The Watchtower's Depiction of 'paradise'..
by Ron.W. 72 Replies latest watchtower beliefs
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LongHairGal
RON W:
Wow, I never thought I would see these pictures again since I long ago trashed all of the Jehovah’s Witnesses literature and books I had!
Some of the pictures brought back memories of when I was in the religion and got ‘judged’ because I worked full-time (no regrets) and didn’t pioneer.. I did try to get some hours in but whatever I did was never enough - especially in the eyes of the hardliners there.
But, fast forward to now: I wonder how many JWs who were used as ‘models’ in some of these pictures are even in the religion anymore??
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Vidiot
No movie theatres… no rock concerts… no pizza… no cheeseburgers… (and maybe no sex)…
…can’t hardly wait.
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Vidiot
Seriously, though…
… the moment I realized that the Org fully expected to - for all intents and purposes - rule the world forever after Armageddon and pattern society after their present-day ideology, I felt sick to my stomach…
…and I was still in at the time.
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Balaamsass2
Like one GIANT BETHEL....eeekkk.
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road to nowhere
Baall....
Talk to any run of the mill bethelite and it ain't paradise
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FedUpJW
I cannot figure out why in the world Every. Damn. Picture. is of homes in the mountains? I hate being hemmed in. And spending forever wearing dress clothes is surely not MY idea of any kind of paradise. And would it not be difficult for any of those women to go swimming anywhere wearing dresses?
What a bunch of brain dead robotic idiots coming up with these paradise pictures. Shit, just kill me now and get it over with!
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NotFormer
"I cannot figure out why in the world Every. Damn. Picture. is of homes in the mountains?"
It is indeed formulaic in nature. Like a bizarro world version of Bob Ross. 🌲⛰️🖼️🎨🖌️
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Vidiot
“Happy clouds… happy pandas… happy (non-optional) vegetarians…”
😏
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Journeyman
Fascinating taking a walk down memory lane with all these images.
Many of the questions raised are valid, of course. I don't mean about Paradise itself - you can take or leave those according to your belief - I mean about the Org's deliberate choices about how to depict life in Paradise.
For example, here are my thoughts on some of the points raised:
Why waterfalls and bridges?
Good one. I hadn't really thought about it - well, the bridges at least. But I presume the waterfalls might be 1) an allusion to the verse in Revelation that talks about waters flowing down from the heavenly city, with trees growing alongside to give healing, or possibly if that's too "literal", maybe 2) simply that flowing, fresh water is considered a pleasing depiction of nature? Rivers, lakes and waterfalls usually feature in most favourite pastoral scenes, religious or otherwise.
Several of the regular depictions make sense when you know the JW theology, as most of us do, for example:
Animals and people close together, and vegetables and fruit but no meat-eating can both be explained by the beliefs around Genesis (Noah only given permission to eat meat later, suggesting vegetarian diet before then), and Isaiah (lion with lamb, little boy and cobra, etc) which the Jw theology attaches to future Paradise.
As for the language all the people are able to communicate in, following the account of Pentecost (and even some proven real life cases where individuals have begun to speak in a language previously unknown to them) this is explicable according to the traditional beliefs.
And what's the point of a Bible study?
Come on, anyone who was even briefly a JW knows this one: the resurrected will still need a Bible study to get to know about God and everything that happened during the time they were in the grave -fulfilment of prophecy and all that! Another point that, though we may not believe it, at least fits the theology. More interestingly, are they actually studying the Bible, or some watered down, over-simplified "study aid" like yet another Enjoy Paradise Now Forever United In Worship of What God Requires brochure/video mishmash?