“Happy is the one whose transgression is pardoned, whose sin is covered. Happy is the man whom Jehovah does not charge with guilt, in whose spirit there is no deceit.” - Psalms 32:1,2 All of us are on death row, awaiting our sentence to be carried out. That is because the wages of sin is death. So, if God grants us a full pardon, it means [...]
JW dot org has a banner article posing the question: When Will the Fighting Stop? I know I am being repetitive. But so is the Watchtower. Twice quoting from the UN, one statement says: “The world is facing the highest number of violent conflicts since the Second World War and 2 billion people—a quarter of humanity—[are] affected.”—United Nations Security Council, January 26, 2023. Given a topic as complex [...]
Sunday, Dec 1st What prevents me from getting baptized?—Acts 8:36. Was the court official from Ethiopia truly ready for baptism? Consider: The Ethiopian man “had gone to Jerusalem to worship.” (Acts 8:27) He must therefore have been a Jewish proselyte; he had converted to Judaism. No doubt he had learned about Jehovah from the sacred writings of the Hebrew Scriptures. Still, he was eager to [...]
Friday, November 29 Whoever blasphemes against the holy spirit has no forgiveness forever.—Mark 3:29. Will the names of the great crowd of other sheep still be in the book of life after they survive Armageddon? Yes. (Rev. 7:14) Jesus said that these sheeplike ones will depart “into everlasting life.” (Matt. 25:46) But those Armageddon survivors will not immediately receive everlasting life. During the Thousand Year Reign, [...]
This is the final installment of the three-part series examining the Watchtower article entitled: Are You Heeding the Warnings? The illustration of the slaves and the money entrusted to them is pretty straightforward. Jesus entrusted his affairs to his slaves, and upon his return, an accounting will be held with all. Two slaves were industrious and increased what had been entrusted to them. However, one slave [...]
This is part two of the consideration of the Watchtower article: Are you heeding the warning? Then the Kingdom of the heavens may be likened to ten virgins who took their lamps and went out to meet the bridegroom. Five of them were foolish, and five were discreet. For the foolish took their lamps but took no oil with them, whereas the discreet took oil in their flasks [...]
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 [...]
There have only been a relatively few times that God has intervened in human affairs on a grand scale. Those few interventions have dramatically changed the course of history. First and foremost (so far) was the great Flood. By means of a global deluge, God destroyed an ancient world. Almighty God forced the lustful angels to dissolve their flesh and return to the spirit realm where [...]
Monday, October 28 Jehovah himself gives wisdom; from his mouth come knowledge and discernment.—Prov. 2:6. Jesus identified an important quality that we need if we are to understand what we read in God’s Word—discernment. (Matt. 24:15) What is discernment? It is the ability to grasp how one idea relates to another and how it differs from another and to see what is not immediately obvious. In [...]
I recently read the transcript of Brother Jackson’s Annual Meeting talk entitled Don’t Be Surprised By Sudden Changes. As is the custom, the yearly assembly announces trivial adjustments in organizational policies and teachings. This year was no exception. This year’s “adjustment” was a change in understanding of Revelation 17:17, which states: “For God put it into their hearts to carry out his thought, yes, to carry out [...]
