America has had a special role in the outworking of Jehovah’s purpose. In what way? Knowing, as we do, that God’s purpose is to have the good news preached throughout the earth, it was obviously by divine providence that the reappearance of an anointed congregation in the latter part of the 19th century took place in Western Pennsylvania, U.S.A. America was a fertile seedbed for the [...]
QUESTION: Jehovah’s Witnesses have long understood the facets of the sign of Christ’s presence to be a description of conditions that would precede the great tribulation. My question is, are the various facets of the sign that Jesus describes merely a description of the great tribulation, rather than events that lead up to it? There is an initial sequence of events that leads up to the [...]
Quite a bit is made of the fact that the Greek Scriptures, the so-called New Testament, does not use God’s personal name, such as it appears in the Hebrew Scriptures thousands of times, most commonly translated as Jehovah. However, even the most ancient Greek texts are copies, perhaps even copies of copies. The oldest fragments date from the early second century and most are much more [...]
The expression “the day of Jehovah” appears almost two dozen times in the Hebrew Scriptures —most notably in the prophecies of Joel (5) and Zephaniah (7). Additionally the New World Translation uses the related terms “Jehovah’s day” and “the day belonging to Jehovah” in a couple of places —not counting the so-called New Testament. While popular versions of the Bible have removed God’s personal name [...]
QUESTION: You've written at various times about the influence of Masonry within the Watchtower organization over the years, so I would like to have your thoughts on a recent adjustment in the New World Translation. In the 1984 edition, at Hosea 12:14, the NWT translators chose to use "Grand Master," and likewise at Malachi 1:6 we see the same usage. This has since been adjusted [...]
QUESTION: Does the "inspired" recorded story of Jonah set a precedence for Jehovah to change his mind and delay the world’s destruction? —Especially upon those nations which have little to no say in world affairs or at the U.N. or who "know not their left hand from their right?" (Hindus, Buddhists, Shintoists, Islamists, etc... including third world countries and those opposed to JW's because of their perceived zionist [...]
QUESTION: Luke 11:18, Jesus: "If Satan is divided against himself, how will his kingdom stand?” If all of the world's kingdoms are Satan's, and, if the Anglo-American world power is to be the last before the Kingdom stone not cut by hands strikes the feet of the Daniel image; and, if Great Britain and America became a joint world power during WW1, how can it also be [...]
QUESTION: The Bible says that young David unnecessarily obtained an extra 100 foreskins, killing/mutilating an extra amount of men for King Saul and yet the Bible says that Jehovah’s spirit "continued with him" after this dirty deed. The Bible also says: "Do not become mutilators of the flesh..." and "look out for those who mutilate the flesh..." -An apparent contradiction? Their kind of warfare was disturbing to say [...]
QUESTION: With 8 million JW's being so misguided, how are we to explain/understand/apply Jesus’ parting words at Matt. 28:20 ? Was the "conclusion" he was referring to including or only the destruction in 70ce? Being "with you all the days..." -Who has he been "with" for all what days? "All" means all, or does it? Amazing how one small verse can open up a whole [...]
This is the last installment of 60 questions for Jehovah's Witnesses Question #54: If Jesus died on a torture stake with a single nail through both hands, why does John 20:25 say that NAILS were used for his hands? The questioner already asked this question. It was answered here (#41) Question #55: if Jesus died on a torture stake with arms positioned vertically above his head, then why [...]
