The Watchtower's Depiction of 'paradise'..

by Ron.W. 72 Replies latest watchtower beliefs

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  LongHairGal

  JOURNEYMAN:

  You described something that was my pet peeve when I was in the JWs.

  They would look at a drawing in one of the books and say: “As the picture shows…”. JWs acted as if they had cameras and camcorders in the First century! You are also right that some Witnesses acted like what the religion portrayed was ‘real’.. Unless somebody went back in a Time Machine it is most certainly Not real but a product of their art department.

  The fact that we both have the same impression of this shows this feeling is pervasive in the religion. People there have to be seriously messed up to let themselves become so gullible.. No wonder there is so much mental illness there.

  I always felt there was an element of ‘playing pretend’ like as though the religion is a little village in ancient Israel - instead of the modern day high control group that it really is.
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  Biahi

  I have no idea why someone downvoted LHG’s post, unless it was a slip of the hand. I appreciate all of your comments, Long Hair Gal. 😊
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  LongHairGal

  BIAHI:

  Thanks. You develop a thick skin when you are on a public forum because there are all types and some will not like what someone says.

  Doesn’t mean it’s wrong or untrue. They just don’t like it or can’t accept it.
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  moomanchu

  We visited the Vatican Tuesday 3. Had to share this pic from there.
  
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  NotFormer

  moomanchu, not bad, but that looks like an interpretation of the Edenic paradise, not a post 20th/21st Century paradise. WT artists are free to speculate. They can't help it if the GB themselves haved never explained exactly what people will have, post Armageddon, and what they will be doing with it.

  Interesting how the Catholic artist still has the mountains in his vision of paradise. Who was it?

  At least he was able to depict a fully nude Adam and Eve, even if he tastefully covered Eve's bottom crack with a peacock's tail (or a bush of some sort; I'm not sure). 🙄

  I notice this dilemma comes up in Christian circles where they want to depict Adam and Eve. The WT art department is probably full of artists who would love to depict them naked, as the Bible says, but they are restrained by modern Christian sensibilities. The best they can do is to show them from behind and from the middle of the back upwards, I imagine. That's usually how Jack Chick did it in his comics. And I imagine that the SDAs do it in their literature, as the Plain Truth people would have too.
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  moomanchu

  "The Garden of Eden with the Fall of Man" two Flemish artists, Jan Brueghel the Elder (1568-1625) and Peter Paul Rubens (1577-1640).
  

  Overload of things to see at the Vatican, Sistine Chapel a little oversold. Saint Peter's Bassillca and piazza awesome. Visited catacombs also that was awesome as well.
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  carla

  Do they still have images like the ones posted? now that they are basically televangelist what is the modern day equivalent?
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  Journeyman

  They would look at a drawing in one of the books and say: “As the picture shows…”. JWs acted as if they had cameras and camcorders in the First century!

  The fact that we both have the same impression of this shows this feeling is pervasive in the religion.

  LongHairGal - indeed, and thanks for your confirmation on my thoughts. BTW, I didn't vote you down either, so not guilty there!

  Do they still have images like the ones posted? now that they are basically televangelist what is the modern day equivalent?

  Oh, they certainly do. Below is a pic from a recent magazine and online article.

  I suppose the real "modern day equivalent" now though is video footage of their idea of Paradise - hence the even more 'detailed' images which raise even more questions. In a recent convention they had footage of a girl running through a field which I think was traced to a piece of stock online film the Org had obviously just bought. Too lazy to even stage their own?

  
  
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  road to nowhere

  Journeyman

  That was the Eternal Flame convention too

  I spotted the light skirt and panty line right off
• 

  ThomasMore

  If it can be imagined, WTC can illustrate it. I have said for many years that the illustrators drove the teachings about life in paradise. Magazine editors gave them a lot of leeway to imagine the outlandish - so they went over the top with outlandish scenes. Many of the scenes were not aligned with the teachings about the resurrected not marrying, simple living and the discontinuation of child-bearing as population grew. They were making it up as they went along.

  Conspicuously missing are depictions of science other endeavors that would align with sustainable energy and construction. In THEIR new world, home building, farming and eating vegetables are the only things imagined.