This may be a crazy question, but it popped in my head and won't leave. . So I gotta ask. . .

by Miss Worldly 24 Replies latest jw friends

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  Miss Worldly

  Ok, this probably applies to most faith systems that believe in any sort of afterlife, but I would like to know what sort of explanation the JW's would come up with for this little problem, you know, after Armageddon on earthly paradise.

  Sorry if I sound dumb, but it's been nagging at me for a few weeks and have to ask.

  So, what if a young married JW couple are living their life, waiting for the Big A, knowing they will be together in the earthly paradise, then very sadly one of them dies. From what I know, if a JW dies, that's it. They are dead, nothing. But come the great tribulation, they will be reserected.

  What if a few years down the line the surviving spouse (I can't bring myself to say 'mate') finds love again and remarries? As they would be allowed to do as they are scripturally free to marry.

  Now come the time of the Big A. Earthly paradise is restored. And so is the first spouse. A spouse that died believing that they and their marriage partner would be in paradise together, but now finds that their partner has remarried and loves the new person they married *awkward*.

  What would happen? Because they died do they have to forfeit the happiness they thought they were getting? Does the surviving spouse have to leave the second spouse? How would the second spouse feel about it? . . . I don't know, but it doesn't sound much like paradise for any of them.

  I would just like to hear a rational explanation for this dilemma. I can't seem to come up with any solution in my head. Apart from ones that wouldn't please Jehovah!

  Thanks in advance
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  FreeGirl2006

  I have been gone a while, but the thought process was the currently married couple would be together and the resurrected spouse would not be able to marry (and I suppose following that reasoning would not have that desire) and just be happy that former spouse made it to paradise.

  Sadly, my father was my mom's one and only love and his death made the JW resurrection teaching appealing. She secretly hoped they would be together as man and wife again. Unrequited love = slave to a cult teaching.
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  blondie

  I have heard elders say that the resurrected will have no sexual feelings, but then some men equate loving a woman = sex, no sex = no love or feelings of love.

  Others have said that eventually marriage will end when the earth is comfortably full of people as if marriage is only for having children.

  I have heard jws ask what if the first spouse is resurrected and the spouse and their second spouse are resurrected, can they all live in the same home and be friends. Elders have said no because it would look bad...forgetting they said that resurrected people have no sexual desires.

  The premise of this was originally based on the bible saying that Christians would die and go to heaven to live to rule as kings and act as priests alongside Jesus for 1,000 years for the humans left on earth. No marriage in heaven.

  But when the WTS pre-determined number of 144,000 was close to being reached in 1925, the WTS started developing the idea of a group of Christians (only members of the WTS though) which was solidified in 1935 as the "great crowd" of unnumbered members.

  This is a evolving, complicated doctrine of the WTS.
  
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  Miss Worldly

  Thanks freegirl2006 and blonde.

  That makes me feel very sad that people are taught these things.

  Freegirl, I'm sorry about your Dad. I guess that teaching makes a lot of people feel like your Mom. It must have been a comfort to your Mom. x
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  sir82

  That's a question the WTS prefers that you don't ask.

  There is no good answer for it.

  Actually, there are dozens of things the WTS prefers that you don't ask about their version of "paradise earth".

  I have found that thinking about, really analyzing, the WTS "paradise" for any period of time leads to innumerable conflicts, paradoxes, and impossibilities.
  
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  Saename

  According to JW teaching, death is the end of marriage. If one spouse dies, their marriage is "legally" ended. If, say, the wife remarried and survived into the paradise with her new husband, they would have to remain married unless death or adultery occurs. The resurrected spouse would not have the "right" to be with her, so technically, yes, he would have to pretend to be happy with this.

  Right now, there is an ongoing debate among Jehovah's Witnesses whether resurrected people would be able to marry, or remarry, in the paradise. As FreeGirl2006 said, it is possible the resurrected spouse would not be able to marry. However, the contrary is also possible as Jehovah's Witnesses have not yet decided. They are not yet sure as to what one verse, I believe from Matthew, means. In this verse, Jesus speaks of the earthly paradise, heaven, and marriage. Therefore, they don't know whether the rule against being married after Armageddon is in regards to the earthly paradise or heaven.

  I had this exactly same conversation with the elders from my area some time ago. All I said above is true for the Jehovah's Witnesses in my city. I'm not sure whether they would have other interpretations in other countries. I live in ON, Canada.
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  Ding

  The question in the OP reminds me of Matthew 22:23-32: "That same day the Sadducees, who say there is no resurrection, came to him with a question. 24 "Teacher," they said, "Moses told us that if a man dies without having children, his brother must marry the widow and have children for him. 25 Now there were seven brothers among us. The first one married and died, and since he had no children, he left his wife to his brother. 26 The same thing happened to the second and third brother, right on down to the seventh. 27 Finally, the woman died. 28 Now then, at the resurrection, whose wife will she be of the seven, since all of them were married to her?" 29 Jesus replied, "You are in error because you do not know the Scriptures or the power of God. 30 At the resurrection people will neither marry nor be given in marriage; they will be like the angels in heaven. 22:31 But about the resurrection of the dead-- have you not read what God said to you, 32 'I am the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob'? He is not the God of the dead but of the living."

  Jesus didn't distinguish between "anointed" and "other sheep" in his remarks.
  
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  Saename

  Ding - Jesus didn't distinguish between "anointed" and "other sheep" in his remarks.

  You're of course right. But Jehovah's Witnesses disagree for some reason, and this question, I assume, is strictly about the Jehovah's Witness theology. According to them, this scripture is either about the anointed or the other sheep (for some reason.)

  But if there's no marriage (romantic relationships?) in the paradise, then I don't know who would want to be there...
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  Ding

  I understand the WT teaching.

  If I were discussing this issue with a JW, I'd ask them why their answer differs from Jesus' answer.
  
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  prologos

  Miss worldly, you would miss being worldly as a jw, but when this question is asked, I always refer to the male breast. it is a perfect example of structure without function and would illustrate what could happen to those resurrected . I never had any drive to nurse a baby. now, many couples are real soul mates, particularly later in life, but marriage , sex-based is particularly good for the kids. so, there is yet to have demonstrated to us any resurrection, talking snakes and any other wt ideas. so, until we will see any of these dysfunctional breasts above a non-navel, find more worthy subjects to pursue.