This article has been revised from it originally posting in 2014

When Jesus walked through the land of Palestine he healed the sick and the lame. He opened the eyes of the blind and the ears of the deaf and expelled the demons from their victims with just a word. He even raised the dead. Yet, although God enabled him to perform all manner of jaw-dropping miracles he was not known as the great wonder-worker; but rather, he was known as the Teacher (Rabbi). His method of teaching opened the minds and hearts of those who loved God.

The 35th chapter of Isaiah foretells a great spiritual awakening for the people of God, when the Messiah once again comes into the world during one of the bleakest moments in history, in order to save God’s people from peril.

As in the first century, Jesus will once again open the eyes of the blind and unstop the ears of the deaf and heal the lame. Only this time it will be in a spiritual sense. Isaiah states: “At that time the eyes of the blind will be opened, and the ears of the deaf will be unstopped. At that time the lame will leap like the deer, and the tongue of the speechless will shout for joy. For waters will burst forth in the wilderness, and streams in the desert plain.”

The question is: When might this come to be?

Jehovah’s Witnesses have been convinced that the prophecy has already been fulfilled upon them. Witnesses believe that God opens the eyes of the blind and the ears of the deaf primarily by means of the Bible study program and the publications of the Watchtower Society. In fact, the Watchtower Society itself is believed to be the so-called “spiritual paradise” and the “Way of Holiness” described in the 35th chapter of Isaiah.

Although the Watchtower teaches the elementary truth, in reality, it also serves as an operation of Satan to conceal the truth regarding the Second Coming of Christ. It is for the very reason that Jehovah’s Witnesses are laboring under a “deluding influence” emanating from that which is regarded as the fountainhead of truth that Christ is obligated to open their blinded eyes and unstop their ears when he arrives in his glory. Consider a few pertinent facts to follow.

Since the prophecy is situated in the context of God releasing the chastened Jews from their captivity to Babylon, the Society has been compelled to fabricate an elaborate myth of how the grander fulfillment came about when God released the International Bible Students from their babylonish bondage back in 1918-1919.

For many decades the Watchtower claimed that the Bible Students went into spiritual captivity to Babylon the Great back during the First World War when eight of the Society’s officers were arrested and briefly incarcerated, including J.F. Rutherford. However, in 2015 the Governing Body revised that. Now it is believed that Christianity went into captivity to Babylon the Great 17 centuries ago and was released in 1919. Neither is correct. 

The prophecy of Isaiah depicts those whom God sets free from Babylon and who enter on the Way of Holiness as entering into a state of “unending joy.” For example, Isaiah 35:10 states: “Those redeemed by Jehovah will return and come to Zion with a joyful cry. Unending joy will crown their heads. Exultation and rejoicing will be theirs, and grief and sighing will flee away.” 

Even in the initial fulfillment of the prophecy, the repatriated Jews faced many challenges and hardships. So, it is evident that it is really speaking to a much grander reality. But can it honestly be said that Jehovah’s Witnesses do not suffer grief and sigh over various calamities that befall them? To underscore the point, shortly after the First World War ended Jehovah’s Witnesses in Europe were subjected to severe persecution by Hitler’s gestapo. Surely, no one will be so unreasonable as to claim that those many Witnesses who courageously stood up to the Nazis were not also made to grieve and sigh because of their afflictions.

More recently, in spite of the Watchtower’s audacious claim that false religion can no longer suppress Jehovah’s freed people, the Russian Orthodox Church used its influence to have Jehovah’s Witnesses outlawed and the Watchtower completely liquidated throughout the Russian Federation. Are Jehovah’s Witnesses in Russia wearing crowns of joy?

It is more reasonable to recognize that the passage cited above applies to the sons of the Kingdom being welcomed into the heavenly Zion, symbolizing their acceptance into the Kingdom of Christ. And it also harmonizes with what Revelation 21 states regarding God wiping out every tear from the eyes of those who are blessed to live under the rule of the New Jerusalem?

Although in the real fulfillment the Jews left Babylon en mass and traveled back to Jerusalem to rebuild the city and the temple, according to the Watchtower fable, although the Bible Students were supposedly released from Babylon the Great back then, over the past century people have continually gotten out of Babylon individually, by merely withdrawing from any church affiliation and becoming baptized as Jehovah’s Witnesses. That simply does not harmonize with the original exodus from Babylon. 

4914462415_4d966d4e00_zAs regards the “Way of Holiness” Isaiah declares: “Yes, a way called the Way of Holiness. The unclean one will not travel on it. It is reserved for the one walking on the way; no one foolish will stray onto it. No lion will be there, and no vicious wild beasts will come on it. They will not be found there…”

As a stark example of the blindness that presently grips Jehovah’s Witnesses, despite the fact that tens of thousands of children of Jehovah’s Witnesses parents have been raped, molested, or otherwise sexually abused by cunning beast-like sexual predators in the congregations, the Watchtower actually states that no animalistic, foolish, or spiritually unclean persons exist in their spiritual paradise—or if there are any they are swiftly expelled. But expelling a predator after it has destroyed the innocence of one of Jehovah’s lambs is not what ensures the security of the true paradise God will provide.  

If any of Jehovah’s Witnesses dare question such an untenable teaching they are certain to be bullied and intimidated by elders who are charged by Bethel to enforce the delusion. It is, in fact, virtually impossible to reason with any member of the Governing Body or any man of any spiritual stature within the organization. They are absolutely blind and deaf. They have no insight—no vision. They are lame and mute—not being able to stand on their own without the Watchtower crutch or speak clear and reasonably on prophecies such as this.

So, it is they who must be cured of their spiritual blindness and deafness. After all, “Who is blind except my servant, so deaf as the messenger I send? Who is so blind as the one rewarded, so blind as the servant of Jehovah?” 

HOW WILL THIS COME ABOUT? 

Hence, as you associate with a congregation of Jehovah’s Witnesses, you are with people who have become more peaceable and pleasant. No, they are not yet perfect, but they could hardly be described as ferocious lions or rapacious wild beasts. (Isaiah 35:9) What does this pacific spiritual fellowship indicate? Clearly, we enjoy a spiritual condition that we rightly call a spiritual paradise. And our spiritual paradise foreshadows an earthly paradise that we will enjoy if we remain loyal to God. Watchtower 10/15/04 

As demonstrated by the suppression of Jehovah’s Witnesses in Russia, circumstances can unexpectedly change in a very dramatic way. Government-mandated lockdowns under the guise of protecting the population against a pseudo pandemic also demonstrate how quickly and effectively Satan can suppress the activity of Jehovah’s Witnesses. Under martial law, wartime conditions, food shortages brought on by hyperinflation, such calamities will bring about the breakdown of the Society’s highly raised wall described in Isaiah: “Therefore this is what the Holy One of Israel says: ‘Since you reject this word and you trust in fraud and deceit and you rely on these, so this error will be for you like a broken wall, like a bulging high wall ready to fall. It will crash suddenly, in an instant. It will be broken like a large potter’s jar, so completely smashed that no fragment among its pieces will be left to rake the fire from the fireplace or to scoop water from a puddle.”’  – Isaiah 30:12-14

And because mystery Babylon will still exist then, Jehovah will allow the harlot to prevail for a short while, again, as demonstrated in Russia, bringing Christ’s congregation into captivity to Babylon the Great. That is why in the previous chapter of Isaiah God declared his intention to intervene in the “legal case over Zion,” and why Isaiah 35:4 offers this exhortation to the future captives: “Say to those who are anxious at heart: ‘Be strong. Do not be afraid. Look! Your own God will come with vengeance, God will come with retribution. He will come and save you.”’ 

But why would Jehovah allow the leaders of his people to mislead them? Indeed, if there is a faithful slave to be found within the Watchtower, how is it possible for them to be in such a state of blindness that only Christ’s powerful presence can open their eyes? There are several reasons.

One, people have an ingrained tendency to follow men. Jehovah’s Witnesses are no exception. Consider the fact that in the first century Paul sternly rebuked some of the anointed Corinthians who boasted of being followers of Paul, some of Cephas, and still, others followed Apollos. Paul was compelled to remind them that he did not die for them nor were any baptized in the name of Paul.

But is the Governing Body following the apostle’s sterling example in this regard? There is no evidence to point to in the affirmative. On the contrary, the elders constantly lavish praise upon the Governing Body and the faithful slave and speak of them in reverent tones. 

But even if the Watchtower Society is God’s organization and even if it has served as His channel of communication, was not Paul an inspired apostle who even had the unspeakable privilege of being the only Christian to have seen Christ after his ascension to heaven? And was not Peter (Cephas) one of Jesus’ most beloved apostles, who was at his side during his entire ministry and who also was inspired to utter God’s words? Yet, they did not accept the glory and praise from fellow believers, as does the leadership of Jehovah’s Witnesses.

It is not as though individual men are idolized though. It is the organization—JW.org. 

If you are one of Jehovah’s Witnesses you know what I am saying is true. I may even be understating the importance that is placed upon the Organization.

But ask yourself, which is easier, to follow men or to follow God?

MartyrsObviously, it is much easier to follow men. And the Watchtower makes it easy to do so. It is all laid out for you. But this generation of Jehovah’s Witnesses has never really faced a test of faith, not like the Bible Students in the USA during the turmoil that took place during the First World War; or Jehovah’s Witnesses in Germany and throughout Europe who faced the Nazi Holocaust. Certainly not like the first century Christians, many of which faced ferocious lions in the arenas.

But the test is coming. And the test God will impose upon Jehovah’s Witnesses will require them to abandon the Watchtower.

From Jehovah’s standpoint, the Watchtower is an idol. It has presumptuously taken God’s glory to itself—profaning the name of Jehovah in doing so. That is what idolatry is.

For instance, the Watchtower claims that no one but its anointed priests can understand the Bible. Yet, much of what it teaches as regards prophecy is nonsensical and cannot possibly be true. But even so, the idol is exalted as the Knower of all things. For that reason, Jehovah has allowed them to be blind and deaf, in order to discredit them and humble the idolaters.  

Consider the following words of God that speak to a future day of reckoning with his people, when God will dispatch Christ as the Refiner and open the eyes of the blind: 

“Because I knew how stubborn you are —That your neck is an iron sinew and your forehead is copper — I told you long ago. Before it came about, I caused you to hear it, so that you could not say, ‘My idol did this; my carved image and my metal image commanded this.’ You have heard and seen all of this. Will you not declare it? From now on I am announcing new things to you, guarded secrets that you have not known. Only now are they being created, and not long ago, things that you never heard before today, so that you cannot say, ‘Look! I already know them.’ No, you have not heard, you have not known, and in the past your ears were not opened. For I know that you are very treacherous, and you have been called a transgressor from birth. But for the sake of my name I will hold back my anger; for my own praise I will restrain myself toward you, and I will not do away with you. Look! I have refined you, but not in the form of silver. I have tested you in the smelting furnace of affliction. For my own sake, for my own sake I will act, for how could I let myself be profaned? I give my glory to no one else.”– Isaiah 48

The coming of Christ is a “closely guarded secret.” Not only the timing of his arrival, which no man knows the day or hour, but the nature of it and its intended purpose; thus, an unveiling—an apocalypse, a revelation, and manifestation is coming.

The Watchtower Society has, as Jehovah states in Isaiah, shown itself to be very treacherous in many ways. But God intends to correct, refine and restore by means of the fire of affliction so that ultimately his purpose will be accomplished. We may be certain that no human agency, no earthly organization, will be involved in the process. Christ will intervene directly.

And afterward, the holy spirit will be poured out in full measure as never before. That is the meaning of the symbolism in prophecy regarding the waters and streams that will come upon the thirsty ground.

“For waters will burst forth in the wilderness, and streams in the desert plain. The heat-parched ground will become a reedy pool, and the thirsty ground springs of water.” 

 

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