Marital Status after Armageddon

by robhic 6 Replies latest watchtower beliefs

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  robhic

  What's the deal regarding marriage and marital status after the "Big 'A'"? I was once referred to Mat 22:29 where Jesus says that resurrected people will be like angels and neither marry or be given in marriage. But that doesn't cover all the possibilities.

  I have also read (but a search doens't give me what I need) that those married couples surviving the Big A will remain married in the New System. Where does it say (if it does) that single people surviving will be allowed to marry? Is there a WT publication that I can cite to illustrate the "After Armaggedon Marital Arrangement" so to speak? Quotes site doesn't have anything specific, either.

  Am I close or is this doctrine even more complicated? I'd like to know:

  • Marital status after living thru armageddon
  • Marital status after being resurrected (people already married before death)
  • Marital status of singles surviving Armageddon (can they tie the knot in paradise? Get all perfect gifts? )
  • Marital status of singles being resurrected if differing from Mat 22:29

  I would really appreciate WTS literature cites for backup. If anyone has specifics I would sincerely appreciate it.

  Thanks,

  Robert
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  Jahna

  To my understanding, death it?s self severes the ties of matrimony. That means once your spouse dies you are no longer married in this system and therefore free to remarry in this system or the next, assuming you survive alive.
  
  Single and survive means you are able to marry in the new system as well.
  
  Dead and resurrected, well the scripture you cited seems to indicate you will not be able to marry. There is some problems with it. Single and living alone, mankind is not meant to do, that is why God created Eve. Healthy males and females have needs, and some of them require (by biblical law) a marriage partner to fill. It would seem unreasonable for all these healthy now young men and women forever living with sexual frustration, because they are forbidden to marry, and fornication along with masturbation is bad bad bad. We won?t even go into homosexual relationships because all of these single resurrected people need some kind of companionship.
  
  The other side of the fence indicates that the resurrected will be able to marry (guess they forgot that cited scripture), which is why many today won?t remarry in this system as they choose to wait and remarry their spouse. So one could assume that the resurrected are free to marry whom ever they wish as their original marriage contract was severed by their death.
  
  I have always understood that marriage will remain in place for at the very least a time. The marriage union allows for God?s primary command ?be fruitful and multiply? to be fulfilled. Once the world is populated, who knows what will follow. And of course the standard, in due time we will know the answers so have faith seem to be the final words on this subject by many.
  
  Jahna
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  iiz2cool

  I had this conversation with a number of people while I was a JW, and none could give me a good answer. I really think none of them have a clue about what they believe on the subject. I once had this discussion with an elder in a bar over a few beers:

  Elder: There will be no marriage in the "new system" because the earth will be filled with perfect people. There won't be any more sex because the earth will be comfortably filled.

  Walter: Then why did God create women in the first place? After all, Adam was supposedly perfect yet God said "it was not good for the man to be by himself". Wouldn't that involve more than merely sex and procreation? Or were women simply meant to be little more than incubators?

  Elder: Women serve other purposes too. They cook and clean and do a lot in the preaching work. But Jesus said that in the resurrection there would be no marriages, and that resurrected ones would be like angels.

  Walter: Yes, that makes sense, considering that the Society says there are 144,000 going to heaven as spirit creatures. The Society also said that the Christian Greek scriptures are primarily for those going to heaven. This is obviously what Jesus was talking about. Remember, there was no earthly hope until 1935. But we are talking about the people that will be on the earth.

  Elder: Once the earth is comfortably filled men and women will lose their desire for sex, and there may very well be a Divine Termination of existing marriages by Jehovah.

  Walter: Lose my desire for SEX!!!??? I don't like that! Maybe we should get into space travel and populate all the other galaxies!

  Elder: Now, now, Walter, we're Jehovah's Witnesses, and we don't speculate about future events. Do not go beyond what is written!

  Walter: Jehovah's Witnesses don't speculate? Well, it was before my time, but I heard there was a lot of speculation going on in 1975!

  And the conversation deteriorated at this point. heh heh

  Walter
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  eyeslice

  The wording of the witness marriage vows is quite interesting as well; ".... as long as we both shall live together on earth under God's martial arrangement".

  It is a bit of a doctrinal cop out in that God may at some point in the future change his "martial arrangement". I often wondered if the governmental authorities would ever pick up on that and question it, as secular authorities would not conceive of time when the marriage arrangement would be changed for those still alive on earth.

  eyeslice
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  peacefulpete

  For the record, the supposed conversation at Matt 22:30 is even interesting when placed in it's historical context. First the challege comes from the Sadduccees, the ultra conservative Jewish sect that believed in neither angles nor the resurrection recognizing these to be Persian in origin. So for Jesus to refer to the angles in his response to Saduccees would hardly have been convincing or constructive. Secondly by saying that Exodus proves that Abraham Isaac and Jacob are alive the story has Jesus expressing faith in immortality of the soul. (ie. they ARE alive and as angels in heaven) In fact these very words of Exodus 3:6 were being used by the Pharsaic teachers as support for the immortality in Paradise teaching. The JW interpretation makes little sense, if Jesus was saying they were alive only metaphorically as they assert, the support for the resurrection vanishes.
  
  There have been a couple threads in the last few months that presented the contemporary view of death and the afterlife. The Jewish audience in any actual conversation like that in Matt 22 would have understood Jesus to be a Pharisee and share the view that the favored dead are alive in Paradise a region of Sheol.(or alternately in Heaven)
  
  It is the view of many of those who have analysed the text that the conversation is contrived, likely the invention of an author only partly familiar with Sadduccean or Pharisaic doctrine and desiring to villify both major parties of Jews as conniving and ignorant.
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  2escaped lifers

  This was one that always plagued us as well. When we broached the subject with anyone after doing our own extensive research, we were given the "pat" answer that "we can be assured that Jehovah will make everyone perfectly happy" and "not to worry about it."

  Love it.
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  blacksheep

  "Elder: Once the earth is comfortably filled men and women will lose their desire for sex, and there may very well be a Divine Termination of existing marriages by Jehovah."

  Oh, right. That's not speculating???

  "Elder: Now, now, Walter, we're Jehovah's Witnesses, and we don't speculate about future events. Do not go beyond what is written!"

  Ah, yes. 1914...1925..1935..1975...2034...Miracle Wheat, The pad at Beth-Sarrum...

  The above response is typical JW brainwashed logic: when you get a tough question you can't answer, and/or caught up in the obvious illogic of your beliefs AND speculations, turn it around on the questioner, as going beyond what is written (what is written by the WTS, that is).