This is the first article considering the September 2024 Watchtower study article, “Are You Heeding the Warnings?“
1) WE LIVE in a climactic time! Soon, Jesus will judge every living person. Jesus described the time leading up to this judgment by giving his disciples a prophetic “sign” of his invisible presence and of “the conclusion of the system of things.”
We certainly do live in climactic times, but not for the reasons you may imagine. Without a hint of exaggeration or hyperbole, the spiritual dangers ahead are far more critical and potentially faith-shattering than the Watchtower has led you to believe.
Regular readers of this website know that 1914 is not an authentic date established by Bible chronology. No one among Jehovah’s Witnesses can defend this core Watchtower teaching in an honest and open debate. I challenge all of Jehovah’s Witnesses to face the facts!
To state it as simply as possible, when Jesus foretold that the nations would trample upon Jerusalem until the appointed times of the nations are fulfilled, he was not inferring that the trampling had already begun—as Jehovah’s Witnesses have been led to believe. The apostles were not interested in the past when Babylon destroyed Jehovah’s city; they wanted to know when the existing city and temple were going to be thrown down because a few days earlier, Jesus shocked them when he foretold that not a stone would be left upon a stone and not be thrown down.
Moreover, the Watchtower’s 1914 doctrine tenuously hangs on the presumption that there cannot be another world war that will more precisely fulfill the words of Christ. Given the tumultuous state of the world, what reasonable person can confidently assert that there will not be a catastrophic war in the near future?
To be sure, the desolation and trampling of a spiritual Jerusalem for an appointed time during the conclusion is the central feature of Jesus’ extensive prophecy, but the falsity of 1914 skews everything. With that in mind, let us examine the article under review more closely.
4) Bible prophecy shows that as Jehovah’s appointed Judge, Jesus will be righteous in his judgment.He observes the conduct, attitude, and speech of people —including how they treat his anointed brothers. Jesus will know who gave support to his anointed brothers and their work. a One of the primary ways that sheeplike ones support Christ’s brothers is by assisting them in the preaching work.
If it were as simple as going out in service, why didn’t Jesus just say so? Instead, he said that the sheep rendered aid to his brothers when they were hungry, sick, naked, thirsty, homeless, and in prison. I doubt if any anointed persons today are hungry, homeless, naked, or imprisoned. Perhaps sick, yes, but that is a common human condition. Surely, none of the anointed brothers or sisters at any of the Bethels worldwide are in the pitiful state Jesus described in his parable. Besides, as demonstrated by this very Watchtower study article, since Jehovah’s Witnesses have been taught that the sheep will be identified because they assisted the brothers of Jesus in the preaching work, how is it that the sheep in the parable were unaware that they had been ministering to Jesus himself?
Because of error upon error over many decades, clearing the mountain of accumulated rubbish is necessary to understand the parable of the sheep and the goats. Perhaps the most egregious error related to 1914 is the Watchtower’s explanation of Jesus’ parable of the wheat and the weeds. What Jehovah’s Witnesses are required to believe borders on the absurd. Although it is beyond the scope of this article to dismantle their interpretation (It has been done elsewhere), know that Jesus said the angels would be dispatched to collect out from his Kingdom all persons doing lawlessness and all things that cause stumbling. If you are a reasoning person, ask yourself: Is it reasonable to conclude that the hundreds of millions of weed-like parishioners of Christendom were ever in Christ’s Kingdom or congregation? Moreover, since the International Bible Students were already a separate and distinct sect, why would it have been necessary for Christ to dispatch his angels to remove the common churchgoer from among the Bible Students?
Secondly, since according to the Watchtower’s interpretation, the angels have already removed lawless persons and all things that cause stumbling from Christ’s congregation, can any of Jehovah’s Witnesses honestly say that there are no lawless persons or stumbling blocks within the organization now? Every honest person surely knows the answer.
One more thing: If all of the weed-like false Christians were uprooted and bundled up over 100 years ago and have since then all naturally died off, how will they be pitched into the fiery furnace? Hopefully, thinking Christians can see that the Watchtower’s explanation of the wheat and the weeds is part of an elaborate, artfully contrived false story.
The reason the Watchtower is compelled to concoct such a fanciful tale of how the weeds were collected out of Christ’s Kingdom back in 1918, is because Christ plainly said the harvest is a conclusion of a system of things. And the Governing Body is committed to defending 1914 as the beginning of a century-long, ongoing conclusion of the system.
Since the Watchtower’s interpretation of the wheat and the weeds and the related parable of the dragnet are demonstrably false, it is high time to consider the only reasonable explanation for their persistent error. And what is that? The conclusion of the system did not begin in 1914.
Since more and more people (other than indoctrinated Jehovah’s Witnesses) are becoming increasingly concerned about the possibility of world war —even nuclear war, and all of the havoc that would surely accompany such a colossal catastrophe, namely financial collapse, food shortages, and disease pandemics, why is the leadership of the Watchtower blithely confident that no such disaster will occur? Are you sure you are heeding the warnings?
Paul warned the Corinthian Christians of the presence of ministers of Satan within their midst who had slyly disguised themselves as ministers of righteousness. What relevance does this have for Christians now? It reveals that Jehovah allows Satan to implant lawless imposters within Christ’s congregation—just as Jesus illustrated in his parable of the wheat and the weeds. As Paul noted, it is no extraordinary feat for the Devil to accomplish such a thing: “And no wonder, for Satan himself keeps disguising himself as an angel of light. It is therefore nothing extraordinary if his ministers also keep disguising themselves as ministers of righteousness. But their end will be according to their works.” – 2 Cor 11:14,15
Just to be sure, the disguised ministers of Satan did not pose as lowly Kingdom publishers—to borrow a phrase from theocratic lingo. No, the fact that Paul called them “false apostles” indicates they were the most prominent men. However, the Corinthians were unaware that those presiding over the congregation were imposters. Paul only exposed them by the power of God’s holy spirit.
Given this real-life instance (not a parable) of how the Devil can successfully plant false anointed men among the true seed, why is it regarded as impossible that the wheat and the weeds presently exist among Jehovah’s Witnesses, even within the governing leadership?
I ask you to use your imagination. What do you suppose would be the reaction among the nearly nine million Jehovah’s Witnesses if suddenly nation rose against nation and kingdom against kingdom and all the rest? Furthermore, what if this calamity was preceded by an initiative by world leaders to prevent global war, and it momentarily appeared as if they had succeeded and began announcing that disaster had been averted and that there was “peace and security”?
Would Jehovah’s Witnesses be dancing in the street, or would they be waylaid when the sudden destruction that comes upon the sayers of peace and security is manifest in the form of the crash of the greatest nation on earth and the entire system under its domination? Jesus said many will be stumbled. So, factor that into your answer.
Needless to say, in the event of the genuine beginning of the conclusion of the system of things, the Watchtower will lose all credibility. How could they possibly retain the trust of Jehovah’s Witnesses after having misled them on something as important as the second coming of Jesus Christ? Keep this disastrous theocratic scenario in mind because it is the only way to comprehend the setting in which Jesus’ many parables will be realized.
To demonstrate, again, I ask you to use your imagination. What will become of the Kingdom preaching work when the system in which we live ceases to function? And let’s be clear-headed: Ought not the conclusion of the systems be characterized by the cessation of the presently functioning systems —including the Christian system?
By the way, if you wish to see a clear picture of what the end of Christianity will look like, God has provided one in the prophecy of Joel, a prophecy that the seers of Bethel have declared irrelevant in the modern world.
Needless to say, such a dramatic turn of events will fracture the Christian unity that Jehovah’s Witnesses enjoy. It is against the backdrop of the crash of the present, relatively benign political system and the imposition of a global communistic, tyrannical regime, coupled with the visible presence and manifestation of Jesus to the chosen ones —thereby making them the sealed and confirmed brothers of the Son of God —that Christ’s brothers will find themselves homeless, naked, hungry, sick and in prison.
End of part one
