QUESTION: Throughout your website you mention that the preaching work presently undertaken by JW's is just a prelude to the much larger work that will be done just before the end comes (Matt 24:14). How exactly will this preaching work look, and who/what will carry it out? Who will respond to it?
Going back to the days of the International Bible Students associated with Charles Taze Russell who were dubbed the “no hellers” because they rejected the myth of a fiery hell, up to the present, Jehovah’s Witnesses have been known more for what they do not believe or practice rather than for what they do believe. In more recent decades Jehovah’s Witnesses have been known as the [...]
JUDGMENT OF THE HOUSE OF GOD - WHEN DOES IT BEGIN? TO THE ELDERS Dear Brothers, You have probably heard the news that has come out of the Watchtower Society’s 2012 annual meeting by now, regarding the new understanding in connection with the faithful and discreet slave. If not, the highlights of the meeting have been published in a video along with supplementary printed information on [...]
The Watchtower Society has done it again!
I have never really used the word "umpteenth" before, at least not in print, but it may be applicable now - as in the expression: the "umpteenth time"the Governing Body has revised and redefined that which is an integral part of their teaching on prophecy having to do with the return of Jesus Christ.
At this year’s Annual Meeting, held at the posh Stanley Theater in Jersey City, the eight member Governing Body of the Watchtower Bible and Tract Society declared itself to be the embodiment of the faithful and discreet slave. And now all the individuals, including both the anointed and those who are defined as the great crowd, are the domestics that are fed by the slave. Okay. But alas, there are a number of inherent contradictions with this newly revised view.
But first, though, I stand corrected.
This is a revision and an update from a previous blog entry.
Apparently this is to be an annual occurrence, necessitated by the fact that the Watchtower sends representatives to an annual hedge fund conference about this time every year, and I, accordingly, am compelled to publicize their unseemly affairs. (The Watch Tower Society is on the 2012 attendees list under Investors.)
But what is wrong with the Watchtower investing in hedge funds? For one thing, the Society is a tax-exempt organization based upon the supposition that it is a non-profit institution. (Not to be confused with its non-prophet status) But is it even ethical for a non-profit organization to operate as a hedge fund or to invest in hedge funds seeking maximum profits? At the very least it is questionable and may even violate the rules governing tax-exempt organizations. Ultimately, their avarice may well be their undoing, as it is not out of the question that they may at some point lose their tax-exempt status for this very reason.
But it is not just that. Everything the Watchtower does now is either done to save money or to make money. For example, some assembly halls have evidently installed cash machines so that Jehovah's Witnesses can donate money straight out of their bank accounts. Apparently the donation boxes at every exit just weren’t enough. (Be reminded that Jesus became indignant because of the presence of moneychangers in his Father’s temple.)
On the other hand, it has come to my attention that this year the Watchtower asked Jehovah’s Witnesses (at least in France) to print copies of the convention program off the Internet to save the Society the printing expense. Apparently, that means that in their view it is a waste of money to provide programs for those who attend their conventions and that the money might be more wisely allocated by placing million dollar bets with the high rollers in the global financial casino. The Society’s sophisticated money masters make the Miracle Wheat fiasco of the organization’s founder seem amateurish by comparison.
My wife’s sister is an active Jehovah’s Witness. The two spoke recently and my dear sister-in-law, intent on encouraging us to "come back," related that the Watchtower has cleaned up its act lately, at least as regards its child abuse policy. Unfortunately, she has had first hand experience in dealing with the Watchtower on this issue because a teenaged boy in the congregation molested her eight [...]
I had an occasion to go to Pittsburgh with my wife recently. I had never been there before. It’s a lovely city, nestled on the edge of the Allegheny Mountains. It is called "the city of bridges" because there are so many spans that cross the Allegheny and Monongahela Rivers, which converge to form the mighty Ohio River. On our trip home we stopped by the [...]
Science touts itself as the Explainer of all things physical; that is to say, all observable phenomenon in the universe; the universe being that which is detectable and measurable in some fashion. (Incidentally, Hebrews 11:1 defines faith as being: "the assured expectation of things hoped for, the evident demonstration of realities though not beheld." By definition that places true faith outside the scope and purview of science.) [...]
A few weeks ago someone sent me a screen shot of an illustration from one of the Watchtower’s latest brochures, the one entitled Good News From God. Apparently the subliminal artists are still at it. And why shouldn’t they be? The illustration posted here is, of course, rotated 90 degrees so as to stand the “mountain range” vertically on its end. The subliminal image is a bearded Christ [...]
Since the rebellion in Eden God’s purpose has been to produce a seed. Because of his faith Abraham was chosen as the one through whom the seed would eventually come. Abraham’s grandson, Jacob, whose name God changed to Israel, had twelve sons that produced the twelve tribes of Israel. For that reason in later centuries God referred to the nation as “Jacob” and more commonly “Israel.”
Eventually, Judah produced the Christ and after that others were anointed to become part of the seed along with Jesus. Because they are to be the actual seed of blessing God promised would come through Abraham, the Christian seed is the real Israel of God. Paul explained these things in his letter to the Galatians.
At any rate, the Christian Israel of God became corrupt too, just like Israel had before it – even as the founding apostles foretold would occur. But before the conclusion of the system a new generation of anointed persons would appear in the world, thus constituting the Israel of God in modern times. Since its inception the Watchtower Society has been the seedbed for anointed Christians (and consequently the weed patch as well) first called the International Bible Students and since 1931, Jehovah's Witnesses; making Bethel a sort of capital city for the spiritual nation that has formed.
