After todays study, I'm unclear about teaching about the kingdom. Is it the same as those who expect the second coming of Christ to rule for a thousand years etc. Or is it here now, since 1914. Are their 2 kingdoms, or 2 phases of the kingdom? Is heaven the kingdom, or is paradise earth the kingdom? I'm confused.
What is JW teaching about the kingdom?
by jaffacake 7 Replies latest jw friends
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jaffacake
Thought I had better clarify. Not having been a JW, I am genuinely confused about the official teaching, and would appreciate a very brief clarification. Just in case anyone thought I was being sarcastic
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FairMind
Jehovah's Witnesses teach that the Kingdom of God is a heavenly kingdom government. Jesus Christ is the primary king/priest along with 144,000 associate king/priests who are Christians who have been resurrected as spirit creatures. The Kingdom government was installed in the heavens in 1914 but does not begin active rule over the earth until after Armageddon which is in the near future.
There are two different perspectives in which one might view the kingdom. One is from the perspective of those who rule in heaven with Christ and the other is from the greater perspective of the earthly part over which the heavenly kingdom rules. It is kind of like viewing the American government as being Washington D.C. where the rulers are or viewing it as the entire USA which is what the rulers govern.
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LouBelle
My understanding of the Kingdon of heaven from the JW point of view:
It all started waaaaaaay back when God said: Your seed will bruise him in the hill & my seed will crush you in the head. So then time goes by and God makes a Covenant with Abraham so this seed will come along and do just that.....time goes by and Jesus appears on the earth, grows up, gets tempted, tells everyone that His kingdom is NOT of this world, Jesus offers this kingdom to EVERYONE, but aparantly only 144 000 will rule. Satan bruises Jesus in the heel by having him killed. Jesus gets raised up and then asends to heaven but is not yet king (though born as king) He's got to wait until 1914 when he is invisably present, and cast satan out of heaven - now he is king!!! All those that were part of the little flock are also raised up to heaven in that year. Now we as the great crowd do not benefit really from this covenant but we are likend to the dogs that eat the crumbs & the ones that take hold of the skirt of the jew, so in their good hearts the annointed share some of the kingdom with us - we kinda get second place prize 'cos we are not as faithful or deserving as them. So we get to live on earth in a paradise after armegeddon for a 1000 years, then we have to go through a final test to see if we are TRULY deserving of the second prize.
Make sense?
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Undecided
Loubelle, that's the exact same thing I believed about thirty years ago, hasn't there been some new light that changed most of it?
Ken P.
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LouBelle
nope they still scavaging the crumbs - poor poor doggies.....their lights hasn't got any brighter on this subject - unless my brain totally switched off before I realised it.
oh Wait Jah was now gonna be our grandfather....did you know that undersided & Jesus was now going to be our father.
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jaffacake
So the only teaching in all that unique to JWs is the precise belief about what allegedly happened in 1914 then. Thanks for clearing up my confusion about that happens before & after armageddon.
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M.J.
It helps to trace the history of the concept. It derived from popular Adventists teachings:
Charles Russell taught early on that the "little flock" spoken of in the Bible meant the small number of true believers who constituted the "bride of Christ". The "heavenly kingdom" had supposedly been established when Christ returned invisibly in 1874, and the kingdom rule was expected to extend to earth 40 years later, in 1914. This year marked the end of the "appointed times of the nations", so the earth's leaders were to be overthrown (p 101 ), clearing the way for God's kingdom on earth. Meanwhile, the remaining "Little Flock" members on earth would be transferred to heaven to become be earth's divine new rulers together with Christ. Mankind on earth would not be destroyed, but serve in a 1000 year "probation" period under the new management with a goal of becoming perfect humans like Adam in the garden. The "little flock" would become "redeemer" and "spirtual mother" for all generations of mankind, having the ability to appear on earth as invisible spirits or by materializing into physical bodies. Russell got the details on this from a man named Nelson Barbour, who described this very plan in his books and magazines. Barbour had come from a big movement led by Baptist preacher William Miller , who calculated through passages in Daniel and Revelation that 1843 (later 1844) was the year of Christ's return. After his prediction failed, Miller admitted he was wrong about the whole date-setting thing and called it quits. Some of his followers, however, insisted that something invisible really did happen on that year. Many others including Barbour came up with countless new end-date predictions along with new ideas and explanations on the ultimate fate of mankind. Barbour identified 1874 as the year of Christ's return by "correcting" Miller's calculations and publicized the big news in his magazine . After 1874 passed with nothing happening, rather than admit failure Barbour started to claim that he was right after all, that Christ actually had returned, except that it was an "invisible presence" and no one could see him. His magazine nearly went broke because hardly any of his subscribers bought this story. But one reader--a young and wealthy CT Russell--was so impressed with these ideas that he became Barbour's partner in the magazine operation. Russell adopted all of Barbour?s chronology (1914, 1874, 1799 , etc.) along with his specific views on the coming kingdom. After Russell and Barbour broke things off, Russell started molding these ideas in his own new "Watch Tower" publications. He started linking the "little flock" with the 144,000 that was mentioned in Revelation. According to his new understanding, Russell's own followers were the last surviving portion of the 144,000, and the full number was chosen in 1881. He determined that 1878 was the year when all the dead members of this group (going back to the apostles) were invisibly resurrected into heaven. As for the kingdom, he wrote that the 144,000 in heaven wouldn't ever have to come down to earth after all, because in 1914 Old Testament "ancient worthies" like Abraham, Issac and Jacob were going to be resurrected to earth as perfect humans. They'd be put in charge of mankind (p. 619, 625) and have the ability to receive orders directly from the 144,000, kinda like how perfect Adam communicated with Jehovah in the garden. Since Russell's death certain details on all this have been revised:
- 1918, rather than 1878, is now the year that the dead members of the 144,000 were resurrected to heaven.
- 1935, rather than 1881, is now the year that the full number of the 144,000 was chosen.
- Some of the 144,000 will remain on earth for a while to set up the Kingdom, rather than the "ancient worthies" (Abraham, Isaac, etc.). A big WT campaign had promoted the idea that these "ancient worthies" would be resurrected to perform such a duty in 1925, and a mansion was later built for them in San Diego, but this understanding was eventually changed.
- Once the Great Crowd was identified (through Rutherford's "flash of divine light") a harsher view of Armageddon was implemented. Not only will Church and Government institutions be destroyed, but no living person outside of the organization could really expect to be spared from destruction--not even their kids (Riches, Rutherford, 1936, p. 98)...Many past generations will still be resurrected, though. In contrast, Russell had taught that just about everyone would live to get a chance at redemption in the new system.
- 1914, rather than 1874, is now the year that Christ returned invisibly. 1914 is also the start of the last days, rather than 1799. One calculation in support of 1874 (as the start of the millenium) was that 6,000 years of human history ended in 1873. This has been changed to 1975.
- The end of the "Gentile Times" in 1914 now marks the beginning of the end of the present system, rather than the actual end of the present system as originally promoted by Barbour/Russell.
- The 144,000 became the "Faithful Discreet Slave class" who are officially represented by an organization. The earthly kingdom is now considered to have arrived to earth in a spiritual sense through this organization. This is why you'll hear JWs speak of being in "spiritual paradise". The "spiritual mother" has become the organization itself. In contrast, Russell had taught that there would be no true organization set up until God fully sets up his kingdom on earth.