by OverlappingGeneralizations 20 Replies latest watchtower beliefs
Interesting question/theory, I've never heard that one before. The second test always made me wonder as well. So we make it past the great tribulation, Armageddon, get to the paradise! But hang one, we're not done yet! One more test!
my answer to your first question would be..interesting thought, except satan isn't real.
I'd like to see a perfected version of Lett. Will he gesture less? Will his facial expressions normalize? Will god let him in to heaven with that pinky ring? How about our big brother Morris? Will that perpetual scowl disappear from his face? As my big brothers pave the way for my perfection over the 1,000 years, are they gonna help kick some ass when the beast is unleashed from the abyss? Or will they be a big no show like Loesch was when summoned to court last year?
I don't think moving to a new planet would help. Satan can still shoot beams of perfection busting particles from the surface of the earth to zap you of your immortality. Lets consider too that all these spirit creatures have had millions of years to plot and plan the fate of humanity. I would think that Satan knew beforehand which planets closets to the earth were the easiest and most likely to be colonized, so he set up some traps, temptations and perfection busting shooters on each of the planets near us.
Also, when man began to build civilization up and mass together, god got angry, stepped in and confused all with languages to divide and scatter the smartest and most capable people. What makes you think he would allow humans to colonize planets without stepping in and disrupting them?
Nice thread and welcome to the forum!
Let satan out to test mankind
And additionally, let's say once Satan is let out to test all mankind again, and someone strays and sins - then what? Remember by then all mankind will be perfect, so in essense a perfect man will fail and sin.
The whole idea of being allowed to grow to perfection just to be tempted again is ridiculous when we think of it!
What parent would punish their toddler for drawing on the wall of the house, then lock them up without dinner in their room, then let them out, put crayons in their hand and sit them in front of a white wall again while watching eagerly?!!?
Then when they draw on the wall again, belt them black and blue while telling them it's for their own good!
This whole "Light/Darkness" thing sound a lot like Zoroastrianism to me...
Oh, wait, wasn't Judea under Persian control for a while? Hmmmmm....
Imagine a religion where there is no Satan the Devil...
...where the Creator is not as perfect as many claim and that the Almighty can grow and learn things...
...which states that the condition people are in now is not far off from what Adam and Eve were like when they were first created.
Oh, and it was the religion Jesus and his parents practiced too.
Yep, ancient and modern Judaism has never recognized the same ideals of perfection that Christianity and especially groups like the JWs demands of G-d and humans.
And while there may be wicked spirits (or spirits who act wickedly), many Jews have no "Satan the Devil" in their theology. In fact when read in the original Hebrew, there is no Satan, not even in Job!
And while G-d is perfect, this doesn't mean that G-d doesn't have room to grow or learn. In fact Jews see in Scripture the possibility that G-d created humans to challenge and inspire growth in the Almighty. G-d is not necessarily all loving, not exactly as Christians believe anyway. G-d learns love and patience through dealings with humans. In Jewish theology that is what G-d's perfection is like, very different from the perfection of Watchtower teachings.
And that means we are not far from "perfection" now either if we take the Jewish view into account. Humanity evolves toward it along with G-d. "Satan the Devil" is often seen as the personification of anything that holds us back to those Jews who recognize "Satan" as directly personified in Scripture (but again, a direct reading in Hebrew also allows for reading the texts as there being no devil at all).
Because of the close ties these two religions have, and since the above views are part of Scriptural Hebrew exegesis, that makes them possibilities as well, or at least something to be considered when pondering these questions.
Perhaps there is no Satan to blame for humankind's own failures. Perhaps our own evolution includes further evolving in morality and justice. Perhaps the idea that G-d grows in union with the creation made in G-d's image is more realistic than trying to make some Biblical narratives fit the Creator into a peg designed for perfection that is impossible to reach or isn't even perfection in the first place.
Can humanity shed ancient and primitive views of G-d and Satan and perfection for more evolved views of spirituality based on and in partnership with a reality that is practical?
Why can't GOD forgive Satan? Hell by now Satan must realize he screwed up, or, or
Satan believe he is winning this stupid game. JW belief, 8 billon folks will go up in smoke
that tell me Satan won the bet.
Welcome OG..
