Heaven for all of only for some?

[PaulSacramento]

The JW's believe that only a select few have a "heavenly hope", the hope to be with Christ in Heaven ( 144k from Revelation and only JW's of course).
The rest have to "settle" for paradise on Earth.

IMO, the spirit returns to God (in Heaven of course) after we die and with God it remains until the time of the bodily resurrection in which time our bodies will be resurrected, a new and spiritual body like Christ's with our spirit in them and these new bodies will be immortal and we will be in a new heaven on Earth BUT the "separation" that exists between Heaven and Earth now will NOT exist then so it will be almost as if ONE Heaven.

Thoughts?

[B. W.]

The JW's believe that only a select few have a "heavenly hope", the hope to be with Christ in Heaven ( 144k from Revelation and only JW's of course).
The rest have to "settle" for paradise on Earth.

IMO, the spirit returns to God (in Heaven of course) after we die and with God it remains until the time of the bodily resurrection in which time our bodies will be resurrected, a new and spiritual body like Christ's with our spirit in them and these new bodies will be immortal and we will be in a new heaven on Earth BUT the "separation" that exists between Heaven and Earth now will NOT exist then so it will be almost as if ONE Heaven.

Thoughts?

As I understand the imaginary and the Greek text/words used in Rev 21-1-2, there is no separation as verse two indicates a joining (see quote from NKJV below). This is a joining of heaven and earth back into oneness with the Lord, where no sin, death, rebellion, sickness, will ever come about again as God has justly rids all of this once and for all.

Rev 21:1-2, NKJV "Now I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away. Also there was no more sea. 2 Then I, John, saw the holy city, New Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband."

There are three judgments mentioned in the bible where all people in the world are involved. One was Noah, next the Great Tribulation (hasn't happened yet and neither has the loosing of Satan at the end of the 1000 years mentioned in Rev 20:3 ). The is a number denoting perfection / completeness / wholeness, which is interesting to note. How this all happens in the future, I do not know but that is the basic understanding of the new heaven and new earth joined with God's eternalness.

So the JW's have it all wrong...
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[Lonewolf]

if the spirit returns to God after we die, then are we really asleep?
and must we really be resurrected then?
how can we really die if we're really living already with God?
and where would the hope of not being left in hades of all those old testament writers be, per say?
they're hoping to be brought back to life, resurrected, per say, right?

[PaulSacramento]

The JW's believe that only a select few have a "heavenly hope", the hope to be with Christ in Heaven ( 144k from Revelation and only JW's of course).
The rest have to "settle" for paradise on Earth.

IMO, the spirit returns to God (in Heaven of course) after we die and with God it remains until the time of the bodily resurrection in which time our bodies will be resurrected, a new and spiritual body like Christ's with our spirit in them and these new bodies will be immortal and we will be in a new heaven on Earth BUT the "separation" that exists between Heaven and Earth now will NOT exist then so it will be almost as if ONE Heaven.

Thoughts?

As I understand the imaginary and the Greek text/words used in Rev 21-1-2, there is no separation as verse two indicates a joining (see quote from NKJV below). This is a joining of heaven and earth back into oneness with the Lord, where no sin, death, rebellion, sickness, will ever come about again as God has justly rids all of this once and for all.

Rev 21:1-2, NKJV "Now I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away. Also there was no more sea. 2 Then I, John, saw the holy city, New Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband."

There are three judgments mentioned in the bible where all people in the world are involved. One was Noah, next the Great Tribulation (hasn't happened yet and neither has the loosing of Satan at the end of the 1000 years mentioned in Rev 20:3 ). The is a number denoting perfection / completeness / wholeness, which is interesting to note. How this all happens in the future, I do not know but that is the basic understanding of the new heaven and new earth joined with God's eternalness.

So the JW's have it all wrong...
-
-
-

I agree, except for that part about no rebellion because, well, unless free will is eliminated there is always a chance of rebellion as Satan and his legions proved.

[PaulSacramento]

if the spirit returns to God after we die, then are we really asleep?
and must we really be resurrected then?
how can we really die if we're really living already with God?
and where would the hope of not being left in hades of all those old testament writers be, per say?
they're hoping to be brought back to life, resurrected, per say, right?

The doctrine of "soul sleep" is a biblical one, base don how they ( and others) interpret the many times in which the dead as said to be sleeping.
See, I don't have an issue with the view that we sleep after we die, our spirit returns to God and sleeps till the resurrection.
What I have an issue with is the notion of HOW that sleep goes and according to the JW's it is a deep sleep in which we are conscious of nothing and know nothing ( as per Ecc.) and I disagree because I believe the analogy of sleep is just that and how do we sleep? even in the most deepest of sleeps are are still aware to a certain degree of what goes around us and I think ( and this is my view) that we sleep surrounded by the immense and all encompassing love of God,a return to our "pre-birth" spiritual state of oneness with God in which we sleep yes BUT we are aware of this Oneness with God, of this being with God.