by Dan-O 7 Replies latest jw friends
In the thread on 'Which TV shows did you not watch because you were a witness?", the comment was made that X-Files was off the list (in part) because it involved aliens, and 'God created only us'.
Now, I'll grant you that I've not attended meetings for about 20 years now, but I can't recall hearing this line of reasoning before. When did this "new light" get a fresh bulb?
I think the WT Society was/is leery of science fiction as a whole because it involves speculation about the unknown, and other worlds.
The belief of the WT Society is that outside of God & his angelic organization, there are NO life forms outside earth's boundaries. Otherwise, God would have told us. The Bible says somewhere "he doesn't do anything without telling his servants or prophets" -- and of course, of course, the WTS is God's 21st-century prophet.
Any "speculation" about unexplainable things that happen on earth would, in their view, tend towards the mystical and demonic.
They'd rather just have you watch WTS videotapes like "The Organization Behind the Name". Now THAT stuff is factual.
Any "speculation" about ...
No doubt ... It was always my experience that any speculation, questioning, doubts, etc. was certainly off limits.
On the other hand, The Bible is also very explicit about God having sealed up quite a bit of information that would be revealed in His time. And the Bible does not, to my recollection, explicitly state that God did not create life on any of the other planets throughout the universe ... just that man was created to live on earth. Or did I miss something in my Sunday morning naps all those years ago?
It's more a part of the corporate atmosphere, something enforced by raised-eyebrow'd looks, silence, "I'm not comfortable speculating about those sorts of things, brother Youshouldn'tbethinkingaboutthesethings", etc. without necessarily being an official rule. Kinda depends on the cong, and who's doing the speculation, and who's listening to it.
So much of the emphasis is on the OT in Watchtower-land, and the ancient Jews weren't anywhere near our current level of understanding regarding the cosmos. The earth was the center of everything, and this is reflected in the writings, and subsequently affects the attitudes of people that read the OT every week.
IN the late 1960s, the Society published the book, "How did Man get here, by Evolution or Creation?" ... it was a small 192 page book, the forrunner of the "Creation" book ... in that book, they inferred that it was Jehovah's purpose to first populate one planet (earth) and allow humans to first be tested ... then, once the universal issues of Jehovah's Sovereignty, etc. were settled, then God would permit the expansion into the universe and population of other planets ... this view has not been published much since ... but it is generally held by JWs. - Amazing
In Ezekiel he constantly uses references to "earthling" man. Now why would that need to be a distinguishing title if there were no other "men"? What other kind of man could there be if we are the only man God created? I think that this is an allusion to other life forms that God has created in other places. God Himself says that He did not create the universe for nothing.
I once had this converstation with my father while he was visiting for a few days. It was just prior to the time I anounced that I would no longer be a witness. We were just having a conversation about the universe and its complexities, when I added .........
"It surely can not be that we are the only life in the universe. when you consider the number of galaxies and solar systems, each with their planets, there must be life on some of them. After all the scriptures say when reffering to the planets and solar systems, that God did not create it simply for nothing."
Well after this simple statment, he became very heated about how we are deffinatley the only planet with life on it. He knows this for a fact. The idea of other solar systems holding life, even if that life was created by the same God was just too much. Somehow, and I dont understand how, but this thought threatened his faith. The outcome, he stormed off and whent to bed!!!
BB
They say that because the issues were raised here by Satan, that Jesus died here to settled the issues, it was the first opportunity that Satan had.Therefore they conclude that this is the only planet with HUMAN life on it for now.
