What are people to do?

[Waterfall]

I think it is very strange that people have to wait forever to be resurrected.

Has this idea not a time limit? 1000 year? 10.000 year? 100.000 year? 1.000.000 year?

If there is no time limit then people could wait forever, right?

Would God not demand a time limit (or date) if someone were to say things like that?

When should people abandon this idea?

Lets say Satan tells Jesus that he will destroy him and Jesus respond by saying...very well...can you give me a date? When will you destroy me? Someday? Thats like forever and never? How long time should I wait for this destruction or should I say...when things do not happen then we know it was not true, so can you give me a date - 2040?

How can we tell truth from lie whitout a date?

Maybe it has nothing to do whit time...but something else.

When this happens, then...

But then we would ask about that...what has to happen? Will it happen when everybody is dead (God will raise mankind from the dead?)? Then there could go a very long time, so...

What are your thoughts about this idea?

[JehovahsWitness]

I think it is very strange that people have to wait forever to be resurrected.

I suppose when you use the expression "wait forever" you are employing a modern day euphemism meaning "a very long time" (as in "I've been waiting forever for this bus"). I say this because if you indeed had to wait literally forever for a bus then the bus would never come.

can you give me a date?

No, I can't. What I can do however is assure you of the following:

• #1 God has fixed a time when he will raise people from the dead.
  
  #2 Although it will not be possible to calculate a date, the bible provides identifiable events leading up to when God will do this, one of which is to identify the generation that will see when God starts repairing the damage done by Satan.
  
  #3 That God will indeed bring our dear loved ones back to life to be in our arms again is a firm and clear promise from God and God cannot lie.

JEHOVAH'S WITNESS


RELATED POSTS

What is a "resurrection"?
http://debatingchristianity.com/forum/v ... 213#832213


Further reading: What hope is there for the dead?
https://www.jw.org/en/publications/book ... -the-dead/



_________________

[onewithhim]

I think it is very strange that people have to wait forever to be resurrected.

Has this idea not a time limit? 1000 year? 10.000 year? 100.000 year? 1.000.000 year?

If there is no time limit then people could wait forever, right?

Would God not demand a time limit (or date) if someone were to say things like that?

The Bible does not indicate that people will have to "wait forever" to be resurrected. We are told that God has a specific time when he will bring an end to wickedness and resurrect the dead. He has already decided on the date. We just don't know the day or hour, but we can evaluate the season, as Jesus told us to do ("keep on the watch").

It is comforting to know, too, that, according to what the Bible teaches, people who have died are "conscious of nothing" (Ecclesiastes 9:5), therefore they don't realize that they have been dead for any amount of time; when they are finally resurrected it will seem to them that they haven't been dead for any time at all. It is like when we fall asleep at night---when we wake up in the morning it doesn't seem like 6 or 8 hours has passed. We weren't conscious of the hours passing. (That is why Jesus compared death to "sleep.")

https://www.jw.org/en/publications/jw-m ... t_index]=0

[William]

[Replying to post 1 by Waterfall]

I get the gist of what you are saying here. When no specific time is given, then this waiting can be extended generation after generation always being informed the same thing.

This leads one to think that perhaps it is not some promise a GOD made, but rather something human beings have made up.

And then one might question WHY human beings would make up such stories and one can find logical answers to that which have nothing to do with GODs or their divine promises, but are more earthly and politically based.

For some, these promises hold great power over them and the whole point of their faith revolves around such hope in the unknown.

If the scientists are correct about the earth warming up, things are going to get hotter and hotter, in our generation, and I would imagine that even if people started dropping like flies there will be those who cling to the hope of the promise of salvation from the skies right up to the point where they too perish from the heat, all the while never wanting to come to the realization that they were duped all along, and could have been doing something more pro-active to help avoid such a planetary catastrophe if only they hadn't put their hope in such promises which had them resting on their laurels, hope in heaven and earth be damned.

[onewithhim]

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[2timothy316]

I think it is very strange that people have to wait forever to be resurrected.

The dead don't know they are dead so time means nothing to them. Ecc the 9th chapter clearly states that only the living are aware of what time and being dead means.

How can we tell truth from lie whitout a date?

The Bible. Even in Genesis 3:15 there was no date given when the Snake's head would be crushed. Yet half of this prophecy as already come true. The strike to the heel has been delivered. There are many prophecies without exact dates. Yet all of them came in God's established time. They were never too soon or too late for God's own purpose.

We don't want the dead resurrected now while the wicked still rule the earth. I personally am glad they will return under Jesus' rule when they will be given an unhindered chance to choose eternal life.

[Waterfall]

Thank you for sharing your thoughts.

I suppose when you use the expression "wait forever" you are employing a modern day euphemism meaning "a very long time" (as in "I've been waiting forever for this bus"). I say this because if you indeed had to wait literally forever for a bus then the bus would never come.

If you have no time limit then you could literally wait forever. Maybe I am wrong. But it is like a man walking down an endless road saying he is on his way to you. Not knowing the road is endless whitout a time limit. A time limit tells us the road is not endless. That he is on the right road and will arrive.

No, I can't. What I can do however is assure you of the following:

• #1 God has fixed a time when he will raise people from the dead.
  
  #2 Although it will not be possible to calculate a date, the bible provides identifiable events leading up to when God will do this, one of which is to identify the generation that will see when God starts repairing the damage done by Satan.
  
  #3 That God will indeed bring our dear loved ones back to life to be in our arms again is a firm and clear promise from God and God cannot lie.

Does God know the date?

Repairing the damage done by Satan...does that mean...when there is peace on earth then it will happen (the resurrection of the dead)?

If it do not happen (the resurrection of the dead)...should people then call God a liar? Or should people just abandon this idea?

I think this is interesting (where does the ideas come from):



And also this:

http://www.bibleinterp.com/articles/copenhagen.shtml

Its an interesting book title "The Bible in History: How Writers Create A Past". Someday I most read this book.

There are also these articles:

http://www.bibleinterp.com/articles/tho368005.shtml

He sounds like a man whit knowledge.

And then there is Bart Ehrman:



There is also this to think about:

http://thelightuniversal.org/shorterroad.html

I know you do not believe in the afterlife, but you could be wrong, right?

Let me point to this book also:

http://thelightuniversal.org/welcometothelight.html

The only problem I have whit this book is the description of the universe (for this to be true then there is a lot wrong whit our picture of the universe. But I think it could be good for science to explore this description. This cannot be a waste of time. We can learn how things can and cannot be. What is wrong whit this description? Is it wrong? Why?).

And that makes me open to other possibilities.

[2timothy316]

I know you do not believe in the afterlife, but you could be wrong, right?

Is the Bible wrong though? Are we truth seekers or mere believers? A person can believe they can fly off a cliff by just flapping their arms but truth is going to be revealed when they jump.

Ecc 9:5 says, "For the living know that they will die, but the dead know nothing at all."

You might not believe people that don't believe in an afterlife but do you believe the Bible? For it says, 'the dead know nothing at all'.

[Waterfall]

Is the Bible wrong though? Are we truth seekers or mere believers? A person can believe they can fly off a cliff by just flapping their arms but truth is going to be revealed when they jump.

Ecc 9:5 says, "For the living know that they will die, but the dead know nothing at all."

You might not believe people that don't believe in an afterlife but do you believe the Bible? For it says, 'the dead know nothing at all'.

The truth is not bound to a book. Unless the book contains the truth. So you would have to find the truth and then see if the truth is in this book or this book or this book. A dead body know nothing at all. That I can accept.

[Checkpoint]

[Replying to post 3 by onewithhim]

We just don't know the day or hour, but we can evaluate the season, as Jesus told us to do ("keep on the watch").

Not really.

We can't "evaluate the season", which is why Jesus urged us to "keep on the watch"(Matthew 24:42).

Acts 1:7

He said to them: "It is not for you to know the times or seasons the Father has set by his own authority".

From HELPS Word-studies

1127 grēgoreú� – literally, "stay awake"; (figuratively) be vigilant (responsible, watchful).