Where did Jesus get the Idea of an After-life in Heaven?

by John Aquila 35 Replies latest watchtower beliefs

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  Ding

  Acts 23:6-8 says, "But when Paul perceived that one part were Sadducees and the other Pharisees, he cried out in the council, "Brethren, I am a Pharisee, a son of Pharisees; with respect to the hope and the resurrection of the dead I am on trial." 7 And when he had said this, a dissension arose between the Pharisees and the Sadducees; and the assembly was divided. 8 For the Sadducees say that there is no resurrection, nor angel, nor spirit; but the Pharisees acknowledge them all."

  So the concept of a resurrection of the dead didn't originate with Jesus. The Pharisees believed in it, and they weren't known for believing things because Jesus taught it.
  
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  kepler

  Village Idiot,

  Thanks for bringing up Luke chapter 23. That verse ended a former relationship when the wheels of the organization and its conditioning started to kick in. It brings back memories and I recounted them at length on this forum over the past five years. I lost a lot on that one, but yet Thank God for Luke and his testimony.

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  Also, there is mention of Christ referring to the Book of Moses in Matthew. Well, he did it in Mark as well, chapter 10. Prior to that, when discussing the proposition of a widow who had once married sequentially seven husbands and who would she be married to at the Resurrection, Christ's answer practically sets the stage for Aquila's topic:

  "Surely the reason why you are wrong is that you understand neither the scriptures nor the power of God. For when they rise from the dead, men and women do not marry, no. They are like the angels in heaven. Now about the dead rising again, have you not read in the book of Moses, in the passage about the bush, how God spoke to him and said, 'I am the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob.' He is God not of the dead but of the living. You are very much mistaken."

  Like most people reading the Bible, I am left with impressions that are probably contradictory when examined. Judgment at death and at the end of time would be an example. But there is also the resurrection of the body and what Jesus just said above. The latter, however, seems to make more sense to me in as much as our limited and inconclusive contacts with the beyond would suggest. Example, if you have a dream, a coma like experience in the hospital or communications you cannot explain.

  Whether that sounds convincing or not, the alternative provided by JW literature ( and some others) is something like the Earth as a rental property in which the inhabitants are evicted and a second party comes back to own it much in the same manner as before without the problems - because they are somehow physically perfect - and eternal. And I guess they are given a deed. Meanwhile, an earth and universe that would appear eternal continues to exist as the creation it was. But these elements are not eternal even though they obey creation's laws. There are no provisions in the story to address such issues. The interchange in Mark stands as an illustration.

  Another small note. From one Gospel account to the next there are also slight changes in the name of heaven and each of the writer's adhere to one or another: the kingdom of heaven, my father's kingdom, the kingdom of heaven, etc. Each of those convey a different impression In the aforementioned Luke passages, the thief speaks of "your kingdom" and Christ replies that "In truth I say to you that this day you will be with me in paradise". Strong 3857 - used only that one time in the Gospel. Only twice elsewhere in the NT: in 2 Corinthians (12:4) and Revelations ( 2:7).
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  nibbled

  I believe the hope for the Jews and Israelites was that of resurrection—see Ezekiel 37's vision of the valley of dry bones. The vision is explained, leaving nothing to question. Israelites coming back to life and being brought back into their own land.

  And the righteous ones inherit the Earth and dwell upon it for eternity.

  Long before The Watchtower's "great crowd" and even before Christianity, paradise was simply a promise God made to righteous Israel.

  Meanwhile Solomon wondered,

  19 For the fate of people and the fate of animals is the same.z

  As one dies, so dies the other; they all have the same breath.

  People have no advantage over animals since everything is futile.

  20 All are going to the same place; all come from dust, and all return to dust.aa

  21 Who knows if the spirit of people rises upward and the spirit of animals goes downward to the earth?

  Where Solomon wondered, Christ responded.

  Christianity introduced heaven—the one hope to which we were called—as the destination for those who follow Christ, while resurrection and paradise were the Hebrew hope.
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  Village Idiot

  Cute avatar nibbled.
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  nibbled

  Thanks Villiage Idiot, it was a New Yorker cover.
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  CalebInFloroda

  It should be noted that the word "resurrection" is a Greek term that does not appear in the Hebrew Scriptures.

  In Greek it means the literal re-animation of the corporeal body, or as the term simply means "to stand up [again]."

  The JWs use this term incorrectly because they often speak of people being "resurrected to heavenly life," and in fact you can often use that as an indicator of even an exJW sometimes.

  Neither in Scripture nor mainstream Christian eschatology can you say that someone is "resurrected" to spirit life. The term and theology requires that a corporeal form is coming back to life. Spirits are generally considered to be immortal and incorporeal and therefore never need to and cannot be "resurrected." In Acts 17 some Greeks find Paul's speech laughable because he mentions the concept of "resurrection" which is contrary to the pagan view that only a spirit life awaits us after death. If the term could be applied to life after death as an immortal soul or spirit, this would not have been the reaction. But since "resurrection" refers to new life in a physical body, the Greeks found this ridiculous and unnecessary.

  So JWs are actually showing how uneducated they are by using the term "resurrection" to refer to entry into heaven life.