TMS -18JANUARY2010

Jan 18 Bible Reading: Judges 1-4 (See si Book)
No. 1: Judges 2:11-23
No. 2: What Sort of People Go to the Bible Hell?
(rs p. 170 ¶1-3)
No. 3: God Did Not Create the Devil

No. 1: Judges 2:11-23
And the sons of Israel fell to doing what was bad in the eyes of Jehovah and serving the Ba′als. 12 Thus they abandoned Jehovah the God of their fathers who had brought them out of the land of Egypt and went following other gods from among the gods of the peoples who were all around them and they be-gan bowing down to them, so that they offended Je-hovah. 13 Thus they abandoned Jehovah and took up serving Ba′al and the Ash′to•reth images. 14 At this Jehovah’s anger blazed against Israel, so that he gave them into the hands of the pillagers, and they began to pillage them; and he proceeded to sell them into the hand of their enemies round about, and they were no longer able to stand before their enemies. 15 Everywhere that they went out, the hand of Jeho-vah proved to be against them for calamity, just as Jehovah had spoken and just as Jehovah had sworn to them; and they got to be in very sore straits. 16 So Jehovah would raise up judges, and they would save them out of the hand of their pillagers. 17 And even to their judges they did not listen, but they had immoral intercourse with other gods and went bowing down to them. They quickly turned aside from the way in which their forefathers had walked by obeying the commandments of Jehovah. They did not do like that. 18 And when Jehovah did raise up judges for them, Jehovah proved to be with the judge, and he saved them out of the hand of their enemies all the days of the judge; for Jehovah would feel regret over their groaning because of their oppressors and those who were shoving them around. 19 And it occurred that when the judge died they would turn around and act more ruinously than their fathers by walking after other gods to serve them and bow down to them. They did not refrain from their practices and their stubborn behavior. 20 Finally Jehovah’s anger blazed against Israel and he said: “For the reason that this nation have overstepped my covenant that I com-manded their forefathers and have not listened to my voice, 21 I too, for my part, shall not drive out again from before them a single one of the nations that Joshua left behind when he died, 22 in order by them to test Israel, whether they will be keepers of Jeho-vah’s way by walking in it just as their fathers kept it, or not.” 23 Accordingly Jehovah let these nations stay by not driving them out quickly, and he did not give them into Joshua’s hand.

No. 2: What Sort of People Go to the Bible Hell?
(rs p. 170 ¶1-3)
What sort of people go to the Bible hell?
Does the Bible say that the wicked go to hell?
Ps. 9:17, KJ: “The wicked shall be turned into hell,* and all the nations that forget God.” (*“Hell,” 9:18 in Dy; “death,” TEV; “the place of death,” Kx; “Sheol,” AS, RS, NE, JB, NW.)
Does the Bible also say that upright people go to hell?
Job 14:13, Dy: “[Job prayed:] Who will grant me this, that thou mayst protect me in hell,* and hide me till thy wrath pass, and appoint me a time when thou wilt remember me?” (God himself said that Job was “a man blameless and upright, fearing God and turn-ing aside from bad.”—Job 1:8.) (*“The grave,” KJ; “the world of the dead,” TEV; “Sheol,” AS, RS, NE, JB, NW.)
Acts 2:25-27, KJ: “David speaketh concerning him [Jesus Christ], . . . Because thou wilt not leave my soul in hell,* neither wilt thou suffer thine Holy One to see corruption.” (The fact that God did not “leave” Jesus in hell implies that Jesus was in hell, or Hades, at least for a time, does it not?) (*“Hell,” Dy; “death,” NE; “the place of death,” Kx; “the world of the dead,” TEV; “Hades,” AS, RS, JB, NW.)

No. 3: God Did Not Create the Devil

*** w05 11/15 pp. 4-5 How Real Is the Devil to You? ***
How Real Is the Devil to You?
THE Scriptures portray the Devil as a real person. He is invisible to humans for the same reason that God is invisible to human eyes. “God is a Spirit,” says the Bible. (John 4:24) The Devil is a spirit creature. Unlike the Creator, however, the Devil had a beginning.
Long before Jehovah God created humans, he made a multitude of spirit creatures. (Job 38:4, 7) In the Bible these spirits are called angels. (Hebrews 1:13, 14) God created all of them perfect—not a single one was a devil or had any evil trait. How, then, did the Devil come to be? The word “devil” means “slanderer” and thus refers to someone who tells malicious lies about others. “Satan” means “Resister,” or opposer. Just as a formerly honest man makes himself a thief by stealing, one of the perfect spirit sons of God acted upon an improper desire and made himself Satan the Devil. The Bible explains the process of self-corruption this way: “Each one is tried by being drawn out and enticed by his own desire. Then the desire, when it has become fertile, gives birth to sin; in turn, sin, when it has been accomplished, brings forth death.”—James 1:14, 15.
This is apparently what happened. When Jehovah God created the first human pair, Adam and Eve, the angel who was about to rebel against God took note. He knew that Jehovah commanded Adam and Eve to fill the earth with righteous people, who would worship the Creator. (Genesis 1:28) This angel saw that there was a possibility that he could gain honor and importance. Motivated by greed, he coveted what rightly belongs only to the Creator—worship from humans. Instead of rejecting such an improper desire, this spirit son of God nurtured it until it gave birth to a lie and then to rebellion. Consider what he did.
The rebellious angel used a serpent to speak to the first woman, Eve. “Is it really so that God said you must not eat from every tree of the garden?” the serpent asked Eve. When Eve cited God’s command and the penalty for disobeying it, the serpent declared: “You positively will not die. For God knows that in the very day of your eating from [the tree that is in the middle of the garden] your eyes are bound to be opened and you are bound to be like God, knowing good and bad.” (Genesis 3:1-5) The assertion was that God had not told Adam and Eve the truth. By eating the fruit of that tree, Eve would supposedly become like God, having the authority to decide what was good and what was bad. That was the first lie ever spoken. Telling it made that angel a slanderer. He also became an opposer of God. The Bible thus identifies this enemy of God as “the original serpent, the one called Devil and Satan.”—Revelation 12:9.

http://www.watchtower.org/e/20051115/article_02.htm