Brian2
Veteran Member
Are you familiar with our beliefs? And the Scriptural reasons behind them?
Not all.
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Are you familiar with our beliefs? And the Scriptural reasons behind them?
If a person does not believe the gospel and is not baptized into Christ then he has not entered into covenant with God for the resurrection of the dead. He will simply die and stay dead.
It is of benefit to understand that the Christian scriptures are written by and for those who will rule with Christ in heaven....so yes, it refers to all of 'them'...but not to all of 'us'.
@Deeje said : “….there is more than one way to translate and interpret scripture....there can only be one right one. Time will tell.” (post #136)
While the “there can only be one right one” is an incorrect and naïve statement, the irony is that despite your statement, you are often using incorrect translations and incorrect assumptions to support your theological theories.
Remember, the religion of the ancient Christian movement did not have the same doctrines or beliefs as your modern religious movement and they did not use your faulty english translation of their scriptures in their early religion.
For example, you used an incorrect translation english version of Psalms 146:4-5 to support your modern religious theory. You quote the verse as telling us that all "thoughts" cease (gk …απολουνται παντεσ οι διαλογισμοι αυτου…), but in fact LXX Psalms 146:4-5 of early Christianity does NOT say us “thoughts” perish and there is no greek base version that says thoughts cease at death.
The translation of διαλογισμοι as “thoughts” is incorrect You will notice that many english versions have attempted to correct this mistake. For example, Doug Moo and his group also noticed this mistake in psalms 146, and render the greek as “plans” in the NIV. That is, when the spirit departs the body upon death, any “plans” made during life come to nothing is their revision.
The word Διαλογιζομoι (Dialogizomoi) is related to the English word dialogue and exhaustive treatments of the word by early Koine linguists, showed that it was, anciently, never given the discrete meaning of “thought” (i.e. “cogitation”) in any Koine text found up to the 19th century, but instead has judicial usage as its base historical context.
For example, in P Ryl II. 74 (133 a.d.) it is used in it’s typical meaning of holding a discussion and examination upon a subject. It meant holding "court" of some type (whether one is making his own judgment or an official court judgment).
In P Oxy. III. 484:24 (138 a.d.) "...the praefect Avidius Heliodorus holds his auspicious court…”, διαλογιζηται was used for “court” or “examination” of a premise.
In Vettius Valens p. 245:26 it is used to mean “discuss” or “examine” which also was part of the process of considering through dialogue and coming to a decision (a judgment).
The common relationship in all of its uses in such ancient literature was that it referred to an examination of a premise which undergoes “deliberation” or “questioning” in the process of coming to a decision or judgment. Thus, when the word is used in James 2:4 the translation is, again, faulty. It is not “evil thoughts” (KJV) that the judges are guilty of, but rather, the judges are guilty of making corrupt and "evil decisions” and "corrupt judgments”.
My point in this post is that Psalms 146:4-5 does NOT tell us that “thoughts perish”. The concept of deliberations and further interactions and discussions and plans for mortality ceasing can certainly be argued, but the term does not refer to simple "thought" or "cognition".
Regarding the early Judeo-Doctrine (that an intelligent, cognizant, spirit exists in each of mankind and that spirit separates from the body at death), @Brian2 represents early Jewish and early Christian religion on this specific point. Why would your more modern religious theory and your interpretations of faulty english texts take priority over the more original Judeo-Christian religion with its doctrines and its different interpretations of its more original texts?
Clear
τωτζδρφιω
It sounds like something Satan would tell people. "Oh don't worry, that does not apply to you. I know it might look as if it's for all people but really it only applies to a special group of Christians."
The thing is that the anointed class idea is just a theory about the most symbolic and tricky to understand book in the Bible and it is a theory made up by a bunch of men who are known for changing their mind and doctrines as they go along, because they think that they got it wrong the first time.
Romans 8:7because the mind of the flesh is hostile to God: It does not submit to God’s law, nor can it do so. 8Those controlled by the flesh cannot please God. 9You, however, are controlled not by the flesh, but by the Spirit, if the Spirit of God lives in you. And if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he does not belong to Christ.…..............14For all who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God.
If you look at Revelation 7: 4, you will see a finite number who are said (in Revelation 14:1-4) to be redeemed from among mankind as "firstfruits" (in an agricultural society, firstfruits are the choicest and first of the crop.....the secondary fruits are still good, but not of the same quality and which appear later.) so this indicates that there are others who are not in this first "crop". Revelation 7:9-10; 13-14 goes on to identify a second group who also attribute salvation to God and the Lamb....
"After this I looked, and behold, a great multitude that no one could number, from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed in white robes, with palm branches in their hands, 10 and crying out with a loud voice, “Salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb!” . . . . Then one of the elders addressed me, saying, “Who are these, clothed in white robes, and from where have they come?” 14 I said to him, “Sir, you know.” And he said to me, “These are the ones coming out of the great tribulation. They have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb."
These are the earthly survivors of the coming "great tribulation" (Matthew 24:21)......they are not numbered like the first group. But all are praising God for their salvation.
Yes indeed....we are all at the mercy of our own hearts, which God is constantly searching to see if they can be taught something new. Just like the Jews who accepted Jesus.....they had to contend with much opposition from those of their own families and community. Jesus told then to expect this. (Matthew 10:34-39) Jesus was not starting a new religion, but simply correcting ingrained understanding which had been corrupted for centuries. Same with Christendom. History is repeating and old mistakes are still being made....the same old deceiver is at work. His MO never changes....because it works.
Yes, as I have just explained....
The great crowd are not said to be in heaven...they are 'before the throne' of God, just as Israel were, in their earthly situation. No Jew expected to go to heaven.....it was never in their scripture or in their understanding originally. Resurrection is what they understood and it was entirely earthly, like the Kingdom was expected to be. They got that half right...the kingdom does rule the earth, but it does so from a heavenly vantage point. This is what Revelation 21:2-4 says....
" And I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. 3 And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them as their God. 4 He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away.”
How was God "with" his people Israel? Did he need to be physically present in order to rule them?
Where did this hangup about going to heaven get its start? We believe that it is a product of the apostasy along with all the other false doctrines that Christendom adopted over the centuries.
We got rid of all of them.
Now that is funny...you arrive at the same conclusion, but insist that it is by a means that you were taught, despite the fact that it was never stated in the Bible.
Just use the scripture as they were written.....
Most of this is getting so far off topic that I should not really answer, but really when God tells us something in the Bible that looks like it applies to all people then that is probably the case. It is the work of Satan to put doubts about God and what He has said in our mind.
If you wish....I'm talking about Romans 8 and being a child of God.
Sounds like a topic for another thread.
It sounds like something Satan would tell people. "Oh don't worry, that does not apply to you. I know it might look as if it's for all people but really it only applies to a special group of Christians."
The ancient Jews and Christians BOTH believed in an afterlife and existence of a cognisant spirit after death. The early Judeo-Christian literature is full of references to and descriptions of the world of spirits.
There is no spirit that goes beyond death Frank.....our spirit is our breath....nothing more in this context....why do you keep asking the same questions?
Nathan gave the things that God told him to say all along. It was God who changed the plans. Nathan got nothing wrong.
If you're using your second statement as support for your first statement....that's apples and oranges. The "breath of life" (spirit), in Genesis 2:7, is the same as that in Ecclesiastes 3:19-21 & Psalms 146:3-4...it's the life-force in animate creatures.
But the "world of spirits" in the Judaic literature you refer to, are angelic creatures.
I was wanting to touch on this....
Nathan did say something wrong.....he told David to do what he wanted and build a house to Jehovah.
But Jehovah told Nathan, "I don't want David to build Me a house."
Jehovah corrected Nathan, but he was still used by Jehovah. Jehovah always appreciates His servants' zeal and eagerness in support of His worship.
And yes, it served as a test to His people....
Jesus tested those following him, at John 6, when Jesus told them they needed to 'drink His blood & eat His flesh.'
It winnows out those who want to just 'get a reward' (and possibly later stumble someone), from those who genuinely want to worship God.
Have you considered why Paul pictured the body as a tent that we live in and which is replaced with a better one, and is something we can be absent from? 2Cor 5:1-10
Yes I have...Paul, like his contemporaries was anointed for a role in heaven. He was not one of the 12, of whom it says in Revelation that they are the foundation stones of God's heavenly Kingdom. (Revelation 21:10-14) He has the role of a king and priest in that governmental arrangement. According to the prophesy in Daniel, in our time God will bring in the rulership of his Kingdom by crushing all corrupt human rulership out of existence, and replacing them. (Daniel 2:44)
A Kingdom is a "King" and his "dom"ain....so we as Christ's disciples, were taught to pray for God's Kingdom to "come" so that his will could "be done on earth as it is in heaven"...
The Kingdom was set up in heaven according to the Bible, and places were reserved for its future anointed rulers. (1 Peter 1:3-4).....then, after a cleansing of this earth of all wickedness, Revelation 21:2-4 says that God brings the rulership of his kingdom ...to "Man" here on earth.
How is God "with" his people in that case? In the same way that he was with his chosen nation when they were released from slavery in Egypt. He did that through human representatives...
So how does Paul figure in this? As an anointed chosen one, he was looking forward to leaving his sinful physical body and joining Christ in heaven. Like all other anointed ones he was keen to take up his assignment. The person who was Paul was waiting to shed his human flesh so that he could be resurrected in a spirit body like Jesus was....like all those who are anointed will be.
My understanding of the prophecy of Daniel, when I compare it with the gospels in which Jesus seems to say that the Kingdom of God was set up then (Matt 11:12,13), and with Peter calling the Christians of his day "a holy nation" (1Peter 2:9) and with John who said to the Christians then that they had been made a Kingdom (Rev 1:6) is that the Kingdom was started by Jesus and the citizenship has been growing since while awaiting the promised land when Jesus returns to rule in person (so to speak).
I have understood the Lord's Prayer to be a prayer not only for the coming of Jesus and the establishment of the fullness of the Kingdom, but as saying that it is where God's will is being done that God's Kingdom has come.
Since the Kingdom was set up by Jesus on earth, in embryo I see the JW idea of Jesus being anointed King and receiving the Kingdom in 1914 as wrong. Jesus was given the Kingdom to rule from the time of ascension (the ascension story of Acts 1 being reminiscent of the Daniel prophecy of Dan 7:13,14 when Jesus is given His Kingdom). Since that time He has been our Lord and ruler.
The inheritance mentioned in 1Pet 1:3,4 sounds similar to what Paul was speaking of at 2Cor 5:1-10. This would be our inheritance of eternal life in our imperishable and immortal bodies.
God was with the Israelites in the wilderness in person and is also with Christians these days in person as Jesus said would happen at John 14:23. The Lord is the Spirit (2Cor 3:17) so the Lord is with us.
Hmmm OK, but that does not explain why the body is termed a tent. Something lives in a tent just as something lives in the house not made with human hands which waits for us in the heavens,,,,,,,,,as it says, what is mortal is swallowed up by life. ie. Our mortal body will be replaced by an imperishable body.
Those chosen for life in heaven will indeed be resurrected in spiritual bodies. But the first resurrection was not to take place until Christ's return. (1 Thessalonians 4:13-17)
All slept in their graves until then, and those alive on earth from that time on will experience an instant transformation....no need to sleep in a grave.
God has never been with his people "in person" but always through an intermediary. It is why he appointed Jesus as Mediator. Sinful humans cannot come into God's presence. God spoke to Moses through that mediator in the Most Holy compartment of the Tabernacle when his communication was said to come from above the sacred ark of the covenant indicated by the Shekinah light. ....the same angel who also spoke to him at the burning bush. God's spokesman has always been the Logos. He still is to this day.
It does if it was the same man in a different body. Only God can transfer the lifeforce of a person from one body to another. Like taking off a suit and putting on another one. What is mortal puts on immortality....a human body cannot be immortal because it relies on external things to stay alive. A spiritual body has no such need. A spiritual body can live in the spiritual realm...a human body cannot.
But we could argue back and forth all day.....it wont change what I believe and apparently it won't change what you believe, but if others are reading they will be able to evaluate this conversation and take something useful from it.
Have you studied Daniel’s prophesies at all? In Daniel ch 2, Babylonian King Nebuchadnezzar had a dream that was interpreted by Daniel. It was a prophetic march of world powers who all had a connection to Israel spanning a period called “the Gentile times” or “the appointed times of the nations”. This period, where God’s people would be under Gentile domination, was still going in Jesus’ day because he spoke of it. (Luke 21:24) Rome was then in power.
Daniel told the King that he was represented by the head of a huge image, made of gold. The breast and arms were of silver and represented Medo Persia, followed by the belly and thighs of copper representing Greece, then the legs of iron representing Rome and then the feet of iron mixed with with clay representing Britain and her later alliance with America in this time of the end.
The Kingdom of God is seen as a huge stone carved out of a mountain that strikes the image on its feet and it toppled and was shattered to pieces. The stone then became a large mountain and filled the whole earth. In Daniel 2:44 God’s kingdom is described as something that will crush all those kingdoms out of existence, and replace them as mankind’s only government. The kingdom of God is a heavenly government with Jesus as the King. It will bring mankind back into reconciliation with God. What was lost in Eden will be returned to the human race.
The Lord’s Prayer is not divorced from Daniel’s prophesy. When the Kingdom comes, it will rid the earth of all wickedness and replace failed human rulership with a true theocracy. We are praying for the kingdom to “come” to us...not that we will go to the kingdom.
Nevertheless the Kingdom of God is where God reign and if God reigns over His people now then the Kingdom is on earth now even if it is not in it's full form yet while the other Kingdoms on earth are wielding power over people.
Jesus did not receive his kingship on his return to heaven. In prophesy King David said at Psalm 110:1-2.....
"The word of the Lord to my master; "Wait for My right hand, until I make your enemies a footstool at your feet."
אלְדָוִ֗ד מִ֫זְמ֥וֹר נְאֻ֚ם יְהֹוָ֨ה | לַֽאדֹנִ֗י שֵׁ֥ב לִֽימִינִ֑י עַד־אָשִׁ֥ית אֹֽ֜יְבֶ֗יךָ הֲדֹ֣ם לְרַגְלֶֽיךָ:
2 The staff of your might the Lord will send from Zion; rule in the midst of your enemies.
במַטֵּ֚ה עֻזְּךָ֗ יִשְׁלַ֣ח יְ֖הֹוָה מִצִיּ֑וֹן רְ֜דֵ֗ה בְּקֶ֣רֶב אֹֽיְבֶֽיךָ:"
This is God telling David's 'master' (the coming Messiah) to sit at his right hand and wait till God made his enemies a stool for his feet.
Ps 110:1-2 sound like they have something to do with the Law and the Word of God going forth from Jerusalem, Isa 2:1-5, speaking about the gospel going out from Jerusalem. Since then Jesus has been ruling His Kingdom in the midst of His enemies.
The coming of the kingdom was still a very long way off. But only in our counting of time. According to calculations made using Daniel's prophesy, the time for Christ's return was 1914 CE. The sign Jesus gave in Matthew 24 to inform his disciples of his "presence" (not his coming) was to begin with unprecedented warfare. 1914 saw the outbreak of the first global war in human history, followed by the pandemic of the Spanish flu and the resulting food shortages that hit the world. Great earthquakes too were to increase. All of the events had to take place in one period of time culminating in love being lost in a cold and heartless world. A global preaching of the good news of God's Kingdom was also part of the sign that Jesus was present, and guiding his disciples during these last days as he promised. (Matthew 28:19-20)
His manifestation was to come right at the end of the last days. Judging the nations, cleansing the earth, and bringing in the rule of his Kingdom.
Yes the final establishment of the Kingdom of God is right at the end, but that is the final establishment of something that has been growing since the last days began, back in Jesus time.