by DuvanMuvan 32 Replies latest watchtower beliefs
From the May 2014 watchtower article 'Does God know the future?':
"So, what is in your future? Can anyone know? Professionals who try to predict the future have met with some successes but also many failures. Yet, it is said that God can accurately foretell upcoming events. His Word says: “From the beginning I foretell the outcome, and from long ago the things that have not yet been done.” (Isaiah 46:10)"
DuvanMuvan: If god could see into the future, why has he allowed so many bad things to happen? For example in the garden of eden. He should have known from the beginning what would happen.If there was even the tiniest chance that they'd eat the fruit then god obviously didn't think it would be benefical to, idk, prevent it from happening? Especially since he would have been able to see all the sufferring that would come as a result of it. I've been told that it was because of our "free will" or something but that raises a whole load of other problems.
The scriptures teach that God knows all things from the beginning. So about the Garden of Eden, what makes you think God didn't want us to fall? Think about it, God places two intelligent but naive beings into an environment where everything is given to them on a platter. No poisonous insects, no infectious diseases, animals who only want to be our friends and the most cunningly evil being in the cosmos. Then he places a tree in the garden, the fruit of which gives man the ability to know good from evil and which induces death, and he commands us not to eat that fruit. Doesn't that sound like a setup to you?
The idea was for man to partake of that fruit. Why? Because man taking upon himself death and wisdom had to be his choice, not God's. In premortality, God had already held a grand council in which he had appointed a savior (Yahweh) for mankind; and why a savior if he didn't know man would need one. Because of God's laws of justice and through the atonement by Jesus, man first took upon himself death, then gained the power to be resurrected to a state much superior to that of Adam and Eve. Both were immortal, but they were created without any glory or power whatsoever. Because of the atonement, man can be resurrected to a state where he is equal to Christ in power and glory. John said that we don't know what we will attain through Christ, but that "when we see him, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is." As co-inheritors with Christ, he said, we inherit all that the Father has. Jesus sits on the right hand of the Father and we sit down with him in his throne. Even those who don't attain to this highest degree of glory can attain lesser degrees which, while lower, are still vastly superior to the glory of Adam and Eve, which was no glory whatsoever.
As stated, God could not force man to fall because he knew it would bring about suffering and death. He had to place him in a position to choose it himself. Suffering and death allows man to be tried and tested, to face and endure death. On the plus side, man gained one of God's greatest powers: to know good from evil. Man could not become as God without 1) knowing good from evil, and 2) an atonement that would catapult him into a superior state of physical being. Had Adam and Eve subsequently partaken of the tree of life, it would have been a disaster, for it would have reverted man into what he was: knowing good from evil, but being immortal, with no opportunity of growth or to suffer, both of which was necessary to God's plan. So of course God knew what would happen. He was counting on it. And because he knows all things, he knows every facet of what will happen. But the laws he lives by also requires that he allow man free agency; and to stop all evil would be contrary to that. True, there are some situations in which he does interfere, but overall he must allow man to pursue his own dictates without interference. It's difficult to explain, but nevertheless a fact.
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If God /Jehovah could see into the future the WTB&TS would never ever need to fall back on the excuse the light gets brighter and brighter .They would never ever have to make continual adjustments to their previously announced new truths .
They would never ever have to do backflips on previous new light that was accepted then abandoned and then accepted again as new light . Rom.13:1,2. as an example.
The GOD of jehovahs witnesses , is in constant revision , not only to what is current truth , but also the history of jehovahs witnesses which continually gets refined.
So to your question ? I would have to say NO.
smiddy
Smiddy, you're proceeding from the assumption that there's somehow a connection between God and the Jehovah's Witnesses. If the WTBTS and the Jehovah's Witnesses are God's established kingdom and people on the earth, then it will be the first time in Jewish and Christian history when God has chosen a people and His servants inaudibly and invisibly.
The Governing Body issues instructions as if they'd heard them directly from the Lord. But have they seen Him? Have they seen Him or heard His voice? Have they seen angels? How did they get their ministerial authority?
The reason this is a salient point is that the Jehovah’s Witnesses have an extremely narrow view of God. Armageddon pertains to the world’s war against them. There is no “beast” that will consolidate power throughout the Middle East as the Bible states. Libya, Egypt, Syria, Iran, Iraq, Jordon, Turkey and, to the north, possibly Russia, against the restored nation of Israel. The Bible is very Jerusalem-centric. It doesn’t usually concern itself with the Western Hemisphere (although some prophecy relates to it). But we’re asked by the Governing Body to take in the vast area the scriptures actually calls by their ancient names, convert it and rebrand it to the tiny world of the Jehovah’s Witnesses! For example, Zechariah and other prophets teach that Armageddon will culminate in the coming of Yahweh to the Mount of Olives in glory with all those nations I mentioned specifically referenced as being the players in the great battle. But if we can’t trust the scriptures to mean what they say (rather than what the Governing Body says they mean), what’s to keep the Governing Body from playing the same old games, like “invisible” happenings and figurative occurrences?
Certainly, if one believes God to exist, then yes, God knows everything there is to know about everything. But if one couples that belief with the assumption that the Jehovah’s Witnesses are His people, then you’ve got serious problems.
My favorite answer that I have found to your question which I also asked on my journey is.
We are all part of God. We are god having a material experience.
We are all wired into the God computer and he is taking it all in.
Starting from that premise, you can still have free will.
And you can still have God is always with us if we want him to be.
And you can have, if you choose to seperate from God, Hell or darkness.
And you can also have God knows the begining from the end.
Everyone owes God one death.
If you are lost and don't know how to live, reading the bible and living by it will give you a good guide and a good life.
If you are not lost then you don't need the bible until you need the bible. Jesus came to the sinnners and the lost.
Not for or to those who had all the answers.
My observations are everybody needs God and the bible at sometime in there life.
That is a cross road at that junction they either accept or reject God and the bible.
The way I see Hitler and the Jews.
is the Jews were/ are Gods people and they are arrogant, self ritghteous, and they have gone astray.
They are like an adulterous wife and God allowed Hitler to discipline them in modern times.
Even today Israel is a secular nation they are not a Godly nation. So I would not be supprised if there was further discipline.
Its been over a year and this site will not format paragraphs with internet explorer or Firefox on my computer.
My favorite answer that I have found to your question which I also asked on my journey is:
We are all part of God. We are God having a material experience.
We are all wired into the God computer and He is taking it all in.
Starting from that premise, you can still have free will.
And you can still have God is always with you if you want him to be.
And you can have, Hell or darkness if you choose to seperate from God.
And you can also have God knows the beginging form the end.
The end for all of us is that we all owe God one death.
If you are lost and don't know how to live, reading the bible and living by it will give you a god guide and
a good life.
If you are not lost then you don't need God and the bible, until you need God and the bible.
Jesus came to the sinners and the lost not the righteous. Not for those who had all the answers.
My observations are everybody needs God and the bible at sometime in their life.
That is a cross road. At that junction they either accept God or reject God.
This is going to be incredible hard to understand in so few words and with no illustrations, etc, one day I'll have all of this put together. In the beginning there was chaos. God began to make seperations and distinctions and create order out of chaos. At the same time he did so with good and evil. He chose good and we are still in a seperation phase. Now if it's true that matter can not be created nor destroyed, take that concept and imagine when creating order out of chaos and a seperation of good and evil that this also applies to good or evil. There are several possibilities but in the end Gods plan is for the good and evil to be permanately seperated. Banished from each other. It could be all creation is being sorted or possibly a division within each creation. (meaning the good and evil inside each living thing will be divided)
Call the good heaven, new world, etc, call the evil lake of fire, etc.
In the end, the evil is either eternally seperated or rounded up and eternally destroyed.
James Brown I'm not sure I like what you said about hitler being used by god and I don't think that really has much to do with what I'm asking. I might just be blinded by my disbelief and am unable to see what point you were trying to make.
Endofmysteries my question was mainly directed at the wts depiction of the god of the bible i.e someone who knows how everything will play out in the future, can and has (supposedly) influenced humans so his prophecies would come true but decided to place a tree that would doom billions of people to suffering and death in the middle of a garden without using his powers to see if his little test would work
You and the Nation of Israel don't want to hear that one.
