The Last Day

by johnamos 9 Replies latest watchtower beliefs

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  johnamos

  [7-1-98 WT – Martha said of her dead brother, Lazarus: “I know he will rise in the resurrection on the last day.” (John 11:24) How did she know that? …She might even have learned this from Jesus himself. (John 6:39 - This is the will of him who sent me, that I should lose none out of all those whom he has given me, but that I should resurrect them on the last day.) That “last day” coincides with the Thousand Year Reign of Christ.]

  [9-1-78 WT - That everlasting life is to be enjoyed by the one gaining it, not on earth, but in the heavenly kingdom with Christ. He will enter into such life when he is resurrected by Jesus Christ at “the last day.” Those who, with Christ in the heavens, have such ‘life in themselves’ will be able to impart to others the benefits of Christ’s human sacrifice. They will do so when the redeemed ones of mankind are called out of their memorial tombs on “the last day.”​—John 5:28, 29.]

  [2-15-86 WT – It is understood that anointed Christians sleeping in death are raised at the sounding of “the last trumpet,”]

  [Revelation 11:15 And the seventh angel blew his trumpet. And loud voices occurred in heaven, saying: “The kingdom of the world has become the kingdom of our Lord and of his Christ”]
  

  [1 Corinthians 15:51 Look! I tell YOU a sacred secret: We shall not all fall asleep in death, but we shall all be changed, in a moment, 52 in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised up incorruptible, and we shall be changed.]

  [Matthew 24: 30 …the Son of man coming on the clouds of heaven with power and great glory. 31 And he will send forth his angels with a great trumpet sound, and they will gather his chosen ones together from the four winds, from one extremity of the heavens to their other extremity.]

  [1 Thessalonians 4:15-17 For this is what we tell YOU by Jehovah’s word, that we the living who survive to the presence of the Lord shall in no way precede those who have fallen asleep in death; because the Lord himself will descend from heaven with a commanding call, with an archangel’s voice and with God’s trumpet, and those who are dead in union with Christ will rise first. Then we the living who are surviving will, at the same time with them, be caught away in clouds to meet the Lord in the air; and thus we shall always be with the Lord.]

  1914>>>>>>>1918>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>202?/3?>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
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  WokenfromJWcult

  https://youtu.be/Mrges_TxOzQ Don’t believe everything you hear
  
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  FFGhost

  It's closer than the inside of your eyelid!

  Don't buy any green bananas!

  Everyone, all together......VERY.....SOON....NOW!
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  Jeffro

  Aside from there being no good reason to believe in any literal fulfilment of the claims in Revelation or the gospels about resurrection, the JW interpretation is especially flawed. The Bible doesn’t say that anyone is resurrected during the thousand years. It says the first resurrection before the thousand years is that of the great crowd - the people from all nations who serve as kings and priests for 1,000 years. The Bible also suggests the 144,000 are only resurrected after the 1,000 years, and it says they serve as kings without any mention of them being priests, and they rule with Jesus forever.

  See also https://jeffro77.files.wordpress.com/2020/08/what-does-the-bible-really-teach-about-the-144000.pdf
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  Jeffro

  The ‘last day’ in the story of Lazarus’ resurrection, found only in John (the latest of the four ‘gospels’), cannot be attributed to any specific time period as there is no frame of reference. Even if it is assumed that the story refers to real events, it is supposed to indicate a period of time of ‘1,000 years plus some undefined period’ to occur after a supernatural appearance of Jesus that early Christians expected to occur not long after the ‘great tribulation’. (The ‘appointed times of the nations’ to ‘trample the holy city’ refers to the Roman military occupation of Jerusalem for 3.5 years - 42 months, 1260 days - that is, Rome’s response to the Jewish revolt in 66CE until the city’s destruction. The ‘great tribulation’ was the consequential destruction of Jerusalem in 70CE.) No supernatural manifestation of Jesus occurred after that event, and various reinterpretations and apologetics have been attempted ever since, many of which attempt to place some kind of fulfilment in a near future.
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  waton

  wt places the first (heavenly) resurrection to have started at 1918, after the expelling of Satan , into a cleansed heavens.

  Did Lazarus become one of the anointed? or died a second time still with an earthly hope as all the apostles at the time until Pentecost? anyway,

  the last day lasts a long time. perhaps there might be more last days than we can imagine.
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  smiddy3

  What about overlapping last days ? surely that`s the next new light .

  Humans die because of sin right ?

  The Bible in Romans 6:23 states " For the wages sin pays is death "

  Lazarus died and was freed from the Adamic/ Eve sin .

  So when Lazarus was resurrected to life ,what scriptual reason is there for him to have died again ? Since he was now free from the Adamic/Eve sin ?
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  JoenB75

  smiddy3,

  The context of Romans 6 is the ressurection to immortality. In the peculiar JW understanding, I think it only refers to the 144.000. I dont believe that but in any case, the people raised in the old or new testament were merely revived in their mortal state.
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  JoenB75

  It is quite remarkable that the JWs taught such an important doctrine without any Bible verse saying so. No verse says that the billions would be raised for a trial in the millenium. I suspect Revelation 20 is very misunderstood and taken too literally like old testament prophecy.
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  Disillusioned JW

  Russell had the idea of a 1,000 year long trial of resurrected people apparently as a way to reconcile various conflicting Christian doctrines/interpretations with each other, including the doctrine of Universalism and of a restitution of all. At least that is the impression I got from reading portions of the his Studies in the Scriptures volumes. He also had the idea that 'the day of the Lord/Jehovah' was much longer than one solar day. Also a Bible verse says that a 1,000 years to the Lord/Jehovah is as just one day, and compare that to the account of Adam being told that if he ate the forbidden fruit he would die in that very day to the verse which said Adam lived for 930 years.
  

  As to where Martha, if she existed, got the idea of resurrection on the last day, she got it from some of the Jewish groups (such as the Pharisees and Essenes) which were in existence before the year 1 CE/AD. They were teaching the resurrection and their ancestral community likely got it from the Persians (while the Jews were in Persia/Iran). The Persian/Iranian worshipers of the god/lord Ahura Mazda believed in the last days, a judgement day, in a resurrection, and in a future battle between the forces of good (and light) and evil (and darkness).

  Pagan religious ideas can not be completely removed from Christianity (without a tremendous change to Bible based Christianity), since pagan religious ideas are a substantial part the both the New Testament and the Old Testament sections of the so called 'Holy' Bible. Similarly, some pagan Greek philosophy is included in some of the wisdom teachings attributed to Jesus in the Bible (and even Paul quotes pagan Greek philosophers authoritatively). And, some pagan Egyptian religious philosophy has been adapted into some of the wisdom teachings of the book of Proverbs. For example of the latter see Proverbs 22:17 - 23:35 in the Bible and see the translator's note for 22:19 in the Catholic Bible called the New American Bible (NAB) - not to be confused with the protestant New American Standard Bible. In that Catholic Bible (at least in the OT translation copyright 1970) the phrase "words of Amen-em-Ope" is used in verse 19!

  Regarding the words of the scribe Amen-em-Ope see also page 315 of a massive book published by Abingdon Press called The Interpreter's One-Volume Commentary On The Bible: Introduction and Commentary of Each Book of the Bible Including the Apocrypha, With General Articles, Edited by Charles M. Laymon; copyright 1971. The Editor's Preface of that book says the following.

  "The authorship of this volume is varied in that scholars were chosen from many groups to contribute to the task. In this sense it is an ecumenical writing, Protestants from numerous denominations, Jews, and also Roman Catholics are represented in the book. Truth cannot be categorized according to its ecclesiastical sources. It is above and beyond such distinction." The main scripture text used for this commentary is the Revised Standard Version of the Bible. Page 315 of the commentary, under the heading of 'III. The "Thirty Sayings" (22:17 - 24:22)' says in part the following.

  'This collection is in some way directly dependent on the Egyptian Instruction of Amen-em-Opet. The translation of an obscure Hebrew phrase as thirty sayings in 22:20 (KJV "excellent things") is based on the fact that Amen-em-Opet's book contains 30 chs. In 22:17 - 23:11 every proverb but one (22:26-27; most of these proverbs consist of 2 vss. each) has a more or less close parallel in the Egyptian book, though the order is different. The quotations below from this work are from the trans. by J. A. Wilson in J. B. Pritchard, ed., Ancient Near Eastern Texts, pp. 421-25." '

  By the way, in support of the accuracy (and prophecies) of the Bible, the WT a number of times has quoted from editions of the book called Ancient Near Eastern Texts. For one example of such, see source reference number 6 to a quote in chapter 9 of the WT book called THE BIBLE--God's Word or Man's? For two other examples see source reference numbers 23 and 25 of the WT book called Is the Bible really the Word of God?