I knew of an elder(now deceased) who was certain that he saw one, regardless of the WT's view. I suspect that JWs are like everyone else when it comes to UFOs. No one really believes unless they see one for themselves.
UFO's what do the JW believe
by zeb 16 Replies latest social current
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blondie
Worldwide Security p 184 22 The God of the "Prince of Peace" Becomes "All Things to Everyone" ***To all eternity our earth will bear a distinction that no other planet throughout endless space will enjoy, though the earth may not be the only planet that will ever be inhabited. Uniquely, it will be where Jehovah has indisputably vindicated his universal sovereignty, establishing an eternal and universal legal precedent. It will be the only planet on which Jehovah of armies will have fought "the war of the great day of God the Almighty." It will be the only planet to which God sent his dearest Son to become a man and die in order to recover the planet?s inhabitants from sin and death. It will be the only planet from which Jehovah will have taken 144,000 of its inhabitants to be "heirs indeed of God, but joint heirs with Christ."?Romans 8:17.
w54 3/1 159 Questions From Readers ***
The publishers of "NewHeavensandaNewEarth" are well aware that some have speculated about creatures from earth as being taken to other planets to populate them, and the way some of these speculators talk it exalts their importance and makes it sound as though Jehovah needs men of the earth to complete his work of creation relative to other planets, and it is with such presumptuousness in view that the book said Jehovah does not need them. The expression about not needing them is designedly used to refute these unvoiced assumptions of God?s need of human couples on the part of those voicing such private interpretations. To preach that Jehovah?s purpose is to populate the other planets with couples from earth does make such couples necessary for his purpose. If it were his purpose to do it in that way, then he would be in need of such couples; otherwise he would have to do it in a way other than what he had purposed. If he did not use them his purpose to do it in that way would fail. So for these reasons the book had grounds for brushing aside this assumed need of Jehovah for human couples. w54 3/1 159 Questions From Readers ***
Whether there are other planets like the earth in other parts of the universe or not, and, if so, whether any of them are inhabited by some kind of life or not, or whether any of them ever will be so inhabited in the future or not, we cannot say because the Bible does not say. To concern ourselves with such questions is idle speculation, and we could never arrive at any definite answer. We can say, however, that there are no Scriptural grounds for contending that any future populating of other planets will be done by transporting couples from earth. The earth and the people on it are not that important. If Jehovah wanted flesh-and-blood creatures on other planets he could easily make them from the dust of those planets, and not need to miraculously transport earthly couples through light-years of space. It is well for us not to exalt ourselves to such a spectacular role in universal affairs, but concentrate on the earthly duties given us by our Creator. Remember what Jesus said: "Everyone that exalts himself will be humiliated, but he that humbles himself will be exalted."?Luke 18:14; 14:7-11, NW. w65 11/15 703-4 Questions from Readers ***
Even if the Creator should at some future time populate other planets?which is something that we do not know there still would be no need for repetition of Jesus? sacrifice and the vindication of Jehovah's sovereignty. -
Leolaia
IM NOT SAYING ITS DEMONS
BUT ITS DEMONS
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Vidiot
jwfacts: ”I remember having the argument whilst a JW that there was no reason there could not to be aliens, or even other universes. The answer was always that the Bible would have told us if there were…”
Oh, for the love of…
By that logic, dinosaurs, Native Americans, and fragging germs couldn’t have existed. This Medieval Church reasoning made honest paleontology and a whole host of other scientific fields damn near impossible for centuries. We’d have been to the nearest stars and back by now, otherwise.
jwfacts: “…and that it would nullify the importance of Jesus ransom. I could never particularly understand that line of reasoning.”
My JW Dad thought along similar lines when I was younger.
He reasoned that since the rebellion of Satan and thusly, the Fall in Eden only occurred on Earth, any intelligent ETs that God may or may not have created would (unlike human beings) therefore be “perfect”, having not “fallen into Sin”, which would make their existence virtually impossible, since the whole “sovereignty issue” thing put the goal of “perfection” (among other things) on standby until the matter was settled once and for all.
Later he theorized that, even in the unlikely (to JWs) event that intelligent ETs existed, there’s no way we’d be allowed to make First Contact because our “imperfection” made us, I dunno, unworthy of leaving Earth. Or something…
He got less clear and more weirdly speculative the further down that line of thought he went, probably because, on the other hand, he liked scifi (especially Star Trek) and wanted to believe that humans would explore and colonize the galaxy after the Millennial Reign… to his credit, he had no problem with the possibility of extrasolar planets populated with nonsentient alien animals, i.e. animals. Whatever the case, I miss him. He'd been one of the good, decent JWs.
Additionally, I personally came to the conclusion (a long time ago) that the existence of intelligent ETs would support evolution for more than it would creationism, and evolution completely undermines the basis of the Ransom Sacrifice/Substitutionary Atonement concept.
jwfacts: “The Watchtower does not believe in aliens (except for the demonic kind as quoted in Leo's comment).”
Yeah, pretty much.
I remember the Awake! article from the 90s about UFOs. Like the article asking “Ape Men – What Were They?”, the UFO piece didn’t actually directly answer the question of whether ETs could be real (which annoyed me in both cases; why present a question if you weren’t going to at least attempt a genuine answer?).
Instead, (like the Ape Men article), it cast spurious doubt on the sources of any alleged evidence; in the case of UFOS, by heavily implying that close encounters were likely of demonic origin, particularly since said encounters often involved the promotion of non-Biblical “gospels” and science, etc., and that accounts of demons in the Bible included the creation of convincing illusions (such as UFOs).
Even back then I had a funny little wish that smoking-gun proof of intelligent ETs (or evolution, for that matter) would be found and/or made public, just to make the old hidebound JWs uncomfy, and free me up to be more accepting of things (at the time, it never occurred to me that for lifelong devout JWs, that sort of thing would completely shatter their world).
That being said, this attitude isn’t unique to the WTS.
The conservative evangelical worldview (JW or otherwise) leaves virtually no room whatsoever for the possibility of ETs for pretty much all the reasons listed above. It’s why I suspect whatever alleged evidence the US government may or may not have probably won’t be made public any time soon; the Religious Right is too entrenched in DC, and the conservative evangelical voting bloc would have a nation-wide shit fit if any current or near-future administration even so much as hinted at genuine Disclosure.
For-real First Contact would bugger up the socio-political landscape of the US (and to varying degrees, the rest of the planet) for decades.
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DATA-DOG
For-real First Contact would bugger up the socio-political landscape of the US (and to varying degrees, the rest of the planet) for decades.
We can only hope! In the meantime I will be brushing up on my online tactical squad skills, and self-defense techniques so I will be ready to lead a resistance movement against the Draconians if necessary!!
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kepler
I am still waiting for the Bible to tell us that there is a western hemisphere. And that it was inhabited before it was discovered by Bible toting people. And what should be done about it. Or that you can live on the bottom of the earth as well as the top ( the southern hemisphere).
But we are all literalists here.
So, if you are living in the (northern) Eastern Hemisphere, you'll be OK for now. But here in the west, we do not exist and never did.
Re-reading the first chapter of Ezekiel, I find it a stretch to say that that is a UFO. Too much symbolic staturary. More like a portable throne for the boss who lost a Temple in Jerusalem a few years back. Also, just one witness.
As for demons or outlanders, I'd say that the OT is virtually a desert in that regard, but the pace picks up in the NT right away with demons behind every tree, though I'm not sure how they got here, as absent as they were in the older scripture. Seems like right after they got started building the 2nd Temple, it became a problem.
For the Bible to predict other worlds around other stars, it would first have to come to grip with stars as suns. They were still having trouble with that idea when the King James version was under way. Some pagan philosophers had guessed it though - as did Giordano Bruno with more detail. Galileo was in trouble about this time for saying that the Earth moved, vs. what Psalms and Chronicles supposed, resting immovably on foundations of stone.
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Acluetofindtheuser
Some of the December Watchtowers highlighting the birth of Jesus explain their stance on UFOs. When they talk about the star that led the wise men to Jesus they say it had to be a flying low altitude beacon to reveal Jesus' exact location. Flying light orbs are the most common UFO's seen today. Since the gospel light orb sought out jealous King Herod first the society holds the view that it was a product of Satan.
Have you ever read about the Foo Fighter phenomena of World War II? High speed balls of light chased both Nazi and Allied fighter aircraft during the war. No one knows for sure why UFO activity was so active during this particular war but some have attributed it to Hitler's occult interests. If you want to see another guaranteed UFO sighting just follow someone interested in New Age thinking. I know someone who occasionally picks them up on digital camera shots. In one photo the UFO looked like a 4 ft amoeba. The second photo I saw it had the appearance of amoeba with light emitting from its center.
