Question: I was reading your article on the Governing Body changing their view on when it is the faithful slave is appointed over all the master’s belongings. I could not buy this teaching and never got baptized, even though so much else made sense. Here is my question: You see the Governing Body as being destroyed before the fall of Babylon the great. First question – Is there any hope that they will completely reform their teaching or is it destined in prophesy that they will be destroyed? Second question – Do you see some remnant of the current Jehovah’s Witnesses as being gathered to do the true final preaching work? How do you see that unfolding? (Slightly edited)
Answer: First, I do not concern myself with individual members of the Watchtower’s leadership. We each, individually, will stand or fall before the Master and Judge. It is only the institution, the governing hierarchy of the Watchtower Society that is to be done away with. Obviously, the authentic coming of Christ will irreparably discredit the Society. What sincere Christian could ever possibly trust it again?
To be clear, though, although the Bible and tract publishing corporation will more than likely go out of business, some remnant of it will remain to serve as a snare. I base this upon certain prophecies, such as in the 29th chapter of Isaiah, which describes God’s spokesman being laid low in the dust and emitting a chirping sound like a spirit medium. The prophet Hosea says that Bethel will become something uncanny. Apparently, a hard-core faction associated with the man of lawlessness will remain in control for a short while, obviously in opposition to Christ.
No, there is no chance that the Watchtower will ever reform their teaching. Can a leopard change its spots? (Jeremiah 13:23) Their 1914 doctrine is the operation of error, which will remain in operation until the manifestation of Christ destroys the man of lawlessness. The 13th chapter of Ezekiel describes the work of the stupid prophets as being like a whitewashed wall that is continually plastered to keep up appearances. That perfectly describes the way Bethel continually reinterprets prophecy to support the 1914 delusion. But Jehovah’s word is that the wall is destined to fall and be shattered.
The Watchtower will have served its purpose and at the coming of Christ will no longer be his instrument. After a period of disciplining, being subjected to the fire of the refiner and the lye of the laundryman, those who are God’s people will then engage in a final preaching work, which will basically put the world on notice of God’s imminent judgment of it. We should not suppose though that that final work will in any way resemble the somewhat pedestrian way in which Jehovah’s Witnesses preach today.
The ninth chapter of Revelation depicts the angel of the abyss releasing stinging locusts upon the doomed. Micah foretells that the sons of the kingdom will be like lions feasting on the lambs, saying: “And the remaining ones of Jacob must become in the midst of many peoples like dew from Jehovah, like copious showers upon vegetation, that does not hope for man or wait for the sons of earthling man. And the remaining ones of Jacob must become among the nations, in the midst of many peoples, like a lion among the beasts of a forest, like a maned young lion among droves of sheep, which, when it actually passes through, certainly both tramples down and tears in pieces; and there is no deliverer. Your hand will be high above your adversaries, and all enemies of yours will be cut off.”
