Welcome to Religious Forums, a friendly forum to discuss all religions in a friendly surrounding.
Your voice is missing! You will need to register to get access to the following site features:We hope to see you as a part of our community soon!
Ok let me see if I understand the JW's understanding and doctrine on this matter: So only the chosen 144,000 will live forever in heaven, in a body of flesh and blood, the rest of humanity is worm food, correct? So by that reasoning there could be no final judgement, and no eternal punishment or hell in the JW belief system then as there is no entity in which to judge and punish as it has turned to dust, right? Even though these things are mentioned in the book of revelation, which the Jw's seem to rely on quite heavily. Please clear these discrepancies up for me if you would so I can better understand where you are coming from.
Why are the JW's so hung up on the physical body and deny's the existence of a more subtle and and spiritual dimension to the human being? You often refer to the Tanakh to make your point, but it does appear there was a gradual evolution of this idea with the Jewish people in the Hebrew scriptures and subsequent writings on this matter. I can't speak for them, but there are many Jews who did/do believe in the soul, especially in the Kabbalistic writings. I think that in some of the early scriptures, the theology wasn't as developed as it later became after the Babylonian captivity. Personally I think the idea that we are basically just animal bodies with the animating force of god's breath and god will reanimate our flesh after death is a little archaic, but that's just me
It's not an evolution.
The soul has always been a big component in Judaism.
This is what happens when you have a group of people reading from a book written by people from a different culture, a different mindset, and from different time, and borrowing from and interpreting it in their own way. As is the case with many religious groups and cults which have sprung up under the Christian umbrella. Distortion and error is bound to set in unless the correct teaching and interpretation is passed on.
Right, I mean who would know better than Jews what their scripture actually says and means, Jews themselves who have a tradition that's been passed down down for millennia or some obscure religous group that only formed maybe a century ago?
And also Cmike, isn't there an oral Torah as well that supplements certain aspects that the written Torah is a little opaque about?
Right, I mean who would know better than Jews what their scripture actually says and means, Jews themselves who have a tradition that's been passed down down for millennia or some obscure religous group that only formed maybe a century ago?
But as a religious person think about this for a minute, what is the self then? Is it just a biological organism animated by breath with nothing of a higher or spiritual nature within him? This is what modern science believes of course, but I'm addressing you as a religious person. So we are simply biological organisms whose sense of self is purely located within the brain, and at death we go to dust like all animals do. That's fine to believe that as a secular person but for person of faith like yourself it's a little foreign and counter intuitive to me. Because your saying that even though a person dies and completely decomposes, god somehow reconstitutes all the original elements of his body even though they have long ago dispersed in the soil or the sea, eaten by fish and excreted out etc. That it is absolutely essential that humpty dumpty is put back together again because this shell is all we are? I find it difficult to wrap my head around it, for like I said the first part is easy, we die and return to dust, fine. But the second part, god somehow reconstituting our long decayed fleshly coil again, because our original bodies are necessary in order to get our new bodies......I find it very implausible.
That's fine to believe that as a secular person but for person of faith like yourself it's a little foreign and counter intuitive to me. Because your saying that even though a person dies and completely decomposes, god somehow reconstitutes all the original elements of his body even though they have long ago dispersed in the soil or the sea, eaten by fish and excreted out etc. That it is absolutely essential that humpty dumpty is put back together again because this shell is all we are? I find it difficult to wrap my head around it, for like I said the first part is easy, we die and return to dust, fine. But the second part, god somehow reconstituting our long decayed fleshly coil again, because our original bodies are necessary in order to get our new bodies......I find it very implausible.