The Watch Tower Paradise isn't in the Bible

 

Paradise is a constant theme with Jehovah's Witnesses, as we saw in last week’s Watch Tower Wednesday. According to this article, Paradise is defined as a place where:

• There is a one-world government

• International unity

• A harmonious environment

• Perfect health and abundant food

• Peace and security

• Ample housing and satisfying work

• The best education

• Unending life

How would you discuss this with a Jehovah's Witness? Where are they right? Are they right? What have they misunderstood? What does the Christian message bring on this issue?

In the Facebook discussion Lois pointed out the absence of labour and production in the illustrations that typically these stories of paradise, including this one. Lois remarks:

‘They also show this beautiful picture of paradise on earth but how are the buildings and tractors made, no factories or workers are ever shown!’

Given the original purpose of God being man’s stewardship of creation, the building and development of societies in creation (Gen.1:28;2:15), this is a good point. This strikes me as a very worldly paradise, one any fallen person would find attractive because this is what people generally would imagine paradise to be.

Paradise in the Bible

The word paradise is an ancient Iranian word that describes the gardens of the Persian kings. It is a loan-word and appears in Nehemiah 2:8 to describe King Ataxerxes’ forest; in Ecclesiastes 2:5 to describe the gardens and parks planted by Solomon; in Song of Solomon 4:13 to describe an orchard. Nowhere does the Old Testament use paradise eschatologically.

Paradise developed in later Hebrew thinking to refer to a lost golden age which would one day be restored in a future Messianic age. Jews thought of paradise in three ways. The paradise of Eden, the ‘hidden’ paradise that existed in their own time to which the Patriarchs and the righteous went at death, and the restored paradise. It is important to understand this picture when we come to the New Testament.

In the New Testament paradise again appears in only three texts. Jesus speaks of paradise in Luke 23:43, when he addresses the thief on the cross, and clearly means the hidden paradise, where the righteous go when they die. The same thinking is apparent in Luke 16:19-31, the story of the rich man and Lazarus, although paradise isn’t mentioned. Paul writes:

‘I know a man in Christ who fourteen years ago was caught up to the third heaven – whether in the body or out of the body I do not know, God knows. And I know that this man was caught up into paradise – whether in the body or out of the body I do not know, God knows and he heard things that cannot be told, which man may not utter.’ (2 Cor.12:24)

This is very like the reference in Luke 23 and describes a place of glory such that a man cannot utter what has been seen and heard. It is noteworthy that Paul’s humility makes him speak of himself here in the third person, that he had never spoken of this experience in the previous fourteen years, and now his context is God’s glory not eschatology.

Only in Rev.2:7 is paradise used in an eschatological sense. Here Jesus promises to the church at Ephesus, and by extension to all Christian believers, ‘To the one who conquers I will grant to eat of the tree of life, which is in the paradise of God.’ The last chapters of Revelation feature strongly the idea of a garden, the tree of life, life giving waters, etc. The first thing denied fallen Adam was access to the tree of life, the first thing promised to the faithful is access to the tree of life in the paradise of God.

Missing the Point

In our Watch Tower Wednesday discussion Barry Amor made a good point when he wrote:

‘My 'angle' would be to ask them how we get there, what must I do to be saved? Arguing about where we might end up is like sitting in a burning building discussing what's on the other side of the fire exit! We can't change what's there but we know it's much better than being inside the building. What's important is where that exit is and how we get there.’

Jesus declared, ‘I am the way, and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.’ (Jn.14:6) Barry goes on to write:

‘JWs seem to miss the point that, according to the GB, all those who have not had a chance to hear about Jehovah will make it through to this paradise. Those who reject Jehovah, once He is identified for them, probably won't make it. This makes the JW's 'good news' very toxic news indeed and they'd be better off not telling us about it and giving us a free pass to paradise!

They also say that dying before Armageddon gives you this free pass, whilst dying AT Armageddon causes you to be destroyed - so salvation by time of death! I'm pretty sure that's not in the Bible!’

This confused reasoning is typical of a theology Jehovah's Witnesses are unhappily afraid to think through to its inevitable conclusion. It comes as a revelation to those who leave a cult that they can actually think for themselves and still be true to God's Word. We must encourage such 'independent thinking.'

It’s About Jesus!

The passages at the end of Revelation describing ‘a new heaven and a new earth’ all focus on the blessed being in their blessed condition because of the one who sits on the throne. He is the one who, ‘will wipe away every tear from their eyes,’ because of him, ’death will be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain any more, for the former things have passed away.’ (Rev.21:4)

It is he who is making all things new, who provides springs of living water without payment. It is Jesus who promises, ‘Behold, I am coming soon. Blessed is the one who keeps the words of the prophecy of this book.’ (Rev.22:7)

Something I have noted over the years when looking at illustrations of the Watch Tower paradise is the total absence of Jesus. Theirs is a paradise described in fairy tales, imagined by unregenerate, self-regarding man. A paradise without Jesus is surely not paradise.   As Dr. Steven Lawson so clearly puts it: