Question for JWs: If you had the option to go to heaven instead of remaining on the earth would you choose heaven? Why or why not?

My heart is not interested in it. That is the difference between one of the anointed and me.

To be very clear, the choosing is done only by Jehovah and Jesus. Humans just obey or not.

That said, I would always choose earth. Why? I have no need or desire to rule anyone. Rev. 5:10 makes clear their jobs are to be both kings and priests with Christ, as heads of God's Kingdom. It was never to sit on clouds and play harps. Nor is it to have "condos in heaven" as hypocritical clergies lie about.

I simply want to live in perfect health on this planet returned to paradise conditions. In want to explore everything my imagination dreams up. That should last the first few million years. Then open up to any field Jehovah will direct us nto.

Humans and Earth were literally made for one another. I am very satisfied with that.

Using the word "option" would indicate that WE have a choice -

But Romans 9:16 shows that it is NOT an option.

It is Jehovah's choice and HIS alone.

We would NEVER be so presumptuous as to TELL God where we expect him to place us.

As the verse says - the decision is not based on desire or effort or works. It is the decision of Jehovah ALONE.

If I were chosen for heavenly life, well and good. If my future were on earth, well and good.

Romans 6:23 says the GIFT God gives is EVERLASTING LIFE - it does not designate that we decide heaven or earth.

Micah 6:8 says what is required to serve Jehovah properly - modesty and humility.

Where is the modesty and humility before God to make THAT decision for yourself when it is in God's hands?

We were made with the desire to live on earth and that would be the feeling most will have. The ones going to Heaven are CHOSEN (144,000) because God can read our hearts and knows who is willing to do His will on Heaven to rule with Jesus.

What is the reason for this question since it's more personal ??!

I myself would choose to go where-ever God thought best for me. What difference does it make where God will send us or put us- rather angel or mankind? His great love and protection doesn't change as to where we are--as seen by the scriptures. To serve our great Lord is all that really matters rather in heaven or on earth.

Why is it the grass always seems greener to some -someplace else or with someone else? Some Angels fell because they had a desire for earthly things and some on earth kill themselves and others thinking that will get them to heaven. To serve the Lord is enough.

For me I know earth as my environment to serve the Lord. A place made by the Lord himself for man--and he declared it good. He promise to make it like paradise once again. Free from evil. Where we will still serve him, I am sure in many , many, ways. What's not to like about that?

My heart as another has said is not interested in heaven as the place I should and want to be. That may be one of the difference between those destine for heaven and those who remain on earth. It would make sense to prepare them for them to know.

Serving the Lord is for "now" not tomorrow or a future event and where-ever we are.

Should he decide to put me elsewhere in this big universe in time--he may. Makes no difference does it really? I still will serve him

Why would anyone be so presumptuous as to make Gods decisions for him? Do you not know that having heaven as your goal belongs only to those who God invites?

In the first century this question came up. And it is answered in 1 Corinthians 11.

"27 Therefore, whoever eats the loaf or drinks the cup of the Lord unworthily will be guilty respecting the body and the blood of the Lord. 28 First let a man approve himself after scrutiny,+ and only then let him eat of the loaf and drink of the cup. 29 For the one who eats and drinks without discerning the body eats and drinks judgment against himself. 30 That is why many among you are weak and sick, and quite a few are sleeping in death.*+ 31 But if we would discern what we ourselves are, we would not be judged." (1 Corinthians 11:27-31)

If a person is not worthy and presumes to partake of the Lords Supper, he eats and drinks judgement. Even back then some were as good as dead. Sad.

Bottom Line

God makes the rules and sets the standards and he is the only one doing the inviting. (John 6:44)

Making decisions for God can only lead to a bad outcome. Look again at Mathew 7:21-23.

Go to heaven and give up sex, warm breezes in the evening as the sun goes down, enjoying the animals, and bacon.

I could give up the first three, but the bacon???? Not a chance. I'm staying right here.

First of all, the "choice" is not ours, as Romans 8:16,17 makes clear.

But if I was given the choice, I would choose earth. Why?

Because of the way I have been created.

Put it this way: why would we want to go somewhere that we don't identify with or understand? To illustrate, the beauty that we see in a beautiful park, garden or landscape is something that identifies with planet earth. Likewise, the playful antics of a kitten or puppy, all things we were created to enjoy.

At Isaiah 65:18 God himself says, "Exult you people, and be joyful forever in what I am creating." That is why we appreciate beautiful surroundings, delightful scents and aromas, delicious tasting foods, beautiful music.

The concept of a paradise earth where death, pain and outcry are no more, where we will take exquisite delight in the abundance of peace, where we will have meaningful work, surrounded by like minded, righteous humans, with nothing to ever cause us to be anxious or fearful about anything, where even animals are at peace, where everything, including the weather, will work for you, not against you, to undertake an endless variety of projects and hobbies, to experiment with an endless variety of crops, flowers and plants, and perhaps work with materials yet to be discovered, to travel globally, over and over, staying with friends, who will literally be everyone on earth, and where you will literally have all the time in the world to do so - that I find very appealing.

Thank you, Jehovah, for such a wonderful future prospect that you hold out to obedient humankind.

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Edit: I gave you my answer [above] as to the reasons why I personally do not identify with an existence in heaven.

Your comments have made it sound like that should be something JWs should somehow be aspiring to, yet, as has been said, the choice is not ours.

The fact is, that if you are one of those who are chosen and called to be a joint heir with Christ, to reign as a king and priest with him in God's kingdom, whose role will be to help Armageddon survivors and righteously inclined resurrected ones be raised to perfection in God's righteous new earth, why would you imagine that your question was appropriate in the first place?

What I also find disturbing in your comments to me was when I asked, "let me ask you, what do you understand to be God's original purpose for the earth? According to God's own words at Isaiah 55:11, where has that purpose changed?" you responded:

"Since Jesus was the lamb slain before the foundation of the world, and the 144K were also to be chosen from the earth before the foundation of the world, and the whole heavens declare the entire plan of God---no His plans haven't changed."

To begin with, nowhere there did you state what you understood God's original purpose for the earth to be.

Secondly in your saying "Since Jesus was the lamb slain before the foundation of the world, and the 144K were also to be chosen from the earth before the foundation of the world, and the whole heavens declare the entire plan of God---no His plans haven't changed," what exactly do you mean?

Please tell me I am mistaken in that you seem to infer that God provided for mankind’s redemption before Adam had even sinned, making Adam’s testing a mockery; that God had, in fact, predestined that Adam would sin, in which case you would be ascribing wrongdoing to the person of God himself. [actually, your whole comment has an air of predestination about it]

But if you don't mean that, can you explain just what you do mean?

I would choose what God chooses for me because man is not supposed to direct his own steps. Jeremiah 10:23" I well know, O Jehovah, that man’s way does not belong to him.

It does not belong to man who is walking even to direct his step."

It is not my choice--Jehovah choses those 144,000 to be with him. I am thrilled at the prospect of life on the restored paradise earth, where I can be reunited with our little 3 year old daughter and other relatives who have died. Proofs:

Ecclesiastes 9:5, "For the living know that they will die, but the dead know nothing at all, nor do they have any more reward, because all memory of them is forgotten. 6 Also, their love and their hate and their jealousy have already perished, and they no longer have any share in what is done under the sun. Psalm 146:4 “when a man dies, “his thoughts do perish.” 

Nominal “Christian” pastors use this to scare people into going to church and donating money to keep out of hellfire.” God would never roast and toast anyone!!!!

Hellfire? The word for that came from the word Gehenna, the common word for the Valley of Hinnom. That place east of Jerusalem was the city garbage dump. The city used burning sulfur to keep down disease. When Jesus used the word as the place of no return everyone understood what he meant, when he spoke of it.

Webster's Dictionary says that the English word "hell" is equal to the Hebrew word Sheol and Hell: SHEOL AND HADES --What do they really mean? Let’s ask an authority-- the Greek word Hades. Hell is the common grave of mankind--according to Jesus Christ. John 11:11 Jesus said Lazarus was “sleeping” and he was going there to awaken him--and upwards of 500 people saw him.

The Hebrew word Sheol, which referred to the “abode of the dead,” is translated “hell” in some versions of the Bible. What does this passage reveal about the condition of the dead? Do they suffer in Sheol in order to atone for their errors? No, for they “know nothing.” That is why the patriarch Job, when suffering terribly because of a severe illness, begged God: “Protect me in hell [Hebrew, Sheol].” (Job 14:13; Douay-Rheims Version) What meaning would his request have had if Sheol was a place of eternal torment? 

Sheol (pronounced "Sheh-ole") , in Hebrew the "underworld", or "pit". ..

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sheol  , the realm of dead, the common grave of mankind, Hell. In older English translations of the Bible, notably the Authorized or King James Bible ... 

en.wiktionary.org/wiki/sheol 

Jesus was perfect. Let me ask you, was Jesus deserving of eternal burning in “The teaching of the most churches affirms the existence of hell and its eternity. hades/sheol/hell since they are all one in the same...one is greek/hebrew/english?

Immediately after death the souls of those who die in a state of mortal sin descend into hell, where they suffer the punishments of hell, ‘eternal fire.’ The chief punishment of hell is eternal separation from God.”—Catechism of the Catholic Church, 1994 edition, page 270.

What does the Bible say? “For the living know that they will die, but the dead know nothing, for there is no work or thought or knowledge or wisdom in Sheol, to which you are going.”—Ecclesiastes 9:5, 10, Revised Standard Version. 

 “He who has died has been acquitted from his sin.”—Romans 6:7. 

This is what is in store for those of mankind who obey Jehovah God--a restored paradise as it was in the beginning:

"In the beginning, God created the heaven and the earth..."

He created a perfect human couple, and Satan deceived them into believing they could be "like" Jehovah God. They sinned and God had warned them that if they did, "...they would surely die..." So all mankind had sin and death passed on to them.

But Jehovah's purpose could not be thwarted--and He purposed " a new heaven and a NEW EARTH in which righteousness is to dwell."

David [whom the Bible refers to as being `a man agreeable to Jehovah's heart'] did not ascend to the heavens." No, but will be resurrected back to a paradise earth.

Scriptures that state a new earth will be created and all God’s followers will live there and  He commanded his disciples to preach his message in all the earth. (Matthew 24:14; 28:19,20.)

God’s For told Kingdom/Government will last forever. 

Psalms 37:10,11,29.

But the meek shall inherit the earth; and shall delight themselves in the abundance of peace.

Isaiah 65:17

for, behold, I create new heavens and a new earth: and the former shall not be remembered, nor come into mind.

Matthew 5:5

Blessed are the meek: for they shall inherit the earth.

Eternal Happiness - In Heaven Or On Earth? 

http://wol.jw.org/en/wol/d/r1/lp-e/20007... 

Taking in Knowledge—Now and Forever :

 http://wol.jw.org/en/wol/d/r1/lp-e/20052... 

You can live forever on earth:

https://www.box.com/s/rfd25irws46ua0y04v...