Another implication of being “thrown out in the trash” by
God because of having sinned against the holy spirit by supposedly
“unforgivable sin” is that apparently any JWs could end up being in that
situation just for being dishonest or outwardly deceptive about money given
and/or preaching hours spent – such as in the particular case of Ananias and
Sapphira, mentioned in Acts chapter 5.
I could never understand why the Watchtower says that the
apostle Peter was forgiven for denying Jesus three times, and that wicked
Judean kings such as Amon and Manasseh
were also forgiven and thus did not
commit the unforgivable sin, but Ananias and Sapphira are
forever condemned just because they lied about holding back some of the
proceeds of the sale of a plot of land they had owned as a contribution to the
apostles.
The
Watchtower strongly implies that Ananias and Sapphira have sinned against the holy
spirit and thus will never get a resurrection, as we can see from the following
excerpts:
“Peter
miraculously knew about their deceptive scheme, and his judgment indicated that
their sin would not be forgiven.” (“https://www.jw.org/en/bible-teachings/questions/god-forgive-me/,”
second-from-last paragraph)
“Ananias
and Sapphira did not fall prey to a momentary weakness. They schemed and lied
in an attempt to deceive the apostles. Worse still, they ‘played false to the
holy spirit and to God.’ Jehovah’s response demonstrates in no uncertain terms
that he is prepared to protect the congregation from hypocrites. Truly, ‘it is
a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God’!—Heb. 10:31.” (“http://wol.jw.org/en/wol/d/r1/lp-e/2008760#h=21,”
paragraph 15)
“Ananias,
another early disciple of Jesus, also lied. But God did not forgive either him
or his wife, Sapphira. She had agreed with her husband to tell the lie. Let’s
see why God did not forgive Ananias and Sapphira.” (“https://www.jw.org/en/publications/magazines/wp20130301/why-tell-the-truth/,”
seventh paragraph)
But it
seems just ridiculous that on the one hand someone could be “thrown out in the
trash” while someone else could do all the bad he could think of and still be
forgiven. For example: Don’t forget that King Manasseh, as mentioned in Insight on the Scriptures, Vol. 2, p.
307, “made his sons pass through the fire, practiced magic, employed
divination, and promoted spiritistic practices. Manasseh also put the graven
image of the sacred pole he had made into the house of Jehovah,” and he “was
also guilty of shedding innocent blood in great quantity.” Also, as Insight on the Scriptures, Vol. 1, p.
861 says, he “‘did on a large scale what was bad in Jehovah’s eyes, to offend
him,’ including the consulting of professional foretellers of events, who
flourished under his rule.” Now, I would think that is one heck of a lot worse
– and much more willful and culpable – than just someone lying about the total
value of some of their assets from which a donation was being made to the
apostles. It’s like someone spitting on the sidewalk versus another person
committing mass murder and the one who spat on the sidewalk getting executed
while the mass murder hardly gets a small ticket.
So, the
practical implication of all of this is that a wife-beating, child-molesting,
slanderous, hypocritical asshole of an elder or circuit overseer can get away
scot-free while some poor rank-and-file schmuck can (evidently!) commit the
unforgivable sin and be eternally damned just for being a bit deceptive about
the amount of money he is donating or the number of field service hours he is
putting in. That’s, of course, if you were to relate it to the example of Ananias
and Sapphira. But that account seen in comparison to those super wicked Judean
kings such as Manasseh (I
mean, burning your own sons in sacrifice to pagan gods!), who was forgiven just
because he later decided to “repent” inside a Babylonian jail cell after being
captured by the king of Assyria – well, it just doesn’t add up to me at
all. (Like, what’s wrong with this picture!)
From the foregoing, it seems that the implication of the message
from the February 2016 broadcast is that it’s okay to be a complete hypocrite
asshole, just so long as you don’t do something to sin against the holy spirit.
Now, I know that they never mentioned Ananias and Sapphira at all during the
broadcast, but isn’t it interesting nonetheless, at least as a side point, that
the Watchtower often brings up their example as ones who have sinned against
the holy spirit because of the apparently worst, most heinous sin of all –
being dishonest about the amount of a monetary donation.
So, basically any
lowly JWs could be chucked into the big garbage can; that is, if they commit
the unforgivable sin. Who knows what exactly that sin would be. But I’m sure that
the Watchtower leaders are only too happy to be the final authority and judge
on that one.
