Insight On Heavenly Resurrection...Revealed!
Posted: Tue Sep 17, 2013 4:26 pm
Insight On Heavenly Resurrection...Revealed!
These Watchtower Teachers of Bethel are some fantastic liars, who brazenly contradict the bible, publicly and openly, before the world with no pangs of conscience.
For instance, at 1 Thessalonians 4:15-17 from the New World Translation we read the following”
“For this is what we tell you by Jehovah’s word that we the living who survive to the presence of the Lord shall IN NO WAY PRECEDE those who have fallen asleep [in death]; because the Lord himself will descend from heaven with a commanding call, with an archangel’s voice and with God’s trumpet, and those who are dead in union with Christ will rise first. Afterwards we the living who are surviving WILL, TOGETHER WITH THEM, be caught away in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air; and thus we shall always be with [the] Lord.” -- 1 Thessalonians 4:14-17 New World Translation
After reading this particular bible passage recently, I decided to look back, and check again the July 1, 1987 Watchtower magazine article where these verses are discussed at length. I wanted to see why I didn’t see through what they were teaching back them, since I was an ardent student of Watchtower Theology in those days. I wanted to know why I accepted what the Watchtower Society taught about the anointed being resurrected across a long period of time rather than what Paul wrote under inspiration, that the dead and the living would all be resurrected to heaven together and as even the Churches have been teaching for centuries. Of course, the rapture teaching of the churches was something we, Jehovah's Witnesses, despised and disputed vehemently in field service, over and over again, relentlessly.
The following is from an article entitled “Michael the Great Prince Stands Up” page 18, paragraph 12 in the July 1st, 1987 Watchtower magazine.
“Jesus’ “standing” has been a great blessing for “the sons of Daniel’s people.’ His taking up of royal power and casting Satan to the earth cleansed their future heavenly home. (John 14:2, 3) Thereafter, those who had already died faithful could be resurrected to their heavenly inheritance. (1 Thessalonians 4:16, 17) The remnant of them still on earth suffered considerable persecution during the first world war, which almost stopped their preaching work. But in 1919 they were resuscitated and brought forth on the world scene as a new nation. –Isaiah 66:7, 8; Revelation 9:14; 11:11, 12.”
End of quote.
So then, those anointed were “resuscitated” as they say, and were given the privilege to stay here on earth and restore pure worship on it, over a period of time, years in fact, and were given special permission by God to do so….of course.
But, is that what Paul, under inspiration, said was supposed to happen? Is it? Were some of the anointed [the dead] supposed to go to heaven first, and others of the anointed, those who “survive to the presence of the Lord” were to go to heaven in stages, over a long period of time thus making for a separation of years and years before all of the anointed are in heaven together. Is that what Paul, under inspiration mind you, taught the brothers of the first century, I ask?
Look again at paragraph 12 and see how they used 1 Thessalonians 4:16, 17. It is quite crafty.
The Watchtower Society implied in that paragraph (#12) that this scripture applied only to those already dead and no one else. They completely ignored what Paul said about “the living,” those “who survived” so that they could make the next statement that the “remnant of them still on earth,” or those who had not died yet, would continue on to live on earth to perform some great feat for God. However, you cannot have a “remnant” left on earth if everybody has gone to heaven the way Paul said it was going to happen. Therefore, they (the anointed still alive) could not be “caught away in clouds” along with the “resurrected dead” to meet the Lord in the air at that time. No, because that would negate all of WTS teachings about themselves being a “remnant” of anointed Christians.
That explanation in paragraph 12 negates the inspired words of Paul, blatantly. They are contradicting Paul’s inspired words openly, in front of the whole world, using the Watchtower magazine, in this instance.
Think! If the Watchtower had honestly made this admission that all the anointed went to heaven at the same time (back in 1914/18) as Paul wrote, then they would have to admit that there were no anointed left on earth after 1914. Isn’t that so?
Therefore this would mean that all who became Jehovah’s Witnesses (or "International Bible Students") from that time onward (1914) would have to be considered, scripturally, the "Great Crowd" of Revelation 7:9, isn’t that so?
Hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm.
written by Donald C. Burney
These Watchtower Teachers of Bethel are some fantastic liars, who brazenly contradict the bible, publicly and openly, before the world with no pangs of conscience.
For instance, at 1 Thessalonians 4:15-17 from the New World Translation we read the following”
“For this is what we tell you by Jehovah’s word that we the living who survive to the presence of the Lord shall IN NO WAY PRECEDE those who have fallen asleep [in death]; because the Lord himself will descend from heaven with a commanding call, with an archangel’s voice and with God’s trumpet, and those who are dead in union with Christ will rise first. Afterwards we the living who are surviving WILL, TOGETHER WITH THEM, be caught away in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air; and thus we shall always be with [the] Lord.” -- 1 Thessalonians 4:14-17 New World Translation
After reading this particular bible passage recently, I decided to look back, and check again the July 1, 1987 Watchtower magazine article where these verses are discussed at length. I wanted to see why I didn’t see through what they were teaching back them, since I was an ardent student of Watchtower Theology in those days. I wanted to know why I accepted what the Watchtower Society taught about the anointed being resurrected across a long period of time rather than what Paul wrote under inspiration, that the dead and the living would all be resurrected to heaven together and as even the Churches have been teaching for centuries. Of course, the rapture teaching of the churches was something we, Jehovah's Witnesses, despised and disputed vehemently in field service, over and over again, relentlessly.
The following is from an article entitled “Michael the Great Prince Stands Up” page 18, paragraph 12 in the July 1st, 1987 Watchtower magazine.
“Jesus’ “standing” has been a great blessing for “the sons of Daniel’s people.’ His taking up of royal power and casting Satan to the earth cleansed their future heavenly home. (John 14:2, 3) Thereafter, those who had already died faithful could be resurrected to their heavenly inheritance. (1 Thessalonians 4:16, 17) The remnant of them still on earth suffered considerable persecution during the first world war, which almost stopped their preaching work. But in 1919 they were resuscitated and brought forth on the world scene as a new nation. –Isaiah 66:7, 8; Revelation 9:14; 11:11, 12.”
End of quote.
So then, those anointed were “resuscitated” as they say, and were given the privilege to stay here on earth and restore pure worship on it, over a period of time, years in fact, and were given special permission by God to do so….of course.
But, is that what Paul, under inspiration, said was supposed to happen? Is it? Were some of the anointed [the dead] supposed to go to heaven first, and others of the anointed, those who “survive to the presence of the Lord” were to go to heaven in stages, over a long period of time thus making for a separation of years and years before all of the anointed are in heaven together. Is that what Paul, under inspiration mind you, taught the brothers of the first century, I ask?
Look again at paragraph 12 and see how they used 1 Thessalonians 4:16, 17. It is quite crafty.
The Watchtower Society implied in that paragraph (#12) that this scripture applied only to those already dead and no one else. They completely ignored what Paul said about “the living,” those “who survived” so that they could make the next statement that the “remnant of them still on earth,” or those who had not died yet, would continue on to live on earth to perform some great feat for God. However, you cannot have a “remnant” left on earth if everybody has gone to heaven the way Paul said it was going to happen. Therefore, they (the anointed still alive) could not be “caught away in clouds” along with the “resurrected dead” to meet the Lord in the air at that time. No, because that would negate all of WTS teachings about themselves being a “remnant” of anointed Christians.
That explanation in paragraph 12 negates the inspired words of Paul, blatantly. They are contradicting Paul’s inspired words openly, in front of the whole world, using the Watchtower magazine, in this instance.
Think! If the Watchtower had honestly made this admission that all the anointed went to heaven at the same time (back in 1914/18) as Paul wrote, then they would have to admit that there were no anointed left on earth after 1914. Isn’t that so?
Therefore this would mean that all who became Jehovah’s Witnesses (or "International Bible Students") from that time onward (1914) would have to be considered, scripturally, the "Great Crowd" of Revelation 7:9, isn’t that so?
Hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm.
written by Donald C. Burney