cyrano - this was the primary discovery for me last year when I was just leaving. In reading the King James version on my own, I noticed this very contradiction that you are pointing out. Needless to say, it was a very gratifying find. However, this not only shows their inacurate interpretation of the scriptures, but it also shows that their Bible was translated to fit their beliefs. The version that you quoted is like all other versions: "a heavenly one." However the New World Translation reads: "but now they are reaching out for a better [place], that is, one belonging to heaven...." In looking at information in their literature several months ago about this idea of the faithful of old having a heavenly hope, they state that their hope is not in heaven, but in a place that "belongs" to heaven.
*** w79 6/15 16-18 Resurrected-"Each In His Own Proper Place" *** 5 So Abraham had faith in the coming resurrection of the human dead under the kingdom of the Christ. Jesus Christ, whose own resurrection was foreshadowed by the figurative resurrection of Isaac, once said to Jewish descendants of Abraham: Abraham your father rejoiced greatly in the prospect of seeing my day, and he saw it and rejoiced. (John 8:56) In harmony with Jesus words about Abraham, the father of Isaac and the grandfather of Jacob, we read:
6 In faith all these died, although they did not get the fulfillment of the promises, but they saw them afar off and welcomed them and publicly declared that they were strangers and temporary residents in the land. For those who say such things give evidence that they are earnestly seeking a place of their own. . . . But now they are reaching out for a better place, that is, one belonging to heaven [the kingdom of the heavens with Christ enthroned in it]. Hence God is not ashamed of them, to be called upon as their God, for he has made a city ready for them.Heb. 11:13-16.
7 Since God has made preparations for the long-dead Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, those ancient men of faith are sure to have a resurrection from the dead under the city, or government, in which the glorified Messiah, or Christ, rules. Jesus Christ himself pointed out that fact in a discussion with Jewish Sadducees, who did not believe in a resurrection for Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. He said: In the resurrection neither do men marry nor are women given in marriage, but are as angels [not: are angels] in heaven. As regards the resurrection of the dead, did you not read what was spoken to you by God, saying, I am the God of Abraham and the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob? He is the God, not of the dead, but of the living.Matt. 22:30-32.
P.S. Aren't they full of shit?
