The A to Z of Jehovah's Witnesses by George D. Chryssides

Author:George D. Chryssides
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Scarecrow Press
Published: 2008-07-24T16:00:00+00:00

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GAMBLING. Although it is not explicitly mentioned in the Bible, Jehovah’s Witnesses believe that its results are invariably bad and that it is therefore to be avoided. Since the aim of gambling is the acquisition of unearned wealth, Witnesses believe that it encourages greed and is an attachment to money, which scripture condemns (1 Timothy 6:10). Gambling frequently leads to debt and addiction. Small-scale gambling, although seemingly less serious, is nonetheless proscribed, since there is the risk of its leading to gambling on a larger scale. Card games and board games are permitted, so long as they merely involve the keeping of scores rather than exchanges of money. In 1976, the Watch Tower Society ruled that no Witness could work in a gambling establishment and remain a member of a congregation.

The Bible teaches that all decisions should come from Jehovah (Proverbs 16:33), but in places it appears to sanction methods involving chance. For example, lots were used to select sacrificial goats for Jehovah and Azazel on the Day of Atonement (Leviticus 16:7–10), and the Urim and the Thummim, which were kept in the High Priest’s robes (Exodus 28:30) are thought to have been lots to provide answers to questions of national importance. Lots were also used by Jesus’ 11 remaining disciples to determine who should replace Judas Iscariot (Acts 1:26). However, lots do not appear to have been used to win material assets, and Witnesses note that there is no reference to the use of lots after Pentecost in 33 C.E.

Witnesses regard trust in Jehovah as being incompatible with belief in luck, and many avoid using expressions like “good luck” or “by a stroke of luck.”

GANGAS, GEORGE D. (1896–1994). Member of the Governing Body from 1971 to 1994. Born in New Ephesus, Asia Minor, Gangas migrated to the United States in 1920, where he met Bible students and became baptized in 1921. In 1928 he entered the Watch Tower Society’s full-time preaching ministry and joined the Brooklyn Bethel staff as a translator. He was proficient in Greek, and it is speculated that he was a member of the New World Translation Committee.

GEHENNA. The valley of Hinnom (Gei-Hinnom in Hebrew) in west and southwest Jerusalem, Gehenna served as a refuse depository where a continually sulfurous fire burned the city’s waste. The Bible employs the term as a metaphor for the destruction of death and the irredeemably wicked. Those who are in Hades after death can expect a resurrection during the millennial rule of Christ, with an opportunity for repentance afforded to those who accept true teachings. Those who refuse to do so will experience the “second death,” symbolized by Gehenna, from which there is no awakening (Revelation 20:14). Some of the dead go directly to Gehenna, without any further opportunity for repentance. Watch Tower literature cites the unrepentant scribes and Pharisees of Jesus’ time as examples. See also IMMORTALITY; SOUL.

GENERATION. The primary meaning of the word is “persons born at approximately the same time.” This definition has typically been

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