We have all seen the implausible graphic art on the covers of Watchtower magazines. Paradise on Earth has been a staple promise of the Society for generations. Mixed generations, species, and races living lives perhaps best described as satisfied.
I don’t know what you imagine the afterlife to be like. When I look at these pictures I always think the one who would make paradise a paradise is noticeably absent. Indeed, it is clear the paradise Jehovah’s Witnesses have to look forward to (if they survive Armageddon and pass muster at the judgement) has an absent Saviour and is ruled for eternity by a governing body of 144,000.
In The Truth That Leads to Eternal Life chapter 12 we read:
‘From his heavenly throne Jesus Christ will administer earth’s affairs in a way that will bring lasting benefits...Associated with Jesus in his heavenly kingdom will be 144,000 kings and priests taken from among mankind and made perfect by God...But will this heavenly government have any visible representatives? Yes, indeed! Why, even now the heavenly administration appoints faithful men as its representatives in the Christian congregation, doing so by means of God’s holy spirit.’
They don’t get a Saviour, they get an administration, and it looks suspiciously familiar.
A Consolation Prize?
This all explains why, when they talk about God’s purpose for mankind, the focus is on you and me:
'God Will Do Amazing Things On The Earth.
People will no longer feel pain, grow old, or die.—Revelation 21:4
“The lame will leap like the deer.”—Isaiah 35:6
“The eyes of the blind will be opened.”—Isaiah 35:5
The dead will be brought back to life.—John 5:28,29
No one will get sick.—Isaiah 33:24
Everyone on earth will have plenty to eat.—Psalm 72:16'
It reads like a consolation prize. You won’t die, you won’t limp, you’ll have good eyesight, you won’t be sick, and your table will be fully supplied; but no Jesus.
This focus on our comfort and ease is no better illustrated than by Joseph Rutherford’s book Millions Now Living Will Never Die. Playing on peoples' fears is familiar territory but then what? Is man the focus of the Bible when it speaks of God’s purpose in mankind? Is God’s purpose summed up in a paradisiacal existence under a righteous administration?
What is the Purpose of Man?
The Westminster Catechism poses this question and replies:
‘The purpose of man is to glorify God, and to enjoy him forever.’
Of course, a Jehovah’s Witness won’t lay great store by the Westminster Catechism, although they may agree with the statement, so let’s unpack that from the Bible.
Romans 8:28-39
‘And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose. For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that he might be the firstborn among many brothers.’
Just as in the beginning man was made in the image of God (Gen.1:26,27), so man, through the new birth (John.3:16) is made in the image of Christ, who is the image of the invisible God (Colossians 1:15). John, in his first letter, writes, ‘Beloved, we are God’s children now, and what we will be has not yet appeared; but we know that when he appears we shall be like him, because we shall see him as he is.’ (1 John 3:2)
God’s purpose in man is that Jesus’ likeness be reflected in our us, his glory reflected in us to the glory of his name.
‘And those whom he predestined he also called, and those whom he called he also justified, and those whom he justified he also glorified.’
It is the purpose of God in man that those he chose and predestined should be called, justified by the blood of Christ, through faith in his name, and brought to a glory, the resurrected body, that reflects God’s own glory, to the glory of his name.
‘What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things?’
It is the purpose of God in man that he should graciously give us all thing. This is a full inheritance, ‘all things,’ not some things. Not simply an earthly consolation prize while a select few sit on thrones.
Who shall bring any charge against God's elect? It is God who justifies. Who is to condemn? Christ Jesus is the one who died—more than that, who was raised—who is at the right hand of God, who indeed is interceding for us. Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword?’
There is a separation in the Watch Tower that goes on into eternity, where Christ continues to be mediated through a cosmic governing body and an earthly administration. However, the purpose of God, who himself justifies, and Christ, who intercedes, is to ensure nothing can separate us from the love of Christ.
‘As it is written,
“For
your sake we are being killed all the day long;
we are regarded
as sheep to be slaughtered.”
No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.’
These things that cannot separate us from the love of God cannot do so because Christ has conquered them, has been raised from the dead, and seated at God’s right hand, ‘far above all rule and authority and power and dominion, and above every name that is named…’ ([Note ‘every name’] Eph.1:20,21) It is God’s purpose in man that we should be ‘more than conquerors through him who loved us,’ (Ro.8:37)
Paul explains:
‘In love he predestined us for adoption as sons through Jesus Christ [which is why we call God ‘Father’ (Romans 8:15)] according to the purpose of his will, to the praise of his glorious grace, with which he has blessed us in the Beloved...according to his purpose which he set forth in Christ as a plan for the fullness of time, to unite all things in him, things in heaven and things on earth. In him we have obtained an inheritance, having been predestined according to the purpose of him who works all things according to the counsel of his will, so that we who were the first to hope in Christ might be to the praise of his glory.’
God’s purpose for us is that those who believe should be ‘conformed to the image of his Son’; that, ‘we shall be like him.’
God’s purpose for us is that believers should be justified through faith in Christ and should share in glory, that we should, ‘be given all things.’
God’s purpose for us is that we should never be separated from the love of his Son, that we should know, ‘adoption as sons through Jesus Christ,’ that all things should be united in Christ, and this to the praise of his glory.
This, according to Paul, is the hope in which we were saved (Romans 8:24) If you don’t have this hope you don’t know hope; if you have this hope everything else pales by comparison. There is a Jesus in the Christians’ restored creation, an intimacy with God so close he is to us Father, so close Jesus is brother, so close indeed that we have all things and all things are united under one head, that is Christ. Try and depict that on the cover of a magazine.
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