Sheep and Goats

Category: Earth

  • Why Are Angels so Interested in Human Affairs?

    It doesn’t make too much sense for angels to be so interested in the doings of humans. Don’t they have other things to do? Here Revelation 14:6: portrays them as all but overseeing the spread of Christianity:

    “And I saw another angel flying in midheaven, and he had everlasting good news to declare to those who dwell on the earth, to every nation and tribe and tongue and people.” What accounts for this intense interest in people?

    Could it be that the project is bigger than humans? Could it be that they are weighing in out the success of that project? Could it be that they intensely want to see God’s sovereignty vindicated and all reproach on his name removed? That it’s not just all about us?

    There are plenty in the heavenly crowd working against Jehovah’s project with the earth, working for its downfall. Maybe the angels counterbalance that, working for its success.

    Maybe, just maybe, evidence that the universe is as yet devoid of life, vast though it is, shows that God is just getting started with his his physical creative works. His first endeavor for a new kind of life is challenged. Demons want to see that challenge succeed. Angels want to see it resolved. The issue is bigger than humans, who are ever wont to think everything revolves around them. The issue is the sanctification of God’s name with the success of his first venture into physical life creation.

    Maybe the “good news that you heard and that was preached in all creation under heaven” (Colossians 1:23) really is “in ALL creation under heaven” and not just some localized affair. Maybe, once this issue is settled of whose way of ruling is right, God or his creation, He can go on to fill up the rest of physical creation with forms of physical life.

    Just a bit of speculation—no more than that. But is does account for the intense interest angels have in the affairs of humankind.

    (See more: John Milton’s ‘Paradise Lost’) 

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  • Why do the Apostles Speak so Little About Living Forever on Earth if That is the Hope for All Mankind?

    Jehovah’s Witnesses think the first century congregation represents a major unfolding of God’s purpose toward humankind. It represents just how “Abraham’s seed” is to bring blessings to “all the nations.” (Genesis 12:3, 18:18) Galatians 3:8 ties that seed to the early congregation. It is a new page in God’s handbook, that some from humankind would rule with Christ to bring blessings to the earth, the “twelve tribes.”

    Jesus makes with the twelve, who have stuck with him through all his tribulations, the new covenant to be part of this kingdom. (Luke 22:30) It is “reserved in the heavens for you.” (1 Peter 1:4) The focus of the New Testament is on this new development, that some are called to heaven, to rule over the earth. “Have you begun ruling as kings without us?” Paul addresses the unruly Corinthians. “I really wish that you had begun ruling as kings, so that we also might rule with you as kings.” Plainly, not everyone can be a king. Plainly, there needs be ones to be kings over. Enter Revelation 21:

    Revelation 21:3-5 picks up on how the seed will fulfill that promise to Abraham of bringing earthly blessings by means of his seed. There, that heavenly arrangement, called “New Jerusalem” (‘old ‘Jerusalem was the seat of government for God’s ancient people) descends from heaven to benefit “mankind” and “peoples.” Those “peoples” and “mankind” don’t go up to the New Jerusalem; rather, the New Jerusalem descends to them.

    Paul does refer to a gathering of the “things of the heaven” and “things on the earth” at Ephesians 1:10.

    1 Corinthians 15:24-26 relates how, once the kingdom has succeeded in bringing death to nothing, that kingdom itself will be handed over to Christ’s “God and Father.”

    Revelation 7:9 tells of a “great crowd” gathered who will survive the great tribulation.) Witnesses associate this group with the “other sheep” of John 10:16.) No sense in gathering them when the great tribulation is yet centuries off. So most of the NT focuses on those with the heavenly hope.

    This either resonates with a person or it doesn’t. Jehovah’s Witnesses appreciate that God put humans on earth, which he told them to fill and multiply, because he wanted them there, not because he wanted them somewhere else. The “covenant for a kingdom” is a major revelation in just how he will succeed in that, undoing the negative effects of Adam and Eve’s rebellion. The New Testament is primarily messaging to and from those with and about that heavenly hope.

    Jehovah’s Witnesses love the earth, appreciate it as the gift he gives to mankind. (Psalm 115:16) They don’t hope to leave it. They hope to live forever on it once it is restored to God’s original purpose. They appreciate Jesus promise (of the “Lord’s prayer”) that once God’s kingdom comes, his will is to take place “on earth, as it is in heaven.’ (Matthew 6:9) Blessed a the meek, he says. Why? Because they will inherit the earth. (Matthew 5:5)

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  • Psalm 115: The Apple Clonking Newton in the Head

    Within Psalm 115:16 lies a common-sense innocuous verse that has all the impact of the apple landing on Newton’s head.

    “As for the heavens, they belong to Jehovah, But the earth he has given to the sons of men.”

    It is the perfect verse you weave into any reply to those who insist we all go to heaven when we die. Such as this person, who asks, “Why are most Jehovah’s Witnesses not born again? Doesn’t the reason stem from their reading of Revelation 7:9-10?”

    Does he think the destiny for all good persons is to go to heaven when they die? I asked him that. He does.

    Agreed that Christians who are destined to heaven need to be born again. But that not true for all Christians. A Christian whose hope is to live forever on a paradise earth made so by God’s kingdom rule, the vast majority of Jehovah’s Witnesses today, are not. They are people who “truly trust in, follow, and love Jesus Christ.” But their hope is to live on earth under his kingdom government.

    It is not so that this hope rests entirely on how JWs read Revelation 7:9-10, or even mostly. Until the 1930s, Witnesses also thought that those verses referred to a heavenly-destined group. But in time, they came to reconcile the passage with other portions of the Bible.

    As for myself, I can’t imagine living forever in heaven. Whatever would I do there? But I can easily imagine living forever on an earth restored. The earth is a beautiful place. 

    Witnesses believe God put humans on earth and gave them the commission to fill the earth and subdue it, because he wanted them there. If he had wanted them in heaven, he would have put them there directly. To Jehovah’s Witnesses, the earth is not a temporary place, a launching pad into heaven or a trap door into hell. It is given to humankind as a home. Death was not a part of God’s original purpose. Had Adam and Eve not rebelled, they would have continued living where God put them, they along with all their offspring, spreading out to fill the earth, living there forever. But, according to Romans 5:12, “through one man [Adam] sin entered into the world and death through sin, and so death spread to all men because they had all sinned.”

    Jesus makes this point about earth in the beatitudes. “Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth.” (Matthew 5:5) The meek do not inherit the earth today. They get stomped all over. Per Jesus’ words in ‘the Lord’s Prayer,’ that will continue until the kingdom comes: “Thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven,” he says. (Matthew 9:10)

    With the resurrection of Christ, a new hope opens up. It is called a “sacred secret.” It takes getting one’s head around because it is so contrary to the earthly hope described above. Fortunately, one does not have to “get one’s head around it.” God directly implants the heavenly hope in ones so called. For example, to the Ephesians, Paul writes of “making known to us the sacred secret of his will. It is according to his good pleasure that he himself purposed for an administration at the full limit of the appointed times, to gather all things together in the Christ, the things in the heavens and the things on the earth.” (Eph 1:9-10) These ones are destined to rule with Christ in heaven. It is a brand-spanking-new calling. it is called being “born again.” Even John the Baptist, who prepared the crowds for Jesus but died prior to his resurrection, did not have that hope. “Among those born of women, there has not been raised up anyone greater than John the Baptist, but a lesser person in the Kingdom of the heavens is greater than he is,” Jesus says at Matthew 11:11

    Plainly, not everyone can be ruling. There has to be people to rule over. The latter can be expected to greatly outnumber the former. This is true of those later recognized as the “great crowd” of Revelation 7:9-10.

    “After this I saw, and look! a great crowd, which no man was able to number, out of all nations and tribes and peoples and tongues, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, dressed in white robes; and there were palm branches in their hands.  And they keep shouting with a loud voice, saying: “Salvation we owe to our God, who is seated on the throne, and to the Lamb.” (Rev 7:9-10)

    Good things are in store for them: “These are the ones who come out of the great tribulation, and they have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb. That is why they are before the throne of God, and they are rendering him sacred service day and night in his temple; and the One seated on the throne will spread his tent over them. They will hunger no more nor thirst anymore, neither will the sun beat down on them nor any scorching heat, because the Lamb, who is in the midst of the throne, will shepherd them and will guide them to springs of waters of life. And God will wipe out every tear from their eyes.” (7: 14-17)

    No one can number them. What is the sense of a numberless amount in government? But as one’s ruled over on earth, numberless makes perfect sense.

     

    ***Someone else spelled it out this way, someone who thinks the earth will be destroyed:

    “JW Paradise Earth

    1. There is no more death, tears, sorrow, crying, or pain
    2. It would be like the Garden of Eden before the Fall
    3. God and the 144,000 anointed ones will rule over them in Heaven.
    4. The current earth remains but the current man governments are gone

    “Church New Earth

    1. There is no more death, tears, sorrow, crying, or pain
    2. It would be like the Garden of Eden before the Fall
    3. God and the 144,000 will be with them on the New Earth. You can touch them. Hug them.
    4. The first earth has passed away including it's seas, but this New Earth replaces it.

     

    If I understand this church view of the new earth (which most church members don’t know anything about; most think it’s just straight up heaven-bound for the faithful), am I to conclude that God takes the faithful to heaven, destroys the earth, recreates it, and then puts the faithful back on it again? This seems like an extraordinarily convoluted way to go about it.

    Did the earth do something wrong for which it should be destroyed? Does anyone think God should take out his wrath upon the planet? Or do you think he should take out wrath upon the wicked people on it?

    The illustration that all Witnesses love (because it makes so much sense) is that if you rent your house out to tenants and they destroy it, you do not destroy the house. You evict the tenants. 

    The earth is far better than a house. All you have to do is stop abusing the earth and it heals up pretty quickly. We see that in the aftermath of every oil spill and forest fire. Just stop abusing the earth, stop the destruction of it, put a kingdom in place and citizens that will treasure it and take care of it, and the existing planet becomes a “new earth.” No need for this rigamorole of a wholesale move of all the righteous to heaven and back again.

    But, if we go the church view expressed, that the earth literally needs be destroyed, then what about the heavens? Cited was 2 Peter 3:6-7 KJV:

    Whereby the world that then was, being overflowed with water, perished: [7] But the heavens and the earth, which are now, by the same word are kept in store, reserved unto fire against the day of judgment and perdition of ungodly men.

    So the literal heavens, too, are reserved for fire? What’s wrong with them that they also must be replaced?

    To my mind, this view takes a perfectly reasonable teaching of the righteous surviving upon an earth made new under God’s kingdom, something that is consistent with the entire Bible, from Adam to Armegeddon, and replaces it with something that makes no sense at all and enjoys little scriptural support.

    Heavens are often used in the Bible as a metaphor for rulerships. Both could scorch you one moment, freeze you the next, drench you the next minute, and there wasn’t a thing you could do about it. For the most part, that is still true of even modern governments. Their policies affect you greatly and there is very little you can do about it. A thousand pounds of pressure yields a once of result—and in many lands, the governed have no say whatsoever.

    Accordingly, Jehovah’s Witnesses view the “new heavens” to be a metaphor for God’s kingdom ruling over the “new earth” after the wicked are removed from it.

    I am all for literalism. But not to the point of converting obvious metaphor to it. When someone tells me to stop beating around the bush, I realize he is not speaking of a literal bush.

    ***

    There is another keeper from Psalm 115, verses 4-8. Note the zinger at verse 8. It is as though the punchline of a joke. Only, in this case, it is no joke.

    4 Their idols are silver and gold, The work of human hands.

    5 A mouth they have, but they cannot speak; Eyes, but they cannot see;

    6 Ears they have, but they cannot hear; A nose, but they cannot smell;

    7 Hands they have, but they cannot feel; Feet, but they cannot walk; They make no sound with their throat.

    8 The people who make them will become just like them, As will all those who trust in them.

    That last line is a beaut. Contrast it with the psalmist’s God, who “does whatever he pleases.” (3) Their god does nothing at all. Worse yet, by devoting your life to them, you find yourself in that same predicament.

    I am told that when our people speak with Muslims, they are quick to read this verse. It makes their eyes bug out. See, Muslims hate idols and they associate them with Christianity. To read how the God of the Bible also hates them makes a powerful impression.

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  • NPR Exposes the Recycling ‘Scam’ of Plastic—Almost None of it is Reused

    I have just one word of advice for you: “Plastics,” said the parent’s comfortable friend to Benjamin Braddock. Plastics—the new growth field in 1967, the year The Graduate movie came out—just as computers and then the internet would be to succeeding generations. Plastics—a graduate could make a killing in it.

    But Ben didn’t want any career advice just then. Just out of college, with no goals at all, the only thing he knew is that he wanted no part of the phony monied world that had been his upbringing. He lolled around aimless at his folks’ upper crust home that year and ended up in an affair with his mom’s socialite friend—her idea, not his. “Mrs. Robinson, are you trying to seduce me?” is a line from the movie that has endured.

    It is the same Mrs. Robinson that Simon and Garfunkel sung about. Mike Nichols, film director, had been after Paul Simon to write news songs for the movie and he didn’t want to do it—he was busy. Finally he said that he did have this song kicking around about times past and Joe DiMaggio and Mrs. Roosevelt, and the director said he’d take it! Just change Roosevelt to Robinson and he had a deal.

    This explains why baseball great Joe DiMaggio blew a gasket when he heard his name in the song—so says the Ken Burns documentary Baseball. Who are those hippy long-hairs to drag him into their immoral movie that had nothing to do with him?! Joe was a traditional type of guy. Others in baseball just barely calmed him down with the plea that, while the mention may not have had any context, it was a compliment.

    That line about going into plastics is another line that endures. At what point did ‘plastic’ come to stand for an entire world of materialism devoid of deeper values? It couldn’t have been just then in 1967. The plastic revolution of consumption was just getting underway.

    Yet if fits so well with an NPR report of 53 years later—of September 2020. There has never been any meaningful recycling of plastic! Ten percent is all that has ever been reused—tops. And the industry knew it all along! Recycled plastic doesn’t hold up well, is expensive to make, whereas new plastic is cheap. But with environmentalism sweeping the globe, that is the last thing people wanted to hear, so they weren’t told that. They were told that those recycling numbers within triangles on every plastic item meant something, and earth-friendly people the world over—I do it myself—sort out all their plastic for recycling bins. Waste Management sends the truck by a second time to pick it up.

    It doesn’t mean a thing. It all gets buried—all but 10%. For me personally this would have been fine ammo—better than the ammo that I did use—when I was kicking back at some atheist deriding Witnesses for preaching about God’s kingdom whereas they could be rolling up their sleeves to help with saving the planet! Look, we’ve nothing against saving the planet, I told him, and when there are recycling laws on the books Jehovah’s Witnesses no doubt obey them more closely than most because they are good at obeying laws—they don’t figure that each new law is a line drawn in the sand by the government to take away their rights and so they have to cross it in order to prove their courage. Yeah—they love cooperating in this regard, but it’s a little stupid to think they are saving the planet when, in one gigantic industry blunder, millions of gallons of oil can destroy the entire seashore. The BP gulf oil spill had just occurred and President Obama was spouting tough talk about “kicking asses” over it.

    It was a great retort to the anti-religion humanist, but the worldwide plastic recycling scam would have been even better. Can someone look this fellow up for me? I’ll run this new one by him. “Look, I'm all for local clean-up-the-park days. Same with clean-up-the-roadside days,” I said. No one of Jehovah’s Witnesses will ever speak against them. In fact, in Russia, Witnesses do clean up the public parks—or at least they did before the ban. I didn’t know that at the time, but when I found out I included that tidbit in Dear Mr. Putin – Jehovah’s Witnesses Write Russia.

    “In Russia, congregations do it all the time,” Anton Chivchalov told me—the one who keeps an eye on the current persecution in that land. “Most congregations do it. It has become a custom for them. Parks are more or less okay, other people clean them too, but still there is garbage to clean, and sometimes the authorities just lack enough workers, so there may be tons of garbage at times. We clean not only parks, but any public areas. We usually ask the city administration to assign some areas for us to clean.”

    I speculated within Dear Mr. Putin on how it must make a great backdrop for informal conversations on God’s purpose to make the earth a paradise. Do Witnesses still do it, with police guarding them to make sure no one talks about God? I’ll have to ask Chivchalov. Still, even as they did it, they did not imagine that they were negating the verse of how humans will be “ruining the earth” when God intervenes—ruining it, not saving it, and the NPR story that the emperor wore no clothes despite his loud voice—he recycles hardly any plastic at all despite telling people he does so they will not feel bad about buying plastic and will buy more—was an perfect case in point.

    And young Benjamin Braddock, the aimless college grad of the movie, knew it instinctively—that the world his parents’s generation wanted to thrust him into was plastic—promising 100% and delivering 10%. ‘He probably went into plastics after all and did very well for himself,’ said some cynical commentator about the movie—so many of that generation sold out, as they do in all generations. Be that as it may, the author of the book The Graduate did not sell out—he died penniless in 2020, after a lifetime of giving away assets. More on him later.

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