Prize ***

  The resurrected ones will be judged, not on the basis of sin inherited from Adam, but by what they themselves choose to do. Revelation 20:12 says: “The dead were judged out of those things written in the scrolls according to their deeds,” that is, their deeds following their resurrection. What a marvelous example of Jehovah’s justice, mercy, and love! Additionally, the painful things of their past life in this old world “will not be called to mind, neither will they come up into the heart.” (Isa. 65:17) With upbuilding new information available and a life filled with good things, they will no longer be distressed by the bad things of the past. Those past experiences can be put out of their minds. (Rev. 21:4) The same will be true of the “great crowd,” who survive Armageddon.—Rev. 7:9, 10, 14.

  *** re chap. 40 p. 290 par. 15 Crushing the Serpent’s Head ***Similarly, pre-Christian witnesses of Jehovah were declared righteous as to friendship with God; and Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob were spoken of as “living” even though they were physically dead. (Matthew 22:31, 32; James 2:21, 23) However, they and all others who are resurrected, as well as the great crowd of faithful other sheep who survive Armageddon and any children that may be born to these in the new world, must yet be raised to human perfection. This will be accomplished by Christ and his associate kings and priests during the thousand-year Judgment Day, on the basis of Jesus’ ransom sacrifice. By the end of that Day, “the rest of the dead” will have “come to life” in the sense that they will be perfect humans. As we shall see, they must then pass a final test, but they will face that test as perfected humans. When they pass the test, God will declare them worthy of living forever, righteous in the fullest sense. They will experience the complete fulfillment of the promise: “The righteous themselves will possess the earth, and they will reside forever upon it.” (Psalm 37:29)

  *** w82 4/1 pp. 22-24 pars. 11-13 The Kingdom and the Resurrection Hope ***

  If there is a “first resurrection,” there must logically be a later resurrection. Describing what will occur during the millennial judgment day mentioned earlier in the same chapter, the apostle John wrote:

  “And I saw the dead, the great and the small, standing before the throne, and scrolls were opened. But another scroll was opened; it is the scroll of life. And the dead were judged out of those things written in the scrolls according to their deeds.”—Revelation 20:12.

  12 These “dead” are the same as “the rest of the dead” mentioned in verse five of the same chapter, and of whom it is stated that they “did not come to life until the thousand years were ended.” This cannot mean that they are not resurrected until after the millennial judgment day, because those who share in the “first resurrection” are given “power of judging” and will be “priests” and “rule as kings” with Christ “for the thousand years.” (Revelation 20:4-6) Whom will they judge and rule over as kings, and on behalf of whom will they act as priests, if “the rest of the dead” are not resurrected until the end of the millennium?

  13 Consequently, the expression “come to life” must refer to the situation at the end of the 1,000-year-long Judgment Day. It means that these persons “come to life” in that they finally attain human perfection. They will be in the same perfect condition as were Adam and Eve in the garden of Eden. How will Jehovah then determine whose names are to be written in “the scroll of life,” or “book of life”? It will be by means of a final test upon humankind. (Revelation 20:7-10, 12, 15) Those who prove faithful to God through the final test will be ‘declared righteous’ by Jehovah himself and enter into “the glorious freedom of the children of God” on earth. (Romans 8:21, 33) They will receive the divine guarantee of life everlasting, unlike Adam, who failed under test and so was debarred from access to the “tree of life” by God-sent cherubs.—Genesis 2:9; 3:22-24.
• 

  King Solomon

  Blondie said:

  The WTS considers those that survive Armageddon and those resurrected to life on earth, are dead until they pass the final test from Satan at the end of the 1,000 year reign of Christ.

  So JWs who survive Armageddon are actually "dead"? Hmmm, is "brain dead" now a recognized condition by WT?

  Very confused here: why the need for a 1,000 yr "test" in the New System™ if YHWH is omniscient ("knows all things", including the future) and already knows who will survive? That sounds like a bit of busy-work from here, a mere technicality required just to go thru the motions (again, reminiscent of the training JWs get in FS, etc)....
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  blondie

  Just reporting KS not supporting. If I understood or accepted WTS "reasoning" I wouldn't be posting here and out for 11 years. But this is the WT line and it doesn't have to make sense, after all they are the WESAYSO Corporation and God speaks through them.
• 

  J. Hofer

  i wonder what it would be like to live for a 1000 years. i guess it's like "highlander". you'd just go around and pick fights until you lose your head or time is over. week 53999 would have a lot of partying i'm sure. getting saved with a hangover.
• 

  Leolaia

  The resurrected ones will be judged, not on the basis of what they did before they died, but on what they do when the contents of the "scrolls" mentioned in Revelation chapter 20 are revealed.

  That completely distorts what the passage itself says. The dead are judged PRECISELY on the basis of what they did before they died: "the dead were judged on the basis of what was recorded in the books, according to their deeds" (20:12; translation by Aune). The books are plainly a record of the persons' erga "deeds". This is how the judgment scene plays out in earlier Jewish apocalypses that the author of Revelation was indebted to:

  "I looked at everything on the heavenly tablets and I read everything that was written, and I learned everything. And I read the book and everything that was written in it, all the deeds of men and all the sons of flesh that will be upon the earth until the generations of eternity....Blessed is the man who dies righteous and pious, concerning whom no book of iniquity has been written, and against whom no guilt will be found" (1 Enoch 81:2-4), "In a book it was written how many of them he was destroying...And thus in the vision I saw that one who was writing ... and was showing that whole book to the Lord of the sheep, everything they had done, and everything that each one of them had taken away, and everything that they had handed over to destruction. And the book was read in the presence of the Lord of the sheep, and he took the book from his hand and read it and set it down" (89:70-71), "And I looked at that man who wrote the book at the word of the Lord, until he opened the book of the destruction that those last twelve shepherds worked, and he showed before the Lord of the sheep that they had destroyed more than those before them" (90:17), "What will you do, O sinners, and where will you flee on that day of judgment .... to you the days of your judgment will come. All the words of your lawless deeds will be read out before the Great Holy One, and your face will be put to shame, and then he will remove all the deeds that partook in lawlessness" (97:3-6), "I swear to you, sinners, by the Great Holy One, that all your evil deeds are revealed in heaven, and you will have no unrighteous deed that is hidden. Do not suppose to yourself nor say in your heart, that they do not know nor are your unrighteous deeds seen in heaven, nor are they written down before the Most High. Henceforth know that all your unrighteous deeds are written down day by day, until the day of your judgment" (98:4-8), "Then be prepared, O unrighteous, and present your petitions as a reminder, offer them as a testimony before the angels, that they may bring in the sins of the unrighteous before the Most High as a reminder" (99:3), "Woe to you, unrighteous, when you afflict the righteous on a day of hard anguish, and burn them in fire; for you will be recompensed according to your deeds...Woe to you, all you sinners, because of the words of your mouth and the deeds of your hands, for you have strayed from the holy deeds, in the heat of a blazing fire you will burn. And now know that from the angels inquiry will be made into your deeds in heaven" (100:7, 9-10), "I have read the tablets of heaven, and I have seen the writing of what must be, and I know the things that are written in them and inscribed about you .... Woe to you, dead sinners, when you die in your sinful wealth ... They have died in splendor, and judgment was not executed on them in their life. Know that down to Sheol they will lead your souls, and there they will be in a great distress, and in darkness and in a snare and in a flaming fire. Into great judgment your souls will enter, and the great judgment will be for all the generations of eternity" (102:2, 5-8), "Do not say, O sinners, 'None of our sins will be searched out and written down,' all your sins are being written down day by day" (104:7),"And Enoch was taken from the children of men and we led him to the garden of Eden for greatness and honor. And behold he is there writing condemnation and judgment of the world, and all of the evils of the children of men .... he was put there for a sign and so that he might bear witness against all the children of men so that he might relate all of the deeds of the generations until the day of judgment" (Jubilees 4:23-24), "Thus a blessing and righteousness will be written on high as a testimony for him in the heavenly tablets before the God of all. And we will remember for a thousand generations the righteousness which a man did during his life in all of the appointed times of the year. And it will be written on high and it will come to him and his descendents after him. And he will be written down as a friend and as a righteous one in the heavenly tablets....But if they transgress and act in all the ways of defilement, they will be recorded in the heavenly tablets as enemies, and they would be blotted out of the book of life" (30:19-20, 22), "And you, understanding one, inherit your reward in the remembrance of [...]. Engraved is your portion and ordained is all the punishment, for engraved is that which is ordained by God against all the [...] of the sons of Seth, and a book of remembrance is written in his presence for those who keep his word. And this is the vision of meditation and a book of remembrance. And he will give it as an inheritance to Enosh together with a spiritual people, for according to the pattern of the holy ones is his fashioning, but he did not give meditation as a witness to the spirit of flesh, for he does not know the difference between good and evil according to the judgment of its spirit" (4Q417 1 1:14-17), "Everything has been engraved before you with the stylus of remembrance for all the incessant periods and the cycles of the number of everlasting years in all their predetermined times, and they will not be hidden, and will not be lacking from before you. How will a man count his sin? How will he defend his iniquities?" (1QH 9:23-26), "There is no moment in which man's works can be concealed, because they are written on the heart in the Lord's sight. And the Spirit of Truth testifies to all things and brings all accusations. He who has sinned is consumed in his heart and cannot raise his head to face his judge" (Testament of Judah 20:4-5),"These are the angels of the Lord Almighty. They write down all the good deeds of the righteous upon their manuscript as they watch at the gate of heaven. And I take them from their hands and bring them up before the Lord Almighty, he writes their name in the Book of the Living. Also the angels of the accuser who is upon the earth, they also write down all the sins of men upon their manuscript" (Apocalypse of Zephaniah 4:6-9), "The wondrous man who sat on the throne was the one who judged and sentenced the souls. The two angels on the right and on the left recorded. The one on the right recorded righteous deeds while the one on the left recorded sins....And the judge told on of the angels who served him, 'Open for me this book and find for me the sins of this soul' " (Testament of Abraham 12:11-17), "Behold, days are coming and the books will be opened in which are written the sins of all those who have sinned" (2 Baruch 24:1).

  This is the background to the identical reference in Revelation 20:12-13 to books being opened and the dead being judged according to their deeds as written in the books. The same is background to other references to judgment of the dead in the NT. When Jesus says that "it will be more bearable for Sodom and Gomorrah on the day of judgment than for that town" (Matthew 10:15), he is talking about judgment for the deeds that the people of Sodom and Gomorrah had formerly committed. Similarly he says "The men of Nineveh will stand up at the judgment with this generation and condemn it, for they repented at the preaching of Jonah" (Matthew 12:41). There are references to the disciples' names being already "written in heaven" in Luke 10:20, Hebrews 12:23, and Philippians 4:3 (written in the "book of life"). Paul refers to the dead being judged according to their former deeds: " We make it our goal to please him, whether we are at home in the body or away from it. For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each of us may receive what is due us for the things done while in the body, whether good or bad" (2 Corinthians 5:9-10). Concerning the day of judgment, 2 Peter writes that "the heavens will disappear with a roar; the elements will be destroyed by fire, and the earth and everything done in it will be laid bare" (3:10).
• 

  Cold Steel

  People are judged based on the lives they lead on Earth. As the scriptures state, all will be judged by Jehovah (Jesus). For "the Father judgeth no man, but has committed all judgment to the Son" (see John 5:22).
• 

  Bobcat

  Searcher (quoting from WT):

  "but on what they do when the contents of the "scrolls" mentioned in Revelation chapter 20 are revealed."

  I hate to tell you this, but this sounds like no change at all. They simply left out the word "new" and replaced it with the phrase "are revealed."That's what it is sounding like to me anyways.

  Take Care
• 

  The Searcher

  @BOBCAT

  You may very well be right - but I don't care what they 'think' they are saying, I can now openly and safely, say to some brothers, that there are definitely no "new" scrolls anymore - based on this Watchtower and the Bible itself!!!

  On those two evidences, I rest my case, m'lud!!!