Be stunned and amazed; blind yourselves and be blinded

Part Two

This is a continuation of the consideration of the Watchtower article entitled: What Do We Know About Jehovah’s Future Judgments?

2 Jehovah continues to help us to have a clearer understanding of the major events that lie just ahead. (Prov. 4:18; Dan. 2:28) We can be certain that by the time the great tribulation starts, we will know all we need to know in order to endure faithfully and even prosper during that challenging period. However, we must recognize that there are some things that we just do not know about the near future. In this article, we will first discuss why we have reconsidered what we have said about some of those events. Then we will review some of the things that we do know about the future and the way that our heavenly Father will act.

Nothing could be further from the truth or more wrong. Jehovah has not helped anyone among the leaders of the Watchtower to have a clearer understanding of what lies ahead. Jehovah has, in fact, done just the opposite. Read it and “Be stunned and amazed; blind yourselves and be blinded. They are drunk, but not with wine; they are staggering, but not from alcohol. For Jehovah has poured a spirit of deep sleep on you; He has closed your eyes, the prophets, and he has covered your heads, the visionaries.” — Isaiah 29:9-10

Ask yourself, what major events lie ahead? Well, in their spiritually inebriated state, the Governing Body wishes to quibble about such things as whether or not unbelievers will be saved through the tribulation or who will be resurrected. This was the “new light” that sprang from the 2023 annual convocation of the prophets and visionaries. They must feel like it demonstrates their humility to speak authoritatively of things they do not know. Oh, but if only they knew the things they really do not know! And the Governing Body boasts that they have no reason to be embarrassed or ever apologize? They are going to regret ever having said that.

To be sure, the great tribulation is a major event and it does lie ahead, but nothing else the Watchtower teaches in connection with it is reliable.

Since the Watchtower first began publishing in 1879, the Second Coming of Christ has always been rendered into a non-event. Pastor Russell convinced those original Bible Students that an invisible parousia had begun in 1874 and that the Kingdom came into power in 1878. Then, around 1930, Judge Rutherford unceremoniously readjusted the dates for these earthshaking events and attached them to 1914. And just like that, the most important date in all human history flipped from 1874 to 1914.

According to their dimming light, the Second Coming of Christ is a mere footnote in modern theocratic history. Truly, most of Jehovah’s Witnesses do not even know the Watchtower claims the Second Coming took place 110 years ago. That’s because the phrase “second coming” is not even in the Watchtower’s lexicon of theocratic lingo. Certainly, the average churchgoer would consider the declaration that the Second Coming occurred more than a century in the past to be preposterous, which, of course, it is.

Let us be honest with ourselves. No Second Coming of Christ has taken place. It cannot possibly pass by so uneventfully. So, when the Governing Body speaks of Jehovah helping them to have a clearer understanding of major events that lie just ahead, why is there no mention of the monumental coming of Christ? Is it such an insignificant event in their minds?

Jesus spoke an illustration, a story involving a bridegroom and 10 virgins awaiting his arrival. All of the virgins nodded off and were suddenly aroused from sleep when a call echoed through the night: “Here is the bridegroom! Go out to meet him!”

Now, here is the question: Has the call gone out in the middle of the night announcing the arrival of the bridegroom? Yes, at least according to the Watchtower. It has been announcing the bridegroom’s arrival since 1914; well, not exactly, since 1914 did not become the date for Christ’s arrival until 1930, but you get the point. But how can that be? This March 2015, Watchtower claims that the 10 virgins have been responding to the arrival of the bridegroom all during the last days. That’s a long time. The wise virgins must have had to take along barrels and barrels of oil to keep their lamps illuminated during their decades-long sojourn through the night. But how disappointing for them, even their inexhaustible supply of oil was not enough as they never did make it to the wedding feast.

Sarcasm aside, how can it possibly be true that the bridegroom has come when all of the prospective Kingdom heirs from the 1920s, 30s, 40s, 50s, and even more recently, who were supposedly responding to the apparently ongoing call to “go out to meet him,” have all passed away? Jesus’ parable does not allow for the virgins to travel for years and years trying to make their way to the wedding feast only to die of old age along the way. Do not such ridiculous interpretations give evidence that the prophet class is staggeringly drunk and willingly so? They have seemingly obeyed the command to “blind yourselves and be blinded!” Yes, “be stunned and amazed” at such foolishness on the part of the faithful, wise servant.

The reason the Watchtower is compelled to teach such absurdities is because Jesus prefaced his parable by saying: “Then the Kingdom of the heavens may be likened to ten virgins who took their lamps and went out to meet the bridegroom.”

If the Kingdom of the heavens opened its doors to those invited in 1914, then, yes, the call “here is the bridegroom” would have gone out then. But, alas, since the Bible Students did not accept 1914 as the date for the bridegroom’s coming until more than 15 years after the call supposedly went out…oh my…what a mess! Drunkards are notorious for making messes, and spiritual drunkards are no exception, being unreasonable, and speaking incoherent gibberish. Jehovah certainly has poured a deep sleep upon them.

Since it is undeniable that the bridegroom has not arrived, the question arises: Who will announce “Here is the bridegroom! Go out to meet him” when he finally arrives? It cannot possibly be the Watchtower. How could it? It has been falsely announcing that the bridegroom has arrived for decades. Perhaps someone such as myself will make the announcement. I do have some bit of authority and credibility in these matters since I have been speaking about Jehovah’s future judgments in connection with the Second Coming of Christ for many years now. However, like the Governing Body, whether or not I will have that privilege I will have to admit, I do not know.

In any case, let us, as many as are sober, not fall victim to the Watchtower’s mind-numbing theocratic trivia game and keep fixed in our minds that the only major event that lies ahead worth mentioning is the Second Coming of Christ and the impending shout in the middle of the night: “Here is the bridegroom! Go out to meet him.”